Who was Lodewijk Pincoffs?

Born in Rotterdam 7 June 1827
Died in New York on 28 September 1911

'A spectacle of so much glory and so much shame - 1827-1911', is written on the plaque near his statue a stone's throw from Suitehotel Pincoffs in Rotterdam.
Businessman, shipowner and politician Lodewijk Pincoffs is among the Great Rotterdammers, but his record is not unblemished. By implementing his ideas, he ensured that Rotterdam began to fulfil an ambition that would culminate many decades later in the honorary title of Greatest Port in the World.

Feijenoord
On Pincoffs' initiative, harbours large enough for steamships were dug. A connection was established with the hinterland, with Brabant and Zeeland. Feijenoord, on the other side of the city, was developed into a serious port complex. This became the birthplace of the Rotterdam port, still the largest in Europe.
The Poortgebouw was his boardroom and the present Hotel Pincoffs his customs office where the settlements took place of the traded goods from the very nearby Vrij Entrepot.

Minister
Lodewijk Pincoffs came from a well-to-do Jewish background. He married Esther Raphael on 12 August 1851 and meanwhile was doing well in Rotterdam politics. He was elected to the Municipal Council in 1856 at the age of 28. Two years later, he became a member of Provincial States. Pincoffs was a man of distinction. Although honorable and ambitious, Pincoffs twice turned down offers to become finance minister in the Fock Cabinet (1868-1871) and the Kappeyne van de Coppello Cabinet (1877-1879).

Instinct
People had great faith in Pincoffs' commercial instinct. He helped establish the Rotterdamsche Bank, the Holland-Amerikalijn, the Nederlandsch-Indische Gas Maatschappij, the establishment of Heineken's Bierbrouwerijen and many other companies. The refusal to admit him, as a Jew, to the influential society Amicitia was undoubtedly the low point of his life.
In 1873, he founded the Rotterdamsche Handelsvereeniging. Its capital amounted to no less than 15 million guilders. This enabled major port works to be set in motion on the hitherto unexplored left bank of the Maas.

Network
Everyone with any standing in the city seemed connected to him. Mayor Van Vollenhoven, on his way to the city hall every day, walked by him to discuss Rotterdam's interests. The powerful banker Marten Mees was close friends with him.
In the 1970s, business in Africa slowed down significantly and Pincoffs tried to use financial tricks to camouflage his decline. He frauded and hoped for better times. He even managed to convince Prince Hendrik of the Netherlands to accept the honorary chairmanship of the Afrikaans Trade Association in 1877.

Flight into the night
It all turned out too late. In May 1879, the Pincoffs empire collapsed. He fled with his family overnight to the United States. Pincoffs was sentenced in absentia to eight years in prison. A sentence he never served because there was no extradition treaty between the US and the Netherlands. His brother-in-law Kerdijk had to pay the price with two years in prison.
Pincoffs had not enriched himself, but left behind a million-dollar debt. The municipality of Rotterdam took over the properties from the Rotterdamsche Handelsvereeniging. Pincoffs' properties were auctioned off.
Pincoffs' tobacco and cigar business did not want to flourish in New York. Nor did his journalistic work get off the ground.

Pincoffs died a penniless man.

'Interview' with Lodewijk Pincoffs (1907): Former port baron on his glory days in the Maas city.
Lodewijk Pincoffs, docu-film RTV Rijnmond