H. Upmann & Co.

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H. Upmann & Co. was a bank in Cuba and Bremen, which was founded around 1844 by Hermann Dietrich Upmann together with the H.Upmann brand and continued after his death by his nephews Hermann Friedrich and Albert Upmann and Theodore Garbade . The brothers H. and G. Runken also sat in the management.

Upmann & Co. made   big profits by purchasing Madrid bills during the Cuban War of Independence , as the Spanish government was dependent on Upmannsche Bank to finance the war because of the American blockade. Many bankers also began withdrawing their money in 1896 because of the unrest in Cuba. As a representative of the Rothschilds and other major customers, H. Upmann & Co. transferred large amounts of gold and silver to their branch in New York , which had risen to become a financial center and trading center for trade with the Caribbean islands since the 18th century .

In 1899, war correspondent Joseph Herrings described the Upmannsche Bankhaus as "The most important banking firm in Cuba, perhaps in the whole of the West Indies ."

After the death of Hermann Friedrich Upmann (1910), the bank moved to its headquarters in Bremen at Langestrasse 33/34. The Bremen address book noted JCA Runken as the personally liable partner in 1914.

In Havana, the bank built its own commercial building on the corner of Amargura and Mercaderes streets. Created in 1904, it was the first of its kind.

Today it houses the agency of the Banco Central de Cuba, formerly the Cuban National Bank .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Sir Thomas Skinner (beard.): The London Banks and Kindred Companies and Firms ... T. Skinner & Company, 1916 ( google.es [accessed October 8, 2017]).
  2. ↑ Margrit Schulte Beerbühl and Barbara Frey: The H. Upmann cigar - The Bielefeld Hermann Dietrich Upmann and creating a global brand . Ed .: Altenberend / Reinhard Vogelsang. Bielefeld 2015, p. 263 ( stadterkundungen-bielefeld.de [PDF]).
  3. ↑ Joseph Herrings: Cuba and the War . New York 1899, p. 165 .
  4. ↑ Banco H. Upmann - EcuRed. Retrieved October 9, 2017 (Spanish).
  5. ^ H. Upmann Bank Building. Archived from the original on October 7, 2017 ; accessed on October 9, 2017 (English).