It is more than just a matter of luck for a shipping company and ship broker to survive two world wars and several trading slumps, including the Great Depression around 1930.
Experience, a sense of continuity, an eye for the economically possible and good fortune in the choice of staff are the cornerstones of success. And it was experience that Johann Heinrich Vogemann brought with him when he registered his business as H. Vogemann in the Hamburg commercial register on 22 April 1886.
His first ship was the sailing vessel Western Chief. This was followed by two new vessels, Walküre and Rheingold. These were employed mainly in European trade. Still, this wasn’t enough to overcome the difficult years at the turn of the century, which is why a bold plan was conceived:
H. Vogemann resolved to build up regular scheduled services between Hamburg and New York. Those involved knew full well that they were entering into direct competition with Hamburg Amerika-Linie (H.A.L., which later became Hapag and today is Hapag-Lloyd), the then largest shipping company worldwide. This was made possible by the small company’s mobility and its taking on several 10,000 to 12,000-ton tweendeckers in addition to their own tonnage on a time-charter basis, in those days quite an impressive volume. Naturally, this didn’t present serious competition to Albert Ballin, the head of Hapag. Still, the tiny rival caused the giant enough bother by at least making attractive offers and disrupting Ballin’s pricing. To what degree became clear during negotiations where Hapag wanted to induce H. Vogemann to give up the North Atlantic business. This was finally achieved in 1902, but only at the cost of high monthly compensation, which was punctually paid until the outbreak of the First World War.
Thus H. Vogemann was able to build up a sound agency business in the ports and liner sector (amongst others, in South America). What’s more, the company was able to engage itself as what would be called in modern terms an "operator”, which means taking on ships against part or full cargo on a time-charter basis. New vessels such as the MS Vogesen, launched in 1909, ensured the continuation of the company’s shipping activities.
The Great War brought the company close to ruin. It lost its ships and, after America entered the war in 1917, it was forced to give up all its business in the USA, where until then it had maintained offices in New York, Savannah, New Orleans and Norfolk. It was through the effort and tenacity of Heinrich and Richard Vogemann, the sons of the company’s founder, that the company managed to regain a foothold in the USA after the war, which meant its salvation in the light of the rampant inflation in Germany at the time. The situation was further stabilised by the purchase of their own ships.
The next catastrophe arrived in the form of the Second World War, alleviated only by the allocation of foreign ships in compensation for their own, which had all been lost by 1942. Nevertheless, all foreign branches had to close by 1945, and following the war, H. Vogemann was also forced to give up the allocated vessels.
It says a great deal for the courage and inventiveness of Richard Vogemann – in the meantime sole proprietor – and his staff that they did not give up in this situation.
By concentrating solely on their activities as chartering broker, they soon even managed to experience a new burst of expansion. Even the shipping business was soon up and running again, with four new vessels.
By 1986, with new partners and an increase in staff numbers, H. Vogemann could look back proudly on its history and be motivated to further expansion, including diversification into other areas of business.
For well over one hundred years now, tradition, reliability and competence, as well as a forward-looking company policy, have secured the success of H. Vogemann. These values remain the guarantee for the continuation of this tried-and-trusted successful strategy and assure our business partners that they have a powerful partner at their side. The group of companies remains completely in private hands.
In 2001 – in expectation of a growing market – the partners of Vogemann shifted paradigm towards active ship-owning once again. As a cornerstone for the new fleet the Panamax bulk carriers Vogevoyager and Vogetrader were purchased followed by Xinxing Hai and Xinshi Hai in 2002. With its expertise and back in the drivers seat Vogemann managed to participate with ease from the positive market ever since 2003 and successfully expanded their activities in the business segments of chartering brokerage, shipping / ship management and shipping agency under the management of four managing partners. The fleet grew accordingly.