Carl Stegmann (businessman)

Carl Stegmann (born October 26, 1881 in Geestemünde , Province of Hanover , † January 9, 1967 in Norden , Lower Saxony ) was a German merchant and shipowner .

Life

Although Carl Stegmann was not born in East Frisia, he spent almost his entire life here and identified with this home of his home. He moved north with his family at an early age, where his father Carl Stegmann ran the Ulrichs-Gymnasium. After graduating from high school, Stegmann studied pharmacology in Hanover and Marburg and initially worked as a pharmacist in Norden. During his studies he became a member of the Association of German Students in Marburg .

After a few years, after the death of his father-in-law, he took over the wine wholesaling company U. Groenefeld. His real sphere of activity, however, was the North Frisia shipping company founded in 1871 . In 1923 he joined the supervisory board, in 1929 switched to the management board, of which he remained chairman for over three decades, and then rejoined the supervisory board in 1960, to which he belonged until his death.

As shipping company director, he shaped a period in which East Friesland also became part of an extensive bathing and mass tourism industry and gradually changed its economic structures. Under his leadership, the company created a modern infrastructure in difficult times in order to cope with the changed requirements. New, modern ships for the transport of people and freight, an adaptation to the changed traffic habits with the creation of parking facilities for tourists in Norddeich , the modernization of the island facilities and the construction of a new island pier on Juist after the destruction of the old wooden landing stage in a winter storm in 1947 essentially on Stegmann's account.

The region recognized Stegmann's abilities early on. As early as 1923 he became a member of the plenary assembly of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry for East Friesland and Papenburg and was a member of it for thirty-five years. In 1945 he was appointed its vice-president and, after the democratic restructuring, also elected. In 1950 the Chamber elected him as its President and in 1958, after his retirement, as Honorary President.

The second important field of work for Stegmann in terms of association policy was the Ostfriesland regional tourism association. It was founded in the 1920s at Stegmann's suggestion, and he was one of its leading members for more than four decades. In 1945 he took over the chairmanship for several years and then became involved in the tourism organization at the federal level.

In addition to his economic activities, the commitment to his homeland East Friesland always played a central role for Stegmann. This began with his involvement in local politics in the north as a senator and district council member after the First World War or as a district administrator in the north and member of the district council after 1945, led to numerous board memberships in associations in his hometown and culminated in his work for the East Frisian landscape . First as landscape councilor, then, from 1954 to 1965, also as landscape president in succession to Jann Berghaus', he headed the East Frisian landscape in the difficult years after the fundamental constitutional reform of 1949/50. During his tenure u. a. the creation of a scientific library that was and is of great importance to the cultural identity of the region.

Without a doubt, Stegmann is one of the few important personalities in economic life that East Frisia can boast in the 20th century. The close connection between economic success and local ties is, however, typical for a number of merchants and entrepreneurs in the region. He was a member of the Masonic Lodge Z u den drei Sterne in Norden.

Honors

• 1952: Cross of Merit (Steckkreuz) of the Federal Republic of Germany
• 1955: Great Cross of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany

literature

• Sixty-five years of traffic to Juist. Memories from the history of shipping companies . In: Heim und Herd. Supplement to "Ostfriesischer Kurier" , 1936, No. 100, ISSN  1435-6368 (also as a special print)
• Landscape President Carl Stegmann. A man who dedicated his life and work to East Frisia . In: Rheiderland , No. 251 of October 25, 1956.
• Landscape President Carl Stegmann 75 years . In: Ostfriesische Rundschau , No. 252 of October 26, 1956.
• Well-wishers in the Chamber. Reception for President Stegmann . In: Ostfriesen-Zeitung , No. 254 of October 29, 1956.
• President Carl Stegmann 80 years old . In: Ostfriesland. Journal for Culture, Economy and Transport , 1961, no . 3, p. 1, ISSN  0030-6479 .
• President Carl Stegmann . In: Ostfriesischer Kurier of January 10, 1967, ISSN  1435-6368 .
• Paul Alfons Galbas: In memory of Carl Stegmann, the honorary president of the "East Frisian Landscape" . In: Ostfriesland. Zeitschrift für Kultur, Wirtschaft und Verkehr , 1967, no . 1, pp. 24-25, ISSN  0030-6479 .
• Carl Stegmann . In: Niedersächsische Wirtschaft , Vol. 47 (1967), pp. 70 and 97, ISSN  0341-1982 .
• Hermann Soeke Bakker: 100 years of shipping company Norden-Frisia . 1871-1971 . Soltau-Verlag, Norden 1971.
• Rainer Schulze: Entrepreneurial self-government and politics. The role of the Chambers of Commerce and Industry in Lower Saxony and Bremen as representatives of entrepreneurial interests after the end of the Second World War . Verlag Lax, Hildesheim 1988, ISBN 3-7848-3053-6 (also dissertation, University of Göttingen 1986).
• Dietmar von Reeken : Stegmann, Carl . In: Ders .: Biographisches Lexikon für Ostfriesland, Vol. 2 (Landscape Library of the East Frisian Landscape). Ostfriesische Landschaftliche VG, Aurich 1997, pp. 346–348, ISBN 3-932206-00-2 .

Individual evidence

1. ^ The grave of Carl Stegmann on the website www.grabsteine-ostfriesland.de; accessed on January 11, 2014
2. ↑ Louis Lange (Ed.): Kyffhäuser Association of German Student Associations. Address book 1931. Berlin 1931, p. 218.
3. ↑ Document on the lodge's website
4. ↑ Sources: StAA, Dep. 1 (after 1945), 68. Literature: DBA NF