The New International Encyclopædia/Hansemann, David Justus Ludwig

HANSEMANN,, (1790-1864). A German publicist and statesman, born at Finkenwerder, near Hamburg. He set up as a wool-dealer at Aix-la-Chapelle in 1817, and after having attained considerable reputation in commerce and through railway construction, was elected a Deputy in the Provincial Diet of Rhenish Prussia in 1845. In 1847 he was elected a member of the United Diet, in which he became conspicuous as a leader of the Liberal Opposition, and in 1848 he was for a brief period Prussian Minister of Finance. He was the founder of the Diskontogesellschaft of Berlin, one of the most important financial institutions of Germany. His published works deal with economic and political topics of his time, and include: Preussens wichtigste Eisenbahnfrage (1837), and Das preussische und deutsche Verfassungswerk (1850).