Friedrich Wilhelm Retz

Friedrich Wilhelm Retz
Citizenship	German
Occupation(s)	Businessman, Diplomat Watchmaker
Known for	Founder of Retz & Co.

Friedrich Wilhelm Retz (born March 29, 1845 in Neuenstadt; died June 16, 1923 in Yokohama) was a German entrepreneur and watchmaker in the early days of Meiji Era in Japan and honorary consul for Holland, Norway and Sweden.

Friedrich Wilhelm Retz was one of the most important western personalities during the Meiji Era.

Career overview

Friedrich Wilhelm Retz arrived in Japan in October of 1872 and worked for the Swiss watchmaking company Schwartz & Co. based in Yokohama and owned by watchmaker Eulogius Schwartz.

After just two years, Retz founded his own company (1874) under the name "F.Retz & Co.", also based in Yokohama. Retz began importing watches from Swiss manufactures and retailing them in Japan. The business developed well due to high demand and when his former employer Schwartz gave up his business in 1876, Retz took over his business operation in Yokohama.

In 1881, he began expanding his operations into different trading businesses renaming his company "Retz, Gröhser & Co". Amongst other deals, he became the general representative of the 'Actien beer brewery Coburg' for Japan. His brother Carl Ludwig Retz managed the brewery in Coburg as a master brewer. Another venture in which Retz invested was the steam shipping business, acting as an agent for the Austro-Hungarian Lloyds steam shipping company. With this partnership he pursued the goal of being able to establish himself in the field of overseas export-import business between Swiss-Hungary-Austria and Japan.

In 1891 he bought Fritz Denni's watch factory in La Caux-de-Fonds (Neuchâtel), Switzerland and opened a new business branch of his company in Kobe in 1895. He put the management of the business area in the hands of his nephew Wilhelm Retz (son of his brother Wilhelm).

In the 1920s, Friedrich Wilhelm Retz fell ill and died on June 16, 1923 in Yokohama after a serious illness. He was buried in the Yokohama Foreigners Cemetery.

Family

Friedrich Wilhelm Retz married Adelheid nee Vanek in 1854, from Budapest (Hungary), who also lived in Yokohama and with whom he had four children: Adele Marie (born in 1875), Luise (born in 1876), Friedrich Wilhelm Karl (born in 1891) and Paula Sophie (born in 1882), all of whom were born in Yokohama. Shortly after the birth of their fourth child, Adelheid Retz, or Adele as she was called, the family traveled to Germany in 1883 but would ultimately return back to Yokohama in 1892. His daughter Paula Sophie (1882–1964) married Richard Schmidt-Scharff (1871–1954), a businessman in Japan, in 1905.

Honors

In 1890, Friedrich Wilhelm Retz was appointed knight of the Imperial Austrian Order of Franz Joseph.

Books

• Nana Miyata: Dr. Hans Kühne, deutscher Konsul in Yokohama 1908–1914 und die OAG. Mitteilungen der OAG Nr. 6/2018;
• Biografische Daten über Friedrich Retz, OAG, in: Archiv der OAG Nr. 1600;
• Biografie über Friedrich Wilhelm Retz, Meiji-Projekt, in: http://www.meiji-portraits.de/meiji_portraits_r.html#20090527093450609_1_2_2_46_1;