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In the fifties: coster with loading – left with wood, right with diverse heavy sections<br />

Personal dedication as the key to success<br />

Klingenberg shipping line<br />

celebrating double anniversary<br />

Even the address is unusual: who<br />

would ever think you would find<br />

the headquarters of a well-positioned<br />

medium-sized shipping line that<br />

has had its vessels built in China for<br />

many years far from the water, in Ellerbek<br />

near Hamburg, in the quiet street<br />

Achter de Höf, in just as tranquil and<br />

respectable looking building? This is<br />

indeed the address of Reederei Klingenberg<br />

– down-to-earth, no-frills, successful<br />

– personified by its owner Armin Klingenberg,<br />

who can be proud of a double<br />

anniversary this year: the centenary of<br />

the shipbrokers Albert Hauschild, which<br />

Armin Klingenberg has owned for a<br />

long time and from which the shipping<br />

line Klingenberg developed, as well as<br />

Armin Klingenberg’s own half-century<br />

at Albert Hauschild.<br />

The shipbroker Albert Hauschild registered<br />

his company at Hamburg Municipal<br />

Court on July 18th 1906. It served<br />

mainly coastal motor ships carrying<br />

fodder and grain to the German North<br />

Sea and Baltic ports and Denmark. The<br />

company Albert Hauschild continued to<br />

be active even during the second world<br />

war, in any case as far as this was permitted<br />

by the circumstances.<br />

After the second world war, there was<br />

initially scarcely any more business for<br />

shipbrokers in war-torn Hamburg. The<br />

British as occupying power imposed a<br />

rigid regime, insisting on their approval<br />

of every activity. There were also hardly<br />

any ships available. The large vessels<br />

had been sunk or handed over, while<br />

the smaller ones, if not also handed<br />

20<br />

over, except for a few very old vessels<br />

that were allowed to remain with their<br />

owners, were regarded as surrendered<br />

but could continue to be operated initially<br />

as „X ships“ by their owners<br />

according to the provisions of the occupying<br />

power. Up to July 7th 1945, there<br />

was a general prohibition of navigation,<br />

which was then relaxed in small<br />

steps. On that day, which can thus be<br />

regarded as turning point, for the first<br />

time a licence was issued for a single<br />

voyage of two 169 grt large vessels<br />

for a shipment of oats from Kappeln/<br />

Schlei to Hamburg. Initially, only services<br />

to the west German coast between<br />

Emden and Lübeck were permitted.<br />

Every single voyage had to be approved.<br />

But before the first could be approved,<br />

an Allied licence for the printing of the<br />

licence forms had to be issued.<br />

The coaster vessel „Ines“ was the shipping<br />

line‘s first vessel, built in 1969 in The<br />

Netherlands<br />

Conditions were thus certainly<br />

very unfavourable for resuming business<br />

and re-establishing old contacts<br />

and making new ones. Yet with<br />

great effort companies recovered, and<br />

Albert Hauschild was also soon able<br />

to do good business again. The Korean<br />

War enormously stimulated shipping,<br />

including coastal shipping, giving lines<br />

and owners an unprecedented boom in<br />

freight rates. Horrific rates were paid<br />

between about 1952 and 1957 because<br />

with the fear of another major war on<br />

the horizon everyone wanted to stock<br />

up with goods.<br />

It was at this time that Armin Klingenberg,<br />

born in 1939, entered the shipping<br />

world. He still recalls his start very<br />

exactly. On January 25th 1956, he had<br />

been informed by the labour exchange<br />

that the shipbrokers Albert Hauschild<br />

was looking for a trainee, and on February<br />

3rd the nearly 17-year-old Armin,<br />

accompanied by his mother, took the<br />

tram line 1 to the Fischmarkt in Hamburg-Altona,<br />

near which the company<br />

had its offices, to apply for the training<br />

position. He has not forgotten the<br />

„beastly icy east wind“ on that day that<br />

made covering even short distances<br />

on foot a nightmare. Nevertheless,<br />

Armin Klingenberg was taken on by the<br />

firm. The sum of DM55 was agreed as<br />

monthly remuneration for the first year<br />

of training. The new trainee started on<br />

April 1st 1956 and on his very first day<br />

became acquainted with the practical<br />

side of shipbroking. Shortly after arriving<br />

at the company, he was told: „Come<br />

on, we have to go to clear a customer.“<br />

Armin Klingenberg then boarded a ship<br />

for the first time. The vessel was the<br />

motor sailer „Amandus“, which had<br />

loaded 150t of coal waste from Odense.<br />

This was a product that was extensively<br />

used for road construction in Hamburg<br />

and elsewhere at that time.

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