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Norddeutscher Lloyd (NDL; North German Lloyd) was a German
shipping company A shipping line or shipping company is a company whose line of business is ownership and operation of ships. Shipping companies provide a method of distinguishing ships by different kinds of cargo: # Bulk cargo is a type of special cargo that is ...
. It was founded by Hermann Henrich Meier and Eduard Crüsemann in
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 consis ...
on 20 February 1857. It developed into one of the most important German shipping companies of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and was instrumental in the economic development of Bremen and
Bremerhaven Bremerhaven (, , Low German: ''Bremerhoben'') is a city at the seaport of the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen, a state of the Federal Republic of Germany. It forms a semi-enclave in the state of Lower Saxony and is located at the mouth of the Riv ...
. On 1 September 1970, the company merged with
Hamburg America Line The Hamburg-Amerikanische Packetfahrt-Aktien-Gesellschaft (HAPAG), known in English as the Hamburg America Line, was a transatlantic shipping enterprise established in Hamburg, in 1847. Among those involved in its development were prominent citi ...
(HAPAG) to form
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 ...
AG.


History


Establishment of the NDL

The German shipping company North German Lloyd (NDL) was founded by the Bremen merchants Hermann Henrich Meier and Eduard Crüsemann on 20 February 1857, after the dissolution of the
Ocean Steam Navigation Company The Ocean Steam Navigation Company (OSNC or Bremen Line) was a shipping company founded in 1847 in New York City by Edward Mills. It was the first company to be awarded a contract by the US government for the oceanic transportation of mail. I ...
, a joint German-American enterprise.NDL's history and house flag
/ref> The new shipping company had no association with the
British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...
maritime Maritime may refer to: Geography * Maritime Alps, a mountain range in the southwestern part of the Alps * Maritime Region, a region in Togo * Maritime Southeast Asia * The Maritimes, the Canadian provinces of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Princ ...
classification society A ship classification society or ship classification organisation is a non-governmental organization that establishes and maintains technical standards for the construction and operation of ships and offshore structures. Classification societies ...
Lloyd's Register Lloyd's Register Group Limited (LR) is a technical and professional services organisation and a maritime classification society, wholly owned by the Lloyd’s Register Foundation, a UK charity dedicated to research and education in science and ...
; in the mid-19th century, "Lloyd" was used as a term for a shipping company (an earlier user of the term in the same context was the Trieste-based
Österreichischer Lloyd ''Österreichischer Lloyd'' ( it, Lloyd Austriaco, en, Austrian Lloyd) was the largest Austro-Hungarian shipping company. It was founded in 1833. It was based at Trieste in the Austrian Littoral, the main port of the Cisleithanian (Austrian ...
). H. H. Meier became NDL's first chairman of the supervisory board, and Crüsemann became the first director of the company (
German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) ** Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...
''
Aktiengesellschaft (; abbreviated AG, ) is a German word for a corporation limited by Share (finance), share ownership (i.e. one which is owned by its shareholders) whose shares may be traded on a stock market. The term is used in Germany, Austria, Switzerland (wh ...
'' – AG). Crüsemann was in charge of both cargo services and passenger transport, which, as a result of emigration, was growing significantly. The company was also active in other areas, including
tugboat A tugboat or tug is a marine vessel that manoeuvres other vessels by pushing or pulling them, with direct contact or a tow line. These boats typically tug ships in circumstances where they cannot or should not move under their own power, su ...
s, bathing, insurance, and ship repair (the last of which it still provides). The first office of the shipping company was located at number 13 Martinistraße in Bremen. The company started with a route to England prior to starting a transatlantic service. In 1857, the first ship, the ''Adler'' (Eagle), began regular passenger service between the
Weser The Weser () is a river of Lower Saxony in north-west Germany. It begins at Hannoversch Münden through the confluence of the Werra and Fulda. It passes through the Hanseatic city of Bremen. Its mouth is further north against the ports of Bre ...
region (where Bremen is located) and England. On 28 October 1857, it made its maiden voyage from
Nordenham Nordenham () is a town in the Wesermarsch district, in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is located at the mouth (on the west bank) of the Weser river on the Butjadingen peninsula on the coast of the North Sea. The seaport city of Bremerhaven is located ...
to London.Norway-Heritage
/ref> Just one year later, regular, scheduled services were started between the new port in Bremerhaven and New York using two steamships, the ''
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 consis ...
'' and the '' New York''. International economic crises made the start of the NDL extremely difficult, and the company took losses until 1859. During the succeeding years, passenger connections to Baltimore and New Orleans were added to the schedule, and the company first rented and then in 1869 bought facilities on the waterfront in
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 58,690 i ...
. In 1867–1868, NDL began a partnership with the
Baltimore and Ohio Railroad The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad was the first common carrier railroad and the oldest railroad in the United States, with its first section opening in 1830. Merchants from Baltimore, which had benefited to some extent from the construction of ...
, which initiated the
Baltimore Line Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic, and the 30th most populous city in the United States with a population of 585,708 in 2020. Baltimore was ...
; until 1978, this had its own ships. In 1869, Crüsemann died at only 43 years old. From 1877 to 1892, the director of NDL was
Johann Georg Lohmann Johann, typically a male given name, is the German form of ''Iohannes'', which is the Latin form of the Greek name ''Iōánnēs'' (), itself derived from Hebrew name '' Yochanan'' () in turn from its extended form (), meaning "Yahweh is Gracious ...
. He established a new policy for the company, emphasizing fast liners. Eventually H. H. Meier and Lohmann fell out over the direction of the company. In 1892, a twin-screw steamer, the company's first, was christened the ''H.H. Meier'' after the founder; this helped to heal the breach between them.


Foundation of the German Empire

During the ''
Gründerzeit (; "founders' period") was the economic phase in 19th-century Germany and Austria before the great stock market crash of 1873. In Central Europe, the age of industrialisation had been taking place since the 1840s. That period is not precisely ...
'' at the beginning of the German Empire, the NDL expanded greatly. Thirteen new ships of the "Strassburg class" were ordered. A route to the West Indies offered from 1871 to 1874 proved unprofitable, but was followed by a permanent line to the east coast of South America. On the transatlantic route, the
HAPAG The Hamburg-Amerikanische Packetfahrt-Aktien-Gesellschaft (HAPAG), known in English as the Hamburg America Line, was a transatlantic shipping enterprise established in Hamburg, in 1847. Among those involved in its development were prominent citi ...
, the
Holland-America Line Holland America Line is an American-owned cruise line, a subsidiary of Carnival Corporation & plc headquartered in Seattle, Washington, United States. Holland America Line was founded in Rotterdam, Netherlands, and from 1873 to 1989, it operated ...
, and the
Red Star Line The Red Star Line was a shipping line founded in 1871 as a joint venture between the International Navigation Company of Philadelphia, which also ran the American Line, and the Société Anonyme de Navigation Belgo-Américaine of Antwerp, Belg ...
were now all fierce rivals. Beginning in 1881 with the ''
Elbe The Elbe (; cs, Labe ; nds, Ilv or ''Elv''; Upper and dsb, Łobjo) is one of the major rivers of Central Europe. It rises in the Giant Mountains of the northern Czech Republic before traversing much of Bohemia (western half of the Czech Repu ...
'', eleven fast steamships of from 4500 to of the so-called " Rivers class" (all named for German rivers), were introduced to serve the North Atlantic trade.The Ships List
In 1885, the NDL won the commission to provide postal service between the German Empire and Australia and the Far East. The associated subsidy underwrote further expansion, beginning with the first large-scale order placed with a German shipyard, for three postal steamers for the major routes and three smaller steamers for branch service from
AG Vulcan Stettin Aktien-Gesellschaft Vulcan Stettin (short AG Vulcan Stettin) was a German shipbuilding and locomotive building company. Founded in 1851, it was located near the former eastern German city of Stettin, today Polish Szczecin. Because of the limited ...
. It was in fact a requirement of the commission that the ships be built in Germany. By 1890, with 66 ships of a total , NDL was the second largest shipping company in the world, after the British
Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company P&O (in full, The Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company) is a British shipping and logistics company dating from the early 19th century. Formerly a public company, it was sold to DP World in March 2006 for £3.9 billion. DP World c ...
, with 48 ships of a total , and dominated shipping to Germany, with 31.6% of the traffic. NDL was also the carrying more transatlantic passengers to New York than any other company, due to its dominance in
steerage Steerage is a term for the lowest category of passenger accommodation in a ship. In the nineteenth and early twentieth century considerable numbers of persons travelled from their homeland to seek a new life elsewhere, in many cases North America ...
, which consisted mostly of immigrants. In cabin class, it carried only slightly more passengers than the British
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, Berm ...
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 ...
. 42% of NDL's passenger traffic was to New York, and 15% to other US ports, but only 16.2% eastward-bound from New York. Its westbound South Atlantic service represented 17.3% of its passengers; eastbound from South America, only 1.7%. In 1887, the NDL withdrew from the route to England in favor of
Argo Reederei In Greek mythology the ''Argo'' (; in Ancient Greek, Greek: ) was a ship built with the help of the gods that Jason and the Argonauts sailed from Iolcos to Colchis to retrieve the Golden Fleece. The ship has gone on to be used as a motif in a ...
, but continued to provide tug services through participation beginning in 1899 in the ''Schleppschifffahrtsgesellschaft Unterweser'' (Unterweser Tug Association, now Unterweser Reederei). File:Kaiser wilhelm der grosse 01.jpg, One of the four-stackers of the NDL, File:KronprinzWilhelmPostcard.jpg, SS ''Kronprinz Wilhelm'' File:Kaiser wilhelm 2.jpg, SS ''Kaiser wilhelm II'' File:The SS Kronprinzessin Cecilie at sea in circa 1910.jpg, SS ''Kronprinzessin Cecilie''


Expansion and dominance

H. H. Meyer stood down from the board in 1888; he was succeeded by Friedrich Reck. Johann Georg Lohmann became director of the company; following his death in 1892, Reck stepped down and Georg Plate became chairman. The lawyer
Heinrich Wiegand Johann Heinrich Christoph Wiegand (17 August 1855 in Bremen – 29 March 1909 in Bad Homburg vor der Höhe) was a lawyer who served as general director of the Norddeutscher Lloyd shipping company during a period of great expansion. Life and career ...
became Director; from 1899 onwards, his title was Director General. He held this position until 1909, and presided over appreciable expansion. In 1897, with the commissioning of SS ''Kaiser Wilhelm der Große'', the NDL finally had a major ship for the North Atlantic. This was the largest and fastest ship in the world, and the company benefited from the reputation advantage of 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. T ...
for the fastest Atlantic crossing, with an average speed of 22.3 knots. Between 1897 and 1907, the line followed with three further twin-screw and four-funnel steamers of the Kaiser class, of 14,000–19,000 GRT: the , the and the . With these the company offered a regular service across the Atlantic to its docks at
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 58,690 i ...
, across the
Hudson River The Hudson River is a river that flows from north to south primarily through eastern New York. It originates in the Adirondack Mountains of Upstate New York and flows southward through the Hudson Valley to the New York Harbor between N ...
from New York. On June 30, 1900 over 300 Dock workers and people were killed in a fire at the Hoboken docks. So began the "decade of Germans" in transatlantic shipping, in which the NDL and the HAPAG dominated the routes with several record-breaking ships and vied with the British
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, Berm ...
and the
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 ...
as the largest shipping companies in the world. In 1902 and 1904, two NDL ships again won the Blue Riband: SS ''Kronprinz Wilhelm'', now with an average speed of for the westbound passage from Cherbourg to New York and ''Kaiser Wilhelm II'' at on the eastbound passage. In 1907, , and then in 1909, , both of the British Cunard Line, won the Blue Riband back for the British, and ''Mauretania'' then retained it until 1929. Between 1894 and 1908, NDL ordered many other freight and passenger steamers from several German yards. These included the Barbarossa class (over , for Australia, the Far East, and the North Atlantic) and the Generals class (approximately 8,500 BRT, for the Far East and Australia).


NDL in the 20th century

Beginning in 1899, the NDL expanded into the Pacific, acquiring the entire fleets of two small British lines, the Scottish Oriental Steamship Company and the Holt East Indian Ocean Steamship Company, and setting up between 14 and 16 passenger and freight routes in conjunction with the postal service. In 1900, 14 of NDL's passenger ships were requisitioned as troop transports due to the
Boxer Rebellion The Boxer Rebellion, also known as the Boxer Uprising, the Boxer Insurrection, or the Yihetuan Movement, was an anti-foreign, anti-colonial, and anti-Christian uprising in China between 1899 and 1901, towards the end of the Qing dynasty, by ...
in China; on 27 July,
Kaiser Wilhelm II , house = Hohenzollern , father = Frederick III, German Emperor , mother = Victoria, Princess Royal , religion = Lutheranism (Prussian United) , signature = Wilhelm II, German Emperor Signature-.svg Wilhelm II (Friedrich Wilhelm Viktor ...
delivered his "Schrecklichkeit" speech, in which he compared the military of the German Empire to the Huns, at the departure ceremony for ''Friedrich Der Grosse''. This inspired Britain later, when they seized a number of German ships, to rename them to names beginning with "Hun", such as "Huntsgreen" and "Huntsend". In German, these ships were collectively named "Hunnendampfer" (Huns' steamers). At the beginning of the 20th century, the U.S. banking magnate
J. P. Morgan John Pierpont Morgan Sr. (April 17, 1837 – March 31, 1913) was an American financier and investment banker who dominated corporate finance on Wall Street throughout the Gilded Age. As the head of the banking firm that ultimately became known ...
began to acquire a number of shipping companies, including the
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 ...
, the
Leyland Line The Leyland Line was a British shipping transport line founded in 1873 by Frederick Richards Leyland after his apprenticeship in the firm of John Bibby, Sons & Co. After Frederick Leyland's death, the company was taken over by Sir John Ellerm ...
, and the
Red Star Line The Red Star Line was a shipping line founded in 1871 as a joint venture between the International Navigation Company of Philadelphia, which also ran the American Line, and the Société Anonyme de Navigation Belgo-Américaine of Antwerp, Belg ...
, to build a transatlantic monopoly. He succeeded in signing both HAPAG and NDL to an alliance, but was unable to acquire the British
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, Berm ...
, and the French
Compagnie Générale Transatlantique The Compagnie Générale Transatlantique (CGT, and commonly named "Transat"), typically known overseas as the French Line, was a French shipping company. Established in 1855 by the Péreire brothers, brothers Émile and Issac Péreire under the ...
(CGT). HAPAG and NDL gave Morgan the largest U.S. rail company, the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, and so Morgan offered to divide the market. The Holland-America Line and the Red Star Line together divided a contract for the passengers of the four companies. Ruinous competition was prevented. In 1912, the Morgan Agreement was terminated. In 1907, the Norddeutscher Lloyd's fiftieth anniversary, it had 93 vessels, 51 smaller vessels, two sail training vessels and other river steamers. NDL had around 15,000 employees. Because of the high investment costs and an international economic crisis, the shipping company celebrated at this time but also had considerable financial difficulties. Despite the financial difficulties, between 1907 and 1910 the company built a new headquarters on Papenburgstrasse in Bremen, the prestigious NDL Building to plans by architect
Johann Poppe Johann Georg Poppe (12 September 1837 – 18 August 1915), often called Johannes Poppe by English-speaking writers, was a prominent architect in Bremen during the German Gründerzeit and an influential interior designer of ocean liners for the N ...
, who was also the lead interior designer for the company's liners. The building, the largest in the city at the time, was in eclectic
Renaissance Revival Renaissance Revival architecture (sometimes referred to as "Neo-Renaissance") is a group of 19th century architectural revival styles which were neither Greek Revival nor Gothic Revival but which instead drew inspiration from a wide range o ...
style with a tower. It was sold in 1942 to
Deutsche Schiff- und Maschinenbau Deutsche Schiff- und Maschinenbau Aktiengesellschaft (abbreviated Deschimag) was a cooperation of eight German shipyards in the period 1926 to 1945. The leading company was the shipyard AG Weser in Bremen. History The Deschimag was founded in 19 ...
and when the company was broken up into its constituent parts after World War II, passed to
AG Weser Aktien-Gesellschaft „Weser" (abbreviated A.G. „Weser”) was one of the major German shipbuilding companies, located at the Weser River in Bremen. Founded in 1872 it was finally closed in 1983. All together, A.G. „Weser" built about 1,400 ...
. The building had been severely damaged by bombing and was demolished and a Horten department store built on the site in 1969. The adjacent new shopping mall bears the name ''Lloyd Passage''.Lloyd Passage, Bremen
/ref> The lucrative North Atlantic route was extremely competitive in this period, with new, attractive ships from other large companies including the , , and , of the Cunard Line, and the , , and of the White Star Line. The HAPAG introduced three new vessels of the Imperator class, , , and , with a size of 50,000 GRT. The NDL responded with smaller but prestigious vessels such as the and the , and transferred the SS ''Berlin'' from Mediterranean service to the New York run. Finally in 1914 the company ordered two liners of the Columbus class; World War I prevented their completion. In this era of "open borders" to transatlantic travel, the largest passenger group making the
transatlantic crossing Transatlantic crossings are passages of passengers and cargo across the Atlantic Ocean between Europe or Africa and the Americas. The majority of passenger traffic is across the North Atlantic between Western Europe and North America. Centuries ...
were immigrants from Europe to the United States, and NDL carried more than any other steamship line. During 1900–1914, the three NDL vessels carrying the most transatlantic migrants, , and , each brought over 100 thousand steerage passengers to New York, Baltimore and Philadelphia. The economic downturn following the
Panic of 1907 The Panic of 1907, also known as the 1907 Bankers' Panic or Knickerbocker Crisis, was a financial crisis that took place in the United States over a three-week period starting in mid-October, when the New York Stock Exchange fell almost 50% from ...
led to a sharp fall-off of migrant traffic to America, only partially offset by increased steerage flows back to Europe, and this was the main contributing factor to "one of the blackest years in the Company's history." In 1914, NDL employed approximately 22,000 people. Its success thus directly influenced the rapid growth of the city of
Bremerhaven Bremerhaven (, , Low German: ''Bremerhoben'') is a city at the seaport of the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen, a state of the Federal Republic of Germany. It forms a semi-enclave in the state of Lower Saxony and is located at the mouth of the Riv ...
, which had been founded only in 1827. Director General Dr. Wiegand died in 1909, and was succeeded by Director Phillip Heineken until 1920.


NDL's routes around 1907

This is a list of routes served by NDL in 1907. Europe – America * Bremerhaven – New York * Bremerhaven – Baltimore * Bremerhaven – Savannah * Bremerhaven – Galveston * Bremerhaven – Cuba * Bremerhaven – La Plata ports * Bremerhaven – Brazil * Genoa – New York Mediterranean * Marseilles – Alexandria Europe – Asia/Australia * Bremerhaven – East Asia * Bremerhaven – Australia Asia / Australia (including coastal routes) * Hong Kong – Japan – New Guinea * Hong Kong – Bangkok * Hong Kong – Bangkok (via Singapore) * Hong Kong Straits * Hong Kong – South Philippines * Penang – Deli * Deli – Singapore * Singapore – Bangkok * Singapore – South Philippines * Singapore – Moluccas (on Borneo) * Singapore – Moluccas (on Celebes) * Shanghai – Hankow * Australia – Japan – Manila – Hong Kong German coast *Daytrip service on the Baltic coast *Tug service Bremen – Hamburg and Bremen – Bremerhaven *Passenger shipping Bremen – Bremerhaven


World War I

For NDL as a civilian shipping line, the beginning of World War I was a trial, as well as a logistical challenge because a large part of the fleet was at sea around the World. However, most ships were able to reach neutral ports. The logistical operations of NDL in
Bremerhaven Bremerhaven (, , Low German: ''Bremerhoben'') is a city at the seaport of the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen, a state of the Federal Republic of Germany. It forms a semi-enclave in the state of Lower Saxony and is located at the mouth of the Riv ...
were placed almost exclusively at the service of the German Navy. NDL owned a majority interest in the ''Deutsche Ozean-Reederei'' ("German Ocean Shipping Service"), which used
U-boat U-boats were naval submarines operated by Germany, particularly in the First and Second World Wars. Although at times they were efficient fleet weapons against enemy naval warships, they were most effectively used in an economic warfare role ...
s for trade and made some successful Atlantic crossings.


Post war

At the start of the war, the NDL's fleet totaled more than . Under the
Treaty of Versailles The Treaty of Versailles (french: Traité de Versailles; german: Versailler Vertrag, ) was the most important of the peace treaties of World War I. It ended the state of war between Germany and the Allied Powers. It was signed on 28 June ...
at war's end, all ships over and half of all units from 100 to were confiscated.Hapag-Lloyd: The Ballin Era
The United States had already confiscated in 1917 the facilities in Hoboken and the NDL ships at the dock there. The prewar NDL fleet no longer existed. The company was left with some small ships totalling . With these the company restarted daytrip passenger service, tug service, and freight service in 1919. The 'flagship' was the 781-ton ''Grüß Gott''. From 1920 to 1939, NDL participated in the Seedienst Ostpreußen passenger and goods service to
East Prussia East Prussia ; german: Ostpreißen, label=Low Prussian; pl, Prusy Wschodnie; lt, Rytų Prūsija was a province of the Kingdom of Prussia from 1773 to 1829 and again from 1878 (with the Kingdom itself being part of the German Empire from 187 ...
. In 1920, an air transport subsidiary was founded and soon merged with Sablatnig Flugzeugbau GmbH to form Lloyd Luftverkehr Sablatnig. In 1923 this combined with HAPAG's air transport subsidiary to form Deutscher Aero Lloyd, which on 6 January 1926 merged with Junkers Luftverkehr AG to become Deutsche Luft Hansa A.G., the predecessor of
Lufthansa Deutsche Lufthansa AG (), commonly shortened to Lufthansa, is the flag carrier of Germany. When combined with its subsidiaries, it is the second- largest airline in Europe in terms of passengers carried. Lufthansa is one of the five founding m ...
. In August 1920, the NDL made an agency agreement with the U.S. Mail Steamship Co. (beginning in 1921,
United States Lines United States Lines was the trade name of an organization of the United States Shipping Board (USSB), Emergency Fleet Corporation (EFC) created to operate German liners seized by the United States in 1917. The ships were owned by the USSB and al ...
). This made it possible to resume transatlantic service from Bremerhaven to New York with the former ''Rhein'', now sailing under the US flag as the ''Susquehanna''. The unfinished ''Columbus'' had been awarded to Great Britain after the war and was bought in 1920 by White Star, which had lost significant tonnage in the war and also wished to make up for the pre-war loss of the ''
Titanic RMS ''Titanic'' was a British passenger liner, operated by the White Star Line, which sank in the North Atlantic Ocean on 15 April 1912 after striking an iceberg during her maiden voyage from Southampton, England, to New York City, United ...
''. Work at Danzig proceeded very slowly. Finally in autumn 1921 the so-called Columbus Agreement was reached, under which the German government and NDL undertook to facilitate rapid completion of the ''Columbus'' in exchange for the British government returning ownership to the NDL of six smaller ships which had spent the war years in South America: the postal steamers ''Seydlitz'' and ''Yorck'', the ''Gotha'', and the freighters ''Göttingen'', ''
Westfalen Westphalia (; german: Westfalen ; nds, Westfalen ) is a region of northwestern Germany and one of the three historic parts of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia. It has an area of and 7.9 million inhabitants. The territory of the regio ...
'' and ''Holstein''. The company also began to build new freighters and passenger ships and to buy back other ships. In late 1921, service to South America was resumed with the ''Seydlitz'', and in early 1922, East Asian service with the ''Westfalen''. On 12 February 1922, service to New York with NDL's own ships resumed with ''Seydlitz''. The other ship of the Columbus class, the former ''Hindenburg'', was completed in 1924 and named ''Columbus''; she was placed in scheduled transatlantic passenger service. A brief post-war boom was followed by severe
inflation In economics, inflation is an increase in the general price level of goods and services in an economy. When the general price level rises, each unit of currency buys fewer goods and services; consequently, inflation corresponds to a reductio ...
in Germany, despite which NDL continued to expand their fleet. Twelve new ships of between 8,700 and were placed in service for South and Central America and the Far East, then in addition to ''Columbus'' three new ships of between 13,000 and for the North Atlantic (the ''München'', ''Stuttgart'' and ''Berlin''), and in 1927 the former was bought back from Great Britain and placed in service as the ''Dresden''. In 1920, Carl Stimming became director general of NDL, while his predecessor Heineken became chairman of the board. Between 1925 and 1928, the company acquired a number of German shipping companies: HABAL, the Roland Line, and Argo. The acquisition of the Roland Line brought Ernst Glässel onto the board of directors, where he was to have increasing influence. In 1926, the company were once more able to pay a
dividend A dividend is a distribution of profits by a corporation to its shareholders. When a corporation earns a profit or surplus, it is able to pay a portion of the profit as a dividend to shareholders. Any amount not distributed is taken to be re-in ...
. American credit financed continuing expansion and orders for new ships. In 1929 and 1930, the company placed its two largest ships in service, SS ''Bremen'' () and SS ''Europa'' (). With an average speed of about 27.9
knots A knot is a fastening in rope or interwoven lines. Knot may also refer to: Places * Knot, Nancowry, a village in India Archaeology * Knot of Isis (tyet), symbol of welfare/life. * Minoan snake goddess figurines#Sacral knot Arts, entertainme ...
, both were to take the Blue Riband for the fastest Atlantic crossings. In 1929, ''Columbus'' was completely refitted. From 1928 to 1939, the volume of passengers travelling between the US and Europe declined sharply. In 1928, the NDL transported about 8% of a passenger volume of 1,168,414 passengers; in 1932, 16.2% of the 751,592 passengers transported; in 1938, around 11% of 685,655 passengers. In addition, there was significant new competition from new Italian, French and British superliners: the Italian SS ''Rex'' () and SS ''Conte di Savoia'' (), the French SS ''Normandie'' (), and the British RMS ''Queen Mary'' (). The 1929 economic crisis which began in the US affected the German shipping companies. The NDL and the HAPAG therefore entered into a cooperation agreement in 1930, and beginning in 1935, instituted joint operations in the North Atlantic. The first signs of a merger were visible. By 1932, the NDL was in an economic crisis, with about 5,000 employees let go, salary cuts, and red ink. Glässel was dismissed. The government placed both NDL and HAPAG in trusteeship under Siegfried Graf von Roedern, and following the death of Stimming, Heinrich F. Albert briefly became head of the NDL, followed after some eighteen months by the
National Socialist Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Na ...
Rudolph Firle. Bremen State Councillor
Karl Lindemann Karl may refer to: People * Karl (given name), including a list of people and characters with the name * Karl der Große, commonly known in English as Charlemagne * Karl Marx, German philosopher and political writer * Karl of Austria, last Austria ...
was chairman of the board from 1933 to 1945. A programme of economic recovery by divestments and restructuring was initiated. HBAL and the Roland Line became independent companies once more, and other lines took over services to Africa and the Mediterranean. The Nazi regime ordered both NDL and HAPAG to relinquish ships to other lines which were to operate in their regions without competition from other German companies, in particular to
Hamburg Süd Hamburg Südamerikanische Dampfschifffahrts-Gesellschaft A/S & Co KG, widely known as Hamburg Süd, is a German container shipping company. Founded in 1871, Hamburg Süd is among the market leaders in the North–South trade. It also serves a ...
, the Deutsche Afrika-Linien and the Deutsche Levante Linie. In 1935, the ''Scharnhorst'', ''Gneisenau'', and ''Potsdam'', each with about , were placed in service for the Far East. The modernization of the fleet continued and in 1937 the line made modest profits. In 1939 the slipped out of Lyttelton Harbour (New Zealand) on 28 August, on the eve of
World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
, ostensibly for
Port Kembla, New South Wales Port Kembla is a suburb of Wollongong 8 km south of the CBD and part of the Illawarra region of New South Wales. The suburb comprises a seaport, industrial complex (one of the largest in Australia), a small harbour foreshore nature reserve ...
, where she was to have filled her coal bunkers for the homeward passage to Europe. She then headed for the subantarctic
Auckland Islands The Auckland Islands (Māori: ''Motu Maha'' "Many islands" or ''Maungahuka'' "Snowy mountains") are an archipelago of New Zealand, lying south of the South Island. The main Auckland Island, occupying , is surrounded by smaller Adams Island, ...
, where she successfully evaded the cruiser , and re-stocked with food and wood. The freighter then made a desperate and successful escape, using jury-rigged sails, to
Valparaíso Valparaíso (; ) is a major city, seaport, naval base, and educational centre in the commune of Valparaíso, Chile. "Greater Valparaíso" is the second largest metropolitan area in the country. Valparaíso is located about northwest of Santiago ...
, Chile, in South America. She then made her way into the South Atlantic where, on 24 July 1941, she was intercepted off Montevideo by and scuttled by her crew. In 1939 NDL had in service 70 vessels with a total of , including the sail training vessel ''Kommodore Johnsen'' (now the Russian '' STS Sedov''), 3 daytrip ships, 19 tugs and 125 small ships, and employed 12,255, 8,811 on vessels. Nine further freighters were completed after the outbreak of World War II. This entire fleet was either lost during the war or awarded to the Allies as reparations. ''Columbus'' had to be sunk in 1939; ''Bremen'' burned in 1941; '' Steuben'' was sunk in the Baltic in 1945 with the loss of some 4,000 lives; ''Europa'', claimed by France, became the ''Liberté'' in 1947. The Reich was the primary stockholder in the company, but in 1941/42, NDL was once more privatized and cigarette manufacturer Philipp Reemtsma became primary stockholder. Dr. Johannes Kulenkampff, a board member since 1932, and Richard Bertram, a board member since 1937, became Chairman in 1942.


After World War II

At the end of World War II the company's headquarters (which had in any case been sold in 1942) had been severely damaged by bombing and all its large vessels either destroyed or seized. It was left with only the freighter ''Bogotá'', which was in Japan. Relicensed by the American military administration on November 29, 1945 as a "coastal shipping and stevedoring company," it started again, as after World War I, practically from zero, offering tugboat and daytripper services. Kulenkampff and Bertram constituted the Board and there were at first only 350 employees. In 1948, the first Hapag-Lloyd travel agency opened. Business initially consisted of emigration and a limited amount of tourism. Beginning in 1949, German companies were permitted to order and to build ships of up to . In 1950, the NDL placed its first post-war orders at the
Bremer Vulkan Bremer Vulkan AG was a prominent German shipbuilding company located at the Weser river in Bremen-Vegesack. It was founded in 1893 and closed in 1997 because of financial problems and mismanagement. All together Bremer Vulkan built about 1100 s ...
shipyard, the Rheinstein class (, 13 knots). After the limitations on German shipping imposed by the Allies were lifted in 1951, the NDL commenced building a new fleet. First it bought older freighters (for example the ''Nabob'', a former American auxiliary aircraft carrier) and had new freighters built between 4,000 and and 5,000 and 13,000 DWT, all with names ending in -''stein''. The line had routes to Canada, New Orleans, the Canary Islands, and beginning in 1953 to the Far East. Passenger service resumed in 1955 using a rebuilt 1924 Swedish ship, the MS ''Gripsholm''. Renamed ''Berlin'', she was the sixth German ship of that name, the fourth at NDL, and sailed North Atlantic routes. In 1959, the company added the ''Bremen'' (formerly ''Pasteur''), and in 1965, the ''Europa'' (formerly ''Kungsholm''), ''Gripsholms sister ship bought from the Swedish American Line, with a capacity of 843 passengers. These vessels were first placed in scheduled service to America but soon transferred to cruising. In 1967, the express freighter ''Friesenstein'' (21.5 knots) inaugurated the Friesenstein class and replaced ''Nabob'' and ''Schwabenstein''. Passenger service was running at an increasing deficit, and the rapidly growing
container A container is any receptacle or enclosure for holding a product used in storage, packaging, and transportation, including shipping. Things kept inside of a container are protected on several sides by being inside of its structure. The term ...
traffic required cost-intensive retooling in the freight business. In 1968 NDL inaugurated container service to the USA with the ''Weser-Express''; two more container ships were soon added. Around 1960, NDL had 47 ships, a number that remained almost unchanged until 1970. In 1968, the fleet totaled (in 1970, ) and was the 16th largest shipping company worldwide; HAPAG, with , was the 9th largest. In 1970, NDL had a turnover of 515 million DM and share capital of 54 million DM, and employed 6,200 people, 3,500 of them at sea. In 1967, Claus Wätjen and Dr. Horst Willner, and in 1969 Karl-Heinz Sager, joined the Board. Kulenkampff served on the Board until 1968 and Bertram until 1970. Since the NDL was already executing three quarters of its freight business in association with HAPAG, a merger of the two largest German shipping companies was entirely logical. On September 1, 1970, the North German Lloyd merged with
Hamburg America Line The Hamburg-Amerikanische Packetfahrt-Aktien-Gesellschaft (HAPAG), known in English as the Hamburg America Line, was a transatlantic shipping enterprise established in Hamburg, in 1847. Among those involved in its development were prominent citi ...
(HAPAG) to form
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 ...
AG, based in
Hamburg (male), (female) en, Hamburger(s), Hamburgian(s) , timezone1 = Central (CET) , utc_offset1 = +1 , timezone1_DST = Central (CEST) , utc_offset1_DST = +2 , postal ...
with secondary headquarters in Bremen. On 20 February 2007, a small group of dedicated, former member of the North German Lloyd organized for the 150th anniversary of the foundation of the shipping company a meeting at the Bremer Ratskeller. This event was very popular, so it was decided to carry out in the following years further meetings. – Meanwhile, the meetings take place annually on the twentieth of February in Bremen in the former Lloyd's building – today Courtyard Marriott hotel.


Legacy

* The new company has ''Lloyd'' as part of its name. * The
Lloyd Werft Lloyd Werft Bremerhaven GmbH is a dockyard in Bremerhaven Bremerhaven (, , Low German: ''Bremerhoben'') is a city at the seaport of the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen, a state of the Federal Republic of Germany. It forms a semi-enclave in ...
in Bremerhaven, with its headquarters in the former laundry facility, continues the memory of the NDL. * The former company headquarters on Papenstraße was demolished and replaced by a department store in 1969, but the Große Hundestraße on one side of the site was the first street in Bremen to be privatized, and has been roofed with glass to become a pedestrian mall. It is called ''Lloyd Passage''. * The Lloyd baggage department building or Lloyd station on Gustav Deetjen Allee at the main station in Bremen, built in 1913 to
Rudolph Jacobs Heinrich Rudolf Jacobs (1879–1946) was a German architect who was active in Bremen. Although much of his work was destroyed in the war, the facade of the post office building next to the station still stands. He is also remembered for his work o ...
' design, became Hapag-Lloyd's secondary headquarters. The NDL's company emblem adorns the main entrance. Almost all company buildings are now in Hamburg and Hanover. * The Lloyd Dynamowerke (LDW) in Bremen * Buildings in Bremen and Bremerhaven still bear the marks of former use by the NDL. * The
Bremer Bank The Otto Bremer Trust is a private charitable trust located in St. Paul, Minnesota. It was founded by Otto Bremer in 1944 and owns 92 percent of Bremer Bank. In 2016, the Trust made a record $47 million in grants and program-related investment ...
, now absorbed by Commerzbank, was founded by Meier to provide financing.


Major people

* Hermann Henrich Meier, founder and 1857–1888 first Supervisory Board Chairman of the NDL * Eduard Crüsemann; 1857–1869 founder and first director of NDLHapag-Lloyd: The Early Years
* August Hermann Friedrich Neynaber alias HFA or HAF called Hermann Neynaber; (1822–1899) captain of many liners from 1866 to 1881 (''Bremen'', ''Deutschland'', ''Donau'', ''Mosel'', ''Kronprinz Friedrich Wilhelm'', ''Rhein'') * Johann Georg Lohmann, 1877–1892 Director of NDL * Hermann Friedrich Bremermann; 1868–1892 Director of the NDL * Willy Christoffers; Captain from 1886 to 1900 * Georg Plate, from 1887 to the Supervisory Board of the NDL, 1892–1911 Chairman of the NDL * Dr.
Heinrich Wiegand Johann Heinrich Christoph Wiegand (17 August 1855 in Bremen – 29 March 1909 in Bad Homburg vor der Höhe) was a lawyer who served as general director of the Norddeutscher Lloyd shipping company during a period of great expansion. Life and career ...
; 1892–1899 Director and 1899–1909 Director-General of NDL * Charles Polack, captain in 1913 of the SS ''Kronprinzessin Cecilie'' * Dr. Philipp Heineken, Director-General in 1909–1920, 1920–1933 Chairman of the Supervisory Board of NDL * Carl Joachim Stimming, Director General, 1921–31 * Arnold Petzet; from 1906 to 1927 on NDL's board, responsible for transport within Germany, establishment of the cruise sector * Ernst Glässel; 1926 member of the Lloyd Executive Board, 1931–1932 Chairman of the Board *
Dietrich Hogemann Dietrich Hogemann (1852–1917) was Commodore of the Norddeutscher Lloyd fleet of ocean liners. He retired in May 1913 after 44 years at sea. He died in 1917 in Bremen, Germany. Awards * Order of the Red Eagle, Prussian Red Eagle and the Crown ...
, commodore who retired in 1913 * Paul König, 1911 captain, 1916 captain of the U-boat, 1920–1932 Head of the marine department of the NDL * Nikolaus Johnsen, captain and commodore in 1924 of the ''Columbus'', and in 1930 ''Europe'' (III) * Leopold Ziegenbein, captain and commodore of ''Bremen'' (IV) * Oskar Scharf, captain on the ''Europa'' (III) * Adolf Ahrens, captain and commodore of ''Columbus'' and ''Bremen'' (IV)
Herbert Schwarzwälder Herbert Schwarzwälder (14 October 1919 – 11 September 2011) was a German historian. With his decades of work and his extensive publications, he has had a major influence on the research and communication of the . Life Schwarzwälder was born ...
: ''Das Große Bremen-Lexikon''. , 2003,
* Dr. Heinrich F. Albert, 1932–1933 Director General of the NDL * Friedrich Johann Gottfried Hubert Paffrath, 1929-1941 Superintendent * Karl Lindemann (ex State Council), 1933–1945 Chairman of the Supervisory Board of NDL * Dr. Rudolph Firle, 1933–1944. Director General of the NDL * Dr. Johnannes Kulenkampff; from 1932 Board Member, from 1942 Executive Board member * Richard Bertram; from 1937 Board Member, from 1942 Executive Board member * Paul Hampel, director of ship maintenance of the NDL of about 1950 to 1970 * Heinrich Lorenz, captain of the ''Berlin'' (IV) * Günter Rössing, captain of the ''Bremen'' (V)Focke, Harald: ''Bremens letzte Liner. Die großen Passagierschiffe des Norddeutschen Lloyd nach 1945''. Hauschild Verlag, Bremen 2002,


Fleet

This is a list of all ships in service of the NDL. Some of the ships were owned previously by other companies.


References


Further reading

* Buchholz, Jörn/Focke, Harald: ''Auf Lloyd-Frachtern. Erinnerungen 1957 bis 1964''. Hauschild, Bremen, 2007, * Focke, Harald: ''Bremens letzte Liner. Die großen Passagierschiffe des Norddeutschen Lloyd nach 1945''. Hauschild, Bremen, 2002, * Focke, Harald: ''Mit dem Lloyd nach New York. Erinnerungen an die Passagierschiffe BERLIN, BREMEN und EUROPA''. Hauschild, Bremen, 2004, * Focke, Harald: '' Im Liniendienst auf dem Atlantik. Neue Erinnerungen an die Passagierschiffe BERLIN, BREMEN und EUROPA des Norddeutschen Lloyd''. Hauschild, Bremen, 2006, * Kludas, Arnold: ''Die Seeschiffe des Norddeutschen Lloyd: 1857–1970'' (2 vols). Koehlers Verlagsgesellschaft mbH, Herford, 1991 / 1992 * Reinke-Kunze, Christiane: ''Die Geschichte der Reichs-Post-Dampfer-Verbindung zwischen den Kontinenten 1886-11914'', Herford 1994, . * Wiborg, Susanne, und Klaus Wiborg: ''1847–1997, Mein Feld ist die Welt – 150 Jahre Hapag-Lloyd'', Hapag-Lloyd AG, Hamburg 1997. * Rübner, Hartmut: ''Konzentration und Krise der deutschen Schiffahrt. Maritime Wirtschaft im Kaiserreich, in der Weimarer Republik und im Nationalsozialismus''. Hauschild, Bremen 2005 * Thiel, Reinhold: ''Die Geschichte des Norddeutschen Lloyd: 1857–1970'' (5 vols). Hauschild, Bremen 2001 * Witthöft, Hans Jürgen: ''Norddeutscher Lloyd''. Koehlers Verlagsgesellschaft mbH, Herford, 1973, * Dirk J. Peters (Hrsg.): ''Der Norddeutsche Lloyd – Von Bremen in die Welt – „Global Player“ der Schifffahrtsgeschichte''. Hauschild, Bremen, 2007,


External links


Fleet information

Gallery of NDL's fleets at Norway-Heritage


GG Archives


SS DRESDEN

The Last Ocean Liners – North German Lloyd
– trade routes and ships of North German Lloyd in the 1950s and 60s *

GG Archive

{{Authority control Shipping companies of Germany Transatlantic shipping companies Companies based in Hamburg Defunct companies of Germany Transport in Bremen (state) Transport companies established in 1857 Transport companies disestablished in 1970 1857 establishments in Germany 1857 establishments in Bremen 1970 disestablishments in West Germany