Otto A. Müller Shipping

Otto A. Müller Schiffahrt GmbH
legal form	GmbH , Hamburg District Court HRB 61749
founding	November 1, 1889
resolution	December 31, 2016
Reason for dissolution	World market development
Seat	Hamburg
Branch	Shipping - transport trade
Website	http://www.oam.de/

Otto A. Müller GmbH ( OAM ), founded on November 1, 1889, ceased shipping operations at the end of 2016. The traditional Hamburg company was founded by Otto Alfred Müller, an entrepreneur who initially supplied coal to Hamburg households, which he later imported from England.

Establishment and management

On November 1, 1889, the then 31-year-old Otto Alfred Müller (OAM) founded a small company for the import of English coal to Germany with a loan in addition to an inherited fortune. Otto Alfred Müller remained managing director of the company until his death in 1929, the youngest son of thirteen children of a Saxon tanner was described by his employees as a typical member of the founding generation: economical and precise, always insisting on his rights, but at the same time generous and charitable . Until the outbreak of the First World War , the OAM staff consisted of seven people: the accountants Muus and Niehus, the businessman Swede, the messenger Diedrich, the secretary Sauerland, the office manager Sauerland and Otto A. Müller as the owner. As a result of the split relationship between father and son, Otto Franz Jacob Ottmüller only became managing director of OAM after his death in 1929. He had been a silent partner since 1920. At the same time, Friedrich Sauerland joined the company management as a personally liable associated partner with a share of 33 percent.

After the end of the Second World War , Otto A. Ottmüller, the eldest son of Otto Franz Jacob Ottmüller, joined the company as a personally liable partner. Friedrich Sauerland died in July 1952 and Gert Ottmüller was appointed further managing director in August 1952 and became personally liable partner from the following year. On April 30, 1946, OAM was placed under the supervision of Captain Abott by the British Military Government and Mr. Taurek of the Shipping and Coal Trading Company was appointed Trustee.

Otto FJ Ottmüller died in 1960. OAM was converted into a KG . In addition to Otto A. Ottmüller and Gert Ottmüller as personally liable partners, Rolf Ottmüller joined the company as a limited partner. The lawyer Ewald Giebelmann joined the company as a further managing director and shareholder. Ernst Schöpf as a businessman and Kurt E. Gehrts, whose father had been in charge of the Altona facility since 1929, took over the management of the shipping department, while Peter Schröder was in charge of the charter department and Klaus Bäätjer was appointed head of the trading department. On March 1, 1981 Otto A. Müller was transformed into a GmbH by converting it into what was then GfKK, the shareholders of which were the brothers Otto, Gert and Rolf Ottmüller and Dr. Giebelmann became, the former and the latter as managing directors. The heads of department Kurt Gehrts jr. (Shipping company), Klaus Bäätcher (building materials trade), Hein Baumgarten (accounting), Martin Plog (accounting), Ernst-Holger Schween (freighting), Klaus Langhans (staff), Jochen Bayer (spot freighting), Hermann Rautert (contract freighting) and Lothar Adolf Schneider (building materials sales).

On March 1, 1988 Otto A. Ottmüller and his wife Ortrud died in a plane crash in Johannesburg , South Africa . Her son Kai-Peter Ottmüller, who had been with the company since completing his studies, inherited his share in the company and succeeded him as managing director as the majority shareholder. On March 30, 1988, Dr. Ewald Giebelmann, Dr. Hans Werner Oberlack, who had taken over a part of the company share from Dr Rolf Ottmüller, was appointed as a further managing director and a few months later Ulrich Kranzusch, a former employee of OAM, became managing director until 1993. In 1994, a joint venture with equal participation by OAM and Heinrich Hanno & Co. BV ( Rotterdam ) was concluded with the spin-off of Schiffahrt into the companies OAM - Hanno Shipping GmbH in Hamburg and Hanno OAM Shipping vof in Rotterdam, which was dissolved again in 1997 . In the same year, Delphin Schiffahrt, led by Hermann Rautert , merges with OAM to form Otto A. Müller Schiffahrt GmbH and Delphin Schiffahrt GmbH. From now on, both companies operate successfully and completely independently of one another in the Hamburg office building, Domstrasse 11, with different main shareholders and interests. OAM pursues commercial ship management and Delphin the operative brokerage business, thus avoiding any conflicts from the outset.

The coal transport trade

In the founding years, the coal was transported with rented freighters via King's Lynn , later via Immingham and Leith , to the port of Hamburg , where it was reloaded into our own ships and transported through the Alster canals to the coal traders and end consumers. In those days coal was in great demand, it was used to heat houses and stoves and to burn locomotives and machines. The flourishing trade allowed OAM to build its first ship, the Gretchen Müller, in 1908 . It was commissioned from a Rostock shipyard. In 1917, OAM sold its inventory to Raab Karcher , a subsidiary of the Thyssen Group that traded with Ruhr coal after the British coal supply had ceased due to the British blockade of the North Sea .

The Gretchen Mueller came unscathed through the days of the war and was able in 1921 to resume coal transportation between England and Germany. In 1923, OAM established the main office in Hamburg, Speersort 17, which was now called Bolsoverhaus (after the English Bolsover colliery). Due to the strike of British miners in 1926, OAM participated in the delivery of coal from Germany to England for over nine months, but withdrew in time before the end of the strike and thus, unlike some rival companies, avoided significant losses. In 1930 OAM bought a supply ship of the Navy with a deadweight of 2,300 tdw , which was renamed Else Müller . With a top speed of 12 knots, she was one of the fastest cargo ships at the time, which could make three trips from Immingham to Hamburg within two weeks. With 72 trips a year, it has held the blue ribbon of Hamburg's hard coal shipping to this day .

According to the contractual agreements with Raab Karcher, OAM was not allowed to have its own coal storage facility for ten years; it was only in 1928 that OAM was able to purchase the port facility of the company O. Vidal on Große Elbstrasse in Hamburg. With considerable technical improvements in the screening plant and loading options for trucks, OAM achieved the top position in Hamburg as a coal screening and distribution location. During the first day shift, the OAM employees loaded 1200 t of coal into trucks, in the second day shift another 1000 t were reloaded into barges for industrial use. This enabled the ships that arrived early in the morning to return to Immingham at midnight. Some of the coal, the so-called Bolsover Nuts , was delivered by OAM to Marne (Holstein) and Itzehoe in five Kaelble trucks, using more than twenty trailers with loads of five to seven tons each . In 1936 OAM took over the coal trading company C. Carstens with the facilities on Mittelweg and in 1937 O. Vidal with premises in Sierichstraße directly on the canal. In 1938, FE Rosenberg sold his company and its premises on Gertigstrasse to OAM. After September 1, 1939, coal imports from England came to a standstill. The transport capacities for coal from Upper Silesia , lignite from Central Germany and sand for the construction of bunkers soon deteriorated to half their previous volume.

The post-war years with the rapid reconstruction of the destroyed German economy and coal as one of the main energy sources shaped the positive developments at OAM. Only in the late 1950s did the development of the energy market change, it was foreseeable that only imported coal would be able to compete in the onset of the oil boom. The operators of most German industrial plants turned away from domestic coal to heating oil. These prognoses were also confirmed for the Hamburg fishing fleet, which has been supplied with 60,000 t of coal annually since 1950; the OAM operation in Altona was closed in 1964. OAM continued to import coal from England , under the restrictions of the 1957 decrees, primarily for the Hamburg electricity works and the northwest German power plants .

The oil crisis in the early 1970s brought a renaissance to coal, in 1976 OAM bought the first batch of approx. 23,000 t of coal from the Cape Breton Development Corporation (DEVCO) in Sydney / Eastern Canada for the Hamburg electricity works in Wedel . In addition to DEVCO as the main supplier, OAM revived old connections to the British National Coal Board in order to secure supplies of British coal to cement factories in Germany and Switzerland. Looking for other non-European suppliers, Otto Ottmüller flew to Colombia in 1986 , but because of falling prices on the world market, Colombian coal could not compete. In the early 1990s, ambitious dreams of rapid expansion led to investments in coal storage facilities (Global Fuels Ltd.) in Sunderland, UK and later in Immingham . At the same time, new business was initiated with South Africa and Venezuela . After the company-threatening losses from the warehouse business in England and the losses in Venezuela and South Africa, the coal trade was spun off in 1995 as the "OAM Coal Trade". The opening of the east gave OAM new opportunities to trade with coal mines in Vorkuta, Russia, and Kazakhstan , while traditional supplies from Canada increasingly dried up and eventually the mine was closed entirely. The progressive centralized control of the Russian coal mines made free trade increasingly difficult, and another attempt with South African coal and a delivery from Indonesia did not bring any sustainable replacement. The increasing international networking of retail and the dominance of large retail groups in a shrinking market and severely depressed margins with increasing risks ultimately led to the abandonment of this branch of business.

Other OAM activities

Heating systems / air conditioning

In 1960, OAM took over the insolvent heating construction company Stamer, which had developed and built coal underfeed firing systems. Arnold Polenz got into the remaining mass and, with the participation of OAM, developed the air conditioning unit for Arnold Polenz GmbH, which developed into one of the leading companies in this area.

From 1962, OAM experimented with centrifuges for drying peat as a substitute fuel.

Cement & saudi arabia

From 1975 OAM got involved in the expansion of the ailing port facilities through its subsidiary COMCO and the cement importer Abdallah Baroom from Jeddah in Saudi Arabia . COMCO delivered barges, cranes, generators and other equipment to Jeddah for DM 10 million, but due to inexperience with the local conditions and the lack of cooperation by Baroom, this joint venture ended in 1977 with a large loss. In a second attempt, a project for cement import in Gizan was initiated in cooperation with Esam Gazzali. The Saudi partner, who had contracted out the construction of the houses to a friend from Lebanon, was so unreliable that the Pakistani workers who had flown in had to live in tents and bake their bread in self-made ovens while the kitchen equipment they had delivered was in containers. Since OAM had not made an advance payment this time, the company got away with it with a "black eye".

construction materials

From 1964 onwards, OAM focused on the import of fine gravel from quarries in England. The introduction of prestressed concrete and the change in concrete production led to higher demand on the gravel market, which the gravel pits in Schleswig-Holstein could not meet. Furthermore, Baltic gravel was removed from the Danish soil over a period of ten years . Together with the cement factories Saturn and Alsen , OAM bought the Hanse-Kieswerke. The Hanseat IIII excavator was used to extract 350,000 t of gravel from the Gjedser Riff , refined it in Lübeck-Schlutup and then delivered it to the production facilities in the Hamburg area on our own or chartered ships. In the vicinity of Güster (Lauenburg) , 800,000 tons of sand and gravel per year were refined and delivered to end users in Hamburg via the Elbe-Lübeck Canal . The great demand for high-quality building materials could be met in cooperation with Danish and British shipowners. A number of buildings with a high technical standard in northern Germany were realized with OAM gravel, e.g. B. the structures on the Elbe Lateral Canal , the Köhlbrand Bridge , the Elbe Tunnel , the Krümmel nuclear power plant and almost every new building on the north German motorways. In 1980 the dispatch facility on Grosse Elbstrasse was shut down, and a 25,000 m² storage area on the east side of the Sandauhafen could be continued after an agreement was signed with Hansaport .

Recycling activities

The development of the recycling market made it necessary to restructure the OAM trade department. In 1980 the OAM Handel und Umschlag GmbH was founded for the trade in building materials and the ETH Disposal Transport and Trade for the recycling activities. In 1986, both companies moved to a former concrete plant in Peute in the Hamburg district of Veddel. With the technical systems already available there, fly ash from power plants could be processed, sludge solidified and new recycling products developed. At the beginning of the 90s Otto A. Müller GmbH separated from the remaining shares of both the building materials and the recycling company in order to plug the holes in the unsuccessful coal trade.

Jens Ottmüller, who initially worked in finance at ETH, joined the OAM team in November 2000 and started the newly founded Otto A. Müller Recycling GmbH in November 2000 with a focus on the increasing demand for biofuels with a complex procurement, Trade and transportation needs.

The ships of the OAM

With the profits from the successful coal trade, with rented cargo ships in the first few years and an increasing demand for Bolsover coal (named after the mine), the construction of the Gretchen Müller with a loading capacity of 1,700 tons was commissioned in Rostock in 1908 . When the First World War broke out in 1914, the ship was in English waters to transport coal, but was able to return safely to Germany due to the skills of the captain. The English government had dispatched two destroyers to seize the ship. This attempt failed because the captain cruised northwards along the English coast in order to cross the North Sea further north instead of taking the direct route to Hamburg. After the ship survived the First World War unscathed, voyages between England and Germany could be resumed in 1921.

In 1934, the decline in the pound sterling, with coal prices remaining stable and government subsidies, allowed the Flensburger Schiffbau-Gesellschaft to commission the construction of Otto Alfred Müller and Maria S. Müller , both 2500 tdw. In 1937 OAM sold Gretchen Müller and bought shares in the trawlers Otto N. Andersen , Neptun and Dr. Acorn tree . Another cargo ship with a carrying capacity of 3500 tdw was ordered by OAM in 1938, but was not built due to the outbreak of World War II. The Maria S. Müller ran into a mine in 1942 and sank near Hoek van Holland , the Otto Alfred Müller burned near Stettin in 1944 and the trawlers used for warships were lost. The Else Müller survived the war despite repeated damage it had suffered in Norway in the autumn 1945th

The insurance benefits for the sunken trawler Dr. Eichelbaum enable OAM to order a new ship. A hull built in 1944 was found in 1946 in the reeds of the Weser by the military authorities in 1946 and completed by the Deutsche Werft as the FD Thetis trawler and successfully used in deep-sea fishing until the Dutch made their claims for compensation in 1948. Under military pressure by dispatching a destroyer , the Dutch forced the surrender of the ship. OAM then chartered the USS Delaware and bought the steam tug Captain Schröder . Until the currency reform in 1948, rubble was transported, rubble was broken and firewood was sold for heating purposes, after which old customers could be supplied with coal and lignite briquettes. From 1958 to 1963 OAM maintained five time charter ships with 700 tdw each, which are used for the transport of coal and fertilizers. At the same time, the OAM's own fleet, i. H. three ships each 1400 tdw, expanded by Birgit Müller , 815 tdw, built in 1960 , and in 1962 with the Rethi Müller , 1550 tdw. In 1964 Ortrud Müller , in 1965 Gretchen Müller and Else Müller were sold due to high maintenance costs. In 1968 the basalt , diabase , each with 1,950 dwt, diorite , gabro , granite and dolomite , with a load capacity of 2,200 to 2,500 dwt, were bought from a Budapest shipyard .

At the end of the 1970s, OAM founded a consortium together with the shipping companies Bulkship SA Friborg and Bulkship (Nederland) BV Haaren and five other ship owners with a total of 32 ships, in the hope that other Dutch companies will join them. The loss of eight ships after Turnbull Scott left in 1979 was offset by the entry of Spanish shipowners with nine ships, so that the group had a total of thirty ships in 1986. In a phase of the collapse of maritime freight transport in the years 1986/1987, which began after an environment of tax advantages and high profit expectations boom, had to Europe more than 500 ships, some with significant losses launched be, but none of the ships of the consortium was affected. After the bankruptcy of the Dutch shipping company Sylvia Cargo in the early 1980s, OAM took over two of the six ships, which they renamed Silke and Elise . In the OAM Minibulker Pool, which was founded in the 1970s and had existed for three decades, at times more than 30 small bulkers from German, Dutch, English, Norwegian and Spanish shipping companies drove. It only ended in the 1990s with the separation of OAM and Hanno.

After an abstention of almost 20 years, the OAM did not regain confidence in the construction of new ships until the end of the 80s and, together with the Dutch partners Sandfirden and Hanno, built 6 units with a load capacity of 4000 t which were delivered in the early 90s. From 2002 to 2016 Otto A. Müller Schiffahrt GmbH was responsible for deploying a fleet of 10-18 mini bulkers, including the Priwall motor ship with 3,700 dwt built in 1992 by the Kormano shipyard , and from 1998 the two sister ships Eva Maria Müller and Monika Müller .

Otto A. Müller Schiffahrt GmbH fleet in progress

The whereabouts of the OAM's ships after dissolution

ship	Construction year	IMO	shipyard	metric tons	Length / breadth / draft	New owner
Clare Christine	2009	9370290	Damen Shipyards Group , Type: Damen Combi Freighter 3850	3,800	88.60 m / 12.50 m / 5.42 m	Interscan Hamburg, the flag changed to Portugal under the name Indi
Johanna Desiree	2010	9517238	Damen Shipyards Group , Type: Damen Combi Freighter 3850	3,800	88.60 m / 12.50 m / 5.42 m	Interscan Hamburg, the flag changed to Portugal under the name Rosi
Blue Bay	2006	9370276	Damen Shipyards Group , Type: Damen Combi Freighter 3850	3,800	88.60 m / 12.50 m / 5.42 m	Shipping company Lohmann, Haren, under the flag of Antigua and Barbuda under the name Hanna
Blue dragon	2007	9370288	Damen Shipyards Group , Type: Damen Combi Freighter 3850	3,800	88.60 m / 12.50 m / 5.42 m	Shipping company Lohmann, Haren,
Monika Mueller	1998	9195212	Slovenské Lodenice, Komárno	3,723	88.00 m / 13.00 m / 6.10 m	Rix Shipmanagement, Riga , re-flagged to Malta under the name Rix Partner
Eva Maria Müller	1998	9194830	Slovenské Lodenice, Komárno	3,723	88.00 m / 13.00 m / 6.00 m	Rix Shipmanagement, Riga , flagged to Malta under the name Rix Eleonora
Blue note	2010	9491915	Israel Shipyards, Haifa	5200	89.97 m / 15.40 m / 6.15 m	Newly founded company in Antigua and Barbuda
Blue Tune	2010	9491927	Israel Shipyards, Haifa	5200	89.97 m / 15.40 m / 6.15 m	Newly founded company in Antigua and Barbuda
Triple S	2013	9662382	Israel Shipyards, Haifa	5200	89.97 m / 15.40 m / 6.15 m	no change of ownership
Blue Carmel	2009	9491903	Israel Shipyards, Haifa	5200	89.97 m / 15.40 m / 6.15 m	Erwin Strahlmann shipping company

Web links

• Internet presence of the shipping company

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Member of the Corps Budissa , Kösener Corpslisten 1996, 25/214
2. ^ Website of Otto A. Müller Schiffahrt GmbH. Retrieved December 19, 2016 . 
3. ^ Website of Otto A. Müller Recycling GmbH. Retrieved December 19, 2016 . 
4. ↑ Wolfhart Fabarius: "Orderly resolution" with Otto A. Müller. In: THB - daily port report. DVV Media Group GmbH - Seehafen Verlag, October 28, 2016, accessed on December 19, 2016 . 
5. ↑ Indi. In: FleetMon ship database (with photos, registration required). JAKOTA Cruise Systems GmbH, accessed on December 24, 2016 . 
6. ↑ Rosi. In: FleetMon ship database (with photos, registration required). JAKOTA Cruise Systems GmbH, accessed on December 24, 2016 . 
7. ↑ Hanna. In: FleetMon ship database (with photos, registration required). JAKOTA Cruise Systems GmbH, accessed on December 24, 2016 .