Henry Koch (entrepreneur)

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Henry Koch

Heinrich "Henry" Christian Koch (born April 16, 1832 in Wischhafen ; † December 1, 1888 in Lübeck ) was an entrepreneur and industrialist who was ultimately stateless.

Life

origin

Henry was born as Heinrich Christian, son of Claus Koch (born November 12, 1800 in Freiburg / Elbe ) and his wife Margarethe Elisabeth , née Wist, (born March 6, 1800 in Allwörden ). His father was a boatman on the Elbe and traded in grain .

career

Henry Koch as a sailor, probably at the age of 19.

Koch attended school in Wischhafen and then worked as a seaman in Hamburg . In 1851 he went to Australia as such on the "Euphrasia" . This year went down in Australian history as the gold discoveries in the colony of Victoria first became known and triggered a gold rush .

Australia

Obviously he knew these reports, checked them there , and moved inland to the gold fields of Long Gully near Bendigo . As he settled in very well in his new Australian home, he soon became an overseer. After a change of ownership in the attached stamping plant with associated washing facilities, he was accepted there as a partner . After the other owners had been paid off, he secured sole mining rights in the fields.

On February 28, 1858, Heinrich Koch became a British citizen . Presumably at that time he had his German first name Anglicized in Henry and was to keep it until the end of his life. He did not revive his German citizenship and was considered stateless at his death .

In the following years, Koch succeeded in acquiring all of the gold fields in Long Gully and the company took on the name "Koch's Pioneer Quartz Mining & Crushing Co., Long Gully, Bendigo". By expanding his original 10 to 20 stamping mills, he was able to successfully increase the gold yield. He expanded by replacing water power engines with more economical steam engines . The yield was further increased by the introduction of flame furnaces and Wheeler's crucibles .

In 1872, at the height of its heyday, the facility with its 76 stamping works was the largest of its kind in the world.

That Koch quickly sold the company in 1872 cannot be true. The company had until 1879 retained their name and Koch received from 1872 to 1875 about 48 installments over a total of 30,000 pounds sterling .

The Koch family embarked on the British steamer Northumberland in 1872 to return to Germany via Great Britain. There he first settled in Stade as a privateer .

Lübeck

Jerusalem Mount 4

When his eldest son, Henry (1861–1918), was sent to school and pension in Lübeck, the senior made his first contacts in the port city.

Since February 1, 1876, Koch has been assigned the building with the property at Jerusalemberg 4 , which extends to the Trave . It can be assumed that this also prompted him to purchase the "Traven Steamship Company", whose sailing area included the Trave, Schwartau , Israelsdorf and Travemünde . As the company's owner of the Frister'schen Garten , he announced in March that the company would expand to Niendorf , Scharbeutz , Haffkrug and Neustadt . The necessary landing stages were already under construction. The number of steamers required was initially set at three, one of which was already being built in London . In addition, he intended to create a patent slip for the repair of steamers on his property. In 1880 the company had six passenger lines. After the start of the railway line from Lübeck to Travemünde on August 1, 1882, the number of passengers fell and Koch gradually reduced his involvement in passenger transport.

After Koch had bought the land from Daniel Eschenburg , Consul Harms, Cohn and Frau Lange, he became the owner of the right bank of the Trave from his land to the Struck ferry. In March of that year the "Jona", a new passenger steamer for the shipping company "Dampfschifffahrts-Gesellschaft Pioneer" founded by Koch on May 15, 1877, ran at the shipyard of Norddeutsche Schiffbau AG zu Gaarden on the Kiel Fjord Pile . In June 1878 Koch acquired the Meyer family's old, renowned timber shipyard on the Wall Peninsula and shut down operations. Koch saw the future of shipbuilding only in the construction of iron / steel ships in specially designed shipyards. In March 1880, Koch acquired a floating dock in Harburg and transferred it to Lübeck. When he wanted to anchor his 86 m long floating dock, which was the first floating dock in Lübeck, on his property on the Jerusalem Mountain, this would have led to a considerable narrowing of the fairway of the narrow Trave, which was still uncorrected at the time. After negotiations with the building deputation, it approved the relocation of the workshops 22 m and the dock 40 m downstream to the city's own premises. At the end of 1880 he founded the "ship machine and boiler construction workshop of DG Pionier". Two more floating docks were launched two years later.

After the second traverse correction, the city expanded beyond the castle gate . This created the conditions for an expansion and adaptation of the port of Lübeck to the new structures in trade, shipping and technology. On September 2, 1882, Koch ceded the land to the city for its port expansion and received the area between the Ballastkuhle street, Glashüttenweg, Minlos'schen Garten and the dead Travearm in order to build the first Lübeck shipyard for iron ships on it . With the land swap, Koch was able to achieve what Hermann Blohm had been denied in 1876 . The ship engine and boiler workshop of DG Pioneer were closed. On December 1, 1882, Henry Koch's shipyard was opened by the namesake. On May 31, 1883, their first iron sea-going vessel, the "Eugène Krohn", built for the Rostock shipping company FW Fischer , was launched. At that time 350 people worked here.

In 1883, Koch acquired the former Minlos property in the late summer of 1883 as a reserve of land for future shipyard expansions. However, the record in shipbuilding production in 1883 was followed by a deep fall by 1887.

At the meeting of the Nautical Association on 3 December 1877 was Präsidialvorlage relating to details in the machinist testing a five-member de Association, one of these members was a cook, existing Commission directed.

In January 1878, the "Lübeck- advised Liepaja Steamship Company" their statutes regarding a draft. At Koch's request, this was transferred to a commission.

At its meeting at the end of the first quarter of 1878, the Lübeck Chamber of Commerce discussed, among other things, measures to counter the loss of the Bugsierlohntaxe. This was based on the fact that their competitor Koch kept the tax low. Towards the end of the year, a letter from the director of the "Pioneer" dated December 27, 1878 to the tugging committee was submitted to their committee for administration for tug steamers. It stated that the agreement on sea and river maneuvering, which was concluded with the committee on April 25 of that year, could not be continued as before. A year later, a contract on maneuvering was signed between Koch and the Chamber of Commerce. After that, Koch provided one and, for emergencies, except on Sundays, another ship. The chamber put three ships. The income was divided proportionally. A committee headed the maneuvering system. This committee consisted of 3 deputies from the Chamber and two from Kochscher. The officials of the Chamber were responsible for their chairmanship and administration. The rate was agreed jointly and set for one year.

On December 29, 1884, Koch took part in the conference at Streit's Hotel in Hamburg. The representatives of eight German shipyards present there founded the “Verein deutscher Schiffswerften e. V. “(today VSM ) and went down in German shipbuilding history. 12 companies and companies signed a petition concerning the construction of ships and ship steam engines in domestic shipyards with reference to the submission of behulf's subsidies from overseas steamship lines, which the Reichstag received .

An improvement in the economy began to appear in 1888. However, Koch passed away that year shortly after his wife. He had appointed Ernst Stiller and Peter Rehder as his executors and asset managers . Seven of his children inherited and three were paid off. The grave of the Koch family is in the Burgtorfriedhof .

family

In Sandhurst near Bendigo, Koch married Anna Maria Theresia Heintz on July 10, 1857 (born May 13, 1836 in Philippsburg , † September 25, 1888 in Lübeck). The couple had 14 children, of which four daughters and six sons reached adulthood. These included:

  • Henry (Heinrich) (1861-1918). He worked as a director at Siemens & Halske in Breslau.
  • William Francis (Willy Franz) (1865-1937). He worked as the technical director of the Henry Koch AG shipyard in Lübeck.
  • Francis (Franz) Jacob (* 1868). He worked as a commercial director at the Henry Koch AG shipyard in Lübeck.
  • Carl Christian (* 1874). He worked as a director of the Ottensener machine factory in Altona-Ottensen.

References

Web links

Commons : Henry Koch  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

literature

  • Heinz Haaker: The "Ship Value of Henry Koch AG" - A Chapter of Lübeck Shipbuilding and Industrial History , German Shipping Museum, Bremerhaven 1994, Ernst-Kabel-Verlag, ISBN 3-8225-0299-5 .
  • Heinz Haaker: Koch, Henry . In: Biographical Lexicon for Schleswig-Holstein and Lübeck . Volume 10. Wachholtz Verlag, Neumünster 1994, pp. 215-217.
  • Eisenschiffbau - Henry Koch's shipyard in the chapter: Leading sector metal industry in Rüdiger Segenbusch: Lübeck industrial culture , times of change - factories in Lübeck , Lübeck 1993, Verlag Schmidt-Römhild , ISBN 3-7950-0114-5 , pp. 145–156.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ In the company anniversary publication of the "Shipyard of Henry Koch, Lübeck, 1882-1907", o. Vf., Berlin o. Jhr. (1907), p. 3, these two steps are presented in reverse order. However, their order is doubtful.
  2. ↑ It is said that Henry Koch, one of the richest men in Australia at the time, sold his company for family or health reasons.
  3. ↑ Local and mixed notes. In: Lübeckische Blätter , Volume 18, No. 22, edition of March 15, 1876, p. 128.
  4. ↑ Local and mixed notes. In: Lübeckische Blätter , Volume 19, No. 11, Edition of February 7, 1877, p. 60.
  5. ↑ The English spelling of the name "Pioneer" was based on the name of his former gold mine in Australia.
  6. ↑ Local and mixed notes. In: Lübeckische Blätter , Volume 19, No. 24, Edition of March 25, 1877, p. 136.
  7. ↑ Local and mixed notes. In: Lübeckische Blätter , Volume 20, No. 96, edition of June 9, 1878, p. 272.
  8. ↑ Local and mixed notes. In: Lübeckische Blätter , Volume 22, No. 22, Edition of March 17, 1880, p. 132.
  9. ↑ Citizens' Committee. In: Lübeckische Blätter , Volume 22, No. 42, Edition of May 26, 1880, p. 132.
  10. ^ Assembly of the Nautical Association. In: Lübeckische Blätter , Volume 20, No. 5, edition of January 16, 1878, pp. 25–26.
  11. ↑ Local and mixed notes. In: Lübeckische Blätter , Volume 20, No. 7, edition of January 23, 1878, p. 40.
  12. ^ Assembly of the Chamber of Commerce. In: Lübeckische Blätter , Volume 20, No. 26, Edition of March 31, 1878, pp. 154–156.
  13. ↑ Local and mixed notes. In: Lübeckische Blätter , Volume 21, No. 3, edition of January 8, 1879, p. 14.
  14. ↑ Local and mixed notes. In: Lübeckische Blätter , Volume 22, No. 6, Edition of January 21, 1880, p. 36.
  15. ↑ Local and mixed notes. In: Lübeckische Blätter , Volume 27, No. 3, edition of January 11, 1885, p. 20.
personal data
SURNAME Cook, henry
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Koch, Heinrich (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German-British entrepreneur and industrialist
DATE OF BIRTH April 16, 1832
PLACE OF BIRTH Wischhafen
DATE OF DEATH December 1, 1888
Place of death Lübeck