Henry Koch shipyard
The Henry Koch AG shipyard was the first shipyard in the Hanseatic city of Lübeck to devote itself to iron shipbuilding there. With it, shipbuilding on the Trave in the 19th century caught up with the development of modern shipbuilding in the 19th century.
history
After the second traverse correction, the city expanded beyond the castle gate . This created the conditions for an expansion and adaptation of the port of Lübeck to the new structures in trade, shipping and technology. On September 2, 1882 joined Henry Koch provide the land to the city for its port expansion and received the area between the road ballast Kuhle, the Glashüttenweg, the Minlos'schen garden and the dead Travearm the first lübeckische shipyard for on his iron ships to build . With the land swap, Koch was able to achieve what Hermann Blohm had been denied in 1876 . His ship machine and boiler workshop of DG Pioneer was closed. The shipyard Henry Koch opened its namesake on December 1, 1882. On May 31, 1883 was the first on behalf of Rostock shipping company FW Fischer built iron ship, the "Eugène Krohn" from the stack. At that time 350 people worked here.
In 1883, Koch acquired the former Minlos property in the late summer of 1883 as a reserve of land for future shipyard expansions. However, the record in shipbuilding production in 1883 was followed by a deep fall by 1887.
As a representative of his shipyard, Koch took part in the conference in Streit's Hotel in Hamburg on December 29, 1884. The representatives of eight German shipyards present there founded the “Verein deutscher Schiffswerften e. V. “(today VSM ) and went down in German shipbuilding history. 12 companies and companies signed a petition concerning the construction of ships and ship steam engines in domestic shipyards with reference to the submission of behulf's subsidies from overseas steamship lines, which the Reichstag received .
An improvement in the economy began to appear in 1888. However, Koch passed away that year shortly after his wife. He had appointed Ernst Stiller and Peter Rehder as his executors and asset managers . Seven of his children inherited and three were paid off. The grave of the Koch family was dissolved in 1997 in the Burgtorfriedhof .
The technical director, Breakfast, resigned on May 28, 1888 and became director of the Bremen shipbuilding company . The previous technical manager of the Helsingør shipyard , Director Dyhr, became his successor. In 1895, the founding son Franz Koch took over the commercial management of the shipyard. Emil Gustav Stolz from the Blohm & Voss shipyard became technical director in 1897 and finally another founding son, the shipbuilding engineer Willy Koch, joined the shipyard company as technical operations manager . Under these three, a new, expansive development phase of the shipyard began.
Ernst von Halle , who was a very well-known shipbuilding expert at the time, was co-author of the study published in 1902 "The shipbuilding industry in Germany and abroad". In this, he certified that the shipyard had a positive overall situation. She was meanwhile. moved up to tenth place of all German shipyards. After the shipyard was the only shipyard in 1894, it was the largest industrial enterprise in the city at the turn of the century and, in addition to its floating docks, had four helmets and a floating crane . At that time, the Drägerwerk was just another company in Lübeck, which also employed more than 500 people.
On the one hand, the shipyards had become major customers of the iron and steel industry, an economic power that can no longer be overlooked. The emperor's world power politics , such as B. the naval laws of 1898 and 1900 , promoted this benevolently. On the other hand, there was the large number of seven shipyard owners. In the meantime they had not all stayed in Lübeck, but also lived in Zehlendorf , Bahrenfeld or Ebingen . These two reasons led to the ratification of the replacement contract from the contract of October 24, 1882 , decided on February 19, 1906 by council and citizenship resolution. With it, the prerequisites for the reorganization of the shipyard into a stock corporation were created in 1908. Its first supervisory board was made up of Carl Dimpker ( president of the chamber), Heinrich Görtz (lawyer), Richard Janus (bank director), Johannes Soltau (businessman, Luckmann & Soltau was the shipyard's house bank ) and Alfred Zeise (senator in Altona ). Two of the five members held leading positions for Lübeck's longstanding house bank, the Commerz-Bank in Lübeck . Since this bank was not involved in the founding, but had two representatives on the supervisory board, indicates a hidden financial commitment. It was surprising that the previously insignificant banking house Luckmann & Soltau was able to raise the share capital and pay off the former owners.
The Lübeck merchant fleet expanded with the cargo steamer "Anneliese" launched on April 4, 1908 for the account of the Lübeck-Königsberger Dampfschiffahrts-Gesellschaft . Since 1896 this was the first ship built by a Lübeck shipyard for Lübeck bill.
When about 30% of the share capital had been consumed by losses, the floating docks were outsourced as a measure to stabilize the financial situation and spread risk. On December 31, 1909, the “Lübecker Dock-Gesellschaft mbH” was registered and registered with the commercial court on January 5, 1910. The shipyard's losses were offset by a 40% capital reduction during the renovation efforts.
During the First World War , the shipyard was largely spared from the measures for warship building . There are only five minesweepers detectable. Two of these were canceled and the other three were abandoned because the Imperial Navy decided not to complete them before they were finished.
On May 25, 1916, the share capital was increased by 3 million marks and the financial prerequisites for a shipyard expansion program were created. The top-up amount was taken over by the Vereins- und Westbank from Hamburg. This made it the new majority shareholder. In 1917 the shipyard received a siding and construction officer Paul Ranft from Leipzig was won over as architect for the new buildings and conversions of the Koch'sche shipyard. The shipyard expansion measures decided and started in 1916 were throttled back in 1918 and finally came to a standstill in 1919. In connection with the expansion stop, the planned new construction of an administration building was abandoned. However, only the plan of a concrete pedestrian bridge to reach the building's main access had to be carried out because the new Hafenbahn a single track outbound from the railway siding connection between the Konstantinkai and train stations Schlutup built and the route to the amount of depth Gestades dockland street below the beginning of the War-finished workers' settlement was located in Luisenstrasse. Without the bridge the road would have ended abruptly and the settlement would have been cut off.
In 1919 no new building was delivered and the shipyard kept afloat with extensions and modifications. At the shareholders' meeting on February 20, 1919, the exercise of the purchase right for the Lübeck Dock-Gesellschaft was resolved by its parent company. Due to their deletion from the commercial register of the Lübeck district court on April 21, 1921 relic of the renovation measures carried out over ten years ago.
That changed again in 1920. The number 236 produced was a highlight in two ways. It was launched in 1916 and was delivered in August 1920 under the name “Progress” [RGMQ-DK]. With a carrying capacity of 8000 t, the freight steamer is the largest ship ever built at the shipyard and remained the largest ship built in Lübeck until the Temeraire was rebuilt in 1926 at Lübeck's Flender-Werke AG .
The shipyard's net profit had doubled compared to the previous year and on January 1, 1921, the share capital was increased by a further 3.6 million marks. Adolf Kühling from Bochum became a new major shareholder with his stake of 3.136 million marks. A further increase in the share capital by 7.8 million marks was resolved at the shareholders' meeting on April 28, 1922. Due to inflation, the share capital was increased to 50 million marks at the meeting on January 25, 1923.
After the founding son Franz Koch left the board on March 19, 1917, it was managed by only one board, Emil Stolz. The previous authorized signatories Willy Koch (founder's son) and Friedrich Cornehls were appointed further members of the board on September 10, 1919. Stolz died on January 12, 1921. Cornehls surprisingly left on February 4, 1922 at his own request. Paul Reymann was appointed commercial director on March 22, 1922 to succeed him on the board.
Probably the most important measure to initiate a trend reversal was the new currency order announced on November 15, 1923 to stop the inflation carousel. 1 trillion (paper) marks were equated with 1. Rentenmark . Due to the following regulation on gold mark balance sheets, the publication of the company balance sheets was delayed until well into 1925. At the 16th ordinary general assembly on January 14, 1925, the state demands were satisfied and the capital stock at 500,000 Rentenmarks was reported. A month later it was shown at 750,000 Reichsmarks . The increase took place through the issue of preference shares . The annual report from 1923 was attached in Annex II. It gives an overview of the construction work at the time such as the power station , swimming pool hall and annealing furnace system on the shipyard site. The industrial plants were on May 27, 1924 decreased .
In the 1920s, the company LMG , which is dominated by large iron-processing industry, and the bridge construction company Flender A.-G. than shipyards active in shipbuilding. To prevent the latter from collapsing, the Senate is supporting the shipyard with 1.5 million RM. As a result, the company broke away from its parent company in 1926 and became independent as Lübeck's Flender-Werke AG .
Between 1928 and 1930, Kühling had 13 new fish steamer buildings placed for the deep-sea fishery J. Wieting AG from Wesermünde , which is in his sphere of influence . Two motor ships for HAPAG and two barges were all what was remarkable for a shipyard of this size in the shipping and shipbuilding situation at the time, newbuildings produced during this period. The annual report for 1929 presented on July 7, 1930, nevertheless, indicated that more than a third of the share capital had meanwhile been consumed by the reported balance sheet losses.
At that time, however, no one suspected that the shipyard's last ship was launched on August 6, 1930, President von Hindenburg (No. 287).
For the Lübeck state, 1930 ended with another support measure by the shipyard. After a state subsidy from Flender, the shipyard threatened to shut down operations if the state did not participate in its renovation measures.
The initiator of the restructuring was the Lübecker Kreditanstalt . The majority shareholder's shares were (unrealistically) demanded and he was asked to assume debt at the same time. Continuing the shipyard was out of the question under these conditions. For the bank, the alternative was to take over the shipyard or let it go bankrupt. On November 7, 1931, the bank refused to continue operations. The renovation concept failed.
When the intention was to convert the shipyard into a state shipyard, the previously uninvolved Flender-Werke got involved and brought up their disadvantage in terms of state support and requested that the company be taken into account in further merger considerations. At the general assembly on August 19, 1932, it was decided to pool the capital at a ratio of 2: 1. In the same month Flender argued against a further loan to the shipyard. The Senate's motion to »approve a provision reserve to the Lübeckische Kreditanstalt and assume the guarantee for loans to Lübeck Linie AG and the shipyard of Henry Koch AG« for 700,000 RM failed.
Due to the impending acute insolvency , the 50th anniversary of the shipyard was not celebrated and none of the Lübeck newspapers mentioned this event.
After Georg Howaldt , the expert on the examination commission, denied that the shipyard would continue to operate , negotiations with LMG and Flender were to take place by January 31, 1933 for the purpose of taking over the shipyard. Senator Hans Ewers traveled to Berlin on November 30, 1932, to speak to the owners of the Lübeck Flender-Werke AG .
On February 7, 1933, the LMG asked the negotiator regarding the reorganization of the Lübeck shipyards to temporarily postpone the negotiations it had been conducting with it on the acquisition of the Kochsche Werft.
Flender has always presented itself as an economically sound company that is ideally suited to renovating the Kochsche Werft. In truth, however, prevented its two majority shareholders, Dresdner Bank and Commerz- und Privat-Bank (CoPri) , but prevented the end of the shipyard.
A new approach proposed by CoPri was discussed on February 15th. It stipulated that the share capital of Flender-Werke would be considered lost and that the claims of its creditors would be converted into shares in the new company. Lübeck was supposed to buy up the property of the Flender shipyard. The new company name would be "Flender-Koch AG". However, Ewers emphatically ruled out the operation of a shipyard by the Lübeck state. The Flender majority shareholders rejected a merger.
At the penultimate general assembly of the shipyard on June 30, 1933, Heinrich Richter from Hamburg was appointed as a deputy member of the board for Reymann, who died on June 13. The annual report gave no indication of the status of the restructuring efforts. On February 23, 1934, Willy Koch (founder's son) succeeded Richter.
An unexpected variant should be introduced with the appearance of the German Society for Public Works AG (Public Works) . She made claims for damages of RM 600,000 against the shipyard. The Schröder, Hölken & Fischer GmbH shipping company had two cargo ships built here in 1926. The shipping company financed these ships from the shipbuilding loan fund granted by the German Reich at the time to combat unemployment. The shipping company had to file for bankruptcy in 1931. When the owners had to answer for bankruptcy fraud, it turned out that financial manipulations were made against the Reich for the purpose of subsidy fraud. The public authorities accused the shipyard, as well as the other shipyards working for the shipping company, of knowing about it and thus having unjustifiably stolen funds. Since the proceedings against the director were put down, the public now tried to enforce the money through civil law and did not deviate from its demands until the shipyard was dissolved. These demands played a major role in the eventual failure of the renovation efforts.
Despite the postponement of the negotiations, LMG was still interested in taking over the shipyard and held appropriate talks with Walter Thilo, the President of the Chamber of Commerce, in order to fix the terms of a takeover. The share capital of the shipyard was to be reduced to a small value and then increased again to RM 600,000. 25% of this should go to the Lübeck state, which in turn should settle it with the Lübeck credit institution. Compared to the less specified flat-rate offers from Flender, he was distinguished by the fact that his primary task was not to remove an internal competitor, and this, if possible, at the expense of his big creditor.
In February 1934, however, the LMG canceled the takeover. With sales falling by 75% and previous years with heavy losses, you would need the money to recover. In addition, it would have been concluded internally that the economic operation of two shipyards in Lübeck is hardly possible. On the surface, the reasoning was conclusive. Since the situation has not changed since the takeover bid, it is doubtful. The LMG was only a semi-shipyard, which, just in the event that Flender was not able to fulfill all orders, also acted as a shipyard.
As a result of a lack of operating resources, the shipyard was shut down on April 20, 1934. On May 24, 1934, the two company properties were foreclosed . The next day the last general meeting of Henry Koch's shipyard took place. The bankruptcy proceedings opened on May 31st. Even before the auction, the Lübecker Kreditanstalt was promised by the finance and economic authorities to buy the land. The Senate granted the establishment the right to utilize the items it had acquired.
The floating dock along with accessories, machines, ... was sold to Flender. Flender also received the authorization to demolish the facilities on the shipyard property with the exception of the fencing, the administration building, the carpentry, the massive part of the boiler shop, the shipbuilding hall with its cranes and the annex ( tool shop ), the southern slipway with crane and the one on the site laid tracks. The power center building was added later. It was paid in part in the form of shares stemming from a capital increase. With the exception of Lübeck districts, the shares could not be sold before June 30, 1938. By means of a contract, the state declared that it was ready to award Flender contracts for the next ten years or to procure such in order to maintain their competitiveness. In addition, the state had it entered in the land register that no new shipyard could be built on the former Kochschen shipyard without Flender's consent. The dismantling began in the summer .
On January 19, 1935, the former shipyard was leased to the Leicht construction Lübeck GmbH , a subsidiary of the aircraft manufacturer Dornier .
When the public authorities tried again in 1935 to enforce their demands, the Senate appointed an expert. As expected, the latter denied the claim.
On the decision of the local court, the bankruptcy proceedings after the final distribution on June 28, 1935 were canceled due to lack of assets. On April 28, 1961, the Landeszentralbank Schleswig-Holstein obtained information from the Lübeck District Court about the quota with which the proceedings had been canceled and the amount of down payments made to the shareholders. The answer after lengthy research said that the company was deleted from the commercial register after the proceedings were repealed on July 19, 1935. It can no longer be answered whether and in what amount payments have been made.
After the dismantling of the slipway crane system and the cranes in the shipbuilding hall in 1950, the site can no longer be recognized as a shipyard.
Ships built (selection)
literature
- Heinz Haaker: The "Henry Koch AG shipyard" - a chapter of Lübeck's shipbuilding and industrial history , German Maritime Museum, Bremerhaven 1994, Ernst-Kabel-Verlag, ISBN 3-8225-0299-5 .
- Heinz Haaker: Koch, Heinrich (Henry) in Biographisches Lexikon für Schleswig-Holstein and Lübeck , Volume 10, Neumünster 1994, ISBN 3-529-02650-6 , pp. 215-217.
- Antjekathrin Graßmann (Ed.): Lübeckische Geschichte , 1989, ISBN 3-7950-3203-2 .
- Ulrich Pietsch : Lübeck shipping from the Middle Ages to modern times. Lübeck 1982, ISBN 3-9800517-1-4 .
Web links
- Private page on the history of the shipyard
- Documents and newspaper articles on Henry Koch's shipyard in the 20th century press kit of the ZBW - Leibniz Information Center for Economics .
Individual evidence
- ↑ The ship, which started in 1905 as "Mikasu Maru" for a shipping company in Osaka, transported salt from Foochow to Mewchwang on September 5, 1915 when it collided with the Japanese steamer "Chuyetu Maru" and sank off Newchwang.
- ↑ Local and mixed notes. In: Lübeckische Blätter , Volume 27, No. 3, edition of January 11, 1885, p. 20.
- ^ The baptismal name of Franz (nickname) Francis Jacob .
- ^ The baptismal name of Willy (nickname) William Francis .
- ↑ Tjard Schwarz, Ernst v. Halle: The shipbuilding industry in Germany and abroad , 2 vol., Berlin 1902, vol. 2, S50, 90 f., 113-115, 124 f., 142-145 and 178.
- ^ Antjekathrin Graßmann (Ed.): Lübeckische Geschichte , 1989, ISBN 3-7950-3203-2 , p. 653.
- ↑ Launch of a Lübeck steamer. In: Vaterstädtische Blätter , year 1908, No. 15, edition of April 12, 1908, p. 60.
- ↑ In order to clear the Helgen, the 236 was taken from the stack on April 15, 1916 for HC Horn , Schleswig . The hull remained unfinished at the shipyard quay and was sold to J. Petersen, Hadersleben , on December 13, 1918 , and delivered in August 1920 as "Progress". The cargo steamer was transferred to the shipping company Stange & Dreyer , Hamburg , on November 15, 1927 and had been registered in Stettin since November 21 . On November 17, 1928 it belonged as "Elima" to the Cie. Fluvial et marit. de l'Ouest African (Le Gorblet & Cie.) in Le Havre . German troops confiscated the ship on June 29, 1914 in Nantes and placed it under the command of the Admiral of the Kriegsmarine-Dienststelle ( Norddeutscher Lloyd ) in Hamburg. After a collision in Trondheimfjord on February 20, 1944, the ship was aground, but sank three days later.
- ↑ See Dawes Plan in conjunction with the Coin Act of August 30, 1924.
- ↑ As Georg Howaldt, chairman of the examination committee for the shipyard Henry Koch, was to determine in 1932, all newbuildings produced by the shipyard from 1924 onwards were loss-making.
- ↑ A letter of invitation from the supervisory board in October 1932 to a joint meeting with the management board indicated that merger talks between the Henry Koch shipyard and LMG on the one hand and Flender on the other had already taken place at the end of the 1920s
- ↑ The President of the Reich von Hindenburg was delivered to the Hochseefischerei J. Wieting AG (Nordsee AG), Nordenham , on August 30, 1930 . From September 21, 1939 as an outpost boat V808 in the Navy. Sunk by aerial bombs on May 2, 1941, northwest of Borkum .
- ↑ In contrast to the Koch'schen Werft, the Flender-Werke received larger amounts. Thus, as it claims, there could be no question of discrimination.
- ↑ The 1931 annual report shows only an insignificantly different economic situation at the Lübeck Flender works from Henry Koch's shipyard during this period. Flender himself thus provides evidence that his previous allegations are untenable.
- ^ The crane system is being dismantled , in Lübecker Nachrichten ; Vol. 5, No. 46, edition of February 23, 1950, p. 3.
Coordinates: 53 ° 53 ′ 18.4 " N , 10 ° 42 ′ 23.6" E