The herring fishing in Glückstadt was founded by the
Glückstadter Heringsfischerei AG in October, 21, 1893.
Before the founding of this company, this type of fishing
was only a good side job, for seamen on the Elbe and for
high-sea fishermen.
The site was a large four hectare area on the southern
tide wall port. In 1894, they began with four ships, and
by the beginning of the first World War, they had
twenty-three ships. During the world economic crisis the
company received great losses and had to sell many of
their ships and dismiss many of the employees. Still the
company remained! The main goal was better fishing with
modern equipment and a better economic situation. In the
second World War the Navy seized all of the ships to help
with the war efforts. After the war and the bad economy,
the company was in trouble. No one bought the fish and
they couldn't sell the entire cargo. With the beginning
of the sixties, the company couldn't find enough
personnel to handle all of the ships, so they began to
hire immigrants. The building of modern ships couldn't
stop bancrupcy from finally being necessary in 1969. In
1970 a merchant bought the company for 2.1 Million DM
(German Marks), but six years later it was again at an
end.
