Süllberg is the restaurant where a gathering of Hamburg’s shipping leaders becomes the setting for both a weary industry’s public debate and WH 2’s private campaign to restore WH 1’s standing. From its remarkable view over the Elbe River, the meeting looks out across a maritime city whose business fortunes are under strain; inside, an old rivalry is briefly made to yield to the possibility of reconciliation.

Setting and Maritime Gathering

The Vereinigung Hamburger Schiffsmakler und Schiffsagenten meets at the restaurant on Süllberg. The view over the Elbe River is described as phenomenal, but the evening itself drags on. Gerhard Leyendieker, a former shipowning captain and a prominent civic figure, stands before an audience of business leaders to deliver one of his notorious speeches. His insistence on being the chief among chiefs gives the address a personal edge even before its subject turns to the shipping industry’s difficulties.

Leyendieker speaks of economic pressures on German shipping: each percentage point of currency appreciation costs the companies 25 million D-Mark, he argues, while missed opportunities in import traffic and chaotic freight undercutting across the North Atlantic threaten medium-sized and especially small shipping lines. At Süllberg, the speech is less a detached report than a performance of authority before an audience of powerful peers.

WH 2’s Appeal

For WH 2, the meeting has a private purpose beyond its formal business. With bankruptcy looming, he wants an official, unanimous act of absolution for his father, WH 1—a final chance to bring about reconciliation after twenty years of exclusion from Hamburg society. The wish surprises WH 2 himself: he feels solidarity, and nearly pity, for a father who has already lost much and whose old mistakes continue to be held against him.

WH 2 has spent almost a year patiently persuading the decision-makers. Leyendieker is the last person he must win over. Born in 1895, like WH 1, and educated at the same school, Leyendieker was once WH 1’s friend, later his competitor, and eventually his enemy. WH 1 still hates him; Leyendieker, by contrast, has come to regard WH 1 as someone who no longer matters. Their history makes the encounter at Süllberg more than a procedural vote: the reconciliation depends on the consent of a former friend turned rival.

Decision and Narrative Significance

WH 2 waits behind the principals while Leyendieker talks with Bertram Theissen, Hapag Lloyd’s chairman. Their mutual dislike surfaces through a show of exaggerated cordiality that conceals real bitterness. Only after Theissen, already drunk, gives way and leaves does WH 2 get his moment. Leyendieker agrees to the rehabilitation, presenting the decision as a chance to bury old grievances and forgive past errors. He enjoys the role of a magnanimous peacemaker, and the two men arrange for him to deliver the news at WH 1’s forthcoming eightieth birthday.

Süllberg thus concentrates the contrast between public hierarchy and private change. Leyendieker’s speech reasserts his dominance before the shipping chiefs, yet in a quieter exchange he grants WH 2 the decision he has spent months pursuing. The restaurant’s expansive river view stands above a meeting shaped by threatened fortunes, entrenched resentment, and a narrowly opened path toward reconciliation.