Heinrich Dahlström

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Hermann Heinrich Dahlström (born April 20, 1840 in Hamburg ; † May 5, 1922 there ) was a German insurance broker .

Life

Hermann Dahlström was a son of Johann Heinrich Dahlström (1811–1864) and the grandson of Dor. Cath. Joh. Bergengrün (1774-1828). He attended secondary school and completed vocational training as a carpenter in his father's piano factory, which he was later to take over. At that time he was researching a hydrogen drive and was declared of age early. In 1860 he founded a pottery factory in Geesthacht . In 1864 he sold the company again, which he had run with a working capital of 30,000 Mark Banko. He got to know Alfred Nobel through technical and scientific experiments and took over a sales agency for explosive oil produced by Nobel , which he sold to German mines. He then managed a mine in the Rhineland himself . In 1874/75 he joined the ship brokerage firm Axel Dahlström & Co. , which his brother of the same name founded in 1867.

In 1877 Dahlström studied for several weeks at the library of the University of Kiel . A year later he read a memorandum from railroad speculator Bethel Henry Strousberg . In doing so, he dealt with the ongoing discussions about the planned project to build a canal for shipping that would connect the North Sea and the Baltic Sea. Dahlström proposed in a publication in 1878 that the construction of the canal should be privately financed with state participation. He made extensive calculations and made suggestions for two alternative routes. He was thus able to bring together the previously contrary points of view regarding the construction of the canal and to decisively advance its realization. The state adopted Dahlström's proposals in 1885 and rewarded him with 50,000 marks. From 1887 to 1895, the Kaiser Wilhelm Canal was built on this basis .

Pillow stone for
"Hermann H. Dahlström" on the
family grave, Ohlsdorf cemetery

In 1883 Dahlström founded the German Rhederei-Verein together with several shipping companies on the Baltic Sea . He wanted to offer German shipping an alternative to British insurers, on which they had previously been dependent. The association was a marine insurance stock corporation based in Hamburg, which Dahlström took over as chairman. Presumably closely associated with it, he founded the Nordic Salvage Association (NBV) as the main partner in 1886 . It was the first efficient company in Germany that could salvage ships. The NBV quickly developed into Germany's leading specialist recovery company. In 1914 the company had ten steamers and two salvage booms . The fleet not only worked on the German coasts, but also nationwide in the North and Baltic Seas, in the Mediterranean and in the Black and Red Sea. The association worked closely with Svitzer from Copenhagen and Neptun from Stockholm . In 1922, today's Bugsier-, Reederei- und Bergungsgesellschaft took over the NBV, whose business Dahlström had managed until 1903.

In 1905 Dahlström ended all business activities except for the chairmanship of the supervisory board of the German Rhederei-Verein .

The family burial site HHDahlström is located at planquadrat G 5 ( Bergstrasse , south of the cemetery museum ) at the Ohlsdorf cemetery in Hamburg .

literature

personal data
SURNAME Dahlström, Heinrich
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Dahlström, Heinrich Hermann (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German insurance broker
DATE OF BIRTH April 20, 1840
PLACE OF BIRTH Hamburg
DATE OF DEATH May 5, 1922
Place of death Hamburg