In 1949, Wilhelm E.F. Schmid founded the company in Husum as a shipbroker, serving the small coasters, often converted sailing ships, which carried supplies to the islands and isles in the North Frisian Wadden Sea. Simultaneously, passenger and excursion traffic developed, in particular to the isles and the island of Heligoland from the port of Husum. It therefore made sense to offer reservations for these trips from the company's nearby office.

The business segment of granite stone transports from the island of Bornholm was also expanded in order to serve the intensive coastal defences measures on the west coast of Schleswig-Holstein and the islands and isles, as well as the extension of the Kiel Canal.

The steadily growing agricultural trade also required an expansion of the fleet and an increase in tonnage to accommodate grain and feed shipments to Hamburg and Bremen.

For the transport of timber from Sweden and Finland to Germany and Great Britain the company founded its own shipping enterprise in 1981 including two new buildings. After German reunification, business operations were supplemented by the transport of stone and scrap metal and of fertilizer shipments in particular. Today, our ships sized up to 3.800 t trade the seas of Northern Europe from the Gulf of Bothnia to the Bay of Biscay.

In 2019 we took over all shares of Nauta Befrachtungskontor GmbH in Emden (www.nauta-emden.de). Nauta is a competitive broker. Therefore Nauta offers a completely different kind of brokering compared to us. Nauta is neither limited in size, cargo, nor trading area needed. She always offers the best price on the market .

Both companies are an excellent addition to the portfolio of Wilhelm E. F. Schmid GmbH.