Johan Cesar Godeffroy (businessman, 1813)

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Johan Cesar Godeffroy, photography from Emilie Bieber's studio

Johan Cesar Godeffroy (born July 1, 1813 in Kiel , † February 9, 1885 in Dockenhuden ) was a German businessman and Hanseatic .

Life

Cesar Godeffroy came from a Huguenot family who had settled in Hamburg from Berlin in the first half of the 18th century.

Cesar Godeffroy attended the public school of the Katharineum in Lübeck from approx. 1821 to 1830, as did his younger brothers Gustav and Adolph. He made his apprenticeship at Parish & Co . The owner Richard Parish was married to Susanne Godeffroy, a daughter of Peter Godeffroy , brother of his grandfather. A traineeship in England followed. Towards the end of 1835 he joined his father's company “Joh. Ces. Godeffroy & Sohn “, on January 1, 1837, he became its partner. After the death of his father Johan Cesar Godeffroy (1781-1845) on July 3, 1845, he took over the management of the house.

Johan Cesar Godeffroy, oil painting by Robert Schneider , around 1847

From June 1840 to 1846 Cesar Godeffroy was a deputy of the Hamburg Chamber of Commerce , its president in 1845 and senior adjunct from 1850 to 1879. From 1859 to 1864 he was a member of the Hamburg parliament . He was a co-founder of the North German Bank and the North German Insurance Company.

Cesar Godeffroy became a citizen of Hamburg on August 12, 1836. On February 2, 1837, he married Emily Hanbury (1815-1894). The marriage had five children, of which Johan Cesar Godeffroy (1838–1912) was the eldest son. The brother Gustav Godeffroy was temporarily a partner in “Joh. Ces. Godeffroy & Sohn ”, sat in the Frankfurt National Assembly for the city of Hamburg in 1848 , was a senator from 1854 to 1872 and from 1856 to 1893 chairman of the supervisory board of the Norddeutsche Bank. His brother Adolph Godeffroy was one of the founders of the “Hamburg-American Packetfahrt AG” ( HAPAG ) in 1847 and was its chairman until 1880.

During the winter months the family lived on the upper floors in the old wall frame, which also housed the office rooms . For the rest of the year, people lived in the country house JC Godeffroy built by the Danish architect CF Hansen around 1792, far outside the city walls in what is now Nienstedten . Johan Cesar Godeffroy (1742–1818) had the house and the associated park, which is called the Deer Park because of the deer gate that still exists today, had large parts laid out.

From 1842, Cesar Godeffroy acquired wooded and unforested areas totaling well over 600 hectares in the north-west of Hamburg and had it reforested with hundreds of Douglas firs over the years . The plants were supplied by the nursery James Booth and Sons . Their owners were controversial among German foresters because of the sale of "foreign" tree species, to which the Douglas fir belongs due to its origin in North America. The author Hans Walden has devoted a separate chapter to Godeffroy's land purchases and their possible motives.

In June 1836, Cesar Godeffroy founded "Der Hamburger Ruderclub" with his younger brother Adolph, Carl Merck, Charles Parish, Edward Sieveking , Johann Gustav Heckscher and five others . It is the oldest rowing club on mainland Europe. The rowing club exists today as "Der Hamburger und Germania Ruder Club".

Joh. Ces. Godeffroy & Son

Johan Cesar Godeffroy (1742-1818) worked as a merchant on his own account from 1766 under the name “JC Godeffroy”. In 1782 he took on a partner in the company and from then on traded under the name "JC Godeffroy & Co". The company mainly imported linen from Silesia , but also from Saxony and Westphalia . The fabrics were usually bought through the Wroclaw bank Eichborn & Co. and exported from Hamburg by chartered ships to Cádiz , where merchants there shipped the merchandise to the Spanish colonies in South America . Sugar was imported from Havana.

In 1806 Johan Cesar Godeffroy jun. joined his father's trading company, which from then on traded as "JC Godeffroy & Sohn". At the time of the continental blockade, business was bad and the company's revenues plummeted to a twentieth of the previous years. During the second French occupation of Hamburg in 1813, the family moved their residence and business to Kiel . After the French occupation left, business in Hamburg only slowly started up again.

After the death of his father in May 1818, Cesar Godeffroy took on Eduard Ferdinand Faerber and Johann Heinrich Bohnenberg as partners. Bohnenberg died on October 16, 1819. The partnership with Faerber lasted until December 31, 1831. In 1844, "JC Godeffroy & Son" achieved more income from the shipping company than from trading. In the course of time shipbuilding, shipping company and participation in the ironworks Georgs-Marien-Bergwerks- und Hüttenverein in Georgsmarienhütte were added to the trading activities .

In 1846, “Joh. Ces. Godeffroy & Sohn "with the company" LR Beit, Gold- und Silber-Affinerie ", founded in 1770, the" Elb-Kupferwerk "for processing copper ores, which own and foreign ships from South America and mainly from Chile landed in the port of Hamburg. In 1857 the activities were taken over by the newly founded "Elbhütte Affinir- und Handelsgesellschaft", in which Godeffroy and Ferdinand Beit were still involved. Aurubis AG (formerly: Norddeutsche Affinerie) now exists as its successor company .

On June 22nd, 1849 “Joh. Ces. Godeffroy & Sohn ”founded the Reiherstieg shipyard by Hermann V. Roosen around 1706 to meet the demand for transport capacity in the growing trade and industry. a. to be able to satisfy with South and North America and Australia. The partnership ended in spring 1879.

In January 1853 two paddle steamers were acquired by the "Elb-Dampfschiff-Compagnie" to operate regular ferry services between Hamburg and Helgoland . In 1854 the paddle steamer "Helgoland" started its service. It was built by the Scottish shipyard " Caird & Company ". In 1863 the service was stopped again.

In April 1855 “Joh. Ces. Godeffroy & Sohn ”with“ FJ Tesdorf & Sohn ”, Robert Kayser , who was already involved in the“ Elbhütte Affinir- und Handelsgesellschaft ”, and two other companies in the establishment of the“ Elb-Zuckersiederei ”in the form of an AG . The purpose of the company was to process Cuban cane sugar that the trading branch in Havana had bought. Since the beet sugar was offered more cheaply, the company was closed again after a few years. The company's CEO was Siegmund Robinow .

From 1857 Johan Cesar Godeffroy moved his activities to the South Pacific . He shipped numerous emigrants to South Africa and Australia on the route there until 1881. In Samoa he operated coconut planters . The fruits were crushed, shipped to Hamburg and pressed into oil. The success of this business earned him the appreciative nickname "King of the South Seas".

On January 1, 1862, Johan Cesar Godeffroy joined the company as a partner. At the end of 1872, Gustav Godeffroy left as a partner.

In July 1867, “Joh. Ces. Godeffroy & Sohn “a plot of land in the Herrenteich Laischaft with the intention of building a rolling and hammer mill for the manufacture of steel products for shipping.

"Joh. Ces. Godeffroy & Sohn “owned a number of mine holdings at the time of the suspension of payments: Colliery Wolfsbank , Colliery Neuwesel , Colliery North Sea , Colliery Minister Stein , Colliery Dahhausen Civil Engineering, Colliery Dorsfeld, Colliery Wische and Colliery Carolus Magnus .

Shipping company

By 1828 the number rose to five ships, which put the company in fifth place in Hamburg in terms of the number of ships. The company's liner service ran regularly to destinations in Australia, Chile and California with sailing ships from 1850.

Expansion of trade

The view of the sea trade company fell on the emerging world trade on the South Seas . The first stations were set up in Tuamotu , Tahiti and Samoa . On Samoa's main island of Upolu , large areas were bought in 1865 and the first own plantations were set up in order to enter the copra trade . Godeffroy organized expeditions inland, during which indigenous people were abducted in order to use them as slave labor on the plantations.

There was an expansion of the area of ​​interest to other areas in Oceania , Micronesia and Melanesia . Stations arose on the Karolinen ( Yap ), the Tonga Islands, Fotuna , Uvea and the New Hebrides . Godeffroy commissioned the Hamburg captain Alfred Tetens , who came from Wilster, with a trade expedition in the 1860s and made the ship “VESTA” available to him. In 1869 the first permanent seat of the Hamburg trading house Godeffroy was built on Yap under the direction of Alfred Tetens. In 1873 the Marshall Islands were included, and until 1875 also the Bismarck Archipelago and New Pomerania .

Insolvency

Due to a lack of liquidity, the company stopped making payments on December 1, 1879. In April 1880, Cesar Godeffroy reached a settlement with his creditors, the settlement of which took over 30 years. In 1913 the name of the company “Joh. Ces. Godeffroy & Sohn ”deleted from the commercial register. The Samoan Bismarck in the Reichstag had to do with the collection efforts of the South Sea activities.

successor

The South Sea organization of the trading house was largely taken over by the German Trading and Plantation Society of the South Sea Islands. This society, founded in 1878, pursued not only commercial, but also colonial ideas.

Natural sciences

The museum's activities earned Cesar Godeffroy honorary memberships :

Since 1873 Cesar Godeffroy was a corresponding member of the Senckenberg Natural Research Society (Frankfurt am Main). Numerous animals and plants were named in his honor.

Literature (chronological)

biography

Secondary literature

  • Hans Walden: City - Forest . Investigations into the green history of Hamburg. Scientific publishing house, Documentation & Book, Hamburg 2002, ISBN 3-934632-02-5 , Die Forsten des Kaufmanns Godeffroy, p. 366 ff .
  • Matthias Wegner : Hanseatics. Of proud citizens and beautiful legends. Berliner Taschenbuch Verlag, Berlin 2001, ISBN 3-442-76013-5 , p. 461 .
  • Werner Johannsen: Who they were ... where they rest . A guide to notable graves at the Nienstedten cemetery. Heinevetter, Hamburg 1992, ISBN 3-929171-22-8 .
  • Paul Theodor Hoffmann: The Elbchaussee. Their country estates, people and fates. 9th edition. Broschek, Hamburg 1982, ISBN 3-7672-0496-7 .
  • Fritz Stern : Gold and Iron. Bismarck and his banker Bleichröder. 2nd Edition. Ullstein, Frankfurt a. M. u. a. 1978, ISBN 3-550-07358-5 , pp. 484-491 .
  • Joh. Diederich Hahn-Godeffroy: When the Falkenstein was still part of the Godeffroy forest. Blankeneser Citizens' Association, Hamburg 1984.
  • Gerhard Ahrens : Crisis Management 1857. State and businessmen in Hamburg during the first economic crisis. tape 28 , publications of the Association for Hamburg History . Verlag Verein f. Hamburg History, Hamburg 1986, ISBN 3-923356-11-0 .
  • Gerhard Ahrens: Crisis Management 1857. In the correspondence of the siblings Jenisch and Godeffroy reflected world economic crisis and its solution in Hamburg 1857. Volume 42 , Publications of the Economic History Research Center. Hanseatischer Merkur, Hamburg 1980, ISBN 978-3-922857-01-3 .

Historical

JC Godeffroy & Son

  • Kurt Schmack: JC Godeffroy & son merchants in Hamburg. Performance and fate of a world trading house. Broschek & Co, Hamburg 1938, DNB  576039713 .
  • Richard Hertz: The Hamburg maritime trading company JC Godeffroy and son, 1766–1879 . In: Publications of the Association for Hamburg History . tape 4 . Hartung, Hamburg 1922.
  • 1866–2006, special issue on the 140th anniversary of Norddeutsche Affinerie AG , published by Norddeutsche Affinerie Hamburg, pp. 3, 8.

shipping

  • Walter Kresse: From the past of the Reiherstieg shipyard in Hamburg . Published by Deutsche Werft, Hamburg.
  • Otto Mathies: Hamburg's shipping company 1814–1914 . Friederichsen, Hamburg 1924, DNB  366593625 .

South seas

  • Claus Gossler: The businessman August Unshelm (1824–1864) . Pioneer of the Hamburg trading company Joh. Ces. Godeffroy & Son in the South Pacific. In: Publication of the Association for Hamburg History . tape 95 , 2009, ISSN  0083-5587 ( pages 23-67 StuUBHH).
  • Gabriele Dürbeck: Stereotypical Paradises: Oceanism in German South Seas literature 1815-1914 . Max Niemeyer Verlag, Tübingen 2007, ISBN 978-3-484-35115-8 .
  • Claus Gossler: Between Hamburg and Tahiti. The businessman Gustav Godeffroy Junior (1851–1890) and the risks of German South Sea trade. In: Hamburg Economic Chronicle . tape 5 , 2006.
  • Claus Gossler: The Société commerciale de l'Océanie (1876-1914) . The rise and fall of the Hamburg Godeffroys in East Polynesia. MontAurum publishing house, 2006, ISBN 978-3-937729-20-6 .
  • Ales Skrivan: The Hamburg trading house Johan Cesar Godeffroy & Sohn and the question of German trading interests in the South Seas . In: Publications of the Association for Hamburg History . tape 81 , 1995 ( pp. 129-155 StuUBHH).
  • Paul M. Kennedy: The Samoan tangle . A study in Anglo-German-American relations, 1878–1900. Barnes & Noble, New York 1974 (English).
  • Erika Suchan-Galow: German economic activity in the South Seas before the first occupation in 1884 . In: Publications of the Association for Hamburg History . tape XIV . Hans Christian's printing and publishing house, Hamburg 1940.

Sports

  • Erik Diemke, Dirk Schreyer: The Hamburger and Germania Ruder Club . 150 years of rowing in Germany. Ed .: The Hamburger and Germania Ruder Club. Christians, Hamburg 1986.

Web links

  • Gisela Schütte: The good business of the Hamburg King of the South Seas. Die Welt , January 21, 2007, accessed on November 1, 2011 (A new book describes the activities of the Godeffroy merchant dynasty on Tahiti. (Author Claus Gossler)).
  • Founding period. 1848-1871. Industry & lifelong dreams between Vormärz and the German Empire. Exhibition at the German Historical Museum Berlin from April 25, 2008 to August 31, 2008. The exhibition catalog lists around 100 exemplary biographies from the early days of the company. Catalog: Gründerzeit. 1848-1871. Industry & Dreams of Life between Vormärz and Empire, ed. by Ulrike Laufer and Hans Ottomeyer. Sandstein Verlag, Dresden, 2008.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Elected in place of the constitutionally resigning Ernst Heinrich Jacob Michahelles in the meeting of the Honorable Merchant on June 13, 1840. ( Elections , in: Hamburger Nachrichten of June 15, 1840, page 3)
  2. ↑ The President of our Chamber of Commerce from 1665 until today. Hamburg Chamber of Commerce, accessed on December 13, 2017 .
  3. ↑ See under “Commercium”, “Kaufmannschaft” or “Chamber of Commerce” in “Dept. Commerce and trade ”in the editions of the Hamburg State Calendar to the .... th year ... , ( digital copies ).
  4. ^ Directory of those who have become citizens , in: Hamburger Nachrichten, August 15, 1836, page 3
  5. ↑ The adjacent buildings, Alter Wandrahm 25 and 26, used as an office, warehouse, residential building and museum rooms were demolished around 1886 in connection with the construction of the Hamburg warehouse district . House number 26 was probably acquired in 1852, number 25 had been owned by the Godeffroy family since around 1781.
  6. ↑ John Booth : The Douglas spruce ; and some other conifers by name from north-western America in relation to their forestry cultivation in Germany, Julius Springer, Berlin 1877, pp. 54–55.
  7. ↑ The author Richard Hertz had documented the founding year of “JC Godeffroy & Co” in 1766 with a text passage in the obituary for Cesar Godeffroy (see footnote 35). After that, "he headed the house for 52 years". In fact, however, the name "JC Godeffroy & Co" or "Joh. Ces. Godeffroy & Co ”for the trading house was only introduced after Cesar Godeffroy had taken on a partner in 1782. Initially, Cesar Godeffroy had traded under his name "JC Godeffroy" on his own account (evidence: The Almanac for Travelers from 1782 still has the entry "Joh. Ces. Godeffroy", the Hamburg merchant's almanac for the year 1784 then lists "Johan Cesar Godeffroi & Comp. ". Comparable information can be found in Ernst Baasch, volume 5.)
  8. ↑ Richard Hertz names Kurt Moriz-Eichborn as a source for the linen trade: The debit and credit… . The information given there about the collaboration between Godeffroy and Eichborn is of a general nature, e.g. For example: "The prospects for our action ... are extremely sad." To this day it is the only source for the linen trade.
  9. ↑ Richard Hertz (p. 10): “In general there is hardly any news about the trading activities of the company at that time: we only see from the account books that the linen sales of JC Godeffroy in the 90s with some other companies came first stands without our being able to name numbers. "
  10. ↑ Ernst Baasch, page 621ff.
  11. ^ Kurt Moriz-Eichborn: The debit and credit of Eichborn & Co in 175 years: a Silesian contribution to the fatherland's economic history . WG Korn, Breslau 1903, p. 149 .
  12. ^ History of the Roosen family, Reiherstieg shipyard
  13. ↑ further name: "Elb-Dampfschifffahrts-Compagnie"
  14. ↑ The Hamburg seaside resort service to Norderney since 1834 in Hans Szymanski: The steam shipping in Lower Saxony and the adjacent areas from 1817 to 1867 , European University Publishing House, Bremen 2011, p. 288, ISBN 978-3-86741-678-8
  15. ↑ Altonaer Nachrichten of July 23, 1867, page 1
  16. ↑ Aleš Skřivan, p. 137
  17. ↑ German Colonial Lexicon
  18. ↑ Entomological Association in Stettin (ed.): Entomologische Zeitung , 29th vol. 1-3. Jan. - March 1869, p. 105, digitizedhttp: //vorlage_digitalisat.test/1%3D~GB%3DCaEWAAAAYAAJ~IA%3D~MDZ%3D%0A~SZ%3DPA105~ double-sided%3D~LT%3D~PUR%3D .
  19. ^ Association for Natural Scientific Local Research in Hamburg eV
  20. ↑ Honorary Members , in: August Voller (ed.): Negotiations of the Natural Science Association in Hamburg – Altona , New Series I, Friederichsen, Hamburg 1877, p. 20
  21. ^ Negotiations of the Berlin Society for Anthropology, Ethnology and Prehistory , born in 1875, Wiegandt, Hempel & Parey, Berlin 1875, p. 231, ( digitized versionhttp: //vorlage_digitalisat.test/1%3D~GB%3D_VAY7huF_bgC~IA%3D~MDZ%3D%0A~SZ%3DPA231~ double-sided%3D~LT%3D~PUR%3D ).
  22. ^ The year of the association 1879/80. In: Messages from the Geography Association in Halle ad Saale. , Vol. 4, p. 84
  23. ^ Monthly reports of the Royal Prussian Academy of Sciences in Berlin . From the year 1866. Berlin 1867, p. 268 ( digitized versionhttp: //vorlage_digitalisat.test/1%3D~GB%3DK-0aAAAAYAAJ~IA%3D~MDZ%3D%0A~SZ%3D268~ double-sided%3D~LT%3D~PUR%3D ).
  24. ^ In the exhibition catalog Gründerzeit 1848–1871: Johan César VI. Godeffroy (1813-1885)
personal data
SURNAME Godeffroy, Johan Cesar
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Godeffroy, Johan Cesar; Godeffroy, Johann Cesar; Godeffroy, Johan Cesar Sr.; Godeffroy, Johann Cesar Sr.; Godeffroy, JC
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German entrepreneur and politician, MdHB
DATE OF BIRTH July 1, 1813
PLACE OF BIRTH Kiel
DATE OF DEATH February 9, 1885
Place of death Docking dogs