John T. Essberger

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John Theodor Essberger (born February 19, 1886 in Munich , † July 8, 1959 in Hamburg ) was a German shipowner.

Life

His father, John Augustus Essberger, was a director and partner in Schiffsunion Elektrizitätsgesellschaft and John Essberger & Co. GmbH.

Born in Britain, John Theodor Essberger completed his Abitur at the Askanisches Gymnasium in Berlin in 1906 , became naturalized in the same year and joined the Imperial Navy as a candidate for sea officer in the same year . During the First World War he was first officer on watch and then commander of the torpedo boats S 144 and then the B 109 . After the war he was active in merchant shipping in Hamburg. In 1924 he ended his service with the Reichsmarine for economic reasons and founded the Atlantik-Tank-Reederei GmbH with a fellow marine . He separated from this partner in 1928 and renamed the company to John T. Essberger in 1936 . The company owned an extensive fleet.

In July 1929, Essberger married his second wife Elsa, who was known as an art-loving patron , brought three "half-Jewish" children into their marriage with the cigar manufacturer Jacob Wolff, who died in 1926, and dined at the side of the former fighter pilot Hermann Göring . Essberger also promoted musicians and was considered a talented violinist himself.

In 1933 he acquired the villa from Peter Godeffroy , which is now known as the White House in Hamburg. In the same year he became chairman of the Association of German Shipowners . In this function he was designated as the leader of the German shipping industry .

In 1942 Essberger took over two rival companies in the African trade: the Woermann line founded in 1885 and the German East Africa Line founded in 1890 . He merged these lines with his own company after the end of the Second World War under the name Deutsche Afrika-Linien / John T. Essberger Group of Companies . He completely rebuilt his confiscated fleet. The daughter Liselotte von Rantzau-Essberger continued to run the company after his death.

The rescue cruiser John T. Essberger of the German Society for the Rescue of Shipwrecked People was named after Essberger .

Works

  • The Situation of German Shipping (1937)
  • German Maritime Shipping (1938)

literature

  • Large Bavarian Biographical Encyclopedia ; P. 474
  • Hans Georg Prager : John T. Essberger . John T. Essberger, Hamburg 1974, DNB 790642395 .
  • Eberhard Stötzner: The ships of the shipping companies Deutsche Afrika-Linien and John T. Essberger ; 1996
  • Michael Werner: foundation city and middle class ; 2011

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Svante Domizlaff: John T. Essberger: a German history of tank shipping , Koehlers Verlagsgesellschaft, 1999, p. 7. ISBN 978-3-7822-0749-2 .
  2. ↑ a b Die Welt : The Secret of the White House , February 11, 2001
  3. ↑ OMGUS: Investigation against Deutsche Bank - 1946/47 . Franz Greno, Nördlingen 1985, ISBN 3-921568-66-8 , p. 391 f.
personal data
SURNAME Essberger, John T.
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Essberger, John Theodor
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German shipowner
DATE OF BIRTH February 19, 1886
PLACE OF BIRTH Munich
DATE OF DEATH July 8, 1959
Place of death Hamburg