History

INTER makes a new start, too …

It is the beginning of 1919, the war is now over – the misery remains. Hamburg’s population is living in extreme adversity, is starving … food is still rationed. The political situation is in turmoil. Life in the city is still far removed from reality. The Emperor has abdicated; in Hamburg, a workers’ and soldiers’ council is in government for the time being. And the port? Almost barren. Shipping capacities are gone. There is a shortage of fuel in addition. And on top of all this, there is inflation. However, the population is not going to be downhearted. On the contrary: years of unbridled joie de vivre dawn. Theatre, variety, cabaret – and hot jazz music. Hamburg residents, too, are addicted to pleasure. Josephine Baker is to become the icon of the “Golden Twenties”. Hamburg is turning into one of the world’s biggest port locations. And INTER keeps pace, too; it has resumed its international trade contacts. Do you have a raging hunger for fresh, sweet fruit? INTER will deliver it!

The first light of day …

INTER moved into new business premises in 1919, from the Stadtdeich to the nearby Fruchthof, where INTER became an equal auctioneer. The next year, Johannes Voß and Walter Stockfleth received full power of attorney. Four years later, in 1925, both were employed as managing directors. They were masters of their trade, too: INTER was responsible for a not inconsiderable proportion of the 300,000 tonnes of fresh exotic fruit handled in Hamburg’s port in 1928. 1929 saw the departure of Walter Stockfleth; Johannes Voß became a partner. Company founder J. J. G. Hey passed away in January 1930; Johannes Voß was now sole partner. INTER grew and flourished under his energetic leadership. 1936 saw the company’s conversion into a limited partnership.

INTER: hot on the heels of success

INTER imported fruit: citrus fruits and grapes from Spain and Italy; bananas and tomatoes from the Canaries; apples from Australia and the USA. Staff numbers grew in line with the continuously expanding business: around 200 employees were now looking after the INTER fruit trade. The booming company had little to worry about during the 1929 world economic crisis; yet the constantly changing currency conditions increasingly proved a challenge for the import trade. On the other hand, the allocation of fixed quotas came in useful for the trade in some cases.

And how did they get to Hamburg …

… these bananas, for example? Transported by sailing ships at first, then predominantly by steamers later, bananas and other tropical fruits – and, as the railway network was not yet ideally set up, fruit from Southern Europe, too – would arrive by sea. More and more ships with refrigeration had been afloat on the world’s seas since the turn of the century. Incidentally: a large cargo of “temperature-controlled” bananas arrived at Hamburg’s port in 1912. And, whereas the first “banana steamer” was still a conversion in 1903, refrigerated ships were soon to be seen on the slipways of Germany’s dockyards.

Dangers lurked everywhere …

INTER was successful in its trading of apples from Australia and the USA. The fresh fruit trade, though, was associated with risks. Damage due to vermin or bad weather could occur even at the plantations, but dangers due to pest infestation, rotting or the like were present during overseas transportation and storage in particular.
A chillier wind blew for the fruit trade, too, once the NSDAP had taken power. Fruit import was reduced dramatically; by contrast, trade in German farm produce was encouraged. Nevertheless, around 10 million parcels of fruit were handled in Hamburg in 1936. Trade with foreign countries was almost completely impossible after the outbreak of the Second World War. Thus, INTER had some really difficult years ahead of it …