You are bidding on a German-speaking one letter from 1866 out of London.
The Ironmongery store Seebeck, Wolff & Co., led by Jacob Rudolff Wolff (1841-1901) and Leopold Seebeck, addresses theCompany C. Waltjen & Co. of the entrepreneur Carsten Waltjen (1814-1880) in Bremen,Co-founder of Werft AG Weser.
DatedLondon, 22. September 1866.
"They are supposed to have awarded the contract for the construction of the large Weser Bridge have received?
Signed with company signature "Seebeck, Wolff & Co."
Note:This refers to the 1866/67 built Railway bridge over the Weser.
Format:25.3x20.2cm.
The envelope is not available anymore; but is included as a photocopy.
Condition:Thin paper, slightly spotty. DeThe missing envelope is enclosed as a photocopy. Please also note the pictures!
Internal note: MM 24-04
About Carsten Waltjen and the Bremen railway bridge (source: wikipedia):
Johann Carsten Hinrich Waltjen (*16. March 1814 in Bremen; † 15. August 1880 in Osterholz-Scharmbeck) was a German entrepreneur and co-founder of the shipyard AG Weser in Bremen.
Life: Waltjen was the youngest of six children of a merchant who ran a tobacco factory and a manufactured goods store. He attended the Bremen commercial school and completed an apprenticeship as a bricklayer – with the goal of becoming an architect. He studied in Hanover and in 1836 in Berlin, then turned to mechanical engineering. He worked in Great Britain for some time. In 1841 he returned to Bremen.
In 1842/1843 he founded with his friend Heinrich Leonhardt on the Stephanikirchenweide the iron foundry and mechanical engineering company Waltjen & Leonhardt, which was renamed Waltjen & Co. in 1847 when Leonhardt left the company. The company manufactured steam heating systems, including for the St. Ansgarii Church in Bremen. Steel bridges were also produced, such as the Great Weser Bridge, but also railway bridges. The first iron floating gates in the lock to the New Harbor in Bremerhaven also came from Waltjen & Co.
The focus was on the construction of iron ships, including the passenger steamer Roland and, since 1871, ships, so-called torpedo steamers as forerunners of the torpedo boats, for the Imperial Navy. AG Weser was founded in 1872 when Waltjen converted the company into a stock corporation. Waltjen became a member of the supervisory board of AG Weser.
From 1853 to 1873 he was also a member of the Bremen Parliament. He was buried in the Waller Cemetery, grave location R 156; in 1943 the grave complex received a granite obelisk.
In Gröpelingen, Waltjenstraße is named after him.
The Bremen railway bridge over the Weser: The first bridge was built in 1866/1867 by the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen, after the Grand Duchy of Oldenburg and Bremen had separated from the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen on 8 June 1867. March 1864, they had contractually agreed on the construction of the Oldenburg–Bremen railway line. During the project phase, the plans were fundamentally changed in two respects: Originally, a single-track bridge with tracks crossing in both directions was planned, and rotating yokes for shipping traffic on both sides of the river. The design came from the machine factory of Waltjen & Leonhardt. Despite the initially low level of train traffic, the bridge was built with two tracks and there was only a turning yoke on the old town side. Between the Drehjoch and the railway embankment to the right of the Weser there was a short yoke in the river bank area. The actual power bridge included three additional yokes in addition to the rotating yoke. All bays were designed as lattice bridges with an arched longitudinal section.
Together with the bridge, Bremen built the railway line from the connection of the Weserbahn to the state railway station to the Bremen-Neustadt station and remained its owner until the founding of the Deutsche Reichsbahn. The train service between Bremen and Oldenburg was operated by the Grand Ducal Oldenburg State Railways. Within Bremen, the bridge served as a rail connection to Hohentorshafen.
Thirty years after it was put into operation, the bridge was reinforced and the rotating yoke was moved so that it was located over the middle of the Weser since 1897.
Destruction by war and ice: During the Second World War, the bridge was destroyed on 23. In March 1945, the train station was so badly damaged by bombs that it was no longer possible to operate a train. At the beginning of April, a boardwalk for pedestrians was built on the preserved supports. Bremen was founded on 26. Occupied by British troops in April 1945. The bridge was opened on 9. December 1946 reopened for rail traffic. On the 18th In March 1947, the bridge collapsed during the Bremen ice catastrophe. A week later, a footbridge was built next to the bridge and on 26. In April 1947, trains were again able to travel over the temporarily repaired bridge.