“ The foundation of the company had been prepared by obtaining a Gewerbeschein from the Senate in Hamburg, dated November 20th 1896. Up to June 30th 1897, I was employed at F.A. Neubauer in Hamburg.”
“My own business began the following day. At that time, Hamburg was a wonderful trading city, which offered businessmen of my type unlimited potential. There were plenty of buyers for everything and for exports to every country in the world, not to mention the excellent shipping facilities.”
“It did not take long before I met a man in Hamburg, a Japanese called Mr. Nagasaki, an agent for Mitsui & Co in Japan. He needed pulp and appointed me as his supplier. I had found my niche: pulp for transatlantic export. It was then relatively easy to find out which transatlantic countries had paper mills and make contact with them.”