1900 Everything starts small …
also the history of OQEMA. This childhood picture was taken around 1900. It shows the five older children of Krefeld brickyard owner Ed Overlack and his wife Sophie, born Girmes, lined up next to each other like organ pipes: Ed (*1891), Lutz (*1892), Martha (*1893), Heinrich (*1895) and Lene (*1898). The youngest sister Lotte will not be born until 1904. The three boys Ed, Lutz and Heinrich will later do business together and become the founders, financiers and managing directors of the chemical factory "Gebr. Overlack" in Mönchengladbach in the Rhineland. As true family entrepreneurs, they involve their unmarried sisters Lene and Lotte in the business; the two of them take over telephone services in their parents' home in Krefeld, thus saving customers expensive long-distance calls.
How all of this takes place, what happens in the 100 years after their first steps as hopeful entrepreneurs and why what has become of their foundation is called OQEMA today, is told on 100 pages on this website right up to the present day.