Waldemar Koch (businessman)

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Waldemar Koch (born March 12, 1891 ; † December 12, 1981 in Bremen ) was a German merchant and patron in Bremen.

biography

Koch was the son of a restaurant owner. By 1911 he completed a commercial apprenticeship at an iron and household goods store in Bremen. Afterwards he worked for the Bremer Fahrradhaus company for a long time and from 1912 onwards he was a representative for the bicycle trade at HW Schmidt in Delmenhorst . In 1918 he became an authorized signatory and head of the Bremer Fahrradhaus company . In the First World War he served as a soldier.

car dealer

After the war, Koch resumed his occupation in the bicycle trade until he started the car trade together with J. Wilhelm Schmidt in 1923. In 1926, the two merchants founded the Bremer Fahrzeughaus Schmidt + Koch company . The dealership sold and repaired cars and motorcycles of the Stoewer and Wanderer brands and then other brands as well. In 1934 Koch became the sole owner of the company. In 1939 the Norddeutsche Motorenbau-Gesellschaft , which built wood gas generators, was added. The first branches were established in Bremen on today's Bismarckstrasse and Stresemannstrasse and the company was the general agent for Audi , DKW and Wanderer. In World War II warships were repaired.

After the war, the war-damaged facilities were rebuilt. In 1946 the company managed to conclude a wholesaling contract with Volkswagen and then with Audi and Porsche . Earth-moving machines were also traded during this time. The branch network expanded to over 20 locations, including in Bremen, Bremerhaven , Wilhelmshaven , Achim and Osterholz-Scharmbeck with models from Audi, Porsche, Volkswagen, Škoda , Opel and Ford . In 1961 the Erdbaugeräte Schmidt + Koch company was spun off. In 1972 he founded Schmidt + Koch AG in Bremen, a company in the automobile trade with a turnover of 340 million euros (2009).

patron

Waldemar Koch and his wife Louise were important patrons in Bremen. In 1972 they founded the Waldemar Koch Foundation , which promoted cultural, health and political measures and supported projects for international understanding.

In 1971 they donated the Waldemar-Koch-Haus in Bremen's Schnoor No. 27/28, which was built according to plans by Flügger & Schleuter . The house, completed in 1974, is administered and operated by the Bremen Press Club . It serves as a meeting place, to promote education, to train young journalists and to maintain international relations, and it is the contact center for Bremen journalists.

In 1974, the foundation helped convert the detention house at Ostertor into the Wilhelm-Wagenfeld-Haus , which preserves the work of product designer Wilhelm Wagenfeld .

Measures such as the Osterholz cemetery , various clinics and parks, the bronze statue of Ludwig Knoop in Knoopspark, the Künstlerhaus Bremen, the Verden Horse Museum , the Horst Janssen Museum in Oldenburg or the renovation of the Barkenhoff were financed - partly or completely in Worpswede . Exhibitions, concerts, theater projects, children's projects and international encounters also found support.

The foundation's capital amounts to over 27 million euros (as of 2001). She is one of the larger shareholders of the listed Bremer Lagerhaus-Gesellschaft - Aktiengesellschaft von 1877 .

Honors

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ BLG Logistics: shareholder structure , information on the website, accessed on May 30, 2018.
personal data
SURNAME Cook, Waldemar
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German merchant and patron
DATE OF BIRTH March 12, 1891
DATE OF DEATH December 12, 1981
Place of death Bremen