House Flags of German Shipping Companies (h) - part 3

Deutsche Reedereiflaggen (h) - Teil 3

Last modified: 2019-08-21 by klaus-michael schneider
Keywords: hintze | hirdes | hirschberg | hiss | hoesch | hoeveling | hoffmann(wulf) | hossfeld | hitzler | hoenow |
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• Jean Hintze
• Heinrich Hirdes
• Carl Hirschberg
• Peter Hiss
• Theodor Hitzler
• Richard Hönow
• Hoesch Reederei
• E. v. Höveling & Meyer
• Wulf Hoffmann
• Willi Holm
• Holm & Molzen
• Fr. Holst & Co
• H. Holst
• Holsten Reederei Lehnt
• Eduard Holtzapfel
• Philipp Holzmann
• Alfred Homuth
• A. Hossfeld
• Bernhard Howaldt

• House Flags of German Shipping Companies
• House Flags of Shipping Companies
• Germany

Jean Hintze

This company used a black flag with a white rhomb with red serifed capital letters "JH"".
Source: Jürgen Meyer: "Hamburger Segelschiffe von 1795-1945", ISBN 3-89225-400-1; Hamburg 1999; inside cover.
Klaus-Michael Schneider, 22 Mar 2007

Heinrich Hirdes

Sara Townsley asked: This flag is located on a main road in a rural area in Baden-Württemburg, Germany. It has three horizontal stripes: white on the top, white on the bottom, and black across the middle. In the black field, "HH" is in large white letters. It's flying from a pole at the entrance to an agricultural business, whose name does not contain any Hs.
Sara Townsley, 27 Mar 2006

This flag is the houseflag of the Heinrich Hirdes GmbH founded 1912 in Duisburg. This company still existed (now in Hamburg).
Jörg M. Karaschewski, 30 Mar 2006

Variant with evenly spaced initials

A life-sized item may be seen (clickable photo): here. With all due respect - the initials should be somewhat fatter and evenly spaced rather than put closely together.
Source: table flag offered on German eBay: this was no. 350097526989 (end 21 Sep 2008) put up by sibo2002
Jan Mertens, 5 May 2011

Carl Hirschberg

It is an 11-stripes flag divided vertically by alternating blue and white stripes. In the centre is a red lozenge containing white capitals "CH". The company was located in Hamburg.
Sources: Gratis Beilage zu Deicken und Behrmann's Neuen Monatsheften Neue Ausgabe Sommer 1897, information cofirmed by Lloyds 1912 , flag no.935
Klaus-Michael Schneider, 24 Apr 2012

Peter Hiss

Peter Hiss
The company was located in Burgstaaken / Isle of Fehmarn. It is a white flag with a dark blue capital "H" in its centre.
Source: "Flaggen, Schornsteine, Reedereien- Flaggen und Schornsteine der deutschen Reedereien und ihre Schiffe über 300 BRT", Hamburg 1957; p.F13
Klaus-Michael Schneider, 11 Apr 2009

Theodor Hitzler

Schutenvermietung Theodor Hitzler, i.e. barge rental, a company based in Hamburg. The flag was a red-white-red horizontal triband parted in the middle by a black pale.
Source: Schnall funnel chart 1997
Klaus-Michael Schneider, 21 Aug 2019

Richard Hönow

Richard Hönow shipping, a company based in Hamburg. The flag was light blue with white horizontal edges and a white 5-point star in the middle of the blue stripe.
Source: Schnall funnel chart 1997
Klaus-Michael Schneider, 21 Aug 2019

Hoesch Reederei

I have found only one trace of this elusive firm, "Hoesch Reederei GmbH" established at Dortmund or Ruhrort according to the Dutch "Binnenvaart" site. (photo showing (part of) the house flag on "Mosel", built for Hoesch in 1944). Once a motor tug, the erstwhile "HOESCH 1" was built in 1940, sold in 1952, and re-acquired under the same name by Hoesch in 1956.  Sold definitively in 1969 to be rebuilt as the passenger ship "PATRIA" shown on the photo.
So an inland towage firm by the name of Hoesch was active at least between 1940 and 1969 - not much information to go by but this is all I could find and so am wholly indebted to Binnenvaart.
(There is of course the well-known steel company Hoesch, now a part of ThyssenKrupp, but whether there is a connection is another question.)

The house flag: horizontally divided white-orange etc., five stripes in all, and a small white canton, thinly bordered in black where it touches the stripes, containing a "Fraktur" initial "h" within a black ring.
Jan Mertens, 30 Aug 2006

Yes, there is a connection with the steel-concern - due to this obsolete page http://www.donews.de/28+M575efd94323.0.html, presenting 73-year old Marlies Berndsen, a volunteer working for the Hoesch Museum in Dortmund, more especially the title "Wahres Symbol" (true symbol) and the accompanying photo showing the ringed initial.
That "h" however is no longer the company symbol...  Quoting Ms Berndsen (translated): "To the old Hoeschians the gothic "H" will always be the only true symbol of Hoesch - and to me in any case".
Incidentally, it is not an upper case "H" as evidenced by the Fraktur ("Gothic" script) table available in dictionaries and the like.
Concerning the shipping company, I now realize that it was already mentioned in the 6 June 2006 message concerning WTAG, as being one of the founding firms in 1899.
Logically, Hoesch must have broken away (if that is not too strong a term) sometime between 1899 and 1940, first trace I found of a vessel in operation.
Jan Mertens, 31 Aug 2006

E. v. Höveling & Meyer

In the centre of the red flag is a white 5-point star containing a blue capital "H".
Source: Gratis Beilage zu Deicken und Behrmann's Neuen Monatsheften Neue Ausgabe Sommer 1897
Klaus-Michael Schneider and Jörg M. Karaschewski, 29 May 2012

Wulf Hoffmann

The company was based in Hamburg and had a blue flag with 4 white horizontal stripes a varying height; in center sort of white "WH".
Source: Brown's Flags and Funnels Shipping Companies of the World, compiled by J.L. Loughran, Glasgow, 1995 [lgr95]
Jarig Bakker, 17 Dec 2005

Willi Holm

The company was located in Moorrege (Pinneberg county). It is a blue flag with a red lozenge, containing a white capital "H" in its centre. The lozenge is touching the edges.
Source: "Flaggen, Schornsteine, Reedereien- Flaggen und Schornsteine der deutschen Reedereien und ihre Schiffe über 300 BRT", Hamburg 1957; p.F13
Klaus-Michael Schneider, 11 Apr 2009

Holm & Molzen

The company was based in Flensburg and had a blue flag with white 7-pointed star.
Image after Brown's Flags and Funnels of British and Foreign Steamship Companies, compiled by F.J.N. Wedge, Glasgow, 1926 [wed26]
Jarig Bakker, 7 Feb 2005

Fr. Holst & Co

It was red over black over red horizontal triband, shaped as a swallow tail pennant. In the black stripe was a white inscription "Fr.H.&Co.".
Source: Gratis Beilage zu Deicken und Behrmann's Neuen Monatsheften Neue Ausgabe Sommer 1897
Klaus-Michael Schneider, 13 May 2012

H. Holst

The company was located in Bützfleth. It is a blue flag with two white capital "H"s.
Source: "Flaggen, Schornsteine, Reedereien- Flaggen und Schornsteine der deutschen Reedereien und ihre Schiffe über 300 BRT", Hamburg 1957; p.F13
Klaus-Michael Schneider, 11 Apr 2009

Holsten Reederei Lehnt

Holsten Reederei Lehnt & Co
The company was located in Kiel. The flag is derived from that one of Schleswig-Holstein, a blue over white over red horizontal tricolour, but superimposed by a big, black, capital, serifed "H" fimbriated yellow.
Source: "Deutsche Reedereien und ihre Erkennungszeichen", 2nd ed.; Hamburg; 1956; p.23
Klaus-Michael Schneider, 4 Apr 2009

Eduard Holtzapfel

Eduard Holtzapfel - The company existed from 1889 til 1912, when Holtzapfel gave up. The company used a white flag with red stripes on either edge. The white field had a small blue canton with a white shield showing a branch with three wild apples (German:: Holzäpfel). The red inscription "E.H." is shifted to the fly.
Source: Jürgen Meyer: "Hamburger Segelschiffe von 1795-1945", ISBN 3-89225-400-1; Hamburg 1999; p.153-154.
Klaus-Michael Schneider, 5 Apr 2007

Philipp Holzmann

The last flag in the brochure "Ausbau des Rheins" I can "with any degree of certainty" determine is that of Philipp Holzmann AG, established at Koblenz (Coblentz) and Frankfurt.  On the inside cover is shown the company logo.
A rectangular red flag bearing this white logo a stylized initial "H" with curved, tunnel-like, underside flies on the dredger "Ajax", busyly scooping up rock and loading it into a barge floating nearby: picture p. 21.
Philipp Holzmann is listed as a constructor of breakwaters and dredging company (rock removal and filling up holes in the riverbed) at various points along the Rhine during the years 1965-78.
As I remember, this important and prestigious firm ran into difficulties not even Chanchellor Schröder could solve.   There is a good German WIKIPEDIA  Seriously, see this BBC News article dated 25 Nov. 1999, "Schroeder saves Holzmann" here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/535716.stm
It was not to be, the company went broke in the spring of 2002. I recall seeing above flag on the news, admiring the design.   For a time at least, it had its place among the (inland) house flags of the world...
Jan Mertens, 22 Apr 2007

Alfred Homuth GmbH

The company was founded by Captain Alfred Hormuth in 1919 and existed at least until 1927. The company used a green flag with a white diamond with red serifed dotted capital letters "A.H."
Source: Jürgen Meyer: "Hamburger Segelschiffe von 1795-1945" ;ISBN 3-89225-400-1; Hamburg 1999; p.218f-219.
Klaus-Michael Schneider, 22 Mar 2007

A. Hossfeld

The company was based in Stettin. The flag was white with a yellow coronet with three scarves of the same in canton and a light blue inscription "St.D.G.", slightly shifted to bottom and flyend.
Source: Massary 1928, series 1, image no.315
Klaus-Michael Schneider, 6 Aug 2019

Bernhard Howaldt

The company was located in Hamburg. It is a light blue flag with a white lozenge and a red "H" upon the lozenge.
Source: "Deutsche Reedereien und ihre Erkennungszeichen", 2nd ed.; Hamburg 1956; p.23
Klaus-Michael Schneider, 29 Mar 2009

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