Oldendorff Centenary Book - Flipbook - Page 166
This brought
the average
deadweight
capacity of
the ten
Oldendorff
ships to
2,785 tonnes.
At a time when most shipowners
had to reduce their fleets owing to
lack of resources, Egon Oldendorff
purchased the Belgian ss PETER
BENOIT of 2,200 tdw and renamed
her the GISELA OLDENDORFF. The
1902 Hoboken‑built vessel was the
first to be named after a family
member, a tradition that continues
to the present, with exceptions
proving the rule.
Egon Oldendorff became a member
of the executive board of the German
Shipowners’ Association in 1934,
and he served on a committee
that negotiated with the Reich
government for a 77 million
Reichsmark aid package, eventually
granted to German shipowners in
April 1932. The ss MAGNET had
been sold in 1929, followed in 1934
by the KOMET and PLANET which
GISELA
1932-1958
ss GISELA OLDENDORFF wearing the
number allocated to her by the Allied
Control Commission, in the Lübeck
Hansahafen
162
went to Italian buyers. Freight rates
improved gradually, and the programme introduced by the new
Reich government, designed to aid
shipping and shipbuilding began to
yield first results. German shipping
slowly but steadily recovered and so
did the Lübeck shipowning company,
Egon Oldendorff. Two ships joined
the fleet in 1936, the KLAUS
OLDENDORFF (1) in April, named
after the owner’s son born in 1933,
and the LUDOLF OLDENDORFF (1)
in December which bore the name
of the owner’s father. LUDOLF
OLDENDORFF had served its
previous Jewish owner Arnold
Bernstein as the converted car
carrier TRACTOR of 2,620 tdw but
Oldendorff had her retrobuilt into
a normal freighter as he could not
prolong the original contracts for
the carriage of wheeled vehicles.
