Gustav Overbeck

Gustav Overbeck (from 1867 von Overbeck, in 1873 Baron von Overbeck; born 4 March 1830 in Lemgo; died 8 April 1894 in London) was a German businessman, adventurer and diplomat.

Overbeck was the son of pharmacist and medical councillor Georg Heinrich Overbeck from Lemgo. He came to Bremen for a commercial apprenticeship with his uncle in the family business there, but did not stay long, and emigrated to the United States in the spring of 1850 with his cousin August Meier. He went to San Francisco and opened a business, while undertaking adventuries trade journeys to Hawaii, the South Seas, Alaska, and the Bering Strait.

He came into contact with the English trading house Dent & Co., which in 1854 gave him a job in British Hong Kong. There, he had four children with a Chinese woman named Lam Tsat-Tam. They were Lily Overbeck, Oi Mond Overbeck, Annie Overbeck and Victoria Overbeck. In 1856, he was appointed as Prussian Vice Consul before becoming a consul for the Austrian Empire in 1864. Following the Austro-Prussian War, Overbeck resigned from his Prussian post in 1866. Towards the end of the war, his position as the consul for the Austrian was elevated to in 1867. A survey took place in the Austrian territory in 1873.

In January 1876, he purchased from Joseph William Torrey for $15,000 the concessionary rights of American Trading Company of Borneo to territories in northern Borneo, conditional on successful renewal of the concessions from local authorities. Overbeck was appointed Maharaja of Sabah and Rajah of Gaya and Sandakan in a 29 December 1877 treaty with Brunei Sultan Abdul Momin, who still claimed ownership of northern Borneo. In the same year, Overbeck founded a joint venture (known as Dent & Overbeck Company/Overbeck & Co.) with the British brothers of Alfred and Edward Dent as financiers.

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