Ferdinand Laeisz
Ferdinand Laeisz (pronounced: "Leiß", * January 2, 1801 in Hamburg ; † February 7, 1887 ibid) was a German merchant and shipowner .
Life
Ferdinand Laeisz was the son of the businessman Johann Hartwig Laeisz and his wife Catharina Maria Greve. After a rather short school period, Laeisz completed an apprenticeship as a bookbinder in his hometown . Then he became a wandering journeyman on the roll and learned during this time in Berlin , the production of silk hats.
In 1824 Laeisz returned to Hamburg and founded a small trading company; later the shipping company F. Laeisz should emerge from it. In the following year he married Johanna Ulrike Catharina Creutzburg, a daughter of the elderly man of the local hatmaker's guild, Nikolaus Carl Creutzburg. In the same year Laeisz was able to acquire citizenship in Hamburg .
With this Laeisz was entitled, as a master of the Hamburg hat maker guild, to manufacture and sell hats made of silk. The export of these hats - especially to South America - increased to such an extent that Laeisz was able to set up a branch there in every major city over the next twenty years. Over time, more and more colonial goods such as cotton , cocoa , coffee , rubber , tobacco and sugar were imported to Hamburg via these branches and Laeisz was able to close his Hamburg shop as early as 1832.
In 1840 Laeisz had his first ship built on his own account - a sailing ship with a displacement of 400 tons - and as early as 1847 he was instrumental in founding the Hamburg-American Packetfahrt-Actien-Gesellschaft , or Hapag for short. Together with two colleagues, he worked there on the management board for over ten years. But it wasn't until his son Carl Laeisz joined the company as a partner that the shipping company made the leap to become one of the most important companies in Hamburg's economy.
Laeisz was a member of Hamburg's citizenship from 1859 until the end of his life , and from 1871 he was also elected senior president several times. His social commitment was always more important to him than any political office. Folk kitchens and public baths were set up on his initiative. His Laeisz Stift was opened in 1860 and was in use until it was destroyed in World War II . In 1861 he founded a seaman's fund and in the same year financed the Hamburg rescue association . The latter went on in 1865 in the German Society for the Rescue of Shipwrecked DGzRS .
Ferdinand Laeisz died on February 7, 1887 in Hamburg at the age of 86. He was buried in the extensive graves of the Meerwein , Canel , Hanssen , and Laeisz families in Hamburg's Ohlsdorf cemetery .
Works
- Memories from the life of an old hamburger. Hamburg 1891, OCLC 603027786 . (Reprint: Christians, Hamburg 1974, ISBN 3-7672-0259-X )
See also
literature
- Gerhard Ahrens: Laeisz, Ferdinand. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 13, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1982, ISBN 3-428-00194-X , p. 399 ( digitized version ).
- Susanne Wiborg and Klaus Wiborg: 1847–1997. Our field is the world - 150 years of Hapag-Lloyd . Festschrift published by Hapag-Lloyd AG, Hamburg 1997 ISBN 3-921305-36-5
Individual evidence
- ↑ Family grave at frederiks.de
- ↑ Photos and biography at knerger.de
Web links
- Literature by and about Ferdinand Laeisz in the catalog of the German National Library
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Laeisz, Ferdinand |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German merchant and shipowner. MdHB |
| DATE OF BIRTH | January 2, 1801 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Hamburg |
| DATE OF DEATH | February 7, 1887 |
| Place of death | Hamburg |