Gustav Christian Schwabe

Gustav Schwabe was born in Hamburg, Germany, to Philipp Benjamin Schwabe, a Jewish merchant, and his second wife, Rosalie Levi.[1] Gustav had three brothers and a half-brother named Ludwig Philipp from his father's previous marriage.[1] In June 1819, when Gustav was aged six, the family was forced to convert to Lutheranism and Gustav was baptised into the Church.[1] On 1 January 1834, Schwabe became a partner at Boustead and Company;[2] the firm was renamed Boustead, Schwabe and Company, and Schwabe remained involved at the company for 14 years.[3] Schwabe moved to Liverpool in 1838[4] and started a partnership with Edward Little in a company of commission agents; Little died the following year, apparently leaving Schwabe his house and assets.[1]

In May 1842, Schwabe married Helen Dugdale, who was from the Wirral.[1] Her father was John Dugdale, a businessman in Liverpool and Manchester.[1] Schwabe then entered a partnership with his father-in-law, Benjamin Rutter, and Adam Sykes, forming the merchant company Sykes, Schwabe & Co.[1] On 31 December 1853, the partnership was dissolved.[5] In the 1840s, Schwabe became a junior partner in John Bibby & Sons, a shipping company based in Liverpool.[1] Around the same period, Schwabe met Edward Harland during Harland's apprenticeship in Newcastle upon Tyne at Robert Stephenson and Company.[4] Schwabe arranged for Harland to be employed at the marine engineers J. & G. Thomson, who were building ships for John Bibby & Sons.[6] Gustav Wilhelm Wolff, Schwabe's nephew, who would later go into partnership with Harland, left Hamburg in 1849 to live with Schwabe in Liverpool.[7] In 1858, Schwabe financially assisted Edward Harland's purchase of Robert Hickson's shipyard at Queen's Island, Belfast.[8] Schwabe, with Thomas Henry Ismay, purchased the bankrupt White Star Line in 1867. In 1869, during a game of billiards,[9] Gustav Schwabe made a deal with Thomas Henry Ismay to finance the White Star Line, provided that the White Star Line would buy its ships from Harland and Wolff.[9] Schwabe also convinced Ismay to compete with Cunard in North Atlantic passenger shipping.[1] Schwabe also financially supported Albert Ballin, the managing director of the Hamburg America Line.[1]

In October 1886, Schwabe donated 128 paintings to the Kunsthalle Hamburg, an art museum in his native Hamburg; afterwards he was nominated honorary citizen of the city.[1] Due to the Kunsthalle being too small to hold his paintings, Schwabe also donated 120,000 Marks to be used to extend the building.[10] Two years later, the city of Hamburg unveiled a bust of Schwabe.[11] In later life Schwabe began to spend less time with his business interests in textiles and shipping and stayed at his home in London more often; in 1893, Schwabe began his retirement.[1] Gustav Christian Schwabe died on 10 January 1897 at his home, 19 Kensington Palace Gardens, London.[12] Schwabe left no children, and his legacy was distributed among his nieces and nephews.[1]