Heinrich Gerlach has been up to his death in 1912 over 27 years the chairman of Memel's merchant guild. He instigated e.g. in 1907 to extend the construction of the chamber of commerce center building - the so called Börse - which in Memel already existed since 1857*.

In the address registers of the years 1926 to 1935 the merchant Jakob (Jankel) Jawschitz was mentioned as the owner of the property Libauer Straße 15.

After the renaming of several streets by the Nazis and due to the change of the houses numbering the Gerlach mansion had gotten the address Hermann-Göring-Straße 25. The military government had now the building taken over and placed the military recruiting office in it.
* "Die Selbstverwaltung der Kaufmannschaft in Memel",
     Sonderschrift des Vereins für Familienforschung in Ost- und Westpreussen e.V.