William O'Swald

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William O'Swald (born June 11, 1798 as Johann Carl Heinrich Wilhelm Oswald in Berlin , † August 31, 1859 in Hamburg ) was a German businessman .

Live and act

Wilhelm Oswald was the son of Johann Friedrich Oswald and his wife Johanne Charlotte Heinicke. The father worked on the Royal Prussian Maritime Trade in Berlin; the mother was the daughter of the deaf and dumb teacher Samuel Heinicke from Eppendorf . After commercial training in Frankfurt an der Oder and Hamburg, he worked for the Prussian Sea Trade , on whose behalf he carried out worldwide trade expeditions from 1822 to 1824 on the ship Mentor and from 1825 to 1829 on the ship Princess Louise as a supercargo , which he carried out twice Circumnavigate the world . From this time on he carried the name William O'Swald . He reported about these trips in continuous letters to his future wife Adele Weigel, who was the daughter of a Hamburg merchant.

In 1830 he moved to Hamburg, where a year later he founded the company Wm. O'Swald & Co. , which initially traded in linen. In 1847 O'Swald sent a brig to Zanzibar , with which his supercargo Wilhelm Schmeisser landed. In the period that followed, the company developed into a successful East Africa trading company. O'Swald's company initially bought cowries in the Seychelles and transported them via Zanzibar to West Africa, where they were used as a means of payment. O'Swald had factories in Lagos and Palma , which took over the distribution of the goods. The entrepreneur exported spirits and manufactured goods from Hamburg, and later also steamships and coal intended for the Zanzibari sultan . Spices, palm kernels, rubber and hides were imported goods.

From 1836 O'Swald represented the Prussian Kingdom in Hamburg , first as Vice Consul, from 1839 as Consul and from 1843 as Consul General. For some time he acted as administrator of the legation business. In 1848 he helped Prince Wilhelm Friedrich Ludwig of Prussia (later Emperor Wilhelm I ) to flee to London .

Descendants

The company's business was continued by O'Swald's sons William Henry and Albrecht Percy (1831–1899), who had joined in 1859 and 1858, respectively. At first they took turns managing the trade in East Africa, which they concentrated on after the death of their father. They closed the factories on the west coast and signed a trade agreement with the Sultan of Zanzibar in 1859, on the basis of which they were able to expand the business area into the interior of Africa. After a first branch in Madagascar in 1870 , they founded five more by 1900. Other offices were in British and German East Africa and on the Somali coast . The brothers had their own fleet of up to 19 ships that transported goods between Africa and Hamburg.

Subsequent generation continued the business until the world wars, due to which the company had to cease trading. A resumption of trading activity on the previous scale did not succeed. The company was taken over in the 1950s.

literature

personal data
SURNAME O'Swald, William
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Oswald, Johann Carl Heinrich Wilhelm
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German businessman
DATE OF BIRTH June 11, 1798
PLACE OF BIRTH Berlin
DATE OF DEATH August 31, 1859
Place of death Hamburg