full history

Transcription

full history

125 Years
H. Vogemann
Tradition
RELIABILITY
COMPETENCE
Imprint
Jacket Design: Lohrengel Mediendesign
© Firmengruppe H. Vogemann, 2011
Publishing Place Hamburg
Published by the author
Design and Setting: Lohrengel Mediendesign, Hamburg
Transmit, Hamburg
Litho: Lohrengel Mediendesign, Fire Dept. Hamburg
Printing: Ourdas druckt, www.ourdas.de
Reinhard Barth, Friedemann Bedürftig
125 years
H. Vogemann
Tradition
Reliability
Competence
Just a Few Words
In many ways, it is remarkable that a shipping company which started its professional life
with the barque “Western Chief” and two small cargo steamships 125 years ago, has now
grown into a world-class consortium with a fleet of two million tonnes deadweight.
It is all the more remarkable as the family business started to pitch itself against the big
league players at a very early stage and became used to keeping up in terms of size, speed
and market shares in order to compete. Eighteen eighty-six was the year that saw inauguration of the Statue of Liberty on the other side of the Atlantic, and also the year that
saw the shipping company being established in Hamburg, as yet exclusively aimed towards
Ralf Nagel
European trade. But this direction quickly turned across the ocean. Since 1886, millions of
immigrants have taken the Grand Lady at the entrance to New York's port to be a symbol
for the start of a better life, and it is in much the same vein that the many and ever larger
vessels put into service since then have also become the embodiment for the wealth of
ideas, creativity and tenacity of the shipping company which exists to this day.
This company is also remarkable because it is still in private hands today. The company
founder's great-great-granddaughter, Christiane von Saldern, christened the “Vogerunner”, the second-largest ship flying the German flag, just two years ago in Japan. In her
witty and charming christening speech, the Godmother highlighted the close relationship
between the founding family and the present company owners. Whilst representing the German Ship-owners' Association at the naming ceremony, Dr. Heitmann, the in-house legal
advisor, experienced the loyalty, fidelity and friendship of the present CEO both towards the
company's roots as well as towards all of the partners. Family warmth, Hanseatic merchants and innovative creative power; such a fusion contributes towards one of the greatest strengths of the German shipping location. And is the reason why we are especially
delighted by the company's active participation in the Ship-owners' Association.
Shipping is a business field which is dependent upon economic cycles and shaped by technological advances. The Vogemann shipping company has been successful in mastering
these challenges for more than one-and-a-quarter centuries. As a foundation of its work,
this tradition is something of which to be proud.
Ralf Nagel, Senator (retired)
Executive Member of the Presidium
Association of German Ship-owners
Chapter 1 – History of the H. Vogemann Company 1886 – 1946
5
6
125 years of H. Vogemann – Tradition, Reliability and Competence
Chapter 1
History of the
H. Vogemann Company
1886 – 1946
7
History of the H. Vogemann
Company 1886 – 1946
In 1946, Richard Vogemann, son of the founder Johann
Heinrich Vogemann, paints the history of his company from its creation to
the threshold of the post-war period in a detailed narrative, largely taken
from his own experiences. His text, in a slightly revised version, forms the
basis of the following first section of the company's history during the years
1886 - 1946.
The barque
“Western Chief”
1886
S
Legal incapacitation (on
grounds of mental illness) and
suicide of King Ludwig II of
everal years before the H. Vogemann company had been entered
into the Hamburg commercial register on the 22nd April 1886
by my father, Johann Heinrich Vogemann (born 22nd July 1849),
my father was already in Vegesack, in the Buchtstrasse, acting
Bavaria.
as correspondent managing owner and, as a matter of fact, it was for the
Foundation of an association
sailing ship “Western Chief”, managed by my grandfather, Captain Ferdinand
of German and foreign seamen
Haesloop. Initially, this ship was jointly operated with the sailing ship owner,
in Hamburg, the aim of which
Hinrich Kückens, who lived in Vegesack and sailed under its house flag bear-
was to provide job placement
ing the letters H.K. Shortly afterwards, my father acquired the shares held
services free-of charge.
by Mr Kückens so that all the shares belonged to him. The house flag of the
H. Vogemann company then evolved from an old red English civil ensign by
removing the Union Jack and sewing a white “V” onto it.
It must have been around this time that my father commissioned his brother-in-law Carl Ulrichs, co-owner of the Vegesacker shipyard
H.C. Ulrichs (later part of the Bremen Vulkan) to build the steamship “Walküre”
(around 750 t deadweight). I was later told that they had originally intended
to name the ship “Vesuv” because a name beginning with “V” was one of the
options available. But they changed their minds about this once the captain
Inauguration of the Statue of
Liberty in New York.
Carl Benz is awarded the
explained that “he doesn't want to sail on a fire-breathing mountain”. They
then settled on the name “Walküre” instead and for the next ship commissioned at the H.C. Ulrichs' shipyard, they opted for the name “Rheingold”.
patent for his three-wheel
Principally, the “Western Chief” must have been used for long
“motor car fuelled by gasoline”.
sea voyages because my father told me that he received a telegram when
8
The Vulkan in Szczecin is the first German shipyard to be entrusted with construction of large passenger steamships.
1887
Laying of the foundation stone for the
Kaiser-Wilhelm Canal between the
North Sea and the Baltic
.
Heinrich Hertz proves the existence
of electromagnetic waves.
Julius Maggi begins production of
soup seasoning.
The forerunner to the Hamburger Sport
Verein (HSV), SC Germania is founded.
The founder: Johann Heinrich Vogemann.
The successor: Richard Vogemann.
1888
the ship was departing from Buenos Aires which said “Western Chief desemboca”, which he did not immediately understand, it was only afterwards that
he discovered that the message meant the ship was on the verge of leaving
the mouth of La Plata.
Because work relating to management of the ships began to accumulate, in 1885 my father decided to sell the very lucrative manufactured
The Year of the Three Kaisers:
commodities that my grandfather had taken over and to transfer everything
Following the death of
to Hamburg, the centre of the German shipping business. Initially, our home
Kaiser Wilhelm I, his son Friedrich III,
and business office were located at Steindamm 63. But soon after this, we
who is gravely ill, ascends the
moved our private home to Uhlandstraße and the business office to Admiral-
throne and dies in the same year.
itätsstraße 8 (corner of Heiligengeistbrücke), where we remained until 1911
Successor is the grandson Wilhelm II.
when we moved into new, more modern office premises in the building on
Customs union of Hamburg and
Mönckebergstraße 22.
Bremen with the German Reich.
9
Sections of the Port of
Taking on a new partner. At the end of the 1880's, a serious
Hamburg are established as a
crisis broke out in the shipping business and a great deal of money was lost.
Free Port.
The steamships “Walküre” and “Rheingold”, which must have been impressive
A new agreement with the
cargo steamships for that era (after all they were the largest ships able to
Sultan of Zanzibar secures sea
sail up the Weser to the City of Bremen at the time), were mainly employed in
access for the German colony
sailing to St. Petersburg as far as I am aware. This service was operated in
of East Africa.
cooperation with the Gerhard & Hey company who had engaged the steamships “Johanna Oelssner” and “Wilhelm Oelssner”.
Messrs Johannes Gans and Carl Wohlenberg were taken on
from the Edward Carr company as office staff, the former as Chief Clerk, the
latter as an accountant. At that time, since my father was of the opinion that
more capital was needed for him to continue running the company, he took
Mr Henry Wehner on as a partner. He was born in London where his father
The Suez Canal convention
had been Hanoverian Consul General and therefore considered himself to be
declares the Suez Canal opened
an Englishman even though he was purely of German descent and was mar-
in 1869 to be international
ried to a German woman, the daughter of the company owner, Uhlmann & Co.
waters.
While the Chief Clerk, Mr Gans, who as a result of his employment at the Edward Carr company had acquired excellent knowledge in ship brokerage, was
1889
extremely active and of a speculative nature, Mr. Wehner, on the other hand,
The Reichstag adopts the law
concerned himself very little with the business and travelled extensively for
for invalidity and the elderly.
pleasure so that one very often never exactly knew where he was. He was,
In the Hamburg district of
however, loath to hold criticism back when insufficient had been earned or
Eppendorf, the Allgemeine
Krankenhaus (General Hospital
(University Hospital since
1934)) opens the largest hospital in Germany with 1,300 beds.
The express steamer “Hohenzollern” is commissioned by
Norddeutsche Lloyd Bremen
and the company enters into
the transatlantic business.
View of Manhattan and the Port of New York. Wood engraving from 1893.
10
when operations were running at a deficit. When the situation in shipping
1890
visibly deteriorated, the steamships “Walküre” and “Rheingold” were sold in
the early 1890s.
In competition with Hapag. It was probably at the instigation
of Mr Gans, who as a result of his employment with the Edward Carr company
knew this business well, that a regular service from Hamburg to New York
was then established, initially as an agent for the Knott's Prince Line, and
later with chartered, mostly English ships. For a long time, a picture of Mr
Resignation of the Reichskanzler
James Knott wearing the robes of an English barrister hung in our offices.
Bismarck.
Providing this service in competition with the Hamburg-Amer-
The German Empire hands Zanzibar
ica Line was a very great risk as freight contracts were finalised for monthly
over to England and receives the island
sailings, whilst the ships, mainly on a time-charter basis, were partially only
of Helgoland in its place.
taken on later during the course of the year. At that time, the base cargo to
After the Anti-Socialist Laws lapse, the
New York was unrefined sugar and later also potash salt. These loads could
Social Democrats record success at the
be taken on very cheaply; profit lay in the higher rates which were available
Reichstag elections.
for the additional cargo made up of piece goods. These were often finalised
by my father personally as he toured around the industrial regions, Thuringia, Saxony and Bohemia in particular, and negotiated freight fixing for toys,
stoneware, glassware and such like for Woolworth, New York, Marshall, Field
& Co, Chicago etc. His travels even took him as far as St. Petersburg, Moscow,
Warsaw, Budapest etc. The amount of cargo necessary can be seen by the
Otto Lilienthal conducts first flight
trials with a bird-like glider.
1891
A new trade regulation comes into
effect. It prohibits working on Sundays
in addition to factory work for children
under the age of 13, and limits the
daily working hours of young people
aged under 16 to 10 hours and women
to 11 hours.
Illustration next page:
The Port of Hamburg.
Painting by Hans
Bohrdt, 1900.
Hamburg Fish Market.
11
12
13
size of the chartered steamships – between 10 – 12,000 t deadweight – such
as the steamship “Westmeath” and the steamship “Knight Errant”, for example, which undertook various voyages under our time charter. In New York at
that time, a quayside shed in Brooklyn was rented exclusively for use by the
Vogemann Line and a photo of this with the steamship “Knight Errant” lying
The Hapag express steamer
alongside hung in the exchange office right up until the Hamburg catastrophe
“Fürst Bismarck” is the first
(1943).
German ship to win the
Blue Riband on the England-
In cooperation with Grünhut. The founding of the Max Grünhut
America route.
company also occurred during this fiscal period. It was founded during the
August Oetker, a pharmacist
mid-1890s by my father and Mr Wehner as a freight forwarding business to
from Bielefeld, prepares the
obtain goods for the New York Line. Mr Grünhut originally came from the
ground for the food group “Dr.
company run by Mr Wehner's brother-in-law, the freight forwarding company
Oetker” through introduction of
Uhlmann & Co. He was industrious and capable, but also cautious and he
the baking powder “Backin”.
certainly did not have any leanings towards speculation. While we were sail-
Max Liebermann: “The Mayor
ing in competition against Hapag to New York and the Max Grünhut company
Carl Petersen” (oil painting).
was able to load more cheaply than other carriers via the Vogemann Line,
Grünhut entered the business quickly, mainly with goods destined for North
1892
The Reichstag adopts the law
America. Of course, it was exceedingly embarrassing for him when the Vogemann Line stopped operations to New York following an agreement drawn
regarding “Gesellschaft mit
beschränkter Haftung - GmbH”
(company with limited liability).
The first case of Asiatic
cholera is identified in Hamburg.
By mid-October, 8,500 people die
from the epidemic.
Emil von Behring discovers
the diphtheria serum.
Rudolf Diesel registers
the patent for an internal
combustion engine without
spark plugs.
Port of Hamburg. Vorsetzen, around 1890.
14
up with the Hamburg-America Line (which I shall come to again later), and
1893
he was dependent on Hapag for all shipments. He handled the new situation
The “Centralverein deutscher Staats-
extremely adroitly, cleverly adapting and later became one of Hapag's major
bürger jüdischen Glaubens” (Central
customers for shipments to North America.
Association of German Citizens of
We had shares in the Max Grünhut company right up until the
Jewish Faith) is founded in Berlin
death of Mr Grünhut in 1924, in fact it was around a 40 % share of the profits
which campaigns for the equal
after Mr. Wehner left both the H. Vogemann company and the Max Grünhut
treatment of Jews in Germany.
company. Mr Grünhut had bequeathed his shares to the two sons of his land-
Introduction of Central European
lady, Berthold, and Erich Schröder in his will. Since moving from Bremen to
Time (CET) as a standardised unit of
Hamburg, he had become extremely friendly with the Schröder family, who
time for the entire empire.
used to call him “Uncle Max”, particularly as a lottery ticket he had given
to Mrs Schröder for Christmas happened to win the large cash prize of M
60,000. As a result of this, Mrs Schröder sold the midday table that she had
been managing at the Alten Wall for M 10,000. This money was used to buy
a house in the Maria-Louisen-Straße which the Schröder family moved into,
with “Uncle Max”. Both sons were employed by the company.
Maintaining the service to New York as well as dealing with the
high-risk charter business attached to it, became extremely taxing for my
father and often gave him great cause for concern, particularly when strikes
or suchlike upset the normal routine handling of things. I do seem to recall
Karl May publishes the last of his
that in 1900 during a prolonged strike in Hamburg, several of the time charter
Winnetou novels.
steamships, with a daily rental of M 1,000 upwards, lay in the harbour and
Foundation of the Deutschnation-
caused massive losses.
aler Handlungsgehilfenverband
The representation in New York was initially through the com-
(DHV (German National Associa-
pany Simpson, Spence & Young, New York but was later transferred to Barber
tion of Commercial Employees) in
& Co until own offices were opened in New York, 21/24 State Street, in 1900.
Hamburg, which sees itself as a
Mr Gans, who at that time had been taken on as a partner, moved to New York
counterbalance to the social demo-
where he soon called himself John H. Gans.
cratic agitation among commercial
As we have already mentioned, he was of an extremely specula-
employees.
tive nature, handling the Hamburg steamships was not enough for him and
his transactions became ever wilder. In 1901, an office was opened in New
1894
Orleans under the management of Mr Richard Meyer who had been sent from
Hamburg to New York; a year later, a branch office was opened in Norfolk,
Virginia under the management of Mr Eduard Nanninga who had moved to
New York at the same time as Mr Gans. During this period, the subsidiary
office in Savannah, Georgia was established under the management of Mr
Henry Nanninga and later, in 1905, a further office was added in Texas City
North-Eastern New Guinea is placed
under the management of Mr Lafonta.
under German protection.
15
First session of the Reichstag takes
Ballin's proposal. It must have been around 1902 or 1903
place in the new building built by
when the Hamburg-America Line (Mr Ballin) approached my father with the
Paul Wallot.
In Paris, the Jewish officer, Alfred
Dreyfus, is sentenced to exile for alleged spying.
proposal of coming to an agreement regarding the Hamburg-New York passage. Since it had become increasingly more difficult to compete with the
Hamburg-America Line with its faster steamships and more frequent departures in the last few years, negotiations were soon underway. Hapag, who in
Friedrich Engels releases the third
the meantime had come to an agreement with their competitors, were very
volume of Karl Marx' “Kapital”.
anxious to be rid of one of their most troublesome competitors so that they
1895
an extremely favourable conclusion for us, according to which Hapag were
would be able to radically increase their rates to New York. It then came to
The Sunday closing law is made
prepared to pay a monthly compensation of M 12,000 (if I rightly recall the
compulsory for industry.
amount) to the company so that we would forgo competing with them to and
Official opening of the Kaiser-
from the ports they were operating in the North Atlantic and Gulf, and as a
Wilhelm Canal (now the Kiel Canal)
matter of fact, the contract was taken out for several years because it was
after eight years of construction.
still in effect at the outbreak of the First World War in 1914. Apart from the
amounts mentioned, the H. Vogemann company also received the right to
participate in shipments of the potash syndicate to the South Atlantic and
Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen discovers
“X-rays” (which later bear his name
as Röntgen Rays).
Theodor Fontane: “Effi Briest” (novel).
1896
In Hamburg, the first plant for refuse
incineration starts operating.
Kaiser Wilhelm II congratulates the
President of the Boer Republic in
South Africa by telegram (“Krüger
telegram”) on successfully repelling a British raid into the Transvaal
(“Jameson Raid”).
Albert Ballin, Director of the
Hamburg-America Line.
16
Advertising poster for the
Hamburg-America Line.
Gulf ports of the United States. Shipments of the potash syndicate to these
ports were taken over by Hapag and steamships were chartered from the free
market for this purpose. Of the proceeds, 35 % percent went to H. Vogemann,
25 % to Hapag and 20 % each to Rob. M. Sloman jr. and D. Fuhrmann, Nissle
& Günther Nflg. Thirty-five percent of the chartering, handling and loading
of the ships was undertaken by H. Vogemann, the remaining steamships were
Beginning of the great Ham-
handled by Sloman and Fuhrmann on Hapag's behalf. This proved to be an
burg dock strike aimed against
extremely profitable business for us since not only was there a freight differ-
the exploitative working condi-
ence in our favour with the chartering system more times than not, what also
tions in the port.
paid off was the loading of 35 % of the ships through our stevedore depart-
The first modern Olympic
ment which had been established around 1900.
Games, dating back to an idea
The contract with Hapag was all the more favourable since the
only restrictions placed on us were for the regular Hapag routes whilst we
of Baron Pierre de Coubertin,
take place in Athens.
were able to dispatch to and from the remainder of the Atlantic and Gulf ports
1897
where Hapag were not maintaining a regular service.
After lasting eleven weeks, the
100 ships on the list of steamships. After the regular service
Hamburg dockworkers strike
between Hamburg and New York had been discontinued as a result of the
collapses without any de-
contract with the Hamburg-America Line, Mr Gans in New York felt called
mands for wage increases and
upon to undertake far more business from other ports to all the European
improved working conditions
ports, for example, to Denmark, France, the Mediterranean, the Black Sea
being met.
and so forth, and, in fact, to such an extent that nearly 100 ships were on
our list of steamships by 1906. He procured the necessary money to finance
this using bills of exchange which were drawn against the freights on the
Hamburg company. On the whole, these transactions were not profitable and
ate into a portion of the compensation being paid by Hapag again. In New
York, the big business Mr Gans was making gave him a reputation of being an
extremely clever charterer because he was making freight transactions which
other shippers in New York were unable to make profitable. Of course, they
were unaware that he was only able to make these transactions possible be-
Karl Ferdinand Braun develops
cause he was in a position to recoup his losses through the Hapag payments.
the “Braunsche Röhre” (Braun
Since neither my father nor Mr Wehner were able to approve
Tube = cathode ray fluorescent
of conducting business in such a manner, something which also put them
tube).
in an extremely dangerous financial position – they were of the opinion that
The Krupp-Werke and the
giving away the income raised from Hapag for these speculations was point-
Augsburg Maschinenfabrik
less – considerable differences came about which were finally settled by Mr
produce the first diesel engines
Gans leaving the company. His withdrawal could only be achieved though, by
in collaboration with the
agreeing that the company should be dissolved, but that the remaining own-
inventor, Rudolf Diesel.
17
The Hamburg Town Hall is
completed. The building is erected
on 4,000 oak piles owing to the
marshy ground.
1898
The German Reich accepts a 99-year
lease on the Kiautschou peninsula
from Imperial China.
The Austrian Empress
Elisabeth (“Sissi”), a Bavarian
princess by birth is stabbed by an
Workers at the Port of Hamburg. Photo from 1899.
anarchist in Geneva.
1899
The German Reich is also represented
er was allowed to continue business under the unchanged company. It was
at the First Hague Peace Conference
agreed that the losses suffered as a result of the New York office's chartering
attended by 26 countries. The Confer-
should be solely handled by Mr Gans. At the same time, it was also decided
ence reaches agreements regarding
that Mr Gans should withdraw from the Max Grünhut company where, in the
peaceful settlement of international
meantime, he had acquired a share of the company.
disputes and also regarding compli-
Subsidiary office in Rotterdam. There were a number of sub-
ance of certain laws pertaining to
war on land and at sea.
sidiary start-ups occurring around the turn of the century and one worth
mentioning is the establishment of the Rotterdam commission-business, Vogemann's Transport Co. Management of the local company was transferred to
Mr Oliemüller who, although probably industrious, was not reliable. After the
consignees had complained about Mr Oliemüller in various ways and we had
also received an anonymous postcard, amongst other things, bearing the text:
“Olie is a thief”, it was discovered that small batches of wood were being shifted by him. As a result of this, he was dismissed and management was trans-
The company of Friedrich Bayer & Co
ferred to Mr van Slooten who was employed by the company Wm. H. Müller &
in Leverkusen introduces the analge-
Co. He managed the Rotterdam branch office until around 1917 when business
sic aspirin onto the market.
dropped to a minimum as a result of the war. Vogemann's Transport Co hardly
18
made large profits during the years of its existence, except during the Second
Albert Ballin takes control of
World War, but it had indirectly paid off well since it contributed towards us
the “Hamburg-Amerikanischen
closing a very favourable contract with the Holland-America Line a few years
Packetfahrt-Actien-Gesellschaft”
before the First World War and later, in 1935, towards us receiving bonds from
(Hapag) and by 1914 builds the
Thomsen's Havenbedrijf to purchase ships.
shipping company founded in 1856
When we separated from Mr Gans in 1906, it became obvious
into the largest in the world.
that my brother Heinrich should take over management of the New York company because he was 26 years old at the time and had already been in New
1900
York for two years. Since he had not been getting on with Mr Gans during
The Bürgerliches Gesetzbuch
this time and had been afraid of the confrontation until it had been settled
(BGB (Civil Code of Germany))
in the October of 1906, while my father was also similarly trying to keep out
and the Handelsgesetzbuch (HGB)
of his way, it was decided that I, 21 years of age at the time, should take over
(German Commercial Law)
management of the New York company with branch offices in New Orleans.
come into force.
In early April 1906, I embarked on the Lloyd steamer “Kaiser
Wilhelm der Große” for New York. My father wanted to follow me out a few
weeks later, but delayed his journey until the middle of August because he
wanted to avoid the possibility of being in the same office at the same time as
Mr Gans owing to the differences that existed. Because of the losses caused
by Gans, which have already been mentioned, it was agreed that all transactions conducted in America should go to Gans' account until 1st October
1906. As a result, all the office's fixtures and fittings belonged to him while
During the Boxer Rebellion, an
the office space remained as part of the company per agreement. In order to
uprising by a secret xenophobic
make things as difficult for us as possible, instead of taking severance pay
society in China, the German envoy
he took all of the office furniture with him, and he even wanted to have the
Klemens Freiherr von Ketteler is
electric lamps dismantled but was prevented from doing so by the property
murdered in Peking. As a result,
management because in America lighting belongs to the building and not to
the German Reich participates in
the tenants.
an international military action to
Since he had already been working in New York for five years
suppress the uprising.
and had also conducted big business on the company's behalf, even if they
had been at a loss, Gans had naturally made excellent contacts with all of
the brokers. He now attempted to exploit this wherever he could in order to
make life difficult for me. And so it once happened that I made a firm offer
for a steamship to a Mr Zimmer, employed by the local company Howard,
Houlder & Co who were in the same office building at the time, and which Mr
Graf Ferdinand von Zeppelin un-
Zimmer accepted the next day. A few hours later he came into my office in
dertakes the first flight with a 128
agitation and told me that Mr Gans, who had discovered that I had made an
m long rigid airship.
offer for the steamship, had cabled a slightly higher offer to London in order
A strike by the Hamburg dock-
to prevent me from chartering the steamship. The bill of acceptance which
workers is ended with no results.
19
1901
The “Berlin Orthographical Conference”, convened
by Germany, Austria and
Switzerland, achieves
standardisation of German
orthography.
Death of the British
Queen Victoria.
Nobel prizes are
awarded for the first time
in Stockholm.
Shipping traffic in the Port of New York, 1905.
The passenger ship
“Deutschland” receives
the Howard, Houlder & Co had received from London was approval for the
telegrams from a distance
offer that Gans had cabled directly. So that I would not cause Mr Zimmer and
of 150 km.
the Howard, Houlder & Co any inconvenience, I waived my rights to the ship
Thomas Mann:
and let Mr Gans be happy with it. A short time later I was also able to acquire
“Buddenbrooks” (novel).
a replacement ship.
1902
Business in New York and in New Orleans. Since the office in
More than 30 years after
New York was only a charter office for our services from the Gulf, I only had
the end of the Franco-
one employee called Sagell, who had worked in the Hamburg office some
German war, the state
time before. In New Orleans, I took on the previous assistant from Mr Meyer,
of emergency in Elsass-
a Mr George Plant who was around 27 years old at the time and who proved
Lothringen is lifted.
to be very industrious but later turned out to be rather too speculative. My
The Reichstag passes a
father finally arrived in New York in the August of 1906 and stayed until the
new customs law which
end of November. The disagreements with Mr Gans were of a most unpleas-
establishes protective duties
ant nature. He made problems for us wherever he could; practically the entire
for agriculture.
staff which we had gradually sent to America from Hamburg, went over to
End of the Boer War in
Gans, since they considered him to be the soul of the business and also saw
South Africa.
the opportunity of setting up independently. And so, Mr Nanninga opened up
20
Increasing use of electrical
appliances such as vacuum
cleaners, irons, ovens and baking
ovens in households.
Max Liebermann: “Terrace of the
Restaurant Jacob in Nienstedten
on the Elbe“ (oil painting).
1903
The final contracts for building
the Baghdad railway are signed
Charter party from Vogemann shipping
company from 1903.
in Constantinople.
The companies Siemens, Braun
and AEG jointly found a company
his own office in Savannah, Richard Meyer the Richard Meyer Company in
for wireless telegraphy, the
New Orleans, and so forth. It became clear to us then, just what a big mistake
Telefunken AG.
we had made in sending young people to America who both knew one another
VFB Leipzig wins against DFC
and who also engaged in private business correspondence with one another.
Prague in the final game of the
Because my father, my brother and I were all of the opinion that
German football championship
we should continue business dealings in America on a very much smaller
which is being held for the first
scale and since we had no intention of undertaking charters from the South
time.
Atlantic coast, we came to an agreement with Strachan & Co to the effect that
The German Navy sets up its first
we waived doing business in the South Atlantic and represented the interests
radio stations for wireless com-
of Strachan in Rotterdam and Hamburg. In later years, this agreement proved
munication traffic with ships on
to be extremely advantageous to the Rotterdam and Hamburg offices, espe-
the high seas.
cially following the First World War, as Strachan, even though the agreement
was no longer in effect, continued to consign their ships to us and allowed
our stevedore department to unload the ships so that we had a good source
of income as we handled around 18 to 20 ships over the course of the year.
As far as I can recall, my father left the companies in Hamburg, Rotterdam
and America in 1906 and transferred his shares in equal parts to my brother
Orville and Wilbur Wright begin
and myself.
their first powered flight.
21
1904
A line with our own ships? Although it was true that no losses
were made during the years 1906 to 1908 as I managed the office in New York
with the branch office in New Orleans and business expenses were merited, I
still became convinced that it was too expensive to run a special charter office
in New York for the expeditions that we were executing from the Gulf. Furthermore, maintaining regular departures with only chartered ships appeared to
me to be too nerve-racking as often ships needed to be taken on at the last
Outbreak of the Herero uprising
minute which were unsuitable for the particular cargo, deck freight and so
in German South-West Africa.
forth, in order to comply with the consignment obligations when the freight
The Herero are defeated at the
market was attractive. I was, therefore, rather leaning towards operating a
Battle of Waterberg and driven
line with our own ships again. I went to Hamburg at the beginning of 1908 in
into the arid desert, where they
order to discuss this and handed management of the New York office to my
die in their thousands.
employee, Mr Sagell, for the short time that I was to be absent. He had noth-
Beginning of the Russo-
ing more urgent to do than to let himself be lured away into the employ of Mr
Japanese War with the bombardment of Port Arthur.
Gans, not considering that this had not been done for his sake but rather to
make matters more difficult for me.
Although my brother did not want to give up the office in New
1905
York, for reasons which were unfathomable to me, and was keeping a very
The japanese fleet defeats
passive stance regarding the purchase of a steamship, I pressed on with it
the russian in the battle of
anyway so that the New York office was given up in accordance with my vision
Tsushima.
that chartering the freight forwarding steamships from New Orleans could be
Austrian pacifist Bertha von
performed equally well from Hamburg. I then returned from New York back to
Suttner receives the
Hamburg in July 1908 after I had settled ongoing matters and left the office
Nobel Peace Prize.
space to our Max Grünhut company, whose managing director, Mr Freund and
Richard Strauss: “Salome”
Mr Berthold Schröder, I had taken into my office in 1906 in order to reduce
(opera).
joint expenses. After returning to Hamburg, I suggested a division of labour
1906
of business and he with the European. However, my brother was unwilling to
to my brother, to the effect that I should chiefly work with the American end
The Moroccan crisis is
do this as he had always feared that he would be missing out on something.
resolved at the Algeciras
So, we did everything jointly. Owing to the fact that we were living together
conference in Spain.
and able to discuss and deal with the arriving cables that needed immedi-
Wilhelm Voigt, an unemployed
ate attention during the evenings, working together was, to a certain extent,
cobbler, impersonates an officer
manageable, especially since my brother was still appearing for business
and with a troop of soldiers
relatively punctually at the time.
he has hired off the streets,
The first newbuilding. Even though times (1907 – 1909) for the
occupies the mayor's office and
confiscates the city treasury in
shipping companies were as bad as they could conceivably be, and my father,
Köpenick near Berlin.
after the departure of Mr Gans who had taken the entire revenue generated
22
by the contract with Hapag, was having serious misgivings about investing
this money into a steamship newbuilding – I nevertheless, after shedding a
fair few tears, finally succeeded in pushing through an agreement with the
shipyards Wm. Doxford & Sons, Sunderland in early 1909, for a newbuilding
of 6,250 t deadweight and, as a matter of fact, for the extraordinarily cheap
price of $ 5 per ton d.w. = $ 32,000. This amount was to be paid upon delivery.
San Francisco is destroyed by an
But we already made ongoing payments during the build as we were able to
earthquake.
deduct 5 % interest p.a. from such amounts. No loan was taken out, instead
Unveiling of the Bismarck monu-
the entire purchase price was paid from our own funds. This was incredibly
ment by Hugo Lederer in Hamburg.
important because given the bad times, it was essential to always keep at the
back of the mind that the ship may need to be laid up after all and if such
1907
a case were to happen, then the interest payable on loans would have been
At the state elections in Hamburg,
extremely unpleasant.
the SPD succeed in doubling their
The ship had been commissioned at the beginning of 1909 and
number of seats.
was given the name “Vogesen”; it was put onto stocks in the March and al-
Foundation of the Deutscher
ready delivered in the early October of the same year. The cargoes at the time
Werkbund (German Work
were still extremely low; but nevertheless the first voyage managed to make
Federation) in Munich, its purpose is
a profit, albeit only very small, because the ship was built especially for tim-
to improve the handicraft trade
and to unite arts and industry.
Carl Hagenbeck establishes
the first zoo with open animal
enclosures in HamburgStellingen.
1908
Colonial troops under Captain
Erckert storm the last held position
by the rebel Hottentots in German
South-West Africa.
The Reichstag passes an amendment to the Naval Laws which gives
provision for considerable increases
in expenditure.
Steamship “Vogesen”. Painting from 1949 based on a photograph.
23
Austro-Hungary
ber shipping and was therefore able to take a considerably larger deck cargo
annexes Bosnia and
than other chartered steamships of the same size. In 1911, the general rates
Herzegovina which provokes
of cargo slowly began to improve, whereas during the years 1912 – 1914 they
an international crisis.
were fairly good so that an extremely good profit was attained and by the time
war broke out, the steamship was very close (as far as I can remember it was
around M 300,000) to the bottom line. Our financial situation had improved
extremely well over those years, on the one hand because the revenue from
Hapag and the Holland-America Line (see below) was not being lost straight
away again through dodgy speculations, and on the other hand because of
Henry Ford starts assembly
the good results from the steamship “Vogesen”, so that by the time war broke
line production of cars in
out, the company not only had the debt-free steamship “Vogesen” but also
Detroit.
had more than M 1,000,000 in domestic and foreign securities as well as sufficient liquid capital at its disposal.
1909
Because the “Vogesen” steamship showed an extremely favour-
The Deutsche Reichspost intro-
able result, my father gradually regained his confidence in the shipping com-
duces cashless payments with
pany and now even my brother became very enthusiastic so that in 1912 we
postal cheques.
took the joint decision of commissioning a second steamer from Doxford's.
The world's first six-day racing
However, we attached a condition to this: Doxford's had built three turret
event takes place on a 150 m
ships for the company Heyne & Hessenmüller and as a result of this com-
long wooden track in Berlin.
pany's inability to pay, had been forced to take them over, they were tempo-
Louis Blériot crosses the
rarily transferred to the Heinrich Schmidt shipping company, but if we were to
English Channel in an aircraft.
order a new ship from Doxford's, then chartering of these steamships should
1910
matter and so the negotiations were then dropped. The outbreak of World War
be transferred to us. Doxford's were unable to make their minds up on this
The return of Halley's comet
I resulted in no second newbuilding contract being given.
prompts apocalyptic fantasies.
Conflicts with the partners. It must still be mentioned for the
years 1906 – 1908 that Mr Wehner, who had remained partner of the Hamburg
company, left around 1907 or 1908, after it emerged that the Hamburg company had made a small loss during these years. Since he had little interest in
the business and only wanted to make money, we accelerated his departure
by agreeing to pay him his portion of the expected payments from Hapag
in advance. We were very pleased that he had left us because, as we have
already mentioned, he did not do any work but criticised us all the more for
The second Moroccan Crisis
it. Both of my father's partners had proved to be extremely unpleasant: Mr
begins with the arrival
Wehner did nothing and was dissatisfied when insufficient money was being
of French warships in the
earned, Mr Gans was very industrious and enterprising, but could never be
Moroccan port of Agadir.
held back with his wild speculations and put our assets at great risk through
24
his actions. My brother and I were of one mind on this point, that we should,
Riots break out in the US after
under no circumstances, take on another partner again. Unfortunately, I af-
the African-American Jack
terwards had to have similar experiences with my brother as my father had
Johnson wins against the white
had with Mr Wehner.
Jeff Jeffries in a world champion-
Shortly after the partner's departure – I think it was in 1910 –
ship boxing match.
we succeeded in coming to an extremely favourable arrangement with the
The FC St. Pauli football club is
Holland-America Line who wanted to eliminate competition from us from
established.
New Orleans to Rotterdam. After we had been competing with one another
on this route for some time, an agreement was drawn up with the directo-
1911
rate in Rotterdam (Mr Reuchlin), to the effect that the monthly steamship we
The Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gesellschaft
dispatched should be chartered for the account of the Holland-America Line,
zur Förderung der Naturwissen-
while the ships in New Orleans were to be handled by us, Vogemann's Ship-
schaft (Kaiser-Wilhelm Society
ping Co at that time, and in Rotterdam by Vogemann's Transport Co against
for the Advancement of Science) is
fixed commissions. In the event that expeditions did not take place, the Hol-
founded in Berlin (now the Max-
land-America Line paid $ 1,000 to the company in New Orleans for each can-
Planck-Gesellschaft).
celled monthly expedition and Hfl. 1,000 to the company in Rotterdam. After
Through deployment of the
several expeditions had been carried out, the Holland-America Line preferred
gunboat “Panther” to Agadir, the
to cancel the expeditions and to pay the monthly $ 1,000 and Hfl. 1,000, so
Reich government ignites the
that both offices made a good income without having to do any work. This
Moroccan Crisis into an
contract ran until 1916 but was not renewed as a result of the war because
international dispute.
the situation had changed.
The Reichsversicherungsordnung
(RVO (The Imperial Insurance Code))
is passed with a summary of the
statutory sickness, accident and disability insurance.
In Hamburg, the 448 m long tunnel
underneath the Elbe is opened after
a four-year construction period.
First exhibition of the Munich expressionist art group “Blauer Reiter”.
Stevedores with sacks of rice in the Port of Hamburg. Photo from 1889.
25
1912
Surrendering the New Orleans-Rotterdam passage was easy to
A landslide victory for the Social
bear in this respect since we found plenty of employment for our steamship
Democrats at the Reichstag elections.
“Vogesen” and chartered ships in timber shipment from the other Gulf ports,
They win 110 seats
that is to say from Pensacola, Mobile, Gulfport, Beaumont, Galveston and so
(from 397). The previous leading Centre
on, so that our activities were in no way curtailed as a consequence of the
Party obtains 91 seats.
contract with the Holland-America Line.
Scientists of the German Oriental Society
Fraudulent company Lemore & Co. After the First World War
find a portrait bust of the Egyptian
Queen Nefertiti (16th century BC) in a
broke out, my brother was seized by panic that he would be drafted into the
sculptor's workshop in Amarna (Egypt).
army, and succeeded in receiving permission to travel to America. He still had
Alexander Behm develops echo
several more problems there in this sense because the creditors of A. Lemore
sounding.
& Co, for whom the Vogemann's Shipping Co, New Orleans had, in good faith,
signed bills of lading in advance prior to the war, tried to assert their rights
1913
to compensation against him. The company A. Lemore & Co, from whom we
The passenger steamer “Imperator” from
had acquired entire steamship consignments with staves from New Orleans
the Hamburg-America-Line, the largest
to Bordeaux and Sète at good rates before the war and at whose request we
ship in the world at that time, sails from
signed bills of lading before the goods, which were stored in their warehouse
Cuxhaven on its maiden voyage.
in New Orleans, were actually in our safekeeping, proved itself to be a fraudu-
Completion of the Rensburg viaduct
lent company when the consignee in Bordeaux, Mr Gairard from Gairard Fils,
across the Kaiser-Wilhelm canal, the
suddenly died. The collapse of this company was all the more surprising to
longest railway bridge (2.4 km) in
us as it appeared to be exceedingly respectable. The owners, Lemore and Car-
Germany.
riere, lived extremely frugally in New Orleans and with little expenditure, al-
Fritz Haber and Carl Bosch succeed in
though they dealt with an enormous amount of business. One, therefore, had
high-pressure synthesis of ammonia.
the impression when dealing with them that they were extremely respectable
Friedrich Bergius develops a method for
business people, and in addition to which they were working with a very large
liquefaction of coal.
stave concern in France, the long-established company of Gairard Fils, Petit
Franz Marc: “The Tower of Blue Horses”
and Gaffinel, and which may have been the possible reason as to why Mr
(oil painting).
Plant had been a little too careless with the bills of lading.
When Gairard died and based on the bills of lading we provided,
1914
bank transactions proved to be fraudulent, the goods for a number of bills of
lading were missing for which we were held responsible in the natural way
of things. This took place in 1913. My father and I drove down to Bordeaux
together and paid Petit and Gaffinel, as far as I can remember, a total of Frs.
120,000, an amount which corresponded to around M 96,000. It was a bitter loss; but in light of the excellent results we had achieved with both the
Assassination of Archduke Franz
steamship “Vogesen” and through shipments with Lemore, we were able to
Ferdinand and his wife in Sarajevo by
absorb it. The entire situation was particularly embarrassing to us because
Serbian nationalists.
the aggrieved parties in the Lemore bankruptcy assumed that we were part
26
of the deception owing to us having issued the bills of lading, whilst it was
Severe international tension is
ourselves who had actually been duped. In order to avoid personally being
triggered. This exacerbates into
prosecuted by the still dissatisfied American creditors of A. Lemore & Co, my
the “July Crisis” and leads to the
brother left New Orleans during the war and initially settled in Philadelphia,
First World War.
then moved to New York because a writ could only be served against him in
Granting of war bonds by the Ger-
the State of Louisiana.
man Social Democrats.
Battle of the Marne, the German
An investment à fonds perdu. Until the United States entered
advance is stopped.
the war, the office in New Orleans was very satisfactory and, as a matter of
Great Britain declares the North
fact, representation of the Norway-Mexico Gulf Line and the Swedish Ameri-
Sea a war zone and imposes an
ca-Mexico Line proved itself to be particularly profitable since these sailings
economic blockade against the
took place much more frequently since many shipments to Germany contin-
German Reich.
ued via Norway and Sweden at the beginning of the war. The Norway-Mexico
Gulf Line was established by Captain Bryde in Oslo (Christiania at the time)
1915
in the years 1909/1910. At the instigation of Mr Plant, we applied for the
Italy enters the war on the Allied
commission-business in New Orleans at the time and it was transferred to
Forces side.
us under the condition that we took over shares at the value of Kr. 5,000. My
father said at the time – and I agreed with him about this – that we should
regard this investment as à fonds perdu as it was highly unlikely to yield any
dividends. But later, I sold these shares after the World War for Kr. 40,000 and
Poison gas is used against the
Allied Forces at Ypres.
In torpedoing the British passenger liner “Lusitania”, 120 US
citizens are killed.
Sinking of the cruiser “Blücher” in
the naval battle of Dogger Bank.
1916
Heavy losses at the Battle of
Verdun and the Somme.
Beginning of intensified submarine war: Merchant ships armed
with guns are treated as enemy
warships.
Immigrants at the Port of New York, around 1910.
27
Great Britain and France agree to
still received a 30 % dividend payout on top of this. Since the Mark had been
the division of the Ottoman Empire
devalued through inflation in the meantime, this money stood us in very good
in the Sykes-Picot Agreement.
stead in covering our liability on bills of exchange. During the First World
War the offices in Hamburg and Rotterdam lay idle. Until I was conscripted
in June 1915, I still attempted to do business, also including such companies
as Weber & Schaer for the transport of raw rubber from Para to Hamburg.
But it never came to a contract being signed as insurance could no longer be
covered.
Once the United States entered the war, the office in New Or-
Battle of Jutland between the
English and German Navy's High
Seas Fleet.
leans was closed and Herr Plant secured the commission-businesses of the
Norway-Mexico Gulf Line and the Swedish-America-Mexico Line by establishing himself under the company of Trosdal, Plant & Lafonta. The New Orleans
1917
business, which we had built up with so much blood, sweat and tears (since
Beginning of unrestricted subma-
1911, we still had the commission-businesses from Armement Adolf Deppe
rine warfare in the restricted areas
with regular departures from New York to Antwerp, which I had arranged
around Great Britain and the Medi-
with the owner Mr Scheidt) had now reached the end of the road and our
terranean. The US enters the war.
Abdication of the Russian Tsar
steamship “Vogesen” was seized in Pensacola where she had lain since the
outbreak of war.
When the war ended in November 1918, our situation was pretty
Nicholas II. A civil form of government is established. Victory of the
grim: The business and assets in New Orleans as well as the steamship “Vo-
Bolshevik revolution in Russia.
gesen” seized, the Mark devalued, foreign securities handed over to the Ger-
The Universum Film AG
man government. A continuation of the business as it had been before the
is established in Berlin as a
war was unthinkable for the time being. But the situation soon improved in
propaganda instrument of the
this respect once the ships arriving for the government were distributed by
Supreme Command.
the shipbrokers in turn.
1918
Messrs Landau and Ainsworth. At the end of the war, my broth-
The American President Woodrow
er was still in New York and had the opportunity of soliciting for commission-
Wilson presents his 14-point
businesses for the Hamburg and Rotterdam companies, and he put a great
programme for world peace.
deal of effort into this. He was also successful in obtaining the commission-
Signing of the Treaty of Brest-Lito-
businesses for Hamburg and Rotterdam from the Pacat Steamship Corpora-
vsk: Russia loses approximately 25
tion which was to open a regular service from New York with steamships from
percent of its population and
the Shipping Board. The owners of this society were an American Jew called
27 percent of its economically
Landau, who originally hailed from Vienna, and his son, Kurt Landau, in addi-
productive land.
tion to Mr Ainsworth. These gentlemen had become rich very quickly during
Following its initial success, the
the war and did all possible kinds of business, but really did not have much
German spring offensive on the
of an idea about shipping. They were, therefore, and especially Mr Ainsworth,
Western Front comes to a standstill.
very liberal with respect to brokerage fees and when I asked Mr Ainsworth
28
Austria exits the war.
The armistice in Compiègne ends
the war in the west.
A sailors' mutiny in Kiel develops
into a revolution in Germany.
Workers' and soldiers' councils
briefly take power.
Kaiser Wilhelm II abdicates and
goes into exile in Holland.
Friedrich Ebert (SPD) becomes
Reichskanzler. Proclamation of the
Republic.
1919
In Germany, socialist uprisings by
“Vogesen” seized after the First World War as USS “Quincy” in an American port.
government troops and Freikorps
are struck down.
what agency commission he would grant, he replied: “We pay $ 500 for full
At the elections for the constituent
cargoes, $ 250 for part cargoes”, which, when you take the devaluation of the
National Assembly, the SPD wins
Mark into consideration, was an absolutely astronomical amount of money
the majority of votes.
at the time. A shed from Hapag was rented through our brokers and a large
poster was affixed to it with the name Pacat Steamship Corporation.
Mr Ainsworth was a typical American business man who did
not mince his words and always knew how to sort himself out. So when the
railway workers went on strike, without further ado, he bought himself a car
so he could travel to Copenhagen. When he did not receive a prompt reply to
Friedrich Ebert becomes
the various cables he had sent to his partners in New York, he ordered me to
Reichspräsident.
send a clearly worded telegram to New York which started as follows: “Why
Signing of the Peace Treaty by the
in the hell don‘t you answer my cables you are making a damned fool of me”
German Reich in the Hall of Mirrors
and so forth. Normally I had to pick him up from his hotel around midday. He
at Versailles:
received me in his dressing gown and made his business visits around 1 p.m.,
In addition to paying heavy repara-
when the majority of owners were going to lunch or were hanging around the
tions, Germany must accept sole
stock exchange. The Pacat Steamship Corporation's expeditions still contin-
responsibility for the war and re-
ued until around 1922; then business slowly began to stagnate because the
linquish its colonies, amongst other
corporation ran into financial difficulties.
things, as well as large sections of
At the time we still managed to obtain the commission-busi-
its commercial fleet.
ness from the New York & Argentine Steamship Co, which had set up a service
Walter Gropius establishes the
from Hamburg to Buenos Aires. This business was also operated with the
Kunstinstitut Bauhaus in Weimar.
29
1920
The international reparation
Shipping Board steamships but was dropped after about six months because
the ships needed to find other uses.
There was also another ray of hope on the horizon for us in
committee begin their work.
At an event in Munich, Adolf Hitler
the form of a Dutchman, Mr Goedhart, who had previously worked in Ham-
announces the 25-point
burg and knew my brother well, he suggested that we set up a service from
programme of the DAP, which a
New Orleans to Rotterdam with the three steamships from the Bothnia Line
little later renames itself as the
(C. Goudriaan) and to open up a joint commission-business in New Orleans.
Nationalsozialistische Deutsche
Since this was an opportunity for us to operate the office that had been in New
Arbeiter Partei (NSDAP (National
Orleans since 1901 again, we agreed to form the commission-business in the
Socialist German Workers' Party)).
exact same spot under the name of Vogemann, Goudriaan Co Inc and with Mr
The Kapp-Lüttwitz Putsch against
Goudriaan participating with 50 % of the $ 10,000 capital and in the profits. At
the Reichsregierung collapses after
the same time, my brother had been in talks with Mr Nihlen from the Conti-
a few days.
Ernst Jünger: “Storm of Steel” (book
nental shipping company to try persuading him to discontinue his steamships
travelling from New Orleans – Hamburg and he agreed to this proposal.
on war experiences).
Adventure at Grasbrook. In 1921, I therefore went to New Orle-
Robert Wiene: “The Cabinet of
Dr. Caligari” (film).
ans and embarked on the steamship “Manchuria” from the Atlantic Transport
Line from Hamburg as the German lines had not yet started their service. The
1921
passengers were ferried from the passenger terminals at Grasbrook to the
German reparation payments are
Hapag quayside sheds and had to walk over a long gangway to get on board.
set at 226 billion gold marks, pay-
Since we had a long time to wait owing to the ticket controls which were tak-
able within 42 years.
ing place at the same time, I put my suitcase down on the gangway. The suit-
Foundation of the Deutsche
case toppled over and fell exactly between the quay wall and the ship into the
Luftpost GmbH for transporting
water. It contained all of my papers, powers of attorney for establishing the
persons and post.
Vogemann, Goudriaan Co, and so forth and I would have had to abandon my
journey if I lost these. Thank God someone managed to fish out the suitcase,
which had not immediately sunk, with a “Peekhaken”, a long pole with a kind
of iron claw at the point. The papers were only slightly damaged and so I was
able to continue on my journey. Once I had arrived in New York, I was surprised that the name Vogemann was still known to the telegraph companies
The value of the Deutsche Mark
in spite of the war and that we had closed our New York offices.
I immediately continued my journey to New Orleans and vis-
dramatically drops at the Frankfurt
Stock Exchange. Start of inflation.
ited Mr Dumont Head of Standard Export Lumber Co, who I had known from
Sections of Upper Silesia come
former occasions and with whom we had done a lot of great business before
under Polish rule following a
the war. He recommended Mr George Simno as managing director, whom
plebiscite.
I then also engaged. I employed my cousin, Carl Ulrichs, as an accountant
Hugo von Hofmannsthal:
again, he had also worked for us previously, and rented an office in the Perrin
“The Difficult Man” (comedy)
Building (later to become the Baronne Building).
30
1922
The Treaty of Rapallo between the
German Reich and Soviet Russia
ends the isolation of Germany in
matters of foreign policy.
Withdrawal of Allied Aviation Monitoring Commission from Germany.
Beginning of construction on the
Rhine-Main-Danube Canal as part
of a continuous waterway from the
North Sea to the Black Sea. The
project will only be completed in
Passenger halls of the Hamburg-America Line at Grasbrook.
1992.
Murder of the Reich Foreign Minister Walther Rathenau in BerlinGrunewald.
A sense of panic at the German
Stock Exchange. The value of the
US dollar rises to 860 Marks.
The business took off well because we received 4 % commission on the cargoes, which were still relatively high, so that after deduct-
Fritz Lang:
“Dr. Mabuse the Gambler” (film).
ing expenses, a considerable profit still remained. Unfortunately, the Bothnia
Line stopped its service after about twelve months as Mr Goudriaan, who had
1923
bought the ships at a very expensive price during the war, fell into financial
French and Belgian troops occupy
difficulties.
the Ruhr area owing to defaults in
The Continental shipping company still continued its service for
coal deliveries.
a number of years further. If I recall rightly, it was in 1924 when Mr Nihlen,
Inflation is at its highest point:
the director of the corporation came to New Orleans and told us that he pos-
12 billion Marks are paid for
sibly intended starting up a steamship with passenger facilities. This never
one US dollar.
actually came about as a short time later, the Continental shipping company
Suppression of the separatist
was taken over by a group which was led by Axel Dahlström and was later
movement in the Rhineland.
sold on to the company Hugo Stinnes. This company had no interest in main-
Communist coup attempt in
taining the New Orleans service and soon discontinued it altogether.
Hamburg.
31
The loss of both commission-businesses was naturally very
painful and put the question in front of us as to whether we should give the
New Orleans office up again or whether we should take on other steamships,
possibly even our own. Then, in 1925, we made the decision to purchase the
steamship “Manchester Port” which was 20 years old at the time and we again
“Hitler Putsch” in Munich.
called her “Vogesen”. Since one steamship passage was not sufficient and
Establishment of the German Renten
since the previous charter business could not be taken up again owing to the
bank which introduces a currency
difficulties with the foreign exchange, we purchased – I think it was in the year
reform by issuing a new Rentenmark.
1927 – the steamship “Rhein” (previously “Elisabeth Rickmers”) from the company of Röchling, Menzell & Co, and which was given the name “Vogtland”.
1924
Foundation of the Republic
Protection Association Reichsbanner
Schwarz-Rot-Gold.
“Dawes Plan” for regulating German
reparations.
1926 – Accident on the steamship “Vogesen”
Arrest of the mass murderer
In November 1926, a docker was
Fritz Haarmann.
Thomas Mann: “The Magic
killed during loading work on board
Mountain” (novel)
the Vogemann steamship “Vogesen”
in the Port of Hamburg. The report
1925
1925
by the port's shop committee reveals
shortcomings in accident victim care
at the time:
“The accident happened around 10 o'clock in the morning. The steamship
“Vogesen” gave the necessary signal but no launch from the authorities
came to transport the injured party. Even though the launch went past the
quay administration and heard the signals, they made no attempt to bring
Death of the Reich President
Friedrich Ebert. Field Marshal
Paul von Hindenburg is
voted successor.
at least one transport cage on board, the shed manager also refused to
telephone a message to the casualty station. It was only after the signals
from the steamship sounded at ten past eleven that permission was granted ... The long delay in transporting from onboard to the hospital, caused
The Reichstag adopts protective
outrage to break out on board, which cannot be denied. It once again gives
duties for agriculture and industry.
us cause to point out the unreliability of the means of transportation in
Locarno Conference concerning
the event of accidents ...”
security pacts in Europe.
Klaus Weinhauer: Alltag und Arbeitskampf im Hamburger Hafen 1914–1933
Egon Erwin Kisch:
(Everyday Life and Industrial Disputes in the Port of Hamburg 1914 – 1933)
“The Raging Reporter” (coverage)
Paderborn 1994, Pg. 163
32
Then it came about that Mr Siemens in Rotterdam succeeded
1926
in raising interest in the passage with the steamship “Delia” in which we had
Establishment of Deutsche Lufthansa
a financial interest. This steamship made several voyages. It soon emerged
AG through merger of Junkers
that there were considerable differences between the captain who had a share
Luftverkehr and Aero Lloyd.
in the ship and his remaining financial backers, so that in the end we had to
detain the ship in Rotterdam until we had succeeded in recovering the funds
which had been advanced. We had acquired part of the means to purchase
the ships through profits attained by the company in New Orleans, but a portion came from America through the so-called Settlement of War Claims Act.
The Hamburg-America Line and Norddeutsche Lloyd, which had suffered
the greatest war losses in America, had started compensatory action for the
steamships lost during the war through Dr Kiesselbach in the United States
The American dancer Josephine Baker
and which was successfully carried out. Our steamship “Vogesen” which had
is a guest performer at the Berlin
been seized in 1917 in Pensacola, was, as far as I can recall, evaluated at M
Nelson Theatre.
1,200,000, even though it had only cost us M 650,000 as a newbuild in 1909. We
Introduction of a standardised
received several payments on account of these settlement amounts, in total
Highway Code.
around M 550,000 and and at a later data, a further sum of around M 120,000
Job creation programme to reduce the
from the German government in accrued interest. When the National Socialist
high unemployment figures.
government came into power, payments from the United States stopped be-
Max Schmeling German Light
cause, allegedly, the German government were not fulfilling their obligations
Heavyweight Boxing Champion.
to the American creditors which had made claims against Germany.
Admission of Germany into the
Relatively good results were obtained by the two steamships
“Vogesen” and “Vogtland” until 1929; then the rates on the freight market became so bad that every voyage finished with a loss. My brother later accused
League of Nations.
Arthur Schnitzler:
“Dream Story” (narrative)
me of keeping the ships in service for much too long so that they had lost
more through this than if they had been laid up. However, he had not taken
1927
into account that it was more advantageous to have a slight loss with the
The Allied Military Commission ends its
ships in service, because, first of all, the upkeep for ships whilst they are laid
activities in the German Reich.
up is quite high, as the ships need to be maintained and, secondly, the lack of
Protests against construction of the
revenue in New Orleans so that the stoppage from commissions there would
Battleship A.
have been a major loss. In fact, on several occasions it proved to be the case
Martin Heidegger: “Being and Time“
that it was possible to calculate a small profit based on the prospective cargo
(philosophical discourse).
from New Orleans but that after it had been subsequently loaded it turned out
that the actual resulting cargo was lower. Even at that time my brother was
paying less attention to the business details as he usually only appeared in
the office around midday, but he was nevertheless exceedingly good at criticising with the benefit of hindsight and in claiming that nobody ever listened
to him and that he would have been much better at doing things.
Fritz Lang: “Metropolis” (film).
33
1928
The SPD enters into a grand coalition
with the German Democrats, the
German People's Party and the
Bavarian People's Party.
Chiang Kai-shek marches into Peking
with his national revolutionary army.
Amundsen, the polar explorer, does
not return from a flight across the
North Pole region.
Walt Disney launches the first film
with sound with Mickey Mouse as the
main character.
Ships laid up in the Port of Hamburg, 1931.
Under the flag of Panama. During the years 1931 – 1932, the
Rise of the Swedish Greta Garbo to
international film stardom.
Erich Kästner: “Emile and the Detec-
situation on the freight market became so precarious, however, that nothing
else could be done but lie the ships up because individual round trips sometimes closed with a loss of M 20,000 to M 30,000.
tives” (novel for children and teens).
Before it came to this though, we followed my brother's wishes
Bertolt Brecht/Kurt Weill:
and still attempted to keep the steamship “Vogtland” in service by sailing her
“The Threepenny Opera”.
under the flag of Panama. The reason for doing this was because under the
flag of Panama we were not tied to labour rates and we also did not need
1929
to pay any social security contributions. Although through the ages, ship-
Death of the Foreign
ping companies have sailed their ships under foreign flags (the English under
Minister Gustav Stresemann.
Norwegian flags, the Americans under the English flag and so forth), a great
Young Plan for regulating
deal of fuss was kicked up about our measures because the social democratic
the reparation issue.
government feared that a change of flag could set a precedent and appear
Adam Opel AG is taken over
to make the labour rates and the social security contributions an illusion.
by the US automobile
While the offer of crews was so great that people who wanted to join ship
concern General Motors.
were queuing all the way down the street in front of our office, newspapers
The high-speed steam turbine ocean
liner “Bremen” from the
in Berlin, the Berliner Tageblatt for example, were reporting that we could
not get any people at the rates we were offering. As a result of these know-
Norddeutscher Lloyd Line wins the
ingly false newspaper reports we were bombarded even more and received
Blue Riband.
logbooks from all over Germany with the request for immediate engagement.
34
We made several voyages under the flag of Panama with the
result that our ships could sail, whereas others had already been laid up. The
captain and crews were then extremely grateful that they had employment,
albeit at a lower wage, while their colleagues were unemployed. However, in
the year 1932, availability of cargoes became so low and freighting so bad
that we were also obliged to lay up the “Vogtland” in spite of her being under
the flag of Panama. As her class had expired and we decided to avoid the
Black day on Wall Street:
high classification costs in view of the poor market situation, we then sold
The historic stock market crash
the ship to be dismantled for the price of M 50,000, as far as I can remember.
heralds the Great Depression.
However, the National Socialist government had as little sympathy for the
change of flags as the previous government, they passed a law that only those
ship-owners who did not have any ships sailing under a foreign flag should
Vogemann ships under the flag of Panama
The changing flagging practices by the Vogemann shipping company in 1931
caused considerable indignation in the German workers movement. On 16th
February 1931, the newspaper “Welt am Montag” published a satirical poem by
the writer Erich Mühsam in reference to this and which loosely translates as:
For Vogemann’s, national honour stands well
The company shows it to the Republic
to the fore,
And with Die! and Hurrah!
And they consider anyone who goes against it
Vogemann waves the Panama
to be a swine.
With Fridericus brass music
Their black-and-red steel-helmeted
Down with the jack! - Oh dear!
fighting spirit ever glows
Vogemann splits its sides with laughter,
For their German Fatherland threatened by
And the Panamanian flag
treason.
Cheerfully flutters from the “Vogtland” mast.
Vogemann’s has a positive attitude to govern-
The crew goes hungry, the company saves,
ment as long as it is of use to them.
Full speed ahead for business!
Otherwise the shipping company shouts:
Off to sea for the Fatherland,
Sucks Boo to Panama! Treason!
For which Fatherland? How apt! …
Should Vogemann’s pay high taxes from the
That is Germany’s heather
profit? No way!
(There are a lot of Vogemann’s there!)
Should they not care about social obliga-
Black-white-reddish in nature
tions when hiring sailors?
And in the ledger – Panama!
35
Erich Mühsam
Nobel prize in literature goes to
have the pleasure of receiving aid from the Reich. Since the “Vogtland”, which
Thomas Mann.
was to be sold and dismantled, was still under the flag of Panama, I could not
Concordat between the Vatican and
receive the first Reich aid for the steamship “Vogesen” because, at that time,
the fascist regime in Italy.
the steamship “Vogtland” had not yet been taken and scrapped by the buyers.
The years 1929 – 1933 were particularly loss-generating be-
Erich Maria Remarque:
“All Quiet on the Western Front”
cause even after laying up the steamship, the losses still continued and the
(novel on the World War)
expenses in New Orleans continued to run on without their being any revenue
to offset against it. It was only after the National Socialist government had
1930
introduced aid from the Reich, whereby approximately the entire monthly
The Centre Party politician Brüning
payroll was paid by the Reich, that times improved for ship-owners. After this,
forms the first Presidential Cabinet,
the steamship “Vogesen” was soon put into service again.
the government is supported by the
Presidential Emergency Decree.
Purchases with Dutch money. It may have been at the be-
Breakthrough by the NSDAP at the
ginning of 1935 when Mr Siemens, Manager of the Vogemann's Transport
Reichstag elections.
Co, pointed out to us that credit in Dutch guilders, the so-called “Auswanderermark” (Emigrant Mark), could be acquired at an extremely favourable
exchange rate. After long discussions, we succeeded in obtaining a large
amount of credit from the Thomsen's Havenbedrijf to whom we had assigned
a lot of business over the years. The Vogemann's Transport Co was also involved in this credit at the same time so that around Hfl. 60,000 to 70,000
The Allies evacuate the Rhineland.
“Salt March” the Indian
independence movement against the
British colonialists.
Max Schmeling defeats Joe Sharkey
and becomes World Heavyweight
Boxing Champion.
Joseph von Sternberg:
“The Blue Angel” (film)
Thronging crowd in front of the job placement centre for seamen in Hamburg.
36
was available from the acquisition of the Auswanderermark. The normal
1931
rate of exchange was around RM 100,000 to 120,000, whereas we received
The German government embarks
around RM 300,000 in Auswanderermarks which we could use for the sale of
on strict austerity measures to balance
a ship.
the budget.
At the same time, we were now conducting the purchase of the
“Hoover Moratorium” for deferral
turbine steamship “Schwarzwald” from the Hamburg-America Line at a price
of German reparation payments.
of M 330,000 Hapag could not immediately approve the sale because the ship
The “National Opposition” joins forces to
needed to first be released in America. The purchase of the steamship, which
become the “Harzburger Front”.
was brokered through the company Knöhr & Burchardt, was therefore con-
Bankruptcy of the Darmstädter-
cluded as released under reserve. When the release finally became finalised
and National Bank.
a few months later, Hapag would have preferred to withdraw from the sale
of the steamship again as freight rates had in the meantime increased. But
because the sale was firmly concluded, they could no longer withdraw.
Inauguration of the Empire State
Building in New York.
The “Auswanderermark” (Emigrant Mark)
Carl Zuckmayer: “The Captain of
Köpenick” (play).
Controls on foreign exchange had already been in existence in Germany since 1931 and from 1933 were enforced more rigorously under
1932
National Socialist rule. The result of this was that significant partial
Number of unemployed at its
payments became payable to the Deutsche Golddiskontbank (German
highest level (6.1 million).
Gold Discount Bank) when Reichsmark were exchanged for foreign
Hindenburg is re-elected as
currency on emigration. In 1934, already 65 % of the total money
Reichs President.
transferred had to be paid in levies, which in real terms meant that
The car manufacturers Audi,
only 35 % could be exchanged. In 1939, eventually 96 % was due on
Horch, DKW and Wanderer join
emigration. This mechanism naturally worked the other way round: By
forces to become the Auto-Union.
bringing foreign currency into the country, large sums of Reichsmark
Gustaf Gründgens first appears
could be acquired. In the afore-mentioned case, that of purchasing a
in the role of Mephistopheles in
ship with credit from Holland, it appears that just such a package deal
Goethe's “Faust”.
had been made: Guilders were brought into the country, the sum paid
Hans Fallada: “Little Man,
out was in RM taken from those partial payments paid by emigrants
What Now?” (novel)
to the Golddiskontbank. In this respect, the company would have actually profited from the foreign exchange control on the one hand and
Next page:
The Port of Hamburg
with the “Graf Zeppelin”
airship. Panoramic mural
by Erich Kips, 1931.
from the enforced emigration on the other.
Information Dr. Frank Bajohr, Forschungsstelle für Zeitgeschichte (Research Centre for
Contemporary History) Hamburg, September 2009
37
38
39
1933
“Schwarzwald” becomes “Rheingold”. We had intended keeping the name of the steamship the same, as “Schwarzwald” and “Vogesen”
went well together, but Hapag insisted on their being a change of name and
so we then decided to revive the old name of “Rheingold” again.
In spite of the incredibly cheap price we received through the
Dutch credit, my brother had been reluctant to give his approval for the pur-
Hindenburg appoints Adolf Hitler as
chase of the steamship “Rheingold”, since he was more interested in increas-
Reichskanzler. Beginning of the Na-
ing his portfolio of securities than in seeing ships back in service again.
tional Socialist dictatorship.
After the first voyage had ended with a satisfactory result and
Terror against the regime's opponents.
my brother also came to the conclusion that the steamship “Rheingold” had
Dissolution of political parties,
been bought at a bargain price through credit from Thomsen's Havenbedrijf,
“Gleichschaltung” (alignment) of asso-
we attempted to purchase a second ship along the same lines. The company
ciations and organisations. Abolition of
Daniel Milberg acted as brokers and we were offered the steamship “Lisa”
trade unions, they are replaced by the
from the company John T. Essberger for RM 395,000. This price was consider-
German Labour Front.
ably more expensive than was paid for the steamship “Rheingold”, and at the
Germany withdraws from the League
same time, the steamship “Rheingold” had been built in 1922, the steamship
of Nations.
“Lisa” on the other hand in 1914. In spite of this, however, the purchase price
In the US, President Roosevelt
was also very reasonable, especially since we received a further loan from
establishes the “New Deal” to reform
Thomsen's after we had paid back the first credit, so that we were able to pay
the economic and social system.
with cheaper Marks again.
By purchasing the steamship “Lisa”, which we named “Walküre”,
1934
my long-awaited desire to own three of our own steamships for our service
Death of Reich President Hindenburg,
from the Gulf, finally came true. Unfortunately, during the last two years be-
Hitler appoints himself as
fore the Second World War, ships for the Gulf passage could not be as profit-
Head of State.
Murder campaign against the
ably employed as on other routes because freights in dollars were relatively
lower than freights in marks. The dollars had to be handed over to the Reichs-
leadership of the SA for allegedly
bank and were then credited to us at the usual rate of exchange. We, therefore,
preparing a coup d'état.
decided to give up the steamship “Vogesen” for 12 months to the Bornhofen
Attempted Putsch by the National
company on a time-charter basis. The profit was extremely high because the
Socialists in Austria fails.
Centralisation of the
German justice system.
ship only cost us around M 350 per day, whilst Bornhofen, as far as I can remember, were paying around M 850 to M 900 in charter rental per day, so that
a profit of approximately M 500 per day was left over. The steamship “Rhein-
The German Reich's foreign trade is
gold” was also given over to time-chartering as well and it was, in fact, to the
placed under state control.
German Africa Line for a round trip to South Africa. The charter rental for the
South African voyage was approximately M 1,100 per day while the daily costs
1935
were around M 700. Unfortunately, shortly after the war broke out the steam-
Return of the Saar territory
ship “Rheingold” was captured to the south of Iceland whilst trying to break
to the German Reich.
through the blockade by the English cruiser “Delhi” and was confiscated with
40
“Nuremberg Laws”: Proscription
and deprivation of rights of the
Jews in Germany.
German-British Naval Agreement
allows maritime rearmament.
Italy initiates war against Abyssinia.
End of the “Long March” of the
Chinese Communists under Mao
Zedong.
Leni Riefenstahl: “Triumph of the
Will” (Nazi Party rally film).
1936
German troops occupy the
demilitarised zone of the Rhineland.
Steamship “Rheingold”. Painting based on a photograph.
Outbreak of the Spanish Civil War.
The Olympic games take place in
Germany. (Garmisch-Partenkirchen,
Berlin).
Hitler Youth is declared mandatory
for youths.
The “Queen Mary”, the largest ship
in the world at the time, on her
maiden voyage.
Steamship “Rheingold”, here still as “Schwarzwald”, in the Port of Hamburg.
Max Schmeling defeats the “Brown
her entire cargo and this happened after she had been completely overhauled
Bomber” Joe Louis.
several months previously and fitted with oil-firing equipment. The steamship “Vogesen” was torpedoed near Göteborg on 6th May 1940 on a voyage
1937
bringing coal to Oslo. The steamship “Walküre” sank on 22nd December 1942
Hitler reveals his war plans to
off the Swedish coast. Since this last incident was a matter of sea damage,
military leaders and politicians
the underwriting agents had to pay for the loss and we received a payout of
(“Hossbach Protocol”).
approximately M 900,000. In order to avoid this money possibly being deval-
Launching of the KdF cruise liner
ued after the war, we thought it advisable to take part in the so-called Hansa
“Wilhelm Gustloff”.
41
programme according to which 100 ships of 3,000 t deadweight were to be
built for German ship-owners during the war. Building costs for these ships
amounted to M 1,800,000 each. The government paid M 800,000 of this while
the ship-owners had to finance M 1,000,000. After we had received M 900,000
from the underwriting agents for the steamship “Walküre”, we were able to
Explosion of the airship “Hindenburg”
pay for the newbuilding without taking on a loan. We took over the ship, which
in Lakehurst near New York.
was called “Tannhäuser”, on 6th April 1944. It had only taken two brief voyag-
“Degenerate Art” exhibition
es and was sunk to the west of Helgoland on its third voyage on 8th July 1944.
in Munich.
Carl Orff: “Carmina Burana”
Carrying timber from Sweden and Finland. After the loss of
(scenic cantata).
our steamship “Rheingold” and “Vogesen” as a result of the war, ownership of
the Swedish steamship “Start” was initially transferred to us as compensation
1938
in June 1940 and was put into service under the name of “Tristan”. The ship
Occupation of Austria (“Anschluss”
was 1,700 GRT and had a deadweight of approximately 2,500 t. It was very
(annexation)).
Conference in Munich:
Czechoslovakia must cede the
Sudetenland to the German Reich.
1942 – The Hansa building programme
Terror against the Jews in Germany
with destruction of synagogues,
In 1942, the Hansa building
murder and arrests
programme started to compensate for German maritime
“Night of Broken Glass”).
losses during the war. It was
1939
financed by eight leading German shipping companies who
German troops invade
Czechoslovakia.
Hansa ship, 3,550 t (draft)
had established the Schiffahrt Treuhand GmbH for this
Victory of the military party under
General Franco's leadership in Spain.
purpose. Similar to the Liberty ships in the United States, the standardised
German-Soviet non-aggression pact
cargo ships of the Hansa building programme were built in series according
with secret additional protocol on
the division of spheres of influence in
North Eastern Europe.
Start of the Second World War with
the German attack on Poland.
Transition to a war economy
(rationing, tax increases).
Allied naval blockade against
the German Reich.
to a single design. There were three types, a small size up to 3,000 t, a medium size up to 5,000 t and a large size up to 9,000 t. The German shipyards
in Hamburg, the Bremer Vulkan and Schichau in Danzig acted as “advance
working shipyards”, which produced the first examples. Due to a shortage of
raw materials, they had to resort to using Thomas steel which was actually
too brittle and to installing coal-fired boilers and piston steam engines which
no longer corresponded to the technology of the day. By the end of the war,
the Hansa building programme resulted in a total of 65 ships, some of which
(after conversion to oil-fired boilers) were still sailing in the late 1970s.
42
suitable for coal-timber cargoes and so forth and certainly paid off well by
1940
carrying timber from Sweden and Finland as it was able to load 750 – 780
standards. The steamship “Tristan” went missing in February 1943 on the voyage from Danzig to Reval and we never received any message from her at all.
In April 1942 we were also assigned another steamship, the
Latvian “Everonika”. This ship, which we rechristened “Irma”, was managed
by us for the Reich Commissioner for sea transport. It was a ship of 3,757 GRT
with a total cargo capacity of around 6,100 t. On 14th March 1944, she ran
aground on the Norwegian coastline and sank.
German operation
During the course of the war, we were also given ownership of
“Weser Exercise” against
the steamship “Rastenburg”, which lay in Bordeaux when it was transferred in
Denmark and Norway.
December 1943 and subsequently made several voyages with ore from Bilbao
Attack in the west on The Nether-
to Bordeaux. The rates for these cargoes were extremely good so that every
lands, Belgium and France.
short voyage made a considerable profit. Unfortunately, only six or seven voy-
Trade war against Great Britain with
ages could be made before the war ended. The ship was scuttled in Bordeaux
overseas forces and submarines.
by our navy on 25th August 1944.
Battle of Britain with German
On 20th October 1944, we were given control of the Finnish steamship “Ursa” (2,982 GRT), which made several voyages for us. This
bombing offensives on British cities.
Lion Feuchtwanger: “Exile” (novel).
ship was also scuttled by our Navy which, as a matter of fact, took place in
1941
German troops under
General Rommel support the
Italians in North Africa.
Sinking of the battleship
“Bismarck”.
German attack on Russia
(“Operation Barbarossa”).
Atlantic Charter sets out
the ideal goals of the
Western Allies.
Japanese attack on the US naval
port of Pearl Harbor. Start of the
war in the Pacific.
Scenes of destruction in the Port of Hamburg, 1943.
43
1942
Bremen on 24th April 1945, without any opportunity of saving anything from
Wannsee Conference to plan
the inventory or supplies. Finally, the only thing left to mention is the Latvian
extermination of the Jews in the
steamship “Everiga” which was a wreck in Liepaja and transferred into our
German domain.
care; we were to take ownership of her later. After the ship had been lying in
First launching of the A4 missile in
Liepaja for six months and the local naval dockyard could not decide whether
Peenemünde.
to begin repair work in earnest or not, she was hauled to Burmeister & Wain's
British victory in the
shipyard in Copenhagen to be thoroughly repaired there. By the end of the
Battle of El Alamein.
war, the ship was nowhere near being finished. I have no idea what happened
to her, presumably she was taken by the Russians.
Loss of all vehicles. After the collapse in May 1945, we did not
just have the loss of our own ships to contend with but also the fact that all
vehicles assigned to us during the war were lost as well. The offices of Voge-
First flight of the jet fighter
mann, Goudriaan Co Inc., New Orleans had not been able to continue work-
Me 262 “Schwalbe”.
ing once the United States had entered the war and the Managing Director,
First controlled chain reaction as part
of the American “Manhattan Project”.
1943
Surrender of the 6th Army
in Stalingrad.
Italy exits the war.
Offensive in the Kursk (Battle of the
Kursk Bulge) fails.
Heavy air attacks on Hamburg
(Operation Gomorrha).
First conference of the
“Big Three” in Tehran.
The town hall market following air raids in 1943. The company headquarters were located in the
burnt-out building with the rounded corner at the entrance to Mönckebergstraße.
44
Horace Upton, who had been working there since 1929, left his position. The
1944
existing securities in America were undoubtedly confiscated, which was also
the case in the First World War.
The Vogemann's Transport Co, Rotterdam had still worked extremely well during the war since at the instigation of Mr Siemens who had
worked with the Reich's Commissioner for merchant shipping for a while, supervision of Dutch seamen had been transferred to it. The profits from this
Allied landing in Normandy
activity were invested in Dutch securities which had to be immediately surren-
Major Soviet offensive against
dered to the English when Hamburg was occupied, as was also the case with
the Army Group Centre.
the foreign securities of Vogemann, Goudriaan Co Inc. which were located in
Attempt on Hitler's life fails.
Hamburg.
Formation of the “Volkssturm” (National
The only activity that remained to us at the end of the war was
the unloading and loading of steamships for the military government as well
Militia) for men aged between 16 and 60.
Soviets advance into East Prussia.
as various clean-up efforts in the port on behalf of the authorities for electricity and port construction. Our damages to the War Damage Commission
1945
are M 1,000,000 for the loss of the steamship “Tannhäuser”, around M 950,000
for steamship “Rheingold” and around M 250,000 for steamship “Vogesen”.
In addition, the value of inventory and equipment is still to be reimbursed
so that the total demands to the War Damage Commission are running at
around M 2 ½ million.
The offices were moved to Mönckebergstraße 31 a few months af-
Conference of the Big Three in Yalta.
ter the war ended. The offices which had been based in the Mönckebergstraße
Heavy air raid on Dresden.
22 since 1911, were completely burnt down during the catastrophic days of July
Soviets take Berlin. Adolf Hitler
1943 while the offices which had been made available to the shipping company
commits suicide in the bunker
Heinrich F.C. Arp in Mönckebergstraße 9 were completely destroyed by an air
below the Reich Chancellery.
raid in July 1944. From July 1944 until October 1945, the business was run on a
Unconditional surrender of the
temporary basis from a private flat, Skagerrakstraße 1a, later on the second floor
German armed forces.
of the Deutsche Bank and after the bank's building was damaged, in a room of
Potsdam Conference on post-war
the insurance company Heinrich Heins in Bohnenstraße 12/14.
order in Europe.
My brother never lived to see the last years of the war. He had
been suffering from lung cancer since early 1943 and died on 22nd April 1944
after he had lost the parental home in which he had been living during the
catastrophic days of July 1943. Since the death of my brother, I have been
the sole proprietor of the H. Vogemann company which I have had to rebuild
anew, first in 1906 and then a second time in 1918, only to stand at the end
Atomic bombing of Hiroshima
of the Second World War in 1945 with nothing once again. I hope that I will
and Nagasaki.
still succeed in rebuilding for a third time so that I can leave my son Herbert
Japan's surrender ends the Second
a shipping company with its own ships.
World War.
45
46
125 years of H. Vogemann - Tradition, Reliability and Competence
Chapter 2
After the
Second World War
Chapter 2 – After the Second World War
47
After the
Second World War
Richard Vogemann's hopes came true. Together with his son, Herbert, and
his son-in-law, Paul Speckter, his third attempt after the Second World War
was successful. The following presentation is chiefly based on the memoirs
of Paul Speckter and those of Udo Wiese who entered the business in 1968
and has been involved as a partner since 1978.
1946
or many years at the beginning, the prognosis for companies
F
wishing to resume their former business in the shipping sector
or who were wanting to strike out afresh, did not look particularly promising. There was virtually no tonnage to be had, and
what was available, German companies were not permitted to use. Hamburg
was particularly hard hit by Section VII of the Allied Control Council ProclaUnder pressure from the Soviet
mation No. 2 dated 20th September 1945 which stated:
Military Administration East
“23. a) No merchant ship, including fishing or other craft, shall
Berlin's SPD (Social Democratic
put to sea from any German port except as may be sanctioned or directed by
Party of Germany) and KPD
the Allied Representatives. German ships in ports outside Germany shall re-
(Communist Party of Germany)
main in port and those at sea shall proceed to the nearest German or United
unite to form the SED (Socialist
Nations port and there remain, pending instructions from the Allied Repre-
Unity Party of Germany).
sentatives.
In Stuttgart, US Secretary of
b) All German merchant shipping, including tonnage under
State Byrnes opens re-orientation
construction or repair, will be made available to the Allied Representatives
of western occupational policy
for such use and on such terms as they may prescribe.
c) Foreign merchant shipping in German service or under Ger-
with Speech of Hope.
In Hamburg, work on the high-
man control will likewise be made available to the Allied Representatives for
rise developments am Grind-
such use and on such terms as they may prescribe. In the case of such foreign
elberg begins, Germany's first
merchant vessels which are of neutral registration, the German authorities
high-rise development.
will take all such steps as may be required by the Allied Representatives to
First plenary assembly of the
United Nations in London.
transfer or cause to be transferred to the Allied Representatives all rights
relative thereto.
48
The destroyed shed 28 at the Petersenkai. Large sections of the Port of Hamburg lay in ruins
after the end of the war.
d) All transfer to any other flag, service or control, of the vessels covered by sub paragraphs b) and c) above, is prohibited, except as may
be directed by the Allied Representatives.”
This was practically tantamount to a complete blanket ban
in operational activities for companies such as H. Vogemann, who were
Atom bombs are dropped
having enough serious problems to deal with without this. On several oc-
over the Bikini Atoll in the
casions during the war, the entire office had been lost through air raids;
Pacific ocean.
now (since October 1945), they were “residing” in two small rooms on the
Death sentences on ten of
second floor of the damaged office building in the Mönckebergstraße 31.
the major war criminals are
“They” were Richard Vogemann, the Chief Clerk, Johannes Jaensch, reg-
carried out in Nuremberg.
istered since 1944 and Hermann Friedenauer who had been working for
Hermann Göring had
Vogemann since 1942. Also added to this were the so-called out-of-house
previously committed suicide.
49
Agreement concerning
economic unification of the
people, the two long-serving stevedore foremen, Hermann Behrendt und
Willi Preuss.
US zone and the British
Fresh start under difficult conditions. Basically, there was
occupied zone in Germany.
The Vespa scooter: A new
virtually no working capital available owing to the fact that Vogemann had
kind of two-wheeler is
already reported all our foreign assets to the Reichsbank headquarters in
launched onto the market.
Hamburg on the 4th June as directed by the Finance Section of the military
government. These were registered in document register No. 1945/1353 and
notarised by Dr Gottfried Wäntig. The cost was 4 Reichsmark (RM) plus 2 percent value added tax, making a grand total of RM 4.08.
There are very few people - not even those who were aware of
going through it at the time - who are today now able to imagine the conditions under which we had to live and work during the immediate post-war
years. Both employees and company owners alike, navigated their way from
The newspaper “Neues Deut-
one stopgap measure to another, trying to get hold of the most basic essen-
schland” is established as a
tials by swapping and “organising” and making use, always with a guilty con-
central organ of the SED.
science, of the Black Market in emergencies while they were still in posses-
The Rowohlt Verlag
publishes the first “Rotationsroman” (rororo = Rowohlt
rotary novel).
sion of something worth exchanging. Comparatively speaking, non-smokers
were in a better position when rationing first started as they were able to get
hold of things which were not easily obtainable by means of their highlyprized cigarettes.
Wolfgang Staudte: “The
There was a shortage of everything. To start off with the office
Murderers are Among Us”
could not even be heated. Thank God someone managed to install a stove
(film with Hildegard Knef).
before the cold spell got underway but because there was no chimney, its flue
had to be put through a flap in the window. A great accomplishment but in
1947
light of the dramatic shortage of fuel, it would only then become a solution if
Supply crisis in West
it were possible to get hold of things which could be burnt from somewhere.
Germany on account of the
The bomb sites were “grazed”, the parks were guarded, the forests were too far
long winter.
away from the city, plus there was hardly any transport available. Anybody
who did not want to freeze to death needed to get their hands on junk from
their own cellars or shrubbery out of the garden. It is true to say that this
is not something which could be kept up forever, but with a little bit of good
fortune and skill, the office was able to make it through the hard winter of
1945/46 and 1946/47.
There was no easy answer for the constant power cuts though;
office activities had to be repeatedly interrupted, sometimes for several hours.
US Secretary of State
Marshall announces his
The telephone system was notoriously overwhelmed and heavily war-damaged, using it was a complete gamble and being able to make a long distance
50
European Recovery Plan
(Marshall Plan, ERP)
The State of Prussia is
abolished.
The East-German
ministers leave the
All-German Meeting
of Minister-Presidents
in Munich on establishing
a German central
administration.
Communist parties decide
to establish an Information Bureau (Kominform).
After a nine-year break, a
“Hamburger Dom” (funfair) takes place on the
Heiligengeistfeld again.
Plague of Colorado
potato beetles in Bavaria,
schoolchildren and adults
take part in an action for
searching for the Colorado
potato beetle.
Hein ten Hoff becomes
German Heavyweight
Boxing Champion.
Wolfgang Borchert:
“The Man Outside”
(drama).
Richard Vogemann. Portrait in later years.
51
1948
phone call seemed to be more-or-less a thing of the past. In the beginning, a
End of the Allied Control
marginal income was only achieved by doing temporary work, for example, if
Council (Four Powers).
clearing gangs were set up under the assistance of the two stevedore foremen
Customs union between
and were deployed in removing the rubble and debris.
Belgium, the Netherlands and
In August 1945, the son of the boss, Herbert Vogemann, came
Luxembourg comes into effect.
back from prisoner-of-war camp and was reintroduced “amongst the living”
The Parliamentary Council
again: The local authorities in Winterhude, the Department of Economics and
begins to draft the Grund
Nutrition, “approved” his homecoming and certified : “Food cards can be is-
gesetz (Basic Law) for the
sued.” There was no work to be had in his father's company and this suited
Federal Republic of Germany.
the young man's plans fine, otherwise he may very well have been roped into
Currency reform:
doing something or other straight away. He naturally had an innate interest
Introduction of the D-Mark
in all things shipping and so he was able to begin vocational training at Carl
in West Germany.
The communist youth
organisation “Junge Pioniere”
Bock & Co where he had previously already worked as a temporary help in
1944. He would be shaped and moulded there which should later prove profitable in the family business.
(Young Pioneers) is established
It was only a year after the war had ended that a pale light be-
in East Berlin.
gan to glimmer on the horizon: Companies which had been classified as “ex-
The Soviets block West Berlin
onerated” by the Department for Transport of the United Economic Area, and
in order to prevent
introduction of the D-Mark.
The Allies establish an airlift
which brings supplies to the
population.
Opening of the Free University
of Berlin.
The sovereign State of Israel
is declared. Beginning of the
Arab-Israeli war.
The Organisation for European Economic Cooperation
(OEEC) is established.
Murder of the Indian politician
Mahatma Gandhi.
August 1945: The local authorities in Winterhude certified the
return of Herbert Vogemann from captivity as a prisoner of war.
52
1949
The Basic Law is adopted by the
Parliamentary Council by 53 to
12 votes. It is decided that Bonn
will be the capital city of the
Federal Republic of Germany
(instead of Frankfurt).
Establishment of the Federal
Republic in the three west zones.
The German Democratic Republic (GDR) is constituted in the
Permission must be granted by the employment office before changing companies.
Soviet occupied zone.
Vogemann belonged to this privileged circle, were called upon for unloading
and loading of foreign ships calling into Hamburg. For this, the two foremen
Preuss and Behrendt fetched the necessary dockworkers “from standing on
the stones”. This is port jargon for the place were the workers were divided up
into the dock-working sections on a daily basis.
Following victory over the
Of course, only companies who were not branded as “brown”
Nationalists of Chiang Kai-shek,
could be considered “exonerated”. So that this could be determined, Richard
Mao Zedong proclaims the
Vogemann was asked to attend the “Special Committee 18 d for the Removal
founding of the People's
of National Socialists” in the summer of 1946. The meticulous questioning
Republic of China.
did not elicit any grounds for reservations of any kind and on 5th May 1947,
The East European States form
Vogemann held the certificate in his hands which “confirmed his position as
a commission for mutual
owner of a company”. It went on to say further - as one can never be too care-
economic assistance.
ful - “The approval granted hereby is revocable at any time in the event of a
End of the blockade of
contrary decision by the Military Government.”
West Berlin.
NATO is founded.
Easing of the restrictions. To be thinking of resuming ship-
Creation of the Council of
ping business activities was still out of the question for a very long time yet
Europe, initially with delegates
though. But in spite of this, Richard Vogemann was working hard trying to
from 10 states.
53
re-establish the ties with foreign business partners which had been interrupted and damaged on account of the war and in discussing plans for future
joint ventures. He put a great deal of store in maintaining close contacts
with England and overseas; the crucial company in this regard was Simpson,
Spence & Young (SSY), who not only had headquarters in London but also in
Borgward presents the first
New York as well.
design of an entirely new
Using relationships such as this as his grassroots, Vogemann
model of post-war passen-
wished to open a regular service between North Europe and the ports on the
ger car (“Hansa 1500”).
East Coast of the US the minute the Military Government were to ease their
C.W. Ceram, “Gods, Graves
restrictions. German companies would not be excluded from international
and Scholars” (The story of
shipping trade on a permanent basis. Initially, own vessels would definitely
archaeology)
be out of the question, which is why plans were made for chartering foreign
Following victory in the state
tonnage.
This proved to be true when Vogemann received his fixed-term
elections, the SPD
introduces the six-year
primary school in Hamburg.
authorisation “for operating in international trade in accordance with Directive No. 11 of the JEIA” (Joint Export Import Agency) under number 11/0018 on
the 1st April 1949 and dated until 31st March of the following year. This meant
1950
that the company was able to act as shipping agent, chartering broker, ship-
The French Foreign Minister
ping company and stevedore agent again. This was a result of the economic
Schumann submits the plan
areas of the British and American occupied zones successfully being merged
for a European Coal and
to form a so-called Bizone on the 1st January 1947, and which was extended
Steel Community.
Start of the Korean war.
The agreement on the
European Payments Union
(EPU) is signed.
First post-war international
match of the German
football team (against
Switzerland).
Suspension of rationing
measures, with the exception
of sugar.
Launches convey dockworkers to their place of work. Photo from 1951.
54
to become a Trizone in March 1948 when the French occupied zone was added,
Resignation of Federal
and the currency reform executed in June 1948 whereby the Reichsmark (RM)
Minister Heinemann on
was replaced by the Deutsche Mark (DM).
account of the planned
German rearmament.
Herbert Vogemann joins the company. Admittedly, the com-
The ruins of the city
mercial licence could be revoked at any time by the Transport Group of the
palace are blown up in
BICO (Bipartite Control Office) in agreement with the JEIA or by the Depart-
East Berlin.
ment for Transport if valid reasons were presented. The JEIA constraints
The Allied High
needed to be respected precisely. Payments for all the owner's services com-
Commission revokes the
missioned by foreign contractors could only be paid in favour of the military
compulsory licence for
government's account. In spite of the strict regimentation, the authorisation
political parties.
was valued as an important step forward in the efforts of German companies
Opening of the first
to increase their sphere of influence.
post-war toy fair in
In the meantime, Herbert Vogemann Junior had successfully
Nuremberg.
completed his vocational training as a shipping merchant at Carl Bock & Co.
Chinese troops invade
He found his first position with the Hamburg branch office of the tradition-
Tibet.
steeped English shipping agency Hogg Robinson. Thanks to his perfect English language skills, he quickly found his feet and his area of responsibility
1951
lay in the supervision of English ships which were increasingly entering the
The Federal Republic
Port of Hamburg on account of it being in the British occupied zone (Bremer-
becomes a full member
haven and Bremen on the other hand were under US control). He broadened
of the Council of Europe.
his experience through stays in London and Montreal which then stood him
The Wohnungsbau-
in good stead with the Strachan Shipping Agency in New Orleans where he
Prämiengesetz (housing
had been for around a year by 1949. H. Vogemann had already established an
construction bonus law)
amicable relationship with them before the war. And, by the same token, with
gives those on a low
the Glaessel company in New York where Herbert stopped off for a short while
income the opportunity to
before he started on his journey home.
buy their own homes.
He joined his father's company in summer 1950 and immediately set a new course of direction. He saw how hard his father was working
to re-establish the shipping line again but that it was all in vain. The Allied
forces, it seemed, were not thinking of allowing competition in scheduled
services through the Germans for the time being and were not likely to be
considering it in the near future either. Herbert drew a clear conclusion from
this, at least for the time being, an attempt should be made to develop a
different sphere of interest: The old business connections which he and his
Albert Schweitzer is
father had re-activated, immediately seemed to suggest that their activities
awarded the Peace
should be more focused on a chartering brokerage service.
Prize of the German
Of course, it was not quite as simple as that. Success seemed to
55
book trade.
Prohibition of the
Herbert Vogemann
who died far too young.
communist youth
organisation FDJ in the
Federal Republic.
A customs district is
established on the border
with East Germany.
Chinese troops enter into
the Korean war.
Scandal surrounding the
film “The Sinful Woman”.
Agreement on the
inter-zone trade between
hinge on how quickly contacts could be established and how quickly one could
the Federal Republic and
react to change. This was difficult enough within the Federal Republic itself on
the GDR.
account of the telephone network still not being rebuilt everywhere and still not
Ernst von Salomon:
having the desired quality, consequently problems perpetually cropped up with
“The Questionnaire”.
those foreign calls which were so crucial to the shipping sector.
1952
Relocated into the Fölsch Block. At that time, Vogemanns only
Reparation Agreement
possessed two telephone connections and towards 1950, following Herbert's
with Israel is signed.
strong conviction, obtained its first teleprinter (telex machine). But this was
The Bundestag adopts
also more a Pötöterle (a Swabian word which means “perhaps” from the
the Equalisation of
French word “peut-être”), that sometimes worked, occasionally went on strike
Burdens Act.
or changed down into slow gear: If you wanted to reach a foreign company,
The Soviet government
you first had to write to Frankfurt, from where there would be no response for
proposes completion of
a very long time. When contact had finally been made, you had to give them
a peace treaty with Ger-
the number you wanted and you could count yourself exceedingly fortunate if,
many (“Stalin Note”).
after an incredibly long delay, Frankfurt called back upon having got through
- and this, in terms of commercial success, was by no means always in time.
joins the International
Office and office equipment improved when a complex of busi-
Monetary Fund (IMF)
ness premises were built at the beginning of the 1950s opposite the town hall.
56
Coup d'état in Egypt. King
Farouk goes into exile.
The first hydrogen bomb is
exploded.
German athletes take part
in the Olympic games in
Oslo and Helsinki for the
first time again.
The first edition of the
“Bildzeitung” is published by
the Hamburg Springer-Verlag.
The shipping company was able to move into office space in the newly built Fölsch Block at the
town hall market.
The Nordwestdeutsche
Rundfunk begins television
broadcasts.
These were the so-called Fölsch Block (named after the owners, the heirs of
Robert Jungk: “Tomorrow
the Hamburg merchant H. C. J. Fölsch). Vogemann leased four rooms in the
is already here”.
block and furnished them at a standard which was quite modern for the time
and now even had four telephone connections. Only anybody who knew what
1953
the temporary premises in the Mönckebergstraße had been like could appreciate just what a great step forward that was. Two more young seamen joined
the company at this time, Messrs von Hein and Hinsch.
Official working hours from Monday to Friday were from 9 a.m.
to 6 p.m. with a one hour lunch-break, on Saturdays only until 2 p.m.; from
1962 onwards only half a crew turned up on Saturdays, 1970 it was reduced
National uprising in
to one freighter on stand-by and from 1978 onwards the last working day of
East Germany.
the week was a day off. Of course, all staff members, even the ladies in the
Victory for the CDU/CSU
office, were prepared to work overtime when the volume of work demanded
in the parliamentary elections.
it of them.
The extreme right wing
It was not always easy for those who liked to eat and drink coffee because of Vogemann senior. He came into the office right up until the
last year of his life in 1969 and certainly did not appreciate it when people ate
or drank coffee during working hours. “We are shipbrokers and not a coffee
shop!” he would loudly proclaim whenever members of staff wanted to start
57
Socialist Reich Party (SRP)
is banned.
Hillary and Tensing
reach the summit of
Mount Everest.
Elizabeth II is crowned
Queen of England.
“Thaw” in the Soviet
leadership following
Stalin's death.
The ceasefire agreement of Panmunjom ends the Korean war.
Arrest of Iranian Prime
Minister Mossadegh,
Notification from the local court concerning Herbert Vogemann's admission as a personally
liable partner.
return of the exiled Shah
Resa Pahlawi.
discussing buying a coffee machine. In the end, they got their own way despite
Publication of the “Kinsey
the boss's protests, but Mr Vogemann himself never drank one single cup of
Reports” on the sexual
coffee in the office. In return, smoking was allowed instead, and this too only
behaviour of women.
started to become frowned upon as recently as 1980.
The new people and Herbert Junior focused all their efforts on
1954
freighting ships. Their principal source in the course of this was composed of
The signing of the Paris
cargoes of coal, grain or ore from friendly German companies on account of
Agreements paved the way for
the communication difficulties previously outlined. As German tonnage was
restoration of the sovereignty of
virtually non-existent, Vogemann looked through their old contacts, focusing
the Federal Republic.
on those in London and New York, for foreign tonnage. New contacts were
The fall of the Dien Bien Phu
established with Italian shipping companies and shipbrokers who knew the
stronghold sets the seal on the
interesting Mediterranean market so well and were able to bestow Vogemann
end of French colonial rule in
Indochina.
with several good transactions and contributed towards the company becoming a significant figure in the brokerage business.
Start of the war in Algeria.
The early death of Herbert Vogemann. At the beginning of the
Collapse of the European
Defence Community's
year in 1952, Herbert Vogemann was made a partner within the company.
(EDC) project.
He tirelessly initiated business contacts through extensive travels in the
58
The Federal Republic's
football team wins the World
Cup in Berne.
Ernest Hemingway is presented
with the Nobel Prize in
Literature.
First post-war start of Mercedes
“Silver Arrows” at the French
Grand Prix.
Thomas Mann: “Confessions
of Felix Krull, Confidence Man”
(novel).
1955
The Paris agreements are
ratified by the Bundestag.
Sovereignty of the Federal
Republic.
The Vogemann Family in the early 1950s. From left to right: Richard Vogemann,
Irma Vogemann, Herbert Vogemann; Renate Vogemann, son-in-law Paul Speckter.
Referendum in the Saar rejects
the French Saar statute.
South and West of Europe and which appeared suitable in firmly consoli-
During a visit to Moscow,
dating and expanding their position. His youthful exuberance, his excellent
Chancellor Adenauer agrees to
specialist knowledge and his winning manner effected trust wherever he
open diplomatic relations with
went. Unfortunately, he himself was not permitted to reap what he had so
the Soviet Union. Return of the
successfully sown. On the return journey from visiting Italy, just before he
last of the prisoners-of-war.
got home to Winsen an der Luhe, he was attempting to overtake a car on
Lufthansa restarts scheduled
the unpaved strip next to the main road on 21st June 1954 at around 8 p.m.,
flights again.
when he lost control of the car's steering and ploughed into a tree. Even
though he was transported to hospital, he died of his injuries on the way
there. He was 27 years of age.
Race to the Treuhand. Thanks to the relationships and activities built up by Herbert Vogemann, the remaining team could be extended
BMW presents the microcar
further. In the course of this, grain imports from the United States and
“Isetta” (bubble car).
Canada proved to be a great source of support for the brokerage business.
The last occupying troops
These deliveries of aid had to be transacted via the local Hamburg-based
leave Austria.
Frachten-Treuhand in accordance with the Allies' requirements. These,
“The Diary of Anne Frank”
on the other hand, were anxious to factor in all the brokerage companies
appears in Germany.
59
1956
equally and, therefore, let everybody know by circular letter when deliveries
The 20th Congress of the CPSU
for freighting were due and gave a certain date when the details could be
denounces the Stalin cult.
picked up from them.
This then turned into something of a race between the young
The Bundeswehr calls up the
first 1,000 volunteers.
people from the brokerage companies who were sent to the Treuhand to gath-
The People's Chamber of the
er the appropriate information concerning the volume, destination and other
GDR vote to establish a
details of the grain supply. This information then needed to be relayed to
national military (National
People's Army).
Prohibition of the KPD (Com-
their own company as quickly as possible so that their colleagues could commence the search for suitable tonnage. For one young apprentice the running
around obviously proved to be too much and he took up with a sales assis
munist Party of Germany).
tant in the hosiery department next door to the Treuhand, and from that time
National uprising in Hungary
forth, he was able to give the details to the office by telephone, which always
against the communist regime.
gave Vogemanns that little bit of a head start. On top of this, the company
always came out well in their search for freighting options on account of the
many good, yes friendly even, connections they had made with shipping companies at home and abroad. In many cases with shipments that were destined
for Hamburg - the order of magnitude was usually around 10,000 tonnes
- Vogemann was also able to undertake clearance of the ships which was to
prove quite a profitable business.
After the war, Richard Vogemann had never given up hope that
Helmut Käutner: “The Captain
his firm would one day re-establish itself as a shipping company once again.
of Köpenick” (film with Heinz
His assumption that the Allies would not prevent German shipping compa-
Rühmann)
nies from operating ships on a permanent basis was proved to be correct. The
British and French troops land in
Germans as allies were important to the Western powers to such an extent
Egypt in order to regain control
of the Suez Canal.
that they eased the restrictions which were at first extremely strict in many
areas. Several restrictive ordinances regarding newbuildings and the pur-
The Saar district becomes part
chasing of ships were dropped in the wake of the Washington Agreement from
of the Federal Republic.
April 1949 which established the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO).
In the years following this, German ship-owners were, within certain limits,
allowed to purchase from the foreign tonnage available for sale.
Although at the time, Mr Vogemann was already 64 years of age,
he finally saw himself in a position to build up a shipping business with his
own ships. And at the same time, he also received a very interesting tip from
The Italian passenger steamship
the friendly, traditional Hamburg brokerage company Daniel Milberg: That
“Andrea Doria” inward bound
the motor vessel “Tiradentes”, which had been built at the Deutsche Werft
to New York sinks following
in 1922, was up for sale. But the Deutsche Bank, with whom Vogemann was
a collision with the Swedish
predominately working with back then, showed no or at least only a marginal
“Stockholm”.
interest in financing a purchase.
60
A ship-owner for the first time again. Whereas, the head of the
shipping department at the Hamburg Landesbank reacted in a much more
Friedrich Dürrenmatt: “The
Visit” (dramatic work)
positive manner. By mobilising all his personal assets, Vogemann was able to
enter into negotiations with the ship-owner, the Wilhelm Wilhelmsen com-
1957
pany in Norwegian Tønsberg on the Oslo Fjord. They came to an agreement
relatively quickly and once permission for purchasing had been acquired from
the Allied High Commission, the business was concluded and legally came
into effect on the 16th August 1950. The “Tiradentes” was transferred to Vogemann for the sum of 110,00 pounds sterling (DM 1,378,620.79 and was given
the name “Vogtland”; celebrations for the takeover took place in October 1950.
Since a Hamburg daily newspaper had already reported on how the festivities
and formalities had turned out, the guests and ship-owning families on their
way to the event were able to read what had happened before it had actually
Pension reform comes into
taken place. Even in those days, the press was already ahead of its time.
force in the Federal Republic.
The ship was an “open shelterdecker” and had a deadweight of
Under Konrad Adenauer,
around 9,200 t with three decks in hatch 1 and 2, “deep tanks” amidships in
the CDU/CSU wins absolute
hatch 3 and a tween deck in hatch 4 and 5. The “MV Vogtland” was for the
majority in the Bundestag
moment the largest commercial vessel under a German flag because it was
elections.
one of the first to have ever been made.
First German nuclear reactor
There was a stable chartering market in 1950 and Vogemann
begins operation at the Tech-
succeeded in contracting the ship at a peak rate for a Far-East round passage
nical University of Munich in
Garching.
In Rome, contracts for the
Common Market (EEC) and
the European Atomic Energy
Community (EURATOM) are
signed.
The GDR People's Chamber
approves introduction of
the 45-hour week. Several
Federal Republic companies
likewise introduce it.
The US House of Representatives approves the so-called
Eisenhower Doctrine for
securing the Middle East
against the advance of
communism.
MV "Vogtland" in the Port of Hamburg.
61
The Soviets launch the
first artificial earth satellite
“Sputnik”.
on a time-charter basis. Although the ship had been excellently maintained
by the previous owner and was in possession of all certificates without reservation from the classification company Lloyd's Register, an accident occurred
on the outbound voyage: A connecting rod from one of the main engines detached itself and the “Vogtland” had to make an emergency stop at the port
of Antwerp using the second main engine. There, the time-intensive repairs
were undertaken by the company Mercantile Marine Engineering & Graving
Dock Co. Vogemann naturally tried to get the Wilhelmsen company to assume
responsibility as part of their warranty through his technical inspector, Curt
M. Johns. But, alas, to no avail.
Society is scandalised
by the murder of the
MV “Vogtland”. So it was not only the costs from this that
high-class prostitute
needed to be swallowed but also the fact that the time-charterer extricated
Rosemarie Nitribitt.
himself from the contract on account of the length of time needed for repairs,
Sinking of the
and it was declared null and void. A harsh set-back. At the time, Herbert
sail-training ship “Pamir”
Vogemann estimated that: “If we had been able to conduct the booked round
during a hurricane in the
South Atlantic.
1958
Protests against arming the
Bundeswehr with nuclear
weapons.
In GDR, small-scale
industry and agriculture
are forced to merge into
production cooperatives.
Fidel Castro topples
the Batista government
in Cuba.
Syria and Egypt join forces
to form the United Arab
Republic (UAR).
Certificate of admeasurement for MV "Vogtland".
62
National uprising of
Algerian-French against the
Parisian government.
The rock star, Elvis Presley,
spends part of his military
service in Germany.
The Soviet government
announces the Four Power
state of Berlin.
An attempt is made using
the “Lex Soraya” to suppress
coverage on the Persian
imperial couple and other
prominent figures.
Werner Heisenberg presents
The "Vogtland" at the Mackprang granary.
his “World Formula”.
Kurt Hoffmann:
voyage, we could have practically recouped the purchase price for the ship
“Wir Wunderkinder” (film).
on its first major voyage.” This meant that following the repairs she had to
be contracted on the free market again. In the period that followed, she made
1959
a number of voyages with grain from La Plata to the North or transported
The SPD adopts to drop Marxism
coal from Hampton Roads (waterway in the US State of Virginia opening out
in the “Godesberg Programme”.
into the Chesapeake Bay) to the Hamburg-Antwerp-Range (a collective term
The Saarland becomes
for the major North-European ports of Hamburg, Bremerhaven, Amsterdam,
economically affiliated to the
Rotterdam, Antwerp and Zeebrugge along the North Sea coast). However, a
Federal Republic.
long-term time-charter at good rates could not be obtained.
Vogemann experienced a number of adventures with its first
vessel. Just two examples: On a trip from La Plata, in addition to having
cargo on board there were also passengers, to be more precise, ten nuns.
The ship entered into rather bad weather and the seas were correspondingly
heavy, so much so that even the First Officer became aware of it. However,
The passenger ship “Bremen”
the nuns simply tied their wimples tighter, prayed, sang and survived the
leaves on its maiden voyage
journey safe and sound thanks to their unshakeable trust in God. A little
for New York.
time later, the “Vogtland” got caught up on the fringes of a hurricane on a
De Gaulle becomes State
similar route. The captain took his bearings and added: “Lenzen in schwerer
President in France.
See” (bail out in heavy seas). There was a certain amount confusion initially
Foundation of the European
when Vogemann inquired where water had then penetrated. Water had not
Free Trade Association (EFTA)
penetrated anywhere. It was only after a certain amount of to-ing and fro-ing
in Stockholm.
63
64
Motor vessel "Vogtland"
Today, the model of MV "Vogtland" stands in the entrance hall
of the shipping company's building in the Hallerstraße in Hamburg.
The "Vogtland" ex "Tiradentes", the largest vessel under the German flag of the time, came into Vogemann's possession in 1950. In
post-war Germany, which had lost almost its entire trading tonnage,
a 9,200 tonne vessel was considered quite a lot.
65
Favourable weather
that the landlubbers in the office understood that seamen also call “lenzen”
conditions bestow a “wine
a manoeuvre whereby the stern of the ship is rotated against the heavy swell
of the century” to German
as a precaution known as “scudding”. In 1955, the “Vogtland” should have
wine-growers .
had a class survey (pre-requisite for extending the operating licence). In the
The sail-training ship
“Gorch Fock” of the Bundes-
years following 1950, both technical requirements as well as the standards of
comfort for the crew had grown.
marine departs on her first
The sale of the “Vogtland”. A tremendous amount of money
voyage.
would be needed to attempt to accommodate all these needs and so, for this
Partial privatisation of
reason, Richard Vogemann decided not to have the class work executed on
federal property begins
the nearly three-and-a-half decades old ship, but to sell the “Vogtland” in-
with Preussag shares being
stead. As coincidence would have it, it was around this time that the British
issued.
Ministry of Transport and Civil Aviation in London were looking for an old
The Shah of Persia, Resa
vessel but one that was still seaworthy.
Negotiations got underway whereby Vogemann was made the
Pahlawi, marries for the
third time.
proverbial offer that you just can't refuse. The company parted ways with the
Günter Grasse: “The Tin
“Vogtland” for the legendary sum of 140,000 pounds sterling (= DM 1,638,000).
Drum” (novel).
The condition was: “The vessel shall be delivered safely afloat under her own
power with windlass winches anchors and cables in good working order.” This
1960
was guaranteed and on the 19th December 1955 the ship was handed over.
The price and conditions indicated that they were not thinking of scrapping
the ship. What the ministry were intending to do with her remained unknown
to Vogemann. However, the rumours that were being put about, whereby the
“Vogtland” had been sunk somewhere in the Atlantic with “nuclear waste material”, are entirely unfounded. However, it was not just the good price for the
An all-German team (UTG)
“Vogtland” which provided solace in the parting of ways, but also the happy
enters the Olympic Games in
circumstance that Vogemann was successful in making a further purchase at
Squaw Valley (winter) and
Rome (summer).
the beginning of the same year. It was once again the Daniel Milberg company which established contact to the seller, Wilhelm Wilhelmsen. He was
The Bundestag approves
wanting to sell off the “Temeraire”, a ship that had been built in the French
privatisation of the
shipyards of Chantiers de Penhoët in Saint-Nazaire in 1927 with a deadweight
Volkswagen factory.
of 9,420 t. She was used in scheduled shipping voyages similar to the “Vogt-
Forced regulation of
land”, principally to India and with two main engines of 7,200 hp between
housing ends in the Federal
them was able to reach speeds of 13 knots.
Negotiations for the purchase price with the shipping company
Republic.
Wilhelmsen were conducted by Richard Vogemann personally, together with
Mr Schmüser from the Milberg company in Oslo. He was aided in the issue of
financing on account of the good experiences Wilhemsen had already made
with the buyer so that a loan of 35,000 pounds at 4 percent per annum was
66
granted. On 3rd January 1955, the sales contract stood at a price of 140,000
pounds sterling (= DM 1,646,000), delivery was agreed for 28th January in
Gothenburg.
Criticism from the German ship-owners association. The ship
was given the new name of “Vogesen” and was taken on by the seller for a
A US reconnaissance aircraft is
round voyage to India at 25 shillings per tonne and month on a time-charter
shot down over Soviet territory
basis. After this, the vessel mainly transported coal on the Atlantic route from
(U-2 Affair).
the Hampton Roads to Europe and with grain from La Plata to the ports of the
First trials of French nuclear
Hamburg-Antwerp-Range. Vogemann was offered five successive voyages on
weapons in the Sahara.
these routes via the Hamburg Frachten-Treuhand who undertook all freight-
The former Belgian-Congo
ing of grain from Germany. The company seized the opportunity as the rates
colony is declared to be an
were extremely favourable and this meant that the ship was then engaged in
independent republic.
an absolutely secure charter over a long period of time; the relatively small
In the US, the Democrat
reduction that Vogemann had to accept owing to the large number of five voy-
John F. Kennedy defeats the
ages at the currently applicable rate, was of small consequence.
Republican Richard Nixon at
Sections of the German ship-owners association sharply criti-
the presidential elections.
cised the practice, particularly when cargo rates sank during completion of
Armin Hary runs a 100-metre
the voyages but the “Vogesen” was still able to continue sailing at the same
world record (10.0 sec.).
First performance of the Beatles
in “Indra” in Hamburg.
1961
The Bundestag passes laws regarding continued payment of wages in
cases of sickness and capital accumulation for employees (312 DM Act).
Construction of the Berlin Wall
hermetically seals off the
eastern sector of the city.
The "Vogesen" (previously "Temeraire") has sailed for Vogemann since early 1955.
67
Confrontation of American
and Soviet tanks at the Berlin
border crossing “Checkpoint
Charlie”.
level of rates. That increased the level of envy even more and lead to demands that Vogemann should “sublet” (hand over) one or even several of
the voyages that were still forthcoming. Understandably, Vogemann did not
agree to this since the market was deteriorating.
There were, of course, technical problems too: The main en-
State contract for the Zweite
Deutsche Fernsehen, (ZDF),
gines with their Archaloff pumps were approaching their thirties and were
Germany's second broadcast-
causing all kinds of trouble as they were sometimes difficult to start up. In
ing station.
critical situations this could be extremely dangerous. This meant that whilst
First manned space flight
transporting grain from La Plata to Emden, the “Vogesen” had to drop anchor
with the Russian astronaut
shortly before reaching her destination of Borkum as the seas were particu-
Juri Gagarin.
The Bay of Pigs invasion by
larly heavy and there was a storm on land, entering port would have been a
foolhardy thing to do.
Cuban exiles fails off the
But during the heavy swell, both of the anchor chains broke
south coast of Cuba.
and the ship threatened to drift onto the island. In spite of tireless efforts,
The trial of the former SS
the main engines would not start up. The compressed air for starting up was
Lieutenant Adolf Eichmann
eventually getting dangerously close to running out, so that any opportunity
who was abducted to Israel
of making the ship manoeuvrable under engine power was rapidly dwindling.
ends in a death sentence.
In this troubled state, the captain called for a lifeboat so that, if all else failed,
In East Germany, streets
the crew could be taken on board.
named after Stalin are re-
The request was picked up by the salvage tug “Wotan” from the
named and monuments of the
Bugsier-, Reederei- und Bergungs AG, which was just behind Borkum and
dictator removed.
The Federal Republic signs
a guest worker recruitment
agreement with Turkey.
The Soviet Union
explodes a 60 mega-tonne
hydrogen bomb.
1962
North Germany is hit by a
catastrophic flood, in Hamburg 315 people die.
"Vogesen" being loaded.
68
Agreements concerning
the Latin American
Free Trade Association
(LAFTA) come into effect.
Opening of the Second
Vatican Council to
reform the Catholic
Church.
The Cuban Crisis ends
with the dismantling of
Soviet missile bases on
the island.
The "Vogesen" had a close call with the US cruiser, "Des Moines".
Trail against Vera Brühne
immediately put out to salvage the “Vogesen”. They actually did manage to
who was accused of
connect with one another but through some unfortunate manoeuvres in the
murdering her lover and
heavy seas, the line broke so that the “Vogesen” remained incapable of be-
his housekeeper.
ing controlled. They were already reckoning with the loss of the ship and her
cargo, when suddenly one of the main engines started up again so that there
imposes an export ban on
might yet still be an opportunity of reaching the harbour. The captain who
steel pipes to the Soviet
still had to reckon with the possibility of another breakdown, asked the “Wo-
Union (Pipe Embargo).
tan” for this reason to escort them as far as Emden. This was gruffly refused
Introduction of compul-
with the words that the Bugsier was a salvage company and not a breakdown
sory military service in
service. As a result, three tugs had to be called from Emden to accompany the
East Germany.
“Vogesen” to her discharge berth.
“Spiegel Affair”: Search of
newsrooms and arrest of
Close encounter with a US cruiser. On a different occasion, the
ship was to load coal from the region of Hampton Roads and in order to do
editors who had allegedly
committed treason.
this needed to anchor in the Norfolk Bay (US Federal State of Virginia), where
the extremely exhaustive American customs formalities were conducted. The
captain was only allowed permission to enter harbour once this had been
done. Since the “Vogesen” was swinging at anchor during processing, in order
for her to enter harbour she had to turn hard to port. The starboard engine
immediately started up with full speed ahead, but the portside engine absolutely refused to get going, the compressed air which had been introduced for
this purpose screeched through the funnel. At the same time, it was neces-
The “Starclub” is opened
sary that the engine for turning the ship to port be running full astern.
in Hamburg, the Beatles
The horror of this situation was that at exactly the same time, the
21,000 tonne US warship “Des Moines” was leaving Norfolk and was heading on
69
are amongst the artists
performing.
1963
The Peace Treaty between the
Federal Republic and France
comes into effect.
Profumo Affair in England:
Through his denial of a relationship with the call girl Christine
Keeler, the Secretary of State for
War is toppled.
MV "Vogelsberg". A photo from June 1960.
Federal Chancellor Adenauer
her way out to sea at a considerable speed directly for the “Vogesen”. The dis-
resigns. Successor is the Minister of
tance was still considerable but it was already too late for an evasive manoeuvre
Economics Ludwig Erhard.
or even for the gun cruiser (heavy cruiser) to stop. They helplessly stood on
The Moscow Partial Nuclear
the bridge and saw the monster bearing down towards them, while below deck
Ban Treat comes into effect.
they were feverishly attempting to get the portside engine to start up. Well, to
The Soviet Union and China aban-
cut a long story short: The stubborn engine started up just in time and the “Des
don negotiations on the general
Moines” with her nine 20.3 cm guns in her triple turrets roared past the “Vogesen”
party line of world communism.
like a giant, only touching her with her wake.
Murder of the Vietnam dictator
Towards the end of the 1950s, quite a number of newbuildings
Diem.
of 10,000 t and above appeared on the market as part of the shipbuilding
programme. These ships were on the cutting-edge of technology and sailed,
in comparison to the “Vogesen” which had a 36-man crew, with considerably
less personnel. Vogemann's ship was antiquated and modernisation would
be much too expensive even if it were at all possible to accomplish. So with a
heavy heart, the shipping company had to part with its second ship and sold
Murder of the US President
it for scrap to the Eisen und Metall KG Lehr & Co at the end of 1958.
Kennedy in Dallas (Texas).
It's true to say that Richard Vogemann had acquired the first
Marika Kilius and Hans-Jürgen
two ships by correctly weighing up the cargo situation (“Vogtland” during
Bäumler become World
the Korean Crisis, “Vogesen” during crisis-ridden developments in the Middle
Champions in pair skating in
East), but it was different motives altogether which lead him and his company
Cortina d'Ampezzo.
towards a third purchase: The “Vogtland” had been, as mentioned, sold for
Rolf Hochhuth: “The Deputy,
such a good price that the only way that the profits would not be eaten up
a Christian Tragedy” (dramatic
in taxes was if Vogemann were to invest in another ship. The same thing ap-
work).
plied to the “reconstruction loan” of DM 390,000 which had been taken out for
70
the “Vogtland” and which would have to be repaid if the sum were not trans-
1964
ferred into a new acquisition; the Federal Ministry for Transport had expressly
agreed to such a transfer. Therefore, Vogemann “parked” this money into a
“escrow account” to be released when a ship was purchased.
If possible, the ship purchased should be a somewhat more
modern ship than the previous two had been. By mid 1956, Vogemann received a tip from the Ansgar Jensen brokers in Oslo that the E.B. Aaby shipping company who were also based in Oslo were offering the motor vessel
“Peik” on the market. This was a freighter built for piece goods, of particular
interest on account of her ideal suitability for transporting sawn timber, and
Arrival of the millionth guest
had been built in 1938 at the Lindholmens Varw AB in Gothenburg; dead-
worker in the Federal Republic.
weight 3,980 t. And added to this was the fact that the “Peik” had been taken
Constitution of the German Council
on a time-charter basis until the end of 1957 by the Paal Wilson company in
of Economic Experts (“Five Sages of
Norwegian Bergen at the dream rate of 56/6 shillings per ton and month. The
Economy”).
charterer certainly did not mind a change of ownership, providing of course,
The first nuclear-powered cargo
that it was to be with a first-class shipping company again.
vessel in Europe, the “Otto Hahn”,
Vogemann was persuaded by all these factors into buying the
“Peik”, even though the market for second-hand tonnage was extremely high
at the time. On the 30th November 1956, they came to an agreement and the
“Peik” was transferred over to Vogemann as “Vogelsberg” for 260,000 pounds
sets sail.
CPSU Party Secretary and Premier
Minister Nikita Khrushchev is
removed from all offices.
sterling (= DM 3,059,000); the takeover was agreed in Cork in Ireland at the
The US Senate creates the basis
beginning of the year in 1957. In the period that followed, the ship handled the
for a massive intervention in the
time-charter for Paal Wilson under the leadership of Captain Bergmann, pre-
Vietnam War with the “Tonkin Gulf
viously First Officer on the “Vogtland” and the Chief Engineer Harz, previously
Resolution”.
Second Engineer on the “Vogtland”. The team and ship proved themselves to
Cassius Clay defeats Sonny Liston
be successful and the contract ran without any problems.
to become World Heavyweight Box-
But something bad was yet to come. The bottom completely fell
ing champion.
out of the cargo market in autumn 1957. Even though Paal Wilson wanted to
charter the ship for a further round voyage, the offer of 25/- shillings per ton
and month did not even cover the costs anymore. In desperation Vogemann
tried to find an affreightment elsewhere. To no avail. Wilson's offer for a
subsequent voyage had nevertheless to be accepted as a last resort. Following this, Vogemann had to charter out the “Vogelsberg” on the open market
again which was still in a very bad state. The ship sailed a great deal as a
general cargo service to Central America, both as individual voyages as well
on a time-charter basis. And, of course, she also often sailed from Finland
Martin Luther King, the civil rights
with cut timber which, in light of the very good “intake” of the ship previously
campaigner, receives the Nobel
mentioned, at least brought in a small profit.
Peace Prize.
71
The first atom bombs are
detonated in the People's
Republic of China.
With his film “A Fistful of
Dollars” (starring Clint
Eastwood), Sergio Leone
establishes the SpaghettiWestern genre.
Peter Weiss: “The Persecution
and Assassination of JeanPaul Marat” (dramatic work).
1965
Verdicts are pronounced
against former SS members
in the Frankfurt Auschwitz
Trials.
The Council of the Evangelical
Church in Germany publishes
the memorandum “The situ-
Flag Certificate for
MV "Vogelsberg".
ation of displaced persons
and the relationship of the
No sailing permit. At the end of 1961, Vogemann sold the “Vo-
German People to its eastern
neighbours”.
gelsberg” to Messrs. Nissille et Soini Oy in Helsinki with delivery in February
Act on Capital Accumulation
1962. The buyers made the condition: “Delivery to be effected with engine
by Employees (624 Mark Act).
survey passed, hull survey due.” Price: 82,000 pounds sterling ( just about 1
million DM). The “Memorandum of Agreement” was signed by both parties.
Vogemann was appalled when Lloyd's Register in Piombino
(Province Livorno) categorically refused the onward journey of the ship because of considerable hull defects. Vogemann's Inspector Johns travelled to
the coast of Tuscany in the hope that once he was there locally, he could make
The US Army opens up
attempts so that the “Vogelsberg's” sailing permit would not be revoked. To
bombing offensives against
no avail. The ship would not receive a sailing permit without class, which
North Vietnam.
meant that the contract of sale was now invalid. The shipping company now
The East German newspaper
had a dilemma on their hands, either to have the ship do class or to have it
“Neues Deutschland” starts a
scrapped. However, the latter would have meant making a heavy loss on ac-
campaign against the song-
count of the debts on the ship (which included the “reconstruction loan”). On
writer Wolf Biermann.
the other hand, it was impossible to do class in Piombino.
72
Demonstrations against the
education crisis in the Federal
Republic.
The Federal Republic opens
up diplomatic relations with
Israel.
German cinema release of
the James Bond film “Goldfinger”.
1966
The beginning of the school
year in the Federal Republic
is moved from Easter to 1st
August.
After breaking the government coalition of CDU/CSU
and FDB, the Union and SPD
form a Grand Coalition under
Federal Chancellor Kurt
Georg Kiesinger.
France withdraws from NATO.
The German team loses 2:4
to England in the World Cup
Final. Crucial to the outcome
of the game was that a dubious goal for England was
allowed during extra time.
The challenger Karl Mildenberger is defeated at the
World Heavyweight Boxing
Championship by the defend-
A member of crew took photos of his journey on board MV "Vogelsberg": Passage through the Panama Canal.
ing champion Cassius Clay.
73
Students at West German
universities try out new
forms of political action
(Sit-in, Go-in, Teach-in).
1967
The student Benno Ohnesorg
is shot by a policeman during the Shah's visit to Berlin.
The Federal Republic opens
up diplomatic relations with
Romania and thereby disas-
MV "Vogelsberg" in the Port of Vancouver.
sociates itself from the “Hallstein Doctrine” according to
which no diplomatic contact
Vogemann negotiated with a number of shipyards in Europe,
should be made with states
which was made all the more difficult since he needed to find a company
who recognise the GDR.
which would accept an extension of payment for the repairs. Once again, the
Israeli Six-Day-War with its
Mercantile Marine Engineering & Graving Dock Co in Antwerp were prepared
Arab neighbours. The Suez
to help out on account of the good relationship they had had in the past. In
Canal is closed to international shipping.
Violent and bloody racial
long negotiations with the classification association and the port authorities, Johns finally managed to gain permission for the “Vogelsberg” to sail to
Antwerp in ballast.
riots in the US.
The Declaration of Inde-
A buyer for MV “Vogelsberg”. The Mercantile company made
pendence by the Nigerian
the necessary repairs so that class could be given again. However, owing to
province Biafra triggers a
the general cargo situation, engaging the ship further did not appear to be
civil war.
a sensible thing to do. With a certain degree of difficulty, Vogemann found a
The Outer Space Treaty guar-
buyer, the Johanship OY company in Vasa, Finland, who already owned the
antees all nations free access
sister ship “Pan” of the ex-”Peik”. However, they attached a condition to the
to the universe.
purchase: “The vessel has been inspected in dry-dock whilst completing clas-
With Oswalt Kolle's “The
sification works and accepted thereafter. Therefore the sale becomes defi-
Miracle of Love”, a series of
nite.” The price “fully classed” amounted to 75,000 pounds sterling (around
sex education films begins.
900,000).
74
Concerns of the shipping companies.
1968
Towards the end of 1961, the German magazine “Spiegel”
published a long article spiked with the usual barbs about
the plight of the German shipping companies who had turned
to Federal Chancellor Adenauer with a plea for subsidies.
Displayed amongst the flags on the cover was that of Vogemann. It is true that the shipping company was not mentioned
by name but the fact that Vogemann had parted with its last
The assassination of student
ship in the following year and stayed away from the shipping
leader Rudi Dutschke leads
business for a long time, suited the article's tone. Here is an
to unrest in many German
excerpt:
towns.
“The West German shipping companies are the
Amongst the shipping company
flags adorning the cover of the
German magazine "Spiegel" can
also be found that of the shipping company Vogemann.
“May 68” - civil unrest in
late returnees to the sea”, in this manner, the Director of Nord-
France against the Pompi-
deutsche Lloyd, Richard Bertram - Head of Germany's largest
dou government. For a brief
shipping company - justified the shipping companies need for
period, students and workers
help. “It is only since 1951 that we have been able to return
join together.
to operating on an international scale. We were put in chains by the Allied powers for this
Tet Offensive of the Vietcong
length of time and, more recently, we have been entering into an economic downturn more
against the Americans in
and more.” “It is distressing”, lamented Bertram, “that there is only a pill for the physical
South Vietnam.
up and down motions felt by the sea while no such palliative can be found for economic sea
sickness.”
From Bonn, the shipping companies are demanding for at least the
next two years
- state grants and
- interest-reduced credit.
They want to be recognised as the poor cousins of the free market economy, as
The “Prague Spring” comes
equally ripe for subsidies as the Grüne Front (Green Front agricultural party) and the mining
to an end following an inva-
industry and are acting as whistling buoys in Bonn, constantly repeating the same pitiful
sion by the socialist “Brother
cry: “Shipping in distress. Save us from ruin.” The shipping companies tirelessly pressed the
States”.
SOS button in order to convince the skeptics “that the majority of owners can neither live nor
Beginning of the “Thalidomide
die” - this is how Dr Hans Georg Röhreke, Managing Director of the Ship-Owners Associa-
Process” against senior execu-
tion, justified the many trips to Bonn and the interpellations of the Board Members. In order
tives of the pharmaceutical
to prove their fear for their own economic survival, the ship-owners quote a report from the
manufacturer, Grünental.
Deutsche Revisions- und Treuhand AG which attests that, according to the accounts, 80 to 90
Introduction of Value Added
percent of all ship-owners sailed at a loss over the last few years, which means at best, that
Tax in the Federal Republic.
their returns covered operating expenses such as seamen’s wages, fuel, ships insurance and
The Common Customs Tariff
the wages of management, which the ship-owners grant themselves.
comes into effect in the EEC.
75
After operating at a loss and the sale of the “Vogelsberg”, the
Siegfried Lenz:
“The German Lesson” (novel).
shipping company of H. Vogemann ended for the time being. Three-and-ahalf decades were to go by before a new generation of managing directors
1969
were to dare to attempt a new beginning. Until then, the focus remained on
The first humans land on
the affreightment business in which Vogemann made a good profit during
the moon (“Apollo 11” pro-
the 1950/60s and which gave him the reputation of being a reliable shipping
gramme).
agent. Increasingly greater numbers of foreign shipping companies trans-
Charles de Gaulle resigns
ferred the handling of their ships in Hamburg to Vogemann. They could rely
after a referendum with a
on their accounts being correct and that all the rebates and discounts Vo-
negative result.
gemann received as an agent would be credited to the principal. So it is not
Gustav Heinemann (SPD)
without a certain amount of pride that the people of Vogemann still like to
replaces Heinrich Lübke (CDU)
repeat the tale of the request made by a foreign ship-owner to a brokerage
as President of the Federal
firm in London even to this day. The man wanted to know whether in the case
Republic of Germany.
of “freight payable at destination“, H. Vogemann were safe enough, to cash
Following the parliamentary
the sea freight and then to release the bill of lading afterwards. The reply of
elections, SPD and FDP
the English representative: “Vogemann is as safe as the Bank of England” -
merge to form a social-
which was the height of dependability at the time.
However, Vogemann did not solely rely on handling clearances,
liberal coalition.
they also took on other fields of activity too. This meant that the house was
active as a booking agent for foreign shipping companies; included amongst
the clients were the lines Deen Shipping, Silver Line, Naviera del Odiel and
Compañia Sudamericana de Fletes, whose ships regularly called at Hamburg
and for whom Vogemann booked general cargo (liner parcels). At first, these
Willy Brandt is the first Social
Democrat to become Federal
Chancellor.
The West German Minister for
constantly recurring bookings were a solid base for maintaining the business, although the main focus of activity was still in affreightment. Vogemann
always tried to meet all of the customers requirements even when the occasional exotic task turned up. Just one example of this:
Education and the Arts sets up
Captain Chivers from the afore-mentioned shipping company,
school trials with Ganztags
Deen Shipping, sailed the 11,000 tonne “Exdeen”, amongst others, with a crew
schule (all-day schools) and
from Indian Goa, made up of followers of various Hindu religions. Each one
Gesamtschule (comprehensive
of these sects had their own cook on board who knew and adhered to the
schools).
appropriate dietary regulations. One day, one of these cooks did not turn up
The Nuclear Non-Proliferation
for some long-forgotten reason or other, probably to do with his health, and
Treaty is signed in Moscow;
his colleagues refused to cook for the group concerned. Chivers turned to his
no nuclear weapons for the
agent Vogemann for help, who in turn applied to the Consulate for help, so
Federal Republic.
that a suitable cook was actually able to be found two days later. The captain
R.W. Fassbinder:
“Katzelmacher” (film).
paid no heed to the demurrage costs for the two lost days; he was more interested in the wellbeing of his men's souls.
76
Relationships with the major granaries. The connections that
1970
had been established and strengthened by Herbert Vogemann continued to
Federal Chancellor
be fostered following his death through quite a number of trips and visits by
Brandt meets with the
freighters such as Messrs Hinsch and von Hein to the foreign companies. As
East German Prime Min-
a result of this, the network of contacts grew whereby the rich experiences Vo-
ister Stoph in Erfurt.
gemann made in affreightment played a major role, particularly where grain
The first spring guns are
was concerned. Vogemann maintained excellent relationships with all of the
positioned on the inner-
major granaries in Geneva, Lausanne and Paris just to name a few of the
German border.
main trading centres. For example, the Compagnie de Change International
Conclusion of a German-
in Paris under the direction of Isaac Pinto was constantly looking for ton-
Soviet Non-Aggression
nage and Vogemann brokered numerous vessels of 10,000 tonnes and more
Pact and a treaty with
to the company. In this regard, the Hamburg company had the advantage of
Poland on normalisation
good connections with the Società Ligure di Armamento (Ligurian Shipown-
of inter-relations.
ing Co) in Genoa. Their managing director, Dottore Centore, took great pains
in ensuring that his vessels were always kept pristine. Vogemann was able to
broker first-class tonnage for three years on a time-charter basis to his Parisian clients with the five freighters “Ercta”, “Tideo”, “Fineo”, “Sirio” and “Atrea”.
Its subsidiary in Hamburg, the Hanimex, bought an oil burner (description
for ship powered by diesel) at the time with an enormous cubic space. Voge-
Thor Heyerdahl crosses
mann was entrusted with management of this ship, called “George M.”, by the
the Atlantic with his
Compagnie de Change. It only carried its own freight so that no affreightment
papyrus boat “Ra II”.
services were performed by Vogemann.
Law on the equality of
These continued to multiply because, over time, Vogemann did
children born outside of
not merely deal with grain but also with sugar, cement and other bulk com-
marriage in the Federal
modities. In the 1960s, steel came to be of particular importance on account of
Republic.
the boom it was experiencing. This brought new shipping companies onto the
The Soviet dissident
scene with whom Vogemann also did business. Of course, this was sometimes
Alexander Solschenizyn
only on a temporary basis if the customer was of the opinion they could ignore
receives the Nobel Prize
advice given by Vogemann. J. Willi Siems, with his Speedy International Ship-
in Literature.
ping Company for whom a large number of ships were chartered on a timecharter basis, was just such a person. Siems booked steel to ports in the US,
but at dumping rates. When reproached that follow-up costs in the destination
country would not show up until very much later and, aside from that, also
appeared to be extremely high, there was no reaction. The rude awakening arrived with the final accounts from the US. Siems realised too late that it was
not just charter hire that needed to be taken into consideration but also the not
insignificant port and loading costs as well. But he had ignored warnings from
Vogemann and had, therefore, finally had to abandon his “business” at a loss.
77
1971
Erich Honecker replaces Walter
Ulbricht in the office of First
Secretary of the SED (Socialist
Unity Party of Germany).
The famous
Hamburg artist,
Otto Speckter
(1807 - 1871),
was amongst
Paul Speckter's
ancestors, seen
here in an early
photograph.
Alongside him
is his painting
"Going to
Church in AltRahlstedt".
The Four Power Agreement on
Berlin guarantees unrestricted
civilian movement of persons
and goods between the Federal
Republic and West Berlin.
Resumption of telephone
traffic between East and West
Berlin.
The Bundestag adopts a new
Other people were more reasonable, were happy to fall back
“Städtebauförderungsgesetz”
on the charterer's experience and, after a certain period of collaboration, left
(Town and Country
their tonnage or their freight to Vogemann, even to be entirely exclusively
Planning Law).
chartered. A particular fond memory of this is A. C. Neleman in Rotterdam,
Willy Brandt receives the Nobel
whose ship names ended with “....singel”. This refers to the Dutch description
Peace Prize.
of streets which run parallel to former fortifications or ditches: “Statensingel”,
In Uganda, Idi Amin seizes
“Coolsingel”, “Provenierssingel” and others.
power by means of
Herbert Vogemann had left a sore gap in the business behind
a military coup.
him. His father, Richard, made every effort to close it and in September 1954
Inauguration of the Aswan
took his thirty-year old son-in-law, Paul Speckter, into the partnership as
Dam regulating the Nile.
a personally liable partner. This showed courage and knowledge of human
The environmental
nature because Speckter was a trained insurance broker and export merchant,
organisation Greenpeace is
but also had a rudimentary knowledge of the duties of a ship broker at his
launched and protests against
disposal. His last position had been with the Georg Duncker company which
US nuclear testing.
primarily dealt with marine insurance. In this respect, Speckter brought a
The Bundesbahn starts up
certain number of contacts with him to the shipping company, some of which
a regular intercity service
were German and also some from abroad who were less close.
Following a six-month breaking-in period at Vogemanns, he
between 33 major cities.
Walter Kempowski:
was to obtain the experience he lacked by staying in England for a while with
“Tadellöser & Wolff” (novel).
Simpson, Spence & Young (SSY), the friendly company previously mentioned
78
1972
A vote of no-confidence
by the CDU/CSU against
the Federal Chancellor
Brandt fails.
Early parliamentary
elections sees the SPD
as being the strongest
party.
The Basic Treaty with
East Germany is signed.
During the Olympic
Summer Games in
Munich,
Palestinian terrorists
attack the Israeli
athletes in the Olympic
Village.
at the beginning. This, however, changed as Richard Vogemann, who had al-
Londonderry's “Bloody
ready reached seventy by now, needed permanent assistance locally and did
Sunday”: British
not want to be deprived of his young son-in-law for such a long time. On top
paratroopers shoot
of this, Richard was extremely occupied with his plans for the acquisition and
13 Northern Irish
operation of his own ships so that he hardly found any time for the day-to-day
Catholics.
brokerage business. There was nothing left for Speckter to do but to teach
RAF terrorists, Andreas
himself the ropes through learning by doing, he did, however, look around
Baader, Holger Meins
for support:
and Jan-Carl Raspe are
This he found in 1955 in the form of an experienced maritime
arrested.
merchant, Hans-Dieter Westendorf, who had managed the chartering depart-
Bobby Fisher (US)
ment of the Deutsche Afrika-Linien/ John T. Essberger. Furthermore, Speckter
becomes World Chess
employed a further two young people with brokerage experience who did the
Champion.
preliminary work for Westendorf and him. In addition to the general charter-
Heinrich Böll receives
ing business, no particular spectacular events spring to mind about this time,
the Nobel Prize in
Vogemann's success and revenue relied to a great extent upon agent activity,
Literature.
especially in bookings of general cargo and in the supervision of foreign vessels calling at Hamburg. Unfortunately, after just barely a decade, Mr Westendorf suddenly said goodbye to us again. He had come into a considerable
inheritance and intended to work as a building contractor; his long-term objective was to study law. Although Paul Speckter knew every trick that there
79
1973
and East Germany
become members of
the United Nations.
East Germany rejects
paying reparations to
Israel.
The Treaty of Prague
between the Federal
Republic and
Czechoslovakia
rescinds the 1938
Munich Agreement.
Recruitment of guest
workers in Germany is
stopped.
Alternative civil
service is declared
equal to military
service by law.
Example of a
charter from
1969.
was to be had in the brokerage book by now, the growing volume of business
demanded a replacement for Westendorf. After numerous interviews with
Yom Kippur War of
young applicants, in 1964 the responsibilities fell to a Mr Ulrich Prüss,. He
Arab states against
did not see a sufficient base for his varied ideas as a shipbroker nor – and this
Israel. Deliveries of oil
to western states are
was his particular desire – as a ship-owner, with his employer, the relatively
small brokerage company of W. Vollert & Co.
reduced. Temporary
The responsibilities of Ulrich Prüss. Prüss literally threw him-
driving ban on German motorways.
self into his work at Vogemann and his excellent skills benefited him well.
Ulrich Plenzdorf: “The
After he had joined the company, the revenue from chartering rose substan-
New Sufferings of
tially. In 1965 earnings in this sector lay at DM 380,000, increased in 1966 to
Young W.” (play).
DM 420,000 and in the following year to as much as DM 622,000. Of course,
Joachim C. Fest:
this was not all just down to Prüss, it was also the result of an ever-evolv-
“Hitler” (biography).
ing process of team work in which the freighter Jochen Lüdemann and later
80
Reinhard Westphal played a part as much as the partner, Speckter. The con-
1974
tacts which had been so intensively fostered with Atlantic Shipping, Spliethoff,
Bonn and East Berlin
Nidera Handelscompagnie, Conti-Lines, Peter Cremer, Krohn (Thai Europe
establish mutual “Perma-
Tapioca Service), Panchaud Frères, A.C. Neleman, Toepfer, Hansa Hout and
nent Representatives”.
many others proved their worth. New contacts were established with Inflot
Moscow, Polish Ocean Line, Mahart Shipping and many more besides.
Quite naturally there were setbacks and breakdowns. Gabriel
Rybier (pronounced: Roobyeah), manager of the Rotterdam company Blaesberg, had chartered a vessel through Vogemann from the shipping company
Hans Edwin Reith for a six-month period. Rybier rarely paid in due time. Reith
“Guillaume Affair” leads to
was therefore sitting on top of a not inconsiderable hire payment demand
Willy Brandt's resignation.
and asked Mr Speckter to travel with him to Rotterdam in order to get the
Helmut Schmidt becomes
best possible result that they could from Blaesberg there. When they arrived,
his successor as Federal
the two of them were told that Mr Rybier was in an important meeting and
Chancellor.
they would have to be patient. In the room in which he and Speckter waited,
The age of majority in
Reith discovered a telephone and a directory with internal numbers including
the Federal Republic is
that of Rybier. On the spur of the moment, Reith dialled the number; Rybier
lowered from 21 years of
answered straight away. “If you do not get here immediately, Mr Rybier”, blus-
age to 18.
Reith's dishonoured bill of exchange from 1975.
81
The last “Beetle” rolls off
tered Reith out loud, “then I shall pull the plug on this place.” The managing
Volkswagen's production
director showed up straight away and promised to pay part of the outstanding
line in Wolfsburg.
Opening of the Köhlbrand-
hire payment by bank assignment. However, for the much larger outstanding amount, he merely wrote out a bill of exchange. Reith bitterly asked his
brücke in Hamburg.
debtor, just how much such a paper was worth. Laughingly Rybier replied:
US President Nixon resigns
“Bills of exchange are always worth just as much as the signature on it.” On
over the Watergate Affair.
the trip back home, Speckter prophesised that Reith could quite happily write
Muhammad Ali (formerly
the amount off as a dead loss. At that, Reith gave him the bill of exchange
Cassius Clay) wins the
which, just as expected, was dishonoured. Speckter decided to make a joke of
World Heavyweight Boxing
it and sent Reith a bundle of antiquated inflation money he had bought for
Champion over the title-
the sum involved, together with a heartfelt thank you. Since then, there has
holder George Foreman.
been an excellent degree of understanding between Vogemann and Reith. By
Germany becomes World
the way, soon after this Rybier's company Blaesberg went bankrupt.
As previously mentioned, the management of ships or acquir-
Cup champion with a
2:1 win against the
ing ships was a key interest for Prüss. For this purpose, he employed a Mr
Netherlands.
Busch whose time was almost completely taken up with costing out the available ships on the market. In 1968, Prüss travelled to Finland after Vogemann
1975
Mao Zedong receives
had made arrangements for two Leonhard vessels with the Finnlines OY., the
“Finnleonhard” (21 months) and the “Finnheide” (also 21 - 24 months). In Hel-
Franz-Josef Strauß as the
sinki, Prüss discovered that the Swedish shipping company Wallenius had
first official visitor from the
booked three bulk carriers of 36,000 t deadweight with the Inflot Moscow to
Federal Republic.
be constructed at the Lenin shipyards in Leningrad. In addition, Wallenius
The Federal Constitutional
had an option on a fourth similar vessel for which, however, the company no
Court rejects reform of Arti-
longer had further use for.
This meant that there was also a vessel from an elaborate se-
cle 218 of the abortion law.
The Deutsche Bank buys
ries of newbuildings for sale, and Prüss immediately attempted to purchase
Daimler-Benz shares from
the ship which was now available from Inflot Moscow. At a price of 22 million
Flick and now owns 57.5
DM, the purchase on the part of Vogemann was not really realistic but Prüss
percent of Daimler Benz AG.
negotiated under the formula “for account of whom it may concern”. Inflot
Re-opening of the
agreed without contradiction and made firm bids. A lawyer, whose name has
Suez Canal.
now long been forgotten, with offices in the Hamburg Esplanade heard of
Vogemann's negotiations, got in touch and explained that he had contacts
to circles who were interested in considerable financial investments in the
form of ships or participation in ship ownership. The “circles” in question
boiled down to one individual interested party, a certain Mr Friedrich Brante
in Berlin who was willing to purchase at the listed price. Vogemann also
The Helsinki Accords
managed to simultaneously close a deal with the Star Shipping company in
are signed.
Bergen, Norway for a five-year time-charter contract “subject purchase of the
82
Vast forest fires in
Lower Saxony.
Volker Schlöndorff:
“The Lost Honour of
Katharina Blum” (a film
based on the novel by
Heinrich Böll).
1976
First demonstrations
against nuclear power
plant construction in
"Star Ravenna", the vessel which landed in the hands of a financial juggler towards the end of
the 1960s.
Brokdorf.
the law on Co-determination of Employees.
Wallenius type vessel”. This meant that there was both a financier as well as
The Palace of the Republic
a charterer available. Prüss, Brante and his Chief Clerk, a Mr Schneider, trav-
is opened in East Berlin.
elled to Moscow and cleared up the sales contract. The time-charter contract
with the Star Lines company could also come into force too.
In Brante's eyes, Vogemann had now done its duty and was
therefore no longer needed; in fact, was only in the way. As it turned out,
Brante was actually a shady “financial juggler” as Vogemann discovered, and
set out to offer the vessel to his investors for 28 million DM. Protestations by
East Germany strips
Vogemann that the ship would be able to sail and cover its costs at a price
songwriter Wolf Biermann
of 22 million, profitably even, but would not manage that at the higher price,
of his citizenship.
were just swept aside by Brante and Schneider. Vogemann had to make do
Erich Honecker assumes
with a modest purchasing commission which was divided equally between
office as Chairman of the
the company and Prüss. Management of the ship was handed to the Stinnes
Council of State of East
company, made the expected losses and eventually had to be sold with further
Germany.
losses. Brante went completely bankrupt with his company Ravenna KG and
The safety belt becomes
absconded leaving a considerable mountain of tax debt behind. Vogemann
compulsory in cars.
has no information as to whether or not they were successful in catching the
The Bundesbahn's last
“write-off artist” with the DM 50,000 reward that was placed on him.
steam locomotive is
On the 1st January 1971, Mr Prüss became a personally liable
decommissioned.
partner following the death of Richard Vogemann on 6th October 1969. After
Wim Wenders' film “Kings
the bleak experience with the absconded “financier”, Ulrich Prüss concen-
of the Road” wins the
trated on the affreightment of ships from then on. Together with his colleague
Critics' Prize in Cannes.
83
1977
and Chief Clerk, Reinhard Westphal, he attained excellent results. Unfortu-
Terrorists in Karlsruhe
nately, Vogemann soon had to do without him: At the end of 1973, Prüss was
shoot the Chief Prosecutor
struck down by an initially unexplained illness, a paralysis which started from
Siegfried Buback.
the lower extremities and inexorably wandered upwards on both sides. When
it finally became clear that he was dealing with Landry's Paralysis (a special form of the so-called Guillain-Barré-Syndrome, GBS), the treacherous
nerve disease was so far advanced that the doctors were no longer able to
help. Prüss died of respiratory paralysis on 30th March 1974. Herr Speckter as
partner with unlimited liability and his wife, Renate, as partner with limited
“Deutscher Herbst”
liability (since 1956) were once again sole owners of H. Vogemann.
(German Autumn):
Abduction of industrial-
Founding of the Trident GmbH. The further development of the
ist President Schleyer,
company management personnel more or less took place as follows: In order
hijacking of the Lufthansa
to put the assets of H. Vogemann safely - practically immortally - back on
airplane “Landshut”,
its feet again, Paul Speckter founded the Trident Befrachtungs GmbH in 1975,
storming of the aircraft in
which joined the company now called H. Vogemann GmbH & Co as a further
Mogadishu, suicide of the
partner with unlimited liability. The company, however, no longer needed
terrorists Baader, Ensslin
to have the addition of “& Co” as it had been founded prior to 1900. Since
and Raspe in Stammheim
the early 1970s, Udo Wiese who had started as an apprentice in 1968, was
and murder of Schleyer.
extremely active and, together with his colleague Westphal, made excellent
Civil rights activists in
commercial transactions. Wiese received sole power of attorney in 1974 and
Czechoslovakia form the
became a co-partner in 1978. At the same time, Mr Speckter stepped back
“Charter 77”.
as partner with unlimited liability and made use of his right to exchange his
The new constitution of
unlimited partner share into a limited partner share.
the Soviet Union increases
From now on, Trident Befrachtungs GmbH was the only partner
the rights of individual
with unlimited liability in the KG (limited partnership) within the H. Voge-
citizens.
mann GmbH company against a “risk compensation” of DM 5,000 p.a. Paul
General compulsory
Speckter, Renate Speckter and Udo Wiese were limited partners. In 1983,
smallpox vaccinations is
Hans-Joachim Boller joined as a limited partner, in 1988 Roland Hensel fol-
abolished in the Federal
lowed in the same role. Renate and Paul Speckter retired from the company
Republic.
towards the end of 1992. It was agreed that the couple should be paid com-
The Staufer exhibition in
pensation over the coming twelve years of five percent of the net profit for
Stuttgart is a great
the given year after deduction of fixed partner compensations. This provision
success with the public.
should be recognised as a thank you from the company for the services made
by Mr Speckter, which are, of course, impossible to list individually. We would
just like to mention two of his important customers in particular, customers
with whom Vogemann, thanks to his efforts, has a very flourishing relationship with:
84
1978
Paul Speckter.
the government's
Anti-Terror Laws.
The last “Beetle” rolls off
Volkswagen's production
line in Emden.
Dockworkers strikes
paralyse operation of
German seaports.
The East German dissident
Rudolf Bahro is imprisoned
for eight years.
Denmark, Great Britain
and Ireland become full
members of the European
Community.
Topic's Liberty Freighters. The connection with the Topic fam-
Egypt and Israel sign a
ily's original shipping company based in Triest, reaches far back into Voge-
skeleton agreement in
mann's beginnings as a brokerage company. The company was managed ex-
Camp David.
cellently by the Inspectors Sladovic and Senjanovic and later relocated its
The Polish cardinal Karol
head offices to Monte Carlo (Monaco). Its ships were always in tip-top con-
Wojtyla is elected pope
dition even the so-called Liberty freighter. This was a cheap, standardised
(John Paul II).
building from during the war which were brought out at top speed (around
Sinking of the German
240 days) in Canada and in the US in their thousands as a replacement for the
container ship “Munich”
high loss of tonnage caused by submarines. These 11-knot fast 10,000 tonne
with a 28-man crew.
vessels with coal or oil furnaces were mainly in a dreadful condition which
explains why Vogemann referred to them disparagingly as “Schrottlauben”
(load of old junk).
But this was not the case with Topic; the shipping company
serviced these incredibly basically-built freighters rigorously and gradually
replaced them during the 1960/70s with more modern vessels, usually ones
built in Japanese shipyards. The senior manager had already passed away
85
1979
The Bundestag abolishes
at the time and an Augustini family was managing the company in the timehonoured tradition further. Vogemann also had a large number of ships up
the 30-year statue of limi-
to bulk carriers of 64,000 tonnes contracted with them. There was never one
tations for murder.
single inconsistency in the charter handling, at least not with the the Topic
company where a genuine relationship of trust existed.
If ever problems came up, then they came from a third party.
And so, in the early 1960s, Vogemann contracted the “Panamant” from Topic
with grain from Brazil to Italy via the company Neptunia/ Otto Schreuders. As
a further load was due a short time later, Schreuders turned to Topic directly
NATOs Dual Track decision
and from now on wanted to contract ships and bypass Vogemann. Naturally,
to retrofit with medium
Sladovic showed interest in future transactions but informed Schreuders that
range nuclear missiles.
he would not act without Vogemann as it was through the Hamburg company
In a residential area of
that the happy connection had been forged in the first place. This show of loy-
Hamburg, police discover
alty obviously impressed Schreuders; in any event Vogemann was later able
a toxic waste dump from
to contract many ships from Topic (and also from other shipping companies)
the Stoltzenberg company.
with Schreuders. No interference ever occurred again.
The Green Party obtain a
Relations with Panchaud Frères. Topic were never offhand in
seat in regional parliament for the first time
being contracted, they required precise offers and clever negotiating skills.
following state elections in
But once a contract had been agreed, the charter was conducted in an ex-
Bremen.
cellent manner. Topic transacted a Panamax vessel of approximately 62,000
The US television series
tonnes for a round trip Brazil/Europe for 2 dollars per tonne and month in
“Holocaust” starts in
the exact first-class manner as subsequent contracts - with better market
Germany.
conditions – for 7 dollars per tonne and month. In fact, only once was there
Margaret Thatcher
a difference with the accounts. And this was not Topic's doing, instead it was
becomes Britain's first
a third party who subsequently, on account of this, also became one of Voge-
female Prime Minister.
mann's excellent business partners.
The broker had contracted the Topic vessel “Panamante” to Ra-
The European Monetary
System (EMS) comes
venna. The company Panchaud Frères in Lausanne was the charterer and
into effect.
Ferruzzi S.p.A. the consignee of the cargo at the final destination. Vogemann
First direct elections of the
were to execute the freight collecting for Topic “freight payable at destination”
European Parliament.
and after receipt then stamp the bill of lading for delivery. In the course of
The Soviets invade
this there were difficulties with Panchaud who wanted to have the bill of lad-
Afghanistan.
ing endorsed first and then to pay for the cargo after receiving its endorsement. As a result, Paul Speckter flew to Ravenna in order to defend the interests of Topic on the ground. He succeeded in mediating between Panchaud
and Topic, clearing up the dispute and finding an acceptable solution for all
parties concerned.
86
In the process, Panchaud evidently gained a very positive im-
1980
pression of Vogemann. In the final analysis, the Managing Director, Mr Meister,
The far-right “Wehrsport-
learnt from this incident: “If you can't beat him, join him” and established a
gruppe Hoffmann” is
business relationship with Vogemann that was very successful for both sides.
banned.
In the period that followed, the people from Hamburg have chartered a great
Artists and intellectuals form
many ships to the Lausanne house both on a voyage and a time-charter basis;
an Anti-Strauß initiative.
Topic was very often involved in this. Panchaud Frères S.A. became another
Daylight saving time (sum-
of the special Speckter clients: Since the small “incident” in Ravenna caused
mertime) is introduced into
by the “Panamante”, there was a perfectly amicable understanding between
Panchaud under Mr Meister and the second Managing Director, Mr Ruska
With the Middle East
and with Vogemann too. There was no need for a contract in this respect.
Declaration, the EU grants
Vogemann had executed all the affreightment for the company
for more than two decades, at first this was mainly soya or corn shipments
Palestine the right to selfdetermination.
from Brazil to Europe in the region of approximately 10,000 tonnes. This
followed with transactions of round voyages of units up to Panamax size.
In the process, Vogemann was able to instigate a combined business arrangement: Rudi Glitz, one of the forwarding agents from the Brazilian
Porto Alegre (Rio Grande do Sul), asked during one of his Hamburg visits to
Vogemann, whether the company were able to procure significant tonnage for
The one-time film actor,
shipments to Brazil. That is to say, the company also imported combined har-
Ronald Reagan, becomes the
vesters from the Claas company in Eastern Westphalia Harsewinkel for South
40th President of the US.
America. This meant that the ships which had been chartered for Panchaud
Several western states
from Brazil to Europe could take the agricultural machinery on board for the
boycott the Olympic Summer
return voyage. Vogemann therefore recommended Panchaud to hire these
Games in Moscow on ac-
vessels for a round passage on a time-charter basis, which was immediately
count of the Soviet invasion
accepted in Lausanne and brought both parties good returns. In the process,
of Afghanistan.
Vogemann still had the profitable task of handling and loading the ships in
The Circus Roncalli has
Hamburg. In addition, Vogemann also took on the entire time-charter calcu-
huge success with its
lation for Panchaud inclusive of the sailing and bunkering orders.
programme “The Journey to
Ships of panamax size also increasingly came into considera-
the Rainbow”.
tion at that point. Vogemann had to make sure that the costs of the timecharter were at a fair market level of rates “per ton” load “northbound” (that
is to say from Brazil towards Europe). Now, there were the costs for port ser
vices, fuel, duration of the passage, loading and unloading which needed to
be taken into consideration, which sometimes turned out to be a rather tricky
puzzle. Vogemann was proud that they always succeeded in keeping the “per
The German entry “The Tin
ton” rate for the load's passage within the frame of the market price or even
Drum” wins the Oscar for the
to sometimes undershoot it.
best foreign film.
87
1981
Visit from the department of public prosecution. In May 1992,
More than 300,000 people
the United Nations Security Council imposed a trade and oil embargo on the
gather in Bonn for the larg-
Federal Republic of Yugoslavia which, at the time, only consisted of Serbia
est peace demonstration in
and Montenegro, this was in order to contain the raging civil war taking place
the history of the Federal
Republic.
in the Balkans. Sanctions were eased in September 1994 and in November
1995 were finally discontinued under Dayton Agreement.
However, in 1993 they still applied, air traffic with Belgrade was
The last Mercedes 600 rolls
off the production line in
Stuttgart.
suspended, NATO warships and aircraft patrolled along the coast of Montenegro, Serbian foreign accounts were frozen.
Natural gas deal between
The Yugoslavian ship-owner with whom Vogemann worked, had
the Federal Republic and the
changed the flag of his ship, the "Rumija" in sufficient time in Malta. This
Soviet Union.
meant that in spite of the embargo she was allowed to continue sailing. In
François Mitterand becomes
August 1992, she transported a cargo of 12,000 t feed from Rangun (Burma)
President of France.
to Rotterdam for the company of Alfred C. Toepfer. A transaction which ap-
The US announces construc-
peared to Vogemann to be legal. It would have stayed this way as well if a Yu-
tion of the neutron bomb.
goslavian broker from Hamburg had not been involved. "Jugo Agent" received
Opening of the Neue Pinako-
a commission of 4,434 US dollars transferred to his account in the United
thek (art museum) in Munich.
States from Vogemann in May 1993 and the investigators took offence at this.
Wolfgang Petersen: “Das Boot”
One day, five of them turned up in Udo Wiese's office in order to question the
(war film).
Managing Director and to seize documents. They also put in an appearance at
Toepfers. But whereas the charterer was soon afterwards left in peace again,
1982
the department of public prosecution remained with the broker.
The Social-Liberal coalition
collapses. Following a constructive vote of no confidence
by the Bundestag against
Chancellor Schmidt, Helmut
Kohl (CDU) is elected Chancellor. He forms a new coalition
of government with the FDP.
The Green Party is successful
in elections in Hamburg,
Hessen and Bavaria.
Excerpt from the "Hamburger Abendblatt" dated February 1998.
88
Business with Coutinho, Caro & Co.
Scandal surrounding the
union-owned “Neue Heimat”
Many a lucrative collaboration also came about through charterers ap-
(property developer) shakes
proaching Vogemann with special requests. This was the case with the
confidence in the Confedera-
steel trading company founded in Hamburg in 1895 of Coutinho, Caro &
tion of German Trade Unions'
Co. During the last third of the twentieth century and beyond, Harring-
functionaries.
Detlef Arndt was one of the long-standing senior executives and member
In consumer electronics, the
of the board (since 1990). He recalls the collaboration like this:
age of digital technology is
This closely established contact with the H. Vogemann com-
heralded.
pany reaches far back into the year 1971. Towards the end of 1970, I had
A peace movement un-
just taken over management (as Chief Clerk since 1971) of the shipping
der the banner “Swords to
department at Coutinho, Caro & Co (CCC) and was chiefly attempting to
Ploughshares” begins in East
step up our growing steel trade with creative ideas in terms of shipping
Germany.
on a global scale. It was during the time when steel in international trade
Disputes surrounding
was no longer just being shipped from Northern Europe but at an increas-
construction of the western
ing rate also from ports in the Mediterranean as well as from those in the
runway at Frankfurt Airport.
Far East and from the eastern coast of South America. In addition to this,
The pop singer Nicole wins the
there was a colleague of around the same age at CCC who, at the same
Eurovision Song Contest with
time, was to expand the chemistry department. As a result, not only did
the song “Ein bisschen Frieden”.
we have steel to load but this also included vast quantities of fertilizer
1983
which gave rise to the need of vessels being chartered.
Vogemann provided a great help to me in these activities
The CDU/CSU-FDO coalition
in the forms of the young, resourceful Udo Wiese (at the time 21 years of
government is confirmed in
age and on board the brokerage company for three years already) and
new elections. The Green
his boss Paul Speckter. At the time, my colleague Speckter, owing to his
Party win seats in the Bun-
profound wealth of experience, and Udo Wiese, owing to his seemingly
destag for the first time.
limitless supply of energy, were both hugely instrumental in ensuring that
Mass demonstrations in
Coutinho, Caro & Co were always kept up to speed in the international
Mutlangen against stationing
steel trade market in matters of transport. With the assistance of the
of the Pershing II missiles.
accomplished people from Vogemann, we were in a position to be able to
organise even unusual and often highly complex shipments. Most notably,
the many new loading and offloading points presented us with unimaginable challenges and problems and which required a great deal of commercial fantasy being brought into play in order for them to be resolved.
Initially, we were chartering vessels purely on a voyage
charter basis and after a few years we followed a suggestion by the
people at Vogemann and also took on vessels on a time-charter basis.
Alleged Hitler diaries are
At first just for voyages which were being executed for our own in-house
exposed as forgeries.
89
US President Reagan presents
plans for a star wars defence
system (SDI).
Start of German teletext Btx.
steel deliveries, for example, from Brazil and/or Argentina to the Far East.
It was not long before other companies were also offering us loads via
our agents, requesting us to also transport these at the most favourable
freight rates possible. This service quickly developed into an important
The first cases of AIDS occur in
mainstay. As time went by, our shipping activities began to increase to such
a dramatic size that I began toying with the idea of how I could bundle and
The restored Wartburg is
separate them from the other commercial activities of the Coutinho, Caro &
re-opened at festivities for the
Co house.
500-year anniversary of the birth
For a long time, there had been a CCC subsidiary which went
of Martin Luther.
by the name of Coreck and had been established as a precaution but as of
yet, still had not developed very much in the way of noteworthy activities.
1984
The company appeared to my colleagues and me to be the appropriate um-
Bavaria is the first state to adopt
brella for our shipping activities. The company had been operating under
protection of the environment in
the name of Coreck Maritime GmbH since around 1980; I assumed the role
its constitution.
Resignation of Federal Minister of
of Managing Director in 1983. As Udo Wiese had, in the meantime, moved
up the ladder to become a partner at H. Vogemann, our time-chartering
Economics Otto Graf Lambsdorff
activities with H. Vogemann were by now being looked after by our Ham-
on account of his involvement in
burg Dane, Frank Jensen. All time-charter contracts were exclusively being
the Flick party funding scandal.
handled by H. Vogemann. Amongst the time-charter vessels were also
East Germany dismantles the
several long-term chartered general cargo freighters. Back then, this had
spring guns on the border.
Great Britain and China agree on
the return of the Crown Colony of
Hong Kong to China.
Murder of the Indian Prime
Minister Indira Gandhi.
The first cable television company starts broadcasting in the
Federal Republic.
According to a forest damage
survey, 50 % of German forests
are damaged.
Coreck ships ride at anchor.
90
The German programme
“Tatort” has the ARD's highest
viewing figures with Götz George
(“Schimanski”).
1985
Schengen Agreement for the
abolition of internal border
controls for certain European
countries.
The reformist politician Mikhail
Share certificate of H. Vogemann Inc.
Gorbachev becomes General
Secretary of the CPSU.
also included making some extremely good contacts with various Croatian
Friedrich Karl Flick sells his
ship-owners via the H. Vogemann company. Udo Wiese and I together
corporation to the Deutsche Bank.
visited these ship-owners in Dalmatia on several occasions during the
The first red-green state
1980s and the early 1990s and brokered good conditions. Aside from that,
government is established in
together we started up the American company H. Vogemann Inc. in Stam-
Hessen under Holger Börner and
ford (Connecticut) which brokered the American export cargoes; Vogemann
Joschka Fischer.
received 40 percent, CCC and Coreck each 30 percent in this company.
Grand opening of the rebuilt Sem-
During the mid-1990s, approximately 60 departures were
per Opera House in Dresden.
being offered through Coreck Maritime GmbH across the globe, primarily
Boris Becker wins the Wimbledon
regularly from Brazil/Argentina to the Far East, from the Baltic ports and
Tennis Championships.
from other North European ports to the Far East, from the Mediterranean
Start of the television series
to the Far East, from Indonesia to Europe including from the Mediterra-
“Lindenstraße”.
nean ports as well as up to twice-monthly departures from the Far East
(especially China) to Europe, also including the Mediterranean. And on top
1986
of this, departures were also on offer from the US Gulf to the Far East,
Reactor accident in Chernobyl
from the Far East to South Africa and to the east coast of South America
(Ukraine).
as well as from the Baltic Sea ports to the US Gulf and in the Caribbean.
The Bundestag votes in introduc-
Every year, on balance, around 1.2 million freight tonnes were transported,
tion of machine-readable identity
whereby a portion of the cargo bookings were as a result of H. Vogemann.
papers and European passports.
91
First artificial heart
To begin with, Coreck and its cooperation with Vogemann
transplant in the Federal
remained little affected by the sale of the parent company CCC in 1984
Republic.
France and Great Britain
agree on the construction
and its resale in 1988 and in 1996. Initial reorientation of the majority shareholders' business policy at the start of the new century had a
restraining effect. The long and so prosperous development ended in
of a channel tunnel.
2003 with a petition for insolvency proceedings. Vogemann only experi-
The Swedish Prime
enced this marginally at best because the company had in the meantime
Minister Olof Palme is
shot.
expanded into an impressive group of companies; brokerage was only one
of a whole string of business activities.
The musical “Cats” by
Andrew Lloyd Webber
The trial against Udo Wiese for violation of UN Security Council
premieres in Germany.
sanctions were opened five years later. It ended with an acquittal. The depart-
Bertelsmann enters the
ment of public prosecution would not accept that and filed for an appeal. As
circle of the world's larg-
a result, the court and the defendant came to an agreement whereby pro-
est media groups through
ceedings were closed against payment of an 8,000 Mark fine, payable to social
buying the publishing
institutions. Udo Wiese was thereby saved from having an entry placed in the
house Doubleday & Co.
criminal records. However, nobody took away from him the 30,000 Mark fee
for solicitors which had accumulated during the proceedings.
1987
There is another story which belongs to the complicated "War in
At the parliamentary
Yugoslavia". The managing director of a Croatian brokerage firm friendly with
elections, the CDU/
Vogemann, one day turned to Udo Wiese and asked him to save his son from
CSU suffer loss of votes,
dangerous military service as the threat of being drafted into the Croatian
however, Helmut Kohl still
army was hanging over him. It was agreed to employ the young man for a
remains as Chancellor.
short time as an unpaid trainee. And so, Boris Babic came to Hamburg. The
"short time" turned out to be 13 years, during which time he put a great deal
of valuable work into the company.
Cremer – Krohn – Toepfer. Vogemann had been heavily involved in the animal feed business with Asia since the late 1970s, acting as a
State visit of the East
chartering broker service. The raw material came from Thailand, Indonesia
German Chairman of the
and the Philippines. Originally, India had also been one of the suppliers but
Council of State, Erich
later dropped out as Indian material could no longer satisfy the require-
Honecker, in Bonn.
ments once the controls increasingly started to become more stringent and
Gorbachev announces his
limits were raised. The vessels which were being chartered for this were, for
reform programme with
the most part, tween deckers with a deadweight of 10,000 to 20,000 tonnes.
the objectives of “Glasnost”
They belonged to Greek ship-owners or also to companies from the Eastern
(openness) and “Perestroi-
Bloc, from Poland or Yugoslavia. At the time, there were three large houses
ka” (reconstruction).
in Hamburg dealing with feed stuff for the manufacture of mixed feed: one
92
of them was Peter Cremer, the second Krohn & Co, and the third Alfred C.
Prime Minister to
Toepfer. The relations between Vogemann and Cremer and Krohn had already
Schleswig-Holstein
been long established, but not those with Toepfer. Toepfer had his own broker.
Barschel commits
However, he looked upon the enterprising people at Vogemann with interest.
suicide.
It came to light that Vogemann was also still able to procure vessels when
The sporting pilot,
other people had given up the search. The reason being that the people at
Manfred Rust, lands
Toepfer were used to chartering North European ships which were often much
his Cessna on the Red
too large to be able to be used intelligently. Vogemann, on the other hand,
Square in Moscow.
with the much smaller vessels from his Greek or Croatian ship-owners was
The first German wind
able to fill the gap successfully.
farm is opened in
It happened during a dinner for four; Wiese and Boller from
Dithmarschen.
Vogemann and Schröder and Meier from Toepfer were sitting together when
Werner Tübke com-
a similar problem turned up again: Toepfer wanted to contract a ship from
pletes his monumental
Indonesia on a time-charter basis. However, his broker had been unsuccessful
panoramic painting
in finding one. They tried for days on end but to no avail. Vogemann's men
“Early Bourgeois Revo-
were busy with a different problem. They had wanted to close a contract with
lution in Germany”.
the "Amelia Topic" from the Yugoslavian ship-owner Topic with Krohn & Co on
a voyage charter basis, but had not got the reserve. The party found a very
nice solution: Toepfer took the "Amelia Topic" but not on a time-charter basis
as his Norwegians had done, but on a voyage charter basis.
The business went so well that Toepfer immediately contracted
a further two vessels through Vogemann. However, in every instance they
Katarina Witt wins
made sure that others had already found it a tough nut to crack or that oth-
the World Ice Skating
ers would find it a tough nut to crack. Vogemann also passed this test and
Championships.
Steffi Graf is seeded
number 1 by the
Women's Tennis Association.
1988
Michael Jackson gives
a concert at the Berlin
Wall.
During an air-show in
Ramstein, an accident
kills seventy people.
Krupp steelworks in
Duisburg are closed.
Historic office equipment, today safely stored in a glass cabinet at Vogemanns.
93
The Gladbeck hostage
a stable business relationship developed which still, although not to the
crisis ends with three
same degree, exists even today. Toepfer soon started calling Udo Wiese the
people being killed.
"German Greek". This was meant as recognition of Wiese's negotiating skills.
Soviets begin withdraw-
Wiese had no prejudices against "his" Greek ship-owners. The main thing was
al of their mid-range
that they had suitable vessels. Of course, some things ran a little differently
missiles from East
during negotiations but he was able to adapt to the situation and run with
Germany and Czechoslovakia.
it even when conventional opinion regarded matters as being a little too Levantine. He especially enjoyed having two telephone conversations on the go
End of the Iran-Iraq
at the same time. The ship-owner from Piraeus on one ear, the German feed
Gulf War.
dealer on the other, then amplifying the Greek through the loudspeakers so
1989
rent of abuse from the other line - and the whole office joined in the fun too.
that the Hamburg business partner could hear all the lamenting and the torMassacre of students
It was customary on business trips to Greece at the time that
protesting on Tianan-
regardless of where you stopped off, fish would be served up. Now it just so
men Square in Peking.
happened that one day a man from Toepfer was present who loathed fish,
Erosion of the Eastern
especially when it lay on the plate in its entirety, with head and tail. And fish
Bloc: Hungary opens up
was served like this everywhere. After this had gone on for a few days, the
to the West.
man finally asked for a meat dish and after a certain amount of to-ing and
Beginning of a great
fro-ing was given it too.
tide of people fleeing
The meaning of the Polish tonnage. Toepfer also belonged to
East Germany.
the charterers in the inner-European grain trade. At Vogemann, this business
sector lay in the hands of Hans Boller who retired from the corporation in
2008. Boller had a good working relationship with the man at Toepfer, who
had all the European loads under him and he was repeatedly successful in
getting a foot in the door for this business. The important thing was access
Monday Demonstra-
to the Polish tonnage. The work involved there was with the state brokerage
tions in Leipzig. The
company of Polfracht Gdynia, the shipping company was called Polish Steam-
regime collapses. The
ship Company (PSC) based in Szczecin. Roland Hensel had good access but he,
borders to the Federal
however, worked for the competition. Which was reason enough to get him
Republic open. Civil
away from there. In 1984, he was employed at Vogemann, in 1988 he received
rights activists establish
power of attorney, in 1992 he was made a partner. With Toepfer he concluded
“Round Tables”.
all the transatlantic cargo with PSC which supplemented the inner-European
Overthrow and execu-
trade in a desirable manner. Business flourished, at times there were more
tion of the Romanian
than ten vessels a month with shipments for Toepfer underway.
At Toepfer, word was going round that with the Poles it was
dictator Ceausescu.
The last Soviet troops
leave Afghanistan.
like with the wives at home - "We love them but we just don't understand
them" - however at Vogemann, people knew just how to adjust to the differ-
94
ent mind sets. It was extremely troublesome trying to keep the lines of com-
Reagan and Gorbachev
munication open though. There were very few telephones in Socialist Poland,
sign a treaty on the com-
international calls had to be handled via Frankfurt, on numerous occasions
plete elimination of all nu-
the only means possible of communicating with one another was via the telex
clear mid-range missiles.
machine. Business trips from Hamburg, to Gdansk for example, would take
Steffi Graf und Boris Becker
from ten to twelve hours. The Polish partners liked to have their German
win the Wimbledon Tennis
counterparts visiting them, meetings not only take place in the port cities
Championships.
of Gdansk and Szczecin but also in places that offered something to tourists,
Krakow, Wroclaw and the Masuria. As might be expected, Vodka flowed freely
1990
at the meetings in Poland which demanded quite a lot of staying power from
Occupation of the Stasi
the Vogemann people. Attempts to make a secret agreement with the waiter
headquarters in Berlin.
so that he would fill the glasses with water instead of vodka did not help at all
- the man still served vodka again. And quietly pouring the Schnapps into a
flower vase did not always work out either. There was also no chance of foregoing strong drink when the people from Poland visited the West, but instead
of vodka it was corn brandy and Aquavit that was served. But it would appear
nowadays that habits have changed, people no longer drink one another under the table at every opportunity. Since the fall of the iron curtain drinking
behaviour has become more moderate, binge drinking was probably part and
parcel of a certain historic period, simply that of state socialism.
The CDU is the strongest
party at the first free East
German general election.
“Two Plus Four Conference”
on foreign policy aspects of
German unity.
Currency, economic and
social union of the Federal
Republic and the German
Democratic Republic.
The German Democratic
Republic enters the constitutional sphere: Re-unification of Germany.
In Paris, the Conference on
Security and Co-operation
in Europe adopts a charter
to end the cold war in
Europe.
From Vogemann's glass cabinet: List of abbreviations used in sending cables.
95
Baltic States declare their
The business dealings with the Polish shipping company, now
independency.
transformed into a private company, still take place today, even though they
The German football team
are no longer to the same extent.
wins the World Cup in Italy.
Difficult communication. The first response when anybody
Pink Floyd perform the
rock-opera “The Wall” at
asks how communication during the 1970s or the 1980s was actually man-
the torn-down wall in
aged, is always a deep sigh of: The costs! 20,000 Marks a month for telephone
Berlin.
calls, the same amount again for telex! Every possible means was attempted
to try to cut costs. Telexes were sent via Holland because they were cheaper
1991
there, a system of abbreviations was invented to reduce the overall size of the
messages. Communication with the US, for example, took place in the following manner: Telexes were only directed to a single recipient in Germany who
would then duplicate them domestically. Because the telex machines made
such a loud noise when they were operating, they were placed in separate
rooms as far away from ordinary work places as possible, in the cellar or at
International forces drive
the end of the corridor. People used to smoke while they were working, still
Iraqi troops out of occupied
fresh in our minds are those individual employees who would sit at the telex
Kuwait.
machine puffing away at one cigarette after another and who used to place
The Bundestag elects
it on the edge of the table. The burn marks in the wood then displayed their
Berlin as the capital city of
own message, permanently. The first PC appeared at Vogemann in 1984, a
Germany.
machine called Sirius, purchased for the princely sum of 15,000 Mark. Com-
Right-wing extremists
pared to today's computers it could do very little but it made written commu-
attack a home for asylum
nication from the workplace possible. To begin with it just dealt with sending
seekers in Hoyerswerda
information but then later receiving it too, so that the visits to the telex cabin
(Saxony).
became less and less until they finally disappeared altogether. Nowadays,
The last “Wartburg” and
with the advent of e-mail, 5,000 electronic messages arrive at Vogemann eve-
“Trabant” roll off the pro-
ry day, compare this with the "mere" 100 telexes from the age of the clattering
duction lines.
teleprinter. In bygone days, waiting for a message from the outside world was
In Maastricht, heads of
akin to being on hot pins until it finally arrived, nowadays new methods need
state and government from
to be invented to slow the influx down, filters need to be installed which are
the 12 EEC countries vote
able to fish out the most important information because nobody is in a posi-
to establish the European
tion anymore to read everything that floods into the company.
Union (EU).
Boris Yelzin becomes
Increasing need for raw materials. Vogemann continued the
President of Russia.
cooperation initiated with Coreck (see page 89 ff.) along similarly structured
An attempted coup
business sectors, partly with people who had left Coreck and who had es-
against the Soviet
tablished their own companies, for example, MACS Cross, Pro Line Carrier,
President Gorbachev fails.
Hamburg Bulk Carrier. A chequered time. "No two days were the same", says
96
Civil war in disintegrating Yugoslavia.
1992
The “Stasi-Unterlagen
gesetz” (State Security
Records Act) comes into
effect.
Revision of Article 218:
Abortions are nonpunitive until the twelfth
week of pregnancy.
The company's
headquarters in
Hallerstraße 57.
Joint suicide of
two Green Party
politicians Petra Kelly
partner Frank Jensen today. Amongst other things, Vogemann had carved
and Gert Bastian.
a niche out for themselves, the affreightment of tween deckers, vessels with
The last section of
a deadweight of 15,000 up to 20,000 t, stop-gaps so to speak, which fitted in
the controversial
extremely well when there were no other vast quantities to transport. But
Rhine-Main-Danube
by the mid-1990s, transactions with this type of vessel were becoming more
Canal is opened.
scarce. The reasons for this were the increasing use of containers as gener-
Helmut Dietl receives
al-purpose transport containers and in globalisation. General cargo was no
the Film Awards in Gold
longer loaded individually but would be packed into containers which would
for “Schtonk”.
be transported in large quantities on vessels which were purpose built. And
Maria Jepsen becomes
the growing global demand for raw materials lead to this bulk commodity
the first female bishop
almost exclusively being shipped in the bellies of a new breed of large-scale
of the Evangelical
carrier, the so-called bulk carrier.
Lutheran Church.
The old style tween decker had served its purpose. Of course, it
The German
still continued to exist and even exists today, however it is limited to specific,
Olympic team is the
narrowly defined purposes. But for Vogemann, they were out of the ques-
most successful nation
tion. Following the demands of a developing world, the company entered into
at the Winter Games in
the bulk carrier business, the "Panamax" with a deadweight of 60,000 up to
Albertville, France.
97
1993
The German Post Office
75,000 t or the smaller "handysize" with 20,000 up to 40,000 t. Coal and ore
were also added to the previously predominant cargoes of grain.
introduces a five-figure
Lars Rudebeck, who had joined in 2003, opened the door to a
postcode.
further business sector, the affreightment of raw materials and additives for
The Green Party merges
the metal industry, chiefly that of aluminium. In 2003 alone, 25 passages from
with the East German civil
the fifth continent to South Africa were able to be contracted for the BHP Bil-
rights movement Bündnis
liton company in Australia. From a small commercial enterprise brokered
(Alliance) '90.
by Rudebeck with 1,700 t "Anode scrap paste" (petroleum coke is the residue
The trial against Erich
derived from the thermal cracking process of petroleum which is used in the
Honecker is discontinued.
manufacture of electrodes or electro graphite) from Mississippi to South Af-
The Kurdistan Workers'
rica, developed a stable relationship whereby the client had amounts of up to
Party PKK is forbidden
200,000 t petroleum coke a year to be transported. By 2008, the big day had
in Germany.
arrived: The ten thousandth contract closure could be celebrated.
The Saxon Foron
Haushaltswaren GmbH
Change of address. The broker scene was changing. Whereas
produces the world's first
in the 1960s, it was small companies with three or four brokers who had the
CFC-free refrigerator.
bulk of businesses, the larger companies were also gaining more and more
Czechoslovakia is sepa-
ground. The history of the Vogemann house reflects this development. There
rated into the
Czech Republic and the
Slovak Republic.
Signing of the Gaza-
were five of them in 1978, plus one secretary. Today, the company numbers
thirteen brokers plus an additional three in Postfixing. The sphere of activities a chartering broker undertakes has grown, his services stretch from market analysis and travel cost calculations to issuing of freight contracts and
Jericho Agreement
supervision during the runtime up to turnaround accounting and the final
between the Israeli
accountings.
In 1971, Vogemann moved offices from within the Fölsch Block
government and the PLO.
from the west side of the building over to the east side, from the address
Plan 5 to the address Hermannstraße 46. In 1994, the company moved out of
the city to Rothenbaum. The new premises lay in the Hallerstraße Nr. 57. Ten
years later, in the year 2004, the leap was made to the other side of the road,
Vogemann moved into quarters in the Hallerstraße Nr. 40, into a building in
which Warner Bros. had previously resided (Dieter Bohlen began his carrier in
the recording studio in the cellar). The previous site was not abandoned however, Wallem GmbH & Co KG, a member of the Vogemann group, remained in
the Hallerstraße 57.
A meeting over a knuckle of pork. What would a profession
life be like without the socialising that is attached to it? Once a year, on
the first Friday in November, the Vereinigung Hamburger Schiffsmakler und
98
1994
The CDU/CSU-FDP coalition
wins the parliamentary elections
by a narrow margin.
The European Economic Area
(EEA) for the free movement
of goods, services and capital
comes into effect.
The Bundesverfassungsgericht
VDR Counsel Jan-Thiess Heitmann (left) with the Vogemann partners Udo Wiese and Jens Arndt
at the ship-owners reception in 2009.
(Federal Constitutional Court)
declares that it is permissible
for the Bundeswehr to participate
Schiffsagenten (Hamburger Shipbrokers' Association) invites everybody to a
in foreign operations outside
meal of knuckle of pork. This goes back to a custom initiated by the Associa-
the NATO area.
tion's managing director of the time, Bruno Jansen. In November 1948, he
The Deutsche Bundesbahn
gathered all the bosses of the member companies, 110 in total, for a meal on
and Deutsche Reichsbahn are
the disused steamship "St. Louis", which had been hastily patched together
privatised and merged to form
after it had been hit by heavy bombing and was used as a floating hotel and
the Deutsche Bahn AG.
restaurant. Today, between 5,000 to 6,000 people from the shipping industry
The Treuhandanstalt (Trust
attend this event which now takes place in the CCH.
Agency) for managing national
At Vogemann, it has now become a habit to prepare for this
property in East Germany comes
big event by having private parties in restaurants from the Monday onwards
to a close.
during the week in question. On the Wednesday, the company invites their
The so-called Uruguay Round
business friends to the Brauhaus Albrecht on the Adolphsbrücke until it is
approves the establishment of the
finally time on the Friday to wend their way on their pilgrimage to the CCH. A
World Trade Organisation (WTO).
tradition that nobody wants to miss. The same thing applies to the members
The department store
meetings and receptions by the Association of German Ship-Owners or the
blackmailer “Dagobert” is
summer fetes which have taken place in the gardens of the office villas in the
arrested in Berlin.
Hallerstraße with local customers since 1995 - where, if the World or Euro-
Michael Schumacher wins the
pean Cup Football Championships are also taking place at the same time, a
Formula 1 World Championships
stylish "Public Viewing" event with a large screen belongs.
for the first time.
99
100
Chapter 3
Reorganisation of the fleet
since 1995
Chapter 3 – Reorganisation of the fleet since 1995
101
Reorganisation of the fleet
since 1995
By the mid-1990s, the old traditions of the company were finally ready to
fly the flags once more: Vogemann entered the shipping business with
its own vessels. The acquisition of a 20,900 tonne freighter owned by the
former Yugoslavian state shipping company Jadroplov, triggered the build
up of a fleet which now has 23 units with sizes ranging up to 170,000
tonnes. The following presentation is based on the memoirs of Udo Wiese
and Jens Arndt.
1995
T
An art project by the
married couple, Christo
and Jeanne Claude
involved wrapping the
Reichstag in Berlin.
he spirit of a house can still dominate its conception of itself
even when this appears to have changed beyond recognition or
to have vanished altogether. In any case, H. Vogemann did not
relinquish his hold on the chronicles of the shipping company
even when the founder's son, Richard, should have realised in the early 1960s
that the company's future was not to be found in its own fleet. Nevertheless,
industrious Ulrich Prüss picked up the threads shortly after the death of the
boss once more, but equally failed, this time to a dubious “investor”. From
that point onwards, any further ideas involving a renewal of the shipping
company venture were met with a great deal of skepticism by the people in
charge at the time and later. In any event, Paul Speckter and his wife Renate
The Shell concern has to
did not want to know anything about it and concentrated all their efforts on
abandon its plans to sink
the brokerage business.
the decommissioned oil
However, with a change in leadership in 1993 thoughts of
platform “Brent Spar” in
becoming ship-owners again could no longer be resisted. The catalyst for
the North Sea in the wake
such a new beginning was attributed to the previously-mentioned good rela-
of international protests.
tions to the Croatian ship-owners initiated by Udo Wiese, especially those
The Federal State Ministers
of Education and the Arts
to the Jadroplov company based in Split. As a result of the collapse of the
communist planned economy, the former Yugoslavian state shipping com-
adopt the reform of the
pany was being reorganised and parts were being outsourced as Split Ship
German orthography.
Management (SSM). In the wake of a costly renovation of its fleet, Jadroplov/
The European Union (EU)
SSM was forced to let older ships go. Initially, no taker could be found for
becomes a community of
the “Marko Marulic”, named after the famous Croatian poet and humanist
102
(16th century). It would be true to say that the asking price of 3.6 million
15 states through acces-
dollars for the 20,900 tonne ship built in Bilbao in 1977, actually exceeded
sion of Austria, Finland and
even Vogemann's possibilities, however, Jadroplov offered a 50:50 compro-
Sweden.
mise: The company wanted to continue providing technical management and
Ten years after signing the
crew, while Vogemann should take over commercial management including
Schengen Agreement for
chartering and pay its share in instalments.
the abolition of identity
On this basis an agreement was made. The Vogemann logo has
checks at European internal
been emblazoned on the bulk carrier since 1995, which was at first renamed
borders it finally comes into
to the “Marul” without the Croatian ending. It also brought in good returns,
effect.
Vogemann was able to pay its instalments off quickly but the surpluses were
The participating states at
siphoned off by the partner company in a way which was difficult to pinpoint.
the UN climate conference
Actual or alleged damages to the ship were invoiced so that there was very
in Berlin are unable to
little or nothing left of the profits that were made.
agree on a concrete plan
But this was not all, in the three years that Vogemann sailed
of action regarding climate
with the ship, a particularly embarrassing episode stands out which kept
protection.
management busy for a fair number of weeks. The “Marul” had been char-
Bosnian Serbs murder
tered out to the Bremen company Pac Line for 18 months who were not in the
several thousand Muslims
best of financial health. Delays in paying the charter fees continued to get
in the UN “safe area” of
longer and longer. Eventually, the “Marul” lay in New Orleans, had just been
Srebrenica.
unloaded and was to be loaded with grain in Mississippi River again, when
The Dayton Agreement
Pac Line tried to extricate themselves out of the obligation to pay by arguing
ends civil war in former
Yugoslavia.
The Israeli Prime Minister
Yitzhak Rabin is shot dead
by a Jewish fanatic.
1996
First cases of the “mad cow
disease” BSE in Germany.
The shipbuilding company
Bremer Vulkan Verbund AG
goes bankrupt.
Changes in the law for store
closing times allows retailers to stay open from 6 a.m.
to 8 p.m.
Millionaire Jan-Philipp
Reemtsma is kidnapped.
The “Marul”, purchased in Croatia, prompted Vogemann's return to the shipping business.
103
The euro-stability pact
sets a maximum budget
that the vessel did not comply with the safety regulations, the hatches were
not watertight. This was “proven” by means of an ultrasound test.
deficit of 3 % of the gross
Quarrel about “leaky” hatch covers. Now, this “Ultrasonic”
domestic product.
Radical Islamic Taliban
method was not the most commonplace method. Vogemann had the hatch
militia seize the Afghan
covers tested in the usual way using high-pressure water jets. In the course
capital city of Kabul.
of this, only small leaks were visible which Vogemann immediately had re-
The Deutsche Dom
paired. This was not enough to suit the charterer, who stood by the results
(German Cathedral) in
of their testing method. The vessel was declared off-hire and it was obvious
Berlin is re-opened.
that Pac Line wanted to get rid of the charter; namely because freight levels
had dropped in the meantime and were now below the charter hire that they
1997
had agreed to. Vogemann in turn found themselves in a catch-22 situation,
Opening of the so-called
they could not withdraw the vessel and make a claim for damages precisely
“Wehrmachtsausstellung”
because the vessel was officially off-hire. Tedious negotiations on the cor-
(German Army exhibition)
rect method of testing the hatch covers followed until an agreement could
with documents on
be reached and the vessel was able to leave port after a four-week laytime.
the War of Extermination
The next charter fees were once again unpaid in due time which meant that
in East Germany.
Vogemann now had recourse to withdraw the vessel from the charter and - at
a lower price - to charter her to the company Macs Cross.
Pac Line, however, did not give up so easily. They arrested the
“Marul” in Rotterdam on account of allegedly lost profits and Vogemann had
to provide a guarantee of 450,000 US dollars in order to free the vessel from
Flooding along the Oder
forces thousands of people
to evacuate their homes.
The British Princess
Diana is killed in a car
accident in Paris.
The UN climate
conference in Kyoto (Japan)
approves reductions in
greenhouse gases.
In the so-called Politbüro
Process, Egon Krenz, the last
State and Party Leader of
the GDR, receives a six-anda-half year prison sentence.
“Vogetrader”, a bulk carrier of 72,000 tonnes.
104
the arrest. For this purpose, Vogemann had to enter arbitrations and conduct
these until their conclusion, even though Pac Line had in the meantime filed
for insolvency; there was no other way that the 450,000 dollars could be
recovered. Vogemann were also awarded their claims against Pac Line in an
arbitration but this was of little use as there were so many other creditors
that there was no more money to be expected.
Jan Ullrich is the first
In this respect, it was all the more surprising that Vogemann
German to win the Tour de
were able to keep the bulker anyway and the “Marul” was even able to renew
France.
class in Argentina for around 300,000 US dollars. But what to do with the ves-
Hong Kong is put under
sel? Vogemann had a buyer on hand who wanted to buy her for 900,000 dol-
China's control as a special
lars. However, the Croatian partner had other plans, Jadroplov/SSM thought
administrative region.
to have the “Marul” scrapped, for 600,000 dollars, and pointed out that a sale
The comet Hale-Bopp comes
to a third party involved far too many risks. As a result, Vogemann decided
within 197 million kilometres
to buyout their partner's 50 percent share basing this on the value of the
of the earth.
scrap. But the Croatians refused. Udo Wiese had to perform marathon nego-
A million people celebrate the
tiations in Split until an agreement was finally found: Jadroplov parted with
“Love Parade” in Berlin.
their share, however, a surcharge of 10 percent was added onto the scrap value. The Bremer Landesbank, who were financing the purchase price, proved
1998
themselves to be very cooperative.
In a train accident in
An end was later made to the murky structure of Jadroplov/SSM
Eschede 101 people are killed.
- the technical Ship Management (SSM) were in a splendid position, while
For the first time in the his-
the shipping company (Jadroplov) continued to go downhill, it was close to
tory of the Federal Repub-
bankruptcy - the shipping company was rescued in 2000/2001, whereby Voge-
lic, the governing party is
mann and the Hamburg ship-owner Peter Döhle were substantially involved.
completely replaced by the
One result of this was that Vogemann was allowed to exclusively handle the
Opposition: At the elections
chartering matters of the three Jadroplov bulk carriers, “Ist”, “Solta” and “Don
for the Bundestag, the Social
Frane Bulic”. This still applies to the latter ship even today, the others have
Democrats are the strong-
been sold meantime.
est parliamentary group.
How did the first years as a ship-owner balance out? They were
Gerhard Schröder forms
not exactly a success and several rather unpleasant experiences were had
a coalition government
along the way as well. Nevertheless, the new management were not to be
with the Green Party under
diverted from their new path.
Joschka Fischer.
In 2001, a shipping company from Taiwan offered six bulk carri-
Deutsche Post and Telekom
ers for sale. A crisis prevailed in the Far East, the freight rates were low, the
AG lose their monopolies in
shipping company was suffering from liquidity problems. Vogemann kept a
the postal and telephone
close watch on the developments. When one vessel after another was going
services.
at a low price, people in Hamburg started saying to themselves: What about
The concerns Daimler-Benz
us, can't we manage it as well? And so it was decided to take action. Liter-
and Chrysler join forces.
105
The world's largest
ally right at the last minute, the documents for the tender offer had landed
banking institute emerges
in the waste paper basket, Hans Boller fished them out again. The last two
through the fusion
from the previous fleet of six vessels, two 72,000 tonne bulk carriers built in
of Deutsche Bank and
1996, came to Vogemann, each for approximately 20 million US dollars and
Bankers Trust.
sailed from then on under the names of “Vogetrader” and “Vogevoyager”. The
Monica Lewinsky, a White
transaction was financed by the Hamburgische Landesbank. Vogemann have
House intern, accuses
built up an excellent relationship with them over the years. Jason Chan from
President Clinton of hav-
the company Wallem was equally helpful in providing assistance.
ing had sexual contact
“Vogetrader” and “Vogevoyager” were chartered back to the sell-
with her.
ing companies for ten years, in the form of a Bareboat Charter in fact, where-
Great Britain and Ireland
by the charterer himself is responsible for ship management and must bear
sign the “Good Friday
the costs of maintenance, repairs and operating supplies during the period
Agreement” in the North-
of use. This practice is rare in the shipping business, but was useful in this
ern Ireland peace process.
instance as Vogemann were not willing to contract the technical management
out to a third party again following the bad episode with the “Marul”, however,
1999
After the failure of the
as pure chartering brokers they were not - yet - in a position to handle the
technical management through their own shipping company.
Kosovo peace conference
Vogemann had granted the Taiwanese a buyback option after six
in Paris, NATO begins air
years at the level of the original purchase price of approximately 20 million US
strikes on Yugoslavia.
As a result, the Yugoslavian army pulls out of
Kosovo.
The euro is introduced
as a cashless form of
payment.
The federal government
and twelve German companies agree on a foundation to compensate former
slave labourers under the
Nazi regime.
Oscar Lafontaine resigns
from his office as Party
Chairman of the SPD and
as Finance Minister of
the Schröder/Fischer
government.
View of the bridge aboard the “Xin Shi Hai” which became the “Voge West”.
106
dollars. In 2001, the likelihood of this option being exercised was still regarded as
Germany takes part in the
extremely far-fetched, however, in the following years, markets for bulk carriers
international peace-
developed in a direction which exceeded all expectations: By the end of 2006, the
keeping force in Kosovo
market value for the then ten-year-old vessels had risen to 35 million US dollars
(KFOR).
already. Since Vogemann wanted to keep the vessels, they bought the buyback
Opening of the Jewish
option back from the Taiwanese for a two-figure million US dollar sum. When
Museum in Berlin, de-
the purchase price is factored in, Vogemann had paid more than 35 million US
signed by Daniel Libeskind.
dollars each for the vessels in doing this. But the money was well invested. In
The Bundestag makes
2007, “Vogetrader” and “Vogevoyager” were sold to a closed-end shipping fund,
the decision to build a
still managed by Vogemann as contract carrier today, for 43 million US dollars
Holocaust memorial in
each. One year later, a price of more than 60 million could have been attained,
Berlin according to plans
but nobody could have foreseen that at the time.
designed by
Peter Eisenman.
A contract of sales as thick as a book. Such advantageous
offers as the previous one from Taiwan do not come around so often, was
World population figures
cross the six billion mark.
the thinking at Vogemanns. However, a short time later yet another plum
offer landed on the table again. This one came from a Norwegian shipping
company who were being compelled by their bank to sell the entire fleet.
Two Panamax carriers were included which fitted into the Vogemann concept
well. The purchase price of each was 15.5 million US dollars. The vessels
had been chartered out to the Chinese state shipping company Cosco for ten
Günter Grass receives the
years. Cosco would have the opportunity of dropping out of the charter if
Nobel Prize in Literature.
the ship-owner changed hands. Therefore, Vogemann would have to buy the
The film by Tom Tykwer,
ship-owners companies in order not to lose the charter. This made the buy-
“Run Lola run” receives
ing negotiations in Norway exceedingly difficult. There were ten men sitting
eight awards at the Ger-
around the table, lawyers and accountants amongst them who were to assess
man Film Awards Festival.
the mortgage and point out any fiscal considerations.
The contract of sale which was eventually thrashed out, was as
2000
thick as a book. The banks willingly went along with it, the good name of the
Angela Merkel becomes
Chinese state ship-owners went a long way towards smoothing the financial
party leader of the CDU.
path. In the contract of sale, Vogemann was awarded the option of buying
The Federal Government
themselves out of the charter after a six-year period for 1 million dollars.
and the nuclear industry
And this is what the company did in 2008. The 70,000 tonne vessel “Xin Shi
agree to withdraw from
Hai” was then called “Voge West”, the 68,000 tonne vessel “Xin Xing Hai” be-
nuclear energy.
came “Belem”. At the present time, the latter is chartered out to the Hamburg
Same-gender couples
Süd-Gruppe for a five-year period. The – rarely used – principal of Bareboat
can enter a marriage-like
Charter was also brought into action with both of the Norwegians as well.
commitment (registered
Now though, it was about time for business to start taking a different tack.
partnership) in Germany.
107
108
Everyday life on board
A ship calmly crossing the ocean
and seamen absorbed in their
work - photos taken during a
voyage with the Handysize bulk
carrier “Voge Eva” in January
2010.
109
In the Treaty of Nice, Heads
Reederei Roth responsible for technical management. Vogemann
of State and Government
found a reliable partner in Hamburg-based Reederei Roth to take over the
of the European Union
technical management. Roth owned three Panamax bulk carriers themselves
agree to expand the EU
and managed five tween deckers formerly operated in a South America - Far
eastwards.
East liner service by Pro Line Carriers of Hamburg. But since four of these five
Licences for the next mobile
units were bound for scrapping, Roth was interested in filling this gap with
phone generation UMTS are
Vogemann vessels.
The first carrier to come under Roth's technical management
auctioned for 98.8 billion DM.
was the “Greta R”, named after Udo Wiese's mother, Greta Reinkendorff.
Vogemann acquired her in early 2003 from a shipping company based in Monte Carlo for 10.1 million US dollars. The transaction was brokered through
the company Hamburg Bulkcarrier (HBC), who also took part as partners and
raised equity capital via their emission house. “Greta R” remained in VogeThe World's Fair “Expo
2000” opens in Hanover.
mann's possession until 2009 and was chartered out to Alfred C. Toepfer in
most cases .
“Greta R” in heavy seas off the Japanese coast.
110
The next one to come along was the “Ulla R”. But before an
2001
acquisition could be made, something occurred which once again demon-
In the face of international pro-
strated on just what shaky ground you could sometimes find yourself when
tests, the Afghan Taliban order
buying and selling ships. In point of fact, Vogemann actually had their eye on
the destruction of the Buddha
a different ship. This was a 50,000 tonne vessel, around 20 years old, from
statues from Bamyan.
the fleet of the Turkish ship-owner Karahasan. He had financed his vessels
through the Hamburgische Landesbank but was involved in a dispute with
them and this had resulted in the bank detaining his entire fleet, a total of
five ships, and inviting tenders for compulsory auction. The vessel which Vogemann was interested in, lay in Chinese Tianjin, formerly known as Tientsin.
Market valuation and prospects for charter were favourable,
Muslim terrorists, members of
so Vogemann decided to bid and deposited one million dollars in securi-
the al-Qaida network, hijack four
ty with the auction house in Tianjin. A delegation left for China in order
passenger planes in America and
to be present at the auction. On the evening of arrival, the news came in
divert them into the Pentagon
that: Charter rates are increasing. This meant that the value of the vessel
and the World Trade Center in
also increased. At the auction, a higher price would presumably be reached
New York. The US demand extra-
than was originally thought. This necessitated Vogemann into tackling the
dition of the al-Qaida founder,
proposed charterer, Alfred C. Toepfer, into improving the charter agree-
Osama bin Laden from the Tali-
ment which had previously been agreed. Toepfer promised to oblige. So
ban regime in Afghanistan.
duly armed, the people from Vogemann entered the auction. There were 25
For the first time in its his-
bidders registered, of these three remained: One Chinese, one Greek and
tory NATO invokes Article 5,
Vogemann. The Greek made all the running and his tender was the one to
the mutual self-defence clause,
be accepted, although for some reason or another he had been spared from
Germany also participates in the
having to provide a deposit as security.
War on Terror.
Without having achieved anything, the people from Vogemann
In the PISA country comparison
had to return to Hamburg. And there they were met with the news: The auc-
of school performance, Germany
tion house refused to hand over the deposited million. The money never ar-
reaches one of the lowest ratings.
rived, was what they had been told. Udo Wiese had to set off back to the Far
Opening of the new Federal
East once more. He negotiated twice in Tianjin. There was always at least ten
Chancellery in Berlin.
men sitting round the table. In the beginning, a Chinese interpreter who was
The Deutsche Angestellten
able to speak excellent German was also present. However, she was soon
Gewerkschaft (DAG (German
replaced by a male colleague who was unable to speak either German or
Salaried Employees' Union)) and
English. After great difficulty, the language-competent Chinese lady was suc-
four other employee representa-
cessfully brought back again. But even with well-chosen words, the matter
tives of civil servants join forces
could still not be resolved. To this day Udo Wiese is completely convinced that
to become the trade union “ver.
the negotiations would have gone on forever, had he not been completely un-
di”. With more than 3 million
Chinese and at a certain point rudely walloped the table. But this meant that
members it is the world's largest
Vogemann finally got their money.
single trade union.
111
2002
A trial initiated to ban the
Compulsory auction in Singapore. This all occurred in the October of 2003. “Ulla R” entered the Vogemann fleet as a new acquisition in
far-right NPD is suspended by
November. A vessel which also came from the ownership of Karahasan, a
the Verfassungsgericht (the
43,000 tonne vessel which at the time was still called “Edip Karahasan”. The
highest court in Germany).
vessel was awaiting compulsory auction in Singapore. On this occasion, nobody from Vogemann went there, they left it up to a local solicitor to bid on
Vogemann's behalf and followed the auction by telephone. Jens Arndt had the
solicitor on the line, Alan Woo the Korean company who had been won to act
as charterer. The telephones had been put on hands-free so that each could
hear the other and knew just at what point everything was at.
The euro is introduced as notes
The final decision fell when it was three o'clock in the morning
and coins in Germany and a
in Hamburg. The bid from Vogemann against the last remaining competitor
further eleven countries.
was accepted, by the way, this was exactly the same man from Greece who
Switzerland becomes
had excelled over the Hamburg people in Tianjin. The last offer was put at
the 190th member of the
12.6 million dollars, an enormous sum of money and the financiers from the
United Nations.
Hamburgische Landesbank (who were now called the HSH Nordbank fol-
A former student of the
lowing their merger with the Landesbank Schleswig-Holstein a few months
Gutenberg-Gymnasium (gram-
previous) were appalled when they heard how much it was, but still agreed
mar school) in Erfurt, runs
in the end.
Vessels from a compulsory auction are free from encumbrances,
amok shooting 14 teachers
and two students before turn-
this is a basic principle in shipping. However, this is not recognised in Turkey,
ing the gun on himself.
or at least not in instances where the auction takes place outside of Turkey.
A commission headed by
A vessel which is registered in Turkey, still continues to remain Turkish fol-
the former VW manager
lowing an auction in a foreign country. Vogemann was not aware of this, and
Hartz develops plans for “Ich-
the other buyers who acquired vessels from the Karahasan fleet were also
AGs” (Me, Inc.) and “Mini-Jobs”
not aware of this, and were forced to undergo the experience of having their
in reforms to the German
vessels arrested whenever they put into ports in which the previous owner
labour market.
had been able to furnish prima facie evidence for his possessory claims to the
In Shanghai, the Transrapid
authorities. In any case, the Bosporus was to be avoided, the difficulty being
monorail completes its maiden
that even when a security for the ship was deposited, once she was arrested,
journey.
there was no certainty of her being released again.
For the most part, the cargoes that were to be transported by
World Summit of the
United Nations (UN) in
the “Ulla R” originated from ports in the Black Sea, which meant that it was
Johannesburg on poverty
not always possible to avoid sailing into Turkish territorial waters. In spite of
reduction and environmental
this trading limitation, the vessel could be successfully operated and even
protection.
when the vessel was disposed of in 2006, a work-around was found. “Ulla R”
The “flood of the century” on
was sold to a Chinese shipping company who operates the freighter solely
the Elbe.
between the Chinese ports - Karahasan's arm does not extend that far. And
112
“Ulla R” with the San Francisco skyline in the background.
it was still a good business deal for the investors attracted from the HBC
2003
Capital Consult as the Chinese paid 15 million US dollars for the carrier.
In a coalition of the willing,
the US eliminates the regime
Grand finale on Christmas Eve. November 2003, the year had
of Saddam Hussein. The
not yet drawn to a close. “Neigh on weekly”, this is how the shareholders
dictator of Iraq is suspected
remember the frequency of vessels being purchased. “Bulk Asia” and “Bulk
of developing weapons of
Europe” were the names of the last two additions to this year, modern 2001
mass destruction.
Japanese built Capesize bulk carriers, each with a cargo carrying capacity of
Federal Chancellor
more than 170,000 tonnes. They belonged to the shipping company Livanos
Schröder refuses German
in Monte Carlo. The situation was not due to necessity, the shipping company
participation in the attack.
wanted to sell in order to optimise their balance sheets and were thinking of
The FDP politician
chartering the vessels back for a seven-year period. This time it was HCI who
Jürgen Möllemann
took on raising investors. The Grand Finale of the purchase negotiations took
commits suicide.
113
IG-Metall breaks off the
strike to introduce the
place on Christmas Eve and for a sum of 52 million US dollars apiece, both of
the giants changed owners.
Cooperation with Reederei Roth, who continued to be responsi-
35-hour week into the new
federal states.
In Perl-Nenning in the
Saarland, a new German
record temperature is
ble for technical management, became even closer. Vogemann took over 20
percent of the shares and were instrumental in the management relinquishing their premises in the Hamburg City Nord and moving into the building in
Hallerstraße 40, which has been the headquarters of Vogemann since 2004.
In 2004, yet another mishap of the kind that never seems to
measured at 40.8 degree
Celsius.
leave business life behind happened again. The keyword is “Top Glory”. Top
Federal Chancellor
Glory is the name of the Chinese trading house to which a shipping company
Schröder presents a
also belonged. They, in turn, wanted to get rid of its entire fleet of bulk carri-
programme of reforms
ers in a single stroke. An invitation to take part in purchase negotiations was
(“Agenda 2010”) to improve
issued to Vogemann from Beijing. And so Udo Wiese and Jens Arndt travelled
the prevailing circum-
there. Together with solicitors, brokers and representatives from HCI, they
stances of the economy and
sat in a row facing at least ten Chinese from the trading house Top Glory.
relieve the burden on the
A chairman solemnly opened the meeting and proceeded to hold a speech
municipalities, combined
with cuts in social services.
which lasted for an hour. An interpreter translated but it was completely inadequate. As far as the guests were able to make out, the speech dealt solely
The Serbian Prime Minister
with the flourishing business that the Top Glory house was making all over
Zoran Djindjic is assassi-
the world. Not a single word about any kind of vessel that might be available
nated in Belgrade.
for purchase. Then, after an hour, the curt message: The vessels were sold
The International Criminal
to somebody else yesterday. End of session, all rose. It transpired later that
Court in Den Haag begins
its work.
Worldwide occurrence of
the previously unknown
pulmonary disease SARS.
According to the “Red List”
of the World Conservation
Union IUCN, there are more
than 12,000 threatened species of animal and plants
worldwide.
The filming of Caroline Link's best-selling
novel “Nowhere in Africa” is
awarded the Oscar for the
best foreign language film.
“Voge Katja” with a cargo of timber leaving the port of Napier (New Zealand).
114
The Vogemann Family in the early 1950s. From left to right: Richard Vogemann,
Irma Vogemann, Herbert Vogemann; Renate Vogemann, son-in-law Paul Speckter.
Handysize bulk carrier “Lake Maja” joined the Vogemann fleet in the spring of 2005.
a buyer had existed for quite some time but the Chinese were probably only
2004
wanting to speed up the negotiations a little by involving interested parties
The EU is extended by ten
from the West. Incidentally, the chairman could most likely have given the
members (Estonia, Latvia,
desired information himself without the help of the bumbling interpreter. Be-
Lithuania, Malta, Poland,
cause as he accompanied the guests to the door and politely made Smalltalk,
Slovakia, Slovenia, Czech Republic,
it turned out that he spoke fluent English.
Hungary and Cyprus).
And then the painful experience was rounded off when the
Mass protests against the Hartz
evening meal that the people from Hamburg had been hoping to treat them-
IV laws on labour market reform
selves to, ended particularly unhappily. They met up in a fine restaurant
(amalgamation of unemployment
where one of the delegation who claimed to know about such things, with an
and social security benefits).
air of importance recommended a dish which was served in numerous small
bowls and which contained little in the way of anything edible. Udo Wiese
115
The following double-page spread:
“Vogerunner” under way.
116
117
All six defendants, includ-
came off best as he had mistrusted the recommendation and had simply or-
ing the head of Deutsche
dered himself some fried rice. At least he ended up being full, whilst the rest
Bank, Josef Ackermann,
of the party had to leave the table sad and hungry.
and the former IG-Metall
Chairman, Klaus Zwickel,
First of the Handysize bulk carrier sales. However, Vogemann
are acquitted at the trial
still had an alternative to the units from China to fall back on. This came
regarding million-euro
in the form of two Capesize carriers built in Spain in 1996 which were being
bonuses during the take-
offered by a Greek ship-owner who had, in turn, purchased these from the
over of the Mannesmann
large trading house Cargill. Vogemann had had links with Cargill for a long
corporation through
time. And this bore fruit, following the purchase of “Vogesailor” and “Voge-
Vodafone.
carrier”, both vessels could be chartered out to Cargill. For the time being,
The SPD suffers a setback
the purchase series of Capesize carriers was then closed with the acquisition
in the European Parlia-
of “Vogebulker” (ex “Heng Shan”) from the ownership of a Chinese-Canadian
ment elections, whilst
shipping company in Vancouver in 2004.
the Green Party obtain a
In spring 2005, Vogemann lined up the first of the Handysize
result in double-figures
bulk carriers in his fleet with the acquisition of “Lake Maja” (24,500 t) and
for the first time (11.9 %).
“Voge Katja” (23,900 t). By now, Vogemann was well stocked with Panamax
A tidal wave (Tsunami)
carriers and also with Capesize carriers too. The objective had been to have
caused by an undersea
around six or seven of each type available, and that had more or less been
earthquake devastates
reached. Now, the goal was to create a presence with the smaller class too;
the coastal region of
as a matter of fact, the Handysize segment was actually what Vogemann had
South-East Asia, approxi-
always regarded as being its main field of activity, even as a chartering broker
mately 300,000 people
too.
are killed.
By 2009, the number of Handysize carriers at Vogemann grew
During a terrorist attack
to seven, this included the three, “Voge Paul”, “Voge Renate” and “Voge Eva”,
on a commuter train in
taken over as a package from the Danish shipping company Clipper. In provid-
Madrid 200 people are
ing them with names this time round, Christian names were taken from the
killed.
families of the company's founder and partners: Renate Speckter, née Vogemann, Paul Speckter, Maja Wiese, Katja Wiese, Eva Arndt.
Up to that point, all acquisitions had been made second hand.
With all Handysize vessels in the fleet originating from around 1996 to 1998,
they were definitely not new-buildings. Vogemann decided to take the final
leap in early 2006. The Japanese shipyard in Osaka was commissioned with
A scandal is triggered
the order to build a Capesize carrier of 176,800 t. Discussions had already
by videos with images
taken place within the company. And the results of this was: Breaking new
of prisoner abuse at the
ground, planning over a longer period of time and taking higher risks than
hands of US soldiers in
before, was just something that they would have to get used to. Chartering
Iraq.
brokers deal with transactions within minutes or hours, possibly even days
118
Christening of the “Vogerunner” in Osaka.
but when something takes more than a week to complete, then usually there
With box office figures
is something wrong.
totalling 4.5 million, “Der
When purchasing a used vessel, negotiations take weeks or even
Untergang” (“Downfall”
months until they are wrapped up. But when dealing with a newbuilding; then
with Bruno Ganz in the
you are looking at years. Even if everything runs smoothly, it will almost cer-
role of Adolf Hitler)
tainly take 1 ½ years until delivery and if the shipyards' order books are full,
becomes one of the most
then it can take even longer. This notwithstanding, Vogemann decided to go for
successful films of the
the newbuilding. By doing this, it was possible to acquire vessels of exactly the
German post-war era.
right size and with the exact attributes that one wanted to have.
However, the shipping company were not given a great deal of
leeway in exercising any influence over the construction of their first born.
The shipyard had a clear vision of the vessel that they were to deliver and did
not permit discussions from outsiders, let alone any special requests. That
119
2005
would only interfere with the meticulously planned schedule, it was said. So,
The truck-toll system
making sure the necessary number of toilets required by the German See-
begins on German motor-
berufsgenossenschaft (Seamen's Accident Prevention and Insurance Associa-
ways.
tion) were fitted, required a tremendous amount of effort. Japanese regula-
Following defeat in the
tions did not require so many, so consequently they were not in the plans
North Rhine-Westphalian
and nobody in the shipyard wanted to alter the plans. Eventually though,
state election, Federal
additional toilets were incorporated, six in all - but they added an additional
Chancellor Schröder asks
105,000 dollars to the final bill. Before the shipyard started work, there were
for a vote of confidence in
several things which needed to be clarified and nobody at Vogemann had
the Bundestag. New elec-
reckoned with these. So, the people from Hamburg had to answer a compre-
tions are held, the CDU/
hensive list of questions regarding the history of the company. When did the
Handover of the “Voge Trust”. From left to right: Jens Arndt, the charterer Mr Y.K. Chung, the ship's godmother Mrs Chung, Alan Woo.
120
last owner with the name of Vogemann die, when did Paul Speckter go into
CSU are the strongest
retirement, the Japanese wanted to know all this. But the shipyard kept to all
parliamentary group.
the arrangements that had been laid down, great value is placed on contract
A Grand Coalition is
compliance in Japan, there was no question of renegotiating and Vogemann
formed with the SPD
discovered that once a customer had been accepted by one Japanese shipyard,
under Federal Chancellor
then he was also accepted as a reliable and trustworthy business-partner by
Angela Merkel.
the other Japanese shipyards.
Newbuilding under the German flag. The new vessel was delivered in December 2008 and was christened with the name of “Vogerunner”
by Christiane von Saldern, the daughter of Paul Speckter. A woman also took
over the command on board, Birte Jessen, one of five female captains that
Following the death of
exist in Germany. She is still employed by Vogemann and one of the best cap-
John Paul II, the German
tains in the Vogemann fleet.
Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger
Just like the Capesize bulker “Vogemaster” acquired in 2007, the
“Vogerunner” was also taken under the German flag. By doing this, Vogemann
ascends the Papal Throne
as Benedict XVI.
conformed to the negotiated agreement entered into by the German shipping
Seven years after being
companies whereby part of the total fleet is to sail under the German flag.
signed, the Kyoto Protocol
The growing fleet made it necessary to enlist a second shipping
on climate protection
company for technical management. This was the company Wallem, a ship-
comes into force.
ping company headquartered in Hong Kong and founded by the Norwegian
The European aircraft
Harkon Wallem towards the end of the 19th century. Wallem wanted (and
manufacturer, Airbus,
needed) to establish a branch office in Germany at the end of 2004 in order
presents the A 380 in
to acquire shipping companies as customers for technical management. The
Toulouse, the largest
model of depreciation which had dominated ship investments for decades
civilian commercial
looked like it was coming to the end of the road. In order to be able to reap
aircraft in the world.
the benefits of the tonnage tax system with its low, flat taxation that now
Lufthansa takes over
existed, technical management was required to have its headquarters based
the Swiss airline
in Germany. In this way, the state secures revenue from wage- and income
company Swiss.
taxes. Wallem, like so many other foreign ship managers, therefore founded a
Inauguration of the Holo-
branch office in Hamburg, Wallem Germany. To begin with, only a single per-
caust memorial in Berlin.
son, Captain Joe Corcoran from England, acted as a representative. Nowadays,
The newly re-constructed
Wallem Germany which has relocated into the old Vogemann headquarters
Frauenkirche in Dresden
in Hallerstraße 57, has around 30 members of staff. The company (Vogemann
is solemnly consecrated
holds around 41 percent of its shares) is currently Technical Manager for 30
60 years after being
vessels, ten of which come from the Vogemann fleet. Wallem had gained ex-
destroyed by bombs.
perience in the tanker business and was held in esteem by the oil majors. This
motivated Vogemann into expanding its newbuilding programme to tankers.
121
2006
The Football World Cup
held in Germany turns into
a “Summer Fairytale” for
the enthusiastic crowds.
However, the German team
are defeated by Italy, dashing any hopes of being in the
final game.
A special reporter from the
United Nations criticises the
German school system and
the discrimination of foreign
Excerpt from the Kenyan newspaper “The Star” on the accident with the “Voge
Trust”. The oil spill feared by so many, never materialised.
children in education.
After all attempts to capture
him fail, the brown bear
The “Voge Dignity” and “Voge Trust”, two product tankers each of 38,000 t and
“Bruno”, wild to the Tyrol
completed in 2009 at Guangzhou Shipyard International (China), were handed
and Bavaria, is shot by
over to Wallem's technical management. For the time being, however, they
Bavarian hunters.
remained the only tank vessels flying the Vogemann flag.
In contrast, giant strides were being made in the Handysize
2007
segment. Since late 2006, negotiations for construction of 12 vessels, each
Germany is host to the G8
of 35,000 t, have been taking place with the Indian shipyards ABG at their
summit meeting at Heiligen-
new location in Dahej, north-west of Mumbai. Delivery of the first vessel is
damm on the Baltic Sea.
expected to be in the second half of 2011. Vogemann maintains their own
Romania and Bulgaria join
team at ABG to supervise construction. Jens Arndt and Markus Lange had
the EU.
planned to visit there on the 26th November 2008, this visit could have
The Conservative Nicolas
ended disastrously for the two men had it not been cancelled at the last
Sarkozy wins the run-off
minute. It was on this very date, 26th November 2008, that attacks took
election for the presidency
place on several buildings in Mumbai by Islamic terrorists, with at least
in France.
163 people losing their lives. One of the terrorists' targets was the Taj Ma-
The radical Islamic
Hamas gain control of the
Gaza Strip.
hal Hotel and it was this very hotel that the people from Hamburg were
booked into. If their journey had taken place as planned, they could possibly have been involved in the kidnappings, bomb explosions and gunfire
122
that had taken place there. Vogemann had a number of new experiences
with the Indian shipyard. In Japan, they had got to know a tight system with
a high degree of automation. During the build there were very few workers
to be seen, management had calculated processes down to the smallest
detail and no deviations were allowed, but they always adhered strictly to
the conditions which had been agreed. Hierarchies and authorisation could
Knut, the baby polar bear,
be clearly recognised at any given moment. In China, on the other hand,
captivates people in Berlin.
far greater numbers of personnel were used; whenever there was a break,
Germany records the warm-
crowds of workers streamed out of the ship but who exactly had the final say
est winter since the start of
and in which area that was, could not always be determined and one always
regular weather readings
had to be prepared for subsequent corrections to the contract terms. India
in 1901.
was a different matter again, here it was necessary to meet the possible
Satellite pictures show that
delays with patience, nerve and a talent for improvisation.
the Northwest Passage off
Vogemann also increased its middle segment as well. Two Kam-
Canada's coast is ice-free
sarmax bulk carriers of 80,000 t each have just been delivered: “Voge Chal-
for the first time in 30 years,
lenger”, built by New Times/New Century close to Shanghai in December 2010,
making it navigable for
and “Voge Enterprise”, built by Cosco in Dalian (China) in February 2011.
shipping.
Accidents and the hazards of piracy. Vogemann vessels are
2008
not immune to accidents. When Hurricane “Katrina” struck the coastal re-
In Hamburg, the CDU and
gion of the United States in the Gulf of Mexico in August 2005, the “Greta R”
Grün-Alternative Liste
lay at anchor in the Mississippi. The chains broke, the vessel was adrift and
(GAL (Green Alternative List))
rammed the jetty. A tug offered to help but demanded that a guarantee of
form an alliance
cost transfers be signed first. There was subsequently a long debate about
government.
the millions that the recovery operation should cost. In the chaos that dominated the coast, repair services could scarcely be found and when somebody
did come, then he had difficulty reaching the vessel which, of course, was
not lying peacefully at the quayside, but lay somewhere out there in a wasteland, where the difference between shipping route and flooded land could no
longer be distinguished.
The French President
Even though harbour pilots were on board, the tanker “Voge
Nicolas Sarkozy marries the
Trust” ran aground in the port of Mombasa on her maiden voyage in December
singer Carla Bruni.
2009. Water poured through a leak in the shell plating, the vessel developed
The Bundesmarine takes
a list. To the spectators gathered on the shore, this appeared to be dangerous
part in Operation “Atalanta”
and people were also apprehensive that an ecological disaster caused by the
to combat piracy off the
escaping oil would occur. But fortunately, it was only the outer shell that was
Horn of Africa.
damaged, the inner shell of the double hull held and the repair was relatively
Dresdner Bank is taken over
easy to accomplish.
by the Commerzbank.
123
A month later, in January 2010, it was the turn of the “Voge
trader” in Hawaii. Even though a harbour pilot was on board on this occasion
too and two tug boats were assisting the vessel, despite the excellent weather
conditions and clear visibility she ran aground on a reef on her approach to
the moorings. It still remains a mystery as to how this happened. Aerial phoInsolvency of the US
tographs show the stuck freighter at the edge of a shipping channel which is
investment bank Lehman
clearly recognisable by the darker colour of the water, all she needed to have
Brothers aggravates the
done was to sail straight ahead. But the harbour pilot, instead of explaining
international financial
himself, disappeared straight after the accident and was not seen again.
The Vogemann shipping company also had to make the ac-
crisis. Germany launches a
bank rescue package with
quaintance of pirates off the Horn of Africa as well. The radar showed on at
a volume of 480 billion
least one occasion several caper boats approaching, which quickly turned
euros.
about however, when the vessel made a distress call and a helicopter from
The Democrat Barack
the Atalanta Mission appeared.
Obama wins the Presiden-
And the crisis? Since 2008, worst hit by the tremors of the fi-
tial Candidacy in the US.
The car concerns General
nancial market has been container shipping, followed by tanker shipping and
Motors and Chrysler are
finally also - even if not to the same extent - bulk carriers. Financial models
saved from bankruptcy by
with raised capital had previously perished. The emission houses fell short
emergency loans.
of their promises, Vogemann needed to find the necessary equity capital to
Opening of the Svalbard
finance newbuildings themselves.
Global Seed Vault on the
Island of Spitsbergen.
2009
After the Bundestag elections, a coalition government under Angela Merkel
is formed with CDU/CSU
and FDP.
The G20 agree on billions
in aid to combat the economic and financial crisis.
The Bundestag and Bundesrat resolve to introduce
a “Schuldenbremse” (debt
brake) into the constitution for debt reduction.
Barbed wire on the ship's side as protection against pirates.
124
Israel wages a military
offensive against the
Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
Irreplaceable cultural
objects are lost when the
city archives in Cologne
collapse.
2010
The federal government
adopts an austerity package for debt reduction.
A mass panic at the
Love Parade in Duisburg
The second-youngest Vogemann newbuilding, Kamsarmax bulk carrier “Voge Challenger”
casting off from the quay of the Chinese shipyards New Time/New Century.
causes the death of 21
people.
This burden went right up to the pain threshold and, sometimes,
even beyond. The banks behaviour altered under the conditions of the crisis.
Structures which the banks had hitherto approved without any problems were
suddenly no longer supported.
Despite all the criticism levelled at the banks, they did not leave
the shipping companies with their problems out in the cold. Restructuring
Horst Köhler stands down
of the “Voge Trust”, re-organisation of the Indian newbuildings and cancel-
from the office of Federal
lation of the “Voge Spirit” were enormous challenges which could not have
President, successor is
been overcome single-handedly without support from the banks. However, a
Lower Saxony's Prime
bitter taste still remains: The Vogemann partner, the emission houses, were
Minister, Christian Wulff.
not asked to pay up. A short time later, their bosses stood facing the press
and announced tender green shoots of profits again. In banker's jargon, this
is known as asymmetrical distribution of burden. In spite of the tight financial
squeeze, even during the most difficult time in early 2009, Vogemann was
still in a position to kick-start two fresh acquisitions. “Voge Lucia” and “Voge
Lena” were financed during the zenith of the crisis. The Bremer Landesbank
A drilling platform in
played a significant role in this and, in so doing, provided an exemplary pillar
the Gulf of Mexico sinks
of support to Vogemann.
causing a devastating oil
The realisation of these projects gives rise to confidence that
spill.
collecting equity from private investors and obtaining loans from the banks
The Ruhr region is
will also be possible in the future. A business model which has been in exist-
declared a European
ence for 400 years and which will continue to exist in the future too.
Capital of Culture.
125
126
3
6
13
12
4
1
14
15
10
8
5
2
9
20
18
17
21
22
19
24
27
26
23 25
16
11
7
32
29
28
34
30
31
36
33
35
39
38
37
41
40
43
42
44
46
47
48
45
The Vogemann Crew
1 Hauke Wetzel Chartering Manager
2 Moritz Hartmann Trainee
3 Tabea Ohlendorf Chartering
4 Steven Jacob Chartering Manager
5 Monika Fabich Accounting
6 Heike Kraschutzki Accounting
7 Kai Elsen Director, Chartering
8 Frank Kruss Accounting
9 Ilka Auerswald Accounting
10 Jevgenij Gorelik Facility Management
11 Heike Patjens Accounting
12 Jurik Harmeyer Trainee
13 Olaf Brüning Manager IT Systems
14 Ivana Kravar Operations
15 Lioba Müller Accounting
16 Nicole Riedemann Accounting
17 Karl Mohr Head of Operations
18 Philipp Sichtling Chartering Manager
19 Roland Hensel Managing Director
20 Andreas Rau Accounting
21 Jens Wanitschke Project Manager
22 Andreea Stoica Accounting
23 Angelique Richter Reception/
Assistance
24 Tim-Philipp Werkholz Trainee
25 Valeri Zaika Facility Management
26 Frank Jensen Director, Chartering
27 Saskia Drews Head of Accounting
28 Melanie Wriedt Assistance
29 Markus Lange Managing Director
30 Jens-Michael Arndt
Managing Director
31 Lars Rudebeck Director, Chartering
32 Nils Luedecke Chartering Manager
33 Udo Wiese Managing Director
34 Stephanie Collée
Head of Ship Finanance/Controlling
35 Alan Woo Managing Director
36 Maria Katsaouni Operations,
Chartering
37 Aleksander Niemas Chartering
38 Alexander Dreißig Chartering
Manager
39 Romina Cob Arranz Operations
127
40 Olaf Münch Deputy Head of
Accounting
41 Robert Stegen Ship Finance/
Controlling
42 Anika Harms Chartering Manager
43 Stefan Boldt Project Manager
44 Peter Brasch Operations Manager,
Chartering
45 Franziska Klier Operations
46 Angela Reimann Operations
Manager, Chartering
47 Marion Haaks Operations, Chartering
48 Renate Neumann Operations
Manager, Chartering
Not present:
Rüdiger Hartwig Project Manager,
Chartering
Britta Strehlau Reception/Assistance
Harald Schmidt IT Administrator
Ophelia Peters Administration
In memoriam Friedemann Bedürftig
Concept of this book originated from my long-time friend,
and a friend. Everybody who knew him, and he was known
the Hamburg author Friedemann Bedürftig. It was intended
by many at Vogemann, will forever remember his profound
that Friedemann Bedürftig write the text and should conduct
knowledge, his attentiveness for the world around him, his
the necessary interviews and that his colleague, Reinhard
humour and his straightforwardness in the realm of interper-
Barth, with whom he had already collaborated on many book
sonal relationships.
projects, should be in charge of photo acquisition, editing and
Friedemann
Bedürftig
design. However, it was not possible to sustain this division of
labour. In the summer of 2010, a serious illness forced Friede-
Hamburg, in March 2011
mann Bedürftig to hand over work on the text to his colleague
Barth, to begin with only in part, but then completely. He was
Udo Wiese
not able to see the book's completion as he died in November
Managing Partner
2010. With him, I have lost an exceptional conversationalist
H. Vogemann Group of Companies
Acknowledgement
We would like to express our heartfelt
schungsstelle für Zeitgeschichte in Hamburg
Harring-Detlef Arndt, Roland Hensel, Frank
thanks to the following Hamburg institu-
and Jürgen-Wolfgang Goette from the Erich-
Jensen, Lars Rudebeck, Paul Speckter, Udo
tions for supplying photo material: Museum
Mühsam-Gesellschaft in Lübeck as well as
Wiese, Alan Woo. Furthermore, the authors
für Hamburgische Geschichte, Hamburger
Willem Meier from the company H.F. Navi-
were also permitted to use written records
Kunsthalle, Denkmalschutzamt Bildarchiv,
gator in Hamburg and Max Johns from the
from Harring-Detlef Arndt, Markus Lange
Museum der Arbeit.
German Shipowners’ Association.
and Paul Speckter.
Valuable factual information was
The following people made them-
provided by Prof Frank Bajohr from the For-
selves available for interview: Jens Arndt,
Stefan Boldt and Tabea Ohlendorf
helped with picture acquisition.
Picture credits
Archive for Art and History Berlin: Pg 8 side
margin bottom, 10, 11 side margin, 14 and side
margin bottom, 16 left, 16 side margin, 20, 21 side
margin bottom, 24 side margin, 26 side margin,
27 side margin, 29 side margin, 30 side margin,
31, 33 side margin top, 36 side margin bottom, 37
side margin, 44 side margin middle, 45 side
margin middle, 52 side margin, 68 side margin,
69 side margin, 74 side margin, 91 side margin
Denkmalschutzamt Hamburg photo archives:
Pg 11, 18, 25, 32, 43, 44, 49, 54, 57
Kunsthalle Hamburg: Pg 79
Museum der Arbeit Hamburg: Pg 34, 36
Museum für hamburgische Geschichte: Pg 12/13,
38/39
Christoph Papsch: Pg 4, 108/109, 116/117
Picture alliance/dpa: Pg 102 side margin, 10 side Robert Krewaldt, Bonn: Pg 9 side margin top
margin, 71 side margin top, 87 side margin
In the public domain: 9 side margin bottom, 10
bottom, 105 side margin, 107 side margin, 110–112
side margin, 15 side margin, 17 side margin, 18
side margin, 118 side margin, 121–124 side margin
side margin top, 19 side margin, 20 side margin,
Vogemann company archives: Pg 8 side margin
21 side margin top, 23 side margin, 28 side
top, 9 side margin top, 14 side margin top, 21, 23, margin, 34 side margin, 35 side margin top, 42
29, 41, 42, 51–53, 56, 58, 59, 61–65, 66 side
side margin (Gus Pasquerella), 43 side margin
margin bottom, 67, 68, 70, 72, 73–75, 80, 81, 83,
bottom, 44 side margin, 45 side margin bottom,
83 side margin 85, 88, 90, 91, 93, 95, 95 side
49 side margin, 50 side margin bottom, 53 side
margin, 97, 99, 103, 104, 106, 110, 113–115, 119,
margin, 54 side margin bottom, 57 side margin
120, 122, 124, 125
top, 62 side margin bottom (Library of Congress),
70 side margin bottom, 71 side margin bottom
Christian Zentner, Munich: Pg 16 right, 56 side
(Library of Congress), 73 side margin, 75 side
margin, 60 side margin, 62 side margin top, 66
margin, 77 side margin (Berthold Werner), 80 side
side margin top, 69 side margin, 70 side margin
margin, 87 side margin top, 90 side margin,
top, 78, 78 side margin, 81 side margin, 85 side
96–97 side margin
margin, 89 side margin, 95 side margin, 99 side
margin, 33 side margin bottom, 63 side margin
Henry Mühlpfordt: 25 side margin
128
Bayer: 18 side margin bottom
Bernhard Hossner: 31 side margin
German Federal Archives: 32 side margin, 35 side
margin bottom, 36 side margin top, 40 side
margin, 43 side margin top (Lange, Eitel), 48 side
margin, 50 side margin top, 55 side margin, 57
side margin bottom, 61 side margin, 76 side
margin, , 82 side margin, 84 side margin, 88 side
margin, 92–94 side margin
World Telegram staff photographer: 41 side
margin
National Archives USA: 45 side margin top
Lars-Göran Lindgren, Sweden: 54 side margin
Kroelleboelle: 59 side margin
Thomas Zarges: 126/127
www.vogemann.de

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