In Memoriam

We mourn for Harro Kniffka

After a short, severe illness, Mr Harro Kniffka, Founder and Chairman of the Hanseatic Lloyd Group died on 16th March 2009, only a few days after his 53rd birthday. A career of more than 30 years in shipping has thus ended far too early.

Harro Kniffka was born in Rostock and in the 1970s he learnt the profession of a shipping company businessman at the Oltmann shipping company in Bremen. Subsequently he joined a number of well-known shipping companies in New York and Hamburg. It was in 1992, when Harro Kniffka in cooperation with partners founded the shipping company Hansa Mare Reederei in Bremen. By the end of the year 2000 a total of 20 container vessel newbuildings ranging from 1,000 to 4,000 TEU had been put into service. In 2001, the two partners separated, but they remained associated with each other via the Hansa Mare Reederei.

In January 2001, the ship owner founded the Hanseatic Lloyd Group, which has its head office in Uttwil, in the Swiss canton of Thurgau. Hanseatic Lloyd is agroup of companies with global activities. Since 2001, further 18 container vessels and tankers have been initiated at Hanseatic Lloyd as well as together with shipping company partners.

A focus on people

However, the ship owner Harro Kniffka was not only active in shipping but was especially dedicated to social and Christian affairs. Both, financially and personally, he supported major shipping institutions, such as Mother and Child Houses in Bremen, Germany and in Weinfelden, Switzerland as well as several foundations. In his private life he loved sailing. For years he sailed in regattas with the “Dragon”, a popular three-crew keelboat, internationally well reputed, at the same time having a great Olympic history. On the occasion of the “Dragon” Class' 75th anniversary in 2004 in St. Tropez, Hanseatic Lloyd acted as the main sponsor, followed by title sponsorship for the world championship of the ”Dragon” class in Neustadt/Lübeck. Among 73 crews, Harro Kniffka won the bronze medal as a crew member – his greatest success in sailing sport. After the world championship in 2005, he initiated the “Hanseatic Lloyd Dragon Grand Prix”, a sailing regatta that has been held annually on the Kieler Förde since 2006.

In 2004 it was more by chance that Hanseatic Lloyd became the title sponsor of the 75th anniversary of the Dragonclass. 278 Dragons from all over the world came to St. Tropez to celebrate this anniversary – it turned out to be the biggest regatta ever of a one-design keelboat class. At that time Harro Kniffka met HM Queen Silvia of Sweden and heard that she was sponsoring the World CHILDHOOD Foundation. It was at this meeting that the vision was born.

Alliance of top-notch sport and social commitment


The target of not only advancing the sport of Sailing but at the same time engaging together with the community of Dragon sailors to take on social responsibility and to help children in distress needing the assistance of the World CHILDHOOD Foundation. From the very beginning it was Harro Kniffka's declared objective in this context to actwith the same degree of responsibility and to the same high professional standards as that of Hanseatic Lloyd applicable to all project work of its daily core business and to ensure that “Doing good” means a gain for all parties concerned.

Thanks to this vision and with the aid of numerous partners, sponsors, the community of the international Dragon sailors as well as that of the golfers, in only five years it has been possible to establish a high-ranking international sailing event and at the same time to embed social commitment in a major and unique event. The Dragon Grand Prix thus traces the history of an exemplary merger of sport sponsoring, social commitment and entrepreneurial responsibility in aid of the World CHILDHOOD Foundation, which was founded by HM Queen Silvia of Sweden ten years ago and which aims to help the weakest members of society: young, singlemothers in difficulties, and abused children. “Whoever has seen the shining eyes of the children who benefit from your generous donations knows that we do not only sail for fun but want to seize the great opportunity to turn losers into winners,” was how Harro Kniffka defined the objective and purpose of his commitment. Since 2005, the volume of donations from these efforts has reached the amount of 740,000 Euro, with which CHILDHOOD was also able to support projects in the North German region.

We will always keep the memory of Mr Harro Kniffka in our hearts and will continue to run and expand his life's work – the Hanseatic Lloyd Group – in the way he would have wished. We have lost a leader, a friend, a benefactor, and a valuable human being.

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