Johann Smidt (businessman)

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Johann Smidt in Calcutta, 1865

Johann Smidt (born May 20, 1839 in Bremen , † October 18, 1910 in Bremen) was a German businessman who founded an import and export company in Calcutta in British India , later was a member of the Bremen citizenship and was involved in the expansion of the ports and the deepening of the Weser.

Life

After an apprenticeship at Louis F. Kalkmann & Co. in Bremen , Smidt, son of the Bremen judge Dr. jur. Johann Hermann Smidt (* April 7, 1804; † February 7, 1879) and grandson of the Mayor of Bremen Johann Smidt , 1860 to Kolkata , where he worked for the Johann Philipp Schneider company until 1862, then with Johannes Schröder (1837-1916) founded the company Schröder, Smidt & Co.

On January 5, 1869, he married Marie Achelis . They had six children together, one of whom was born in Calcutta.

In Calcutta he was appointed consul for Bremen. In March 1868 he was even to be appointed German federal consul.

In 1873 he returned to Bremen. In addition to his work as a foreign trade merchant, he participated in public life. In 1884 he was elected a member of the Chamber of Commerce, in 1889 he became a member of the city council. In 1898 he became accountant of the deputation for ports and railways. Above all, he took on tasks in connection with Bremen's development as an overseas trading city: customs connection, construction of free ports , correction of the Weser . In 1886 he became accountant of the buoy and beacon office . The first lighting on the Lower Weser line from Bremen to Bremerhaven was created under his accounting.

In the years in which Smidt performed public and voluntary tasks in Bremen, large areas were acquired in the vicinity of the new ports, and large port developments were carried out in Bremen and Bremerhaven . He was involved in these projects in his capacity as accounting officer. He earned particular merit in the design of the financial plan for the Weser correction, which was projected by Ludwig Franzius .

As a member of the board of directors of Sparkasse Bremen , he recognized that there was a threat of housing shortage in Bremen due to the demolition of many houses, which was necessary due to the construction of the free port, and the influx of people from outside. At his own risk, he acquired a site near the free port and made it available to the non-profit Bremer Bauverein founded in 1887. He also supported the “Volksheim” association.

Smidt, the banker Bernhard Loose and the businessman Christoph Hellwig Papendieck provided significant support to the jute spinning and weaving mill founded by Albert Haasemann in Bremen in 1888 . He was a member of the board of the Jacobi Brotherhood, he was on the supervisory board of North German Lloyd , and campaigned for the Bürgerpark . He was the accounting officer at the Bremer Gartenbauverein.

About 130 letters that Johann Smidt, mostly from Calcutta, to his father, the judge Dr. jur. Johann Hermann Smidt (* April 7, 1804: † February 7, 1879) wrote, give an insight into the life of a German merchant family in British India and testify to the rapid technical development of postal traffic, passenger and goods transport. He also writes about North America, where he experienced a railroad disaster in the snow and got to know the first elevator .

Honors

Travel between Europe and Calcutta

While Smidt needed 96 days from country to country and 105 days from port to port on his first trip to Calcutta on the sailing ship "Ulysses" around Africa, the travel time was later reduced considerably. After only three years, when he was back in Germany for the first time, his return trip to Calcutta only took a month, because he went by train to Marseille, with the ship "Euxine" to Alexandria, by train via Cairo Suez, then with the ship “Carnatie” via Ceylon (Galle) to Calcutta.

Correspondence from Calcutta to Bremen

On November 17, 1861, Smidt wrote that the letters from Calcutta to Europe would initially be sent overland to Bombay . As long as the railway is built and in operation, it takes the letters with it. The rest of the route is covered by "coolies" who are stationed on the route at intervals of 5 English miles. They carry the letters with them in rucksacks (Johann Smidt calls them “Felleisen”) and pass them on to the next “coolie”. The departure date of the steamer in Bombay in the direction of Suez determines when the letters have to be posted in Calcutta. The post office in Calcutta calculates the time it takes for land transport to Bombay, also taking the weather into account. This defines the "final day" by which the letters must be posted in Calcutta. In addition, there is also a so-called "express" transport: one day after the officially set final day you can send express letters, but then you have to pay one rupee extra postage per ounce. H. an even faster messenger is sent after the pen. The letters take 7 to 8 days to reach Bombay from Calcutta, in the rainy season it can also take 12 to 14 days. If the post office clerk in Calcutta has miscalculated the delivery time, the letter takes 14 days longer to reach Bremen, as the steamer from Bombay to Suez only drove every 14 days.

A letter from Johann Smidt dated November 18, 1862, shows that there is now a faster post connection with French ships via the port of Galle on Ceylon, Suez and Marseille. The Calcutta to Bombay railroad was still not ready at this point.

Hurricane in Calcutta

On October 5th, 1864 , Calcutta was hit by a cyclone that killed 60,000 people and almost completely destroyed the city. The Botanical Garden, which had been laid out 70 years earlier by the directorate of the English East India Company, was badly damaged.

Smidt was not in Calcutta at the time of the storm. The festival of the Indian goddess Kali , which is celebrated in West Bengal for several days, was approaching and had inspired him to go to Rajmahal with some friends to hunt there. Back in Calcutta, he writes to his father that the river delta has suffered the most. In Kedjeree (halfway between Calcutta and the sea) the tidal wave was 35 feet high. The island of Sangar, which is about the size of the land between the Weser and Elbe, has lost 90% of its population. The Schröder, Smidt & Co. company did not suffer any significant damage - only about 5000 rupees. But through damage inspections for the Hamburg insurance company and through advances to captains whose ships had suffered damage, around 2500 rupees have been collected again.

Travel in North America

On March 24, 1876, Smidt wrote to his father from Chicago

“On the 21st, Fritz Achelis , Conrad Vietor u. I'm going on a trip to California [...]. "

On April 7, 1876, he wrote to his father from San Francisco :

“We arrived here on March 29th, safe and sound. After we drove through the boring, slowly rising plateau for days, we came to the rocky mountains, which are nicely overgrown with huge conifers. One drives 7-8000 feet above the sea and since the train has light snow or, more correctly, in many places the snow is blown from the mountains sometimes 10-20 feet high onto the track, huge snow tunnels made of wood, which are often miles long, are attached. it is even 40 miles from these wooden tunnels for a distance of 100 miles , as they are located in the most beautiful area, so it is of course a shame that one has to drive in the dark and so on. sees nothing. -

We had several stops because of snow, which is moved to the side by so-called locomotive snow plows . These are large locomotives that have a sharp point at the front like the front part of a warship, which then drive into the snow under their own power and, in our case, pushed by two other locomotives, and so on. same right & throw to the left. -

Even then, they are not always strong enough to train to free. The above 3 locomotives got stuck and had to be dug free again because they couldn't go back on their own. Only when our two locomotives came to the rescue from the train to pull the 3 out, they managed to get through the next attempt. Later we found a snow tunnel dented by the load resting on it. We had to stop in the tunnel for 2 hours before the beams, boards and snow were moved to the side. While we were waiting another train came, which couldn't stop early enough and in us. drove in the last car, damaging it and himself, but without harming people. -

Here we are in the Palace Hotel, the most beautiful and largest hotel in the world, at least I haven't seen anything like it. It has 7 floors, we are on the 4th, the higher the better in this hotel, you are pulled up in 2 places through floating rooms , I have not yet gone up the stairs [...]. "

literature

  • Hermann Eggers: Consul Johann Smidt. A character study . In: The Guild Chamber . 1st year, 1910, pp. 119–124.
  • Biography of Bremen in the nineteenth century . Published by the historical society of the artists' association, Verlag von Gustav Winter, Bremen 1912.
  • Herbert Black Forest : The Great Bremen Lexicon . Edition Temmen , Bremen 2003, ISBN 3-86108-693-X .
  • Arend Vollers: Christian Eduard Freye, my apprenticeship at the overseas company Schröder, Smidt & Co. in Bremen . In: Hartmut Roder (Ed.): Bremen - East Asia. A changing relationship. Publication on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the East Asian Association Bremen eV in 2001. Verlag Hauschild Bremen. Pp. 108-114.
  • Estate of Johann Smidt (1773–1857), Mayor of the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen ( State Archives, holdings 7.20), edited by Monika M. Schulte and Nicola Wurthmann. Self-published by the Bremen State Archives, 2004. ISBN 3-9-25729-35-6 .
  • Wiebke Hoffmann: Emigrate and return. Merchant families between Bremen and Übersee. A micro-study 1860–1930. Internationale Hochschulschriften, Volume 523. Waxmann Verlag, 2009. ISBN 978-3-8309-2102-8 , ISSN  0932-4763 .

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Wiebke Hoffmann: Emigration and Return. Merchant families between Bremen and Übersee. Waxmann Verlag GmbH, 2009. ISBN 978-3-8309-2102-8 , ISSN  0932-4763 , pages 95-96
  2. ↑ State Archives Bremen consular files: STAB 2-C.4.b.6.c.1: 1843–1866. Quoted from Wiebke Hoffmann: Emigrate and return. Merchant families between Bremen and Übersee. Waxmann Verlag GmbH, 2009. ISBN 978-3-8309-2102-8 , ISSN  0932-4763 , p. 434.
  3. ^ Johann Smidt writes in his letter of January 24, 1868
    "That I might be appointed federal consul here actually amazes me [...] and the matter still seems very doubtful to me [...] The well-known Germans are unkind, and make the position as consul for the above places ridiculous and use the one that is so popular with you Title Consul only as a nickname! The Federal Consul will of course take a different position! "
    He wrote on March 9, 1868
    "What will hold me back here for a few more weeks can only be the appointment as Federal Consul, which may arrive here at the end of April [...] The Federal Chancellor informed me in his circular of December 18th that he intends to join To set up a federal consulate and if I were ready to take on this office, he would propose it to the King of Prussia. After consultation with Schröder [...] I wrote to Berlin on February 8th and agreed to take over the position [...] "
  4. ↑ Bremische Biographie of the nineteenth century. Published by the historical society of the artists' association. Bremen: Verlag von Gustav Winter, 1912.
  5. ↑ Bremische Biographie of the nineteenth century. Published by the historical society of the artists' association. Bremen: Verlag von Gustav Winter, 1912, p. 475
  6. ^ Werner Kloos: Bremer Lexikon . HM Hauschild, Bremen 1977, ISBN 3-920699-16-5 , pp. 106, 108, 349.
  7. ^ Hermann Eggers: Consul Johann Smidt. A character study . In: The Guild Chamber . 1. Vol. Pp. 119–124, quoted from Wiebke Hoffmann: Emigration and Return. Merchant families between Bremen and Übersee. Waxmann Verlag GmbH, 2009. ISBN 978-3-8309-2102-8 , ISSN  0932-4763 , p. 436
  8. ↑ Bremische Biographie of the nineteenth century. Published by the historical society of the artists' association. Bremen: Verlag von Gustav Winter, 1912, p. 475.
  9. ^ Wiebke Hoffmann: Emigration and Return. Merchant families between Bremen and Übersee. Waxmann Verlag GmbH, 2009. ISBN 978-3-8309-2102-8 , ISSN  0932-4763 , p. 438. In it: reference to GH Claussen, Gemeinnütziger Bremer Bauverein, its justification, etc., Bremen 1900
  10. ^ Wiebke Hoffmann: Emigration and Return. Merchant families between Bremen and Übersee. Waxmann Verlag GmbH, 2009. ISBN 978-3-8309-2102-8 , ISSN  0932-4763 , pp. 46 and 437
  11. ↑ Bremen State Archives , inventory 7.20, 1862–1876, inventory number 1618 (approx. 130 items)
  12. ^ Letter of August 7, 1860 from Calcutta to his father
  13. ↑ Letters to his father November 15, November 25, December 5 and December 20, 1863
  14. ^ Letter of November 10, 1861, continued November 17, 1861
  15. ↑ The term 'Coolie', which can also be spelled Cooly, Kuli, Quli or Koelie, is a historical term for manual workers, which was used especially in China and India in the 19th and early 20th centuries
  16. ^ A Brief History of the Cyclone at Calcutta and Vicinity (1864), OT Cutter, Military Press Calcutta, 1865;
  17. ↑ Berlin, January 6, 1866. About the devastation of the botanical garden near Calcutta 1865: WEEKLY PAPER OF THE ASSOCIATION FOR THE PROMOTION OF HORTICULTURE IN THE ROYAL PRUSSIAN STATES FOR HORTICULTURE and PLANTING. Edited by the general secretary of the association, Professor Dr. Karl Koch. IX. Vintage. BERLIN. KAEL WIEGANDT PUBLISHER. 1866. No.1.
  18. ↑ Johann Smidt calls the festival in his letter of August 15, 1964 to his father 'Doorgo Puja', whereas in his letter of September 8, 1864 he only speaks of the "Native festivals". In Indian mythology, Kali represents an embodiment of the wrath of the Durga
  19. ↑ Letter No. 14 of September 8, 1864 and Letter No. 15 of October 2, 1864, both to his father
  20. ^ Letter No. 16 of October 20, 1864

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Smidt, Johann
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German businessman, member of the citizenship in Bremen
DATE OF BIRTH May 20, 1839
PLACE OF BIRTH Bremen
DATE OF DEATH October 18, 1910
Place of death Bremen