Deutsche Afrika-Linien / John T. Essberger Group of Companies
| Deutsche Afrika-Linien / John T. Essberger Group of Companies
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| legal form | GmbH & Co. KG |
| founding | 1924 |
| Seat | Hamburg |
| management | Managing directors: Heinrich von Rantzau, Eberhart von Rantzau, Hartmut Lühr |
| Number of employees | approx. 1200 to 1300 |
| sales | $ 350 million |
| Branch | Maritime transport |
| Website | www.rantzau.de |
| Status 2011 | |
The DAL German Afrika-Linien GmbH & Co. KG / John T. Essberger GmbH & Co. KG (DAL / JTE) is a Hamburg-based group of companies and was established in 1924th
Shipping company description
The DAL / JTE group is a ship owner and operates several shipping companies and related shipping services. A total of around 1200 to 1300 people are employed worldwide, generating annual sales of around US $ 350 million. The family business is run by the third generation of the Essberger and von Rantzau families. The company headquarters on the Palmaille in Hamburg-Altona is located on the Elbe and consists of an 18th century palace and several modern buildings.
In the main, the company consists of the following three parts:
- The liner shipping company Deutsche Afrika-Linien operates container and general cargo services from Europe to the Canary Islands, East and South Africa and ports in the Indian Ocean.
- Gas and chemical tankers are operated under the name Essberger Tankers.
- The John T. Essberger division owns and operates container and bulk carriers.
In addition, the group manning and chartering the fleet, offers logistics services, insurance and travel with the group’s own Hammonia travel agency.
history
John T. Essberger
The shipping company goes back to the native British John Theodor Essberger (1886-1959). He was naturalized in 1906 and led torpedo boats of the Imperial Navy during World War I. In 1924 he founded the Atlantik-Tank-Rhederei GmbH in Hamburg , which was converted into the sole proprietorship John T. Essberger in 1936. Essberger soon made a name for itself as a tanker shipping company and introduced a number of innovations in the design and construction of tankers. He became the largest German private shipowner and chairman of the Association of German Shipowners . During the time of National Socialism he was named "Leader of German Maritime Shipping".
German Africa Lines
In 1942 Essberger took over the Woermann Line, founded in 1885, and the German East Africa Line, founded in 1890, with its line rights for Africa from the cigarette manufacturer Philipp Fürchtegott Reemtsma . The latter had only acquired the shares of the two companies in 1941, but passed them on to Essberger shortly afterwards. After the end of the Second World War, he continued the German East Africa Line as Deutsche Afrika Linien and gave up the Woermann Line.
post war period
After the end of the war, the ships of the Essberger fleet were lost or were expropriated. Essberger began again to build up a new fleet and rose again, as it did between the world wars, to become the largest German private shipping company. After his death in 1959, the company was continued by his daughter Liselotte von Rantzau-Essberger . She succeeded in greatly expanding both the African services and the tanker service. This put the company in a situation that threatened its existence, as two large tankers had been ordered shortly before the 1973 oil crisis. The new ships were laid up in the Geltinger Bay in 1975 and later sold at a great loss.
Third generation of leaders
In the 1980s, Liselotte von Rantzau-Essberger's sons, Eberhart von Rantzau and Heinrich von Rantzau took over the management. They entered into line alliances with DAL, such as the South Africa Europe Container Service (SAECS) or from 1997 to 2008 SAFDAL, and expanded the tanker business to include the transport of chemicals. Since then, the fleet has expanded slowly but steadily.
Today the DAL / John T. Essberger fleet comprises 34 dry freighters and tankers. The shipping company recently ordered four 123-meter-long chemical tankers, each costing 20 million euros, from the Turkish shipyard Eregli Gemi in Istanbul. The Caroline Essberger , the first of the ships, was not taken over on time and with quality defects in June 2009 and was improved and completed in Rotterdam. The shipping company was able to cancel the three sister ships.
See also
Web links
- Internet presence of the shipping company
- Report in the Hamburger Abendblatt from June 19, 2010
- The shipping company at searates
- Timetables / brochures at timetableimages (English)
- Report in the Hamburger Abendblatt from April 23, 2008
Individual evidence
- ^ Svante Domizlaff: John T. Essberger: a German history of tank shipping , Koehlers Verlagsgesellschaft, 1999, p. 7.
- ↑ OMGUS: Investigation against Deutsche Bank - 1946/47 . Franz Greno, Nördlingen 1985, ISBN 3-921568-66-8 , p. 391 f.