Klaus Hinrich Klahn

Klaus Hinrich Klahn (born October 10, 1776 in Dahme (Holstein) , † October 13, 1851 in Hamburg (South Carolina) ) was a German trader . He emigrated to the USA in 1805 and called himself Henry Shultz there . He became known as the builder of a bridge over the Savannah River and as the founder of the city of Hamburg in South Carolina .

Life

Klaus Hinrich Klahn grew up in the small fishing and farming village of Dahme in Holstein at the exit of the Bay of Lübeck . The son of a serf worker attended the one-class elementary school in Dahme and after his confirmation at the age of 16 migrated to the Free and Hanseatic City of Lübeck . There he learned enough about the trading business to establish himself as a grain and seed trader in Dahme at the turn of the century. After a few years he moved his business to the other side of the Lübeck Bay to Wismar and was very successful there. When Napoleon's army invaded Mecklenburg , all his belongings were confiscated and he was ruined. To escape his creditors, he went to Altona in 1805 and enrolled there in the Danish Navy using the name Heinrich Schultz.

After a few months of basic training, he escaped as a stowaway on an American schooner , was discovered and had to work for two years. Before that time it was sold to a cotton merchant in Georgia . After his release, he went into business for himself as a merchant shipping cotton from Augusta , Georgia, on the Savannah River.

In 1814 he built a bridge over the Savannah River and had significant income from levying a bridge toll; enough to satisfy his creditors in Germany with interest and compound interest after more than ten years and to prepare his return to Germany. He even founded a bank, the Bridge Company of Augusta , whose "Bridge Bills" were an established means of payment. In the banking crisis of 1819 , however, it became insolvent and the bridge fell into the hands of its creditors. In Shultz's eyes it was certain Augusta residents who envied his success and drove him to ruin. He had to drop all plans to return to Dahme and committed a suicide attempt that disfigured him for life.

In direct competition with the city of Augusta in Georgia, he founded the city of Hamburg on the South Carolina side of the Savannah in 1821 and succeeded in relocating large parts of the cotton trade there. The city flourished and Shultz, aka Klahn, made money selling land, renting out buildings, and participating in companies. However, after being convicted of negligent homicide in a high-profile trial , convicted and pardoned by the governor of the state of South Carolina, he found it difficult to recover funds from these business relationships and was forced to file for bankruptcy again in 1928. Shultz / Klahn died lonely and poor at the age of 75 in Hamburg, South Carolina, the city he founded.

literature

Georg Peter Petersen : VIII: The town planner Schultz on the Savannah, a Holsteiner . In: Georg Peter Petersen (Ed.): New Schleswig-Holstein-Lauenburg Provincial Reports . (... for the year 1830), 19th year Borchers, Lübeck (1830), p. 424ff., digitized .

Individual evidence

↑ ^a ^b ^c Irene Voigt-Lassen: A Dahmer became a town planner on the Savannah . In: AG für Heimatkunde Oldenburg / Ostholstein eV (Hrsg.): Yearbook for Heimatkunde . 1200th edition. tape 8 . Self-published, Oldenburg / Holst. 1965, p. 245 .
^ ^A ^b Charles G. Cordle: Henry Shultz and the Founding of Hamburg, South Carolina . In: University of Georgia (Ed.): Studies in Georgia History and Government . OCLC 794924, 1940, pp. 79-93 and 257-263 .
^ News from home and abroad . In: Augsburger Tagblatt of March 21, 1832, No. 81, annual edition 1832, p. 327f digitized .
↑ Klaus Hinrich Klahn - a Dahmer as a city planner in America. October 13, 2016, accessed January 27, 2017 .
^ Heinrich Luden (ed.): Sr. Highness of Duke Bernhard von Sachsen-Weimar-Eisenach's journey through North America in the years 1825 and 1826. Second part. , Wilhelm Hoffmann, Weimar 1828, pp. 18–19, ( digitized version , this part has been taken over verbatim by Georg Peter Petersen with reference to the footnote).

personal data
SURNAME	Klahn, Klaus Hinrich
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Shultz, Henry; Schulz, Heinrich
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	German trader, emigrant and city founder
DATE OF BIRTH	October 10, 1776
PLACE OF BIRTH	Dahme (Holstein)
DATE OF DEATH	October 13, 1851
Place of death	Hamburg (South Carolina)

[:0-1] Irene Voigt-Lassen: A Dahmer became a town planner on the Savannah . In: AG für Heimatkunde Oldenburg / Ostholstein eV (Hrsg.): Yearbook for Heimatkunde . 1200th edition. tape 8 . Self-published, Oldenburg / Holst. 1965, p. 245 .

[:1-2] A ^b Charles G. Cordle: Henry Shultz and the Founding of Hamburg, South Carolina . In: University of Georgia (Ed.): Studies in Georgia History and Government . OCLC 794924, 1940, pp. 79-93 and 257-263 .

[3] News from home and abroad . In: Augsburger Tagblatt of March 21, 1832, No. 81, annual edition 1832, p. 327f digitized .

[4] Klaus Hinrich Klahn - a Dahmer as a city planner in America. October 13, 2016, accessed January 27, 2017 .

[5] Heinrich Luden (ed.): Sr. Highness of Duke Bernhard von Sachsen-Weimar-Eisenach's journey through North America in the years 1825 and 1826. Second part. , Wilhelm Hoffmann, Weimar 1828, pp. 18–19, ( digitized version , this part has been taken over verbatim by Georg Peter Petersen with reference to the footnote).