Hamburg America Line

HAPAG flag
Native name	Hamburg-Amerikanische Paketfahrt-Aktien-Gesellschaft
Industry	shipping
Founded	1847
Founder	Albert Ballin (Director General), Adolph Godeffroy, Ferdinand Laeisz, Carl Woermann, and August Bolten
Defunct	1 September 1970
Fate	Merged withNorddeutscher Lloyd
Successor	Hapag-Lloyd
Headquarters	Hamburg , Germany

TheHamburg-Amerikanische Packetfahrt-Actien-Gesellschaft (HAPAG), known in English as theHamburg America Line, was a transatlantic shipping enterprise established inHamburg, in 1847. Among those involved in its development were prominent German citizens such asAlbert Ballin (director general), Adolph Godeffroy, Ferdinand Laeisz, Carl Woermann, August Bolten, and others, and its main financial backers wereBerenberg Bank andH. J. Merck & Co. It soon developed into the largest German, and at times the world's largest, shipping company, serving the market created byGerman immigration to the United States and later, immigration from Eastern Europe. On 1 September 1970, after 123 years of independent existence, HAPAG merged with the Bremen-basedNorth German Lloyd to formHapag-Lloyd AG, today an international shipping and containertransportation company.

In the early years, the Hamburg America Line exclusively connected European ports with North American ports, such asHoboken, New Jersey, orNew Orleans, Louisiana. With time, however, the company established lines to all continents. The company built a largeocean liner terminal atCuxhaven, Germany, in 1900. Connected directly toHamburg 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 andcruise ship terminal.^[1]

The Atlas Service sailed from New York toJamaica,Haiti,Colombia,Central America.^[2] The service was described as a way to "escape the rigors of Northern winters" through taking a Caribbean cruise and was promoted to tourists.^[2] The shipsAltai,Sarnia,Sibiria,Alleghany,Alene,Adirondack,Valdivia, andGraecia provided this service in 1906.^[2]

In 1858, its linerAustria sank, killing 449 people. In 1891, the cruise of theAugusta 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 published an illustrated account of it as "Bakschisch". In 1897, its steamerArcadia was wrecked on the rocks off Newfoundland.^[3] In 1900, 1901 and 1903 its linerDeutschland won theBlue Riband taking the prize from theKaiser Wilhelm der Grosse. In 1906Prinzessin Victoria Luise ran aground off the coast ofJamaica. No people died by the grounding; however, the ship's captain committed suicide after getting all the passengers safely off the ship.^[4] In 1912, its linerSSAmerika was the first ship to warnTitanic of icebergs.

HAPAG's general director,Albert Ballin, believed that safety, size, comfort and luxury would always win out over speed. Thus he conceived the three largest liners yet to be built, namedImperator,Vaterland andBismarck.

TheImperator and theVaterland were briefly in service before the First World War. In 1914, theVaterland was caught in port atHoboken, New Jersey at the outbreak of World War I and interned by the United States. She was seized, renamedLeviathan after the declaration of war on Germany in 1917, and served for the duration and beyond as a troopship. In 1917, its linerAllemannia was "torpedoed by German submarine near Alicante"; two people were lost.^[5]

After the war, theVaterland/Leviathan was retained by the Americans aswar reparations. In 1919Vaterland's sister ships –Imperator and the unfinishedBismarck – were handed over to the allies as war reparations to Britain. They were sold to theCunard Line andWhite Star Line respectively, and renamedBerengaria andMajestic. A ship chain inMountain Lakes, New Jersey is identified by the historic society as belonging to either theVaterland orImperator. It was acquired in 1921, likely during refurbishments, and now lines a portion of the Boulevard.

In 1939, the HAPAG linerSt. Louis was unable to find a port inCuba, 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 attackedKristiansand, Norway, duringOperation Weserübung (the opening assault of theNorwegian Campaign), the HAPAG freighterSeattle sailed into the crossfire between the warships and Norwegian coastal artillery. She was holed and sunk, and her crew briefly became prisoners of war.

According to a 1940 US intelligence report compiled by the US War Department, Louis Classing, general manager of the Hamburg-America in Havana was identified as a "well-known Nazi agent" who "imported moving pictures for propaganda purposes to be shown at local theaters".^[6][7] In 1941 it was further reported that Luis Classing fulfilled the "finances" position in the "probable Nazi organization in Cuba".^[6]

The Hamburg America Line lost almost the entirety of its fleet twice, as a result ofWorld Wars I andII. In the post-war years, HAPAG rebuilt its fleet and focused on cargo container transport. In 1970, the company merged with its longstanding rival,Norddeutscher Lloyd ofBremen, to establish the present-day companyHapag-Lloyd. This merger formed one of the world's biggest container shipping companies. In 2008, Hapag-Lloyd was acquired by the City ofHamburg and a group of private investors, the Albert Ballin Consortium.^[8]

This list isincomplete; you can help byadding missing items.(June 2022)

• Holland America Line
• Norwegian America Line
• Scandinavian America Line
• Swedish American Line
• SS Cleveland
• SS Hertford
• SS Imperator
• USS President Lincoln

Wikimedia Commons has media related toHamburg-Amerikanische Packetfahrt-Actien-Gesellschaft.

• Fleet information(in German)
• The history of the Hamburg-America Line
• Historic photos of Hoboken and Hamburg America Line ports
• Passenger Lists from the Hamburg-Amerika Linie GG Archives
• Hamburg-Amerika Line ships This collection contains 16 photographs depicting ship interior and exterior views of Hamburg-Amerika Line's luxury passenger shipsAugusta Victoria,Columbia andNormannia by Louis Koch, Bremen
• Documents and clippings about Hamburg America Line in the20th Century Press Archives of theZBW
• Hamburg-American Line History and Ephemera GG Archives

• Hamburg America Line
• 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

• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata
• Incomplete lists from June 2022
• Commons category link is on Wikidata
• Articles with German-language sources (de)