Johann Heinrich Burchard
Johann Heinrich Burchard was a Hamburg lawyer and politician who served as senator and First Mayor and President of the Senate of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg.
Burchard was born in Bremen, a member of the Hanseatic Burchard family, the son of banker Friedrich Wilhelm Burchard and Marianne Gossler, a granddaughter of Senator and banker Johann Heinrich Gossler and a great-granddaughter of Johann Hinrich Gossler and Elisabeth Berenberg. His father was a merchant in Bremen, who in 1853 became a partner of the Berenberg Bank owned by his wife's family. The family then relocated to Hamburg, where, after taking part in the Franco-Prussian War as a volunteer, he completed his abitur at the Gelehrtenschule des Johanneums before studying Law at the Universities of Leipzig, Heidelberg and Göttingen.
As a typical Hanseat, he rejected noble titles and any form of awards.
A portrait of Burchard by Max Liebermann is displayed at Hamburg's representation in Berlin.
In 1877, he married Emily Henriette Amsinck, a daughter of Wilhelm Amsinck. His oldest son, Wilhelm Amsinck Burchard-Motz, was also a Hamburg senator and Second Mayor.
Heinrich Burchard died in Hamburg, aged 60.
