Heinrich August Schlubach

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Heinrich August Schlubach around 1900

Heinrich August Schlubach (born January 14, 1836 in Rossitten , † July 12, 1914 in Hamburg ) was a German businessman .

First steps as an entrepreneur

Heinrich August Schlubach was born the son of a farmer on a manor in East Prussia . The ancestors of the family had mostly worked as malt brewers, administrators, soldiers, bankers and farmers. A citizens' school in Elbing , which he attended from 1844, he left at the age of 16 with the Abitur. He then completed a commercial apprenticeship at C. L. Brauer & Sohn in Bremen and then traveled by ship from Hamburg to Valparaíso in Chile in 1856 . He initially worked there as a deputy accountant for the American company Hemenway & Sons, and two years later got a better job as a salesman. After the company owner, who lived in Boston, died, Schlubach took over activities as an accountant and cashier for Schütte, Droste & Co. , Valparaíso's oldest German company at the time.

Development of the company Schlubach & Co.

In 1865, Schlubach founded a company together with Emilio Rosenberg and worked as a trading agent and broker. Rosenberg ran the business alone for a while, while Schlubach returned to Germany for a short time. On the return trip to Chile he made the acquaintance of the Scotsman John Brander , who ran his own fleet of ships with great success and had his own pier in Tahiti . From then on, both exchanged goods between Chile and Easter Island . In order to be able to supply Brandner with coconut oil and later copra, Schlubach founded the company Schlubach & Co. , which developed extremely successfully. He gave up the business with the less successful Emilio Rosenberg. Schlubach was able to win Otto Thiemer for the company, who proved himself capable and who later became a partner. Schlubach left the business of the company to Thiemer and traveled extensively through Europe in 1871. On the return journey he crossed the United States and reached Papeete , where he married Margaret Brander (1856-1937), the daughter of his trading partner, on April 18, 1872, with whom he had nine children. The couple traveled on to Chile, where Schlubach drove the company's business forward.

In 1872 Schlubach was appointed Imperial German Consul General in Valparaiso. In 1876, accompanied by his wife, he made another trip to Europe. Chile came into conflict with Bolivia and Peru in 1879 because of the taxation and expropriation of Chilean saltpetre companies . Despite sympathy for Chile, on March 1, 1879, the German ambassador to Chile, Friedrich von Gülich , warned Consul General Schlubach against support for Chile by the ships of the German steamship company "Kosmos" from Hamburg in order to preserve the neutrality of the Reich. One month later, however, the employees of “Kosmos” ignored the warnings. In 1883 the Saltpeter War ended with a victory for Chile, which was able to expand its national territory considerably to the north at the expense of its opponents. Schlubach has been involved in the negotiations to prepare the Ancón Peace Treaty since 1880.

During the Saltpetre War , Schlubach and Thiemer sold the jointly run company for 22 million gold marks in 1882 and moved to Hamburg, where Schlubach hoped to meet returning Hamburg merchants from Chile whom he already knew from Chile. Schlubach reinvested the assets he had acquired through the sale of the company and, together with Thiemer, founded a new company that later imported self-grown coffee.

His sons Herbert, Roderich and Edgar continued their father's business, partly in Central America .

Further activities as an entrepreneur

As he knew the overseas business well, Schlubach also worked in other companies. In 1876 he bought shares in Société commerciale de l'Océanie AG owned by the de Godeffroy family , which became the most important trading company in French Oceania . Schlubach sat on the supervisory board from 1885, took over the deputy chairmanship in 1898 and was the first chairman of the stock corporation from 1912.

He brought capital into the Deutsche Handels- und Plantagengesellschaft der Südseeinseln in Hamburg AG and held a seat on the supervisory board from April 1896 until the end of his life. The German Reich was there because of the importance of this company in 1900 branches of Samoa despite contradictions of British and American colonies establish side. Schlubach also acquired shares in the Pacific Phosphate Company , which won phosphate on Nauru .

Country estate

From 1851 Heinrich Schlubach owned a house built according to plans by Auguste de Meuron at Schönen Aussicht No. 16 in Hamburg . He also owned the Oehe estate at the mouth of the Schleim near Maasholm .

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Friedrich von Gülich: Letter of March 1, 1879 to von Schlubach. BArch. R 901-33631
  2. ^ Carlos Maldonado Prieto: Chile versus Perú y Bolivia: Una Relación Vecinal Conflictiva. 2005
personal data
SURNAME Schlubach, Heinrich August
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German businessman
DATE OF BIRTH January 14, 1836
PLACE OF BIRTH Rossitten
DATE OF DEATH July 12, 1914
Place of death Hamburg