Robert Meyhoefer shipping company
The Robert Meyhoefer shipping company was the leading shipping company in East Prussia.
history
The Meyhoefer company, founded in Tilsit in 1869 , was initially a forwarding company that took part in inland shipping from Tilsit via Labiau to Königsberg with steamers . In 1872 the company headquarters was relocated to Königsberg , from where the handling of goods between the Hundegatt and the hinterland could be organized more effectively. The company also expanded by taking over smaller companies and quickly became a leader in its field in East Prussia. Soon there were also lines to Danzig and to Libau and Windau in Courland . In 1896 Justus Haslinger joined the shipping company as a co-owner . After Meyhoefer died in 1910, Haslinger became the sole owner.
During the First World War, the Meyhoefer company also worked in the areas of Lithuania, which had been occupied by German troops . After Justus Haslinger died in 1919, sons Erich Haslinger and Oswald Haslinger continued to run the aspiring company as a limited liability company . In 1920 they founded a travel agency on Steindamm (Königsberg) . It was the first in East Prussia. The shipping company had warehouses and offices at nine locations in Königsberg. Shipping lines went to Elbing , Memel and Tilsit. The trip from Königsberg and Pillau across the Fresh Lagoon to Gdansk was very popular . During the entire interwar period , Meyhoefer was primarily active as a travel agency. It was the most important of its kind in East Prussia and also advertised abroad.
After the Peace Treaty of Versailles , Meyhoefer - like many other East Prussian companies - took care of alleviating or overcoming the negative consequences of the separation of the province from the rest of the Reich. This included the establishment of the East Prussian Sea Service . He saved the tedious train journey through the Polish Corridor . In September 1920, Hertha , a member of the Meyhoefer Group, brought politicians and business leaders from Stettin to Koenigsberg for the opening of the first German East Fair . The most prominent passenger was President Friedrich Ebert .
The air raids on Königsberg destroyed the buildings and ships. Erich Haslinger - his brother had died in 1935 - rebuilt the company on a smaller scale in Bremen from 1949. After his death, his son Kaspar Haslinger continued the business until 1967.
At the end of the war, the most important items from the company archive were saved and handed over to the Herder Institute (Marburg) by the last owner of the company in 1953 .
literature
- Gerhard von Glinski, Peter Wörster : Königsberg - the East Prussian capital past and present . Westkreuz Verlag, Berlin Bonn 1992.
- Peter Wörster: Baltic traces in a Königsberg company archive. The travel agency Robert Meyhoefer in Königsberg i. Pr. Yearbook of Baltic Germanism 2010. Lüneburg 2009, pp. 202–207.
Individual evidence
- ^ A b Robert Albinus: Königsberg Lexicon. Würzburg 2002, p. 212
- ↑ Dorothee M. Goeze and Peter Wörster: Poster for the travel time: "a wonderful steamship trip" over the fresh lagoon (East Prussia) 1934 (Herder Institute Marburg)