S - H. Vogemann

Horace Upton, who had been working there since 1929, left his position. The
existing securities in America were undoubtedly confiscated, which was also
the case in the First World War.
The Vogemann's Transport Co, Rotterdam had still worked extremely
well during the war since at the instigation of Mr Siemens who had
worked with the Reich's Commissioner for merchant shipping for a while, supervision
of Dutch seamen had been transferred to it. The profits from this
activity were invested in Dutch securities which had to be immediately surrendered
to the English when Hamburg was occupied, as was also the case with
the foreign securities of Vogemann, Goudriaan Co Inc. which were located in
Hamburg.
The only activity that remained to us at the end of the war was
the unloading and loading of steamships for the military government as well
as various clean-up efforts in the port on behalf of the authorities for electricity
and port construction. Our damages to the War Damage Commission
are M 1,000,000 for the loss of the steamship “Tannhäuser”, around M 950,000
for steamship “Rheingold” and around M 250,000 for steamship “Vogesen”.
In addition, the value of inventory and equipment is still to be reimbursed
so that the total demands to the War Damage Commission are running at
around M 2 ½ million.
The offices were moved to Mönckebergstraße 31 a few months after
the war ended. The offices which had been based in the Mönckebergstraße
22 since 1911, were completely burnt down during the catastrophic days of July
1943 while the offices which had been made available to the shipping company
Heinrich F.C. Arp in Mönckebergstraße 9 were completely destroyed by an air
raid in July 1944. From July 1944 until October 1945, the business was run on a
temporary basis from a private flat, Skagerrakstraße 1a, later on the second floor
of the Deutsche Bank and after the bank's building was damaged, in a room of
the insurance company Heinrich Heins in Bohnenstraße 12/14.
My brother never lived to see the last years of the war. He had
been suffering from lung cancer since early 1943 and died on 22nd April 1944
after he had lost the parental home in which he had been living during the
catastrophic days of July 1943. Since the death of my brother, I have been
the sole proprietor of the H. Vogemann company which I have had to rebuild
anew, first in 1906 and then a second time in 1918, only to stand at the end
of the Second World War in 1945 with nothing once again. I hope that I will
still succeed in rebuilding for a third time so that I can leave my son Herbert
a shipping company with its own ships.
Chapter 1 – History of the H. Vogemann Company 1886 – 1946 45
1944
Allied landing in Normandy
Major Soviet offensive against
the Army Group Centre.
Attempt on Hitler's life fails.
Formation of the “Volkssturm” (National
Militia) for men aged between 16 and 60.
Soviets advance into East Prussia.
1945
Conference of the Big Three in Yalta.
Heavy air raid on Dresden.
Soviets take Berlin. Adolf Hitler
commits suicide in the bunker
below the Reich Chancellery.
Unconditional surrender of the
German armed forces.
Potsdam Conference on post-war
order in Europe.
Atomic bombing of Hiroshima
and Nagasaki.
Japan's surrender ends the Second
World War.