Jauch Family - Grand Burghers of The Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg

Grand Burghers of The Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg

1699 Franz Jürgen Jauch and his brother Christian Jauch the younger († 1720) served an apprenticeship as merchant in Hamburg. 1752 the merchant Joachim Daniel Jauch (1714–1795) moved his business from Lüneburg to Hamburg. Lt. Johann Georg Jauch (1727–1799) kidnapped 1754 Anna Mutzenbecher, daughter of the Secretary of State of Hamburg Magnifizenz Johann Baptista Mutzenbecher (1691–1759), member of one of Hamburg's leading families and married her. Under Johann Christian Jauch senior (1765–1855), son of Johann Georg Jauch, the Jauchs became the most important and wealthiest wood traders of Hamburg who reached grand burghership status of the town. Thus they became members of the ruling class, the Hanseatics (Hanseaten) in one of the wealthiest cities of Germany, with whose financial capacity only Vienna could compete because of the local high nobility concentrating there and its wealth.

Christian Jauch's sons were founders of the three still existing branches of the family: Wellingsbüttel, Schönhagen und Fernsicht. His great-grandnephew was Ludwig Gümbel (1874–1923), naval archtitect and significant for the upgrowth of submarines in World War I, cousin of first president of the Federal Republic of Germany Theodor Heuss.

His eldest son Johann Christian Jauch junior (1802–1880) acquired the Manor house Wellingsbüttel, before domicile of His Serene Highness the penultimate Duke of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Beck, Friedrich Karl Ludwig, ancestor of the modern-day British royal family. In addition to his land he leased the Duvenstedt swamps for hunting, which is today Hamburg's largest nature reserve. Alongside his home in Hamburg he erected a deer park and a cage for the bears he brought with himself from his voyages to Russia. 1863 he was a patron of the international agricultural exhibition on the Heiligengeistfeld.

His son Carl Jauch (1828–1888) was Lord of Wellingsbüttel, too. He married Louise von Plessen (1827–1875), daughter of the Grand Ducal Mecklenburg Governor (Großherzoglich Mecklenburgischen Oberlanddrost) Ulrich von Plessen und great-granddaughter of Baron (Reichsfreiherr) Seneca von Gelting (1715–1786), who was married to a nice of Johannes Thedens and had become highly wealthy as chargé d'affaires of the Dutch East India Company in Cirebon. His grandfather Diederich Brodersen (1640–1717), ancestor of today's Jauchs of the Wellingsbüttel branch is also an ancestor to the composer Johannes Brahms. Because of this marriage the earliest notable ancestor is Helmoldus I de Huckelem, documented 1097 and connecting the Wellingsbüttel branch to numerous prominent other descendants of inter alia the von Plessen, von Moltke und von Oertzen families.

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Auguste Jauch (1822–1902) was one of the well known benefactors to the poor of Hamburg. Colonel Hans Jauch (1883–1965), Commander of the Freikorps "Jauch", took part in putting down communist uprisings in 1920 and is founder of the Roman Catholic branch of the family. Heinrich Jauch (1894–1945) was the Prosecuting Attorney of the Special Tribunal (Sondergericht) Hamburg in the criminal trial against the Soviet agent during the interwar period Jan Valtin and 52 other defendants of whom nine were condemned to death. Valtin reports in his biography “Out of the Night”, the US-bestseller of 1941 and the TIME “Book of the Year”, the trial and the executions.

The family, which was not numerous during the centuries, lost half of its sons – all of them unmarried – in the World Wars. Lt. Rudolf Jauch died 1915 in the sinking of the submarine U-40 by the submarine HMS C24. The Distinguished Service Cross (United Kingdom) which has been awarded for this action to Commander Captain Frederick Henry Taylor is part of the collection of the National Maritime Museum at Greenwich.

In different polls Günther Jauch (b. 1956) was elected as “Most intelligent German” (2002), “Most wanted TV-star to become politician” (2003) and “Most popular German” (2005). He was awarded in 2001 the World Award for entertainment. Since 2008 his sculpture is part of Madame Tussauds wax museum at Berlin.

• Hamburg townhouse

• Wellingsbüttel Manor

• Wellingsbüttel gatehouse

• Krummbek Manor