On October, 10th in 1878, freight forwarder Louis Hagel Senior founded the Louis Hagel company in Hamburg-Harburg on the Elbe River.
The company, which started solely as a transport company, was soon expanded to include a furniture transport line. In 1910, the company began transloading and storing loose and bagged bulk goods in the inland port of Hamburg. As early as the 1920s, 100 railway cars were being loaded every day in shift operation. At the time, the company already had substantial capacities at its disposal: numerous stables und furniture warehouses, around 60 horses, a fleet of 90 dollies, trucks and tractors, ten electrical cranes, 6,500m² of covered storage area and two office buildings.
The company’s successful development was interrupted by the outbreak of World War II: The then owner and Managing Director, Louis Hagel, son of the founder, lost his life in 1943.
The buildings and warehouses were completely destroyed, and the vehicle fleet and cranes suffered heavy damage. Although rebuilding efforts after the war proved difficult, seven of the ten cranes could be put back into operation as early as 1946. During this period, business activities focused on the loading of chartered trains for flour, grain and potatoes.
In 1969 Joachim Ludwig Hagel arranged the relocation for the company headquarters moving from the Hamburg inland port to the Southern Reiherstieg. A new grab crane and bulk loader were put into operation in conjunction with the move.
Since 1987, the company has been managed by Horst Hagel as the third generation member together with his wife Gisela Hagel. In 1993, he commissioned the construction of a modern bulk loader and, in 1998, was responsible for the most comprehensive investment in the history of the company: the construction of a large warehouse and expansion of the bulk loader.
Louis Hagel is a “true family business”: Horst Hagel, his wife Gisela, and their children Sandra Reidock, Catharina Kunz as well as grandson Julian Reidock as a fith generation family member are all active in the company.
