Lodewijk Pincoffs

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Lodewijk Pincoffs

Also Known As: "Ludovicus"
Birthdate:
Birthplace: Rotterdam, South Holland, The Netherlands
Death: September 28, 1911 (84)
New York, NY, United States
Place of Burial: Summit, Union, New Jersey, United States
Immediate Family:

Son of Abraham Levien Pincoffs and Roosje Pincoffs
Husband of Esther Pincoffs
Father of Adolph Lodewijk / Lewis Pincoffs; Maurits Hendrik Pincoffs and Pieter Adriaan Pincoffs
Brother of Stillborn Pincoffs; Simon Pincoffs; Anna Pincoffs; Pieter Pincoffs; Henrietta Pincoffs and 7 others
Half brother of Maria Pincoffs and Johanna Pincoffs

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About Lodewijk Pincoffs

Lodewijk Pincoffs ( Rotterdam , June 7, 1827 - New York , September 28, 1911 ) was a Rotterdam businessman who played an important role in the creation of the Rotterdam ports on the then island of Feijenoord .

Pincoffs played an important role with the Rotterdamsche Handelsvereeniging (RHV) founded by him . He was on the city council, in the Provincial Council and in the Senate and received some high awards, but fell off his pedestal due to fraudulent actions. He fled to America and was sentenced in absentia in the Netherlands .

In the nineties of the twentieth century, Pincoffs was more or less accepted in grace again with some mentions and a statue.

Youth and family He was the son of Abraham Levie Pincoffs, a textile merchant and lottery ticket seller, and Roosje Polak. As a youth, Pincoffs attended private schools in Rotterdam and attended a trade school in Germany. He became active as a merchant from 1849. Together with his brother-in-law Henri Polak Kerdijk , he focused on the trade in dyes. On August 12, 1851 he married Esther Raphaël in Amsterdam; they had three sons.

Politician At the age of 28, Pincoffs joined the Rotterdam city council in 1856. There he developed into an authoritative councilor who was always carefully listened to. In 1858 he became a member of the Provincial Council of South Holland and in 1872 (as the first Jewish Dutchman) a member of the Senate . He turned down an offer in 1877 to become Secretary of the Treasury.

Businessman After eight years of trading in dyes, Pincoffs and Kerdijk switched to import / export with Africa in 1857 . They took over a firm from Leopold Samson and sent Henry Kerdijk's brother Lodewijk Kerdijk out as their local representative. [1] The firm Kerdijk & Pincoffs brought such things as cotton , cooking utensils, knives, guns, powder and spirits from the Netherlands and exchanged them for African ivory , palm oil and rubber . They managed dozens of factories in West Africa and on the banks of the Congo. Kerdijk & Pincoffs split off their West African posts and transferred the Congolese factories to the Afrikaansche Handelsvereeniging (1868). In addition to free workers, several hundred slaves worked there (called "coromanos" by the Portuguese and "Kroo men" by the Dutch). [2]

Pincoffs was also a member of the supervisory boards of, among others, the Holland-America Line , the Rotterdamsche Bank , the Heineken brewery in Rotterdam and the Nederlandsch-Indische Gas Maatschappij. Sometimes, but not always, this was a result of financial participation in those companies by the Rotterdamsche Handelsvereeniging (RHV), founded by Pincoffs in 1872 . In the case of the Rotterdamsche Bank, he became a supervisory director at the request and with the support of Marten Mees . [3]

Poortgebouw, former RHV headquarters The starting capital for the Rotterdamsche Handelsvereeniging was fifteen million guilders, an enormous amount for that time. Most of it came from abroad (38% German, 19% Belgian). Many from the top of the Rotterdam financial world participated in the RHV. The establishment of the RHV can be seen as the starting shot for the port development on the left bank of the Maas. The Noorderhaven (now the Koningshaven ) and the Spoorweghaven were respectively charged to the municipality and the State ; the RHV took over the Binnenhaven and the Entrepothavenat her expense. The latter two harbors, together with the sites in between and the sites along the Koningshaven and the north-east side of Spoorweghaven, together formed the Trading Establishments. The municipality of Rotterdam undertook to construct a river crossing. The Willemsbrug over the Nieuwe Maas and the Koninginnebrug over the Koningshaven were opened in 1878 .

For years Pincoffs had presented the figures of his own dying Afrikaansche Handelsvereeniging in such a rosy way that he managed to get the Rotterdamsche Handelsvereeniging to invest large sums of money in the Afrikaansche. Nevertheless, as this company neared bankruptcy in 1879, Pincoffs could no longer hide the forgeries in its accounts and everything came to light. He ran off, via France and England, to the United States , leaving behind a gigantic debt of millions - certainly for that time. He became the owner of a cigar shop in New York and later a cigar factory in Chicago . In 1879 his Senate membership was canceled due to bankruptcy .

The Poortgebouw with the Lodewijk Pincoff Bridge

Statue by Willem Verbon (Handelsplein, Rotterdam) On March 6, 1880, the Supreme Court sentenced Pincoffs in absentia for forgery and fraudulent bankruptcy to eight years in prison . [4]

Although the Afrikaansche Handelsvereeniging had gone bankrupt, the Rotterdamsche Handelsvereeniging was not. However, the financial position of the RHV after the debacle was horribly bad. Partly because they had no confidence in a profitable exploitation of the Trading Establishments in the future, the shareholders decided in 1882 to sell the Trading Establishments to the municipality for 4 million guilders and to liquidate the public limited company Rotterdamsche Handelsvereeniging NV. The Afrikaansche Handelsvereeniging was already succeeded in 1880 by the Nieuwe Afrikaansche Handels-Company .

Awards Pincoffs has been a knight in the Order of the Netherlands Lion and commander in the Order of the Oak Crown .

On October 23, 1992 , it was decided to name Lodewijk Pincoffsweg, Lodewijk Pincoffsplein and Lodewijk Pincoffsbrug, all at Kop van Zuid in Rotterdam-Feijenoord, after him. There is also a statue of Pincoffs in front of the warehouse building. In 2008 a hotel was opened on the Stieltjesstraat that bears Pincoffs' name. [5] All this because of the great significance he had for Rotterdam, despite his malpractice and slavery past.

Trivia Pincoffs was a member of the Frédéric Royal lodge , the oldest Masonic lodge in Rotterdam . [6] Pincoffs' safe in the former Customs office near the Poortgebouw on the Kop van Zuid in Rotterdam was cracked on February 28, 2006 by master cracker Wim van den Hoogen . However, the contents were disappointing: a French pipe and a thermometer from 1873. The island of Feijenoord was in the time of Pincoffs, but before the construction of the Spoorweghaven, separated from the island of IJsselmonde by the Zwanengat, which ran roughly from the southern tip of the present-day Noordereiland to the Mallegat . Literature The main character Walter van Essen in Willem Schürmann's play The Double Life (1907) is modeled after Lodewijk Pincoffs. In 1979 Flight na victorie - Lodewijk Pincoffs (1827-1911) was published by Bram Oosterwijk, published by Donia Pers. In 2012, rewritten and expanded, re-published, under the title Ik desire no thanks - Lodewijk Pincoffs (1827-1911) publisher: Douane. In September 2008 the novel Slow Wals by the Dutch writer Robert Haasnoot was published . The novel is partly inspired by the life of Lodewijk Pincoffs, as is Jacques Post 's thriller Het Pincoffsspel . In 2014 the book Big Money, Financial Scandals and Speculation in the Netherlands by Roel Jansen was published. In this book a chapter is devoted to Lodwijk Pincoffs and the accounting fraud with the Afrikaansche Handelsvereeniging.

Kind: Lodewijk Pincoffs Vader: Abraham Levie Pincoffs Geslacht: Man Moeder: Roosje Polak Geslacht: Vrouw Gebeurtenis: Geboorte Datum: donderdag 7 juni 1827 Rotterdam

Bruidegom: Lodewijk Pincoffs Geboorteplaats: Rotterdam Leeftijd: 24 Beroep: Koopman Vader van de bruidegom: Abraham Levie Pincoffs Moeder van de bruidegom: Roosje Polak Bruid: Esther Raphael Geboorteplaats: Amsterdam Leeftijd: 24 Vader van de bruid: Samuel Raphael Moeder van de bruid: Marianne Prins Gebeurtenis: Huwelijk Datum: dinsdag 12 augustus 1851 Gebeurtenisplaats: Amsterdam


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Lodewijk Pincoffs's Timeline

1827
June 7, 1827
Rotterdam, South Holland, The Netherlands
1852
July 3, 1852
Rotterdam, South Holland, The Netherlands
1853
June 11, 1853
Rotterdam, South Holland, The Netherlands
1863
August 23, 1863
Rotterdam, South Holland, The Netherlands
1911
September 28, 1911
Age 84
New York, NY, United States
October 1, 1911
Age 84
Summit, Union, New Jersey, United States