David Hansemann

David Justus Ludwig Hansemann (12 July 1790 – 4 August 1864) was a Prussian politician and banker, serving as the Prussian Minister of Finance in 1848.

Hansemann was born in Finkenwerder, Hamburg, the son of a Protestant minister. After studying commerce, he was a representative for a Monschau cloth manufacturer. From 1817, he created different enterprises in Aachen, under which the predecessor company the Aachen native of Munich, which is today part of the AMB Generali. Into the 1820s and 1830s, he came by a large sum of money. His concern for the well-being of his employees and his readiness for generous donations were considered unusual. In 1821 he married Fanny Fremery, who came from a French Huguenot family.

David Hansemann engaged himself for the building of railways in the Rhine Province. He wrote several memoranda about railway. The moreover one he was shareholder of the Rhenish Railway Company (German: Rheinische Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft, RhE). In accordance with a royal cabinet order of February 1837, he became Vice-President of the RhE. He was considerably involved in the establishment of further railway companies, including the Cologne-Minden Railway Company and the Bergisch-Märkische Railway Company.

During the 1830s, Hansemann became increasingly involved in politics, and in 1843, he became a member of the provincial parliament (Provinziallandtag) for Rhenish Prussia. In the year 1847, he became a member of the Prussian United Parliament (Vereinigter Landtag). Hansemann was considered as one of the prominent heads of German Liberalism. Within liberalism, he, along with the later president of the Frankfurt Parliament, Heinrich von Gagern, belonged to the so-called "half ones", i.e. ready to compromise.

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