Karl Bollmeyer

Karl Bollmeyer (born June 25, 1887 in Nienburg / Weser ; † July 1, 1982 in Bremen ) was a German businessman and president of the Bremen Chamber of Commerce .

biography

After his school days, Bollmeyer completed a commercial apprenticeship in Magdeburg . He was then employed in Vienna and Budapest . From 1912 to 1914 he worked as an employee in America, including at the Bremen trading company Adolf Held. When the First World War broke out , he returned to Bremen and became a partner in the Held company. In 1923 he joined the völkisch movement and was close to the völkisch Ludendorff movement . In 1927 he became senior boss of the trading and colonial company Held (Hako). Despite the setbacks caused by the economic crisis of 1928/30, the company was able to hold its own, also because of the significant holdings of land in Colombia .

Bollmeyer was also involved in the Antioquia Bank .

On January 1, 1932, Bollmeyer joined the NSDAP . He was an important representative of the National Socialists . From 1933 to 1943 he was President of the Bremen Chamber of Commerce , which was renamed the Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Chamber of Commerce) in 1934. In 1939 he was additionally appointed to the Bremen State Council . After the dissolution of the chambers of commerce and handicrafts, from 1943 to 1945 he was given the task of president of the newly founded Gau Chamber of Commerce for the Reichsgau Weser-Ems, based in Bremen. During this time he was, among other things, deputy chairman of the supervisory board of Norddeutscher Lloyd .

In 1935 he also became a member of the Haus Seefahrt Foundation , in which Bremen's leading economic bourgeoisie is organized and whose “ Schaffermessen” took place again from 1936 to 1939 to establish important economic contacts in the German Reich . In his speech as the creator of the Schaffermahlzeit in 1937, he emphasized that “nobody felt more grateful and joyful than us at the water's edge” when, in the last four years, the Führer and his loyal followers had just accomplished a gigantic work , Germany freed from Bolshevism and the chains of the Versailles Treaty , restored her military sovereignty and given her social peace ”.

In view of the impending defeat in World War II , in April 1945 he was in favor of the city of Bremen being surrendered without a fight in order not to endanger the remainder of the Bremen businesses that had been preserved. An attempt to kill the combat commander of Bremen Lieutenant General Fritz Becker by assassination failed. Bollmeyer had to go into hiding for a few days.

After the end of the war, in May 1945 he was commissioned to reorganize the Bremen Chamber of Commerce. In July 1945, however, he was arrested. In the denazification process he was classified as a minor, later as a follower. However, he worked for the Held company until the 1960s. He then represented a Colombian coffee company. He remained in the plenary session of the Bremen Chamber of Commerce until 1961/62. He was also deputy chairman of the Ibero-Amerika-Bank in Bremen and a member of the supervisory boards of the Bremer Lagerhausgesellschaft , the German steamship company "Hansa" and Germanischer Lloyd .

Honors

In 1957, the Bremen Chamber of Commerce honored its long-time President Bollmeyer on his seventieth birthday, without showing any distance to his Nazi past and the role of the Chamber in National Socialism :

“This special day gave the Chamber of Commerce another opportunity to express the thanks of the merchants to the jubilee, in particular for not using the length of the interruption as an excuse to withdraw from any work in the Chamber of Commerce after a long time in the presidency, but to go to the free ones Elections to the chamber again followed the call and was elected to the plenary. Since then, Mr. Bollmeyer has repeatedly made his experience available for all important decisions and has made a significant contribution to the fact that the younger gentlemen were also able to adopt the proven tradition of Schütting . "

literature

• Herbert Black Forest : The Great Bremen Lexicon . 2nd, updated, revised and expanded edition. Edition Temmen , Bremen 2003, ISBN 3-86108-693-X .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Dieter Pfliegensdörfer: From commercial center to armorers. Economy, state and working class in Bremen from 1929 to 1945. University of Bremen Research focus on work and education, Bremen 1986, p. 112ff / 432, p. 433, note 107.
2. ^ Karl H. Schwebel : "Haus Seefahrt", Bremen, his merchants and captains. Four hundred years of service to the German seaman, 1545–1945 . Verlag H. Krohn, Bremen 1947, p. 76.
3. ^ Karl H. Schwebel: "Seafaring House" Bremen. His merchants and captains . Bremen 1947, p. 18.
4. ↑ Heinz-Gerd Hofschen: "Faithful to its tradition, Bremen's economy is firm, standing behind the Führer with sincere admiration and gratitude, working" - on the history of the Bremen Schaffermahles 1933–1938 In: Bremen 1933–45. From trading center to armaments smiths. Catalog for the exhibition in the Schlachthof cultural center. Bremen 1983, from plates 65–70. Schaffermahl revisited large brown spots found . In: the left . Retrieved on June 20, 2019  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )
5. ↑ Bremen 1933-45. From trading center to armaments smiths. Catalog for the exhibition in the Schlachthof cultural center. Bremen 1983, plates 54–60.