Carl Albrecht (businessman)

Friedrich Carl Albrecht (15 September 1875 – 24 December 1952) was a major cotton merchant in the city-state of Bremen.

Carl Albrecht
Born15 September 1875
Bremen, Germany
DiedDecember 24, 1952(1952-12-24) (aged 77)
Charleston, South Carolina, U.S.
NationalityGerman-American
OccupationBusinessman
SpouseMary Ladson Robertson
Parent(s)George Alexander Albrecht (father) and Louise Dorothea Betty Knoop (mother)
RelativesCarl Albrecht (son)
George Alexander Albrecht and of the politician Ernst Albrecht (grandsons)
Ursula von der Leyen (great-granddaughter) Hans-Holger Albrecht and the conductor Marc Albrecht (great-grandsons)

Biography edit

He was the son of the wealthy cotton merchant George Alexander Albrecht (1834–1898) and Louise Dorothea Betty Knoop (1844–1889). His father was the owner of the company Johann Lange Sohn's Wwe. & Co.; his mother was the daughter of the major industrialist, Baron Ludwig Knoop, one of the most successful entrepreneurs of the 19th century Russian Empire.

Following his military service from 1894 to 1895, he undertook an apprenticeship with the firm Gebrüder Plate (Plate Brothers). From 1896 to 1901 he lived in London, Moscow and the United States. In 1901 he joined the firm Sanders, Swann & Co., and in 1902 he founded his own company Friedrich Carl Albrecht with his partner Heinrich Müller-Pearse. The two also founded the Boston-based company Albrecht, Weld & Co. in cooperation with the American firm Stephen M. Weld & Co. In 1902 he founded Albrecht, Müller-Pearse & Co.[1][2]

In 1902, he married the American Mary Ladson Robertson (1883–1960), who belonged to a prominent planter class and slave owner family from Charleston, Charleston County, South Carolina. They were the parents of the psychologist Carl Albrecht and the grandparents of the conductor George Alexander Albrecht and of the politician Ernst Albrecht. Among their great-grandchildren are the politician Ursula von der Leyen (née Albrecht), the businessman Hans-Holger Albrecht and the conductor Marc Albrecht.[3]

His wife was the older sister of the cotton merchant Edward T. Robertson, who moved to Bremen in 1905 to establish Edward T. Robertson & Son.[4]

References edit

  1. ^ Fritz A. Grobien: "Albrecht, Friedrich Carl." In: Historische Gesellschaft Bremen, Staatsarchiv Bremen: Bremische Biographie 1912–1962, Hauschild, Bremen 1969, pp. 11–12
  2. ^ Herbert Schwarzwälder: Das Große Bremen-Lexikon. 2nd ed. Edition Temmen [de], Bremen 2003, ISBN 3-86108-693-X.
  3. ^ Deutsches Geschlechterbuch vol. 187 p. 43
  4. ^ Arthur Meredyth Burke, The Prominent Families of the United States of America, p. 458