Paul Rickmers
Paul Henry Rickmer Rickmers (born August 6, 1873 in Bremerhaven , † October 31, 1946 in Clarens ) was a German shipowner and shipyard owner .
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Paul Rickmers was born as the son of the shipowner Peter Rickmers in Bremerhaven and went to school there. He then completed an apprenticeship at the sailing ship operator Siedenburg, Wendt & Co. in Bremen , worked in the family business and went abroad for a few years. From 1894 he worked for Rickmers Reismühlen Rhederei und Schiffbau AG , which was founded by his grandfather Rickmer Clasen Rickmers and whose management he joined in 1898.
In the years after he joined the company, the owners had a protracted conflict over the company's strategy: while Paul Rickmers advocated expanding the shipping business to East Asia, his uncle Andreas Rickmers preferred the rice trade. In 1904 Paul Rickmers resigned from the management and one year later opened the trading company Rickmers & Co. in Hamburg . Together with his brother Robert Rickmers , he persuaded his uncle to retire from the company in Bremerhaven in 1910. He put the new focus of this company on crossings to East Asia and secondarily on a shipyard in Geestemünde , which mostly produced ships for its own use. He stopped trading in rice and moved the shipping business to Hamburg after 1910. After his strategy had prevailed against his siblings, Paul Rickmers managed the business as the sole owner from 1917.
Rickmers modernized the ship fleet and invested in the shipyard, but lost the ships during the First World War . After the end of the war, the shipping company started its own service to the Far East. The company benefited from arms exports to the Republic of China , where civil wars had raged since 1919. Since Rickmers concentrated on the business of the shipping company and the economy in shipbuilding was bad, he left the shipyard on hold from 1924 to 1937, and after resuming operations also benefited from the rearmament of the German Reich .
During the time of National Socialism , Paul Rickmers did not join the NSDAP , but openly acknowledged anti-Semitism and was considered a euphoric supporter of the regime. The company buildings were destroyed during the Second World War . Paul Rickmers initiated the reconstruction of the shipyard, but died a little later in Switzerland. His sons Peter (1914–1974), Bertram (1917–1971) and Claus (1920–1991) continued the business. They had to stop the shipyard in 1986, the shipping company was acquired by Hapag-Lloyd in 1988 . The grandson Erck Rickmers was later a member of the Hamburg citizenship .
literature
- Christian Ostersehlte: Rickmers, Paul . In: Franklin Kopitzsch, Dirk Brietzke (Hrsg.): Hamburgische Biographie . tape 6 . Wallstein, Göttingen 2012, ISBN 978-3-8353-1025-4 , p. 269 .
Individual evidence
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Rickmers, Paul |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Rickmers, Paul Henry Rickmer |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German shipowner and shipyard owner |
| DATE OF BIRTH | August 6, 1873 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Bremerhaven |
| DATE OF DEATH | October 31, 1946 |
| Place of death | Clarens |