The founding of H. Upmann cigars was, from one perspective, a great fluke of luck. Hermann Upmann was a banker from Germany who, at the age of 23 in 1839, left his home and set out for the New World, intent on taking a job offer at an international trading company. By chance he became acquainted with a young Englishman on his ocean crossing who convinced him that the Cuban cigar business was flourishing, and that he would be better off staying in Havana. This is what Hermann chose to do, and in 1844 he founded a cigar brand and a bank which both bore his name. The bank failed in 1922 – though the Central Bank of Cuba today occupies its headquarters – but the marca of cigars lives on, and is today one of the biggest-selling in the world.
