December 1916 in Berlin after having already heart troubles for a long time prior. He was buried in the main graveyard in Frankfurt. His sons took over the control of Metallgesellschaft: , the eldest son, was the chairman of the supervisory board, while :de:Richard Merton, the second-born son, later became chief executive. Achievements On account of his socio-political endeavours primarily, Wilhelm Merton is regarded as one of the most prominent German entrepreneurs in the Wilhelmenian period. He proved himself to no lesser degree in the financial world, in the period up until the beginning of the First World War, as the founder of initiatives aimed at humanising the economic world through scientific means. He founded the ‘Institute for Community Wellbeing’ in 1890, and in 1901 the ‘Academy for Social and Trade Sciences’, both in Frankfurt. He was the driving force, with Franz Adickes (then Mayor of Frankfurt), in founding the University of Frankfurt. Johann Wolfgang Goethe-University, as it was later called, became one of the most advanced universities of its time as a result of it adopting Merton’s idea of having a scientifically orientated university which was geared to the demands of modern economic society in terms both of education and of research. The Wilhelm Merton Professorship and the Wilhelm Merton Centre for European Integration and International Economic System at the Frankfurt Goethe-University, the Wilhelm Merton Scholarship and ('Merton District') in Frankfurt, on the former work site of the ‘Unified Germany Metal Works’ (a subsidiary of Metallgesellschaft), are all named after him. Additionally, a vocational business school and a street in Bockenheim are named after him. See also Zachary Merton (brother) References Literature Hans Achinger: Wilhelm Merton in seiner Zeit. Frankfurt am Main 1965 Wolfgang Klötzer (Hrg.), Frankfurter Biographie. Zweiter Band M-Z. Verlag Waldemar Kramer, Frankfurt am Main 1996, External links Wilhelm Merton-Zentrum der Universität Frankfurt 1848 births 1916 deaths 19th-century German Jews Goethe University Frankfurt Businesspeople from Frankfurt Burials at Frankfurt Main Cemetery German businesspeople in metals German commodities traders German company founders 19th-century German businesspeople 20th-century German businesspeople Naturalized citizens of Germany