Argo shipping company

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Flag of the Argo shipping company
Steamer Swan 1907
Steamer Habicht 1938
Motor ship Aquila 1959
Ro-Ro freighter Aquila 1973

The Argo Reederei ( Argo Reederei Richard Adler & Sons , short Argo ) was an important German shipping company based in Bremen . The main focus of the activities was the line trip within Europe, in particular the trip to Finland , Great Britain and the Levant .

history

The shipping company emerged from the steam shipping company Argo AG , founded in 1896 . According to the Greek legend, Argo was the incredibly fast ship in the Argonauts legend . Argo AG was headed by Friedrich Bischoff from 1896 to 1920 . He brought five ships into the shipping company, and three more steamers were bought by the DH Wätjen shipping company . The office was initially at Albutenstrasse 1a. Lines to Russia and Mexico (only until 1897) were established. In 1897 the shipping company took over the liner services to Great Britain from North German Lloyd . In 1901 the liner service to Italy was added. In 1902 the Argo acquired the Hanseatische Dampfschiffahrtsgesellschaft AG in Lübeck ; the Baltic Sea traffic could be expanded. The Argo also participated in the shipping companies Atlas and the German Levante Line . In 1904 the line to New Orleans was discontinued. In 1912, Argo moved into Langenstrasse 104/106 as an office . With a fleet of 30 ocean-going vessels and a total tonnage of 44,504 GRT, the Argo rose to become the fourth largest shipping company in Bremen in 1914.

In 1922, the Argo was taken over by the Roland-Linie, which one year later became the property of Norddeutscher Lloyd. The Argo ceased to exist as an independent society. It was part of the Lloyd subsidiary Hanseatische Dampfschiffahrtsgesellschaft in Hamburg. In 1932 the Argo headquarters was back in Bremen.

In 1932, as part of the reorganization of German liner shipping activities, Argo Reederei AG was founded, initially 100% owned by Norddeutscher Lloyd and managed by Richard Adler. In 1934 the company was separated from the North German Lloyd and put into private hands. The ownership structure changed in favor of the Adler family, and from 1936 the company traded as Argo Reederei Richard Adler & Co. At the beginning of the Second World War , the shipping company had 44 ships with a tonnage of 54,270 GRT. In 1942 the connection to the Atlas Levant Line was broken.

Adler also set up the Adler shipyard as a port workshop for the Argo shipping company, which was destroyed in the Second World War and rebuilt in the Europahafen in Bremen in 1946 . In 1949, after moving to the Stephanikirchenweide, she built ships mostly for the Argo shipping company. The shipyard existed until 1964 and remained in the possession of Adler.

After the war, the Argo began in 1948 with small ships for voyages to England and Finland. In 1952 the Argo Nah-Ost Linien GmbH was founded, which looked after the interests of the shipping company in the journey to the Levante, and the pure family business, the Argo Reederei Richard Adler & Sons. The Adler shipyard in Bremen was taken over to rebuild its own fleet . This is also where the Aquila , the shipping company's largest ship, was built.

In 1961, the company's boss Richard Adler died. The company was continued by his sons Max and Richard, who, however, went their separate ways a short time later. In 1965, 23 ships were managed, and with 35 ships and 53,442 GRT, the company then reached its zenith. The company's headquarters were built in 1963 at Tiefer 12 as a new building.

The shipping company gave up more and more liner services in the late 1960s and 1970s. She then moved to rented rooms at Am Wall 187/189. In 1986 the shares in Levantefahrt were transferred to Hamburg Süd , and in 1992 the last own ship in service to Finland was sold. By 1998 only three ships were still in service for the shipping company. Since 1996 the trip to England has only been operated by one ship. This unit was also sold with the discontinuation of business activities in 2002.

Argo house

Langenstrasse 38-42

In Bremen, a building complex between Schlachte 23-26 and Langenstrasse 38-42 was called the Argo House . The office building and administration building were built in the decorative style of the turn of the century with Baroque and Renaissance forms in 1904/05 according to plans by Johann Georg Poppe for the Reis- und Handels-Actien-Gesellschaft Bremen (therefore also called "Reisbörse") on seven plots in the old town. The construction work was in the hands of Fritz Dunkel .

In 1923 the Argo shipping company acquired the building as its headquarters. The building was damaged in World War II. The facade facing Langenstrasse was retained. The renovations from 1947 to 1951 with the new facade in Schlachte were made by Karl Walter. The building was then the headquarters of the Argo shipping company. After the shipping company gave up the building in the 1970s, the Office for Urban Planning was housed here until 2002, as well as other companies at times. After that it was here u. a. the seat of the Bremen and Bremerhaven Labor (bba) of the Senator for Economic Affairs. The Bremen Casino has been located there since 2010 .

The building is a listed building ( see here ).

literature

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