Review of Bernd Philipsen, Journalist of Flensburger Tageblatt, 14 May 2013:
Success Story from North Schleswig: From Ship Master to Captain of Industry
Globalisation – a catchword that passes daily through media and public discourses. One who
thought globally at an early stage and moreover also acted accordingly was the former
Reichstag member and shipping and economic pioneer Michael Jebsen (1835-1899). In
Apenrade in North Schleswig he laid the fundaments for the creation of worldwide operating
businesses – fundaments which carry until nowadays. He was the great-grandfather of the
present company head Hans Michael Jebsen.
The historian Bert Becker, born 1960 in Witten-on-the-Ruhr, and teaching modern European
history in Hong Kong, devoted to this creative entrepreneur a veritable brilliant biography
which astonishes page for page: What a rich life is documented here!
The course of life was predesigned for the offspring of an old-established skipper family:
Michael Jebsen also became ship master. His rise to international captain of industry began in
1856 when he, after years as sailor and the visit of a navigation school, navigated in his own
responsibility a Peruvian bark. His engagement in Asiatic-Pacific coastal shipping led him to
the then British crown colony of Hong Kong, the hub of foreign and Chinese trade and
finance networks in Asia. His experiences collected there were later very useful for him as
independent shipowner. (…)
Michael Jebsen’s course of life as presented in this fact-rich book is also fascinating for
today’s readers who will win extra comprehension through the global context in which the
author puts each career station of the entrepreneur and politician. A classic example of
historical research on entrepreneurs.