July 2020 | A review of the year 1886 becomes a look into the future
The year is 1886, and the omens are favourable: in Mannheim and Cannstadt near Stuttgart, Carl Benz and Gottlieb Daimler simultaneously develop the world’s first automobiles and lay the foundation for an unprecedented industry. At the same time, Julius Maggi in Switzerland mixes the legendary Maggi sauce, which to this day fills countless kitchen cabinets around the world in its unmistakable brown bottle. And thousands of kilometers away, in Atlanta, pharmacist John Stith Pemberton invents the cult drink Coca-Cola – albeit by accident, because instead of the stimulating fizzy drink, a syrup for headaches was supposed to be produced. But even in the north of Germany people are not idle.
Vogemann: How it all began
Johann Heinrich Vogemann had his shipping company H. Vogemann entered in the Hamburg Commercial Register in 1886 and, with the construction or takeover of the two steamers “Walküre” and “Rheingold”, laid the foundation stone for a maritime group of companies whose orientation today is unique worldwide. He created the company logo with the white V on a red background, which still gives Vogemann its face today, albeit now in an adapted form.
The success story of an owner-operated shipping group
Within a few years Johann Heinrich Vogemann established a regular liner service to New York. Charter business was already added to the shipping company at that time. The following generations, among them Johann Heinrich Vogemann’s sons Heinrich and Richard, Richard’s son Herbert and finally the husband of Richard’s daughter Renate, Paul Speckter, manoeuvred the company through the centuries, two world wars and various economic crises, always demonstrating courage, flexibility and foresight.
With the same principles Jens-Michael Arndt and Markus Lange represent the shipping company today as managing partners. Alan Woo, Frank Jensen and Lars Rudebeck are in a corresponding position for the brokerage company. A further area rounds off the business model, which thus rests on three independent pillars that complement each other perfectly: A number of service companies offer relevant services related to shipping, including ship and crew management and complete handling in all German and Dutch ports in the form of a port and liner agency.
The importance of shipping for the global economy
And yet: as diverging as the orientations of these companies, which all laid the foundations for their success in the same year of the century before last, there is something that connects them. We will soon be showing how Vogemann contributes to the success of the Daimler, Nestlé and Coca Cola groups.
