Caspar Voght

Caspar Voght
Caspar Voght: painting by Jean-Laurent Mosnier, 1801
Born	Caspar Voght (1752-11-17)November 17, 1752 Hamburg, Holy Roman Empire
Died	March 20, 1839(1839-03-20) (aged 86) Hamburg, German Confederation
Other names	Caspar Reichsfreiherr von Voght; Baron Caspar von Voght
Occupation	Merchant
Known for	Social reform

Caspar Voght (November 17, 1752 in Hamburg – March 20, 1839 in Hamburg), later Caspar Reichsfreiherr von Voght (more commonly known as Baron Caspar von Voght), was a German merchant and social reformer from Hamburg (today Germany). Together with his business partner and friend Georg Heinrich Sieveking he led one of the largest trading firms in Hamburg during the second half of the 18th Century. On numerous trade trips, he completely crossed the European continent. One of his greatest achievements was reforming the welfare system of Hamburg. From 1785 he dedicated himself to strengthening agricultural and horticultural projects and built in Flottbek close to the gates of Hamburg a model agricultural community.

Caspar Voght was the first of three children of the family of the Hamburg merchant and later senator Caspar Voght (the elder, *1707 in Beverstedt close to Bremen † 1781 in Hamburg) and Elisabeth Jencquel (* 26 September 1723), the daughter of a Hamburg senator. Voght's father was apprenticed around 1721 in the merchant house Jürgen Jencquel which specialized in Hamburg's trade with Portugal. For 16 years from 1732 he represented the house in Lisbon. After he returned, Voght's father founded his own silk and linen trading house in Hamburg and later rose to the rank of senator in Hamburg.

At the age of 12, Caspar Voght fell seriously ill of smallpox which left permanent facial scarring. Other than making friends with Georg Heinrich Sieveking, whom he met as an adolescent in the Kontor of his father's firm, Voght was more inclined at this point in his life to dedicating himself to studying literature, politics, and science, and found little pleasure in his vocation as a merchant. When his father wanted to send him to Lisbon at the age of twenty for his education, Voght used his mother's fears of Lisbon to avoid going. She had lost two brothers in the Lisbon earthquake of 1755. Voght instead embarked in 1772 on a Grand Tour of Europe. His journey took him among other locations to Amsterdam, London, Paris and Cádiz. He reached Madrid, where he concluded a trade agreement for his father's firm. After traveling through the south of France, Voght went to Switzerland, where he met Lavater and Haller. In Geneva he made contact with Voltaire. Passing through Turin, Milan, Parma and Bologna, he arrived in Rome where he was presented to Pope Pius VI. After a side trip to Pompeii, Naples, and a short stop in Venice, Voght traveled to Bergamo, where he made contact with the local silk weavers for his father's business. He then went to Vienna, Dresden, Berlin and Potsdam, finally returning to his hometown of Hamburg in 1775.