Gustav von der Heyde (businessman)

Gustav Ludwig Theodor von der Heyde (* 1834 in Bremen ; † June 29, 1891 in Sydney , Australia ) was a German - New Zealand businessman and politician.

Live and act

Gustav Ludwig Theodor von der Heyde was born in Bremen in 1834 as the eldest son of a patrician family. His father was a well-known businessman and the son of a Protestant pastor. His mother, née Tidemann, came from a family from which two senators and mayors emerged in Bremen at this time.

Australia / New Zealand

In 1854 von der Heyde left Bremen and emigrated to Australia, where he settled in Adelaide from 1857 and took over a consulate for the citizens of Bremen from 1858 to 1866 .

1861 was von der Heyde to New Zealand after the death of John Macfarlane Director of the sawmill Henderson & Macfarlane in Henderson to be. The basis for this was the partnership between him, Thomas Macfarlane and George Henderson . In October 1866 the company became the responsibility of Gustav von der Heyde and Thomas Henderson . The company operated u. a. the Circular Saw Shipping Line , which operated freight and passages to all of New Zealand's ports during this period.

In 1864 von der Heyde married Mary Henderson , daughter of Thomas Henderson . They initially lived in Adelaide but moved to Auckland in 1866 after having their first child, their daughter Kate Adeline .

Political career

In 1870 von der Heyde was elected chairman of the Chamber of Commerce of Auckland , a position he held until 1874 and was replaced by John Logan Campbell . In 1871 he was elected to the board of the Waitakerei East Highways District . In the same year he became a member of the Auckland Harbor Board , of which he was a member until 1874.

From July 1874 to 1875 von der Heyde was a member of the New Zealand parliament after he went for the election for the constituency of Waitemata for his father-in-law Thomas Henderson , who had announced his retirement a month earlier . He won against his opponent John Sangster Macfarlane , who then had the election challenged via a petition to parliament. In his argument that von der Heyde no British had citizen and should not have been chosen, said von der Heyde by noting that his father in 1805 in Hanover was born, Hanover was at that time owned by the British Crown and himself in Australia had been naturalized years earlier without a problem. The election was canceled anyway in August 1874 and the Attorney General, who was brought in by Governor James Fergusson , certified that he was a foreigner in New Zealand, but that he was qualified as a British citizen. With this auxiliary construct, he was finally naturalized in New Zealand and allowed to vote again, which took place on September 8, 1874. Von der Heyde won again. In 1875 he was elected to the Auckland City Council .

From 1877 to 1883 von der Heyde was consul for the then German Empire . After the Foreign Ministry accepted a petition from 65 prominent German settlers in Auckland to appoint von der Heyde consul in July 1867, he was sworn in on March 3, 1877. However, the increasing presence of German warships in the South Pacific, supported by the growing interest in the region by the German Empire under Otto von Bismarck , led von der Heyde into a conflict, as the German endeavor brought a conflict of interests with his company and with him as immigrants in New Zealand with them. To avoid this conflict of interest, he resigned from his service for the German Empire in 1882 with effect from January 2, 1883.

Back to Australia

At the end of the 1880s von der Heyde took over the agency for the German-Australian Steamship Company in Sydney . When exactly he and his family returned to Australia is not known, but The Poverty Bay Herald of Gisborne announced his departure from New Zealand on April 1, 1889. With an investment of 400,000 British pounds , the ship connection was praised as promising. He was denied the chance to experience the success and rise of the shipping line for himself. He died of stomach cancer on June 29, 1891 in Sydney . His brother-in-law Harry Henderson took over the agency after his death.

literature

• James N. Bade : Gustav von der Heyde . In: James N. Bade (Ed.): The German Connection - New Zealand and the German-speaking Europe in the Nineteenth Century . Chapter 21 . Oxford University Press , Auckland 1993, ISBN 0-19-558283-7 , pp. 189-199 (English).

Individual evidence

1. ^ Dissolution of Partnership . In: The Daily Southern Cross . Volume XXV, Issue 3805. Auckland October 29, 1869, p.  1 (English, online [accessed February 18, 2011]).
2. ↑ Advertisement Column 1 . In: The Daily Southern Cross . Volume XXV, Issue 3672. Auckland April 26, 1869, pp.  1 (English, online [accessed February 18, 2011]).
3. ^ German-Australia Trade . In: The Poverty Bay Herald . Volume XVI, Issue 5439. Gisborne April 2, 1889, p.  3 (English, online [accessed February 18, 2011]).