Hermann Krages

Hermann Diedrich Krages (born October 7, 1909 in Bremen ; † September 12, 1992 in Chur ) was a German entrepreneur. Active on the stock exchange from 1950 , he was considered the most successful speculator in the Federal Republic of Germany; In the 1960s he suffered great losses in the course of the Cuban Missile Crisis , which he was able to make up for a few years later. His group of companies offered thousands of jobs in the Altenkirchen district . In 1983 the group went bankrupt .

Life

Hermann Krages is the youngest of three sons of the Bremen wood manufacturer Louis Krages from his first marriage, his half-brother from his father's second marriage was the racing driver Louis Krages (1949–2001).

As a severance payment in the course of his father's remarriage, Hermann Krages received a fiberboard factory in East Prussia , which was lost at the end of the Second World War , which he experienced in the Ore Mountains . He moved to Scheuerfeld in the Westerwald , where he acquired the old Berger paper factory, where he subsequently successfully manufactured Duroleum® fiberboard. In January 1949 a large new plant was built in Etzbach . Over the years he was followed by other wood processing factories in Höxter on the Weser, Leutkirch in the Allgäu and in Bremen.

It quickly became clear to Hermann Krages that he could use the profits he had made to buy cheap shares in the then low valued coal and steel industry , an example that is often cited is the price of a thousand Reichsmark share in Gelsenkirchener Bergwerks-AG , which stood at 15%, or 150 German marks. Hermann Krages bought shares and speculated on being able to sell the shares at a profit in the course of the unbundling of the coal and steel industry and the subsequent efforts of major shareholders to become majority owners again. However, despite extensive efforts, he did not succeed in becoming the majority shareholder in the coal and steel industry in the Ruhr area .

In October 1962 the Cuba crisis began. It led to a global fall in the share price. Krages was severely affected by this. He had taken out large loans in recent years in order to be able to buy more and more shares. To be able to service these loans, he had to sell a large part of his shares at prices that largely determined the buyers.

Hermann Krages moved to Chur in Switzerland in 1963 , where he died on September 12, 1992.

literature

• BMW - Krages ante portas . In: Der Spiegel 39/1957 of September 25, 1957, online
• Krages and the stronger battalions . In: Der Spiegel 44/1962 of October 31, 1962, online
• Krages in need . In: Der Spiegel 10/1982 of March 8, 1982, online
• Angela Krages; Dirk Lehr: Hermann Krages. A broker against Germany AG , Orell Fuessli 2007, ISBN 978-3-280-06092-6
• Friederike Sattler: Ernst Matthiensen 1900-1980: A German banker in the 20th century , Eugen Gutmann Society, 1st edition 2009, ISBN 978-3981251128 .

Footnotes

1. ^ Entry on Hermann Krages in the Rhineland-Palatinate personal database , accessed on March 19, 2017 .
2. ↑ Hermann Krages . In: Der Spiegel . No. 23 , 1962, pp. 55 ( online - 6 June 1962 ).
3. ↑ Major industrial shareholder Krages. The guards measure of the Ruhr . In: Der Spiegel . No. 6 , 1956, pp. 18-25 ( Online - Feb. 8, 1956 ).
4. ↑ ^{a b} When the first "grasshopper" attacked the Frankfurt stock exchange  ( page can no longer be accessed , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , FAZ April 21, 2007  
5. ↑ www.eugen-gutmann-gesellschaft.de , review in the quarterly journal for social and economic history, Volume 97, Issue 4 (2010), pp. 541/542