Autumn 2005.qxd

4
T
he late Mr. Klaus E. Oldendorff,
founder of Reederei "NORD"
Klaus E. Oldendorff, was a strong
individual, well known in the
international shipping industry and a
remarkable leader to many. He was "one great
man with a great story to tell". This
outstanding personality has created this very
successful company, and in many ways has
made his mark in shipping history.
Let's take a journey through this
great story. Mr. Klaus E. Oldendorff was
born in Lübeck on 14th April 1933. He
was the eldest son of the Lübeck-based
shipowner Egon Oldendorff and his wife
Gisela, and not surprisingly, shipping
dominated life already in his parental home.
Mr. Oldendorff always had a very
keen interest in his father's activities and
did his apprenticeship (1951 to 1953)
with the Hamburg shipowning and ship
broking firm of Helmut Thimm & Co.
He then worked for shipping companies in
Great Britain, Sweden and the
United States. In 1955 he returned to
Lübeck to be appointed senior
NORD NEWS Autumn 2005
REEDEREI "NORD" KL
PAST, PRESENT
A WHOLE
manager and head of the superintendency
department in his father's company and was
also made a Managing Director of Reederei
Egon L. Oldendorff GmbH & Co.
Mr. Klaus E. Oldendorff opted
for independence on 20th November 1964,
when he purchased the 1417
tdw single-decker BOCKHOLM
and under his ownership renamed her
NORDHOLM. The company was
officially founded on 12th December the
same year. From then on the NORD prefix was
incorporated on all of the company's
ship names.
In May of 1965 the one-ship
company turned into a fleet when
Mr. Oldendorff purchased the 2758 GRT
motor freighter LEVANTE, built in 1951
by Flensburger Schiffsbau-Gesellschaft, and
renamed it NORDMARK. Through the
years as the fleet grew so did his staff in the
Hamburg office.
No great success is achieved
without hard times and struggles fought.