Steamship company "Neptune"
The steam shipping company "Neptun" , mostly short D. G. "Neptun" , also called Neptun Line , was a shipping company in Bremen from 1873 to 1974 .
history
The company was founded on April 1, 1873 by Johann Hermann Niemann and other Bremen merchants, who had operated a shipping company with three ships in the Scandinavian trade since 1869 . In the years 1870/71 these three ships sailed under the Swedish flag due to the Franco-Prussian War , which was later reminiscent of the chimney colors blue and yellow.
After the founding of the steamship company "Neptun", the shipping area was expanded considerably, initially with six ships. In addition to liner services from the German Baltic Sea ports to all parts of the Baltic Sea, Rotterdam and Amsterdam were also served from 1875, and soon also Belgium. In 1877 a Bremen – Hamburg service was started and the range of shipping was quickly expanded to include the ports of the Iberian Peninsula.
By the First World War , the fleet had grown to 76 freight steamers with a carrying capacity of 78,000 tons. In the course of the war, the shipping company operated exclusively in the Baltic Sea, with around 20 of the company's ships (other source: about every second ship) lost.
From 1920 onwards, the shipping company began building up large parts of the services in its old shipping area. The tonnage used was built up again, with the Gauss, the first motor ship, being put into service in 1925 . From 1925 to 1953, Franz Stickan was sole chairman of the board and thus head of the shipping company. In the years of the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939) the liner service to Spain was interrupted. At the beginning of the Second World War , the "Neptun" again had 71 ships, which in the first years of the war could even be expanded to 87 ships with a carrying capacity of 149,000 tons. The war years from 1939 to 1945 then reduced the fleet to only 16 ships with a deadweight of 14,000 tons (other source: 13 ships).
In the post-war years from around 1948 the D. G. "Neptun" began to set up liner services again. Starting with the Bremen – West Sweden service, the focus of liner services shifted from Scandinavia to Belgium / Holland, Spain / Portugal, as the changed distribution of the Baltic Sea ports meant that a significant part of the trade there was lost. As early as 1950 the "Neptun" had rebuilt most of the pre-war services and was able to put the first post-war newbuilding into service with the motor ship Libelle .
After the majority of the shares had long been with Norddeutscher Lloyd , the Hamburg shipping company Rob took over . M. Sloman 1973 only around 75 percent of the shares and in 1974, after the acquisition of the remaining shares, completely incorporated them into their group as Sloman Neptun Schiffahrts-AG . This shipping company has its headquarters in Bremen.
Building of the Neptune shipping company
The Neptun administration building in Bremen's old town was built in 1869 in the classicism style between Langenstrasse 52/54 and Kranpforte. Today it is a listed building ; ( For monument protection see here ).