{{short description|British shipbuilder and politician}} {{Use British English|date=August 2014}} {{Use dmy dates|date=September 2019}} {{Infobox officeholder | honorific_prefix = | name = Gustav Wilhelm Nilson Wolff | image = Gustav Wilhelm Wolff.jpg | honorific_suffix = | constituency_MP = Belfast East | parliament = | majority = | term_start = 9 March 1892 | term_end = 3 December 1910 | predecessor = Edward de Cobain | successor = Robert James McMordie | birth_date = {{birth date|df=y|1834|11|14}} | birth_place = Hamburg, German Confederation (now Germany) | death_date = {{death date and age|df=y|1913|04|17|1834|11|14}} | death_place = London, England | resting_place = Brompton Cemetery | resting_place_coordinates = {{coord|51|29|0|N|0|11|21|W}} | party = Irish Unionist (Conservative Party) | other_party = | known_for = Co-founder of Harland and Wolff | occupation = Shipbuilder <br> Businessman | alma_mater = Liverpool College | cabinet = | committees = | portfolio = | signature = | website = | footnotes = }}
'''Gustav Wilhelm Wolff''' (14 November 1834 – 17 April 1913) was a German-born British shipbuilder and politician. Born in Hamburg,<ref>{{cite web |title=Gustav Wilhelm Wolff (1834 - 1913): Shipbuilder |url=http://www.newulsterbiography.co.uk |website=Dictionary of Ulster Biography}}</ref> he moved to Liverpool in 1849 to live with his uncle, Gustav Christian Schwabe. After serving his apprenticeship in Manchester, Wolff was employed as a draughtsman in Hyde, Greater Manchester, before being employed by the shipbuilder Edward Harland in Belfast as his personal assistant. In 1861, Wolff became a partner at Harland's firm, forming Harland and Wolff. Outside shipbuilding, Wolff served as a Belfast Harbour Commissioner. He also founded the Belfast Ropeworks, served as Member of Parliament for Belfast East for 18 years and as a member of the Conservative and Unionist Party and Irish and Ulster Unionist parties.
==Early life== Gustav Wilhelm Wolff was born on 14 November 1834 in Hamburg to Moritz Wolff, a merchant and his wife, Fanny Schwabe.<ref name="Oxford DNB">{{cite ODNB |url=http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/38146 |title=Wolff, Gustav Wilhelm (1834–1913)|access-date=27 March 2008 |author=Michael S. Moss |year=2004 |doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/38146}}</ref> Gustav was brought up in the Lutheran Church as his family had converted from Judaism in 1819.<ref name="Oxford DNB"/> In March 1850 aged 15, Wolff left Hamburg to live in Liverpool with his uncle, Gustav Christian Schwabe, a financier.<ref name="Oxford DNB"/> Wolff was educated at Liverpool College;<ref name="Oxford DNB"/> afterwards he served an apprenticeship at the engineers Joseph Whitworth and Company, in Manchester.<ref name="Oxford Irish">{{cite book |url=http://www.oxfordreference.com/views/ENTRY.html?entry=t245.e2006&srn=1&ssid=197680775#FIRSTHIT |title=Wolff, Gustav Wilhelm|access-date=27 March 2008 |author=Frank Geary |year=2004 |work=The Oxford Companion to Irish History |publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-923483-7}}</ref> The firm considered Wolff so able that he was chosen to represent the company at the 1855 Paris Exhibition.<ref name="Oxford DNB"/> After serving his apprenticeship, Wolff was employed by the B. Goodfellow Ltd., a firm based in Hyde, Greater Manchester as a draughtsman.<ref name="Oxford DNB"/> In 1857, due to the intervention of his uncle Gustav Christian Schwabe,<ref name="Oxford DNB"/> Wolff was employed as Edward Harland's personal assistant at Robert Hickson's shipyard at Queen's Island, Belfast.<ref name="BBC Legacies">{{cite web |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/legacies/work/northern_ireland/ni_9/article_2.shtml |title=BBC Legacies – Work – Northern Ireland – The Yard – Article 2|access-date=27 March 2008 |year=2004 |publisher=BBC Legacies }}</ref> In 1860, Edward Harland recruited Wolff as his business partner, and Harland and Wolff was formed.<ref name="Oxford Irish Harland">{{cite book |url=http://www.oxfordreference.com/views/ENTRY.html?entry=t245.e829 |title=Harland, Sir Edward James|access-date=27 March 2008 |author=Frank Geary |year=2004 |work=The Oxford Companion to Irish History |publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-923483-7}}</ref><ref name="Oxford British Harland">{{cite book |url=http://www.oxfordreference.com/views/ENTRY.html?entry=t110.e2023&srn=1&ssid=970934128#FIRSTHIT |title=Harland, Edward James|access-date=27 March 2008 |author=Alvin Jackson | author-link = Alvin Jackson (historian) | year=1997 |work=Oxford Companion to British History|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-956763-8}}</ref><ref name="Oxford DNB Harland">{{cite ODNB |url=http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/37511 |title=Harland, Sir Edward James, baronet (1831–1895)|access-date=27 March 2008 |author=Michael S. Moss |year=2004 |doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/37511}}</ref>
==Career at Harland and Wolff== {{further|Harland and Wolff}} Wolff's early role at Harland and Wolff involved his engineering and managing the yard.<ref name="Oxford DNB"/> Due to Wolff's German Jewish descent,<ref name="Oxford British">{{cite book |url=http://www.oxfordreference.com/views/ENTRY.html?entry=t110.e4566&srn=2&ssid=197680775#FIRSTHIT|title=Wolff, Gustav Wilhelm|access-date=27 March 2008 |author=Alvin Jackson |year=1997 |work=Oxford Companion to British History|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-956763-8}}</ref> he had links with the Jewish community in Hamburg and in Britain, and was able to attract business to the shipyard.<ref name="Oxford DNB"/> Wolff worked extensively at the yard, and was partly responsible for building of the engine works at Harland and Wolff in 1880.<ref name="Oxford DNB"/><ref name="Scarborough">{{cite web|url=http://www.scarboroughcivicsociety.org.uk/page8.html |title=Scarborough & District Civic Society 2001 Blue Plaque – Sir Edward James Harland |access-date=27 March 2008 |author=Tony Stephens |publisher=Scarborough & District Civic Society |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080828010201/http://www.scarboroughcivicsociety.org.uk/page8.html |archive-date=28 August 2008 }}</ref> His company was responsible for the construction of the ''RMS Titanic''. After the conversion of Harland and Wolff to limited company status in 1888, Wolff was appointed as a director.<ref name="Oxford DNB"/> Wolff was able to secure a good relationship with the Hamburg America Line, which was managed by Albert Ballin, who was also of Jewish background.<ref name="Oxford DNB"/> Wolff officially retired from Harland and Wolff in 1906,<ref name="Oxford Irish"/> although he had not been an active in the business for years beforehand.<ref name="Oxford DNB"/> William James Pirrie who became a partner in 1874 was now the most active. Wolff claimed of the business relationship at Harland and Wolff:{{quote|Sir Edward [Harland] builds the ships, Mr Pirrie makes the speeches, and, as for me, I smoke the cigars.|Gustav Wilhelm Wolff|<ref name="Oxford British"/>}}
==Outside interests and later life== Wolff had business interests outside Harland and Wolff, including the Belfast Ropeworks, which he founded in the early 1870s with W.H. Smiles, who was the son of Samuel Smiles, a Scottish author.<ref name="Oxford DNB"/><ref name="Oxford British"/> With Wolff as chairman, the firm became one of the largest ropeworks in the world,<ref name="Oxford Irish"/> challenging the Gourock Ropework Company, who were based on the River Clyde in Scotland.<ref name="Oxford DNB"/> Wolff also bought shares in the Union Steamship Company, and became a director; with his influence, he ensured Harland and Wolff received regular orders from the Union Steamship Company.<ref name="Oxford DNB"/> After Wolff's negotiation, the Union Steamship Company merged in 1900 with the Castle Line, which was owned by Donald Currie;<ref name="Oxford DNB"/> the new company formed was the Union-Castle Line.
Outside business, Gustav Wolff served as a Belfast harbour commissioner from 1887 to 1893.<ref name="Oxford Irish"/> Wolff, like Edward Harland, served as a Member of Parliament as a member of the Conservative and Unionist Party.<ref name="Oxford British"/> Edward Harland and Gustav Wolff were known in the House of Commons as "Majestic" and "Teutonic", the names of two ships that the company built.<ref name="Oxford British"/> Wolff was the Member of Parliament for Belfast East from March 1892 to December 1910. He replaced Edward de Cobain who had been expelled from the House of Commons and was later jailed for homosexual offences.<ref name="Times"/> Wolff only faced election once; in the 1892 by-election Sir William Charley, Q.C., stood against Wolff as an Independent Conservative. Wolff defeated Charley by a margin of over 2100 votes.<ref name="Times">{{cite web |url=http://www.encyclopedia-titanica.org/item/3438/ |title=The Times obituary of Gustav Wilhelm Wolff|date=18 April 1913|access-date=27 March 2008 |publisher=Encyclopedia Titanica}}</ref> Wolff was then returned unopposed until his retirement from parliament in 1910.<ref name="Oxford DNB"/> Afterwards, Wolff was made a freeman of Belfast by the Belfast Corporation.<ref name="Times"/> In Parliament, Wolff strongly opposed the Irish Home Rule bills.<ref name="Oxford DNB"/>
Wolff was a member of the Church of Ireland.<ref name="Oxford DNB"/> He also gave money to local causes,<ref name="Oxford DNB"/> including the Ulster Hospital and the Orange Order.<ref name="Times"/>
Wolff was a member of many different clubs, including the Carlton Club and the Garrick Club.<ref name="Times"/> After his retirement from Parliament, Wolff lived almost exclusively in London,<ref name="Times"/> where he died on 17 April 1913 at his home, 42 Park Street.<ref name="Oxford DNB"/>
==Death== Wolff did not marry and died a bachelor,<ref name="Oxford DNB"/><ref name="Times"/> apart from Irish effects, his English effects were publicly sworn at £9,800 ({{Inflation|GBP|9800|1913|r=-3|fmt=eq|cursign=£}}) and his executors were a solicitor and a relative, Frederick Albert Wolff May. Amongst his bequests was £200 to Letitia Alice Walkington, the first woman to graduate with a degree of Bachelor of Laws in Great Britain or Ireland.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Gustav Wilhelm Wolff (1834 – 1913) {{!}} The MAN & Other Families |url=https://www.manfamily.org/about/other-families/loeck-family/may-family/wolff-family/gustave-wilhelm-wolff-1834-1913/ |access-date=2023-10-24 |language=en-US}}</ref>
==Footnotes== {{Reflist|colwidth=30em}}
== External links == * {{Hansard-contribs | mr-gustav-wolff | Gustav Wilhelm Wolff }} * [https://archive.today/20130113004337/http://www.manfamily.org/gustav_wolff.htm Article with photo]
{{s-start}} {{s-par|uk}} {{succession box | title = Member of Parliament for Belfast East | before = Edward Samuel Wesley de Cobain | after = Robert James McMordie | years = 1892 – December 1910}} {{s-end}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Wolff, Gustav Wilhelm}} Category:1834 births Category:1913 deaths Category:British marine engineers Category:Irish Anglicans Category:Irish Unionist Party MPs Category:Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for Belfast constituencies (1801–1922) Category:UK MPs 1886–1892 Category:UK MPs 1892–1895 Category:UK MPs 1895–1900 Category:UK MPs 1900–1906 Category:UK MPs 1906–1910 Category:UK MPs 1910 Category:German shipbuilders Category:19th-century shipbuilders Category:British shipbuilders Category:English shipbuilders Category:Burials at Brompton Cemetery Category:Jewish British politicians Category:British people of German-Jewish descent Category:Emigrants from the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg Category:Former Lutherans Category:German Anglicans Category:People educated at Liverpool College Category:19th-century English businesspeople Category:German emigrants to the United Kingdom Category:Harland & Wolff personnel