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Schulte firms (German Shipping Company)

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Schulte & Bruns

image by Jorge Candeias, 18 Mar 1999

Schulte & Bruns GmbH & Co. - Gold over blue bicolour with white lettering outlined in black 'S&B' over all.
Jorge Candeias, 18 Mar 1999

The current company, based Papenburg, would seem to be the second company of the name as according the Schulte family history the original was wound after getting into financial difficulties in 1977. This winding up probably occurred around 1980. The original company began at Papenburg but shifted to Emden in 1893 when founder Johann Hermann Schulte split from his partner. The original flag had green over red halves with white letters "S&B" but the change to the yellow and blue must have happened before the winding up as the flag is shown by "Flaggen der Binnenschiffahrt" of 1973. This domiciles the company at Papenburg whereas Lloyds shows Emden, Bremen and then Hamburg between the 1960s and 1980s so maybe there were two divisions of the company to explain the 2 flags with the Papenburg branch surviving to today as Schulte & Bruns GmbH & Co. K.G. Initially I thought the yellow and blue version may have been peculiar to vessels on inland waterways but Walter Michels in his "Unvergessene Dampfschiffahrt auf Rhein und Donau" shows the green & red so there would appear to be some other background to its use.
Neale Rosanoski, 9 Oct 2004

Schulte & Bruns variant

image by Eugene Ipavec, 11 Jun 2006

This is something of a mystery. Have a look at this photo, specifically the S&B initialled house flag: We see a horizontally divided flag, green above red, and large white initials ‘S&B’ over all. According to the Binnenvaart site, this one belongs to Schulte & Bruns (‘Emma’), where the above flag is shown, as a drawing.

Biedekarken agrees: click ‘Schornsteine’ (funnels), then select the first title, ‘Schornsteine mit schwarzer Grundfarbe’ (funnels with black background). S&B is the first on the last row but two.

So far so good, but FOTW-ws shows a yellow-above-blue house flag, and so does the company website, and that includes photos in colour.
As S&B – a venerable firm with an interesting history - has an inland navigation department it is not impossible that it has, or once had, a variant house flag. Unfortunately, the evidence is indirect: drawings on sites known for their knowledge of the subject, but no photos as far as I could see.

There once was a S&B shipyard, too, but then how to combine this with running an inland fleet?

Conclusion: no doubt whatsoever about the yellow & blue flag on FOTW-ws, but insufficient background for the green & red flag even if it was present at the Bergeshövede festivities.
Jan Mertens, 30 May 2006

Bernhard Schulte

image by Jarig Bakker, 6 Nov 2003

Dov Gutterman reported the link of Bernhard Schulte - Note that the photograph shows a larger disc. Flag: green with a red disk charged with a white capital S.
Santiago Dotor, 6 Nov 2003

Thomas Schulte

image by Ivan Sache, 18 Mar 2004

The first shipping company owned by the family Schulte was Schulte & Bruns, founded in Papenburg in 1882. In 1955, the company was divided into the Reederei Bernhard Schulte, registered in Hamburg, and Schulte & Bruns, registered in Emden.
In 1988, the Berhnard Schulte company was divided between the two sons of Bernhard Schulte, Heinrich and Thomas. The Thomas Schulte company operates today 12 container vessels.
The house flag of the Thomas Schulte company is green with a red square diamond charged with TS in white.
Source: Company website.
Ivan Sache, 18 Mar 2004