»I, born in Schweinfurt…«
Friedrich Jacob Merck, 1668

In a building constructed in the early 1930s on the site premises in Darmstadt, a painting of a family tree showing the very first members of the Merck family can still be found.

In 1668, Friedrich Jacob Merck acquires the pharmacy that will become the historic core of the Darmstadt-based company. Today, members of the 11th generation of the Merck family make the fundamental entrepreneurial decisions. Nevertheless, there is a lesser-known family history that precedes this.

Born in Schweinfurt, Friedrich Jacob Merck leaves his hometown in 1641 after completing an apprenticeship in the City Council Pharmacy of Schweinfurt to gain new experiences working as a journeyman elsewhere. Documents prove that he later becomes the acting pharmacist of the Court Pharmacy in Danzig and owns a pharmacy in Wesselburen, a city in Holstein, before coming to Darmstadt. His brother Georg, although also a pharmacist by trade, fails to find a position as a pharmacist in his hometown and so later earns a living as a tax collector for the Imperial Bailiff.

Their father Johann Merck runs an inn called »Zum Schwarzen Bären«, which is frequented by Franconian nobility. He later turns to the wine trade. Besides this, he holds a prominent position on the city council for many years until, in 1637, he is appointed Bailiff of what is then the free imperial city of Schweinfurt. This is tobe the peak of his professional career. At the end of his life, Johann Merck is thus fully integrated into bourgeois society of the Franconian Free Imperial City.

But at the time, he too starts a new in Schweinfurt, since the Merck family flees from Hammelburg, a town around 30 km away, in 1604. Before the Counter-Reformation forces them to leave the town on account of their membership of the Lutheran Church, the family is also a respected middle-class family in Hammelburg.

After settling in Schweinfurt in 1608, many different lines of the family emerge: As well as the Darmstadt line initiated by Friedrich Jacob Merck and cemented by his nephew and successor of the pharmacy Georg Friedrich Merck, the family from Schweinfurt branches off into lines based in Offenbach, Bavaria, Thuringia, and Hamburg.

And at some point in Hammelburg, too, the original member of the Merck family starts over: The oldest known ancestor, Friedrich Jacob’s great grandfather Antonius Merck, is born in the village of Rupboden in the Rhön region, which at the time was probably no more than an estate of the Lords of Thüngen. In 1507, he becomes a citizen of Hammelburg. Later, his son Jakob, who is born in Hammelburg, becomes a member of the city council there.

Along with the oldest family coats of arms, the family tree shows the coats of arms of the Schweinfurt and the Hessian lines of the Merck family. The »chamomile man« comes from a coat of arms that is officially used by the Hessian branch of the family from 1805; in the 1870s, it also becomes the factory mark for the company.

In the 16th century, the Merck family resides in Hammelburg, a town in Lower Franconia. In his records dating back to 1598, Johann Merck keeps note of the births and marriages in the family. Fritz Merck (pictured right) personally shows the family tree to important visitors, such as James B. Conant in 1954, who later becomes the U.S. ambassador.

For many years, Johann Merck holds a position on the city council in Schweinfurt, ultimately as Bailiff of the Franconian Free Imperial City. In his family chronicle, which is housed today in the company Archives in Darmstadt, he also reports on the birth of his son Friedrich Jacob on February 18, 1621.