Thomas Johann Gottfried Entz

Thomas Entz- von Zerssen (right) at the award of honorary citizenship by Wolfgang Bargmann (1965)

Thomas Johann Gottfried Entz , later Entz-von Zerssen , (born October 22, 1899 in Rendsburg , † April 4, 1970 ibid) was a German shipowner and businessman.

Life and work as an entrepreneur

Thomas Johann Gottfried Entz was a son of the businessman Paul Entz and his wife Bertha, née Hollesen (born August 23, 1839 in Emaus near Danzig ; † May 4, 1908 in Langfuhr ). He had four sisters. After attending the Royal High School in Rendsburg, he graduated from high school in June 1917. Two days later he joined the field artillery regiment No. 9 as a gunner, which was stationed in Itzehoe .

After the end of the First World War , he received a commercial training at the shipping company Schulte & Bruns in Emden . He lived in Gothenburg for a year and a half and worked as a director of a small forwarding company, then for a year for the company Chr. Salvesen & Co. in Leith, Scotland . He then studied for two semesters at the Munich Commercial College. From 1924 he worked for Zerssen & Co. , which his father ran.

On April 11, 1928, Entz married Elisabeth Sieh (born January 10, 1906 in Flensburg ), with whom he had a son and a daughter. After the death of his father in 1936, he continued to run the company as the sole owner. Zerssen & Co. had numerous branches, of which Entz was particularly interested in shipping companies. With the "Glückauf" he acquired his first cargo steamer and acquired three more ships by the beginning of the Second World War .

The world war caused great problems for Entz and his company. He himself did military service until 1945. When he returned, the region's economy was almost completely destroyed. Since his wife died on April 11, 1945 in Rendburg, he was a widower when he returned home. His shipping company still owned three ships, two of which the victorious powers confiscated.

On October 22, 1947, Enz married Margot Oeffner, widowed Fürsen (born February 3, 1915 in Hamburg ). Together with Harald Schuldt's shipping company from Hamburg, he set up the first route through the Mediterranean in 1948. They used the “Hörnum” with a tonnage of 2350 tons as a ship. By 1960 Chr. Salvesen & Co. acquired or built a total of eleven ships that were used on the route. All vehicles bore the names of existing or lost places on the island of Sylt .

In 1950, Entz acquired the "Elisabeth Entz" (14,500 tons). It formed the beginning of Thomas Entz Tanker GmbH . Eleven years later he replaced the ship with a new building of the same name (36,000 tons). Together with the "Hörnum", the three ships were considered to be the largest ships under the German flag at the time of launch. Entz had two more ships built that could hold over 75,000 tons. In the meantime it has been able to transport more than 100,000 tons.

As a skilful company leader, Entz was also able to successfully expand other sectors, including ship equipment, brokerage and trading in building materials, scrap, coal and oil. Until 1957, when the Pamir sank, he was the correspondent ship owner for this ship and the Passat .

On the occasion of the 125th anniversary of Zerssen & Co. , the Minister of the Interior of Schleswig-Holstein, Thomas Johann Gottfried Entz, allowed him to use the suffix “von Zerssen” with immediate effect. The name was changed at the request of the von Zerssen family.

Volunteering

Entz was involved in many committees and was considered a deserved supporter of German shipping and the economic reconstruction of the region. Since 1947 he was a member of the Foreign Trade Advisory Board. For many years he was Vice President of the Kiel Chamber of Commerce and Industry. From 1958 to 1959 he was active as President of the Association of German Shipowners , whose Presidium he was a member until 1967.

Entz supported the work of the German Seemannsmission and participated as Vice President at the Baltic and Maritime Conference . The voluntary work in this shipping organization, which at the time was considered the most important international association of shipowners, was particularly important to him. He received an offer as the first president of the association, which he turned down due to a serious illness.

For many years, Entz also took over the presidency of the Schleswig-Holstein University Society.

Act as a patron

Erntz especially promoted young artists and donated them trips on his ships that went to the Mediterranean. That is why he was known in the region and among artists as the “shipowner of painters”. With his ships were sailing under other Uwe Bangert , Paul buddy , Albert Johannsen , Carl Lambertz , Arndt Georg Nissen , Hans Rickers , Willy Graba , Fritz Hensel , Tom Hops , Rudolf Klein, Alfred Mahlau , Graf Merveldt , William Petersen , Horst Skodlerak and Otto Thamer . Fritz Fuglsang traveled to Constantinople with Entz's support . Here he researched Melchior Lorck , which had meant a lot to him.

Act as consul

His great-grandfather Johann Christian von Zerssen had already taken over the Dutch consulate for the Kiel Canal in 1853 and handed it over to Paul Entz in 1899. In 1929 Thomas Johann Gottfried Entz got this job. In 1930 he was also the Swedish consul for the canal area.

Honors

Entz received several awards for his achievements:

• The Federal Republic awarded him the Great Cross of Merit of the Federal Order of Merit.
• He received the Officer's Cross of the Royal Dutch Order of Orange-Nassau from the Dutch government.
• The Swedish government honored him for his commitment to understanding between Germans and Swedes with the Commander's Cross of the Wasa Order.
• The University of Kiel made him an honorary citizen due to his work in the university society.

literature

• Ernst Joachim Fürsen , Thomas Entz-von Zerssen: Biographical notes on the 100th birthday . in: Communications of the Canal Association , No. 21, ed. v. Manfred Jessen-Klingenberg and Jörn Meiners. Rendsburg 2000, ISSN  0176-7542 , pp. 7-47.
• Harald Kieseritzky: Entz-von Zerssen, Thomas Johann Gottfried . in: Schleswig-Holstein Biographical Lexicon . Volume 3. Karl Wachholtz Verlag, Neumünster 1974, ISBN 3-529-02643-3 , pp. 97-99.
• Erich R. Andersen : Life on board on all seas . Pro Business, Mannheim 2004, ISBN 3-937343-47-4 .

Web links

• Ernst Joachim Fürsen: Traditional connections to the Christian Albrechts University. Dreyer - Entz-v. Zerssen - Fürsen - v. Westphalen CAU. 350+ characters. uni-kiel.de, accessed on October 18, 2017.