Chapter 1 – History of the H. <strong>Vogemann</strong> Company 1886 – 1946 39
1933 Hindenburg appoints Adolf Hitler as Reichskanzler. Beginning of the Na- tional Socialist dictatorship. Terror against the regime's opponents. Dissolution of political parties, “Gleichschaltung” (alignment) of asso- ciations and organisations. Abolition of trade unions, they are replaced by the German Labour Front. Germany withdraws from the League of Nations. In the US, President Roosevelt establishes the “New Deal” to reform the economic and social system. 1934 Death of Reich President Hindenburg, Hitler appoints himself as Head of State. Murder campaign against the leadership of the SA for allegedly preparing a coup d'état. Attempted Putsch by the National Socialists in Austria fails. Centralisation of the German justice system. The German Reich's foreign trade is placed under state control. 1935 Return of the Saar territory to the German Reich. “Schwarzwald” becomes “Rheingold”. We had intended keep- ing the name of the steamship the same, as “Schwarzwald” and “Vogesen” went well together, but Hapag insisted on their being a change of name and so we then decided to revive the old name of “Rheingold” again. In spite of the incredibly cheap price we received through the Dutch credit, my brother had been reluctant to give his approval for the pur- chase of the steamship “Rheingold”, since he was more interested in increas- ing his portfolio of securities than in seeing ships back in service again. After the first voyage had ended with a satisfactory result and my brother also came to the conclusion that the steamship “Rheingold” had been bought at a bargain price through credit from Thomsen's Havenbedrijf, we attempted to purchase a second ship along the same lines. The company Daniel Milberg acted as brokers and we were offered the steamship “Lisa” from the company John T. Essberger for RM 395,000. This price was consider- ably more expensive than was paid for the steamship “Rheingold”, and at the same time, the steamship “Rheingold” had been built in 1922, the steamship “Lisa” on the other hand in 1914. In spite of this, however, the purchase price was also very reasonable, especially since we received a further loan from Thomsen's after we had paid back the first credit, so that we were able to pay with cheaper Marks again. By purchasing the steamship “Lisa”, which we named “Walküre”, my long-awaited desire to own three of our own steamships for our service from the Gulf, finally came true. Unfortunately, during the last two years be- fore the Second World War, ships for the Gulf passage could not be as profit- ably employed as on other routes because freights in dollars were relatively lower than freights in marks. The dollars had to be handed over to the Reichs- bank and were then credited to us at the usual rate of exchange. We, therefore, decided to give up the steamship “Vogesen” for 12 months to the Bornhofen company on a time-charter basis. The profit was extremely high because the ship only cost us around M 350 per day, whilst Bornhofen, as far as I can remember, were paying around M 850 to M 900 in charter rental per day, so that a profit of approximately M 500 per day was left over. The steamship “Rheingold” was also given over to time-chartering as well and it was, in fact, to the German Africa Line for a round trip to South Africa. The charter rental for the South African voyage was approximately M 1,100 per day while the daily costs were around M 700. Unfortunately, shortly after the war broke out the steamship “Rheingold” was captured to the south of Iceland whilst trying to break through the blockade by the English cruiser “Delhi” and was confiscated with 40 125 years of H. <strong>Vogemann</strong> – Tradition, Reliability and Competence
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