Adolph Woermann

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Adolph Woermann

Adolph Woermann (born December 10, 1847 in Hamburg ; † May 4, 1911 at the Grönwohld farm near Trittau ) was a Hamburg overseas merchant , shipowner and politician who played a key role in establishing the German colonies in Africa .

At that time, Adolph Woermann became the largest German West Africa merchant and, with the Woermann line, the largest private shipping company in the world.

Short biography

Adolph Woermann 1905
Grave slab in the Ohlsdorf cemetery

Adolph Woermann was the second son of the businessman and shipping company founder Carl Woermann . He attended the learned school of the Johanneum in Hamburg and completed a commercial training. For five years he learned in various international trading branches, especially in the West African factories of Woermann. Since his older brother Karl Woermann was not interested in the retail trade and devoted himself to art history , Adolph Woermann became a partner in his father's trading company C. Woermann instead . In 1879 Adolph Woermann was appointed to the Hamburg Chamber of Commerce , of which he was a member until 1908, of which 1883/84 and from 1899 to 1902 as President . After the death of his father, Adolph Woermann took over the C. Woermann company completely in 1880 and ran it until his death in 1910.

From 1880 to 1904 he was a member of the Hamburg parliament , in which he joined the faction of the right . From 1884 to 1890 he was elected to the Reichstag for the National Liberal Party as one of three members of the Hamburg parliament. In 1890 he was appointed to the newly founded Colonial Council, an advisory body for colonial issues that helped determine the main features of German colonial policy. In 1891 Adolph Woermann, together with F. Laeisz , became chairman of the supervisory board at the Blohm + Voss shipyard .

Adolph Woermann's eldest son Carl Woermann (1886–1950) was less interested in the family business and instead ran a large farm in German South West Africa , today's Namibia ( Farm Gras , today Gras Game Lodge ). After Adolph Woermann's death, the company was therefore continued by his half-brother Eduard Woermann (1863–1920) and later by Adolph's second son Kurt Woermann (1888–1951). Adolph's daughter Hedwig Woermann became a sculptor , painter and artisan . After his death, his wife Gertrud († 1945) established the Adolph Woermann Memorial Foundation in Hamburg, which still exists today .

Adolph Woermann was buried in the grave of his family in the Ohlsdorf cemetery , grid square Q 24.

King Bell of the Duala
Signature of Eduard Woermann
Confirmation of protection contract Cameroon.jpg
Cameroonian “ Protection Contract ”:
Signature “Ed. Woermanns "
as a witness (marked in yellow)

Africa trade by C. Woermann

The C. Woermann company, which Adolph Woermann took over, originally traded in Westphalian linen in Africa. Later she switched to mainly trading brandy , weapons and gunpowder from the German Empire for palm oil and rubber . These barter deals, especially the liquor trade, which was greatly expanded under Adolph Woermann, were very controversial and were discussed several times in the Reichstag. On May 14, 1889, Adolf Stoecker introduced an application which dealt exclusively with the prohibition or restriction of the export of spirits to West Africa. Woermann pointed out in the debate that brandy distilleries in Africa were criticized, although they were also considered "something so useful" in Germany, and went on to say:

“This liquor trade in Africa is viewed with the greatest jealousy by a number of other nations, indeed by almost all other nations. That was the point by which the Germans were able to drill their way into trade in West Africa at all and so firmly establish themselves in Africa's trade that they now have a very important power there, and that German trade in West Africa has a very important one plays an important role ... "

- Adolph Woermann : Reichstag minutes, 67th session of May 14, 1889, p. 1743

The emergence of the African colonies

In June 1883, Adolph Woermann wrote a memorandum in which Hanseatic trade campaigned for a new Africa policy and demanded protection from the German Empire. The letter was accepted by the Hamburg Chamber of Commerce and forwarded to the Reich government . In addition to securing trade from British and French competition and eliminating internal African trade, the “acquisition of a stretch of coast in West Africa to establish a trading colony Biafra Bai ”, that is to say on the coast of today's Cameroon or southeastern Nigeria, was called for.

Due to his high reputation, Adolph Woermann succeeded in asserting these positions and goals, and from 1883 he was an advisor to Imperial Chancellor Otto von Bismarck .

On July 12, 1884 , a treaty was signed with the African tribal leader of the Duala, King Bell . This transferred the sovereignty, legal authority and administration of the starting area of Cameroon to C. Woermann and to the company Jantzen & Thormälen (founded in 1874 by two former employees of C. Woermann ) . The contract was confirmed on July 15, 1884 with twelve other African tribal chiefs of Cameroon. To secure the palm oil trade, these areas were placed under the "protection" of the Reich (so-called " German protected areas "). The contracts were signed in a trading post by C. Woermann and signed on the German side by Eduard Woermann, a younger brother of Adolph Woermann, among others. In order to regulate the division of Africa between the great powers in a binding manner, the Congo Conference was held in Berlin from November 15, 1884 to February 23, 1885 , in which Adolph Woermann took part.

Merchants from the Hamburg company Woermann, working together with colonial officials and the military, planned to drive out the residents of the Cameroon River and to get the intermediate trade with palm oil suppliers from the hinterland under control. In Africa there are two treasures to be exploited, explained the senior trading company Adolph Woermann, "the fertility of the soil and the labor of many millions of negroes".

Creation of the Woermann Line and the German East-Africa Line

Steamer of the German East Africa Line in the port of Zanzibar , 1901

In 1880, when Adolph Woermann took over, the trading company C. Woermann owned twelve sailing ships and one steamship . They were only used to transport their own merchandise. Over the next few years, the sailing ships were gradually sold and replaced by other steamers - the so-called "Woermanndampfer", which were named primarily after family members. From 1882 a regular ship connection with Nigeria was established, from 1884 a regular connection to Cameroon. In 1885 all ships were spun off into their own company, the African Steamship Corporation , which became known as the Woermann Line (colors: green-white-blue-white-green against a black background). In 1891 trade was expanded to German South West Africa (today's Namibia ), and in 1896 it set up a liner service along the entire west coast of Africa.

"Haus Woermann":
trading house and shipping company

In 1888 the imperial government asked Adolph Woermann to work out plans for the establishment of a steamship line to East Africa, since the shipping of goods in particular was only possible irregularly and often took months. Adolph Woermann submitted his proposals to the government. But it was not until January 1890 that the Chancellor, after approval by the Reichstag, tendered a subsidy of 900,000 marks for a German company that set up a shipping line to East Africa for ten years. No interested company was found, possibly because it was known that North German Lloyd was making financial losses on its subsidized lines. Instead, several German banks and Hamburg merchants (including the companies Woermann, F. Laeisz , August Bolten and Hansen & Co ) formed a consortium that established the German East Africa Line (DOAL; colors: black-white-red -white-black against a yellow background). Adolph Woermann was only involved with 2.5% of the initial capital (6 million marks). Due to the experience of the Woermann line in Africa, the owners of C. Woermann took over management. Adolph Woermann himself became chairman of the supervisory board, Eduard Woermann and Eduard Bohlen from the Woermann family formed the executive board. In practice, the Woermann line and the DOAL were under the same corporate management.

The Herero uprising

Departure "Alexandra Woermann" 1904

On January 11, 1904, the Herero uprising broke out in German South West Africa (Namibia) . The only shipping company that offered a regular connection to South West Africa at that time was the Woermann Line. For example, the military transports, a total of 15,000 soldiers and 11,000 horses during the war, were handled almost exclusively via the Woermann line.

When the budget for the war was being debated in the Reichstag in March 1906 , Center Party MP Matthias Erzberger revealed that the Woermann Line had billed the Reich around 6 million Reichsmarks in excessive freight charges and inconsistent demurrage fees during the war. This would have made Adolph Woermann one of the greatest profiteers of the war against the Herero. Albert Ballin , Director of HAPAG , took Adolph Woermann under protection and claimed that the higher fees were justified by extraordinary costs. However, Kaiser Wilhelm II did not want to receive Adolph Woermann on his visits to Hamburg.

Further development of the company

At the turn of the century, the pressure of competition in the African business had increased, above all as a result of the newly established Hamburg-Bremen Africa Line . In 1907 Woermann therefore had to merge with HAPAG , the then largest shipping company in the Reich, and sell shares.

Woermann House in Swakopmund

1909 took over C.Woermann the Damara and Namaqua Handelsgesellschaft mbH , including the later so named Woermannhauses , now a national monument and one of the attractions of Swakopmund (Namibia). In Woermann Brock & Co. renamed, the trading company his brother Eduard and in-laws Max Brock and was initially led by Adolph Woermann, Arnold Amsinck continued. From 1960 Konrad Woermann and from 1998 his sons Jesko Woermann and Ingo Woermann continued the company under the name " Woermann & Brock ". Today it is one of the largest supermarket chains in Namibia.

After Adolph Woermann's death, the company was taken over by his brother Eduard Woermann and Adolph's son Kurt Woermann. When the First World War broke out in 1914, the Woermann Line owned 29 ships for the West and South West Africa voyages as well as eleven coastal ships. (For comparison: the three German West African lines Woermann-Linie, Hamburg-Afrika-Linie and Bremer Westafrika-Linie had a total of 107 steamers in 1911; the English lines had 349 steamers.) At that time, the DOAL owned 23 steamers.

The end of the great shipping lines came with the First World War, in which the companies lost almost all of their ships. Between the world wars, the lines were only partially able to regain their previous position before the Second World War led to further losses. After the Second World War, the DOAL became part of the Deutsche Afrika-Linien / John T. Essberger , whose logo shows the DOAL flag in the foreground. The Woermann shipping company was still active for a few years and was finally sold to a Belgian company with its liner rights in the 1980s.

The trading company C. Woermann also had to be fundamentally restructured several times in the course of the 20th century, mainly due to the losses in the world wars. Today C. Woermann GmbH & Co. KG is a medium-sized import and export company that specializes primarily in auto parts, machines and steel. It works in Africa with several companies of the same name in Nigeria (since 1954), Ghana (since 1966) and Angola (since 2005).

Dedication names

Alexander Pagenstecher named Woermann's long- tongued flying fox ( Megaloglossus woermanni ) after Adolph Woermann in 1885 .

literature

  • T. Bohner: The Woermanns . Frundsberg-Verlag, Berlin 1935.
  • K. Brackmann: Fifty Years of German Africa Shipping. The history of the Woermann Line and the German East Africa Line . Publishers Dietrich Reimer / Andrews & Steiner, Berlin 1935.
  • HH Hermann and B. Federau: Woermann Line and West Africa 1849–1974 . Hans Christians Verlag, Hamburg 1974.
  • Franklin Kopitzsch (Hrsg.): Hamburgische Biographie. Lexicon of persons Volume 1, Christians-Verlag, Hamburg, 2001, ISBN 3-7672-1364-8
  • Renate Hücking, Ekkehard Launer: Turning people into negroes. How the Woermann trading company developed in Africa. Galgenberg-Verlag, Hamburg 1986, ISBN 3-925387-08-0
  • Heiko Möhle (Ed.): Brandy, Bibles and Bananas. German colonialism - a search for clues in Hamburg. Verlag Libertäre Assoziation, Hamburg 1999, 3rd edition, ISBN 3-922611-72-9
  • Hans B. Moltmann: History of the German merchant shipping. Verlag Hanseatischer Merkur, Hamburg 1981, ISBN 3-922857-02-7
  • Ulrich Van der Heyden and Joachim Zeller (eds.): Colonial metropolis Berlin. A search for clues. Berlin Edition, Berlin 2002, ISBN 3-8148-0092-3

Web links

Commons : Adolph Woermann  - Album with pictures, videos and audio files
Wikisource: Newspaper note (Schiffsnachrichten) from January 2, 1906  - sources and full texts

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Klaus J. Bade: Friedrich Fabri and Imperialism in the Bismarckian Age. Revolution - Depression - Expansion. (PDF; 3.0 MB) Freiburg i.Br. 1975, 2005 (2005 with a new foreword: Osnabrück), p. 362 (accessed on November 23, 2006)
  2. ↑ Klaus J. Bade: Friedrich Fabri and Imperialism in the Bismarckian Age. Revolution - Depression - Expansion. (PDF; 3.0 MB) Freiburg i.Br. 1975, 2005 (2005 with a new foreword: Osnabrück), p. 315 (accessed on November 23, 2006)
  3. ↑ 1871-1914. The German Colony of Cameroon , from the website of the German Historical Museum, accessed on November 13, 2006
  4. ^ Foundation website
  5. ↑ see Moltmann: History of German Merchant Shipping. P. 158
  6. ↑ palm oil was then, as it sought the almost expectant whale oil as a lubricant and as margarine -Grundstoff ( Palmin replaced).
  7. ↑ see for example the exports to the Congo, description of the exports by C. Woermann 1883. in German Reichstag , 6th legislative period, 1st session 1884–1885: Reichstag protocol 92. Volume file 290: Congo question ; Annex 2 to No. 4, p. 1649 is linked; Copy of the original on the website of the Digital Library - Munich Digitization Center (MDZ) of the Bavarian State Library (accessed on January 13, 2011)
  8. ↑ For example, during the budget debate on February 4, 1885, see Minutes 41st Session, p. 1084 ff Reichstag Protocols 88. Volume 41, Session: Consultations on supplements to the Reich budget for 1885/86 ; the link is to the minutes of the 41st meeting, p. 1084; Copy of the original on the website of the Digital Library - Munich Digitization Center (MDZ) of the Bavarian State Library (accessed on January 13, 2011)
  9. ↑ Reichstag Protocols Volume 120, 1889/90, meeting on May 14, 1889, p. 1743 (accessed on January 13, 2011)
  10. ^ A b Leonore Koschnick: "Towards new shores!" - Colonial acquisitions. Article on the website of the German Historical Museum , accessed on November 13, 2006.
  11. ^ Möhle: Brandy, Bibles and Bananas. P. 23 and p. 40
  12. ↑ German Reichstag , 6th legislative period, 1st session 1884–1885: Reichstag protocols Volume 91. File 41: Togo region and Biafra-Bai , in which the memorandum is placed on file; The beginning of the memorandum is linked on p. 116, the exact quotation is on p. 122; Copy of the original on the website of the Digital Library - Munich Digitization Center (MDZ) of the Bavarian State Library (accessed on January 13, 2011)
  13. ↑ One hundred and fifty years of Commerzbank 1870-2020 , Eugen Gutmann Society (2020)
  14. ↑ Hans Hielscher: German Colonialists in Cameroon: The tragedy around Rudolf Manga Bell . In: Spiegel Online . August 6, 2019 ( spiegel.de [accessed August 11, 2019]).
  15. ↑ Eugen Fischer: Life story of an old Africa pioneer. Written by Eugen Fischer for his children and grandchildren ( Memento from February 5, 2005 in the Internet Archive ) p. 28 (accessed on November 23, 2006)
  16. ↑ Sebastian Mantei: From the "sand can" to the communication network. The history of the development of the post and telegraph system in the colony of German South West Africa (1884–1915) (PDF; 5.8 MB). Dissertation at the Philosophical Faculty of the Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, Department of Media and Communication Studies 2004. (accessed on November 13, 2006)
  17. ↑ a b c website dieter-engel.com: Deutsche Ost-Afrika Linie (accessed on November 21, 2006)
  18. ↑ Kopitzsch (Ed.): Hamburgische Biographie . Lexicon of Persons Volume 1, p. 348
  19. ^ Woermann House in Swakopmund on namibweb.com and Our history, in short - already trading in 3 centuries. at www.woermannbrock.com (both in English, accessed April 29, 2014)
  20. ↑ Eugen Fischer: Life story of an old Africa pioneer. Written by Eugen Fischer for his children and grandchildren. ( Memento of February 5, 2005 in the Internet Archive ) p. 50 (accessed on November 23, 2006)
  21. ^ Website of the Deutsche Afrika-Linien ( Memento from July 1, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
  22. ^ Albrecht Schreiber: Memorial Days I: Carl Woermann - The linen dealer from Bielefeld became a major shipping company from Hamburg. In: magazine for mourning culture. Volume 89 (II), 2005 (accessed November 21, 2006)
  23. ^ Website of C. Woermann GmbH & Co. KG ( Memento from April 15, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) (accessed on November 21, 2006)
personal data
SURNAME Woermann, Adolph
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German businessman, shipowner and politician (NLP), MdHB, MdR
DATE OF BIRTH December 10, 1847
PLACE OF BIRTH Hamburg
DATE OF DEATH May 4, 1911
Place of death on the Grönwohld farm near Trittau