The Hamburg-Amerikanische Packetfahrt-Aktien-Gesellschaft (HAPAG), known in English as the Hamburg America Line, was a transatlantic shipping enterprise established in

Hamburg (male), (female) en, Hamburger(s), Hamburgian(s) , timezone1 = Central (CET) , utc_offset1 = +1 , timezone1_DST = Central (CEST) , utc_offset1_DST = +2 , postal ...

, in 1847. Among those involved in its development were prominent citizens such as

Albert Ballin Albert Ballin (15 August 1857 – 9 November 1918) was a German shipping magnate. He was the general director of the Hamburg-Amerikanische Packetfahrt-Actien-Gesellschaft (HAPAG) or Hamburg-America Line, which for a time was the world's largest s ...

(Director General), Adolph Godeffroy, Ferdinand Laeisz, Carl Woermann, August Bolten, and others, and its main financial backers were

Berenberg Bank Joh. Berenberg, Gossler & Co. KG, commonly known as Berenberg Bank and also branded as simply Berenberg, is a multinational full-service investment bank based in Hamburg, Germany. It was founded by the Flemish Berenberg family in 1590 () and ...

and H. J. Merck & Co. It soon developed into the largest German, and at times the world's largest, shipping company, serving the market created by

German immigration to the United States German Americans (german: Deutschamerikaner, ) are Americans who have full or partial German ancestry. With an estimated size of approximately 43 million in 2019, German Americans are the largest of the self-reported ancestry groups by the Unit ...

and later, immigration from Eastern Europe. On 1 September 1970, after 123 years of independent existence, HAPAG merged with the Bremen-based

North German Lloyd Norddeutscher Lloyd (NDL; North German Lloyd) was a German shipping company. It was founded by Hermann Henrich Meier and Eduard Crüsemann in Bremen on 20 February 1857. It developed into one of the most important German shipping companies of t ...

to form Hapag-Lloyd AG.

History

Ports served

In the early years, the Hamburg America Line exclusively connected European ports with North American ports, such as

Hoboken, New Jersey Hoboken ( ; Unami: ') is a city in Hudson County in the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2020 U.S. census, the city's population was 60,417. The Census Bureau's Population Estimates Program calculated that the city's population was 58,6 ...

, or

New Orleans, Louisiana New Orleans ( , ,New Orleans

ocean liner An ocean liner is a passenger ship primarily used as a form of transportation across seas or oceans. Ocean liners may also carry cargo or mail, and may sometimes be used for other purposes (such as for pleasure cruises or as hospital ships). Ca ...

terminal at Cuxhaven, Germany, in 1900. Connected directly to

Hamburg (male), (female) en, Hamburger(s), Hamburgian(s) , timezone1 = Central (CET) , utc_offset1 = +1 , timezone1_DST = Central (CEST) , utc_offset1_DST = +2 , postal ...

by a dedicated railway line and station, the HAPAG Terminal at Cuxhaven served as the major departure point for German and European immigrants to North America until 1969 when ocean liner travel ceased. Today it serves as a museum and

cruise ship Cruise ships are large passenger ships used mainly for vacationing. Unlike ocean liners, which are used for transport, cruise ships typically embark on round-trip voyages to various ports-of-call, where passengers may go on tours known as "sho ...

terminal.

HAPAG-Plakat Mediterranean and Orient Cruises von Otto Arpke 1931 Sammlung Marc Wegner Berlin

Atlas Service

The Atlas Service sailed from New York to

Jamaica Jamaica (; ) is an island country situated in the Caribbean Sea. Spanning in area, it is the third-largest island of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean (after Cuba and Hispaniola). Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, and west of Hispanio ...

Haiti Haiti (; ht, Ayiti ; French: ), officially the Republic of Haiti (); ) and formerly known as Hayti, is a country located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles archipelago of the Caribbean Sea, east of Cuba and Jamaica, and s ...

, Colombia,

Central America Central America ( es, América Central or ) is a subregion of the Americas. Its boundaries are defined as bordering the United States to the north, Colombia to the south, the Caribbean Sea to the east, and the Pacific Ocean to the west. C ...

. The service was described as a way to "escape the rigors of Northern winters" through taking a Caribbean cruise and was promoted to tourists. The ships ''Altai'', ''Sarnia'', ''Sibiria'', ''Alleghany'', ''Alene'', ''Adirondack'', ''Valdivia'', and ''Graecia'' provided this service in 1906.

Notable journeys

In 1858, its liner sank, killing 449 people. In 1891, the cruise of the '' Augusta Victoria'' in the Mediterranean and the Near East from 22 January to 22 March, with 241 passengers including Albert Ballin and wife, is often stated to have been the first passenger cruise.

Christian Wilhelm Allers Christian Wilhelm Allers (6 August 1857 – 19 October 1915) was a German painter and printmaker. Biography Allers, the son of a merchant, was born in Hamburg. He first worked as a lithographer, and in 1877 he moved to Karlsruhe where he ...

published an illustrated account of it as " Bakschisch". In 1897, its steamer ''Arcadia'' was wrecked on the rocks off Newfoundland. In 1900, 1901 and 1903 its liner won the

Blue Riband The Blue Riband () is an unofficial accolade given to the passenger liner crossing the Atlantic Ocean in regular service with the record highest average speed. The term was borrowed from horse racing and was not widely used until after 1910. ...

taking the prize from the '' Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse''. In 1906 ''

Prinzessin Victoria Luise ' was a German passenger ship of the Hamburg-America Line (HAPAG) of some . She is credited with having been the first purpose-built cruise ship. Jamaica Jamaica (; ) is an island country situated in the Caribbean Sea. Spanning in area, it is the third-largest island of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean (after Cuba and Hispaniola). Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, and west of Hispanio ...

. No people died by the grounding; however, the ship's captain committed suicide after getting all the passengers safely off the ship. In 1912, its liner SS ''Amerika'' was the first ship to warn of icebergs. HAPAG's general director,

, believed that safety, size, comfort and luxury would always win out over speed. Thus he conceived the three largest liners yet to be built, named , and '' Bismarck''.

First World War

The ''Imperator'' and the ''Vaterland'' were briefly in service before the First World War. In 1914, the ''Vaterland'' was caught in port at

at the outbreak of World War I and interned by the United States. She was seized, renamed ''Leviathan'' after the declaration of war on Germany in 1917, and served for the duration and beyond as a troopship. In 1917, its liner ''Allemannia'' was "torpedoed by German submarine near Alicante"; two people were lost.

Postwar reparations

After the war, the ''Vaterland''/''Leviathan'' was retained by the Americans as

war reparations War reparations are compensation payments made after a war by one side to the other. They are intended to cover damage or injury inflicted during a war. History Making one party pay a war indemnity is a common practice with a long history. R ...

. In 1919 ''Vaterland''s sister ships – ''Imperator'' and the unfinished ''Bismarck'' – were handed over to the allies as war reparations to Britain. They were sold to the

Cunard Line Cunard () is a British shipping and cruise line based at Carnival House at Southampton, England, operated by Carnival UK and owned by Carnival Corporation & plc. Since 2011, Cunard and its three ships have been registered in Hamilton, Ber ...

and

White Star Line The White Star Line was a British shipping company. Founded out of the remains of a defunct packet company, it gradually rose up to become one of the most prominent shipping lines in the world, providing passenger and cargo services between t ...

respectively, and renamed ''Berengaria'' and ''Majestic''. A ship chain in Mountain Lakes, New Jersey is identified by the historic society as belonging to either the ''Vaterland'' or ''Imperator''. It was acquired in 1921, likely during refurbishments, and now lines a portion of the Boulevard. In 1939, the HAPAG liner was unable to find a port in Cuba, the United States, or Canada willing to accept the more than 950 Jewish refugees on board and had to return to Europe. On 9 April 1940, when German warships attacked

Kristiansand Kristiansand is a seaside resort city and municipality in Agder county, Norway. The city is the fifth-largest and the municipality the sixth-largest in Norway, with a population of around 112,000 as of January 2020, following the incorporation ...

, Norway, during

Operation Weserübung Operation Weserübung (german: Unternehmen Weserübung , , 9 April – 10 June 1940) was Germany's assault on Denmark and Norway during the Second World War and the opening operation of the Norwegian Campaign. In the early morning of 9 A ...

(the opening assault of the Norwegian Campaign), the HAPAG freighter sailed into the crossfire between the warships and Norwegian coastal artillery. She was holed and sunk, and her crew briefly became prisoners of war.

Later years

The Hamburg America Line lost almost the entirety of its fleet twice, as a result of World Wars I and II. In 1970, the company merged with its longstanding rival,

Norddeutscher Lloyd Norddeutscher Lloyd (NDL; North German Lloyd) was a German shipping company. It was founded by Hermann Henrich Meier and Eduard Crüsemann in Bremen on 20 February 1857. It developed into one of the most important German shipping companies of t ...

Bremen Bremen ( Low German also: ''Breem'' or ''Bräm''), officially the City Municipality of Bremen (german: Stadtgemeinde Bremen, ), is the capital of the German state Free Hanseatic City of Bremen (''Freie Hansestadt Bremen''), a two-city-state con ...

, to establish the present-day company

Hapag-Lloyd Hapag-Lloyd AG is a German international shipping and container transportation company. Hapag-Lloyd was formed in 1970 through a merger of Hamburg-American Line (HAPAG) and North German Lloyd. History The company was formed on September 1, 1 ...

Fleet List

References

External links

Fleet information

GG Archives
Hamburg-Amerika Line ships
This collection contains 16 photographs depicting ship interior and exterior views of Hamburg-Amerika Line's luxury passenger ships ''Augusta Victoria'', ''Columbia'' and ''Normannia'' by Louis Koch, Bremen *

GG Archives {{Authority control Shipping companies of Germany Transatlantic shipping companies Companies based in Hamburg Port of New York and New Jersey Transport companies disestablished in 1970 1970 disestablishments in West Germany Transport companies established in 1847 German companies established in 1847