Otto Stinnes

Otto Stinnes , (born April 7, 1903 in Mülheim an der Ruhr , † May 6, 1983 in Hamburg ) was a German entrepreneur and the third oldest son of Hugo Stinnes .

Entrepreneurial career

From 1921 to 1924 he studied chemistry at the University of Munich and the TH Charlottenburg. After completing his studies, he became an authorized signatory in 1924 at Hugo Stinnes GmbH founded by his father . After returning from two years abroad in Singapore, he became co-owner of the company in 1928 alongside his mother Cläre Stinnes and his brother Hugo Hermann Stinnes .

After the death of their father Hugo Stinnes in 1924, the sons met the financial difficulties that occurred by transferring the entire industrial holdings to an American holding, the Hugo Stinnes Corporation .

In 1948 the company property contained in the Hugo Stinnes Corporation was confiscated by the Allies as hostile property. The Stinnes family only had the modest parent company of the company from 1893, which, however, represented the smallest part of the actual company empire. With this parent company and the old, respected family name, the brothers built up a new trading company that initially invested in coal and shipping in a very traditional manner.

After disputes about the company's expansion course, Otto Stinnes and his mother Cläre Stinnes on the one hand and Hugo Hermann Stinnes on the other broke up in 1956 . This led Hugo to leave the company. Otto Stinnes took over the management, the mother remained co-owner until her death in 1973.

In 1963 the company suffered the next crisis when Hugo Hermann Stinnes ' liquidity problems also threatened Otto and Cläre Stinnes' company. This could only be saved by a settlement and the sale of companies and holdings.

At the age of 62, Otto Stinnes dared to start over. With stakes in shipping lines, trading houses and waste disposal companies, he formed a company in the following years, which he handed over to his great-nephew Mathias Stinnes in 1982. One year later, on May 6, 1983, Otto Stinnes died at his place of residence in Hamburg.

family

Otto Stinnes was married to Irene von Laffert (1920–1989) for the first time since 1939. A son, Peter (* 1940) emerged from this connection. The marriage was divorced in 1945. In his second marriage, he married Hilde Bernau (1908–2000) four years later.

literature

• Bernhard-Michael Domberg and Klaus Rathje: The Stinnes - From the Rhine into the world. History of an entrepreneurial family Signum Verlag, Vienna 2009, ISBN 978-3--85436-399-6

Other sources

• City archive Mülheim an der Ruhr, inventory 1550 No. 13 (Mülheim personalities)

Web links

• 105 years ago: Otto Stinnes is born. Descent of an industrial dynasty (WDR)