Georg Carl Lahusen

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Georg Carl Lahusen

Christian Friedrich Georg Carl Lahusen (born July 17, 1888 in Delmenhorst ; † August 9, 1973 in Munich ) was a North German entrepreneur who took over the management of the North German Wool Combing & Worsted Spinning Mill ("North Wool") from his late father Carl Lahusen senior in 1921 . took over, and this together with his brothers Heinz Lahusen and Friedrich Lahusen went bankrupt.

Life

Childhood and early years

Lahusen villa in Delmenhorst

G. Carl Lahusen was born in the newly built family residence in Delmenhorst as the eldest son of the entrepreneur Carl Lahusen sen. born. His mother Armine Lahusen, daughter of the Anglican pastor Duncan Mathias of noble origin, came from England. He grew up with his siblings in the Lahusen villa on the edge of the Nordwolle company premises in Delmenhorst. Despite the wealthy circumstances, which was due to the enormous expansion of the wool business, the pious father was considered very strict and the mother very thrifty, "to the point of stinginess", although she was extremely generous for charitable purposes. The upbringing took place initially in private lessons. From the age of twelve, Carl Lahusen attended the Alte Gymnasium in Bremen . From this time comes the anecdote that a white handkerchief was hung out in the morning at the administration building to signal the train driver at Delmenhorst station to wait a moment for the Lahusen children who are late for school in Bremen.

After graduating from high school in 1907, he worked as an apprentice in all departments of his parents' company in the Delmenhorster headquarters. After a two-year apprenticeship, he worked as a clerk in the office. For further training, stays abroad followed in Argentina and Australia . Meanwhile authorized signatory , he became a volunteer soldier in 1914.

After the death of his father in 1921, Carl Lahusen took over the management of the company group as general director. In 1921 Carl Lahusen married Louise Kulenkampff, a member of another influential family in the Bremen area.

Life as an entrepreneur

In 1920, after the First World War and re-entry into the company, G. Carl Lahusen was promoted to the board of directors of Nordwolle. After his father died in 1921 and in 1924 the board member Rodewald changed to the supervisory board, he took over the chairmanship of the board of directors of Nordwolle.

Lahusen was elected President of the Bremen Chamber of Commerce in 1931 . A few years earlier he had already become a commercial member of the Haus Seefahrt Foundation , in which the business elite of Bremen's upper class traditionally organize themselves exclusively. Together with Johannes Daniel Volkmann , Lahusen Schaffer was their highly respected Schaffermahlzeit in 1928.

By the early 1930s, Lahusen managed to cover up the falling wool prices by making ever larger purchases, such as the enormous expansion of the factory, as well as the purchase of luxury goods and the construction of luxury properties such as the House of the Reich or the Hohehorst manor . By concealing the balance sheet, bank loans and government aid amounting to millions could be obtained for Nordwolle. Family ties also played a role. Bremen Senator Bömers , who was concerned with economic issues, was the father-in-law of a sister of Lahusen's. So G. Carl Lahusen managed to represent the Lahusens as a respected family in the Bremen area.

At that time, G. Carl Lahusen was also managing director of Hamburger Wollkämmerei GmbH, member of the supervisory board of Elsflether Werft AG, Darmstädter und Nationalbank KGaA (Danat-Bank) and Norddeutscher Lloyd .

In 1931, Nordwolle went bankrupt . On June 17th of that year Lahusen resigned as chairman of the board. A month later he was arrested on suspicion of bankruptcy and released in December 1931 on bail of 1 million Reichsmarks. The information about the losses fluctuates between 180 and 240 million Reichsmarks. They cost the Danat-Bank and the private banking house Schröder their existence. The heavily indebted state of Bremen was on the verge of insolvency. The bankruptcy had an impact on the national and international economic crisis.

G. Carl Lahusen had to stick with his private assets. His large estate in Löhnhorst , the Hohehorst manor with around 1,000 hectares of land, and Ostprignitz , the Fretzdorf manor with around 24,000 acres , were foreclosed.

Lahusen was charged and imprisoned for fraudulent accounting and personal enrichment. In 1931, the Reich government and the Reich President, represented by State Secretary Meissner , saw no reason to undertake relief measures by means of an emergency ordinance (analogous to the ordinance for the Danat Bank).

The process dragged on initially. After the National Socialists seized power in 1933, Lahusen was taken into “ protective custody ” and had to face criminal proceedings with his brother Heinz Lahusen for bankruptcy crimes, balance sheet disguise, breach of trust and credit fraud . On December 29, 1933, he was sentenced to a fine of 50,000 Reichsmarks and five years in prison. During the negotiations it became clear that Lahusen did not see himself as the first employee of a stock corporation. Rather, he thought he was an industrial entrepreneur who managed a family estate. The Reichstag deputy Alfred Faust - later press chief in Bremen - describes Lahusen as a typical representative of the post-war generation of big capitalists who are placed at the head of a company by chance or inheritance, but who lack the necessary sense of responsibility and ability . The appeal before the Reichsgericht was rejected in 1934. The judgment was controversial because of its political circumstances.

By resolution of the creditors' meeting, Nordwolle was continued as Norddeutsche Woll- und Kammgarnindustrie AG (NWK) since 1932 .

There are no reports about the further life of Lahusen. G. Carl Lahusen's name is not included in the list of members in Karl Heinz Schwebel's book on Haus Seefahrt from 1946.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Birth register StA Delmenhorst, No. 196/1888
  2. ^ Eva Schöck-Quinteros : Splendor & bankruptcy of an entrepreneurial dynasty: the bankruptcy of Nordwolle and the banking crisis in 1931 . Bremen 2015, ISBN 978-3-88722-748-7 , pp. 17 .
  3. ^ A b Marquis of Ruvigny and Raineval Staff: The Plantagenet Roll of the Blood Royal: The Mortimer-Percy Volume , Heritage Books, 2001, ISBN 0-7884-1872-6 .
  4. ↑ a b c d Own biographical information in the criminal process from: Berliner Tageblatt. August 30, 1933: Lahusen's career, start of the second day of the trial
  5. ↑ Weser newspaper . February 11, 1928, Schünemann, Bremen 1928, SuUB microfilm collection .
  6. ^ Herbert Black Forest: The Great Bremen Lexicon. Volume 2: L-Z. 2nd, updated, revised and expanded edition. Edition Temmen, Bremen 2003, ISBN 3-86108-693-X , p. 521.
  7. ↑ Georg Carl Lahusen in the online version of the Edition Files of the Reich Chancellery. Weimar Republic
  8. ^ Karl H. Schwebel : Bömers, Heinrich Ferdinand Emil. In: Bremische Biographie 1912–1962 . Hauschild, Bremen 1969, p. 62.
  9. ↑ German General Newspaper. (Berlin), November 19, 1931: Lahusen property under compulsory administration.
  10. ^ Federal Archives: Files of the Reich Chancellery of the Weimar Republic; The Cabinets Brüning I / II> Volume 2 - Documents - No. 399 Cabinet meeting of July 20, 1931, 4. Off the agenda: the “Nordwolle” case.
  11. ↑ Hamburg Foreign Journal. December 29, 1933: Guilt or Fate?
  12. ^ Karl Heinz Schwebel : "Haus Seefahrt" Bremen: his merchants and captains . Krohn, Bremen 1947, p. 76.

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Lahusen, Georg Carl
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Lahusen, Christian Friedrich Georg Carl; Lahusen, G. Carl
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German entrepreneur
DATE OF BIRTH July 17, 1888
PLACE OF BIRTH Delmenhorst
DATE OF DEATH August 9, 1973
Place of death Munich