In the Thirty Years’ War from 1618 to 1648, which ravaged large parts of the German Reich and in particular Northern Germany, the city stayed strictly neutral. It supplied friend and foe, became a warehouse, banking centre and meeting place for Europe and as such was able to increase its wealth continually.

Around 1660 Cornelius Berenberg was in third generation actively engaged in Hamburg’s business life. Without disavowing his Dutch origins, he viewed himself nonetheless primarily as a Hamburg businessman and in 1684 was the first Berenberg to take the oath as a Hamburg citizen. In this way he made it possible for the following generations to engage in every kind of public office. Unlike in other cities government business was not restricted to the old families. Immigrant families were able to take on official functions relatively quickly, as long as they had their own capital assets and a house.

Cornelius managed the company for half a century. He intensified the goods trade far beyond Germany’s borders, deepened relations with the Netherlands, France, Spain and Portugal in the west, with Scandinavia in the north, Russia in the east and Upper Italy in the south. The widely ramified family connections were useful in this regard, particularly to Lisbon and Livorno, where – like in Hamburg – economically important colonies of Dutch religious refugees had settled.

From Livorno came Italian silks, velvet and other materials, above all the trader community there was the bridge to the East with its rich store of spices. Lisbon supplied colonial products and bought German manufactured goods from Hamburg.