S - H. Vogemann

Gulf ports of the United States. Shipments of the potash syndicate to these
ports were taken over by Hapag and steamships were chartered from the free
market for this purpose. Of the proceeds, 35 % percent went to H. Vogemann,
25 % to Hapag and 20 % each to Rob. M. Sloman jr. and D. Fuhrmann, Nissle
& Günther Nflg. Thirty-five percent of the chartering, handling and loading
of the ships was undertaken by H. Vogemann, the remaining steamships were
handled by Sloman and Fuhrmann on Hapag's behalf. This proved to be an
extremely profitable business for us since not only was there a freight difference
in our favour with the chartering system more times than not, what also
paid off was the loading of 35 % of the ships through our stevedore department
which had been established around 1900.
The contract with Hapag was all the more favourable since the
only restrictions placed on us were for the regular Hapag routes whilst we
were able to dispatch to and from the remainder of the Atlantic and Gulf ports
where Hapag were not maintaining a regular service.
100 ships on the list of steamships. After the regular service
between Hamburg and New York had been discontinued as a result of the
contract with the Hamburg-America Line, Mr Gans in New York felt called
upon to undertake far more business from other ports to all the European
ports, for example, to Denmark, France, the Mediterranean, the Black Sea
and so forth, and, in fact, to such an extent that nearly 100 ships were on
our list of steamships by 1906. He procured the necessary money to finance
this using bills of exchange which were drawn against the freights on the
Hamburg company. On the whole, these transactions were not profitable and
ate into a portion of the compensation being paid by Hapag again. In New
York, the big business Mr Gans was making gave him a reputation of being an
extremely clever charterer because he was making freight transactions which
other shippers in New York were unable to make profitable. Of course, they
were unaware that he was only able to make these transactions possible because
he was in a position to recoup his losses through the Hapag payments.
Since neither my father nor Mr Wehner were able to approve
of conducting business in such a manner, something which also put them
in an extremely dangerous financial position – they were of the opinion that
giving away the income raised from Hapag for these speculations was pointless
– considerable differences came about which were finally settled by Mr
Gans leaving the company. His withdrawal could only be achieved though, by
agreeing that the company should be dissolved, but that the remaining own-
Chapter 1 – History of the H. Vogemann Company 1886 – 1946 17
Beginning of the great Hamburg
dock strike aimed against
the exploitative working conditions
in the port.
The first modern Olympic
Games, dating back to an idea
of Baron Pierre de Coubertin,
take place in Athens.
1897
After lasting eleven weeks, the
Hamburg dockworkers strike
collapses without any demands
for wage increases and
improved working conditions
being met.
Karl Ferdinand Braun develops
the “Braunsche Röhre” (Braun
Tube = cathode ray fluorescent
tube).
The Krupp-Werke and the
Augsburg Maschinenfabrik
produce the first diesel engines
in collaboration with the
inventor, Rudolf Diesel.