Zerssen shipping company
The shipping company Zerssen & Co was founded in 1839 by Johann Christian von Zerssen and Johann Paap in Rendsburg at the lock on the old Eider Canal .
history
In 1839 the company Zerssen & Co was founded as a forwarding business in Rendsburg and initially developed into an important Rendsburg partner and correspondent shipping company without its own ships .
Johann Christian von Zerssen
As a correspondent ship owner, von Zerssen was authorized to conduct all business and legal acts of the shipping companies vis-à-vis third parties and represented them both in and out of court. Johann Christian von Zerssen was appointed Belgian consul in 1842 and Dutch consul in 1853. In 1859 he founded the mutual “Schiffer-Assecuranz-Verein” in the Eider area . Around a fifth of the ships passing through the Eider Canal were Dutch ships around 1850 and meant work for the consul.
The Eider Canal was originally called Schleswig-Holstein Canal, was built by the Danish King Christian VII from 1777 to 1784, began in Kiel and flowed into the Eider at Rendsburg, which flows into the North Sea at Tönning . But the passage through the canal, the Eider and the Wadden Sea took several days.
Von Zerssen gave grants to smaller shipowners from Rendsburg and the surrounding area (1/6 to 9/16 of the price) for the construction and acquisition of ships, initially small sailing ships such as schooners, briggs, kuffs and Galiote and from 1884 also for steamers and thus acted as a partner shipping company . The shipping company also played this role with Hamburg and Rostock and sometimes even with foreign shipping companies. On the other hand, other companies also had parts on Zerssen's ships. After his death in 1865 the company was continued by his partner and heir, Thomas Johann Gottfried Hollesen .
Thomas Johann Gottfried Hollesen
Hollesen opened a branch in Tönning , the important port and end point of the Eider Canal, in 1869 , which was managed by Zerssen's son Adolph Nikolaus von Zerssen. He joined the Rendsburg headquarters in 1874 and ran the company together with Hollesen until 1880. Hollesen became increasingly involved in his other offices, he was u. a. Member of the Prussian House of Representatives and left the company in 1880. Von Zerssen took over the management, but was in poor health. When his condition deteriorated sharply in 1884, Hollesen had to take over management again. Adolph Nikolaus von Zerssen died on September 9, 1884.
Hollesen got involved early on in the commission that prepared the construction of the Kiel Canal . He was chairman of the Rendsburger Schiffergilde and influenced the economic development of the city of Rendsburg on various boards and acted as Belgian and Dutch consul. In 1895, Hollesen consul Jeß from Tönning and Christian Rheder from Rendsburg participated in the family business. Rehder had joined Zerssen as an apprentice and then worked as a charterer for the Schuldt shipping company in Flensburg . In 1890 he came back, took on a managerial position and had made a special contribution to the establishment of the branches in Brunsbüttelkoog and Holtenau . Hollesen died on April 28, 1898 in Rendsburg.
Paul Entz
His son-in-law, Paul Entz , born in 1859, had completed a commercial apprenticeship in a Gdansk pharmacy wholesaler and soon afterwards set up a very successful medical company in Rendsburg. After Hollesen's death, he joined Consul Jeß and Christian Rheder as a third partner and managing partner in the shipping company. After the opening of the Kaiser Wilhelm Canal in 1895, he founded the branch in Brunsbüttelkoog that Rehder had prepared with the canal authorities . The branch in Tönning, the end of the Eider Canal, was given up. In 1899 Paul Entz was also appointed consul of the Netherlands and in 1905 he became a member of the Baltic and White Sea Conference (since 1930 Baltic and International Maritime Conference, BIMCo). The branch in Brunsbüttelkoog, which has since been expanded into a coal and bunker station, fell victim to the widening of the Kaiser Wilhelm Canal. The company was later rebuilt in Kiel-Holtenau and expanded to include the ship equipment division in 1922. Paul Entz died on September 27, 1936 in Rendsburg.
Some early ships of the shipping company Zerssen & Co
In 1884 u. a. built the 680 BRT steamer Christian , which sailed in the North and Baltic Seas. The Bark Marie was launched in Tönnig in 1892 and mainly sailed in West Indian waters and in the South Seas . From 1890 the Zerssen ships were significantly larger than z. B. the Heinrich Cruse and the Minna with around 1000 GRT each. The Rendsburg , built in 1906 with 2058 GRT, was then the largest ship of the shipping company for the next 30 years. The entire fleet was sold before the First World War , and the Zerssen shipping company was again primarily a correspondent shipping company .
Thomas Johann Gottfried Entz
In 1936, after the death of Paul Entz, his son, Thomas Johann Gottfried Entz , who was born in Rendsburg in 1899, took over the business. He had completed a commercial apprenticeship with the shipping company Schulte & Bruns in Emden and worked for a year and a half in Gothenburg as director of a small forwarding company. After a year in Leith , Scotland , he studied two semesters at the Munich Commercial College and from 1924 worked for the shipping company Zerssen & Co. , which also managed several of its own ships. Thomas Johann Gottfried Entz bought the Glückauf (1575 tdw), his first freight steamer. By the beginning of the Second World War he acquired three more ships, in 1935 the later Keitum ( Arnis ), in 1936 the new Morsum ex Ulsis was added to the Zerssen fleet and in 1937 the Hörnum (Holnis). The Keitum he had after the war with Russia and the Morsum dispose to Norway.
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Foundation of the North Frisian shipping company
During the war, Thomas Johann Gottfried Entz founded the North Frisian shipping company in 1943, and the ships were named after Sylt villages. The Hörnum (2350 GRT), which was repaired by war damage at the Lübeck Flender Works in 1948, was the largest ship in the growing German merchant fleet for a few months. In the summer of 1949 the German Orient Line from H. Schuldt (Hamburg) resumed its service and the Hörnum was the first ship to be used here. At the end of 1949 four newbuildings with 3400 tdw were ordered from the Kieler Howaldtswerke and the Deutsche Werft ( Blidum , Keitum , Morsum , Lystum ). They were built under the restrictions of the Potsdam Agreement and delivered in 1950. In the meantime the more generous Petersberg Agreement was in effect . Therefore, the blidum was slipped on again immediately after delivery, cut open and lengthened by 9 meters. This increased the carrying capacity from 2850 to 3400 dwt. The other three ships were built from the outset according to the Petersberg Agreement and they too went for the German Orient Line. In 1951 acquired Zerssen from Denmark Hedda Dan dwt 1700, as Tinnum in the North and Baltic Sea in the tramp shipping was traveling. In 1952 the freighter Archsum (ex Gertrud Schliewen , 3800 tdw) was taken over by H. Schuldt and used for the German Orient Line. In 1959, Howaldt Kiel's last newbuilding was the Syllum , which, as a full-decker, had a load capacity of 8,000 tdw.
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Frisia shipping company
In 1953 Frisia Reederei GmbH was founded in Rendsburg, Hollesenstr. 2, which commissioned a new building from the Nobiskrug shipyard , which was delivered as a Rantum . As a full-decker it had a load capacity of 5930 t and as a protective decker it had a load capacity of 4500 t. The 3600 HP main engine was built by Borsig in Berlin-Tegel under a FIAT license and was one of the first heavy oil engines in Germany. In addition to Thomas Entz and his wife, the mayor of Berlin, Ernst Reuter, was present for the test run at the Berlin plant , as this engine was the first major order after the Berlin blockade .
Thomas Entz Tanker GmbH
In 1950 the subsidiary Thomas Entz Tanker GmbH was founded. The company was the first to acquire the tanker Mostun from Norway (9630 GRT, 14400 tdw, built in 1928 at Eriksbergs MV in Gothenburg as Dalfonn ). He was named Elisabeth Entz in May 1950 and initially drove for the Anglo-Saxon Petroleum Company , which was taken over by the Shell Petroleum Company in 1955 . On October 4, 1952, the 1929 built motor tanker Margot Entz (ex Laurelwood ) with 11,235 GRT from England was added, which was scrapped in Hamburg in 1958.
The Bertha Entz with 15,910 GRT was delivered to the tanker shipping company on February 5, 1955 by the Howaldtswerke in Kiel as an ore oil ship. It was the first ore oil ship to be built in Germany. It was more universally applicable than a tanker or an ore freighter. In 1958, the Helma Entz with 12430 GRT followed as the second ore oil ship.
The first Elisabeth Entz , acquired in 1950, was scrapped in Japan in 1960. As a further ore oil ship, the (second) Elisabeth Entz with 24,460 GRT was taken over as a new building by AG Weser on July 29, 1961 . In 1970/71 Zerssen & Co parted with its tanker fleet.
Management of the Pamir and Passat
The Hamburg branch of Zerssen was operated in shared office with the H. Schuldt company and, before the war, was mainly concerned with chartering the Zerssen ships. After the war, wage services were also offered, especially for the Greek shipowner Stavros Niarchos . For around ten years, many thousands of German seafarers were taken on and off. Until the fall of the Pamirs was commissioned by Stiftung Pamir and Passat , the ship management of these two training ships Pamir and Passat performed. After the tragic sinking of the Pamir , this type of training was ended and the Passat moved to a permanent berth at the Priwall in Travemünde.
For the 125th anniversary of Zerssen & Co. , Thomas Johann Gottfried Entz was able to carry the suffix “von Zerssen” at the request of the von Zerssen family. Thomas Johann Gottfried Entz von Zerssen died on April 4, 1970.
swell
- 100 years of shipping, shipbuilding, ports; 1964 Hamburg, shipping company Hansa
- Zerssen & Co 1839 1964, 1964; Heinrich Möller Sons, Rendsburg
Individual evidence
- ↑ Pictures of the ship and life on the Berta Entz
- ↑ Pictures of the ship and life on the Helma Entz
- ↑ No empty run thanks to tankers. Schleswig-Holsteinische Landeszeitung , January 25, 2015, accessed on January 24, 2019 .