OUR HISTORY
Founded:
24th October 1907
On 24th October 1907, the company Ludwig H.O. Schroeder (HRA 6943) was founded by the Hamburg merchant, Mr. Ludwig (originally Louis) Hugo Otto Schroeder, with its headquarters at Hopfensack 6 in Hamburg. Already on 27th June 1908, Mr. Rudolph Friedrich Hamann, merchant of Reinbek, joined the company as a partner and on 1st July 1908, the company was re-registered as Schroeder & Hamann (HRA 6943) at the Hamburg Commercial Register under Section A with headquarters at Hopfensack 8. Only after almost five years, the two partners amicably agreed to go their separate ways. The two companies traded separately from 15th January 1913 onwards:
a) Ludwig H.O. Schroeder (HRA 17663) at Große Reichenstraße 19, Hamburg and
b) Rudolph Hamann (HRA 51068) at Hopfensack 8, Hamburg
LUDWIG OTTO SCHROEDER
Born:
4th October 1879
in Hamburg
After completing his apprenticeship in Import and Export at Dethlefsen & Balk from 1896 to 1899 and his subsequent work as a tea merchant at J.Fr. Scheibler & Co. from 1899 to 1907, Mr. L.H.O. Schroeder decided to work autonomously from then on. From 1914 to 1918, he served as a private of the reserve force at the Agency for Homeland Service in Berlin, where he was appointed as a tea price inspector. From 1916 to 1935, he became self-employed once again, establishing many good connections overseas. Mr. Schroeder became a founding member of the German Tea Association on 21st April 1917. From 1935 to 1945, he worked again as a tea price inspector for the monitoring centre for horticultural products, beverages and other foodstuffs in Berlin.
In his first marriage, Mr. L.H.O. Schroeder, was married to Anna Schroeder, née Krüger (1882 - 1950), from this marriage his daughter Anneliese was born (married name Brandmann 1910 - 1974). This union came to an end and Mr. Schroeder later married Mrs. Dorothea Schroeder, née Dannenberg (1894 - 1956).
As a politically unencumbered person, Mr. Ludwig Hugo Otto Schroeder, was appointed to the office of mayor at the instigation of the military government on 22nd September1945, and later director of the municipality of Ahrensburg.
He continued to work as an independent tea broker in the abovementioned company until his death on 9th May 1950. His widow, Margaretha Elise Helene Dorothea Schroeder, took over the company alone until Mr. Alexander (Alec) Gustav Siemssen joined the company on 4th September 1950 (and changed its status to a new limited partnership) and remained a limited partner of the company for another six years until her death.
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RUDOLF FRIEDRICH HAMANN
Born:
around 1873
in Hamburg
Unfortunately, we have little reliable information about Mr. R. F. Hamann. In all likelihood, he was employed as an import & export clerk at J.Fr. Scheibler & Co. together with Mr. L.H.O. Schroeder until 1907, when he joined Schroeder & Hamann (HRA 6943). On 10th July1909, he married Mrs. Edit Tonÿ, née Starckjohann in Hamburg. According to the documents available, Mr. Hamann, who originally lived in Reinhardtallee in Wentorf, bought the villa Am Haidberg 14, 21465 Wentorf near Hamburg in 1911, which, however, was taken over by the Ernst Otto Rautenberg family in 1920.
It is worth mentioning that Mr. R. F. Hamann granted individual power of attorney to Mr. Johann Hinrich alias Hans Kryck with effect from 8th December 1913 until his resignation on 2nd January 1928. Hans Kryck acted on behalf of the Rudolph Hamann company as a founding member of the German Tea Association in Kassel on 21st April 1917. After Mr. Hamann's early death due to a thrombophilia in the St. Adolf-Stift hospital in Reinbek on 5th July 1928, his widow, Edith Tonÿ Hamann, née Starckjohann of Wentorf near Reinbek, and the former general authorised signatory of the company, Mr. Max Heinrich Lambrecht of Altona, took over the now general partnership.
ALEXANDER GUSTAV SIEMSSEN
Born:
20th June 1914
in Fuzhou
The Siemssen family from Hamburg has a long trading tradition and a deeply rooted relationship with the Far East, especially China. Alec Siemssen's great-great-uncle, Georg Theodor Siemssen (born in 1816 as the son of a wine merchant in Hamburg), went as an authorised signatory for his training company, T.E. Vidal & Co., in Hamburg to Batavia (now Jakarta) in 1836. In 1846, he founded his own company, Siemssen & Co, in Canton (today Guangzhou) as the third German and first Hamburg company in China. Further establishments followed in Hong Kong (1855), Shanghai (1856), Hamburg (1859) and Foochow / Fuzhou (1860).
The years between 1856 and 1860 (the beginning of the unrest in China up to the end of the second Opium War) were not easy, and for the Siemssen family, it was no different. From around 1860, the company began trading in tea and quickly gained the reputation as the leading German Tea House in China / Hong Kong.
In 1865, (at the end of the Civil War in the USA) the company, Siemssen & Co., participated in the incorporation of the Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corp. (HSBC). Until 1914, it was always represented by a member of the management on the Supervisory Board. From 1886, the company, Siemssen & Co., was run without the participation of the Siemssen family, with the headquarters being relocated to Hamburg. Gustav Theodor Siemssen senior, Alec Siemssen's grandfather, founded his own company as a tea exporter in Foochow / Fuzhou in 1885. This was followed by the founding of the company, Siemssen & Krohn, together with his partner Werner Krohn in Fuzhou in 1895. This company established itself as the leading company for tea export from China. At the beginning of the 20th century, Ludwig H. O. Schroeder became the Hamburg tea agent for the company, Siemssen & Krohn.
In 1902/3, a nephew of Georg Theodor Siemssen, Johannes Ernst Siemssen, became director of the Germania brewery in Tsingtau (Tsingtau Beer). Our predecessor, Alec Siemssen, was born in Fuzhou on 20th June 1914. In 1920, after the First World War, his uncle ,Gustav Theodor (Theo) Siemssen junior, and his father, Frederick (Fred) Werner Siemssen, continued to run the company ,Siemssen & Krohn, in China, which moved its headquarters to Shanghai in 1923 until it was expropriated and dissolved at the end of World War II in 1945.
The members of the Siemssen family living in China were hit hard economically by the end of the unspeakably horrific World War II as well. They had to return to Germany after almost 100 years, as did our former partner, Gustav Alexander (Alec) Siemssen. On 4th September 1950, he decided - in the old tea family tradition - to join the company, Ludwig H.O. Schroeder, as general partner (see L.H.O. Schroeder above), which he knew to be a good business partner from past years, and only retired after 54 years, in 2003, due to age. Mr. Alex Siemssen passed away on 22nd January 2008 in Wentorf near Hamburg.
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Enclosed a link to the Siemssen family for further information: https://www.studeo-ostasiendeutsche.de/deutsche-in-ostasien/china?view=article&id=51:siemssen-co&catid=69.
MAX HEINRICH LAMBRECHT
Born:
7th July 1896
in Hamburg
Max Lambrecht was born as a child of the married couple Olga Marie Lambrecht, née Riecke (4th August 1870 – 16th January 1952) and Gottfried August Lambrecht, (7th August 1868 – 17th December 1901). After his early high school graduation due to conscription, Max Lambrecht reported immediately as a war participant in his hometown of Hamburg at the beginning of World War I. The minimum age to be drafted into active military service was 20 (Max Lambrecht was 17 years old at the time). Earlier conscription required the consent of the parents, which his mother refused to give him, which is why he went to Schwerin, where he was drafted into the cavalry and took part in the French campaign in the General Staff. He gladly recounted an episode from the war, in which he was assigned the task of leading the Mecklenburg candidate for the throne (presumably Adolf Friedrich, Duke of Mecklenburg, 1873-1969) to the front line.
When the Weimar Republic was founded, Max Lambrecht resigned from military service as Captain of the Reserve and due to justified security concerns about politically motivated activities ordered by the military during the war, emigrated to Sweden in 1919, where he worked for a steel company, After his return from Sweden around 1927, he married. Two children, Ulf and Margret, were born from this first marriage, which was subsequently dissolved. On 2nd January 1928, he joined as a general authorized signatory in the company of the merchant, Rudolph Hamann, (HRA 51068) in Hamburg.
Following the sudden death of Mr. Rudolph Friedrich Hamann on 5th July1928, Mr. Max Heinrich Lambrecht, merchant of Altona took over the business together with the founder's widow, Mrs. Edith Tonÿ Hamann, née Starckjohann of Wentorf near Reinbek. The company became a partnership. With effect from 9th April 1936, the widow Hamann left and Mr. Lambrecht became the sole owner.
On 23rd February 1939, his second marriage was to Mary-Ann, née Hemme, who worked as a secretary for the Wehrmachtskommando in Hamburg. At the beginning of World War II, Max Lambrecht was drafted and stationed in occupied France. In order to continue the business activity, his wife was appointed sole authorised signatory of the Rudolph Hamann company on 21st November 1939.
After a serious head injury from a road mine in France, Max Lambrecht was assigned to the Wehrmachtskommando in Hamburg as responsible for transport. Lars Lambrecht, the son of the Lambrecht couple, was born on 24th February 1944. After the end of World War II, Max Lambrecht continued to run the company, from 15th October 1946 together with the new partner Gerhard Lange.
On 1st January 1971, Peter Flägel became a co-owner and ran the company together with Max Lambrecht until his death on 18th March 1973. Max Lambrecht's son, Lars Lambrecht, did not want to succeed him and studied philosophy, history and political sciences in Basel and Marburg an der Lahn instead. Peter Flägel took over the company as sole owner.
Lars Lambrecht became Professor of Sociology in the Faculty of Social Economics in 1995, most recently at the University of Hamburg until his retirement in 2009.
He inquired his commander how "His Majesty" should be addressed, in the reasons given in the best Low German: “We don´t have such a thing in Hamburg” (“So wat hebben wi in Hamborch nich”).
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When they arrived at the front, the candidate for the throne replied: "Well Lambrecht, now you take good care of me that you don't lose me out of sight just because you don't have anything like me in Hamburg!" (“Nu Lambrecht, nu pass’n Se goot op mi op, dat Se mi nich verlesen, woor Se in Hamborch so wat as mi nich hebben!")
The worst crime against the working people is perpetrated by a company which does not make a profit
(Samuel Gompers (1850 – 1924), American union leader)
Never deprive someone of hope; it might be all they have
(H. Jackson Brown, Jr (born 1940) American writer)
Skip one meal a week and give what you would have spent to a street person (author unknown)
Peter Flägel succumbed to a severe motor nervous disorder in Seevetal near Hamburg, one day before his 82nd birthday on 8th May 2020.
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PETER HANS JOACHIM FLÄGEL
Born:
9th May 1938
in Hamburg
Peter Flägel was born as the son of the fruit dealer, Friedrich, Flägel (1906) and his mother Olga Flägel, (1899) née Kaack in Hamburg.
His parents sent him, as was customary at the time, to a farm in Lutzhorn in the Pinneberg district during the war, as part of the "KLV" (Kinderlandverschickung), a program for the relocation of children from cities with high risk of aerial bombing to the countryside.
He graduated with A levels at the Bismarck High School in Hamburg Eppendorf in 1957, followed by the mandatory 12-month military service in a tank battalion in the Bundeswehr, which had only been founded in 1955.
From 1958 to 1960; he was trained as a merchant in wholesale and foreign trade at the Hamburg tea trading house, Friedrich Wilhelm Lange, where he became a certified merchant. In 1961, certainly through the mediation of his father, he received an employment contract from the Hamburg fruit import company, Willy Bruns & Co GmbH, which offered him an interesting leading position in Ecuador. Peter Flägel packed his belongings and emigrated for about 10 years (with a small Far East interlude) to his new second home, Guayaquil, Ecuador. There he worked in a team that operated the company's entire banana trade.
In 1964, the Willy Bruns company sent him to Tokyo, Japan on a trip limited to just a few months. From there, Peter Flägel returned directly to Ecuador. He married Elena Margarita Boloña Guevara in Guayaquil in 1965, and his eldest son Stephan was born there in the same year. The birth of his son Peter Jr. followed, also in Guayaquil in 1969.
During a visit to Hamburg in 1970, Peter Flägel met Max Lambrecht by chance, whom he knew from his apprenticeship with Friedrich Wilhelm Lange. Max Lambrecht offered Peter Flägel the partnership. Peter Flägel accepted this offer and decided, after 10 years in his beloved adopted home, to return to his hometown with his family. With effect from 1st January 1971, he became a partner of Rudolph Hamann (HRA 51068 - a limited partnership).
From 18th March 1973, (with the sudden death of his senior partner Max Lambrecht), Mr. Flägel took over the company alone. Alberto, the third son of the Flägel couple, was born in Hamburg in 1973.
After over 61 years (!), the renewed merger of the two branches of the company took place at the instigation of Peter Flägel and Reiner Eberle. The newly founded general partnership, Ludwig H.O. Schroeder & Rudolph Hamann (HRA 72944 - as today), came into existence with their personally liable partners, Alex Siemssen, Peter Flägel, and Reiner Eberle on 1st May 1974. The Rudolph Hamann company was accordingly dissolved on 30th April 1974.
After about 1.5 years of working together, Peter Flägel decided to return to Ecuador in early 1976, also in the interests of his wife. He left the company with effect from 8th January 1976. Ultimately, the time and probably also the possible area of responsibility in Ecuador were not as pleasant as he had hoped and after a phone call, Peter and Reiner quickly came to an agreement.
His return to Germany and the re-entry into the Ludwig H.O. Schroeder & Rudolph Hamann company by mutual agreement followed on 1st January 1977.
Peter Flägel left Schroeder & Hamann at his own request on 31st December 2004, and Marcus Wulf joined the now Schroeder & Hamann oHG, which he ran together with his senior partner Reiner Eberle.
A constant and welcome guest in our house from 2005 to 2020, among others at the legendary pre-Christmas meetings over a good cup of tea with buttered Christmas stollen, Peter took part in many official events or business lunches even after his departure. He was always a good friend, advisor and interesting conversation partner for his successor and was also called a partner due to the “shared theoretical second” on 31st December 2004.
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After Peter Flägel left, we found a small collection of sayings in his desk, three of them as a selection:
REINER EBERLE
Our esteemed former partner came into the world in Würbenthal, Sudetenland/Germany (today Vrbno pod PradÄ›dem/Czech Republic) shortly before the end of the war on 13th May 1944. Mother and child fled to Bavaria and Hesse in 1945, and the family was reunited with the father in Hamburg in 1949.
After completing school in North Barmbek, Reiner Eberle began his apprenticeship as a merchant in wholesale and foreign trade at the tea trading company, Hälssen & Lyon, in Hamburg in 1960. The merchant's assistant's certificate is dated 31st March 1963. Reiner Eberle was willingly taken on permanently by his training company, where he obtained the training to become a professional “Tea-Taster.”
Mr Eberle completed his basic and compulsory military training at the German Army Barracks in Hamburg -Rahlstedt from 1964 to 1966 due to the obligatory compulsory military service at that time.
Following on from this period, Reiner Eberle was once again employed as an assistant in the Import and Export Department at Hälssen & Lyon in 1966.
The owner, Carl Ellerbrock, granted collective power of attorney to Reiner Eberle from 1970. Reiner Eberle joint in recognition of his outstanding achievements in 1968. After a change in owners and the take-over of the company by the sons of Mr. Carl Ellerbrock, the new owners, Carl-Olav und Horst Jürgen Ellerbrock, granted collective proxy to Reiner Eberle from 1970. His high level of expertise led to his registration as a tea expert at the Hamburg Chambers of Commerce in 1972.
Mr. Eberle was around the world on business trips for purchase as well as sales for his employer between 1968 and 1973. His most frequent destinations included France, Holland, England, Ireland, North Ireland, India, Sri Lanka, Indonesia and Iran.
He married Ms. Monika Eberle, née Lockenvitz in 1971. Ms. Eberle had also completed her apprenticeship as a merchant in wholesale and foreign Trade at Hälssen & Lyon, where she also obtained her merchant assistant’s certificate. She already left her training company in 1970 and she began to work at Deutsche Trockenfrucht.
On 1st January 1974, Mr Alex Siemssen appointed Mr Reiner Eberle, who became a personally liable partner of the company, Ludwig H.O. Schroeder (HRA 17663), which was now continued as a partnership.
As early as April 1974, there was a (renewed) „merger” of the companies, Ludwig H. O. Schroeder, and Rudolph Hamann, which led to the newly established Ludwig H.O. Schroeder & Rudolph Hamann (HRA 72944-as it is today) initially without the addition oHG) on 1st May 1974.
This led to successful as well as pleasurable times for the triumvirate, Alex Siemssen, Peter Flägel, and of course, Reiner Eberle, who turned the company into a major tea broker in Europe.
Patrick, the son of the Eberle couple, was born in Hamburg in 1978.
Reiner Eberle was again very active, now travelling for his own agency. The countries Belgium, Holland, England, India, Nepal, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Singapore, Vietnam, Hongkong and China belonged to his usual repertoire. During these travels, he built many close, important business as well as personal relationships, which still prove to be of much benefit for our company to this day.
Shortly after the departure of his friend and long-term partner Peter Flägel in October 2004, he offered Mr. Marcus Wulf, to continue the partnership with him in the future. For the sake of continuity, Reiner Eberle, promised to stay available as an active Partner for at least another 3 years, maximum 6 years.
As of 31st December 2009, Mr. Reiner Eberle left the company on grounds of age. He was, however, employed as a consultant for the agency until the end of 2019 and he is de-facto still a mentor, consultant and fatherly friend.
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MARCUS WULF
Born:
9th October 1966
in Hamburg
The current personally liable partner of our company was born as the third child of the couple Hannelore Wulf, née Käßler (1928-1998); and Bernd Wulf (1930-1998); at the Hamburg-Finkenau Clinic. His sisters; Regine (1955), and Beate (1959), were already considerably older.
Bernd Wulf, who was himself employed as a tea merchant at Hälssen & Lyon from 1952-1968, as an individually authorised representative from 1957 and finally as a chief tea buyer, didn’t drive a car and asked Reiner Eberle, who had just been taken on again by Hälssen & Lyon at the beginning of October 1966, to drive him to his wife and son in the clinic. In this respect, the paths of Marcus Wulf and his future senior partner Reiner Eberle had already crossed in the first days after his birth.
Marcus Wulf spent his school years in Hamburg (1973 to 1983) and at a boarding school in Wersen near Osnabrück (1983-1985), where he graduated from the Higher Commercial School and obtained his Advanced Technical College Certificate (Fachhochschulreife). Already in 1982, at the age of 15, his father organised for his son on his own an approximate two month stay ( from Mid-June to August) with business friends in Calcutta (today Kolkata) and at tea plantations in Darjeeling (which was a very defining period for him).
In 1984, his father took him along on a business trip to Singapore, Hongkong, Macau, Taiwan and at the trade fair in Guangzhou (Canton Fair), where he met many business partners from the tea trade.
From 1985 to 1987, Marcus Wulf was a soldier with the 172nd armored infantry battalion in Lübeck Blankensee and for training in Reinbek near Hamburg, in Munster and Wesendorf (both in Lower Saxony) for two years. Also, during this time at the army, Marcus Wulf accompanied his father on a journey to India, for which he had to apply for a special permit from his captain.
He completed a work placement at the mail-order company, Paul Schrader & Co, under the guidance of the tea-icon, Arnd Vollers, in Wehye near Bremen from late 1987 to early 1988.
From the beginning of 1988 until the end of 1991, he completed his apprenticeship at the Commodity & Trade Finance Bank Mees & Hope N.V. (today MeesPierson FORTIS-Group) in Hamburg, which was the second oldest foreign bank after the Bank of Tokyo in this federal state. Also, during this period, he visited India together with his father and alone.
Marcus Wulf left the bank as a Junior Corporate Account Manager (Commodity Trade Finance) after circa 3.5 years, in order to enter his father’s tea trading company completely, of which he was already the chief partner since its inception in May 1989.
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Marcus and Sibylle Wulf, née Dehner, married in Hamburg on 24th August 1991. Marcus Wulf became Co-Managing Director of his father’s tea trading company, HTH Hamburger Teehandel GmbH Im- & Export, alongside Bernd Wulf and Thomas Holz in 1992. Gina-Isabel Wulf, the first child of the couple was born in Hamburg on 24th December 1992. Miguel Benjamin Wulf, the second child, was born in Hamburg on 26th December 1994.
Bernd Wulf left the company HTH Hamburger Teehandel GmbH Im- & Export in 1996 and Marcus Wulf continued to run the company on his own, even without Thomas Holz, who had already left the company in 1994. Ana-Gwendolyn Wulf, the third child, came into the world in Hamburg on 8th February 1997. Both of Marcus Wulf’s parents died only 10 weeks apart in 1998. Elena Sophie Wulf, the fourth child, was born in Hamburg on 5th February 2000.
Reiner Eberle contacted Marcus Wulf for the first time on 4th October 2004 and offered him during the course of various conversations partnership in his tea agency as his long-term partner Peter Flägel wanted to leave the company, Ludwig H.O. Schroeder & Rudolph Hamann, on the grounds of age as of 31st December 2004. They both reached an agreement in November 2004 and Marcus Wulf established the Marcus Wulf Hamburger Handels- & Beteiligungsgesellschaft mbH (HRB 92264) on 9th December, which was initially incorporated into Ludwig H.O. Schroeder & Rudolph Hamann as a further personally liable partner as of 31st December 2004.
Reiner Eberle and Marcus Wulf led the company in a very good partnership from 1st January 2005 until 31st December 2009. On 16th April 2008, Marcus Wulf joined as an additional personally liable partner of the Ludwig H.O. Schroeder & Rudolph Hamann oHG, so that there were three personally liable partners at short notice.
The Tea Agency Ludwig H.O Schroeder & Rudolph Hamann oHG (HRA 72944) and the Tea Trading Company HTH Hamburger Teehandel GmbH Im- & Export (HRB 42314) moved in together to their new premises at Pickhuben 6 (2. Floor) in January 2005.
As requested, Reiner Eberle left the company at the age of 65 with effect from 31st December 2009, according to the commercial registry entry on 20th January 2010. Marcus has continued to run the partnership on his own.
The next generation of the Wulf family – represented by Gina-Isabel and Miguel Benjamin – joined the company in 2018.
In December 2022, the partnership moves into its new offices at Ludwig-Erhard-Straße 14, 20459 Hamburg, on the 5th floor. At this address the birth house of the composer Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy (1809-1847) was originally placed.
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The company changed its legal status towards into a limited partnership with effect from January 1st, 2024. The new companies name is Ludwig H.O. Schroeder & Rudolph Hamann GmbH & Co. KG.
The limited partner’s capital contribution is distributed between Marcus Wulf (90 %), and his children Gina-Isabel and Miguel Benjamin Wulf (both with individual power of attorney), holding each 5 %.
The general partner of the a.m. limited partnership is the Marcus Wulf Hamburger Handels & Beteiligungsgesellschaft mbH (HRB 92264 – Hamburg District Court) with Marcus Wulf as managing partner.
