Deutsch-Amerikanische Petroleum Gesellschaft, also known as German-American Petroleum Company, was a German
petroleum company
The petroleum industry, also known as the oil industry or the oil patch, includes the global processes of exploration, extraction, refining, transportation (often by oil tankers and pipelines), and marketing of petroleum products. The larges ...
that was a subsidiary of
Standard Oil and was founded in 1890.
From 1950 onwards the company was called the ''Esso Deutschland GmbH'' and has been a subsidiary of the
ExxonMobil group since 1999.
History
On 25 February 1890 a joint venture between the German industrialists
Franz Ernst Schütte,
and
Wilhelm Anton Riedemann and the American industrialist
John D. Rockefeller
John Davison Rockefeller Sr. (July 8, 1839 – May 23, 1937) was an American business magnate and philanthropist. He has been widely considered the wealthiest American of all time and the richest person in modern history. Rockefeller was ...
was agreed in the German city of
Bremen to create a subsidiary of Standard Oil that would operate as a petroleum business in Germany.
In 1891, the petrol import business of Edmund Siemers was transferred to the company
In the mid-1890s, the company took over half of the shares of the Bremen Petroleum Refinery.
At the beginning of the 20th century, the petroleum was sold under the brand ''DAPOL'' and the American gasoline under the brand ''DAPOLIN'' with the famous Indian head. In 1904, the Standard Oil Company took a 50 percent stake in the company and moved the company's headquarters to Hamburg.
After the
Benzene association scientist, Walter Oswald had developed a super-gasoline in 1924 by adding
benzene
Benzene is an organic chemical compound with the molecular formula C6H6. The benzene molecule is composed of six carbon atoms joined in a planar ring with one hydrogen atom attached to each. Because it contains only carbon and hydrogen atoms ...
to gasoline.,
a DAPG delivery agreement enabled them to also offer a knock-resistant super gasoline by adding about 40% benzene. This product was called ''Duolin'' and sold in September 1928 as red-coloured Esso. A 10% benzene was added to the ''dapoline'' fuel to increase the knock resistance.
In 1928 the tanker shipping company of the German-American Petroleum Society was renamed to the
Waried Tankschiff Rhederei GmbH.
During the
global economic crisis, the shares of MAN and Haniel in the
Oelhag, the German petroleum company were bought by the German-American Petroleum Society and the German mineral oil company
Rhenania-Ossag, that would be later called, Shell Germany Oil GmbH.
ARCO, the American oil company sold so many shares at that time, that the three companies each owned a third of the shares.
In 1930, the supply regulation of
potato spirit for fuel purposes came into force in Germany for all fuel companies. In each case, 2.5% by weight of the produced or imported quantity of fuel was to be obtained from the Reich monopoly administration. This rate increased gradually until October 1932 to 10%.
In 1931 ''DAPOLIN'' was renamed Standard Gasoline.
In 1935, the German-American Petroleum Company was the market leader in Germany among the Big Five petrol station chains with 18,327 petrol stations (32.7%) as well as with Rhenania-Ossag with a sales ratio of 20.9%.
During 1937-1938 the brand was renamed to ''ESSO''. Later in 1938, the new ''ESSO'' brand was printed on the cover sheet of the drivers manual.
In 1938, German-American Petroleum Company and Rhenania-Ossag, with the help of their non-executable foreign exchange reserves, took over half of Oelhag. At this time, the
Standard Oil of New Jersey
ExxonMobil, an American multinational oil and gas corporation presently based out of Texas, has had one of the longest histories of any company in its industry. A direct descendant of John D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil, the company traces its roo ...
owned 94% of the German-American Petroleum Society. As a result of the
Anschluss
The (, or , ), also known as the (, en, Annexation of Austria), was the annexation of the Federal State of Austria into the German Reich on 13 March 1938.
The idea of an (a united Austria and Germany that would form a " Greater Germany ...
of
Austria
Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...
in 1938 and the subsequent reorganization of the local industry, the
Vacuum Oil Company
Vacuum Oil Company was an American oil company known for its ''Gargoyle'' 600-W steam cylinder motor oil. After being taken over by the original Standard Oil Company and then becoming independent again, in 1931 Vacuum Oil merged with the Standar ...
was assigned to
German-American Petroleum Society along with its refinery in the
Kagran area of
Vienna
en, Viennese
, iso_code = AT-9
, registration_plate = W
, postal_code_type = Postal code
, postal_code =
, timezone = CET
, utc_offset = +1
, timezone_DST ...
At the start of
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
, the German economy was converted to a war footing and all petroleum distribution companies in the Association of Petroleum Distribution were merged and only gasoline with no attached branding was sold. As the German-American Petroleum Company was still considered a ''German Company'' it was put on the List of Defense Contractors and received preferential material quotation. Two directors of the company,
Karl Lindemann and
Emil Helfferich were members of the
Freundeskreis der Wirtschaft
The Freundeskreis der Wirtschaft, or ''Circle of Friends of the Economy'' (which became known as "Freundeskreis Reichsführer SS", "Freundeskreis Himmler" or " Keppler Circle") was a group of German industrialists whose aim was to strengthen the t ...
.
The German-American Petroleum Company was renamed Esso AG in 1950 and then Esso Deutschland GmbH in 1999. It is now part of the ExxonMobil group.
The name Esso is the phonetic pronunciation of the initials 'S' and 'O' in the name
Standard Oil.
Literature
*
*
External links
Official presentation of the history of Esso in Germany*
References
{{reflist
Standard Oil
Energy companies established in 1890
German companies established in 1890
Energy companies of Germany
Oil companies of Germany