August Evers

August Karl Otto Evers (born April 22, 1841 in Hamburg ; † June 2, 1904 in Kobe ) was a German businessman , entrepreneur in Germany and Japan and an active promoter of German-Japanese cooperation.

Life and professional history

August Evers was born in Hamburg in 1841 as the son of a businessman. He grew up in Hamburg, attended school there and began an apprenticeship as a businessman. After completing his professional training, he got a job at the Hamburg company Wachsmuth & Krogmann. It was a shipping company that also ran import and export businesses. He himself worked here in a small agency in Hamburg. After gaining initial experience in the job, he had the desire to come to China in order to be able to work commercially from there. So he chose a merchant ship to take him to Hong Kong . There he went ashore in the spring of 1862.

On October 26, 1872, he married Caroline Mathilde Hammermond († January 8, 1897) in Hamburg. The marriage resulted in four children, all of whom were born in Kobe .

Working as a German-Japanese entrepreneur

On the crossing from Germany to China he had met the German entrepreneur Louis Kniffler, who came from Düsseldorf and who had founded a company in Yokohama in 1859. He offered him a job in his company in Nagasaki , which August Evers also took on at the end of 1862. Since he had found his way into the circle of German business people in Yokohama , he was elected president of the "Club Germania" located there for the years from 1866 to 1868. The business development and his commitment continued and so in 1867 he received power of attorney for the company L. Kniffler & Co. In the same year he was given the task of setting up a new branch for the company in Kobe . Since the Japanese government was offering the purchase of land for foreign business people from the beginning of next year, he acquired a 50-hectare building plot with the number 12 on the outskirts of Kobe of L.Kniffler & Co. - Hyogo branch near Kobe.

At the same time August Evers was appointed consul of the North German Confederation and the German Empire in Hyoge. On August 18, 1868, together with other German merchants, he founded the "Club Union" at the location, of which he became president. Due to the later difficult financial situation, the club had to be dissolved again in the mid-1870s and the club building sold. In order to have a certain representation of the German merchants in Hyogo, rooms were rented in the city's "International Club". By 1872 the region around Kobe had developed into a very attractive trading center for foreign merchants. That is why the German Consulate General in Yokohama appointed Vice Consul Dr. Heinrich Johann Focke (1843–1916) sent to Hyoko to take on the German representation.

During August Evert's vacation in Hamburg in 1872, he met the German Julius Simon (1846-1893) who was active in Yokohama. Due to the similarity of their views as well as almost identical interests regarding the development of the Japanese market, both made friends and agreed to use the industrialization that was beginning in Japan to build up a joint company. After returning to Japan, both terminated their current contracts and founded the company Simon, Evers & Co. (SECO). The entry in the Hamburg commercial register took place on January 2, 1873 under the no. 13453. The registration in Japan with branches in Kobe and Yokohama was made promptly . In August of the same year, August Evert traveled to Japan with his wife. For the time being, Julius Simon stayed in Hamburg to organize business activities from Germany. They selected Martin Burchardt, Julius Simon's cousin and later honorary consul of the embassy in Tokyo, to head the Yokohama branch.

When the German Society for Nature and Ethnology of East Asia (OAG) was founded on March 22nd, 1873 , August Evers was one of the founding members. In the following years he gave the society moral and financial support several times.

In just two years it was possible to put the business development of the newly founded company Simon, Evers & Co. (SECO) on a firm footing, so that from 1875 August Evers was able to concentrate fully on the work of the branch in Kobe . They purchased "SEC" brand rice as consignment goods from the Japanese government and delivered it to Holland and Germany. On the way back, they brought chemicals, paints, drugstore items, textiles, iron wire and wire pegs to Japan. Through a close cooperation with the steamship shipping company of the Kingsin Line, they were also involved in ship sales to Japan. Business continued until the newly built Japanese shipyards themselves had achieved sufficient production for domestic needs. Due to the strong development of the Japanese industry itself, especially in the field of chemical production, metal processing, shipbuilding and mechanical engineering, the company had to repeatedly adjust to new trade goods for Japan. This was also thanks to good, forward-looking work and soon SECO was exporting complete machine systems, braking systems for the Japanese state railway and electric elevators. Even heating systems, including those for the Imperial Palace, were soon part of the delivery range. The country's increasing energy demand soon also became part of the business area. They supplied complete small power plants, water turbines, gasoline engines, and upgrades for the electrification of cities.

On October 22, 1879, August Evers was involved in founding an organization for foreign merchants in Kobe , the "Club Concordia". The aim was to create harmony with regard to common interests, to coordinate business procedures and to create a cultural center as a meeting point for the merchants or as a meeting place. In August 1882 Evers was elected as 2nd President and held this office until 1890. During its business days, membership increased and the club experienced healthy organizational and financial development. On March 3, 1996, the club building burned down due to technical damage, but thanks to the initiative of its members, it was able to reopen on November 11 of the following year. So great was the need for a common social center for the Germans living in Kobe.

When the co-owner of the company Simon, Evers & Co. (SECO), Julius Simon, died, Maximilian Kaufmann in Yokohama and Albert Simon, the son of brother Georg Simon, in Kobe were appointed as the new managing directors on January 1, 1903 . SECO had already worked closely with L.Leybold Shokan with offices in Tokyo and Osaka since 1895. The company had primarily specialized in trading in high-quality machine systems and thereby contributed to a significant increase in the technical know-how of SECO's business areas. In 1904 August Evers became a partner in L. Leybold Shokan.

August Evers died on June 2, 1904 in Kobe. He was buried in the Ono cemetery in Kobe next to his wife Caroline Evers, who died in 1897.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Maria Möring: Simon, Evers & Co. GmbH (1873-1973) . Verlag Hanseat Merkur, Hamburg 1973, p. 23 ff . (Biographical information on August Evers).
2. ↑ ^{a b c d} Welcome to SECO! Historical development of the SECO company and description of the founding members. In: simonevers.com. Retrieved November 27, 2018 . 
3. ^ Max von Brandt : Thirty-three years in East Asia - memories of a German ambassador . tape 1 . Leipzig 1901.
4. ↑ OAG - German Society for Nature and Ethnology of East Asia (Tokyo) - 公益 社 団 法人 オ ー ア ー ゲ ー ・ ド イ ツ 東洋 文化 研究 協会. In: oag.jp. Retrieved November 27, 2018 . 
5. ↑ Bernd Lepach: Meiji portraits. In: meiji-portraits.de. Retrieved November 28, 2018 .