Expansion into new business sectors


Besides trade and shipping, F. Laeisz builds up another mainstay. The F. Laeisz insurance division, established in 1850 and focusing primarily on hull and commodities insurance, is a growing business. The three stars in the F. Laeisz company seal and flag symbolize the three divisions trade, shipping and assurance.

In 1897, the F. Laeisz company builds impressive headquarters at Trostbrücke 1, where a large number of leading marine insurance companies at that time open their offices. The Laeiszhof building soon becomes a focal point of the Hamburg-based marine insurance business.


The founder's grandson Carl Ferdinand Laeisz, a highly talented man, dies at the age of 47 following serious illness. The completed plans for the future sailing ship PREUSSEN are found in his desk drawer; father Carl Laeisz sees to it that his son's plans are carried out. The PREUSSEN is the only five-masted full ship in international shipping and technically the absolute height of sodium nitrate shipping around Cape Horn.

An eye-witness said: "The PREUSSEN was not merely a beautiful ship and mind-boggling in terms of symmetry and seemingly weightless elegance, it was much more, it was as majestic as a queen. Those who saw it were rendered speechless" (Allan Villars, as quoted by Jochen Brennecke).

Laeiszhof Hamburg
Five-masted, full-rigged ship "Preussen"
painting of the five mast full-rigged ship „Preussen“