President, Life Insurance Company
Centurion, 1887–1900
Born 24 April 1817 in Elberfeld, Germany
Died 19 December 1900 in New York (Manhattan), New York
Buried Green-Wood Cemetery
, Brooklyn, New York
Proposed by Elial F. Hall, Charles P. Daly, and Bernard Roelker
Elected 2 April 1887 at age sixty-nine
Archivist’s Note: Father of Max A. Wesendonck
Proposer of:
Century Memorial
His [Oswald Ottendorfer’s] close friend and compatriot, Hugo Wesendonck, who, like him, had been an ardent sympathizer and actor in the stormy period of the Revolution of 1848, and, like him, was driven into exile, survived him but four days. These friends, with Carl Schurz, who shared their opinions, and, like them, suffered for them, constituted a notable group of exiles, linked for over fifty years in sympathy and friendship, and all of them potent factors in the life of their adopted country.
Mr. Wesendonck was thoroughly educated at the gymnasium of his native town, Elberfeld, studied law at the University of Bonn and at the University of Berlin, and was admitted to the bar at Düsseldorf. Upon his arrival in America, after his perilous experiences with his government, he engaged in business in Philadelphia, and in 1859 removed to New York, assisted in the formation of the Germania Life Insurance Company, became its President, and continued in that office for nearly forty years. He was a director of the German-American Bank and of the German-American Insurance Company, and of the German Savings Bank. He was a guide and leader of opinion in that great body of his countrymen who have added such solidity and value to the citizenship of their adopted country, an admirable business administrator, and a most estimable citizen and man.
Henry E. Howland
1901 Century Association Yearbook
