Wilhelm Kunstmann
Wilhelm Kunstmann (born December 17, 1844 in Stettin , † March 25, 1934 in Stettin) was a German shipowner . The W. Kunstmann company he founded was at times the largest shipping company in Prussia .
Life
Kunstmann was born in Stettin in 1844. He had little formal school education and instead studied in office buildings, first in Szczecin, and then spending several years abroad in Great Britain, Belgium and Scandinavia. In 1870, at the age of 25, he founded the W. Kunstmann company in Swinoujscie . With this company he initially acted as a ship broker , but as early as 1870 he bought two sailing ships - the brig Adler and the schooner Minna - and started the shipping company's business .
In the Franco-Prussian War of 1870/1871, Kunstmann served as a soldier. Business developed favorably after 1871. Kunstmann got into the mass transport of coal and ore with steamboats. In 1896 Kunstmann became Honorary Consul of Spain; later he was awarded the Commander's Cross of the Spanish Order of Isabella . In 1899 he moved his company's headquarters to Stettin, while a branch remained in Swinoujscie. In 1900 he took on his eldest son Arthur Kunstmann as a partner in his business. In 1911 W. Kunstmann owned 24 ships. It was the largest shipping company in Prussia .
After the First World War , the company was initially hard hit by the provisions of the Versailles Treaty , as it had to surrender almost all ships. As compensation, two steamships were built in 1921 at the expense of the state, the Wilhelm Kunstmann and the Lina Kunstmann . In 1930 the shipping company had 50,000 tons of shipping space.
With the Nazi seizure of power in 1933, Kunstmann began to be ostracized because of his Jewish origins and denomination. He died on March 25, 1934 in Stettin, where he was buried in the Jewish cemetery on Bethanienstraße. He had written his funeral oration himself, it was read out by a rabbi . The Stettiner General-Anzeiger wrote in a short message that Wilhelm Kunstmann had "not only made a name for himself as the head of his shipping company, but was also generally regarded as one of the leading personalities in trade and shipping circles".
His eldest son Arthur Kunstmann followed in the management of the shipping company . At the beginning of 1936 the shipping company had to transfer this to the Emden shipping company Johs. Fritzen & Sohn sell and emigrated to London . After the sale until 1938, the company was initially named Johs. Fritzen & Sohn, formerly managed by W. Kunstmann .
literature
- Hans Jaeger: Kunstmann, Wilhelm. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 13, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1982, ISBN 3-428-00194-X , p. 302 f. ( Digitized version ).
- Hans-Gerd Warmann: Wilhelm Kunstmann - The 'Ballin of the Baltic Sea'. In: Stettiner Bürgerbrief. No. 34, 2008, ISSN 1619-6201 , pp. 57-65.
- Eckhard Wendt: Stettiner Lebensbilder (= publications of the Historical Commission for Pomerania . Series V, Volume 40). Böhlau, Cologne / Weimar / Vienna 2004, ISBN 3-412-09404-8 , pp. 301-302.
- Kunstmann, Wilhelm , in: Joseph Walk (ed.): Short biographies on the history of the Jews 1918–1945 . Munich: Saur, 1988, ISBN 3-598-10477-4 , p. 209
Web links
Footnotes
- ↑ Stettiner General-Anzeiger of March 27, 1934. Photocopy printed in: Stettiner Bürgerbrief. No. 34, 2008, ISSN 1619-6201 , p. 62.
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Kunstmann, Wilhelm |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German shipowner |
| DATE OF BIRTH | December 17, 1844 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Szczecin |
| DATE OF DEATH | March 25, 1934 |
| Place of death | Szczecin |