Jantzen & Thormählen

Jantzen & Thormälen was founded in 1874 in Hamburg by Wilhelm Jantzen and Johann Thormälen colonial enterprise. Both partners had gained experience in the company of Adolph Woermann.

History

Wilhelm Jantzen and Johann Thormälen worked several years for the Woermann Line, Jantzen in Liberia and Thormälen in Cameroon. 1874, the two decided to start their own trading company in Hamburg and opened a first store on Cameroon River. The Company focused on trade with the west coast of Africa and founded factories in Great Batanga, at Campo, in Bata Bai, in Eloby, in Gabon and the Ogowe. The trade was completed with sailing and steam ships. Main trading goods were palm oil and palm kernels. Thus, the company established together with Woermann only German company in Cameroon. However, English trading houses dominated the market.

Jantzen & Thormälen and Woermann therefore turned to Otto von Bismarck. The aim was " the elimination of annoying for them between trade and the establishment of a shopping monopoly ." Both companies had a major part in the foundation of the German colony of Cameroon. In 1884 a mutual assistance pact with the German Government, represented by Dr. Gustav Nachtigal, and rulers of Cameroon with King Bell and King Akwa ( kings of the Duala ( people ) ) signed. Johannes Voss signed for the company and Eduard Schmidt for Woerman. This Cameroon was a German reserve. But Thormälen & Jantzen represented opposite views to Woermann. The company Jantzen & Thormälen wanted an encapsulation of the German protectorates on international trade while Woermann rejected this. The syndicate for West Africa, which was established in the course of trade in Cameroon, broke at these opposites.

On Mount Cameroon, the largest plantation in West Africa was 90,000 acres, on which cocoa, coffee, rubber, oil palm and banana were grown. To tap this vast area, the population was dispossessed, devastated villages and sent the surviving population into reservations or forced to work on the plantation. Resistance from the population was put down by the military, the workforce einfingen addition, especially children, who were forced under appalling conditions in some cases 18 hours to work.

The trading firm broke up in 1907 after Thormählen withdrawal from the business. Jantzen led a successor company until his death in 1917 as " C. F. W. Jantzen Import and Export, ".

Pictures

Faktorei the company Jantzen & Thormälen near Mundame

Map of land in Bell Village