Heinrich Wiegand (shipowner)

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Heinrich Wiegand (born August 17, 1855 in Bremen , † March 29, 1909 in Bad Homburg in front of the height ) was a German lawyer , director and general director of North German Lloyd .

biography

Wiegand was the son of a commercial gardener. He first graduated from the citizen school and, since 1870, the old grammar school in Bremen. Until 1879 he studied law at the University of Erlangen , the University of Bonn , the Humboldt University in Berlin and the University of Strasbourg . During his studies he became a member of the Bubenreuther fraternity in the winter semester of 1874/75 . He obtained his doctorate in 1879. jur. in Göttingen . He then settled in Bremen as a lawyer. Early on he worked as a lawyer for Norddeutscher Lloyd (NDL) and in 1889 as a consultant for the shipping company . In 1892 he was the successor of Johann Georg Lohmann and on the initiative of Geo Heinrich Plate unexpectedly director of the NDL, from 1899 with the title general director. In its time, the NDL experienced the great rise to one of the leading shipping companies and in 1890 was the second largest shipping company in the world with 66 ships and 251,602  GRT .

The Kronprinz Wilhelm, one of the most representative and fastest steamers of the North German Lloyd (NDL) before the First World War at the Roter Sand lighthouse in the German Bight off Bremen.

In order to limit the harmful competition on the America trip, the North Atlantic Steamers Association was founded at his suggestion . The first twin screw steamers were put into service by the NDL, first in 1897 the express steamer Kaiser Wilhelm der Große , the fastest and largest passenger ship at the time. The NDL achieved a top position among the North Atlantic shipping companies. Other large Kaiser-class passenger steamers followed, such as the Crown Prince Wilhelm , the Kaiser Wilhelm II and the Crown Princess Cecilie .

In 1899, the NDL acquired 25 coastal steamers which it used in the Pacific . From 1900 to 1903 the passenger service to East Asia was carried out in association with the Hamburg-American Packetfahrt-Actien-Gesellschaft (HAPAG).

In 1905 Wiegand called the future electric car pioneer Sigmund Meyer (engineer) to Bremen . In the same year, the NDL set up a freight line to Australia . In 1907, Lloyd had 93 sea steamers and 51 smaller ships as well as around 15,000 employees. In 1908 Wiegand initiated the establishment of the German South Sea Phosphate Actiengesellschaft . He was one of the driving forces behind industrialization in the Lower Weser region . In 1901/02 he brought about the founding of the North German machine and armature factory, which is close to the NDL (from 1911: Atlas works ). Furthermore, he founded the Norddeutsche Hütten AG in 1908 , the Norddeutsche Waggonfabrik and the NAMAG (later Hansa-Lloyd and Lloyd Dynamowerke ) in Hastedt in 1908 and the superphosphate factory (from 1908 Metallwerke Unterweser AG ) in Nordenham . He was represented on the supervisory boards of these and other companies.

Wiegand kept a cautious distance from Grand Admiral Alfred von Tirpitz's naval policy in order not to disturb the good maritime relations with Great Britain and the USA .

In 1903 he was a co-founder of the Verkehrsverein of the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen . In 1904 he founded the gallery association to promote the acquisition of modern art for the art association in Bremen . Wiegand is also considered to be the inspiration for Baedeker's first India band, whose appearance in 1914 was also supported by North German Lloyd.

The Lloyd building, inaugurated in 1910

Due to the expansion of the shipping company, considerable financial resources were used as loans. In an international economic crisis, the NDL had to struggle with considerable financial difficulties from 1907. Despite financial hardship, Wiegand arranged for the construction of a representative administration building in Bremen in 1907 based on the plans of Johann Georg Poppe . In 1909, when Wiegand died, the NDL was still in its financial crisis. His successor was Dr. Philipp Heineken .

Wiegand was the founder of the Nautical Association, and he supported the trade museum, the public park and the tourist association.

Honors

  • The Heinrich-Wiegand-Straße in Bremen, LVN / Neustadt ports was named in 2000 after him.
  • In 1984 the Elisabeth Wiegand Foundation was set up as a widow's and orphan's pension fund, named after his wife.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Ernst Höhne: The Bubenreuther. History of a German fraternity. II., Erlangen 1936, p. 229.
  2. ↑ Hans Christoph Graf von Seherr-Thoß:  Meyer, Sigmund (called Hans Sigismund). In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 17, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1994, ISBN 3-428-00198-2 , p. 373 f. ( Digitized version ).
personal data
SURNAME Wiegand, Heinrich
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German lawyer, director and general director of North German Lloyd
DATE OF BIRTH 17th August 1855
PLACE OF BIRTH Bremen
DATE OF DEATH March 29, 1909
Place of death Bad Homburg vor der Höhe