Hilmar A(ugust) Reksten (1897–1980) was a Norwegian shipping magnate. In the autumn of 1973 he counted among the world's richest men, possessing a fleet worth about £300 000 000. At his death in 1980, all was lost; in fact, he left behind a debt of about £100 000 000. [1]
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Hilmar Reksten grew up in a small flat at Nordnes, a central quarter of Bergen. He was the eldest of three siblings; there was a younger brother called Hjalmar (1900-1961), and a sister, Sofie. Their mother, Helene Monsen Søndervåg (1869-1902), died when Reksten was only four years old. His father, Erik Reksten (1873-1963), was a stoker and later engineer, spending most of his time out to sea. He sent home money for the children' support. [2] It was not until 1907 that Reksten senior had saved up enough money to stay more at home with his motherless children. The same year he married Hanna Gregoriussen, whom Reksten later began calling "mother", and who created a good home for her stepchildren. She gave birth to a son, Karl (1909-1999).
Reksten did well at school, and in his free time joined the local buekorps, Nordnæs Bataillon. He had his heart set on a career in shipping, but World War I caused difficult times in that field. In 1917 he started doing unpaid volunteer work for a new shipping firm. Reksten's talent was soon recognized though, and he was given a paid job; but his employer went bankrupt in 1919, caused by the recession in shipping following World War I.
Reksten studied economy in Cologne helped by 5.000 NOK granted as a scholarship from Hans Westfal-Larsen's shipping company. At the end of 1921, however, the remaining sum was practically worthless, due to the hyperinflation in the Weimar Republic. Still, Reksten eked out an existence during the following three years, writing paid letters from Germany that were published in Bergens Tidende, and thus finishing his studies, returning to Norway in 1924. He had lived in Trajanstrasse in Cologne's old quarter, which roused his life-long interest in Ancient Rome. When he started his own company in 1929, he named it Trajan after the Roman emperor. His first ship, Doris, was also renamed Trajan. His father, who had been unemployed for over a year, became the ship's first engineer. Reksten ran his firm from Minde, a residential part of Bergen, residing there until 1932. In August 1939 his wife Bjørg Elisabeth died, only 36 years old, leaving Reksten with five children after 14 years of marriage. At that time the family resided in a villa outside of Bergen, with space also for Bjørg Elisabeth's father, while a separate building housed the shipping firm.
Reksten showed a remarkable capacity for investments; by the time of World War II the widower had six ships in operation. At the German invasion of Norway, he was drafted for military service at the naval centre of Marineholmen in Bergen. In the morning of April 9, 1940 he returned there, dressed in civilian clothes, got past the German guards there and smuggled the Norwegian commander out, along with important, secret papers. [3] In the following days he conspired further, building up a network called "the Reksten circle" of people from the resistance movement. Gradually fearing for his life, but also because he wanted to continue his work within shipping, he chose to leave his five children behind while he himself fled to England. He went on to New York City with the intention of building up Nortraship in the USA. Five of his ships were abroad and could help the Allied with the war effort. However one of them, Hadrian, was stuck in Dakar and later in German service, until sunk by the Soviets outside Sevastopol in May 1944.
Reksten ended in conflict with more of Nortraship's leaders. In the autumn of 1940 he transferred his ship Octavian to a company registered in Panama and run by himself, thus breaking the rule that all Norwegian ships be controlled by Nortraship, albeit he claimed to have obtained a dispensation from Norwegian authorities. He was not fired, but transferred to the accounts department. In September 1941 he returned to London, where he cooperated closely with prime minister in exile, Johan Nygaardsvold, foreign minister Trygve Lie and other government members. He negotiated with the British Ministry of War Transport about Norwegian interests and transfer of British tonnage as replacement for Norwegian loss of ships. There were protests against him interfering with Nortraship's interests, and in February 1942 he was returned to New York to evaluate Nortraship and its leaders there. Reksten was particularly critical to the Head of Nortraship Øivind Lorentzen, and felt himself to be more competent at running Nortraship. Instead he was employed at the Nortraship office in Montreal, negotiating with American authorities about renewals of the Norwegian fleet, repairs and indemnity.
Since 1941 he had been Head of the London-based board of Store Norske Spitsbergen Kulkompani. He left for Svalbard in June 1943 on behalf of the company and as a representative of the army, where he was an officer. On Svalbard Reksten, being fluent in German, was permitted to join an expedition meant to conquer a cottage functioning as a German weather station. The expedition succeeded, as the five Germans stationed there had fled in advance; but while Reksten was on guard outside the cottage, a German submarine surfaced in the bay, opening fire at the Norwegians. [4] Reksten was unhurt though and returned to England.
Crossing the Atlantic Ocean a number of times during World War II, Reksten was well aware of the pressure faced by the Norwegian sailors. He made sure that their families in Norway received the sailors' pay throughout the war. His concern for their welfare was genuine. Three of his four ships in Allied traffic were sunk during World War II, and in August 1943 he applied for indemnity paid in advance. He received £70 000, and invested in a British steam ship, Marsden. The Brits accepted this, provided Marsden sailed under British flag.
After the war he kept expanding his business, and in 1974 the company had ships carrying 2 million metric tons deadweight (DWT). At this point Reksten’s was the third largest shipping company in Norway - second only to Bergesen and Jahre - and thereby also one of the largest in the world. Reksten's business principle was simple: He refused long-term contracts, presuming that at intervals, political crises would cause an increase in freight rates. For a long period he was proved right. Both when the Korean war broke out in 1950 and the Suez crisis in 1956, Reksten profited. The fact that he, between each crisis, was on the verge of bankruptcy, did not in the least alter his conviction. His "Norwegian period" began in 1963 when he placed an order of seven large tank ships, worth 450 million kroner, with Akers mekaniske verksted (= Aker's mechanical workshop), 80% financed by his bank. It was even uncertain if the ships would find commissions when built. "But I did not have to show a bank guarantee," he boasted. "Because I refused to do so." He stood ready with 14 super tankers when the Suez Canal was closed in 1967, and is said to have mailed the Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser a Christmas card out of gratitude for years afterwards. In 1968 Reksten placed an order for yet another seven super tankers from Aker, the largest ships the world had seen so far. He contacted other Norwegian shipping magnates, suggesting that they merge into one giant shipping firm. The others withdrew from the plan though, realizing that Reksten intended to dominate the colossus. [5]
In 1970 Reksten signed the shipping contract of all times, when Libya cut down on oil production, while Nigeria was in chaos, and Syria closed the oil pipeline from the Middle East to the Mediterranean. Twelve of his super tankers were now hired out to British Petroleum under a contract providing Reksten with a net profit of 500 million kroner. The later "Reksten-case" originated in this giant sum, which was illegally transferred from Norway and hidden in secret "mailbox companies" abroad. To him, the profit was his, and his alone, and privately he had also ventilated the opinion that the tax policy of the Norwegian Labour party made it necessary to remove funds from Norway. Due to this action however, the Reksten empire had few funds to rely on when the freight rates dropped dramatically from 1971 onwards. The market was so slow that five of Reksten's super tankers were laid-up, while he was forced to sell out another two. He still had considerable orders placed at Akers mekaniske. This firm was worried to such a degree that it was suggested to declare Reksten bankrupt; but in the winter of 1972/73, freight rates went up again, helped by an increase in the import to USA, as well as fear of rising oil prices.[6]
Reksten was hit hard, and in 1975 the Norwegian state had to take over a great portion of the company’s stocks. In 1979 he was tried for tax fraud but acquitted on all eight points except one. The following year he died of cancer, was declared bankrupt post mortem, and the bankruptcy proceedings went on until 1993.
In 1971 Reksten established a charity fund. Naturally, there was little activity after his bankruptcy; but into the 1990s things started improving, [7] and today Rekstensamlingene (= the Reksten collections) are part of Bergen's cultural scene. [8]