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Albert Ballin

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Page 1: Albert Ballin - uni-hamburg.de...Albert Ballin His was an unprecedented rise to the top: from the thirteenth child of a poor Jewish emigrant agent to the “sovereign of shipping”

Alb

ert

Bal

lin

His was an unprecedented rise tothe top: from the thirteenth child ofa poor Jewish emigrant agent to the“sovereign of shipping” and “friend”of the Kaiser. It is hardly surprisingthat Albert Ballin was one of theforemost figures of the WilhelmineEmpire. From the beginning, heattracted attention at Hamburg-Amerikanische Packetfahrt-Actien-Gesellschaft, known as Hapag forshort. Under its manager Ballin,Hapag became the largest shippingline in the world.

From 1907 until his tragic death onNovember 9th 1918, Ballin belongedto the board of trustees of theHamburg Scientific Foundation, to which he also contributed in aspecial way. As a member of the ex-pedition committee, he played agreat part in the realisation of thelarge Pacific expedition to the Bis-marck Archipelago and New Guinea(1908–10), which confirmed Ham-burg’s reputation as a centre forscience.

This biography sketches the unusuallife of this man, who personifiedperhaps more than any of his con-temporaries the prominence andpower of the second GermanEmpire but at the same time alsoexperienced its limits and weak-nesses.

The following titles have so far beenpublished in the series “Patrons forScience” (in German):

Volume 1 The founders of the HamburgScientific Foundation

Volume 2 Sophie Christine and Carl Heinrich Laeisz. A biographical approach tothe times and issues of their lives

Volume 3 Eduard Lorenz Lorenz-Meyer. A Hamburg merchant and artist

Volume 4 Hermann Franz Matthias Mutzen-becher. A Hamburg insurer

Volume 5 The brothers Augustus Friedrichand Gustav Adolph Vorwerk. Two Hamburg merchants

Volume 6 Albert Ballin

Volume 7Ernst Friedrich Sieveking. Firstchairman of the HanseaticAppellate Court

Albert Ballin

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Albert Ballin

by Johannes Gerhardt

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Sponsored by Hapag-Lloyd Foundation

English translation: Christopher Watson, BA, Hamburg

Dedicated to the families who with their generous donations 103 yearsago made possible the establishment of Hamburg Scientific Foundationand were instrumental in ensuring that the foundation can continueto promote research, teaching and education.

Patrons for Science

publ. by Ekkehard Nümann

Inhalt

Vorwort des Herausgebers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . S. 3

1. Quellenlage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . S. 4

2. Der Familien- und Firmengründer Georg Friedrich Vorwerk . . S. 6

3. Zur Kindheit und Jugend der Vorwerk-Brüder . . . . . . . . . . . . S. 15

4. Eine Reise von Augustus Friedrich nach Nordamerika und Kuba . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . S. 23

5. Die Firmen in Chile und Hamburg . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . S. 28

6. Friedrich, Adolph und deren Ehefrauen in den Erinnerungen dreier Enkel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . S. 44

7. „Villa Josepha“ und „Haupthaus“ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . S. 54

8. Gustav Adolph als Bau- und Gartengestalter . . . . . . . . . . . . . S. 60

9. Entwicklungen nach dem Tod der Brüder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . S. 67

10. Anhänge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . S. 70

11. Literatur . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . S. 72

12. Namensregister . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . S. 74

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Contents

Publisher’s preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p. 4

Foreword by the Chairman of the Executive Board of Hapag-Lloyd AG . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p. 5

1. Prologue . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p. 72. Early years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p. 10Parents and childhood . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p. 10

Starting into business on his own . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p. 11

Marriage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p. 16

Personality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p. 18

3. Albert Ballin and the rise of Hapag . . . . . . . . . . p. 24Hapag before Albert Ballin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p. 24

The first German top manager . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p. 25

Shipbuilding policy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p. 31

Hapag as supplier of tourism services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p. 43

Emigrant halls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p. 47

Expansion of Hapag’s liner network . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p. 56

Shipping diplomacy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p. 61

4. Albert Ballin and politics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p. 72“Little Potsdam” and Hamfelde . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p. 72

Albert Ballin and the Kaiser . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p. 74

Albert Ballin and his political influence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p. 80

Albert Ballin and the Admiral . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p. 82

Albert Ballin and “big politics” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p. 84

5. Albert Ballin and the “great seminalCatastrophe of the 20th Century“ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p. 90Economic expansion and military confrontation . . . . . . . . . . . . p. 90

Albert Ballin in July 1914 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p. 92

Hapag in the first world war . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p. 94

Political influence in wartime Berlin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p. 97

Albert Ballin’s attitudes to the war aims of the German Empire p. 100

Albert Ballin’s attitudes to submarine warfare . . . . . . . . . . . . . p. 102

Peace via Wilson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p. 104

The end . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p. 107

6. Epilogue . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p. 1177. Appendices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p. 121Family tree (excerpt) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p. 121

Albert Ballin and Hapag . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p. 122

8. Sources, literature and photo credits . . . . . . . p. 1249. Name index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p. 130

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Publisher’s preface

The Hamburg Scientific Foundation celebrated its centenary in 2007. Thisis the sixth volume in the series “Patrons for Science” initiated to mark thisoccasion. The history of the foundation is represented in it, and foundersand members of the board of trustees are honoured in individual volumes.

The initiation of this series reflects the gratitude towards those who morethan 100 years ago had the courage to create the foundation for promotingthe sciences and academic research in Hamburg and ensured that this cityobtained an university. This is linked with the hope and expectation that

subsequent generations may take this as an example.

Ekkehard Nümann

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Albert Ballin’s name stands for an unprecedented success story in business:under his management, Hapag grew into the largest shipping company inthe world, and Hamburg became the gateway to this world. Ballin’s gen-erous and far-sighted sponsoring activities, on the other hand, are less well-known. The “top manager” who represented his company so impressivelyin public was very discrete with his sponsoring of worthy causes. Successcounted for more than publicity for Ballin, who was particularly fond oflinking financial support with practical assistance. His commitment on be-half of the Hamburg Scientific Foundation was typical in this respect:Ballin was not only a generous financial promoter, but also helped to

organise the large ethnological Pacific Expedition.

In this combination lay Ballin’s strength: he was a pragmatic visionary andcould intuitively respond to trends of the time as well as turn them to prof-itable ends. While he developed new business areas with a visionary spirit,he also attended to every detail of his “overall work of art Hapag”. He thusmade history. He invented the modern cruise in 1891 and then expandedHapag also into the pioneering company in tourism and was even involvedin civil aviation. Hapag achieved its global success thanks above all to theservice it offered, in all classes: even poor emigrants were always taken seri-ously as customers and attracted with offers of passages. Millions of Euro-peans set off from Hapag’s internationally acclaimed emigrant town in

the Port of Hamburg to start a new life overseas.

The director general, one of the first German managers, devoted himself sowholeheartedly to his life’s work that it was stated: “He was Hapag, andHapag was him.” For Ballin, that meant above all a sense of responsibil-ity: the visionary was never a gambler. The Hapag balance sheets of his eraimpressively confirm the sound financial foundation of even the most am-

bitious projects of the company at any time.

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Foreword by the Chairman of the Executive Boardof Hapag-Lloyd AG

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Ballin had a wide-ranging sense of responsibility. He regarded Hapag asan integral component of its home country as well as integrated in a worldeconomy with interconnections that he understood far better than mostpoliticians of his time. He was a successful shipping diplomat who fordecades at the head of large international conferences and joint venturesmanaged to solve even the most controversial problems constructively.Ballin also tried finally to transfer this successful model to politics: he madegreat efforts to advocate German-British rapprochement from 1908, but

failed tragically because of the military-political establishment.

Vision just as much as pragmatism were also typical of the social involve-ment of the head of Hapag. For example, in 1911 with his discrete commit-ment he played a decisive part in ensuring the financing of Lüneburg HeathNature Park. In 1909 he had already joined the Jordsand Association andsupported the exemplary environmental protection project by helping fi-nance the purchase of Hallig Norderoog. Ballin was also a particularly gen-erous and forward-looking patron of science: he was, for example, one ofthe financial backers making possible the beginnings of the present-

day Max Planck Society.

Albert Ballin embodied what is regarded as typically “Hanseatic”: cos-mopolitanism, open-mindedness and dynamism, coupled with down-to-earth realism and business acumen. He left an enduring mark on our com-pany as well as his home city Hamburg, and indeed his name has beenregarded internationally as the embodiment and hallmark of excellence ofGerman shipping. But Ballin’s far-sightedness, dedication and influencewent well beyond the realm of business. The commitment of the great manfrom Hamburg also lives on in the Hamburg Scientific Foundation, in

which he was a member of the board of trustees.

Michael BehrendtMichael Behrendt

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Prologue

[1]

A few days after Albert Ballin’s death, KurtSinger, editor-in-chief of the “Wirtschafts-dienst” and later lecturer in economics atHamburg University, wrote on November15th 1918: “Germany is losing its greatestshipowner, one of its most brilliant media-tors and one of its most loyal advisors, butalso the man who represented like none

other the power and limits of the post-Bis-marck empire as representative and as sym-bol. With him and in him an era goes to anend.”1

···································································Ballin was one of those who achieved aswift rise in Wilhelmine society and madethe most of the scope for advancement in

Albert Ballin, by Henning Edens

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the German Empire, founded in 1871. Un-der his management, Hamburg-Amerikani-sche Packetfahrt-Actien-Gesellschaft, whichwas established in 1847 and called Hapag,became the world’s largest shipping com-pany. Ballin’s career is all the more impres-sive because as son of a Jew who had emi-grated from Denmark to Hamburg he hadanything but a favourable start in life. ···································································Ballin was an “honest admirer” of Wil-helm II.2 He shared this attitude with manymembers of the upper middle class, withbank directors, captains of industry andshipowners. They all sought proximity tothe monarch, who did not basically restrict

personal contact (unlike the Hohenzollernrulers before him) to members of the aris-tocracy. Ballin was able with his ships togenerate a special aura of splendour aroundthe monarch, which undoubtedly impressedhim – the German Empire founded a fewyears before had, after all, scarcely a pastwith traditions capable of being magnifi-cently presented on specific occasions. TheHapag luxury liners “Imperator”, “Vater-land” and “Bismarck”, launched between1912 and 1914, have thus been regarded astypical examples of Wilhelminism, as “float-ing symbols” of an entire country and, by acertain analogy, Albert Ballin has been seenas a Wilhelminist.3

Albert Ballin’s study with the bust of Wilhelm II in his villa in Feldbrunnenstrasse

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···································································The prism through which the historic per-sonality Albert Ballin is observed below has

– as already indicated by the brief introduc-tory comments – two focal points: one eco-nomic and one political.

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··············································································································································1 Singer, Tod, p. 8.2 Stubmann, Feld, p. 137.3 Hauschild-Thiessen, Generaldirektor, p. 245; Wiborg, Volldampf, p. 24; Röhl, Eulenburg, p. 35.··············································································································································

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Parents and childhood···································································Albert Ballin’s father Samuel Joel Ballin,who later called himself Joseph Ballin, wasa massively built man. He emigrated fromDenmark to Hamburg around 1830. He in-itially worked as a textile entrepreneur butwent bankrupt in this line of business andlater also failed with a coal firm. In 1852, hefounded an independent emigrant agencywith his partner Samuel Moritz Hirsch. Thistraded under the name Morris & Co. (prob-ably named after an English agent) and hada concession as an agency for emigrantsfrom Schleswig-Holstein, Mecklenburg andoutside Germany. The agency attractedthese persons and organised their passages,particularly to the USA. However, businessdid not prosper, and Samuel Ballin had dif-ficulties supporting his large family. ···································································There was a rapid surge in the number ofemigrants from 1850. Previously Bremenhad played the key role in Germany in the“emigrant business”, a term that is contem-porary and very vividly shows what was in-volved, but then Hamburg gradually pickedup. Independent agencies like that of Sa-muel Ballin, however, continued to have adifficult time. Their activities were a thornin the eye of Hamburg shipping lines, as theindependent operators were unwelcome

competitors. Around 1850, the shippinglines therefore began to stop allocating shipcapacities to them. This marked the begin-ning of the “indirect traffic”: the indepen-dent agencies brought the emigrants toHamburg, where they embarked on smallBritish ships and were taken to ports on theeast coast of England. Then the passengerswent by train to Liverpool, where they wereput on vessels of British shipping linesbound for America. ···································································Albert Ballin was born on August 15th1857. His mother Amalia Ballin, a daughterof the well-to-do merchant Joseph Meyer,was the second wife of Samuel Ballin, withwhom she had nine children. Then therewere four more children from Ballin’s firstmarriage. Albert was the youngest child inthis long line. The house where he was bornno longer exists. It was Stubbenhuk 17,scarcely more than 25 yards from a lively cor-ner of the Port of Hamburg. Some yearslater, the family moved to Baumwall 6,where it again lived right by the port. Al-bert’s childhood experiences – “the eternallydefining in a person” (Berthold Auerbach) –thus came from a milieu defined by seamenand ships carrying goods of every type. Hewas closely connected with the Port ofHamburg his entire life. ···································································

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Early years

[2]

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The Ballins belonged to the Jewish under-class in Hamburg, and the more the familygrew, the worse its financial position be-came. The family moved “in the dismalzones in which the transition from the lowermiddle class into the proletariat can oftennot be halted”.4 Little is known about Al-bert’s childhood and youth. In later years henever talked about it and reacted to ques-tions concerning his early years “in the mostunfriendly way”, as his employees noted.5···································································The boy’s schooling did not go beyond at-tending the academy of Professor Gold-mann, an institution whose fine-soundingname today promises more than it could de-liver at that time. Albert did not do parti-cularly well at this school. He left it beforehe was even fifteen and joined his father’sbusiness. It is reported that he was interested

for a time in playing the cello. However, itis to be presumed that later friends triedwith such anecdotal details to give a touchof middle-class propriety to what was inretrospect a dismal childhood. No one ex-perienced Ballin ever playing music as anadult.6 In 1910, he once wrote about hisyouth in a letter to a friend: “I think you andI were never young. This involves freedomfrom cares – and in this respect we are bothbadly burdened.”7

···································································Starting into business on his own···································································When Samuel Joel Ballin died on Septem-ber 17th 1874, his widow Amalia Ballin her-self became part-owner of the company.Their two sons, Albert and his older brother

Albert Ballin’s parents (ca. 1862)

The young Albert Ballin (ca. 1865)

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Joseph, were given power of attorney in1875. They were supported by the previouspartner Wilhelm Wolffsohn, who then leftthe firm in 1877. Joseph Ballin soon optedfor another profession, that of jobber (hehad a tragic end: he shot himself in 1909).The 20 year-old authorised signatory AlbertBallin thus became responsible for the man-agement of the small company: in winter1877 he applied to become prematurely ofage, which he was declared on January 25th1878. On August 16th 1879, he became co-owner of Morris & Co.8 Thus began his riseto become one of the most well-known Ger-mans of his time. ···································································In explaining Ballin’s success, mentionshould first be made of the external factors.The number of emigrants from Europe toAmerica began to increase again from 1880.Some of the reasons for this were the im-

provement in the economic situation in theUnited States, bloody pogroms in variousparts of Russia leading to an increase in thenumber of Jews wanting to emigrate and theexpansion of the European rail network gen-erally promoting mobility on the continentand making the port cities of Central Eu-rope easier to reach.···································································Ballin succeeded in a special way in prof-iting from these developments, the conse-quences of which he clearly recognised –and that made the difference. He revolu-tionised emigrant business with relativelysimple but highly effective means. Ballinwas quick to appreciate that the indirectemigration hitherto operated by his father’sagency could not be expanded in the longrun, so he decided to enter into the businessof direct emigration himself and start up hisown passenger line.

Baumwall and Vorsetzen, seen from the quay warehouse (1871)

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···································································Ballin can in this connection be regardedas an outstanding example of an entrepre-neur as defined by the famous economistJoseph Schumpeter in his main work “The-ory of Economic Development”. TheSchumpeter entrepreneur succeeds in aprocess of “creative destruction” of the exist-ing order with “new combinations” – suchas introducing new services, transport meth-ods and organisational forms. Implement-ing new combinations, according toSchumpeter, is “a special function and theprivilege of people who are much less nu-merous than those who had the externalpossibility for this”. They are often people“who seem to lack every external possibilityfor it”.9

···································································What were now the new combinations thatBallin realised? ···································································In 1881, Ballin approached the nephew ofthe major Hamburg shipowner Robert

Miles Sloman jr., Edward Carr (1835–1892),with an unusual proposal. Carr, who hadstarted his own business two years previ-ously, was to convert his two cargo ships.Unlike the otherwise usual transatlanticsteamers, which carried passengers in firstand second class and emigrants in steerage,Carr’s converted cargo ships were to restrictthemselves to carrying emigrants. Here, in-cidentally, it becomes evident that “emi-grant” is a class term. Also passengers emi-grated. The dividing lines are thus actuallyfluid, and the apparently clear separationbetween passengers and emigrants is not asdistinct as it seems at first glance. ···································································The conversion was, according to Ballin,not all too complex: the spaces of the shipswere to be divided up not into cabins butinto large multipurpose rooms, which couldserve as common rooms during the daytimeand as dormitories at night.10 As compensa-tion for the simple accommodation, all per-sons were to be granted access to the open

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Stubbenhuk

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Albert Ballin as a young man, by Friedrich Wilhelm Graupenstein (1882)

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decks, hitherto a privilege for passengers infirst and second class. It was argued thatwith the absence of cabins taking up spacethere would be more room for cargo – pro-viding an additional source of earnings. Forthe return voyage from America to Ham-burg, the ships could also be very easily con-verted into pure cargo vessels. ···································································The passengers could now be offered a cer-tain degree of comfort during the passage,and the price of 82 marks per person waswell below that of the competition. Carrtook up Ballin’s proposal, as it promised sus-tained high returns, particularly as Ballinguaranteed him full ships, i. e. 600 passen-gers per voyage, otherwise Morris & Co.would be obliged to make compensationpayments.11 Ballin had in turn achieved hisaim of establishing himself in direct emi-grant business. ···································································The implementation of Ballin’s ideasproved to be a complete success right fromthe beginning. After just a year, in 1882,Carr could expand his fleet from two to sixships, as Ballin sent him 12,200 emigrants,about 17 percent of the total Hamburg emi-grant traffic. And their number on Carr’svessels continued to rise, reaching 16,500 in1883.12

···································································Ballin’s and Carr’s competitor, Hapag,carried about 53,400 persons with 76 depar-tures to North America that year. Yet thesuccess of the upstart made the highly es-teemed Hanseatic gentlemen at the head ofHapag increasingly uneasy. They finally en-tered into a price war and in 1882 reducedHapag’s passage prices from 120 to 90 and ayear later even to 80 marks. Carr and Ballinresponded by continually lowering their

own prices. To prevent a hostile takeover,they also found a partner in Robert MilesSloman & Co., with which Carr’s linemerged to form Union-Linie. In these years,Ballin competed with Hapag from a posi-tion of strength. At the same time, he tookthe rivalry very personally; he is said to havesecretly put up posters of Carr’s line on theHapag office building in Deichstrasse atnight.13

···································································In 1886, an agreement was at last reachedunder which the competitors formed a com-munity of interests: Union-Linie was en-titled to lower passage prices, while Hapagassumed the management of the passageservice for both lines and undertook to allo-cate at least a quarter of all passengers to theformer rival. However, a much more deci-sive factor for Ballin’s further career was aseparate contract with Hapag, on the basisof which he became head of the passage de-partment. Hapag had established this at thebeginning of 1885, the increasing separationof cargo and passenger shipping now alsobeing reflected in the company’s organisa-tion. ···································································On May 31st 1886, Ballin assumed the postof departmental head with a minimum an-nual salary of 10,000 marks and additionalcommission.14 The Hapag annual report for1886 noted: “Of special importance is alsothe fact that the management of the passagebusiness for both parties, as a result of anagreement with Mr Albert Ballin, has passedinto our hands. A standard management hasbeen created for this important line of busi-ness (…).”15

···································································Ballin initially remained owner of Morris& Co., but in 1888, when he joined the Ha-

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pag executive board, he already withdrewfrom his father’s company, which then con-tinued until 1907 without engaging in anysignificant business. ···································································Marriage ···································································Already a year after he had entered intothe direct emigrant business, Ballin was in asecure financial position, so he could ac-quire Hamburg civil rights on October 17th1882.16 This, not to be confused with citizen-ship, was available only to affluent men whoregularly paid taxes and also a fee for acquir-ing the certificate as citizen.17

···································································In 1883 at the age of 26 Ballin married Mari-anne Rauert, daughter of a medium-sizedChristian cloth dealer, who had a businessat the address “Am Alten Steinweg”. There

was a Protestant wedding ceremony, butBallin did not convert to Protestantism. Hiswife came from a respectable family, “goodmiddle class”, and had the courage and far-sightedness to marry “below her status”, asit was known at that time. The Ballins’ mar-riage was without issue. In 1893, the coupleadopted an orphan, Irmgard, also called“Peter”, a survivor of the cholera epidemicin Hamburg in 1892 and a relative of Mari-anne Ballin. ···································································Ballin formed a close relationship with hisbrother-in-law Paul Rauert in subsequentyears. Rauert was a well-known art collectorand lover of the works of Emil Nolde andKarl Schmidt-Rottluff. Both painted him,Schmidt-Rottluff in 1911 and Nolde in 1910– “with a single line”, which Nolde recalledin particular18 – and again in 1915.

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The “Polonia”, acquired by Carr-Linie in 1882

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Excerpt from the “Contract of engagement” with Albert Ballin

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···································································A lawyer by profession, Paul Rauert wasunshakeable in his determination to helpmany of his numerous Jewish friends afterthe National Socialists’ assumption ofpower.19

···································································The circumstances of Ballin’s marriageshow that he neither disavowed nor paradedhis Jewishness. He took only a moderate in-terest in the Zionism emerging in the 1890sand was indifferent to religion. In his lateryears it is said that, like many other accul-turated Jews, he observed the ChristianChristmas.20 He visited the synagogue of theGerman Israelite Synagogue Association atBornplatz only seldom and had no connec-tion with orthodox circles in Hamburg orAltona. But he was aware of matters of reli-gious practice. Hapag ships thus also of-

fered kosher meals for the numerous EastEuropean emigrants of Jewish faith.21 How-ever, Ballin himself, like many other Ham-burg Jews, was concerned to adapt himselfas much as possible to his non-Jewish envi-ronment in order to avoid being disadvan-taged. Yet orthodox Jews saw in such an at-titude the danger that it also involvedemancipation from Judaism. There was acertain justification for this, as in Ballin’slifetime the overall share of Jews of the totalpopulation of Hamburg declined from fourto one percent. ···································································Personality ···································································Ballin was of small stature. When he wasyoung he had thick, dark and curly hair,which turned grey with time and thinned.He was certainly not what one would call anattractive man. But his dark-brown eyes,along with a sonorous voice, which had aHamburg ring to it, more than made up forthe less than handsome face. ···································································The banker Carl Fürstenberg described theolder Ballin as follows: “He was very smalland his face furrowed by countless linesseemed to be formed of rubber, so he lookedalmost funny when you first saw him. Youhad to see the wonderful eyes of this personto feel the degree to which he combinedkindness and amiability, acumen and ro-guishness.”22 Richard von Kühlmann, whowas State Secretary of the Foreign Office(there was no foreign minister in the Ger-man Empire) from August 1917 to July 1918,came to a similar assessment: “The me-dium-sized man with slightly frizzy hair,who always held his head looking down-wards and somewhat to one side, was any-thing but attractive. But nature had given

Albert, Marianne and Irmgard Ballin (1895)

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him a very charming voice. This voice, alongwith a tempered tranquillity of being andspeaking and always with an appearance ofamiability shining through, gave him some-thing very convincing.”23

···································································Ballin always dressed carefully. He distin-guished himself with flawless manners andlinguistic elegance, was of great sensitivityand could be superbly responsive to otherpeople. A good friend of Ballin, TheodorWolff, editor-in-chief of the “Berliner Tages-blatt”, the largest supraregional Germandaily newspaper, wrote: “Unlike many otherand less important German business leaders,he was not buoyed up by a sense of his ownimportance (…) [and, JG] had a perfectadroitness in relating to others, an uncon-strained elegance, an instinctive tact.”24

···································································But Ballin was also an impulsive man andfrequently swung between extreme moods.

The ship engineer Blumenthal who workedfor Hapag once stated: “Ballin always goesonly first class or with his bare … on therails.”25 He had an irascible temperamentand easily lost self-control, which he mostlyquickly regretted. Ballin was not resentful,but also expected this from others withwhom he might have gone too far in one ofhis temperamental outbursts. Like all fast-thinking and fast-acting people, he tendedto be impatient towards others. ···································································In his work – and he worked a great deal,16 hours a day, seven days a week – Ballinhated routine and frequently used uncon-ventional methods. In important matters,he relied mostly only on his excellent mem-ory. He surprised with ideas but not withreadily formulated proposals and in meet-ings continually found new solutions atvariance with general trains of thought.26 Aclose employee of Ballin, Erich Murken,

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Albert Ballin with his family in North Africa (ca. 1900)

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writes: “Ballin was a mainly synthetic mind.Psychological analysis was more strongly de-veloped in him than mathematical analysis.He was more a master of complicated situ-ations than complex calculations and statis-tics.”27

···································································In view of these capabilities, Ballin was ob-viously sought after to head meetings. TheBallin critic Max von Schinckel – from 1897member and from 1910 chairman of the Ha-pag supervisory board, the patrician witharistocratic leanings who obtained his aris-tocratic title in 1917 just promptly before theend of the monarchy – noted in his mem-oirs: “Everywhere he was given the chair-manship also in international conferences,and in the end if Ballin was unable to attendthe British declined to come to a meeting as

long as Mister Ballin could not chair it.”28

Ballin always headed the negotiations witha quiet voice and sparing gestures, which henevertheless used to great effect. ···································································The well-known shipping editor KurtHimer, who also worked for Hapag, de-scribes Ballin as a “‘demonic’ personality,who expressed himself in the spoken wordand in actions in an incomparably livelierway” than in writing.29 Eduard Rosenbaumused Max Weber’s term “charismatic leader”to describe Ballin’s style of heading discus-sions. ···································································Overall Rosenbaum, who knew Ballinwell, portrays him as “man of action”, an as-sessment that probably best sums up Ballin’snature.30

Albert and Marianne Ballin (in the white dress) on the racecourse in Gross-Borstel (1905)

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Albert Ballin (ca. 1910)

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··············································································································································4 Straub, Ballin, p. 18. 5 Wiborg, Ballin, p. 75. 6 Straub, Ballin, p. 19. 7 Wiborg, Ballin, p. 13. 8 Benja, Geburtstag, p. 13. 9 Schumpeter, Theorie, p. 119. 10 Cf. above Cecil, Ballin, p. 33. 11 Stubmann, Feld, p. 25. 12 Figures from Mosse, Juden, p. 435. 13 Stubmann, Feld, p. 25. 14 According to Himer, Geschichte, p. 10, Ballin attended a meeting of the supervisory board and executive boardof Hapag for the first time on this day. 15 Jahresbericht der Hamburg-Amerikanischen Packetfahrt-Actien-Gesellschaft in Hamburg für die am 29. März1887 stattfindende ordentliche General-Versammlung der Actionaire: 40stes Geschäftsjahr 1886 (Archives of Hapag-Lloyd AG). 16 Staatsarchiv Hamburg (StA Hbg.), 332-7 Staatsangehörigkeitsaufsicht, A I f 160: Protocoll der Anmeldungenzur Erwerbung des Bürgerrechts 1882, p. 233. 17 In 1879 of the approx. 450,000 inhabitants of Hamburg only 22,000 possessed citizenship, with which the political rights were coupled (cf. Jochmann, Handelsmetropole, p. 81).

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18 Zbikowski, Sammlung, p. 40. 19 Rosenbaum, Ballin, p. 258. 20 Schölzel, Ballin, p. 11. 21 According to Wigoder, Ballin, p. 44, this occurred at the initiative of Ballin; cf. however Kludas, Geschichte,p. 54: “At the suggestion of the Israelite relief association for the homeless, Hapag provides on all ships proceedingto North America an Israelite kitchen with its own crockery for kosher meals (…).” 22 Fürstenberg, Fürstenberg, p. 436. 23 Kühlmann, Erinnerungen, p. 214. 24 Wolff, Marsch, p. 242. 25 Quoted in: StA Hbg., 622-01 ⁄ 62 Familie Merck, II 8, Konv 2b: Meine Erinnerungen an die Hamburg-Amerika Linie und an Albert Ballin 1896–1919 by Johannes Theodor Merck [manuscript fair copy 1920–1921],p. 193. 26 Stubmann, Feld, p. 120. 27 Murken, Verbände, p. VII. 28 Schinckel, Lebenserinnerungen, p. 269. 29 Kurt Himer, Stubmanns Ballin-Biographie [1926] (Archives of Hapag-Lloyd AG). 30 Rosenbaum, Ballin, p. 264 ff. – Eduard Rosenbaum, who emigrated to England in 1934, was active at theChamber of Commerce from 1914. ··············································································································································

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Hapag before Albert Ballin···································································On May 27th 1847, Hamburg businessmenand shipowners met in a conference room atthe Stock Exchange to found Hamburg-Amerikanische Packetfahrt-Actien-Gesell-schaft. Ferdinand Laeisz, who was then justbeginning as a shipowner, Ernst Merck,partner of the banking and trading firm H.J. Merck & Co., and Adolph Godeffroy,who had started his own business two yearspreviously in Hamburg, were elected direc-tors of Hapag at the first general meeting.They appointed the only 33-year-old AdolphGodeffroy chairman. ···································································Over half a year later, on December 21st1847, it was reported at the second generalmeeting of Hapag that “the managementhad finally agreed to the construction ofthree ships (…)”.31 These were the “Deutsch-land”, “Amerika” (later renamed “Nord-Amerika”) and “Rhein”, worth an overall245,000 marks banco.32 The “Deutschland”,designed to carry 20 passengers in cabinsand 200 in steerage, departed on her firstvoyage to America in the year of revolution1848. In 1853, the general meeting declared“per majora” that “the passage to New Yorkhitherto operated by the company with sail-ing vessels will in future also be providedwith large transatlantic steamers, which are

to be procured”.33 The two steamships or-dered, “Hammonia” and “Borussia”, char-tered to the French and British governmentduring the Crimean War (1853–56), wereavailable for Hapag’s own steamer servicefrom Hamburg to New York only from 1856.The first German transatlantic steamshipline was thus opened.34

···································································Hapag then grew slowly but steadily (apartfrom the years of crisis 1857 to 1859). God-effroy retired at the end of 1880,35 markingthe end of an era. He left behind a gap thatwas initially not filled. At this time, the ship-ping company had no actual head. It wasmanaged by a directorate of older Hanseaticgentlemen, who were not particularly recep-tive to technical innovations such as mod-ern fast steamships. Moreover, the directorsfocused more on their own firms than onHapag, which they managed more or less onthe side.36 Business was accordingly bad,particularly because, as noted, Ballin andCarr became ever fiercer competitors of Ha-pag precisely at that time. ···································································All this caused increasing dissatisfactionamong Hapag shareholders. There were fi-nally radical changes in the organisation ofthe shipping line in 1884–85: the old direc-torate transformed itself into a supervisoryboard, which was given a completely new

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Albert Ballin and the rise of Hapag

[3]

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team, and the former office heads, who hadpreviously served as holders of a generalcommercial power of attorney, were ap-pointed to the executive board (direc-torate).37 The company was thus undergo-ing a transformation at this time. ThatBallin could succeed with his proposal in1886 to set up a passage department for Ha-pag and Union-Linie under his manage-ment is also to be seen against this back-ground. ···································································The first German top manager ···································································In his new position, Ballin soon attractedthe attention of the influential Hamburgshipowner Carl Laeisz,38 son of FerdinandLaeisz, one of the founders of Hapag. CarlLaeisz, who, like Ballin, did not belong tothe old-established Hamburg plutocracy,became his mentor in subsequent years andsaw to it in 1888 that Ballin moved up into

the executive board of Hapag. Four yearslater, Laeisz then joined the Hapag supervi-sory board as deputy chairman and quicklybecame the dominating personality on it:“there was (…) nothing that happened thathe had not sanctioned and approved”.39

···································································Ballin had a great affection for Carl Laeisz,although there was “also occasionally nolack of areas of friction”.40 When Ballinheard of the death of Laeisz on a voyage in1901, he wrote to his mother: “(…) and ourstay in Kobe was entirely overshadowed bythe loss of my old Laeisz. I still cannot graspthe fact that I am to find his place empty onmy return home.”41

···································································The commitment of Laeisz on behalf ofBallin showed special vision. For the firsttime, Hapag transferred important tasks toan employed manager. All his life Laeisz hadhis basis as a businessman in his own family

Photograph of the Port of Hamburg in 1868 – in the centre is Hapag’s first loading and unloading facility,which was in operation up to 1888, and in front of the warehouse the raised draw-bridge, used for coming from

shore on board the steamships

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company, despite his considerable involve-ment in the Hamburg economy. The sameapplied for Adolph Woermann, who apartfrom Laeisz was the most well-known Ham-burg shipowner at the end of the 19th cen-tury. Ballin, on the other hand, built up “ashipping empire of its own kind”.42 Thecommunity of interests between Hapag andCarr-Linie was, according to Ballin’s biogra-pher Peter Franz Stubmann, “essentially andin personnel terms more a conquest of Ha-pag by the authoritative men of Carr-Linie”.43 Along with Ballin, his confidentGuido Wolff, hitherto head and partner ofCarr-Linie, also entered the service of Ha-pag in 1886. Wolff was responsible for fi-nances on the executive board of the ship-ping line until 1907. ···································································

The manager Ballin embodied a new socialtype, who stood for a change in companymanagement and renewed the obsolete pa-triarchal structures of Hapag, which hadfallen behind. The lawyer Heinrich Wie-gand also took over as manager at the headof Norddeutscher Lloyd (North GermanLloyd) in Bremen in 1892. ···································································That not only a company proprietor butalso a salaried manager Hapag’s first ownbuilding in Deichstrasse 7, occupied in 1870could attract considerable attention wassomething entirely new in Germany. AndBallin attracted attention from the begin-ning. ···································································Kurt Himer notes that Ballin had a “naturalappreciation of the advertising impact of

Carl Laeisz and Albert Ballin on board the “Potosi” (ca. 1900)

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Hapag’s first own building in Deichstrasse 7, occupied in 1870

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The Hapag administrative building, Dovenfleth 19–20

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prestigious presentation”.44 Immediately af-ter joining Hapag, he promoted the idea ofgiving its administration appropriate prem-ises. He advocated a new building to replacethe less attractive Hapag headquarters inDeichstrasse. Ballin succeeded, probablyalso because he could put forward soundeconomic reasons for his proposal, arguingthat new reception rooms would make amuch better impression on potential pas-sengers.···································································A new administrative building on Doven-fleth was designed in 1889-90 by the archi-tects Martin Haller and J. Eduard Ahrens.But already 10 years later, Hapag, mean-while the largest shipping company in theworld, needed a new home. Haller, this

time along with Hermann Geissler, wasagain commissioned and persuaded Ballinto move the headquarters to the Alster. The town hall architects designed a build-ing with neo-Renaissance elements, and in 1903 Hapag could move into its newpremises after a construction time of threeyears.45

···································································The edifice marked the beginning ofmonofunctional administrative buildings inthe Hamburg city centre, which was thenstill a place where people lived and worked.46

It also served as handling room for passen-ger services. The entrance hall on Alster-damm was where the first-class passengerswere received and booked their passages,while the other travellers entered the build-

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The Hapag administrative building, Alsterdamm 25

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ing through the entrance at Ferdinand-strasse.47 The roof of the new headquarterswas topped by a seven metre high bronzeNeptune with trident and steeds gallopingover the waves. This work by the then stillunknown Ernst Barlach “cut a somewhatridiculous figure well beyond the Alster”, inthe words of the dedicated patron of mod-ern art in Hamburg Gustav Schiefler, whowas not alone in his opinion.48 The figureswere melted down in the first world war. Itis not known that anyone protested againstthis. ···································································This administrative building also proved tobe too small after a few years. Various archi-

tects including Franz Bach, who played acrucial role in the creation of Möncke-bergstrasse from 1908, worked on expansionand conversion plans.49 Ballin finally com-missioned Fritz Höger, who later designedChilehaus. Höger’s neo-classicist design,which was revised again by the Berlin mu-nicipal building officer Ludwig Hoffmann,corresponded most closely to the self-confi-dence of Hapag at the zenith of its successshortly before the first world war, but, verymuch to Haller’s regret, did not retain muchof the original character of the building.50

His old building was raised by a furtherstorey to four floors, whereas the new sec-tion with the same external height was given

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Hapag’s first fast steamship, “Augusta Victoria”, commissioned in 1889

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an additional storey. On the other hand, therooms there were a little lower. Both parts ofthe building were then connected with asingle facade.51 The conversion begun in1913 was not finished until 1921, so Ballin nolonger experienced the completion of theproject. ···································································Shipbuilding policy···································································Immediately after Ballin had succeededwith his idea for a new company headquar-ters, he initiated the next major project in1887, when he prompted the Hapag super-visory board and executive board to increasethe company’s capital from 15 to 20 millionmarks for financing the construction ofmodern twin-screw fast steamships. The

two steamers “Augusta Victoria” and “Co-lumbia” were put into service two years laterand the “Normannia” and “Fürst Bismarck”in 1890–91. ···································································The “Augusta Victoria” required on hermaiden voyage from Southampton to NewYork only seven days and thus broke a recordright away. She was the first twin-screw faststeamship built in Germany, by the Stettinshipyard Vulcan. That the German Empressand sponsor was actually called AugusteVictoria, occurred to none of those respon-sible at Hapag in Hamburg. This error was corrected without further comment in1897.···································································Right from the beginning, the “Augusta

The »Augusta Victoria« departing New York

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Ladies’ room and light well of the “Augusta Victoria”

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Victoria” outclassed the single-screw steam-ships of North German Lloyd in all the rel-evant areas of size, speed and comfort. Alongwith the other newbuildings, she enabledHapag to offer a weekly service to New York.This considerable expansion of Hapag’s pas-senger transport catapulted the company tothe top of the Atlantic shipping lines.52 Thenew vessels were given additional super-structure decks, and in the interior presti-gious common rooms were installed, creat-ing an upper-class environment for thesocial life on board.53

···································································For a brief time, Hapag participated in thecontest for the “Blue Riband”, for the fastestAtlantic crossing from Europe to New York.The “Deutschland”, launched in 1900, wasthe first and only Hapag steamship to win

this honour. Ballin had from the beginningmisgivings because of the vessel’s inadequatecost-efficiency. Actually it very soon becameapparent that the voyage at top speed causedextremely high energy costs. Moreover, passenger comfort was considerably im-paired by strong vibrations. With thissteamship, Hapag thus ended its pursuit ofspeed records and focused on offering pas-senger vessels that were as large and com-fortable as possible. This concept was imple-mented in the construction of the sisterships “Amerika” and “Kaiserin Auguste Vic-toria”, commissioned in 1905 and 1906 re-spectively. ···································································These two steamers were part of a compre-hensive fleet renewal. Hapag purchased andbuilt a total of 21 steamships in 1904 and

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Gala dinner table on the “Auguste Victoria” on May 27th 1897

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1905. They could be financed because theshipping line had achieved significant prof-its during the Russo-Japanese war (1904-05)by transporting Welsh coal for the Russianfleet as well as with the sale of 16 old vesselsto Russia.54 This was a risky undertaking, asthe German Empire was neutral and Britainan ally of Japan. However, it generated highprofits, coming to close on 38 million marksin 1905, far higher than the approx. 22 mil-lion marks in 1903. ···································································These profits enabled Hapag to set newstandards with the interior design of thenew luxury steamships. Ballin won the well-known French architect Charles Mewes todesign the interior of the “Amerika”. Ritz-Carlton assumed responsibility for manag-ing an à la carte restaurant on the steamship.

Another world innovation on the “Amerika”was a lift, which was used nearly two thou-sand times during the vessel’s maiden voy-age. In the ‘tweendeck the passengers couldfor a small surcharge also book cabins in-stead of the large dormitories. Hapag wasthe very first shipping company to offer this third class, which was extremely popu-lar and used a great deal particularly byfamilies. From it resulted later the touristclass.55

···································································In the autumn and winter months, the ca-pacity utilisation of Hapag’s passenger shipswas low and the vessels were not profitable.Ballin thus conceived the idea of offeringship voyages no longer for transport butrather for rest and relaxation, education andfun. He had in mind a “pleasure trip” to

The “Auguste Victoria” after lengthening in 1897

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the Mediterranean and the Orient withwell-organised shore excursions in variousports.56

···································································The premiere came in January 1891: 241“bold travellers” (as Ballin called them),well-heeled passengers from Germany andother countries, including 67 mainly Eng-lish ladies, embarked on the “Augusta Vic-toria”. At that time in Germany longer tours– or even such educational trips – were stillconsidered to be physically and intellectual-ly too demanding for women. Ballin appar-ently did not share this opinion, as his wifeMarianne was also on board.57 That Ballinhimself went on the voyage and also headedit personally contributed considerably to thesuccess of the entire venture. Ballin couldalso in this way (expand) “his circle of ac-quaintances in all parts of Germany and be-

came a very popular man in the best senseof the word.”58

···································································The “Augusta Victoria” became the veryfirst cruise ship, and Ballin had again discov-ered a gap in the market. From then on, Ha-pag offered regular “pleasure trips”, apartfrom to the Mediterranean and Orient alsoto the West Indies to the north. Precisely thelatter were very popular in Germany – afterall, Wilhelm II also cruised on the imperialyacht “Hohenzollern” off the Norwegiancoast every summer. ···································································In the following years, the cruise businessclaimed ever more resources and Hapagcould soon no longer handle it just with thesteamships withdrawn from liner service.The “Prinzessin Victoria Luise”, the firstluxury vessel built specially for cruises, was

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The fast steamship “Deutschland” won the “Blue Riband” already on her maiden voyage in summer 1900

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thus launched in 1900. The previous yearBallin had written to the journalist ErnstFrancke that Hapag had decided “to have asteamship built solely for (…) pleasure tripsat sea. A large yacht is thus to be built forcarrying neither cargo nor mail and de-signed only for accommodating first-classpassengers. This, as mentioned, unique ves-

sel will offer passengers a standard of com-fort hitherto never reached on ships.”59

···································································With all the innovative commitment thathe showed for prestigious passenger andcruise ships, Ballin, unlike his colleagueWiegand at North German Lloyd, put thefocus at Hapag not on passenger traffic, but

Cross-section of the “Deutschland” showing the separation of passengers in terms of the specific deck classes

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on cargo business, which was less prone tocrises.60

···································································Already in 1893 Ballin had completed adecisive change in shipbuilding policy. InHapag’s annual report it is stated: “The or-der for four powerful twin-screw steamships(…) is a step of great significance (…).These steamships, which can be preparedfor accommodating about 2,500 steeragepassengers and with full utilisation of theirholds can load approximately 7,500 tons ofheavy cargo, are with the use of the latest rel-evant improvements and inventions so eco-nomical in their operation that a speed of 13miles per hour with a coal consumption of

55 or 60 tons per day is guaranteed for us.”61

···································································The four new ships were named “Prussia”,“Phoenicia”, “Persia” and “Patria”. The “Pa-latia” was also ordered a year later. Thesewere combined passenger-cargo vessels ca-pable of carrying either freight or passen-gers. Ballin thus took up his successful ideafrom 1881, but used this time advancedtwin-screw steamships, which in previousyears had already proved their worth at Ha-pag for passenger traffic. This was a com-plete success. Particularly on account oftheir low coal consumption, the “P steam-ships” quickly became the new main sourceof earnings for Hapag.62

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The Ritz-Carlton restaurant on the “Amerika”, one of the amenities offered for the first time on a ship under the aegis of Ballin

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···································································The successful business idea was expandedin 1897 with the “large P steamships” “Penn-sylvania”, “Pretoria”, “Patricia” and “GrafWaldersee”. These were four combinedcargo and passenger steamships reaching aspeed of 14 knots, and at 13,000 gross regis-ter tonnes (grt) they were the largest vesselsin the world at that time. Johannes Merck,since 1896 Ballin’s executive board colleagueat Hapag, notes in his memoirs: “With nosingle class of ships, neither previously norsubsequently, has Ballin so succeeded aswith this.”63

···································································Ballin was again the driving force behinda change in shipbuilding policy at Hapag in1910 with the start of the construction of gi-

ant ships of the “Imperator” class. The “Im-perator” (52,000 grt), built at the Hamburgshipyard of Vulcan, was launched on May23rd 1912, the “Vaterland” (54,000 grt) onApril 3rd 1913 and the “Bismarck” (56,000grt) on June 20th 1914, the latter two bothbuilt at Blohm & Voss. All three werequadruple-screw turbine vessels. Their ton-nage, comparable with the giant container-ships of the 1980s, shows the developmentHapag had taken since its founding: it hadopened its liner service in 1848 with a sailingship of 538 grt, the “Deutschland”. ···································································An important motive behind Ballin’s fur-ther change of course was that in 1907 theBritish White Star Linie had begun to buildmodern fast steamships of approx. 45,000

Dormitories for emigrants on the “Amerika”

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grt.64 Their names “Olympic”, “Titanic”and “Gigantic”, like those of their Germancounterparts, indicate that the vessels wereseen as symbols of national prowess andtechnical progress. Ballin himself was defi-nitely aware of the significance of shipnames. He actually wanted to name the newflagship of Hapag “Europa”, but Wilhelm IIinsisted on “Imperator”. Contrary to theusual practice, the steamship was then alsothe masculine “der” and not the feminine“die” “Imperator” and was thus the only“male” ship to ply the seas at that time. ···································································The construction of the giant steamshipswas not universally accepted within Hapag:in particular the supervisory board chair-man Max Schinckel, who managed the busi-ness of Norddeutsche Bank, the companybank of Hapag, along with Johannes Merck,who was responsible on the Hapag executiveboard e. g. for book-keeping, criticised Bal-lin’s financial practices.65 In 1913, Hapag hadinvested for the newbuildings of the “Imper-ator” class 70 million marks, almost half ofits entire share capital.66 For Ballin, however,the crucial consideration was consolidatingwith the new ships Hapag’s leadership com-pared with the British competition. He wasgiven backing in this respect by his closefriend Max Warburg, who was the seniorpartner of the well-known family bank inHamburg and had been on the Hapag su-pervisory board since 1911.67 In the latest lit-erature it is also rightly pointed out that theconstruction of steamships was based on acorrect assessment of the market.68

···································································Despite the internal discussions, thelaunch of the “Imperator” on May 23rd 1912was an event of national importance. Ballin’sbiographer Susanne Wiborg notes: “It was a

day on which all facets of the significance,the special role of Hapag, became visible asin a prism.”69 On the same day, “Hambur-gischer Correspondent” expressed the pre-vailing mood with the following words in itsevening issue: “A brilliant festive day for

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“Kaiserin Auguste Victoria”, dwarfing the tower of the Hamburg town hall – an illustration with

highly symbolic character

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Hamburg, a day of triumph for Germanshipbuilding, has begun. The largest ship inworld, an ocean giant of never anticipateddimensions, is to be handed over to its ele-ment. And the Kaiser himself has come toname the proud steamship.”70

···································································Awed by the size of the vessel, the Ham-burg journalists found it difficult to find ad-equate comparisons. Hapag had already jux-taposed the “Kaiserin Auguste Victoria” andthe tower of the Hamburg town hall in abrochure in 1906. Now the “HamburgerFremdenblatt” wrote: “The length of the gi-ant of 268 metres is really fabulous and can-not be sensualised with figures; one wouldhave to pile twelve large houses up on top ofone another to reach this height, one would

have to put Cologne Cathedral almost onceagain on Cologne Cathedral to find an iden-tical dimension.”71

···································································In 1913, after the first voyage of the “Imper-ator”, Hapag published a brochure in whichthe authors, all of them prestigious journal-ists, stylised the ship as a “bearer of Germanculture” and thus an important founder ofnational identity.72 Even verses of doubtfulliterary quality, such as the poem “Impera-tor” by Bernhard Reuter, breathe this ex-alted Wilhelmine Zeitgeist: “Devised by German spirit, thou wertcreated by German might, And amazed the world sees a work,

First-class smoking saloon on “Kaiserin Auguste Victoria”

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Colossal and free and proud and bold, Proclaiming Germany’s unity and power”. ···································································One Demetrius Hornicke struck a similarnote in prose: “Thou art expression of theconcentrated power of the people, herald ofcreativity, imperative will to consummation.Grasping thee in the innermost core meanshumbly and at the same time proudly recog-nising that German genius has expressed it-self in thee.”73

···································································The interior of the “Imperator” (and also ofthe “Vaterland”) was designed by Charles

Mewes, who had previously worked for Ha-pag. The fixtures and fittings he designedrepresented a last highlight of late 19th c.aesthetic expression, characterised by re-course to stylistic elements of nearly all artis-tic trends. For example, the smoking roomon the “Imperator” was modelled on the Tu-dor house at the beginning of the 16th cen-tury and the indoor swimming pool in-stalled for the first time on a ship imitatedPompeii models.74 All this was very muchwhat Ballin had in mind. His taste in art, asnoted by his biographer Lamar Cecil, wasoriented to old forms and values and tendedto be against innovations.75

···································································

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A third-class cabin on “Kaiserin Auguste Victoria” (ca. 1906)

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Schedules for the twin-screw fast steamships of Hapag for 1895–96

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With such interiors, an almost perfectworld of experience with smoking salons,ladies’ rooms, children’s playrooms, gyms,massage rooms, libraries, sheet music collec-tions, music rooms, shops, etc. was createdfor the affluent passengers. This was the pre-requisite for “meeting important culturalstandards (…) as in a flourishing city”.76 But,as in every city, there were not only “good”quarters, which on the “Imperator” were rep-resented by the first and second class, butalso less privileged districts. However, the ac-commodation had clearly improved, partic-ularly in the third class, as well as in steerage.The interior of the ship was divided up sothat the rich and distinguished passengerswere carefully screened to prevent themcoming into contact with emigrants or cargo.

···································································Hapag as supplier of tourism services ···································································As noted, Ballin is regarded as the inventorof the modern cruise. In the years after 1891he succeeded in expanding Hapag, whichalso called itself Hamburg-American Linefrom 1893, from a pure shipping line into aprovider of tourist services.77 For this, how-ever, it was not sufficient to focus only onthe segment of affluent cruise ship passen-gers. Ballin therefore “democratised” theluxury on older ships that were no longer upto the highest standards. Their first class wasnow also made available to the less wealthy. ···································································Above all, Hapag began to establish and ex-

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Twin-screw steamer “Pennsylvania”

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pand other areas of tourism in addition topleasure voyages at sea. The annual reportfor 1904 describes this as follows: ···································································“We have expanded our business to an areawe have not yet served by setting up a Gen-eral Travel Bureau. The great success en-joyed by the pleasure voyages at sea organ-ised by us also prompted us to be activeorganising voyages on land, acting as agentfor the sale of rail tickets, particularly forround trips, in short, all business serving thepromotion of tourism. In order to establishthis new company on the foundation of analready successful travel institute, we haveconcluded with Carl Stangen’s Reisebureauan agreement, on the basis of which this old-est and largest German travel bureau will beacquired by us on January 1st of this year.”78

···································································It was above all Ballin who was behind theacquisition of the travel agency. The crucialaspect for him was company concentration.At that time, the travel agency of Carl Stan-gen was the largest and most important inGermany, and Hapag’s acquisition of it wastherefore an important step towards its ex-pansion into a supplier of tourism services. ···································································From 1910, the travel agencies of Ham-burg-American Line, as they were calledsince the acquisition, sold exclusively thetickets for the airships of Count Zeppelin,approx. 42,000 up to 1914. Ballin therebyalso became one of the pioneers of civil avi-ation business. ···································································Hapag’s success as a supplier of tourist

The “Imperator” in Cuxhaven before the first departure in June 1913

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Launch of the “Imperator” on May 23rd 1912

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After the naming speech for the “Imperator”

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services depended on good public relationswork. Ballin appreciated this and in this areaprompted developments the effects of whichare still noticeable today: in the 19th centurycompanies and entrepreneurs were still to beequated with one another and a firm’s char-acter was largely represented by its founderor owner, who ensured more or less alone forits external presentation. The employedmanager Ballin was one of the first to estab-lish a press department in a German com-pany. From 1900, Hapag had run a “literarybureau”, which focused on maintaining apositive image of the company and seekingcooperation with the press in Hapag’s inter-ests. ···································································The following episode characterises Ballin’sextraordinary appreciation of the effective-ness of advertising. When an employee in-dignantly informed him one day that in alarge restaurant in Düsseldorf the elab-orately designed picture of the “Deutsch-land” was hanging in the lavatory instead ofin the hall, Ballin retorted: “Very right too,as then also everyone will naturally bebound to see it.”79

···································································The tasks of the “literary bureau” includedorganising the postcard and poster advertis-ing, on which Hapag lavished considerablesums: in 1902 approx. 100,000 marks wasspent on the poster advertising with a circu-lation of 10,000 to 15,000 per poster motif.80

These were designed by the top marinepainters and still attract public interest to-day.81

···································································Emigrant halls···································································Emigrant business had again become verysignificant since the beginning of the 1880s

and an important source of earnings for Ha-pag. However, when a serious cholera epi-demic in Hamburg caused by catastrophicwater hygiene conditions claimed over8,600 lives within a very short time in sum-mer 1892, the port of the city was closed forall East European steerage passengers. Thisprobably occurred mainly because publicopinion made Russian emigrants respon-sible for the outbreak of the epidemic. Ha-pag’s emigrant business came to a virtualstandstill in these months.82

···································································In this difficult period, Ballin ensured with skilled negotiations that emigrant traf-fic could be resumed from 1893. Henceforthmedical inspections and disinfection meas-ures were carried out under state supervisionat the border stations and in the transit sta-tions and port cities of the German Empire.

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Galion figure of the “Imperator”

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The costs for this were borne mainly by Ha-pag and North German Lloyd.83

···································································Already in the cholera year of 1892 Hapaghad set up barracks on a site at Amerika-Kaiprovided by the state to accommodate amaximum of 1,400 emigrants in ten dormi-tories. However, the sanitary and hygienicconditions there were anything but exemp-lary. ···································································When this site was needed for other pur-poses, Hapag built a new facility at Veddel,again on a state property. This comprised forexample four dormitory and residentialpavilions and was put into operation in De-

cember 1901. Eight provisional lodgingswere added in 1905 and a further 18 quartersin pavilion form in 1907. There were thenmore than 30 buildings that could take upto 5,000 people at the same time on a de-marcated fenced-in area of about 55,000 sqm.84 These persons were looked after by 180Hapag salaried employees, including 28 in-terpreters. ···································································The entire complex had at that time modelcharacter – today one would probably talkabout a successful “public private partner-ship”. It differed essentially from the previ-ous mass quarters that were like barracks.The sanitary conditions in particular had

The swimming pool installed for the first time on a ship based on Pompeian models

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Forward stairwell for the first class of the “Imperator”

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improved, as the facility now had its ownsewer system. The pavilions had apart fromthe dormitories each for 22 persons theirown toilets and common rooms. There wasa church with a larger Catholic and a smallerProtestant interior and also a synagogue onthe site. Moreover, kosher meals were pre-pared in the facility’s own kitchens thatcould be eaten in separate halls. ···································································Hapag had certainly not opted for the in-novative concept of the emigrant halls,which were intentionally no longer calledbarracks, entirely disinterestedly. The hallsrepresented perfect advertising for the ship-ping line. A model of the emigrant town wasalready presented in 1900 at the World Ex-hibition in Paris.

···································································Before 1901, many emigrants who came toHamburg had been victims of swindlers.Hamburg had a very bad reputation. Thetricksters were so well organised in the citythat they even had their own professional title, that of the “Litzer”.85 After the con-struction of the emigrant halls, emigrantscould stay there for a modest price. ···································································Emigrants usually travelled only once,but they wrote about their experiences to those coming after them and often themselves bought from their new home thetickets for following family members. Theterm “chain emigration” characterises thisphenomenon very aptly: it was typical for the major waves of emigration since

View from the conservatory into the Ritz-Carlton Restaurant

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the 1880s that initially relatively young menset off, mostly from East European countriesto North America. These wrote to the rela-tives who had stayed home, which thanks to the improved communication possibili-ties was much easier than in the mid-19thcentury. Other family members then fol-lowed. ···································································With the newly built emigrant halls, Ha-pag not only improved its corporate image.Another positive effect for it was reducingthe financial risk in emigrant business. TheUS immigration regulations prescribed thatpersons who did not satisfy health condi-tions had to be returned at the specific ship-ping line’s expense. To avoid this, there were

four permanently employed doctors in theemigrant town to ensure medical supervi-sion. Newcomers were examined, showered,disinfected and vaccinated.86 They were freeto leave the facility before their departure.87

···································································With the emigrant halls as central compo-nent, Hapag established a more or less com-plete, smoothly functioning and profitablesystem in emigrant business. The shippingline’s numerous agents attracted the emi-grants with “all-inclusive offers”: with theship tickets they also purchased rail ticketsfor the trip in special trains from the bordercontrol stations to the port cities includingaccommodation and catering in the emi-grant halls.88 A similar approach has already

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Third-class dining hall on the “Imperator”

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“Ocean voyage 6 days” by Jürgens & Bornemann (1897/1900) – one of the few Hapag posters using an allegorical presentation

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Hamburg-America, by Hans Bohrdt (1902/1903) – Bohrdt, the favourite painter of Wilhelm II, was one of the distinguished marine artists of his time.

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Berlin-Alexandria in 100 hours, by Hans Bohrdt (1906/1907)

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Pleasure trips at sea, by Felix Schwormstädt (ca. 1904) – the skilfully composed group scene stimulates the imagination of the observer and suggests the possibility of an “adventure” on board

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been noted in quite another connection,namely the complete organisation of cruisesby one supplier. ···································································For the emigrants, this full package meanta mixture of support and welfare on the onehand and tutelage on the other.89 Quite afew contemporaries, for whom the latterconsideration carried more weight, also ex-pressed criticism. For instance, the “Ham-burger Echo”, the mouthpiece of the Ham-burg Social Democratic Party (SPD),carried an article with the headline “Bathingat Ballin’s”. There it was stated: “‘The Lordprotect you from the bath!’ This is the lastgood wish that the Jewish emigrant fromRussia is usually given, and what is meant is:‘The Lord protect you from Ballin and hishygienic control stations.’”90

···································································That the emigrant halls – despite such criti-cism – represented the hub of emigration viaHamburg at the beginning of the 20th cen-tury is confirmed by the fact that about113,000 of the 156,000 emigrants who de-parted Hamburg in 1907 were accommo-

dated in the Hapag facility. The overwhelm-ing majority of these persons, 94 percent,travelled to the USA. In 1913, Hamburg reg-istered the highest number of emigrants,around 193,000. Hapag’s emigrant businessthen came to a complete standstill with theoutbreak of the first world war. ···································································Expansion of Hapag’s linernetwork ···································································When Ballin joined Hapag in 1886, thecompany ran a mail steamship service fromHamburg to New York and a “West-Indian-Mexican Line”.91 The number of its lineshad increased to a total of 67 by the eve ofthe first world war.92 They linked Hamburgwith various ports in North, Central andSouth America, in South and East Asia, onthe Persian Gulf and in Africa. There wasalso a seaside resort service as well as variouscoastal lines and Hapag routes that did notaffect Hamburg. ···································································Hapag had its own dock facilities not onlyin Hamburg but also in Cuxhaven, New

Contemporary overview of the emigrant halls

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York and on the Caribbean island SaintThomas to enable it to operate its globalliner network. The key hub was the Port ofHamburg: in 1898 Hapag had agreed withthe City of Hamburg that new expandeddocks were to be built on the southern Elbebank, Kuhwärder, and most of them leasedto the shipping line. The new Kuhwärder fa-cilities were inaugurated in 1903. Hapagthen had a quarter of the entire roofed-overstorage space in the Port of Hamburg.93

···································································The expansion of the impressive Hapagliner network was accompanied by an enor-mous concentration process, in the course ofwhich most Hamburg lines came underBallin’s influence. Hapag acquired many

smaller lines and developed into a cartel-likestructure. The situation incidentally wascomparable at North German Lloyd, whichfollowed a similar corporate strategy, thoughsomewhat later. ···································································In Britain liner shipping played a much lessimportant role than in Germany, whiletramp shipping, i.e. transporting above allcargo depending on the market situation be-tween different ports, was more significant.This had an effect on the degree of companyconcentration, which was generally less forBritish shipping lines than for German car-riers.94 The British liner companies werethus in a weaker position. A concentrationprocess started among them only after 1902.

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Street scene with emigrants and police officers (ca. 1909)

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It began with the International MercantileMarine Company founded by the Americanbillionaire John Pierpont Morgan. This willbe considered later.95

···································································Ballin’s expansion policy did not meetundivided approval within the managementbodies of Hapag. Johannes Merck and MaxSchinckel were among Ballin’s fiercestcritics. Schinckel was of the opinion that“shipping lines serving special areas offertheir shareholders better earnings than abrilliantly managed monopolising giantcompany”.96 However, it should be observedthat under Ballin’s management Hapag con-tinuously achieved enormous profits (exceptin 1892 with the cholera epidemic and thefollowing year). ···································································

The cartelisation was criticised as an un-favourable form of organisation not only bySchinckel but also in the economic debateof these years. For instance, the economistGustav Schmoller differentiated between“American” trust and “German” cartel at theconference of the “Association for SocialPolicy” in 1905, arguing that only the “right”cartelisation could create fairness. With thiscomparison, Schmoller naturally won theapplause of the representatives of the steelworks association and of the Rhine-West-phalia coal syndicate attending the confer-ence.97 There had, after all, been a reorien-tation in German industry originating withheavy industry after Bismarck’s switch to aprotective tariff policy in 1879. The free mar-ket model lost appeal. From then on, manyentrepreneurs put their faith in a collective,

Emigrants at the daily afternoon concert on the square in front of the large pavilion – in the background the church, far behind on the left the symbol of the facility, the tower of the reception building

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contractual order with an interventioniststate. Ballin took another position, as he wasa supporter of laissez-faire – except duringthe last years of his life. ···································································We will now consider each of the maintrades served by Hapag in more detail. ···································································The North Atlantic trade – which alwaysremained the central area of Hapag’s corpo-rate strategy – offered only few expansionpossibilities from the mid-1890s. Ballintherefore sought opportunities to set up newliner services apart from those to NorthAmerica.98

···································································The key component of this expansion be-came East Asia business, particularly withChina. The following events can be re-garded as the most important stages in this.In 1897 the German Empire had occupiedin a surprise attack the Bay of Kiaochow inChina, which had a profitable hinterland; in1898 Hapag opened a monthly cargo steam-er service with its own tonnage from Ham-burg and Antwerp to Penang, Singapore,Hong Kong, Shanghai, Yokohama andKobe and took over Kingsin-Linie with its13 steamers and the entire staff; and in thesame year Hapag and North German Lloydconcluded an operating agreement for themail steamship service from Hamburg/Bre-men to East Asia and received an annualsubsidy for this from the German govern-ment.99

···································································This cursory overview already shows howthe interests of the German economy coin-cided with those of the German Empire inEast Asia at the end of the 19th century.100

During the Boxer War in early summer1900, Hapag and North German Lloyd were

commissioned to transport the Germanmilitary contingent to the theatre of war.Eight countries – Germany, France, Britain,Italy, Japan, Austria-Hungary, Russia andthe USA – had decided to take joint mili-tary action against Chinese troops andBoxer forces resisting the increasing influ-ence of the colonial powers in China. ···································································At the beginning of 1900, the social move-ment of the “Boxers” had spread over exten-sive parts of North China. “Fists of Right-eous Harmony” is one of the various trans-lations of the Chinese designation “Yihe-quan”. It underlined the influence of popu-lar culture and religion, particularly variousmartial arts schools, on the members, whowere mostly male farmers and agriculturallabourers. ···································································The intervention in China, which was con-demned in the Reichstag by social demo-cratic and left liberal politicians and was insome cases also criticised by representativesof the church, developed into a ruthlesspunitive campaign: thousands of Chinesewere killed, areas devastated and culturaltreasures plundered.101

···································································After the end of the war, Ballin decided in1901 to go on a trip to the Far East. The an-nual report of Hapag noted: “The develop-ment of trading and shipping business inEast Asia has motivated our director generalBallin to undertake an informatory trip toChina and Japan this January, which has al-ready prompted us to decide to focus also oninternal traffic between the East Asian ports,in which we were hitherto not involved atall.”102 In the same year, a liner service fromHamburg to Shanghai, Tianjin and Tsing-tao, the capital of the “German protectorate

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of Kiaochow”, was also initiated, and a jointservice with North German Lloyd was setup on the Yangtse between Hankou andShanghai.103

···································································1900 and 1901 were crucial years for Hapag’sinvolvement in services to and from SouthAmerica. This was when Hapag purchasedde Freitas-Linie, which went to Brazil andthe La Plata countries. It also concluded op-erating agreements with Deutsche Dampf-schifffahrts-Gesellschaft Kosmos and Ham-burg Südamerikanische Dampschifffahrts-Gesellschaft.104 Here Ballin proceeded in avery skilled manner, negotiating discretelywith his old friend Carl Laeisz, the chairmanof Hamburg-Süd: “Laeisz had become anold man and no longer knew to provide theright resistance to Ballin’s clever advances.He was half attracted, half repelled. He thenquietly sold his large H.S.D.G. sharehold-ing for a high price to the Packetfahrt(…).”105

···································································After the conclusion of the operatingagreement with Kosmos-Linie, Ballin soonsucceeded in exerting a dominating influ-ence on this line. Adolph Vorwerk had beenchairman of the company’s supervisoryboard for a long time.106 Ballin was also amember of this. When Kosmos-Linie ex-perienced difficulties after the severe earth-quake that devastated Valparaíso in August1906, Ballin knew how to use the situationto his advantage. He took up the “idea ac-cording to which the shippers or even thecompany were not served when one of theimportant shippers (…) [Vorwerk Gebr. &Co., JG] also provided the chairman of thesupervisory board (…)”. Vorwerk then re-signed from the supervisory board andBallin was elected its chairman.107

···································································The Hamburg Africa trade was dominatedby Woermann-Linie and Deutsche Ost-Afrika-Linie around the turn of the century.Ballin was on the supervisory board of bothlines. When North German Lloyd joinedforces with Hamburg-Bremer-Afrika-LinieAG, a small line that had entered the WestAfrica trade in 1907, Woermann-Linie cameunder competitive pressure and in the sameyear entered into an operating agreementwith Hapag, which acquired eight Woer-mann steamships for the West Africa ser-vice. Shortly afterwards, Woermann-Linie,Hamburg-Bremer-Afrika-Linie, DeutscheOst-Afrika-Linie and Hapag agreed to setup a joint service to Africa.108 Adolph Woer-mann was appointed to the supervisoryboard of Hapag and remained on this up tohis death in 1911. ···································································However, there were not only the speci-fied economic reasons that prompted Woer-mann-Linie, which up to then had beenstrictly concerned to maintain its indepen-dence, to form an operating agreement withHapag: Woermann had come “into awhirlpool of political conflicts” in 1904 onaccount of his troop transport contractswith the German government.109 The upris-ing of the Hereros against German colonialrule in German South-West Africa, whichwas later joined by the Namas, began in Jan-uary 1904. The colonial masters were con-cerned not just to crush this revolt. At thebeginning of October 1904, the Germancommander-in-chief, Lieutenant-GeneralLothar von Trotha, ordered that everyHerero was to be shot within the Germanborders.110 In 1911, there were only 15,130 ofthe formerly about 80,000 Hereros and9,781 of the previously 20,000 Namas. In

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percentage terms this meant that 80 percentof the Hereros and 50 percent of the Namashad lost their lives under German colonialrule at this time.111

···································································Woermann, whose shipping line had a defacto monopoly for all military transportservices to South-West Africa, was one ofthe major earners from this colonial war, inthe course of which about 15,000 soldiersand more than 11,000 horses were shipped.Johannes Merck wrote in his memoirs thatwith the troop transports with his Africalines Woermann “skimmed off the thickestcream of the milk – and this cream was verythick (…).”112

···································································When the budget of the war was debatedin the Reichstag in 1906, the Centre Partymember Matthias Erzberger discovered thatduring the war Woermann-Linie had over-charged the government about three millionmarks for freight and had invoiced as muchagain for demurrage. The German govern-ment reacted to Erzberger’s criticism by can-celling the agreements it had made withWoermann-Linie and discontinuing pay-ments to the line. Woermann himself be-came a persona non grata, and when theKaiser visited Hamburg in 1908 the Ham-burg Senate was informed: “The presence ofthe businessman Adolph Woermann is notdesired by His Majesty.”113 Yet Ballin be-longed to those who came to Woermann’sdefence and disputed the allegation that hehad overcharged the German government.114

···································································With the creation of the joint service toAfrica, the extension of Hapag’s networkunder Ballin was largely completed. Theshipping line focused on expanding its exis-ting lines in subsequent years.115

···································································Shipping diplomacy ···································································We have already noted how Ballin pro-moted a vertical and horizontal companyconcentration with Hapag taking over ship-ping lines and other firms. Ballin also initi-ated at national and international levelagreements between shipping companies onrates, shipping lines and profit distribution.These “pools” or “conferences” can be re-garded as cartels, as they involved forms ofcooperation without any networking ofcapital. ···································································As a young man, Ballin had used with Carr-Linie the possibilities that the free marketoffered him with every trick in the book.Now he strove to restrict this in the name offree competition and establish a frontagainst newly founded competitors.116 Fromthe 1890s, the Atlantic passenger businessdeveloped “in the context of a network ofcompensatory agreements and demarca-tions”117 – and Ballin played the key role inthis from the beginning. ···································································In 1892, Union-Linie, Hapag, North Ger-man Lloyd as well as the Belgian Red StarLine and Netherlands-America SteamshipCompany formed the North AtlanticSteamship Lines Association, the “parentcell of the later Atlantic Pool agreements”.118

The five lines agreed on prices and dividingup steerage class traffic, of which Hapag andUnion-Linie together received 28 percent(westwards). This share was much lowerthan that of North German Lloyd (46 per-cent). However, Ballin compensated for thisby introducing a flexible factor that alsotook into consideration newbuildings of theindividual shipping lines. With the agree-

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Meeting in Cologne of the North Atlantic Steamship Lines Association, founded in 1892

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ment, Ballin succeeded – and this was whatmattered for him – in including North Ger-man Lloyd as largest competitor on a con-tractual basis. Later the agreements were fora time also extended to include cargo trafficand the rates for cabin passengers. ···································································The founding of the North AtlanticSteamship Lines Association marked thestart of a series of ever larger conferences andever more complicated price agreements:“In monthly pool conferences, mostly at aneutral place, (…) directors and holders ofa general commercial power of attorney metto compare (…) the results of the businesson the basis of exact statistics, to agree onrates and to bring about settlements.”119

···································································The situation changed fundamentallyaround the turn of the century: The poolformations hitherto relatively unheeded byoutsiders became a political issue. This wasprompted by the entry of the Americanbanking, coal and steel magnate John Pier-pont Morgan into the shipping business. ···································································Morgan purchased the majority interest inthe British Leyland Line in spring 1901 andacquired two more British lines, White StarLine and Dominion Line, in 1902. Morganalso controlled most of the railroads on theUS east coast and wanted to link these withtransatlantic shipping to create a large trans-port network under his control. This alarmedBallin, who saw the cargo business of Hapagwith the “large P steamships” and above allits independence jeopardised.120 He there-fore entered into negotiations with Morgan.However, his Bremen colleague Wiegandwas adverse to this initiative, particularlybecause North German Lloyd’s interestswere different from those of Hapag: while

the latter did its main business with cargo inAtlantic services, Lloyd carried chiefly pas-sengers. However, Wilhelm II intervenedpersonally and declared that North GermanLloyd should also participate in the negoti-ations.121

···································································In February 1902, the two German ship-ping lines and the International MercantileMarine Company (IMMC), as MorganTrust called itself, agreed that the IMMCwould not establish any services to Germanywithout the approval of the German lines,while Hapag and Lloyd undertook not toexpand their business with Britain and Bel-gium. It was also agreed that Morgan wouldnot participate with his capital directly inthe two shipping lines. There was rather anagreement for a fictive participation, whichinvolved 20 million marks for each of thetwo German companies.122 It was stated inan annual report of Hapag: “Our contractwith International Mercantile Marine Co.determines that we have to pay this com-pany annually a sum corresponding to ourdividend, calculated on a share capital of 20million marks, while it has to pay interest tous on the same capital amount at 6 per-cent.”123 The reaction of the German pressto the agreement was more than appreci-ative: “it already bordered on self-satisfac-tion”.124

···································································From the financial point of view, the agree-ment with Morgan was a loss-making busi-ness for Hapag, which declared an averagedividend of 7.5 percent between 1897 and1913.125 In the eight years from 1903 to 1911,it transferred more than 1.5 million marks tothe US company, while none other thanLloyd, which had originally been against theagreement, received on balance close on 4.6

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million marks from the USA, as it made farlower profits than Hapag.126 An even moreserious aspect, however, was that because ofthe agreement the British government de-cided to subsidise Cunard Line to protect itagainst a takeover by Morgan Trust. It wasthereby the actual winner of the agreement.The contract with IMMC was cancelled in1912. It had meanwhile become apparentthat Morgan’s plan to acquire a monopoly ofthe Atlantic market with a shipping trusthad failed.127

···································································More lasting results were achieved by ne-gotiations that were held in February 1908at Ballin’s initiative and under his chairman-ship in England. These led to the foundingof the North Atlantic conference. This re-sembled the North Atlantic Steamships LineAssociation of 1892, but was much more ex-tensive as regards depth of regulation andnumber of members. A total of ten shippinglines, also including Cunard Line, and fourassociated lines concluded an agreementunder which the steerage traffic from theNorth European and Atlantic ports toNorth America was newly regulated, and anagreement obliging the contractual partnersfor the first time to maintain minimum ratesin cabin traffic.128 German and British aswell as Belgian, Danish, French, Dutch,Austrian, Russian and all Morgan Trust lineswere now united under one roof and Ballinhad, according to the journalist and com-mentator on politics and current affairs KurtZielenziger, “achieved a goal of his life’swork”.129

···································································However, five years later, in October 1913,Hapag cancelled the agreements of theNorth Atlantic conference, “as the hithertoexisting agreements did not do sufficient

justice to the natural growth of our com-pany”.130 The main reason for this step wasthe meanwhile completed change in ship-building policy with the construction of thenew steamships of the “Imperator” class.Ballin had therefore demanded a larger shareof the steerage pool, but this was rejected bythe other members of the conference, par-ticularly North German Lloyd. 1913 wasthen also seen as a year in which the rivalrybetween the two companies reached a peakof intensity.131

···································································Although Hapag and Lloyd could arriveat a settlement in spring and summer 1914,the practically concluded negotiations withthe British and American lines came tonothing with the outbreak of the first worldwar. The previously made agreements be-tween Hapag and Lloyd, envisaging first andforemost a community of interests of bothcompanies for the North Atlantic, were nowworthless, as the parameters had radicallychanged. ···································································At the end of this chapter on Albert Ballinand the rise of Hapag, it should be notedagain that when Ballin joined the line in

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Rare picture of the famous John Pierpont Morgan, who did not like being photographed

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1886 as departmental head, it was, far over-taken by North German Lloyd, without ac-tual leadership “in a state of stagnation”.132

It came 22nd in the rankings of the world’slargest lines.133 Thanks to his striking abilityto spot market opportunities, Ballin veryquickly succeeded in reversing the situation.In 1897, on the company’s 50th anniversary,Hapag had become under Ballin’s manage-ment the largest shipping company in theworld, a position it retained up to the out-break of the first world war. Ballin’s out-

standing contribution to Hapag’s successwas also reflected in the fact that in 1897 heassumed the leading position of the three ex-ecutive board members as “First Director” atHapag and two years later was nominateddirector general by the supervisory board.Between 1885 and 1913, the number of Ha-pag steamships increased with newbuild-ings, acquisitions and mergers with otherlines from 23 to 194, its tonnage rising fromclose on 55,000 to over 1,300,000 grt andshare capital from 15 to 180 million marks.134

Director generals Heinrich Wiegand and Albert Ballin on the passage to New York at the beginning of 1902

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··············································································································································31 Jahresberichte und Bilanzen der Hamburg-Amerika Linie. Erster Band: Geschäftsjahre 1847–1880, Ham-burg 1903, Selbstverlag der Hamburg-Amerika Linie, p. 7 (Archives of Hapag-Lloyd AG). 32 The mark banco was up to 1873 the currency of invoicing of the Hamburg wholesale trade, the unit of pay-ment of Hamburger Bank founded in 1619 – a currency that offered a secure basis and was not subject to erosion.It did not circulate as coin, but was covered by silver bars. Payment was made for the first time in the history ofthe German banking with “credit vouchers”, corresponding to our present giro cheques. The general means of pay-ment up to 1867 was the mark courant and from 1871 the mark (1871: 1 mark courant = 1.2 mark and 1 markbanco = 1.5 mark). 33 Jahresberichte and Bilanzen der Hamburg-Amerika Linie. Erster Band: Geschäftsjahre 1847–1880, Ham-burg 1903, Selbstverlag der Hamburg-Amerika Linie, p. 24 (Archives of Hapag-Lloyd AG). 34 Zielenziger, Ballin, p. 176. 35 This is noted in Himer, Jahre, p. 60. 36 Wiborg, Ballin, p. 21. 37 Herschel, Hapag, p. 39; Mathies, Reederei, p. 39, 130; Matthes, Hapag, p. 9. 38 On the life of Carl Laeisz, cf. the second volume in the series “Patrons for Science”: Gerhardt, Laeisz. 39 Schinckel, Lebenserinnerungen, p. 266. 40 StA Hbg., 622-01 ⁄ 62 Familie Merck, II 8, Konv 2b: Meine Erinnerungen an die Hamburg-Amerika Linieund an Albert Ballin 1896–1919 by Johannes Theodor Merck [manuscript fair copy 1920–1921], p. 28. 41 Albert Ballin to Amalia Ballin, March 31st 1901: Stubmann, Feld, p. 169. 42 Cecil, Ballin, p. 11; cf. Straub, Ballin, p. 151 and Wiborg, Ballin, p. 22. 43 Stubmann, Feld, p. 68. 44 Himer, Geschichte, p. 10. 45 Klemm, Verwaltungsgebäude, p. 160. 46 Ibid. 47 Hapag-Lloyd, Ballin-Haus, p. 8. 48 Schiefler, Kulturgeschichte, p. 475. 49 StA Hbg., 622-01 ⁄ 62 Familie Merck, II 8, Konv 2b: Meine Erinnerungen an die Hamburg-Amerika Linieund an Albert Ballin 1896–1919 by Johannes Theodor Merck [manuscript fair copy 1920–1921], p. 129, which men-tions Bach.

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50 Klemm, Verwaltungsgebäude, p. 160. 51 Hapag-Lloyd, Ballin-Haus, p. 12. 52 Wiborg, Ballin, p. 28. 53 Prange, Entwicklung, p. 33. 54 Aagaard, Life, p. 3. 55 Wiborg, Ballin, p. 72. 56 Hamann, Traumreisen, p. 10. 57 Ibid., p. 14. – The passenger list is given in Hamburger Fremdenblatt No. 17 (January 21st 1891). 58 StA Hbg., 622-01 ⁄ 62 Familie Merck, II 8, Konv 2b: Meine Erinnerungen an die Hamburg-Amerika Linieund an Albert Ballin 1896–1919 by Johannes Theodor Merck [manuscript fair copy 1920–1921], p. 60. 59 Albert Ballin to Ernst Francke, August 17th 1899: Stubmann, Feld, p. 176. 60 Petzet, Wiegand, p. 34. 61 Jahresbericht der Hamburg-Amerikanischen Packetfahrt-Actien-Gesellschaft in Hamburg für die am 31. März1894 stattfindende ordentliche General-Versammlung der Actionaire: 47stes Geschäftsjahr 1893 (Archives of Ha-pag-Lloyd AG). 62 Wiborg, Feld, p. 104. 63 StA Hbg., 622-01 ⁄ 62 Familie Merck, II 8, Konv 2b: Meine Erinnerungen an die Hamburg-Amerika Linieund an Albert Ballin 1896–1919 by Johannes Theodor Merck [manuscript fair copy 1920-1921], p. 9. 64 Ahrens; Hauschild-Thiessen, Reeder, p. 55. 65 Cf. StA Hbg., 622-01 ⁄ 62 Familie Merck, II 8, Konv 2b: Meine Erinnerungen an die Hamburg- Amerika Li-nie und an Albert Ballin 1896–1919 by Johannes Theodor Merck [manuscript fair copy 1920–1921], p. 28, 125 and193; Straub, Ballin, p. 152. 66 Matthes, Hapag, p. 14. 67 Ibid.; Straub, Ballin, p. 97. 68 Kludas, Geschichte, p. 186; cf. on the other hand Ritter, Kaiser, p. 139, who agrees with the critical commentsof Schinckel. 69 Wiborg, Ballin, p. 96. 70 Hamburgischer Correspondent No. 260 (May 23rd 1912). 71 Hamburger Fremdenblatt No. 120 (May 24th 1912). 72 E.g. Wilhelm Doerkes-Boppard (Imperator auf See, p. 15). 73 Ibid., p. 24, 41.

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74 Bracker, Dampfer, p. 67. 75 Cecil, Ballin, p. 100. 76 Turbinen-Schnelldampfer Imperator, p. 17. 77 Wiborg, Ballin, p. 39. 78 Jahresbericht der Hamburg-Amerikanischen Packetfahrt-Actien-Gesellschaft (Hamburg-Amerika Linie) inHamburg für die am 30. März 1905 stattfindende ordentliche General-Versammlung der Actionaire: 58stes Ge-schäftsjahr 1904, p. 7 (Archives of Hapag-Lloyd AG). 79 StA Hbg., 622-01 ⁄ 62 Familie Merck, II 8, Konv 2b: Meine Erinnerungen an die Hamburg-Amerika Linieund an Albert Ballin 1896–1919 by Johannes Theodor Merck [manuscript fair copy 1920–1921], p. 55. 80 Klemm, Schifahrtsplakat, p. 51. 81 Cf. e.g. the accompanying volume “Hamburg und die Hapag. Seefahrt im Plakat”, published by Matthesand Prange, for the exhibition in the Museum for Hamburg History. 82 Wiborg, Feld, p. 97. 83 Groppe, Hamburg, p. 21 ff. 84 Groppe, Modellstadt, p. 34. 85 Guttmann, Schattenriß, p. 242. 86 Groppe, Modellstadt, p. 39; Wiborg, Feld, p. 152. 87 This is indicated e. g. by the Hapag circular No. 304 “To our agents!” dated June 18th 1906 (Archives of Ha-pag-Lloyd AG). There it is stated: “They [the Russian emigrants, JG] can leave the emigrant halls as they pleaseto go shopping, to attend to various matters, or to visit the city, in short, they can do what they like as all otheremigrants during their stay in Hamburg.” – My thanks to Ms Susanne Wiborg for this reference. 88 Groppe, Hamburg, p. 26. 89 Groppe, Modellstadt, p. 46. 90 Hamburger Echo No. 242 (October 14th 1904). 91 Jahresbericht der Hamburg-Amerikanischen Packetfahrt-Actien-Gesellschaft in Hamburg für die am 29. März1887 stattfindende ordentliche General-Versammlung der Actionaire: 40stes Geschäftsjahr 1886 (Archives of Ha-pag-Lloyd AG). 92 Cf. Kludas, Geschichte, p. 218 ff., which includes the schedule of Hapag dated July 1914. 93 Wiborg, Feld, p. 126 ff. 94 Ritter, Kaiser, p. 142. 95 Murken, Verbände, p. 599.

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96 Schinckel, Lebenserinnerungen, p. 270. 97 Blaich, Kartellpolitik, p. 30 ff. 98 Pelc, Hamburg, p. 19 ff. 99 Seiler, Jahre, p. 49. 100 Pelc, Hamburg, p. 21. 101 Cf. recent literature on the Boxer War particularly Cohen, History and the items in the anthology “Koloni-alkrieg in China”, published by Leutner and Mühlhahn, which deal with the incidents, background and impactof the events. 102 Jahresbericht der Hamburg-Amerikanischen Packetfahrt-Actien-Gesellschaft (Hamburg-Amerika Linie) inHamburg für die am 29. März 1901 stattfindende ordentliche General-Versammlung der Actionaire: 54stes Ge-schäftsjahr 1900, p. 5 (Archives of Hapag-Lloyd AG). 103 Cecil, Ballin, p. 75. 104 Murken, Verbände, p. 597 ff. 105 StA Hbg., 622-01 ⁄ 62 Familie Merck, II 8, Konv 2b: Meine Erinnerungen an die Hamburg-Amerika Linieund an Albert Ballin 1896–1919 by Johannes Theodor Merck [manuscript fair copy 1920–1921], p. 86 ff. 106 On the life of Adolph Vorwerk, cf. the fifth volume in the series “Patrons for Science”: Schröder, Vorwerk. 107 Cf. with reference ibid., p. 39 ff. 108 Pelc, Hamburg, p. 22. 109 Stubmann, Feld, p. 139. 110 Cf. with reference Zimmerer, Herrschaft, p. 39. 111 Drechsler, Aufstände, p. 139 ff.; different figures are given in Bühler, Namaaufstand, p. 338. – On the ge-nocidal colonial war against the Hereros and Namas, which lasted from 1904 to 1907 and represents in the gen-eral history of modern genocide a decisive link between the early genocides with a low level of state organisationand the bureaucratised crimes of National Socialism, cf. recent literature: Zimmerer, Herrschaft, esp. p. 31 ff.;Bühler, Namaaufstand, esp. p. 136 ff.; Böhlke-Itzen, Kolonialschuld and the items in the anthology “Völkermordin Deutsch-Südwestafrika”, published by Zimmerer and Zeller. 112 StA Hbg., 622-01 ⁄ 62 Familie Merck, II 8, Konv 2b: Meine Erinnerungen an die Hamburg-Amerika Linieund an Albert Ballin 1896–1919 by Johannes Theodor Merck [manuscript fair copy 1920–1921], p. 49. 113 Cf. with references Bühler, Namaaufstand, p. 330 ff. 114 Stated by Ballin in his obituary for Woermann (Stubmann, Feld, p. 140); cf. Wegner, Hanseaten, p. 289 ff.

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115 Pelc, Hamburg, p. 23. 116 Cecil, Ballin, p. 55; Straub, Ballin, p. 37, 41. 117 Cecil, Ballin, p. 12. 118 Murken, Verbände, p. VII. 119 StA Hbg., 622-01 ⁄ 62 Familie Merck, II 8, Konv 2b: Meine Erinnerungen an die Hamburg-Amerika Linieund an Albert Ballin 1896–1919 by Johannes Theodor Merck [manuscript fair copy 1920–1921], p. 4. 120 Wiborg, Feld, p. 140. 121 Cecil, Ballin, p. 60. 122 Stubmann, Feld, p. 90. 123 Jahresbericht der Hamburg-Amerikanischen Packetfahrt-Actien-Gesellschaft (Hamburg-Amerika Linie) inHamburg für die am 30. März 1905 stattfindende ordentliche General-Versammlung der Actionaire: 58stes Ge-schäftsjahr 1904, p. 8 (Archives of Hapag-Lloyd AG). 124 Cecil, Ballin, p. 63. 125 StA Hbg., 622-01 ⁄ 62 Familie Merck, II 8, Konv 2b: Meine Erinnerungen an die Hamburg-Amerika Linieund an Albert Ballin 1896–1919 by Johannes Theodor Merck [manuscript fair copy 1920–1921], p. 140. 126 Nathan, Schiffahrtskampf, p. 24 ff. 127 Wiborg, Feld, p. 143. 128 Witthöft, Hapag, p. 66. 129 Zielenziger, Ballin, p. 186. 130 Hamburg-Amerika Linie (Hamburg-Amerikanische Packetfahrt-Actien-Gesellschaft) in Hamburg. Jahres-bericht für die am 27. März 1914 stattfindende ordentliche Generalversammlung der Aktionäre. 67stes Geschäfts-jahr 1913, p. 3 (Archives of Hapag-Lloyd AG). 131 Nathan, Schiffahrtskampf, p. 2. 132 Klein, Ballin, p. 561. 133 Cecil, Ballin, p. 36. 134 Figures from: Jahresbericht der Hamburg-Amerikanischen Packetfahrt-Actiengesellschaft in Hamburg fürdie am 31. März 1886 stattfindende ordentliche General-Versammlung der Actionaire, 39stes Geschäftsjahr 1885sowie Hamburg-Amerika Linie (Hamburg-Amerikanische Packetfahrt-Actien-Gesellschaft) in Hamburg. Jahres-bericht für die am 27. März 1914 stattfindende ordentliche Generalversammlung der Aktionäre. 67stes Geschäfts-jahr 1913 (Archives of Hapag-Lloyd AG). ··············································································································································

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“Little Potsdam” and Hamfelde ···································································Ballin not only ensured appropriate prem-ises for Hapag and its administration – healso put priority on a prestigious setting forhis wife and himself. ···································································After marrying in 1883, the Ballins movedinitially to Moorweidenstrasse and then toHeimhuder Strasse in 1885 and to Bade-strasse in 1902. Six years later, Ballin com-missioned Werner Lundt and Georg Kall-morgen to build a villa at Feldbrunnenstras-se. These two architects, who at that timewere regarded as particularly progressive, de-signed a residence adorned with columns,linking the reform architecture of the begin-ning of the 20th century with motifs fromclassicist country house style. Ballin, whoactually shared the Kaiser’s conservativetaste in art, also decided here for a breakfrom historicism.135 The building, whichhas been protected as an historical monu-ment since 1982, today accommodates theUNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning. ···································································In 1914, the British magazine “DailyGraphic” called the villa “Little Potsdam”.136

This shows what Ballin intended with itsconstruction: apart from the Hapag head-quarters, the private house of its directorgeneral was also to provide a representative

atmosphere. Ballin wanted to have a build-ing satisfying the highest requirements –and Villa Ballin offered him a perfect settingfor social gatherings and dinners that hegave on behalf of Hapag. A lively social lifewas staged there offering guests opportuni-ties for making political and business con-tacts. ···································································Already in 1906 Ballin had purchased for163,000 marks a country house in Hamfeldenear Trittau, in which he spent mainly thesummer months. He obtained the necessarycapital for this by selling Nordsee-Linie andits five vessels for the seaside resort service.He had run this line as a private shipowner. ···································································After moving into his country house,Ballin made enormous changes so that hecould use it for entertaining guests. For ex-ample, he had installed hundreds of lightbulbs in the surroundings of the house, illu-minating the park for large-scale socialevents. As at this time there was still no elec-tricity in the country, Ballin took powerfrom a local distillery, which heated a boilerwith 10,000 l of water for generating steam. ···································································Ballin was an unsurpassed host: he was agourmet par excellence, as well as a wonder-ful narrator, who could be cheerful, wittyand charming. The rules of the house, put

[4]

Albert Ballin and politics

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up in the entrance hall, already show a spe-cial flair: “We ask our honoured guests intheir movements and dispositions not to berestricted by considering us. We will striveto make our friends feel at home while stay-ing with us by our avoiding pursuing themwith a mother’s loving care and treatingthem like children. What so often spoilsGerman hospitality is the expectation thatone has to stick together the entire day andbe ‘sweet’ to one another. We do not expectour dear guests to behave nicely to us be-cause they were invited, nor do we expectthem to seek our society more often thanthey would prefer. Please dispose freely of

cars, wagons, racing horses and rowing boats(as long as the supply suffices). We askguests to determine themselves the time forthe first breakfast and to give servants all rel-evant instructions. The second breakfast isusually taken jointly at 1. Afternoon tea at 4.Dinner about 7. 15 minutes before the be-ginning of the second breakfast and dinnerthe bell is sounded and a second time – assoon as it is served.”137

···································································The Ballins were visited by aristocrats fromthe diplomatic corps and army, officers,mostly commoners of the navy, bureaucratswho had risen into the nobility of office,

Albert Ballin’s villa in Feldbrunnenstrasse

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Silesian magnates, Rhine industrialists,Berlin bankers and journalists. Hamburgpeople “of family” were also frequent guests,but on their part refrained from invitingBallin as a man who had gone up in theworld.138 On the other hand, there werescarcely any artists139 – a clear difference tothe Berlin salons of Aniela Fürstenberg, wifeof the banker Carl Fürstenberg, who was afriend of Ballin. ···································································Albert Ballin and the Kaiser ···································································Ballin, according to Theodor Wolff, “sur-rounded Hapag with an unprecedentedsplendour of representation”.140 This im-pressed the Kaiser, who had a weakness forpomp. Ballin and Wilhelm II met for the

first time in Cuxhaven before the maidencruise of the “Augusta Victoria” in January1891 (which we already mentioned). TheKaiser was just staying there and used theopportunity to inspect the first twin-screwfast steamship built in Germany. They de-veloped a closer personal relationship in1899 at the annual dinner of Hapag on theoccasion of the Lower Elbe regatta, whenBallin sat at the side of the Kaiser. ···································································From 1905, Wilhelm II came every year tothe “fork breakfast” (today one would callthis “second breakfast«) in Badestrasse, laterthen in Feldbrunnenstrasse. This was un-doubtedly a very special honour for Ballin,as the monarch thereby broke with the tra-dition of Prussian kings not to visit apart-

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Albert Ballin’s country house in Hamfelde

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Kaiser Wilhelm II being welcomed by Albert Ballin in Feldbrunnenstrasse (1913)

ments of private persons. At this time, a setprogramme was established for the visits,which included for instance the following:Lower Elbe regatta with banquet, “KaiserinAuguste Victoria-Jagd-Rennen” on Hornracing course, fork breakfast in Villa Ballinand finally on to Kieler Woche. From 1902,this was regularly attended by Hapagsteamships, which served as floating grandhotels for the imperial guests. The consider-able costs thereby incurred for Hapag wereseen by Ballin – who never stayed an entireweek in Kiel – as necessary investments forpromoting the image of the shipping line.

···································································In 1910, however, the programme had to bemodified because of a boil in the imperialknee. The “Hamburger Neueste Nachrich-ten” reported that “the Kaiser arrived at theAltona main station [and not as otherwiseat the showpiece station Dammtor, JG] onmedical advice, as the monarch is to bespared every unnecessary climbing of stepsin view of his knee injury.”141

···································································The “Hamburger Fremdenblatt” reportedon a slide lecture on the newbuilding of alarge cargo and passenger steamship, which

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Ballin planned this time for the Kaiser inFeldbrunnenstrasse.142 Ballin was skilled atputting out reports such as this to the press,which then also avidly seized on them. Hisown perception of events is reflected in anotebook, in which he recorded specialvisits to his house: ···································································“The Kaiser, who had said he was comingto visit on Monday June 20th for breakfastand to attend a slide lecture on the new ship[the later “Imperator”, JG] (Vulcan YardNo. 880-896), was suffering from a kneecomplaint. As a result, the entire Hamburgvisit was cancelled. ···································································The Empress and the Crown Prince came

to the races on the 19th, with him long dis-cussion. We were at the races with the bridalpair [Ballin’s daughter Irmgard and her fi-anceé Heinz Bielfeld, who married on Oc-tober 28th 1910, JG], Mariette Strasser for 5days at us, Queenie + Mrs Mensing, after-wards meal in the Atlantic. ···································································On Monday 20 June received the messagethat the Kaiser did in fact want to come tous. On Wednesday 22 June 10 the Kaisercame, because of the better located terrainhad gone up to Altona, from Altona by carto us. Breakfast 23 pers. H. M. Count Eu-lenburg Exc. Plessen v. Mueller v. ValentiniAide-de-camp v. Caprivi, Capt. v. BülowSurgeon general Dr. Ilberg Envoy v. Treut-

In 1910, Ballin commissioned the artist-craftsman Georg Hulbe to make two chairs for the imperial visits, one featuring a crowned imperial eagle and Prussian coat of arms, the other Albert Ballin’s family coat

of arms and that of Hamburg

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[�e pictures are contained in the printed version]

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ler Mayor Predöhl Schroeder Burchard Os-wald Count Goetzen Bassewitz SchinckelWitt Ohlendorff the bridal pair. ···································································After breakfast the lecture delivered byDir. Schwarz Eggers, Dr. Bauer, Sachse in-stead of Mewes, who was also present, alsopresent Merck and Warnholtz. ···································································The Kaiser gave me his marble bust. Afterhe departed, we went to Oceana + went withthis around Skagen to Kiel. In Kiel about200 guests on board. Long discussion withReich Chancellor on Meteor. On TuesdayJune 28th, the Kaiser in the presence of allguests took tea on Oceana + stayed 3hours.”143

···································································For many, particularly in Hamburg, Ballinseemed to be an expert for Berlin policy, asinfluential “advisor” of Wilhelm II in busi-ness and naval matters – but also distrust-fully eyed by nationalists and anti-Semites,for whom he embodied diffuse fears of “in-ternational Jewish big capitalism”, whichthey expressed with watchwords such as“Ballinism” and “ballinised”.144 The “Semi-Kürschner”, an anti-Semite biographicaldictionary of the worst sort, wrote in its ar-ticle on Ballin: “The Jew is as major banker,wholesaler, major shipowner, as financier ofall collective requirements not the officialpolitician (…); but behind the scenes he isincessantly active and indispensable; he isthe actual wirepuller and actor (…). And,because the Jew is so deeply nestled in thecapitalist oriented national life, it buzzes inthe highest and the very highest places withBallins, Rathenaus, Fürstenbergs. That iswhy Sir Ernst Cassel makes world his-tory.”145

···································································

On closer examination, Ballin seems tohave had a very singular relationship to Wil-helm II. Ballin was the first and most impor-tant of the “Kaiser Jews”.146 He was also oneof the few businessmen who saw the Kaiserregularly, in the years up to 1914 about everytwo months at social functions and perhapsjust as frequently to discuss business and po-litical matters.147

···································································As Ballin had scarcely any contacts with thearistocrats dominating Berlin court so-ciety,148 his position at court depended en-tirely on his personal relationship with themonarch. For the Kaiser, Ballin – like theother “Kaiser Jews” – was an indispensablesource of information, as he had experiencein a field (in his case, business and particu-larly shipping) not possessed by any of thesearistocrats. This was the main reason for themonarch’s interest in Ballin. He was also aman with the best contacts, who broughtWilhelm II in Hamburg or Kiel togetherwith people who would have otherwisenever worked their way through to themonarch.149 These also included the other“Kaiser Jews” such as Max Warburg or theentrepreneur and art patron James Si-mon.150 These were for Wilhelm II, whoseworld view had definite anti-Semitic ten-dencies, “in reality no genuine Jews at all”.“Genuine” Jews were for the Kaiser thosewho were critical of him.151 This shows themindset that is always inherent in anti-Semitism. (“I define who is a Jew!”) ···································································However, the relationship between Ballinand Wilhelm II proved to be a difficult onefor various reasons. The monarch was an au-tocrat who could not bear criticism, andBallin on his part scarcely tried openly to ad-dress controversial issues but rather contin-

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“How the yellow peril really looks” (caricature from 1905)

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ually came to the defence of Wilhelm II. Inthis respect, Ballin was in no way alone.152

Baron Friedrich von der Ropp, a GermanBaltic large landowner in Lithuania, wrotein retrospect: “We were all weak towards theKaiser. No one wanted to spoil his childish-cheerful optimism, which tipped over intoan almost bottomless depression when any-one criticised one of his pet subjects.”153

···································································Generally considered, Ballin’s influenceon the Kaiser was limited and has been over-estimated by many commentators. TheodorWolff notes in his memoirs: “Ballin exer-cised influence on the Kaiser in no greatissue, in no important moment. (…) In nomajor project (…) Ballin was informedabout what was happening, in such mo-ments Wilhelm II never asked for his opin-ion (…).”154

···································································Apart from his “friendship” with WilhelmII, Ballin attached great importance to hiscontacts with Reich Chancellor Bernhardvon Bülow. He knew Bülow from the mid-1890s and met him frequently in Hamburgor Berlin. The Chancellor gives an unre-strictedly positive picture of Ballin in hismemoirs, which were not without reasonpublished only after his death, as he heapedharsh criticism on nearly every one of hiscompanions: “I found few people so congen-ial, for few have I felt such sincere esteem.”Elsewhere it is stated: “Few people have doneso much good in their life as Ballin. (…) Heembodied as scarcely any other the bold,daring genius, always reasserting itself, al-ways forward-thrusting, of the mightiestGerman port and commercial city, of the oldand always young Hamburg.”155

···································································Bülow was dismissed as Reich Chancellor

in July 1909. He had previously lost themonarch’s confidence because of the “DailyTelegraph” affair, in which he protected theKaiser only half-heartedly against attacksfrom the Reichstag as a result of an unsuc-cessful interview. Ballin thought little ofBülow’s successor, Theobald von Beth-mann-Hollweg – at Hapag he would havebeen of use at most as librarian – and there-fore repeatedly advocated Bülow’s return tothe political stage.156

···································································Outside the government there weremainly members of two groups over whichBallin sought to exert political influence, onthe one hand leading bankers such as MaxWarburg or Carl Fürstenberg and on theother influential journalists such as Maxi-milian Harden, Theodor Wolff or BernhardHuldermann, who became Ballin’s secretaryin 1908 and five years later moved up intothe Hapag executive board. ···································································Ballin had a particularly steady relation-ship with Max Warburg, with whom he wasin constant contact via a private telephoneline.157 Ballin once described Warburg as“one of the cleverest and most patrioticmen” he knew.158 Ballin was also closely con-nected with probably the most well-knownjournalist of the Wilhelmine Empire, Max-imilian Harden. With his attacks that hecontinually delivered with the greatest acri-mony on the person of the monarch and hisentourage, Harden had earned the reputa-tion of being one of the men in Germanymost hated by Kaiser Wilhelm II.159

···································································The numerous social functions that Ballincontinually organised were not an end inthemselves. Rather, he used these opportun-ities to increase the influence of the business

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community on government policy and ac-quaint important personalities with hisviews on economic and political issues.Apart from attracting the attention of theKaiser, Ballin focused particularly on thosegovernment officials, bankers and journal-ists who were influential enough to receivehis ideas and contribute significantly totheir implementation. This privatisation ofinfluence was characteristic for Ballin, whonever strove for political power in the formof public office – and certainly not in hishome city. As director general, he had longsince grown beyond the confines of Ham-burg, where the high society always treatedhim, the social climber, with a certain re-serve. ···································································Albert Ballin and his politicalinfluence ···································································Ballin was rather sceptical about the workof the ubiquitous pressure groups in theGerman Empire. Although he belonged toand in some cases also promoted many ofthese associations, he otherwise playedmostly a subordinate role in them.160

···································································Initially Ballin supported the “GermanFleet Association”, which was founded in1898. With over a million members, this wasthe national pressure group in the GermanEmpire. Along with many figures in Ham-burg, Ballin signed the invitation to thefounding meeting of the association inHamburg. He also played an important rolein this for several years and in 1907 signedan appeal for funds, which yielded 60,000marks.161 However, in subsequent years hecriticised the noisy activity of this acclama-tion platform, which advocated a navalbuild-up and an imperialistic policy.162 He

maintained that such propaganda would bedifficult to bring under control after its orig-inal purpose had been achieved.163

···································································Ballin was also a member of the “GermanColonial Society”, formed in 1887 from themerger of two associations. The members ofthis society (in 1914 there were 42,000) re-presented virtually all social classes of Ger-many at that time. With its professional PRin the form of advertisements, printed ma-terial, meetings, exhibitions and lectures,the association was an important agitationforum supporting colonial schemes of thegovernment and plans for mail steamshipsubsidies and propagated a transoceanicGerman empire.164 Ballin, who did not con-sider colonies to be particularly profitableand was more concerned about fleet basesand branch locations,165 was with his viewsnot always in harmony with the aims of thecolonial society and thus did not play a par-ticularly prominent role in it. ···································································The situation was similar with the “Feder-ation of Industrialists”, of which Ballin wasalso a member. This association had beenfounded in 1895 as a rallying point for manu-facturing industry. In contrast to the “Cen-tral Association of German Industrialists”,which was oriented to heavy industry, mostmembers of the federation – like Ballin – ad-vocated free trade.166

···································································As director general of the globally activeHapag, Ballin naturally took a particularlykeen interest in foreign policy. Diplomacywas a matter of the crown, the Reich Chan-cellor and the Foreign Office, and Ballin hadgood contacts to all three. The Reichstagwith its parties, on the other hand, had little influence in this area. It is thus not sur-

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prising that Ballin did not financially sup-port any political party or belong to one. ···································································Even if Ballin frequently criticised the for-mulators of government policy (particularlythe top diplomats in the Foreign Office andtheir lack of understanding in business mat-ters), he still accepted the aristocracy’s domi-nant role in this field. Ballin had little con-clusive to say about how the state upholdingGerman “world policy”167 would have to beconstituted. This coincides with the opinionof his friend Theodor Wolff, who noted thedifficulty of classifying Ballin politically:“He wanted to keep his ways as free as poss-ible of obligations, and he was bothered bybeing required to choose a point of view. Al-though he set store by decency in everymoral respect extending to touchiness, hedid not consider politics according to prin-ciples and probably saw in the emphasis ongeneral principles an unworldly pedant-ry.”168

···································································Ballin shared with the conservatives theaversion to changes aiming in the directionof a parliamentarisation of German consti-tutionalism (the Reichstag could criticiseand control the government, but not with-draw its confidence from it and force its res-ignation). Ballin was also against a change tothe three class franchise in Prussia, which upto 1918 divided up voters in various classesaccording to the level of their tax paymentsfor the election of the House of Representa-tives and privileged above all aristocrats andlarge landowners, as well as affluent mer-chants. (The German Reichstag, on theother hand, was elected on the basis of “gen-eral”, free and direct suffrage; all men fromthe age of 25 had the right to vote.)169

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In 1907, Ballin advocated supplementingthe German Reichstag with a body “in theform of professional affiliation of represen-tatives of the major sectors, that is industryand of trade, in all its ramifications”.170 Inthis respect, he referred to Bismarck’s ideasfor forming a business council in order to re-duce the disadvantages of “party rule”.171 Al-ready a year later, however, Ballin altered hisposition in the wake of the “Daily Tele-graph” affair and showed sympathy for astrengthening of the Reichstag, althoughthis did not last long.172

···································································In common with (most) liberals, Ballin ad-vocated a free trade orientation of Germanforeign trade policy. This is scarcely surpris-ing in view of the fact that American grainimports represented a vital part of Hapag’soverseas cargo business.173 Ballin held com-mon ground with the liberals particularly oneconomic policy issues. In this area, therewere also the greatest differences to theReich Chancellor Bülow, who again pur-sued a stronger agricultural protectionistpolicy from 1900. On the other hand, Ballinhad no time for (leftist) liberal demands foran expansion of the constitution with a gov-ernment responsible to parliament. He evenconsidered it to be dangerous because heclaimed that it would be impossible to con-trol its further progress.174

···································································The keynote of Ballin’s position on socialpolicy was that, like most representatives ofmiddle-class business interests, he showedno sympathies at all for organised labour.Ballin was a resolute opponent of socialdemocracy and trade unions of any kind.Anyone who belonged to such or had goneon strike had no chance of finding employ-ment at Hapag. Officers and captains also

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had to undertake to have no contacts withtrade unions or social democratic associa-tions. All this strained relations between theHapag management and salaried employeesand workers, who, according to SusanneWiborg, lived “in almost constant dis-cord”.175

···································································Yet Ballin definitely showed concern forsocial issues, although this had a paternalis-tic character – which was also typical formost middle-class business people.176 Im-mediately after joining Hapag, Ballin im-proved and supplemented health insuranceand old age pensions for Hapag staff. Theannual report for 1887 states: “We saw our-selves obliged at the beginning of the cur-rent year to set up an invalids, widows andorphans pension scheme for salaried em-ployees of our company and have (…) thusestablished an institution which is not onlya benefit for the salaried employees and hasbeen lacking for a long time, but can alsoonly be of use to our company.”177

···································································Ballin displayed a more flexible attitudethan other employers in the major strikes in1896–97 and 1906–07. However, he was alsoprepared to enter into negotiations withinHapag only excluding the trade unions. Animportant point was involved here. After all,the 16,700 port workers and seamen pro-tested for eleven weeks in 1896–97 not onlyagainst miserable work conditions, lowwages and their bad housing situation – theywere also concerned about basic issues.However, the companies rejected arbitra-tion proceedings because they saw the strikeas a “power struggle”. The dispute also pro-ved to be a failure for the workers; only insubsequent years did they succeed in achiev-ing minor improvements.

···································································In view of the industrial disputes in 1906and 1907, Ballin decided to make conces-sions to Hapag employees. Various welfareinstitutions were expanded or newly set up,“namely the workers’ invalid fund, theworkers’ provident fund, the savings fundfor workers, the veterans’ foundation andthe imprest fund, the first alone havingabout 14,000 members”.178 Hapag held ashare of 50 percent in this. In 1909, Hapagbegan to build flats for its workers in theHamburg district of Wilhelmsburg.179 Al-ready in 1907 Ballin had the various institu-tions at Hapag combined into an own “so-cial political department”, headed initiallyby E. Huben and then in 1912 by the lawyerSiegfried Heckscher.180

···································································Albert Ballin and the Admiral ···································································Ballin disapproved of the strident propa-ganda of the “German Fleet Association”,but initially supported its call for naval ex-pansion. Up to 1908, Ballin was one of themain supporters of the ideas of Admiral Al-fred von Tirpitz.181

···································································Tirpitz was the driving force behind theplanned expansion of the battle fleet thatwas made possible with ever more NavalLaws182 and was one of the fathers of Ger-man “world policy” envisaging a projectionof German power overseas. As Secretary ofState of the Imperial Naval Office, he had aclose relationship with the Kaiser from 1897and could thus link his own ideas with thelatter’s dreams of a large fleet. The strategicplanning of Tirpitz was based on the “risktheory”, according to which Germany couldnever build such a large fleet as that of theleading sea power Britain, but had to aim to

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have a force capable of inflicting seriousdamage on the Royal Navy. This was to beimplemented with a ratio of 2:3 in about 20years. Tirpitz maintained that Germanycould afford the enormous costs of naval ex-pansion sooner than Britain. Once the de-sired ratio of 2:3 had been achieved, it wouldbe highly improbable that the British wouldfight against the German fleet.···································································Around the turn of the century, Ballin ad-vocated the ideas of Tirpitz on various occa-sions. In September 1899, he presented theKaiser with a “paper on the necessity of themore rapid strengthening of our navy”.183 Afew months later, he demanded in the“Hamburger Neueste Nachrichten”: “TheGerman battle fleet must virtually stand be-hind every German vessel abroad!” Hemaintained that Germany’s prestige shouldbe increased with a strong fleet also on theseas so that this alone would suffice withoutexternal application of force to avoid inci-dents such as the unjustified seizure of Ger-man merchant vessels by British warships.Ballin continued: “The German navy mustadapt to the development of world policyand our business interests, and the patrioticdeed of having put our fleet on a firm statu-tory basis will gain its true significance onlyif governments and parliament further buildon this foundation also in line with the re-quirements of the time. This is now to oc-cur with the new Naval Law, which intendsto double our home battle fleet and also in-crease the number of our foreign-basedships. We in Hamburg, this vital gateway toworld transport, through which more thanhalf of the entire German sea trade passes,welcome this demand. We well know thatone cannot do extensive business withoutcosts, and so the strengthening of the fleet

also requires considerable funds.”184 Shortlybefore Ballin had stated in the “Hamburgi-scher Correspondent” “that with our pres-ent wide-ranging business interests the sta-tus of Germany as a great power isdependent on the creation of a powerful warfleet. (…) It is also certain that a strength-ening of our naval fleet also immediatelypromotes the development of our overseastrade.”185

···································································Never again did Ballin so expressly advo-cate a naval build-up in public as at thistime. ···································································Eight years later, he changed his position.The Bülow-Tirpitz “world policy” had lost

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Kaiser Wilhelm II and the admirals Alfred von Tirpitz and Henning von Holtzendorff

(from l.) on board the Kaiser’s yacht “Hohenzollern” on June 23rd 1910 during

Kieler Woche

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appeal, and German foreign policy again fo-cused more on the European continent.Ballin now believed that Germany hadmeanwhile enough ships to protect its inter-ests overseas, particularly as the expansion ofHapag’s network was completed with theformation of the joint service to Africa in1907. Ballin was increasingly concernedwith the dangerous consequence of contin-ued naval expansion: a further deteriorationof German-British relations. ···································································Albert Ballin and “big politics” ···································································It is thus not surprising that Ballin’s “firstmajor political action” took him to Londonin June 1908.186 Ballin made the trip to meetSir Ernest Cassel, one of the most influen-tial bankers in London. Cassel, a Jew whohad converted to Catholicism in 1881, orig-inally came from Cologne. He had emi-grated as a young man to England, where hehad earned a great deal of money with cleverfinancial transactions. In 1902 he was ap-pointed private financial advisor to KingEdward VII, with whom he was also friends.Cassel intended to discuss German-Britishrelations with Ballin, who had become ac-quainted with him through Max War-burg.187 The discussion ended with Casselproposing that Germany and Englandshould try to resolve their differences via ne-gotiations.188

···································································The “Daily Telegraph” affair in October1908 mentioned above led to a further de-terioration in German-British relations. Ne-gotiations were resumed at the initiative ofBallin, who met Cassel for the second timeon July 10th 1909.189 Theobald von Beth-mann-Hollweg, who was appointed ReichChancellor four days later, was also inter-

ested in good relations with Britain. He con-sidered a fleet agreement between bothcountries to be desirable, but was deter-mined to conduct negotiations via normaldiplomatic channels, as he mistrusted thesemi-official link via Cassel and Ballin, whoresponded sensitively to this lack of confi-dence.190 From August 1909, Germany andBritain had their ambassadors discuss thefleet issue informally, without any results be-ing achieved up to 1910. ···································································Ballin again acted as an intermediary atthe beginning of 1912. He resumed contactwith Cassel and began to correspond withhim. This led to Cassel travelling to Berlinon January 29th 1912 and along with Ballinholding a discussion with the Kaiser and theReich Chancellor.191 On February 2nd, Cas-sel, who had meanwhile returned to Britain,sent a telegram drafted by him and by Win-ston Churchill (First Lord of the Admi-ralty), Lord Richard Burdon Haldane (theBritish Minister of War) and Sir EdwardGrey (the British Foreign Secretary) toBallin, who passed it on to the Reich Chan-cellor. This stated: “Inform confidentiallythat intention is possibly to send ministre dela guerre Berlin, (…).”192

···································································Close on two weeks later, the secret discus-sions between Haldane and Bethmann-Hollweg (on February 8th and 10th) and be-tween Haldane, Wilhelm II and Tirpitz (onFebruary 9th) took place in the Reich capi-tal.193 The latter was not prepared to re-nounce the just announced German NavalAmendment, which – going beyond theoriginal planning – envisaged in particularthe construction of three more battleships inthe next six years. Tirpitz agreed merely tohold out the prospect of an extension of the

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construction times, a concession thatseemed to satisfy Haldane.194 He in turn of-fered a political agreement, but not the neu-trality agreement demanded by the “hawks”in the Imperial Naval Office, at court, inparliament and by the public at large. Thiswould have obliged Britain to maintain aposition of unconditional neutrality andthus enabled Germany to take a calculatedrisk in a war against France and Russia.195

···································································When he was back in Britain, Haldanesoon met criticism, as the British naval ex-perts reproached him for having overlookedthe important point of crew strengtheningthat the Germans also planned. AlthoughBallin spoke several times with the Kaiser inthe following weeks and was involved in

further negotiations with Britain in mid-March,196 no settlement was reached, and inMay 1912 the Reichstag accepted the NavalAmendment with the votes of the Conser-vatives, the Liberals and the Centre. ···································································Ballin attributed the failure of the Hal-dane Mission, which was a serious blow forhim, to the fact that the Kaiser and Chan-cellor had undertaken to deal with the issuethemselves from the beginning to the end.197

Tirpitz was only indirectly involved andcould thus much more easily contest the at-tempted rapprochement with Britain.198

However, Ballin himself also made no ef-forts at all to persuade Tirpitz to drop theNaval Amendment Act.199

···································································

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Sir Ernest Cassel, Albert Ballin, Felix Cassel and Max Warburg (1913)

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Ballin refrained in subsequent years fromdistancing himself clearly from Tirpitz.200

The most convincing reason for this is givenby Ballin’s biographer Cecil: “But what Tir-pitz had and what Ballin admired in theman were characteristics that were com-pletely lacking in the rest of Berlin: resolu-tion and ability.”201 When Tirpitz resignedin March 1916 after disagreements with Wil-helm II and Bethmann-Hollweg concerningunrestricted submarine warfare, Ballin

wrote “that one has now let Tirpitz go is thepeak of stupidity!”202

···································································Ballin and Cassel continued to work foran agreement between Britain and Germanyeven after the failure of the HaldaneMission, but in vain. The scope for this – inany case limited – had again considerablynarrowed. Then in August 1914 the lightswent out throughout Europe.203

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··············································································································································135 Wiborg, Ballin, p. 77.136 Cecil, Ballin, p. 103. 137 Buchwald, Dorf, p. 205.138 Straub, Ballin, p. 141. 139 Mosse, Wilhelm II, p. 173: “Ballin (…) lacked conspicuous cultural interests or attainments.” 140 Wolff, Marsch, p. 245. 141 Hamburger Neueste Nachrichten No. 144 (June 23rd 1910). 142 Hamburger Fremdenblatt No. 114 (June 23rd 1910). 143 Private archives of Heinz Hueber. 144 Stated by Otto Böckler, member of parliament of the anti-Semitic German Reform Party, in the Reichstagin 1904: “It has occurred that our highest offices are ballinised, that the aliens from Palestine and America haveaccess up to the highest levels of the throne.” (Quoted in: Mosse, Wilhelm II, p. 189). 145 Art. Ballin, Albert, p. 374 ff. – The work was incidentally never offered for sale in bookshops, but could beordered only direct from U. Bodung Verlag in Erfurt. Every person who bought a copy had to sign a statement withthe following wording: “I am not of Jewish descent, have neither Jewish blood nor Jewish relatives. I undertakenot to sell this work or give it as a present. I give my word of honour that I do not act as a front man for anyone.” 146 Mosse, Wilhelm II, p. 170; Matthes, Hapag, p. 13. – The expression “Kaiser Jew” was coined by the FirstState President of Israel Chaim Weizmann (cf. Pulzer, Beteiligung, p. 217). 147 Cecil, Ballin, p. 103. 148 On the composition, cf. the introduction in Vierhaus, Tagebuch, p. 15. 149 Cecil, Ballin, p. 100. 150 On this cf. Schultz, Simon. 151 Röhl, Kaiser, p. 205; Cecil, Wilhelm II, p. 334 ff., 341 ff.; quoted in: Mosse, Wilhelm II, p. 180; cf. Schmidt-Ott, Erlebtes, p. 195; Pfeiffer-Belli, Tagebücher, p. 386. 152 One of the few exceptions was Max Warburg, who openly contradicted this in his first discussion with Wil-helm II in 1903. In his notes, Warburg then also aptly concludes that the Kaiser was confronted by a task that hewas incapable of handling (Warburg, Aufzeichnungen, p. 32). 153 Ropp, Gestern, p. 94; cf. the diary entry of Hildegard Freifrau von Spitzemberg, September 29th 1912: “Ballinloves the Kaiser, nevertheless he knows his flaws only too well and laments and very frankly admits these.” (Vier-haus, Tagebuch, p. 548). 154 Wolff, Marsch, p. 256.155 Bülow, Denkwürdigkeiten 3, p. 283 ff., 285. 156 Ahrens; Hauschild-Thiessen, Reeder, p. 53; cf. Hutten-Czapski, Jahre, p. 134.

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157 Both also seem to have been related to one another, as in the family and descendant trees of the HamburgWarburg family there is a connection of the Warburg family with the Ballins (cf. Ballin, Familie, p. 65). 158 Quoted in: Schölzel, Ballin, p. 11 ff. 159 In 1908, the monarch declared that Harden was a “foul toad from the cesspool of hell, [a] blemish on ourpeople” (quoted in: Cecil, Wilhelm II., p. 336). 160 Cecil, Ballin, p. 122. 161 Pulzer, Beteiligung, p. 225. 162 Trepsdorf, Ego, p. 123 ff. 163 Tirpitz, Weltanschauung. 164 Trepsdorf, Ego, p. 109.165 Straub, Ballin, p. 183. 166 Pierenkemper, Gewerbe, p. 82. 167 The term originated in the 1880s. It was used in 1900 by Reich Chancellor Bülow, when he spoke in theReichstag on the economic interests of Germany abroad and the possibilities of their protection (cf. Bülow,Denkwürdigkeiten 1, p. 415 ff.). 168 Wolff, Marsch, p. 272. 169 Cecil, Ballin, p. 109. 170 Quoted in: Goetz, Ballin, p. 57. 171 Also in the debates on the reform of the Reich constitution at the time of the Weimar Republic and on theconstitutions of the “Länder” (states) after 1945 above all conservatives and right-wing liberals advocated a profes-sional second chamber composed of representatives of the various areas of public and business life to restrict the in-fluence of the parties. 172 Straub, Ballin, p. 111. 173 Mosse, Gesellschaft, p. 92. 174 Cecil, Ballin, p. 293. 175 Wiborg, Ballin, p. 52. 176 Also Cecil, Ballin, p. 295. 177 Jahresbericht der Hamburg-Amerikanischen Packetfahrt-Actien-Gesellschaft in Hamburg für die am 28.März 1888 stattfindende ordentliche General-Versammlung der Actionaire: 41stes Geschäftsjahr 1887 (Archives ofHapag-Lloyd AG). 178 Hamburg-Amerika Linie (Hamburg-Amerikanische Packetfahrt-Actien-Gesellschaft) in Hamburg. Jahres-bericht für die am 30. März 1910 stattfindende ordentliche Generalversammlung der Aktionäre. 63stes Geschäfts-jahr 1909, p. 9 (ibid.).

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179 Straub, Ballin, p. 154. 180 Zeitschrift der Hamburg-Amerika Linie (1907), p. 52 and Zeitschrift der Hamburg-Amerika Linie (1912),p. 52 (Archives of Hapag-Lloyd AG). 181 Cecil, Ballin, p. 139. 182 The active battle fleet was renamed “High Seas Fleet” in 1907 at the request of Tirpitz. 183 Berghahn, Tirpitz, p. 141. 184 Hamburger Neueste Nachrichten No. 49 (February 28th 1900). 185 Hamburgischer Correspondent No. 9 (January 6th 1900). 186 Rosenbaum, Ballin, p. 279.187 Record of the Expert Councillor in the Foreign Office Otto Hammann, reproduced in: Lepsius; MendelssohnBartholdy; Thimme, Politik 24, p. 52; Warburg, Aufzeichnungen, p. 25. 188 Cecil, Ballin, p. 152. 189 On the discussion cf. the record of Ballin dated July 15th on his discussion with Sir Ernest Cassel, reproducedin: Lepsius; Mendelssohn Bartholdy; Thimme, Politik 28, p. 205–209. 190 Ibid., p. 211. 191 Lepsius; Mendelssohn Bartholdy; Thimme, Politik 31, p. 97. 192 Reproduced in: ibid., p. 102; the translation in Huldermann, Ballin, p. 248 ff. 193 While crossing the Canal, however, Haldane was recognised by a journalist, so rumours soon circulated(Williamson, Politics, p. 254). 194 Cf. his record of the discussion with Haldane dated February 9th 1912, reproduced in: Tirpitz, Dokumente,p. 286–289. 195 Hildebrand, Reich, p. 273 ff. 196 Diary entry of Hildegard Freifrau von Spitzemberg, March 20th 1912 (Vierhaus, Tagebuch, p. 542); Epken-hans, Leben, p. 212. 197 Huldermann, Ballin, p. 269.198 Fischer, Griff, p. 29, then sees the course of the mission also less as a failed attempt at German-British rap-prochement, “but as vehicle of the German objective on the continent”. 199 Epkenhans, Leben, p. 180. 200 Straub, Ballin, p. 75, 210. 201 Cecil, Ballin, p. 248. 202 Albert Ballin to Ernst Francke, March 21st 1916: Stubmann, Feld, p. 219. 203 As stated by Grey on August 4th 1914, the day of the British declaration of war on Germany, looking outfrom his office on St. James Park in London, where the gas lamps were just being lit.··············································································································································

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Albert Ballin and the “great seminal catastrophe of the 20th century”

[5]

Economic expansion and militaryconfrontation···································································The catchy phrase “great seminal catas-trophe of the 20th century” was coined bythe American diplomat and historianGeorge F. Kennan.204 He thereby describesthe first world war as an epochal change andat the same time focuses attention on thespectacular moment of the outbreak of warin July 1914. ···································································When we consider the long-term causes ofthe war, particularly in the context of aBallin biography, we are quickly faced withthe question of the connection between eco-nomic expansion and military confronta-tion. In April 1915, Ballin wrote to a navalofficer friend: “I am indeed regardedstrangely in high circles and even with H.M. himself as anglophile, yet I am the onlyGerman who can rightfully claim to havebeen living with Britain in a war for su-premacy in merchant shipping for 30 years.In this long time, I have taken away from theBritish, if I may use this bold comparison,one trench after the other and have contin-ually attacked them as soon as I could sum-mon up the means required.”205

···································································It is clear that there was already competi-tion between Britain and Germany in mer-

chant shipping before the naval arms racethat started around the turn of the century.However, in 1914 with over 20.5 million grtthe British merchant navy was still fourtimes the size of the German and nearly aslarge as the entire merchant fleet of the restof the world combined.206

···································································Like most of his contemporaries, includingsome Social Democrats, Ballin advocatedthe expansion of the diplomatic and eco-nomic power of the German Empire. Evenif the martial language in the aforemen-tioned letter - which is explained by the re-proach continually raised precisely duringthe world war that Ballin was a friend of theBritish – may suggest otherwise, the head ofHapag was one of those who preferred apeaceful penetration into spheres of interest,all the more after 1908. Ballin thus differen-tiated himself from the aforementioned“hawks”, who considered German expan-sion in territorial terms and very deliberatelyallowed for the war option.207

···································································Already at an early stage, it was impliedthat Ballin’s “in part entirely preposterousambition to outdo the British also provideda compelling reason for the war”, that “hisactivity and his profits were for the Britishalone reason enough to entertain hostilethoughts against Germany”.208 Recent bi-

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“The terror of the British shipping companies” (caricature from 1906)

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ographers also argue in this direction,though less emphatically, by for instancepointing out that “the rapid growth of Ha-pag contributed its part to increasing Ger-man-British tensions”.209

···································································However, another factor was really deci-sive. Although Ballin occasionally statedthat “under the government of Kaiser Wil-helm II (…) Britain suffered immense lossesin overseas transport”,210 he neverthelessconsidered naval expansion to be the mainreason for German-British rivalry, which iswhy he also advocated a settlement in thisarea. He shared this position with the Ger-man ambassador in London, Paul GrafWolff Metternich, who wrote to ReichChancellor Bülow in 1908: “I unfortunatelycannot avoid alienating the Admiral [vonTirpitz, JG] in attributing the relationshipof Britain to Germany in my reporting tothe real cause and not accepting his excuses.(…) It is not Germany’s economic develop-ment that is leading to a deterioration of ourrelations with Britain year by year, but therapid expansion of our fleet.”211

···································································Ballin attributed German-British tensionsto the failure of those princes, militarypeople, diplomats and politicians wholacked a sense of objectivity in business mat-ters.212 Indeed, for many of them – otherthan for Ballin – basically economic factorsplayed only a subordinate role in their po-litical activity. The crucial considerations forthem were rather categories of psychologyand prestige; they considered the growingpower of the economy to be (still) relativelyunimportant.213

···································································

Albert Ballin in July 1914···································································On July 15th 1914, the State Secretary in theForeign Office, Gottlieb von Jagow, wroteto Ballin: “Dear Mr Ballin, excuse me if Idisturb your spa treatment with these lines,but I refer to an issue that is also your con-stant concern, namely our relations withBritain. You will have read the articles of theBerliner Tageblatt on certain maritimeagreements between Britain and Russia [inMay 1914, the British Foreign Secretary SirEdward Grey had entered into negotiationswith Russia concerning a fleet convention,JG] (…). I do not need to go into more de-tail concerning the significance that the ven-ture would have for us. A further reconcili-ation with Britain would then be scarcelyconceivable for us. It thus seems to me to bevery important to attempt again to preventthe matter.”214

···································································Although the Reich Chancellery and theForeign Office had frequently protestedagainst Ballin’s unofficial diplomatic negoti-ations in the past, they now expressly calledon his services. Ballin set off to London towarn the members of the British cabinet ofpossible German counter-measures against aBritish-Russian fleet agreement. However,the trip was ill-fated. It seems doubtfulwhether Ballin’s mission at this point of timewas seriously meant in the first place, as hewas sent by Jagow to London without ad-equate information for treating an issue ofsecondary importance.215 Besides the Lon-don Ambassador, Karl Max Prinz von Lich-nowsky, was not informed about the trip ofBallin, who on his part was obliged to ob-serve secrecy. Ballin had then also later, ac-cording to his secretary and biographerBernhard Huldermann, the bitter feeling

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that people had not been frank with him andtaken unfair advantage of his friendly rela-tionships with the top men in London.216

···································································The main problem with Ballin’s discussionsin London was the possibility of British neu-trality in the event of a German-French war.Britain held the balance, but had movedever closer to France since 1911. On the oneside was the originally defensively orientedDual Alliance between Germany and Aus-tria conceived under Bismarck, which overthe years had made German diplomacy in-creasingly dependent on the Habsburg Em-pire. This was strongly opposed to Russia inthe Balkans. The situation came to a headwith the assassination of the Austro-Hun-garian heir to the throne on June 28th inSarajevo, as Austria wanted to use the inci-dent as an opportunity to undertake thelong-expected military action against Ser-bia. On the other side, the Russian-Frenchalliance had been so expanded in the previ-ous years that in the event of war the armiesof both countries were obliged to go imme-diately over to the offensive. ···································································On July 23rd, Ballin and the British ForeignSecretary Sir Edward Grey and Lord JohnMorley, Lord President of the Council, metfor a dinner given by the war minister LordRichard Burdon Haldane. He later reportedto Max Warburg that Grey and Haldane hadassured him that Britain had no obligationsof any kind to France in the event of war.217

Two days later, Ballin held a discussion withWinston Churchill, the First Lord of theAdmiralty. The latter gives in his memoirsthe content of the discussion as follows:“Then he [Ballin, JG] said, ‘If Russiamarches against Austria, we must march;and if we march, France must march, and

what would England do?’ I [Churchill, JG]was not in a position to say more than thatit would be a great mistake to assume thatEngland would necessarily do nothing, andI added that she would judge events as theyarose. He replied, speaking with very greatearnestness, ‘Suppose we had to go to warwith Russia and France, and suppose we de-feated France and yet took nothing from herin Europe (…), only some colonies to in-demnify us. Would that make a differencein England’s attitude?’ I stuck to my formulathat England would judge events as theyarose, and that it would be a mistake to as-sume that we should stand out of it what-ever happened.”218

···································································On July 27th, Ballin returned to Germany.He was convinced that Britain would re-main neutral in a continental war if Ger-many did not annex any French territory. Inan interview published two days later in the“Hamburgischer Correspondent”, he evenstated: “Britain has no reason and the high-est circles in Britain, it is certain, see no rea-son for currently preparing for the event thatBritain has to take part actively in an armedconflict.”219 He thus misjudged the situa-tion, which became more critical on theevening of the same day when the Britishambassador in Berlin, Sir William EdwardGoschen, informed Reich Chancellor Beth-mann-Hollweg that Germany could notcount on British neutrality, as it would in allprobability support Russia and France. Aday later, Austria declared war on Serbia. ···································································That Ballin misjudged the situation afterhis discussion in Britain was, according tohis biographer Lamar Cecil, due to the“vagueness of the language that both sidestook great pains in using in order to avoid

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German ports, against which he planned athrust of the German fleet; he had ignoredthe possibility that Britain could deploy itsfleet just as much for a long-range blockadebeyond the range of German units (as nowhappened). The German battle fleet thus re-mained condemned mainly to inactivity inthe North Sea. ···································································After the outbreak of the war, Ballin wasconfronted mainly by two problems: look-ing after Hapag’s employees and concernabout its vessels. ···································································About half of Hapag’s 25,000 salaried em-ployees and workers were called up at thebeginning of hostilities. Some 4,000 whowere stationed abroad or were in Ententeports when their ships fell into enemy handswere interned. However, the others contin-ued to work, though on reduced pay, andhandled office work or maintained Hapagships in the Port of Hamburg. Several hun-dred office workers of the shipping com-pany were also taken over by Reichs-einkaufs-Gesellschaft. This had been estab-lished on August 26th at Ballin’s initiativeand was concerned with securing imports offood for the civilian population. Ballinthereby sought to use Hapag’s existing busi-ness organisation in another way. Initiallyfounded as a department of the shippingline, Reichseinkaufs-Gesellschaft developedup to January 1915 into a state trading com-pany, then called Zentral-Einkaufs-Gesell-schaft, which was moved to Berlin. It had astaff of over 8,000, and Hapag continued tofunction as one of its main purchasingagents.222

···································································At the beginning of the war, only 80 of Ha-pag’s 175 steamships were in German ports.

stating the facts precisely.”220 Later Ballin re-proached himself for having been deceivedby Britain and with his belief in British neu-trality – which was based on wishful think-ing – encouraged those responsible in Berlinin their attitude of carelessness. He never re-ally recovered from this disappointment, asmany who associated with him in thoseyears noted. His good friend Carl Fürsten-berg, for instance, remarked: “The feeling ofresponsibility to the fatherland was shock-ing for a fervent patriot like Ballin. (…)However clearly he would have liked to saythat no German at that time would havebeen able to see through the dispositions ofEnglish policy, he continually consideredthat his report could have contributed to al-lowing the German statesmen to take a stepcloser to the abyss than they had done in anycase. Albert Ballin was ruined by this innertragedy. I saw him often enough during thewar. He was completely changed, a psychi-cally broken man.”221

···································································Hapag in the first world war ···································································Kennan’s “great seminal catastrophe” ap-plies not only generally for the moment ofthe outbreak of war. It is just as applicableto the person of Albert Ballin, whose life’swork, Hapag, was destroyed by the firstworld war. ···································································The situation for Hapag changed dramati-cally with the British declaration of war onGermany on August 4th. At the beginningof November 1914, the British Admiraltydeclared the entire North Sea a war zone andcut off the Channel and the North Sea be-tween Norway and Scotland for Germanshipping. Tirpitz had always assumed thatthere would be a close-range blockade of

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Some of these were taken over by the navyas auxiliary cruisers or tenders. Ballin triedinitially to charter out Hapag vessels lying inneutral foreign countries and later to sellthem (those in the ports of the Ententecountries had been immediately seized).However, he failed in these endeavoursmainly due to the resistance of the navalstaff, which reasoned that a sale of the shipswould lead to an expansion of the Alliedmerchant fleet. Most of these vessels thusgradually had to be written off. Only nineof them were sold in the course of the war.223

···································································In spring 1917, Ballin wrote a letter of com-plaint to the State Secretary of the ImperialOffice of the Interior, Karl Helfferich. Hehad given his approval for the sale of someHapag ships lying in the New York port onlyafter their engines had been rendered unus-able. Ballin claimed in his letter that Hapag,which had “at the outbreak of the war shipsof about 1,500,000 tons (…) lost these ex-cept for a small number” and that this hadhappened “much less owing to seizures andsinkings in the services of the imperial navythan as a result of actions of our own gov-ernment”.224 The sale did not eventuate andwith the USA’s entry into the war in April1917 all 35 Hapag vessels lying at anchor inUS ports, including the flagship, the “Vater-land”, were seized. ···································································Ballin’s efforts to achieve a war indemnityact in favour of shipping, which he advo-cated from August 1915, are also to be seenagainst this background. Although Hapagalready received from the government twomillion marks monthly as loan, this sufficedonly to cover the running costs, and lostships could thus not be replaced. The gov-ernment and the navy opposed Ballin’s pro-

ject, but he found support in the Reichstag,in which above all his friend Gustav Strese-mann championed Hapag’s interests. ···································································Before the war, Ballin had still been scep-tical about exerting political influence viathe Reichstag, but now he tried to do exactlythis. And, as shown by his efforts to have awar indemnity act passed, he no longer ba-sically rejected state intervention, as he haddone in previous years. This is certainly tobe seen also against the background of thegeneral trend towards the nationalisation ofeconomic and social life, which under thepressure of the war occurred at a rapid pace,not only in Germany. ···································································After very lengthy negotiations, the “lawon the restoration of the German merchantfleet” entered into force on November 7th1917. This envisaged cheap and in somecases also interest-free loans of 50 millionmarks. Subsidies for the reprocurement ofmerchant vessels were thus provided insteadof an overall indemnity as the shipping lineshad actually wanted.225

···································································There were other reasons behind Ballin’scall for state support. He needed it in orderto be able to hold his own against a competi-tor that had become increasingly powerfulin the course of the war: Rhine heavy indus-try, in the person of Hugo Stinnes. From the1890s, Stinnes had built up an extensive in-dustrial group of his own, controlled and in-fluenced companies, interrelated accordingto the principle of vertical concentrationbased on a division of labour. This concen-tration trend continued even during thewar.226 When Stinnes died in 1924, his trustcomprised 1,664 companies with a totalworkforce of about 600,000.

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···································································At the latest from 1915, Stinnes had alsoplanned to play a leading role in Germanshipping – and thereby also exert a decisiveinfluence on Hapag. He thus came intoBallin’s sphere. Ballin decided very reluc-tantly to cooperate with Stinnes, whosecompanies made high profits during thewar, while Hapag vessels lay more or lesswithout employment at anchor. Ballin thuspreferred to have Stinnes as an ally and notas an opponent. ···································································There were other reasons that motivatedBallin to cooperate with Stinnes: he had ap-preciated early on that only with a strategicalliance with leaders of heavy industry wasit possible to cope with the expected diffi-culties after the war with the procurementof shipbuilding material, machinery andcoal.227 Stinnes seemed indispensable to himfor this. The rapid access to reliable supply

sources was all the more important becauseBallin expected for the immediate post-warperiod that “in my firm conviction after ashort period of prosperity shipping has tosuffer years of sterility”. As long as the warcontinued, it was vital for Ballin above all todevelop new sources of revenues for Hapag,“so that its earning power is no longer con-nected to a single undertaking”.228 This wasan important reason why he participatedwith Stinnes in the Romanian oil businessin 1917–18. And at Ballin’s initiative and incooperation with Walther Rathenau andPaul Reusch, Deutsche Werft AG, a jointventure of Hapag, AEG and Gutehoffnungs-hütte, was founded in mid-1918. Its abbrevi-ation “GHH” was, incidentally, popularlyalso interpreted as “gehört hauptsächlichHaniel” (belongs mainly to Haniel). ···································································In September 1916, Stinnes was appointedto the Hapag supervisory board. OriginallyBallin had planned to expand this bodyright away with several prominent represen-tatives of heavy industry. He thus wrote toStinnes in March 1916: “As soon as Lloydfinds out that you have joined us, it will tryin the person of Mr Hugenberg and someother big industrialist colleagues of yoursfrom the Rhineland and Westphalia to cre-ate the counterweight. Would it not seemright to you in the interests of Hamburg-American Line (HAL) that we take some ofyour friends on the supervisory board (…)?”However, Stinnes opposed this idea.229

···································································Ballin did not find it easy to propose tothe chairman of the supervisory board MaxSchinckel the election of Hugo Stinnes tothis body, as it would have meant includinga new force to be taken extremely seriouslyin the hitherto relatively closed circle of the

Hugo Stinnes

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Hamburg business world.230 He thus in-formed Schinckel in October 1915: “Ipointed out to him [Stinnes, JG] that in the30 years during which I was permitted toparticipate in the management of H.A.L. Ithrew out every new competitor from Ham-burg and during these entire 30 years wasnever so obliging to a new applicant as tohim.”231

···································································The appointment of Stinnes to the Hapagsupervisory board has to be seen against thebackground of a change in ownership occur-ring at this time in Hamburg shipping. Atthe beginning of 1916, Eduard Woermann,the half-brother of Adolph, decided to sellhis stake in Woermann-Linie and DeutscheOst Afrika-Linie.232 The shares were ac-quired by a consortium comprising Hapag,North German Lloyd and the companyHugo Stinnes. Ballin had heard at an earlystage of Woermann’s sales intentions, so hecould frustrate the sole purchase of bothlines by Stinnes, who now tried to offset hispartial defeat by buying more Hapag shares,in which he invested a total of 4.39 millionmarks.233 Nevertheless, Ballin, who had stillwritten concerned letters to Schinckel (“weare being sucked up”) in February 1916,could prevent Stinnes acquiring a majorityinterest.234

···································································Stinnes’ involvement with Hapag alreadyended in April 1921, when Max vonSchinckel and Ballin’s successor WilhelmCuno outmanoeuvred him by ensuring thathe was not re-elected to the supervisoryboard of Hapag. Meanwhile the conflictinginterests that had already loomed in the pre-vious years had further intensified: Ballinhad from the beginning feared that Stinneswould completely change the previous

structure of the Hamburg shipping line sec-tor, with a large group replacing the variouslines, which had formed cooperative oper-ating agreements, with Ballin calling thetune. This would then sooner or later alsojeopardise the independence of Hapag.Ballin had therefore aimed to involveStinnes in the manifold shipping companyinterests in Hamburg and so win his supportfor maintaining them.235 Schinckel andCuno agreed with Ballin that the links ofHamburg shipowners to heavy industry, thenecessity of which they certainly did not dis-pute, needed to be developed on a moremodest scale than envisaged by Stinnes.236

Stinnes’ withdrawal from the Hapag super-visory board and the sale of his Woermannshares to Hapag and North German Lloydsoon afterwards marked the end of his at-tempt to play a key role in German linershipping, even if this was not immediatelynoticeable.237

···································································Political influence in wartimeBerlin ···································································Ballin’s relationship to the Kaiser hadcooled off since the outbreak of the war.Wilhelm II demonstratively omitted to con-gratulate him on his 60th birthday on Au-gust 15th 1917.238 Ballin met the Kaiser onlyfive times in the four years between 1914 and1918.239

···································································Ballin criticised to third parties the self-isolation of the monarch, who he claimedhad increasingly become the “shadowKaiser”. He thus wrote in May 1916 to thehead of the Naval Cabinet, Admiral GeorgAlexander von Müller: “I can make ab-solutely no pretence to you of the fact thatthe isolation of the Kaiser is sorely felt in the

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nation (…). I consider (…) that in the in-terest of our imperial master it is very desir-able that he would have more personal con-tact and that the management wouldconsiderably improve, with the aim thatmore is said to the German people on theeffectiveness of its Kaiser. A report from theheadquarters that the Kaiser had receivedthis or that personality in a long audience(…) etc. would completely suffice to guidethe patriotic feelings into the right channelagain and prevent them taking an unnatu-ral way to the eastern headquarters.”240

···································································Ballin alluded here to the fact that Gen-eral Field Marshal Paul von Hindenburgand his chief of staff General LieutenantErich Ludendorff, who had supreme com-mand over all German troops on the East-ern front, were increasingly regarded bymany Germans as “knights in shining ar-mour”. After Hindenburg with Ludendorffas First Quartermaster General had assumedresponsibility for the Oberste Heeresleitung(OHL, Supreme Army Command) in Au-gust 1916, Germany developed ever moreinto a military dictatorship. The political in-fluence of the OHL considerably increasedagain with the resignation of Reich Chan-cellor Bethmann-Hollweg in July 1917,mainly due to pressure from Ludendorff.241

···································································Bethmann-Hollweg had been toppledin an “act of dissonant harmony” betweeninterests from the army and the Reichstag,which held entirely divergent positions oninner political reforms and also war aims.242

Ballin continued to maintain good contactwith high officials of the government auth-orities and the Secret Civil Cabinet (the “of-fice” of the Kaiser); at this time, he also ad-vocated the resignation of Bethmann-Holl-

weg and evidently also informed him ofthis.243

···································································Already in January 1916, Ballin had bro-ken with the Secretary of State for ForeignAffairs, Gottlieb von Jagow, stating that hewanted “to have nothing more to do with aman who is guilty of this whole terrible dis-aster and the deaths of so many hundreds ofthousands of people”.244 Jagow, who was acritic of unrestricted submarine warfare, wasdismissed from office in November 1916. ···································································Bethmann-Hollweg and Jagow be-longed to the party of the “Anglophiles” andactually sought what Ballin also advocated:a rapprochement with Britain. Their dis-missal thus weakened the party of the level-headed, to which Ballin also felt he be-longed.245 Jagow’s “subsequent successor”Richard von Kühlmann, in whom Ballinhad high hopes, tried to reach a settlementwith Britain by negotiation, but failed dueto the resistance of the OHL and the waraims movement, which was against a “rot-ten peace” and advocated extensive annexa-tions of territory by the German Empire.Kühlmann had to resign in July 1918 aftermaking a speech in the Reichstag expressingdoubt about Germany’s prospects of a com-plete military victory. Ballin commented onthis as follows: “One would sometimes liketo ask how it is possible that we can refrainfrom no stupidity at all in personnel mattersat the Foreign Office.”246

···································································Before the war, Ballin had continually putout information on his meetings with toppersonalities from politics, particularly theKaiser, to the press, but during the war heexercised political influence more on thequiet. Arndt von Holtzendorff played an

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important role in this respect. Holtzendorffwas head of fitting out at Hapag from 1898and had proved to be a competent festive or-ganiser at Kieler Woche. After the outbreakof war, he was given new responsibilities: hebecame the Hapag resident in Berlin andopened a discreet political lobby, initially inthe restaurant of Hotel Kaiserhof and laterin his apartment on Viktoriastrasse.Holtzendorff was superbly informed on allactivities of Hapag in Berlin; at the begin-ning of his work with Ballin, he had agreed“that all departments, including managers,are instructed by you [Ballin, JG] in futureto have all correspondence pp. with the lo-cal offices and ministries passed through me[Holtzendorff, JG]. Vice versa, the publicauthorities would also have to be requestedto have on their part the communicationwith H.A.L. go through me by my being of-ficially accredited by the relevant offices asauthorised representative of H.A.L.”247

Practically every day Holtzendorff compileddetailed reports on his activity, which hesent to Ballin in Hamburg. When he washimself in Berlin, Holtzendorff wrote noteson the discussions that Ballin conductedthere.248

···································································There were regular gatherings in manyplaces in wartime Berlin at which currentpolicy was discussed in a social setting andover good food.249 Holtzendorff ’s politicalevenings were held in particularly high re-gard. He wrote to Ballin in January 1915: “Iheard subsequently from another gentlemana very interesting assessment from Delbrück[Clemens von Delbrück, from 1909 to 1916Secretary of State of the Reich Departmentof the Interior, JG] of the political eveningswith me. He told this gentleman that he ac-tually now did not go out at all, but went

particularly gladly only to these evenings,because they were always interesting and ex-traordinarily important for him. He statedthat he always heard a lot of new things anditems that were especially valuable for him,so he would consider it as a kind of neglectof duty if he declined. Dr. Naumann [theReichstag member of parliament D. h. c.Friedrich Naumann, JG] had also recentlysaid something similar and added that onecould acquire a particularly great deal ofspecial information at these evenings.”250

···································································Holtzendorff saw his role as bringingpeople together informally as a seeminglydisinterested go-between. He functioned ashost, although Ballin, who only seldom ap-peared at his gatherings, held the strings.251

The journalist Ernst Jäckh, who took parteven on the political evenings, reported:“(…) every Reich Chancellor, every ReichMinister (at that time called secretaries ofstate), every court marshal, every partyleader (with the one exception that if Ballinparticipated personally he wanted to haveno Social Democrats present), every alliedambassador, the leading businessmen andscientists, every person in an important po-sition, met there the other, not all together,but alternately, because practice mostly con-firmed the principle of having no more thanthe number of Muses for table talk, no fewerthan the number of Graces, best of all Plato’seight.”252

···································································Holtzendorff ’s evenings definitely en-sured topics of conversation. This is shownby the following episode that he recorded inhis notes and at least suggests that already afew months after the outbreak of the warReich Chancellor Bethmann-Hollweg had adifficult position in Berlin: “On this occa-

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sion, Wahnschaffe [Arnold Wahnschaffe,head of the Reich Chancellery under Beth-mann-Hollweg from 1909 to 1917, JG], toldme the following nice story. One of his ‘se-cret agents’ had come to him and told himthat for quite some time (…) politicalevenings had been held at the house of Mrv. Holtzendorff and asked whether he knewanything about them; after Wahnschaffeconfirmed this, he added whether he alsoknew that precisely on these evenings therewas enormous agitation against the Chan-cellor! Wahnschaffe then explained to himthat he could not really imagine this, as hewould have himself been repeatedly presenton these evenings, whereupon the agentsaid, well these things always began whenWahnschaffe was away, at which Wahn-schaffe said laughing that that was ab-solutely impossible, as he was always the lastto go!”253

···································································Albert Ballin’s attitudes to thewar aims of the German Empire···································································During the entire war, according to LamarCecil, Ballin’s ideas concerning the war aimsof the German Empire were determined bytwo principles: first, Germany needed tohave unrestricted access to the seas for thefuture and had to be secured against a long-range blockade with carefully selected navalstations in Europe and overseas, and second,the peace terms would have to be such as torestore international harmony, the objectivebeing a post-war partnership betweenBritain and Germany.254

···································································Ballin’s hope that the “conclusion ofpeace (…) will be based on compromises”contrasted agreeably with the ambitious waraims as propagated by e.g. the “Pan-German

Association”, the “core organisation of rad-ical nationalism” (Thomas Nipperdey), butwould be difficult to harmonise with the de-mand for naval stations in Europe and over-seas.255

···································································In January 1915, Ballin expressed himself forthe first time in public on German war aims.He wrote in an article for the “FrankfurterZeitung”: “‘The wet triangle’, as the marinersin my youth used to call the area of the NorthSea extending between Heligoland and theriver mouths. (…) The serious disruptionbringing our overseas trade almost to a stand-still can be achieved by the British fleet onlyby the fact that the area of the North Sea canbe easily cut off, and the piratical pressurethat Britain exercises today on the neutralScandinavian countries and Holland wouldhave been impossible if we had had a basisfor our fleet corresponding to its significanceand the fighting spirit of its valiant officersand crews. We must therefore seek to obtaina fleet base beyond the area of the North Seathat in future secures for us at least in thispart of the world the same possibilities thatBritain has and ruthlessly exploits.”256

···································································That these two principles of Ballin weredifficult to reconcile with one another buthe himself did not want to admit this tohimself is also shown by an entry in Wolff ’sdiary dated February 1915: “I ask Ballin whyhe in a New Year’s greeting, requested byFrankf. Ztg., advocated a port opposite Eng-land; whether in his opinion that wouldhave to make impossible for all time the rap-prochement that he finally desired. He sayshe does not fear the latter.”257 In his mem-oirs, Max von Schinckel accused Ballin thatduring the world war he wavered “betweenthe demand for another basis for German

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shipping, which had to be ‘located beyondthe wet triangle of the North Sea and to theAtlantic’, which could mean nothing otherthan an annexation of northern France, andthe demand for a peace at any price”.258 Thisalso shows the incompatibility of the prin-ciples of Ballin, although his striving for acompromise peace was excessively stigma-tized by Schinckel, who propagated muchmore radical war aims.259

···································································On October 20th 1915, Ballin delivered aspeech at the annual meeting of the “Asso-ciation of Hamburg Shipowners” in whichhe again lamented the “lack of permanentbases for our navy outside the North Sea andBaltic”. He noted: “Germany can ensure nobetter for its future than if it strives first andforemost to acquire those maritime fleetbases that ensure a basic correction of thecondition that we currently have to lament.This conviction that I stated already tenmonths ago has been connected with the as-sumption that our maritime requirementsare to be satisfied in Zeebrügge. That is, ofcourse, not the case. We need bases at theentrance and the exit of the Channel; weneed strong bases overseas.”260

···································································The issue of the further fate of neutral Bel-gium, which German troops had invaded inviolation of international law on August 4th1914, formed a key element of the discussionconcerning German war aims in WesternEurope. In the course of 1915, Reich Chan-cellor Bethmann-Hollweg had succeededwith his idea of the indirect domination ofBelgium – which was to be subservient tothe German Empire as a half-sovereign“tributary state” in military and economicterms – against demands for a direct annex-ation of the country.261

···································································The organisation of the Port of Antwerpand its access path was of crucial signifi-cance. Ballin was of the opinion that thiswas to be put under the joint administrationof a German-Belgian company. He spoke toTheodor Wolff of a “port commission, inwhich Germany would have the majorityinterest, so the port would in fact be underGerman administration”.262 This idea, ac-cording to the historian Fritz Fischer in his epochal book “Griff nach der Welt-macht” (”Germany’s Aims in the FirstWorld War”), “henceforth formed a basicmotif of German policy towards Belgium upto 1918.”263

···································································Ballin also proposed putting the Belgianstate railways under German administra-tion.264 He said to Bethmann-Hollweg: “Putyour hands on the railway, as in Luxemburg,and you create an economic link, but let the[Belgian, JG] king keep his crown, as he hasindeed behaved very correctly.”265 Ballinpleaded for “bringing about a certain eco-nomic dependency (…), because otherwiseBelgium would become the glacis of theBritish”.266 He also had in mind the con-clusion of a military agreement.267 That theBelgians would never accept such far-reach-ing limitations of their sovereignty (andBritain’s resolve to declare war was stirred upprecisely by the fate of Belgium) was some-thing he failed to appreciate, as did mostpeople in Germany in 1914–15. ···································································Although Ballin opposed a direct annex-ation of Belgium, he was in July 1915 notprepared to sign a statement submitted tothe Reich Chancellor by the historian HansDelbrück and the former Secretary of Statein the Reich Colonial Office Bernhard

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Dernburg. This had been signed on July 9th1915 by such influential intellectuals as Al-bert Einstein, Ludwig Quidde, Paul Rohr-bach, Gustav von Schmoller, FerdinandTönnies, Ernst Troeltsch, Max and AlfredWeber, Theodor Wolff and Leopold vonWiese, who opposed “the incorporation orannexation of peoples who are politically in-dependent and used to independence” andcondemned means “that would lead us in aroundabout way finally to annexation”.268

These passages seemed to be misleading toBallin. Moreover, he (whose signaturewould not have been seen as that of a pri-vate person, but would have representedHapag in its entirety) feared to be “renderedinvalid” for a later initiative if he alreadysupported this statement – a position thatseemed “strange” (not only) to his confidantHoltzendorff.269

···································································What were Ballin’s war aims for EasternEurope? ···································································In September 1917, Ballin wrote in retro-spect to Hugo Stinnes that since the out-break of the war he had been of the opinion“that our main war aim had to be to detachRussia from the Entente in order to form inas close a link as possible with Russia a blocstrong enough to win the respect of aBritish-French-American alliance.”270

···································································On December 9th 1917, negotiations be-gan in Brest-Litovsk between the Central Powers and the new Bolshevik governmentin Russia, which was concerned to consoli-date its power in the interior of the countryand had therefore proposed an armistice toall belligerents, which the Entente had how-ever rejected. ···································································

Ballin criticised from the beginning theexcessively harsh terms with which the Ger-mans went into these negotiations. Alreadyon December 13th, he wrote to Stinnes: “Iam worried by the Russian peace negotia-tions. If we do not give up the idea to getPoland, Kirkland and Lithuania off the Rus-sians, they will, as the situation is, also be re-quired to make peace, but it will then not bethe peace we require. We need a RussianEmpire confidentially supporting us. We donot get that if we proceed to acquiring statesby force. (…) I wonder sometimes why weexperienced businessmen are not consultedon such matters. We would surely not dosuch stupid things!”271

···································································But Ballin’s concerns fell on deaf ears, par-ticularly at the German Supreme Com-mand, which dominated in the secondphase of the negotiations. As a result of thedictated peace of Brest-Litovsk (March 1918)and the Supplementary Treaty of Berlin(August 1918), a German eastern empirecame into being, though only for a shorttime. Extensive parts of the former TsaristEmpire came under German authority, pro-viding a specific basis for long-term goalsthat were then formulated by Hitler in the1920s.272

···································································Albert Ballin’s attitudes tosubmarine warfare ···································································As reaction to the British long-range block-ade, in February 1915 Germany declared thewaters around Britain a war zone. Germansubmarines were to set up a counter block-ade there. As the U-boats on surfacing werewithout protection against the armament ofmerchant vessels, the German naval leader-ship ordered unrestricted submarine war-

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fare, i.e. torpedoing the ships of hostile andneutral countries without warning. Thiscaused a sharp protest from the neutralstates, particularly the USA. In May 1915, aU-boat sank the British passenger steamship“Lusitania” with the loss of close on 1,200lives, including many US citizens. In ordernot to worsen relations with the USA evenfurther, Germany then discontinued unre-stricted submarine warfare, but resumed itin February 1917. There had meanwhilebeen a dramatic deterioration in the supplysituation, and the naval command had de-clared that with a resumption of unre-

stricted submarine warfare Britain wouldcapitulate in six months. ···································································In the first few months of the war, Ballinhad initially advocated unrestricted subma-rine warfare. In October 1914, he enthusedin a letter to his son-in-law Heinz Bielfeld:“The successes of the U-boats are indeed ab-solutely splendid and in my view change alltheories about fleet expansion. What is thepoint of the super-dreadnoughts when asubmarine suffices to do them in.”273 How-ever, Ballin’s optimistic attitude began tofade in spring 1915 when he increasingly

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“The discussion of the situation at the chart table in the headquarters of the Supreme Army CommandPless/Upper Silesia” (taken in January 1917, l. Paul von Hindenburg, centre Wilhelm II,

r. Erich Ludendorff )

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doubted that German submarines couldreally achieve such an effective counterblockade of Britain, as Alfred von Tirpitz inparticular maintained.274

···································································In February 1916, the pendulum swungback again, and Ballin again advocated un-restricted submarine warfare. He did thisabove all because he had gained the impres-sion that the German public was becomingincreasingly dissatisfied with the govern-ment because it did not use every availablemeans to win the war.275 On February 17th,he wrote from Berlin a letter to MaxSchinckel, in which he commented on pub-lic opinion concerning submarine warfare:“Here everything is submarine war; thepeople really couldn’t care less whether withor against America. A certain anarchy in poli-tics is apparent, which, I fear, will also finallysweep away the leading statesmen.”276

···································································From summer 1916, Ballin became increas-ingly concerned about the risk of the USAentering the war. He now again consideredthat unrestricted submarine warfare was outof the question. When on January 31st 1917the German government informed Wash-ington in a note that it would drop the re-strictions that it had so far imposed on itselfin the use of its weapons at sea, Ballin washorrified.277 The USA entered the war onthe side of the Entente on April 6th 1917. ···································································Ballin was extremely pessimistic in thesemonths. He did not believe “in the politicaleffect of the submarine war on the toughBritish and described conditions within thecountry as extremely alarming”. The re-sumption of unrestricted submarine warfareseemed to him to be hopeless after the USA’sentry into the war “on account of the in-

crease in tonnage among our enemies withthe putting into operation of our ships inNorth America and Brazil”.278 In August1917, he complained to the former Germanambassador in London, Paul Graf WolffMetternich, in a letter: “It was the mostfateful error and simply the sealing of ourfate when unrestricted submarine warfarewas declared on February 1st (…).”279

···································································The historian Gerhard A. Ritter is correctin stating that “Ballin (…) (was) not a basicopponent of unrestricted submarine war-fare if it could thereby actually force Britainto come round.” However, he adds thatBallin had early on warned against recklesslyunderestimating the fatal consequence of itsresumption, the USA’s entry into the war.280

Ballin was aware of the economic power ofthe USA and then also warned in a letter toHugo Stinnes in February 1917: “As our gen-eral staff underestimated Britain, it now un-derestimates America militarily and eco-nomically and in terms of its politicalsignificance.”281

···································································But above all Ballin was one of the few thatin 1916 had seen through the hollow catch-words of the advocates of unrestricted sub-marine warfare, designated by present re-searchers as “peak of irrationality”.282 Hediffered in this respect from industrial mag-nates such as Alfred Hugenberg or HugoStinnes. ···································································Peace via Wilson···································································At the end there remained hope in Wilson.At the latest since the beginning of 1918,Ballin was convinced that a peace treatycould be concluded only via the Americanpresident Woodrow Wilson, as the United

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Letter written by Albert Ballin to his son-in-law Heinz Bielfeld dated December 20th 1915

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States had meanwhile replaced Britain asthe leading power of the Entente.283 How-ever, the military leadership was scornful ofWilson’s 14-point programme, with whichhe sketched the pattern of the future worldpeace on January 8th 1918, if it took note ofthe document at all (Ludendorff probablyread it only in October 1918).284 Ballin hadno time for such an attitude: “I have indeednever believed that the war could be endedmilitarily with a complete defeat of the en-tire world and today consider the situationto be extraordinarily alarming. The wholeworld is against us, and the prospect of afavourable peace is dwindling with everyday.”285

···································································After the failure of the German spring of-fensive from March to July 1918 – in the firsttwo weeks alone the Germans lost 230,000men,286 the military defeat of Germany wasfinally sealed. But the German SupremeCommand did not accept this until the endof September. “With the cowardice of ashirker” and from cold calculation Hinden-burg and Ludendorff now shifted responsi-bility on to the new political leadership.287

Put under massive pressure by these militaryleaders, the first parliamentary governmentof the Empire headed by Max von Baden onOctober 3rd/4th 1918 requested Wilson, “totake in hand the establishment of the peace”and “bring about the immediate conclusionof an armistice (…).” The Reich Chancelloraccepted the 14-point programme “as basisfor the peace negotiations”.288

···································································However, the situation had meanwhileradically changed. Victory over the GermanEmpire and its allies had still been far off forthe Entente at the beginning of 1918, butnow it was within reach. On October 23rd,

Wilson made complete German capitula-tion the precondition of an armistice. Healso demanded that the German Empiregive up its previous form of government.The end of Wilhelm II and the monarchy –at least in the form in which it had hithertoexisted in the German Empire – was thussealed. Ballin had this in mind when hewrote to Wolff Metternich two days later:“The war, which was completely contrary tothe character of the high gentleman, has soworn him down that one could wish also inhis interest only that he is enabled to with-draw into a cosy private life. (…) It would,of course, be good if one (…) could bringthe Kaiser into the position of a King ofEngland enjoying mainly all amenities ofroyalty, without being burdened by respon-sibilities that he is completely unable tobear. But (…) it would in my opinion costthe German people very dearly if there is nota very fundamental change in this matter.”289

···································································Ballin broke with Wilhelm II already inSeptember. At the request of Ludendorff,Stinnes had contacted Ballin. In two dis-cussions, one in late August in Hamburgand the other in early September in Berlin,he urged Ballin to explain the seriousness ofthe military situation to the Kaiser and con-vince him of the necessity of an immediatechange of chancellor and the swift conclu-sion of a peace treaty via Wilson. Ballin wasthus confronted with high expectations. ···································································The last discussion between Wilhelm II andBallin, which was also attended by the headof the civil cabinet Friedrich von Berg, anultra-conservative East Prussian countrygentleman, took place at WilhelmshöhePalace near Kassel on September 5th. Ballintried to convince the Kaiser of the urgency

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of a peace settlement, which he believedcould be achieved only via the USA. Wil-helm II basically agreed, but was of theopinion that it was possible to wait withpeace offers. Ballin also advocated the un-blocking of trade with perishable food prod-ucts. Other matters were apparently notconsidered during the discussion, mostlikely owing to the constant interventions ofBerg, but also because Ballin, probably fromreverence and shame, could not really speakopenly to the Kaiser. ···································································There are various reports from a thirdparty on Ballin’s discussion with the Kaiserapart from Ballin’s own record.290 The com-ments of Count Bogdan von Hutten-Czap-ski, a liberal Prussian aristocrat of Polish na-tionality, who apart from his activity asofficer also served as a kind of private secre-tary of top politicians, seem to be particu-larly reliable. Hutten-Czapski was present atWilhelmshöhe Palace on September 5th andreported: “While I made a visit, I observedfrom the window how the Kaiser left thepalace with Mr Ballin and Mr von Berg andwent up and down with rapid steps in thefront garden. The Kaiser made a very livelyimpression, while Ballin seemed to be verydowncast. Mr von Berg spoke continually inbetween. This went on for some time. I hadarranged with Ballin that I would see him inhis hotel in the afternoon. When I enteredhis room, I met a completely broken man.Ballin told me that he had wanted to speakfrankly to the Kaiser about the situation inthe hostile capitals and in Germany. But Mrvon Berg had continually interrupted, so hehad not been at all able to tell the Kaisereverything that he had on his mind. TheKaiser did not seem to appreciate the seri-ousness of the military situation. He, Ballin,

had now given up hope, because he saw thatthe Kaiser was also politically entirely underthe influence of the extreme parties andBerg in particular. I told Ballin that I mostdeeply regretted that he had not insisted onspeaking to the Kaiser in private.”291

···································································Some time later, Ballin presented to thehead of the naval cabinet, Admiral GeorgAlexander von Müller, a record of com-ments, which had actually wanted to presentto the Kaiser. He continued to try also to ex-ercise political influence. Ballin’s comments,according to Fritz Fischer, presented “in ex-ceptional acuteness the basic lines of Ger-man policy of autumn 1918”.292 Ballin calledfor a peace in the west via Wilson and theformation of a front against Bolshevism. Healso advocated – he had always rejected aparliamentarisation of German constitu-tionalism up to then – a “rapid and wisemodernisation (the expression is more cor-rect and more harmless than democratisa-tion) of Germany”. He clearly saw that sucha reform had to precede the assumption ofpeace negotiations, “otherwise it seems im-posed by the opponents and endangers thedynasty”.293

···································································This development, which then took placein the following weeks, was to prove himonly all too right. ···································································The end···································································After these events, Albert Ballin’s lastweeks were overshadowed by misery. Hisgodson Eric Warburg recalled: “When I wasin autumn 1918, shortly before the end of thewar, in Hamburg one day on holiday, my fa-ther [Max Warburg, JG] and Ballin were asusual striding along Alsterdamm, the pre-

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sent Ballindamm, and when Ballin saw mein uniform standing there, he burst out intears because he of course knew that practi-cally really everything was lost and fearedthat my age group would be sacrificed aslast.”294 Theodor Wolff met Ballin the lasttime in October 1918 in Berlin and reported:“Ballin was as cocooned in melancholy, helooked bad, his former so fresh brown facialcolour was, as he could no longer travelthrough the sea wind, already long faded,the furrows had deepened.”295

···································································At the beginning of November 1918, Ballinwas asked to head the peace negotiations.He wrote on November 2nd: “Stinnes hadme informed that both the Centre and theSocial Democrats wanted me to head thepeace negotiations. I let him know that Iwouldn’t back down, but would gladly haveanyone else do it.”296 But this was no longerto be. ···································································On November 4th, Kiel was in the hands of 40,000 rebellious sailors, soldiers andworkers. Shortly afterwards, the protestsalso spread to Hamburg. Workers’ and sol-diers’ councils formed all over in Germany.The Hamburg workers’ and soldiers’ coun-cil announced on November 6th that it hadassumed power and two days later had a partof the Hapag building occupied. ···································································Ballin took this development outwardlywith composure. He left his office on No-vember 8th at noon and headed a crisismeeting of the “Association of HamburgShipowners” in Mönckebergstrasse to findways of resuming food imports in Germanships and thus prevent further discontentamong the hungering population. Ballinproposed continuing the consultations the

next day, this time if at all possible under thechairmanship of a senator. After the meet-ing, he returned to the Hapag building toconduct a conversation with Eduard Rosen-baum from the Chamber of Commerceconcerning the restoration of the Germanmerchant fleet after the end of the war andgeneral economic issues. Following this,there was apparently a major dispute withsome of the occupiers of the building.297

···································································Ballin left the building and walked toFeldbrunnenstrasse, where he arrived about4.30 pm. There he telephoned briefly withthe legal adviser of the “Association of Ham-burg Shipowners”, Peter Franz Stub-mann.298 Marianne Ballin, who had prob-ably expected her husband at the front door,was at this time apparently no longer in thevilla. As previously planned, she wanted tospend the night with a woman friend of thefamily living on Mittelweg. It may be leftopen whether this was also “a domesticquarrel” that prompted her to leave the villa,as Johannes Merck suggests, and whetherBallin then encountered a person whoblackmailed him and then reported that hewas threatened with being shot the follow-ing day.299

···································································In any case, Ballin, who had up to then re-acted with astonishing calm to all the eventsof the day, now lost his nerve. He withdrew,had a glass of water brought by his servantKarl Fischer in the hours of twilight andswallowed an overdose of tranquillisers. Hehad already for a long time been dependenton bromine, veronal and other drugs.300

···································································The anarchist writer Theodor Plievier de-scribed Ballin’s end in his documentarynovel “The Kaiser went, the generals re-

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mained” as follows: “And of Ballin’s giantperspective on the key cities of the five seas,on the shipping lines of his company, whichspanned the globe like a net, remains no-thing more than a last blinking look at theglass of water, which he conscientiously putback in its place. Then the light captured inthe glass also went out.”301

···································································Still conscious and suffering severe pain,Ballin was dragged by his servant and a doc-tor who had been hurriedly called into theprivate clinic Wünsch on Mittelweg 144,where his stomach was pumped out. Yet hefell into a coma even before midnight anddied on November 9th 1918 at 1.15 pm –about the same time as Philipp Scheide-mann proclaimed the Republic from thebalcony of the Berlin Reichstag. ···································································The question as to whether or not Ballincommitted suicide has been discussed manytimes. There was no autopsy, and the cir-cumstances of his death were “intentionallyobscured behind swathes of mist”.302 Quitea few contemporaries doubted that Ballincommitted suicide, while many others wereonly a little surprised about this.303 EduardRosenbaum, one of the last persons withwhom Ballin spoke before his death, cameto the following conclusion, for which thereis something to be said: “(…) he took morethan the normal dose of his sleeping tabletsbecause he was undecided whether hewanted a long or an eternal sleep.”304

···································································Ballin was buried in Ohlsdorf Cemeteryon November 13th. The previous evening,Max Warburg had drafted an obituary,which is quoted in the biography by PeterFranz Stubmann: “Albert Ballin was a force-ful personality. He had a strong will andstrong and great penetrating mind and hisheart was warm and strong. A brilliant busi-nessman, talented with an almost visionarypower and great imagination. He was morean artist than calculator, more painter thandrawer. The abundance of qualities given tohim on his path through life also generatedin him many conflicts, which he honestlyfought through. (…) ···································································The economic upswing in the last thirtyyears would be unimaginable in Germanywithout Albert Ballin. Among the manyhelpers whom we will lack with the recon-struction of the German Empire and onwhom we greatly counted and were justifiedin counting, his name is mentioned first!”305

···································································Later, a simple boulder was set up onBallin’s grave. The stone bears no inscrip-tion, only the name Albert Ballin. ···································································The suffering did not stop for MarianneBallin with the death of her husband, as afew weeks later, on December 7th 1918, heronly 26-year-old daughter Irmgard died ofSpanish influenza. She left behind threesmall children.

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··············································································································································204 Quoted in: Ullmann, Kaiserreich, p. 227. 205 Quoted in: Huldermann, Ballin, p. 324. 206 Ritter, Kaiser, p. 142. 207 Pulzer, Beteiligung, p. 223. 208 StA Hbg., 622-01 ⁄ 62 Familie Merck, II 8, Konv 2b: Meine Erinnerungen an die Hamburg-Amerika Linieund an Albert Ballin 1896–1919 by Johannes Theodor Merck [manuscript fair copy 1920–1921], p. 154; the secondquotation from: Pinette, Ballin, p. 36. Pinette’s dissertation dated 1938 should be taken with reservation, the as-sessment of Eduard Rosenbaum (Ballin, p. 272) being completely apt: “The book is not outright anti-Semitic, butit is written, to use Shakespeare’s term, ‘with a vulgar heart’.” (King Henry IV, Part II, Act I). 209 Wiborg, Ballin, p. 86; similarly also Straub, Ballin, p. 214; Ahrens; Hauschild-Thiessen, Reeder, p. 54; Ce-cil, Ballin, p. 93 ff., p. 147 ff. 210 E.g. the record of Ballin dated July 15th 1909 on his discussion with Sir Ernest Cassel: Lepsius; MendelssohnBartholdy; Thimme, Politik 28, p. 207. 211 Paul Graf Wolff Metternich to Bernhard von Bülow, November 27th 1908, reproduced in: ibid., p. 19. 212 Straub, Ballin, p. 191. 213 Hildebrand, Reich, p. 308 ff. 214 Deutsche Dokumente, p. 82 ff. 215 Singer, Tod, p. 11. 216 Huldermann, Ballin, p. 301. 217 Warburg, Aufzeichnungen, p. 28. 218 Churchill, Weltkrisis, p. 144 ff. 219 Hamburgischer Correspondent No. 380 (July 29th 1914). 220 Cecil, Ballin, p. 182. 221 Fürstenberg, Fürstenberg, p. 554. Similarly also Heckscher, Ballin and Aagaard, Life, p. 21. 222 Cecil, Ballin, p. 187 ff. 223 Ibid., p. 202.

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Death certificate of Albert Ballin

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Albert Ballin’s last resting place in Ohlsdorf Cemetery

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224 Quoted in: Wolff, Marsch, p. 275. 225 Wulf, Schwerindustrie, p. 2 ff. 226 Ibid., p. 7. 227 Feldman, Stinnes, p. 425. 228 Both quotations are from a letter of Albert Ballin to Hugo Stinnes dated January 14th 1918 (ibid., p. 472). 229 Albert Ballin to Hugo Stinnes, March 22nd 1916: StA Hbg., 621-1 ⁄ 95 Firma HAPAG-Reederei, 659, p. 153 ff.;Hugo Stinnes to Albert Ballin, March 22nd 1916: ibid., p. 156. 230 Feldman, Stinnes, p. 425 ff. 231 Albert Ballin to Max Schinckel, October 27th 1915: StA Hbg., 621-1 ⁄ 95 Firma HAPAG-Reederei, 659, p. 31. 232 Straub, Ballin, p. 238. 233 Feldman, Stinnes, p. 989; Detlefsen, Stinnes, p. 30. 234 Albert Ballin to Max Schinckel, February 15th 1916: Wulf, Schwerindustrie, p. 7 ff. 235 Ibid., p. 7, 10. 236 Feldman, Stinnes, p. 679. 237 Detlefsen, Stinnes, p. 38. 238 Lewinsohn, Ballin, p. 698. 239 Wolff, Marsch, p. 276. 240 Albert Ballin to Georg Alexander von Müller, May 10th 1916: Görlitz, Kaiser, p. 176 ff. 241 Cf. Wehler, Kaiserreich, p. 213: “The fall of Bethmann-Hollweg signalised that the OHL dictatorship, if notpurposefully established, had in fact developed in some areas.” On the other hand, Ullrich, Großmacht, p. 529,maintains that “despite all the power concentrated in the OHL one (can)not say that there was a military dicta-torship.”242 Hildebrand, Reich, p. 342. 243 Cf. the diary entry of Theodor Wolff, July 12th 1917: “Ballin wants to see Bethmann tomorrow to advise himto resign.” (Sösemann, Tagebücher 1, p. 514). 244 Cf. the diary entry of Theodor Wolff, January 31st 1916 (ibid., p. 343). 245 Straub, Ballin, p. 249. 246 Albert Ballin to Hugo Stinnes, June 23rd 1918: StA Hbg., 621-1 ⁄ 95 Firma HAPAG-Reederei, 1472, p. 207. 247 Arndt von Holtzendorff to Albert Ballin, April 16th 1915: ibid., 1580, Vol. 23. 248 The documents are in the Hamburg State Archives (Signatur 1580: Korrespondenzen, Berichte und Akten-notizen aus der Tätigkeit des Berliner Residenten der Hapag, Arndt von Holtzendorff ). These involve a total of35 volumes covering the period from 1914 to 1924, thus also the years after Ballin’s death. Some of the reports wereborrowed in 1942 by the “Reich Institute for the History of the New Germany”, a pseudo-scientific institution inthe service of the Nazi propaganda, which became the centre of anti-Semitic German historiography and cameonly in 1991 in a roundabout way from the Berlin Federal Archives as deposit in the State Archives.

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249 Cecil, Ballin, p. 215 ff. 250 Report No. 110 dated January 31st 1915: StA Hbg., 621-1 ⁄ 95 Firma HAPAG-Reederei, 1580, vol. 23. 251 Straub, Ballin, p. 216 ff., 240 ff. 252 Jäckh, Pflug, p. 189 ff. 253 Note dated March 30th 1915: StA Hbg., 621-1 ⁄ 95 Firma HAPAG-Reederei, 1580, vol. 23. 254 Cecil, Ballin, p. 224 ff., 229. 255 Albert Ballin to Hugo Stinnes, September 6th 1917: StA Hbg., 621-1 ⁄ 95 Firma HAPAG-Reederei, 1472, p. 63 ff.; Nipperdey, Geschichte, p. 603. 256 Frankfurter Zeitung No. 5 (January 5th 1915). 257 Diary entry of Theodor Wolff, February 19th 1915 (Sösemann, Tagebücher 1, p. 168). 258 Schinckel, Lebenserinnerungen, p. 268. 259 Cf. Rohrmann, Schinckel, p. 205. 260 The address was published in “Sächsische Industrie” 3 ⁄4 (1915 ⁄ 16), here p. 22 ff. 261 Fischer, Griff, p. 219 ff. 262 Diary entry of Theodor Wolff, February 9th 1915 (Sösemann, Tagebücher 1, p. 163). 263 Fischer, Griff, p. 222. 264 Cecil, Ballin, p. 226. 265 Diary entry of Theodor Wolff, December 3rd 1914 (Sösemann, Tagebücher 1, p. 128). 266 Albert Ballin to Theodor Wolff, July 13th 1915: Sösemann, Tagebücher 2, p. 800. 267 Cecil, Ballin, p. 226. 268 Quoted in: Sösemann, Tagebücher 1, p. 253. 269 Wolff, Marsch, p. 268 ff.; Albert Ballin to Theodor Wolff, July 16th 1915: Sösemann, Tagebücher 2, p. 892;diary entry of Theodor Wolff, July 18th 1915 (Sösemann, Tagebücher 1, p. 257 ff.). 270 Albert Ballin to Hugo Stinnes, September 6th 1917: StA Hbg., 621-1 ⁄ 95 Firma HAPAG-Reederei, 1472, p. 73. Cf. also Cecil, Ballin, p. 234, who points out that Ballin was involved in negotiations from November 1914to the end of 1917 aiming at detaching Russia from the Entente. 271 Albert Ballin to Hugo Stinnes, December 13th 1917: StA Hbg., 621-1 ⁄ 95 Firma HAPAG-Reederei, 1472, p. 126. 272 Hildebrand, Reich, p. 370. 273 Albert Ballin to Heinz Bielfeld, October 25th 1914: Private archives of Heinz Hueber. 274 Cecil, Ballin, p. 233, 253 ff. 275 Ibid., p. 255. 276 Albert Ballin to Max Schinckel, February 17th 1916: StA Hbg., 621-1 ⁄ 95 Firma HAPAG-Reederei, 659, p. 88. 277 Cecil, Ballin, p. 261 ff.

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278 Diary entries of Georg Alexander von Müller, April 13th and May 2nd 1917 (Görlitz, Kaiser, p. 274, 282). 279 Albert Ballin to Paul Graf Wolff Metternich, August 27th 1917: Vietsch, Unvernunft, p. 73. 280 Ritter, Kaiser, p. 156. 281 Albert Ballin to Hugo Stinnes, February 2nd 1917: StA Hbg., 621-1 ⁄ 95 Firma HAPAG-Reederei, 1472, p. 17. 282 According to Michael Salewski (Frank Bauer, Tagungsbericht Der Erste Weltkrieg – Epochenjahr 1917. 18. 6 .2007 – 20. 6. 2007, Herrsching am Ammersee, in: H-Soz-u-Kult, 23. 7. 2007, http://hsozkult.geschichte.hu-berlin.de/tagungsberichte/id_1639). 283 Cecil, Ballin, p. 278. 284 Hildebrand, Reich, p. 373; Kolb, Frieden, p. 27. 285 Albert Ballin to Heinz Bielfeld, July 31st 1918: Private archives of Heinz Hueber. 286 Kolb, Frieden, p. 18. 287 Hildebrand, Reich, p. 376. 288 Quoted in: Kolb, Frieden, p. 27. 289 Albert Ballin to Paul Graf Wolff Metternich, October 25th 1918: Vietsch, Unvernunft, p. 138 ff. 290 The record of Ballin on his discussion with the Kaiser is reproduced in Huldermann, Ballin, p. 375 ff.; onthe other sources cf. Machtan, Abdankung, p. 148, 370. 291 Hutten-Czapski, Jahre, p. 502 ff. 292 Fischer, Griff, p. 554. 293 Record of Ballin for the discussion with Wilhelm II on September 4th 1918: Stubmann, Feld, p. 226 ff. 294 Warburg, Zeiten, p. 53. 295 Wolff, Marsch, p. 280. 296 Quoted in: Rosenbaum, Ballin, p. 298. 297 Wiborg, Ballin, p. 126 ff.; Cecil, Ballin, p. 287 ff. and Rosenbaum, Ballin, p. 298. 298 Stubmann, Feld, p. 262 ff. 299 StA Hbg., 622-01 ⁄ 62 Familie Merck, II 8, Konv 5: Nachtrag zu meinen Erinnerungen. 300 Cecil, Ballin., p. 213; Wiborg, Ballin, p. 87. 301 Plievier, Kaiser, p. 233 ff. 302 Straub, Ballin, p. 258. 303 Incl. Theodor Wolff (Marsch, p. 280), Max von Schinckel (Lebenserinnerungen, p. 269), Friedrich von derRopp (Gestern, p. 100, 131) and Ernst Jäckh (Pflug, p. 191). On the other hand, Max Warburg (Aufzeichnungen,p. 69), Peter Franz Stubmann (Stunden, p. 17) and Bernhard von Bülow (Denkwürdigkeiten 3, p. 284) disputethat Ballin committed suicide. 304 Rosenbaum, Ballin, p. 299. 305 Erinnerungsworte an Albert Ballin: Stubmann, Feld, p. 124 ff. ··············································································································································

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Epilogue

[6]

The biography of Albert Ballin exercised aspecial fascination even in his lifetime.“Ballin. A royal businessman« by AdolfGoetz was published already in 1907, on theoccasion of the 60th anniversary of Hapagand Ballin’s 50th birthday. The authors ofthe next Ballin biographies, Bernhard Hul-dermann and Peter Franz Stubmann, bothhad close contact with Ballin and presentedan admiring portrait of the man in theirbooks, published in 1922 and 1926 respect-ively. However, this was rejected by othercontemporaries who had also known Ballinpersonally. ···································································Huldermann’s biography was attackedparticularly vehemently by Johannes Merck.In his “Memoirs”, Merck did not spareBallin criticism – to put it mildly – and re-ferred continually to anti-Semitic stereo-types, which were (also) widespread amongthe Hamburg middle class of the 1920s. Tocite two “comments”: “But he was a Jew, forhim business was always the main concern,German interests were basically of second-ary importance.” “A great character flaw ofBallin, perhaps a racial flaw, also somethingpurely Jewish and therefore to a certain de-gree excusable in him, was his total lack ofobjectivity.”306 Theodor Wolff commentedon such attitudes as follows: “Ballin was notonly a Jew, he was ‘anglophile’, so he was as

a matter of course somewhat of an advocateof British interests, and that was even worsethan the almost indubitable fact that noneof his forefathers lay on the bear skins in theGerman forest.”307

···································································Werner Sombart, one of the most well-known economists of his time, also con-cerned himself with Ballin. To quote hiswork “The Jews and modern capitalism”,published in 1911: “The old-style entrepre-neur was still identifiable by his sector,whereas the new type of entrepreneur is en-tirely colourless. We cannot imagine AlfredKrupp producing anything other than caststeel, Borsig anything other than machinesor Werner von Siemens anything other thanelectrical goods or that H. H. Meier headedanything other than North German Lloyd.If Rathenau, Deutsch, Berliner, Arnold,Friedländer, Ballin swapped their positionsamong one another tomorrow, it wouldprobably not reduce their capability veryconsiderably. Because they are all dealers,their coincidental area of activity is a matterof indifference.”308

···································································Sombart was of the opinion that the Euro-pean Jews had played a key role in the de-velopment of modern capitalism. With theirexistence as a wandering people, they hadnever developed a link with the soil, but

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were all the more intensively focused on theabstract value of money and thus acquiredan aptitude for capitalism such as they couldnever have achieved as a settled people.309

Sombart, who later expressed sympathiesfor National Socialism but distanced him-self from its racial theories in 1938, harkedback to the stereotype of the “eternallyhaggling Jew” and with his work opened theway to an explicitly anti-Semitic anti-capi-talism.···································································The basis was thus laid for anti-Semitic agi-tation, as to be found in the “Semi-Kürschner”: “His eulogists – as the allegedbest friend of Wilhelm had except for thisHohenzollern no true friends anywhere –compared him with Cecil Rhodes and

Rockefeller, his enemies, and of those he hadvery many on the Elbe beach, called him theJew Suess of Potsdam.”310 Ballin was alsocompared with Jew Suess in “Albert Ballinand German Politics” by Kaspar Pinette,published in 1938 and replacing the biogra-phies of Huldermann and Stubmann thathad been prohibited by the National Social-ists.311

···································································During the Weimar Republic, Hapag hadupheld the memory of Albert Ballin bynaming its first post-war flagship after him.But the memory of Ballin was successivelyerased in the years after 1933. In October1935, the “Albert Ballin”, which had last op-erated under swastika flag, was quietly re-named “Hansa” after a Nazi official had

“Albert Ballin”, Hapag’s first large passenger ship after the first world war, commissioned in 1923

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complained about the ship’s name the yearbefore.312 Although Hapag had delayed therenaming for a long time, in 1937 the “liter-ary bureau” once founded by Ballin then ac-tually managed not to mention the nameAlbert Ballin a single time in the anniversarypublication “Hamburg-American Line. Yes-terday and today – inside and outside”, pub-lished to mark Hapag’s 90th anniversary.On the other hand, the swastika banner wasreferred to “as shining symbol of regainednational power and newly gained people’scommunity”.313 Marianne Ballin, who diedin 1936, was fortunately saved having to takenote of this. At least the former Kaiser inexile had recalled the director general andwritten to Marianne Ballin on her 80thbirthday on December 16th 1934: “I will al-ways honour the memory of this man whowas devoted to me.”314

···································································Even if Albert Ballin, at least according tothe journalist Wolf Schneider, never suc-ceeded “unlike Werner von Siemens or Al-fred Krupp (…) in anchoring himself in theGerman mentality”,315 numerous effortswere nevertheless taken after 1945 to offsetthe erasing of the memory of his personfrom public awareness undertaken by theNational Socialists. ···································································First, we may note the renaming of theprevious Alsterdamm as Ballindamm in1947. Ten years later – on Ballin’s 100thbirthday, on which the Senate had a wreathplaced on his grave – the German FederalPost Office issued a special stamp. Since1989, Albert Ballin has also been remem-bered in the Hamburg town hall. His por-trait was added as 65th relief medallion of fa-mous Hamburg citizens in the entrance hallof the building. Mayor Ingo von Münch ho-

noured him on this occasion as the most im-portant man in the history of Hamburgshipping.316

···································································During the Nazi era, Ballin-Kai on Stein-werder, named by the Senate in honour ofBallin on his 25th anniversary at Hapag, wasrenamed Europa-Kai and Ballin House builtin 1922–24 by Hans and Oskar GersonMessberghof.317 In the recent past thepeople of Hamburg have again becomeaware of these designations with the nameof Ballin. Some years after Hapag and NorthGerman Lloyd merged to form Hapag-Lloyd AG, the Hamburg administrativebuilding, which had been largely undam-aged in the second world war, was officiallynamed Ballin House in 1997 on the occasionof the 150th anniversary of the founding ofHapag. And four years later, the state-of-the-art quay facilities of Container TerminalAltenwerder were named Ballinkai. ···································································

Stamp of the Federal Post Office (1957)

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The exhibition “BallinStadt – EmigrantWorld Hamburg” was opened in the Ham-burg district of Veddel in 2007. This showsthe role Hamburg played in the history ofmigration in the 19th and 20th century. Theexhibition reconstructs at the former sitethree original residential and dormitorypavilions of the emigrant town, which wasestablished at Ballin’s initiative and openedin 1901.

···································································Finally – and this brings this biography toan end – in 2008 a Hamburg consortiumpooled its commitment in a limited partner-ship named “Hamburgische Seefahrts-beteiligung ‘Albert Ballin’” and could in thisway succeed in ensuring that Hapag-Lloydwould remain as an independent shippingline based in Hamburg.

··············································································································································306 StA Hbg., 622-01 ⁄ 62 Familie Merck, II 8, Konv 2b: Meine Erinnerungen an die Hamburg-Amerika Linieund an Albert Ballin 1896–1919 by Johannes Theodor Merck [manuscript fair copy 1920–1921], p. 154, 191. Merckcontinually supplemented his notes after the fair copy with additional comments and material. 307 Wolff, Marsch, p. 248. 308 Sombart, Juden, p. 133 ff. 309 Schmoll, Naturschutz, p. 176. 310 Art. Ballin, Albert, p. 376. 311 Pinette, Ballin, p. 10. 312 The complaint is reproduced in Wiborg, Feld, p. 290. 313 Hamburg-Amerika Linie, p. 3. 314 Quoted in: Hauschildt-Thiessen, Wilhelm II, p. 272. 315 Schneider, Ballin, p. 92. 316 Hamburger Abendblatt No. 208 (December 1st 1989). 317 Ahrens; Hauschild-Thiessen, Reeder, p. 66. ··············································································································································

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Appendices

[7]

Samuel Joel (Joseph) Ballin (1804–1874) OO 1841 in second marriage with Amalia Meyer (b. 1825)9 children (also 4 children from Ballin’s first marriage), including

Albert Ballin (1857–1918) OO 1883 Marianne Joachime Julie Rauert (1859–1936)1893 Adoption of Emma Auguste Anna Kirchheim, who is given the name Irmgard

Albert Heinz HerbertBielfeld (1911–1937)

··············································································································································Family tree (excerpt)··············································································································································

Harald Peter Bielfeld (1913–1944)

Ursula Marianne MargareteLuise Bielfeld (1915–1984)

OO 1945 Oscar Hueber(1910-2001)2 children

Heinz Peter Blasius Hueber(b. 1947)

Harald Nepomuk Hueber(b. 1948)

Irmgard Ballin (1892–1918) OO 1910 Heinz Peter Karl Alexander Bielfeld (1886–1949)3 children

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··············································································································································Albert Ballin and Hapag··············································································································································1875 Ballin granted general commercial power of attorney at the emigrant agency Mor-

ris & Co. 1879 Ballin becomes partner of Morris & Co. 1881 Ballin begins to cooperate with Edward Carr and his shipping line 1886 Carr-Linie joins with Robert Miles Sloman & Co. to form Union-Linie 1886 Community of interests between Union-Linie and Hapag, which assumes respon-

sibility for the management of the passage service for the two lines; Ballin ap-pointed head of the passage department

1888 Ballin leaves Morris & Co., which continues to exist untils 1907 in the commer-cial register; appointed to Hapag executive board

From 1891 Ballin expands Hapag from a pure shipping company into a supplier of touristservices

1892 Union-Linie, Hapag, North German Lloyd and the Belgian Red Star Line andNetherlands-America Steamship Company form the North Atlantic SteamshipLines Association: The lines agree on prices and dividing up steerage business

1897 Hapag is for the first time the largest shipping line in the world 1898 Opening of monthly cargo steamship service of Hapag to East Asia and acquisi-

tion of Kingsin-Linie 1899 Ballin appointed director general of Hapag 1900 Hapag acquires de Freitas-Linie serving South America 1901 Operating agreement of Hapag with Hamburg Südamerikanische Dampfschiff-

fahrts-Gesellschaft and Deutsche Dampfschifffahrtsgesellschaft Kosmos 1901 Hapag begins to participate in internal traffic between East Asian ports 1902 Hapag and North German Lloyd together conclude a contract with the Ameri-

can Morgan Trust (IMMC), which aims to achieve a monopoly for North At-lantic services

1905 Hapag acquires the travel agency of Carl Stangen and continues it as travel agencyof Hamburg-American Line

1907–08 Woermann-Linie, Hamburg-Bremer-Afrika-Linie, Deutsche Ost-Afrika-Linieand Hapag agree on a joint service to Africa

1908 Founding of North Atlantic Conference: ten shipping companies and four asso-ciated lines conclude an agreement regulating e.g. steerage business from theNorth European and Atlantic ports to North America

1912 Termination of contract with IMMC 1913 Hapag cancels contracts of the North Atlantic Conference 1915 Ballin begins to advocate a war compensation law in favour of shipping

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1916 Ballin decides to cooperate with the Rhine heavy industrialist Hugo Stinnes 1917 “Law on the restoration of the German merchant fleet” enters into force 1917–18 Hapag participates along with Stinnes in the Romanian crude oil business;

Deutsche Werft AG, a joint venture of Hapag, AEG and GHH, is formed atBallin’s initiative

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Sources, literature and photo credits

[8]

There is neither a Ballin family archive nor a col-lection of papers of Albert Ballin. There are also nosources on Ballin in the Archives of the HamburgScientific Foundation, which was largely destroyedin 1943 and 1944. In the inventory on the companyarchives of Hapag-Reederei in the Hamburg StateArchives it is pointed out that Bernhard Hulder-mann, who worked as Ballin’s private secretary,probably misappropriated some of the files.Huldermann could refer to the wish of Ballin “toorder his literary estate and assess it to the best ofhis judgment” (Huldermann, Ballin, preface).Here and there Ballin documents continually cropup in second-hand bookshops. Ballin himselfnever kept a diary, and most of the Kaiser’s lettersto him were destroyed already before November9th 1918. ··································································· Unprinted source material on Albert Ballin can befound in the Political Archives of the FederalForeign Office Berlin, in the Federal ArchivesBerlin, Freiburg and Koblenz, in the Archives of theWarburg Foundation Hamburg, in the Archives ofHapag-Lloyd AG Hamburg and in the HamburgState Archives (on the last two cf. the relevant notesin this book), as well as in The Warburg InstituteArchive London and in The National Archives Lon-don und The National Archives Washington. Acomprehensive (although not quite up-to-date)overview of the archives is given in Cecil, Ballin, p.301–305; there are also references in Ahrens;Hauschild-Thiessen, Reeder, p. 68. ··································································· Aargaard, Bjarne: The life of Albert Ballin,London [ca. 1925] Ahrens, Gerhard; Hauschild-Thiessen,Renate: Die Reeder: Laeisz, Ballin, Hamburg

1989 (Hamburgische Lebensbilder in Darstellungenund Selbstzeugnissen; 2)Art. Ballin, Albert, in: Ekkehard, Erich: Si-gilla veri [Seals of Truth, JG] (Ph. Stauff ’s Semi-Kürschner). Lexikon der Juden, -Genossen und -Gegner aller Zeiten und Zonen, insbesondereDeutschlands, der Lehren, Gebräuche, Kunstgriffeund Statistiken der Juden sowie ihrer Gaunerspra-chen, Trugnamen, Geheimbünde, Band 1, Erfurt1929, p. 369–378Ballin, Gerhard: Die Familie des HamburgerReeders Albert Ballin und ihre Herkunft, in: Nord-deutsche Familienkunde 26, 3 (1977), p. 65–69 Benja, Günter: Zum 150. Geburtstag AlbertBallins, in: Schiff & Zeit/Panorama maritim 65(2007), p. 13–15Berghahn, Volker R.: Der Tirpitz-Plan. Gene-sis und Verfall einer innenpolitischen Krisenstrate-gie unter Wilhelm II., Düsseldorf 1971 (Geschicht-liche Studien zu Politik und Gesellschaft; 1)Blaich, Fritz: Kartell- und Monopolpolitik imkaiserlichen Deutschland. Das Problem der Markt-macht im deutschen Reichstag zwischen 1879 und1914, Düsseldorf 1973 (Beiträge zur Geschichte desParlamentarismus und der politischen Parteien; 50)Böhlke-Itzen, Janntje: Kolonialschuld undEntschädigung. Der deutsche Völkermord an denHerero 1904–1907, Frankfurt am Main 2004 (Per-spektiven Südliches Afrika; 2)Bracker, Jörgen: Dampfer Imperator. Das rie-sige Friedensschiff, in: Plagemann, Volker (ed.): In-dustriekultur in Hamburg. Des Deutschen ReichesTor zur Welt, München 1984, p. 64–68 Buchwald, Wolfgang: Das Dorf Hamfelde imLauenburgischen, Schwarzenbek 2001Bühler, Andreas Heinrich: Der Namaauf-stand gegen die deutsche Kolonialherrschaft in Na-

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mibia von 1904–1913, Frankfurt am Main, London2003 (Wissenschaftliche Reihe InformationsstelleSüdliches Afrika; 27)Bülow, Bernhard von: Denkwürdigkeiten.Band 1: Vom Staatssekretariat bis zur Marokko-Krise, Berlin 1930Bülow, Bernhard von: Denkwürdigkeiten.Band 3: Weltkrieg und Zusammenbruch, Berlin 1931Cecil, Lamar: Albert Ballin. Wirtschaft und Po-litik im deutschen Kaiserreich 1888–1918, Hamburg1969Cecil, Lamar: Wilhelm II. und die Juden, in:Mosse, Werner E. (ed.): Juden im WilhelminischenDeutschland 1890–1914, Tübingen 1976 (Schriften-reihe wissenschaftlicher Abhandlungen des LeoBaeck Instituts; 33), p. 313–347Churchill, Winston S.: Weltkrisis. Band 1:1911–1914, Leipzig 1924Cohen, Paul A.: History in three keys. TheBoxers as event, experience and myth, New York1997Detlefsen, Gert U.: Die Stinnes Reedereien.Eine Darstellung der Schiffahrtsinteressen desGroßindustriellen Hugo Stinnes, seiner Nachfah-ren Hugo jr., Otto und Matthias Stinnes sowie ih-rer Reedereien, Bad Segeberg, Cushaven 1998Die Deutschen Dokumente zum Kriegs-ausbruch 1914. Herausgegeben im Auftrage desAuswärtigen Amtes. Erster Band: Vom Attentat inSarajevo bis zum Eintreffen der serbischen Ant-wortnote in Berlin nebst einigen Dokumenten ausden vorhergehenden Wochen, Berlin 21922Drechsler, Horst: Aufstände in Südwest-afrika. Der Kampf der Herero und Nama 1904 bis1907 gegen die deutsche Kolonialherrschaft, Berlin1984Engelmann, Bernt: Albert Ballin, in: Engel-mann, Bernt; Kruse, Sabine (ed.): “Mein Vater warportugiesischer Jude …”. Die sefardische Einwan-derung nach Norddeutschland um 1600 und ihreAuswirkungen auf unsere Kultur, Göttingen 1992,p. 201–206 Epkenhans, Michael (ed.): Albert Hopman.Das ereignisreiche Leben eines “Wilhelminers”. Ta-gebücher, Briefe und Aufzeichnungen 1901 bis 1920,München 2004 (Beiträge zur Militärgeschichte; 62) Feldman, Gerald D.: Hugo Stinnes. Biogra-phie eines Industriellen 1870–1924, München 1998Fischer, Fritz: Griff nach der Weltmacht. Die

Kriegszielpolitik des kaiserlichen Deutschland1914/1918, Düsseldorf 1967 (Sonderausgabe)Frankfurter Zeitung und HandelsblattNo. 5 (January 5th 1915): Das nasse DreieckFürstenberg, Hans (ed.): Carl Fürstenberg.Die Lebensgeschichte eines deutschen Bankiers:1870–1914, Berlin 1931 Gerhardt, Johannes: Sophie Christine undCarl Heinrich Laeisz. Eine biographische Annähe-rung an die Zeiten und Themen ihres Lebens,Hamburg 2007 (Mäzene für Wissenschaft; 2)Goetz, Adolf: Ballin. Ein königlicher Kauf-mann, Berlin, Leipzig 1907 Görlitz, Walter (ed.): Regierte der Kaiser?Kriegstagebücher, Aufzeichnungen und Briefe desChefs des Marine-Kabinetts Admiral Georg Alex-ander von Müller 1914–1918, Göttingen, Berlin,Frankfurt am Main 1959 Groppe, Hans-Hermann: Hamburg als Aus-wandererhafen, in: Groppe, Hans-Herrmann; Wöst,Ursula (ed.): Über Hamburg in die Welt. Von denAuswandererhallen zur BallinStadt, Hamburg2007, p. 12–27Groppe, Hans-Hermann: Modellstadt Aus-wandererhallen – “Eine Stadt für sich”, in: Groppe,Hans-Herrmann; Wöst, Ursula (ed.): Über Ham-burg in die Welt. Von den Auswandererhallen zurBallinStadt, Hamburg 2007, p. 34–49Guttmann, Bernhard: Schattenriß einer Ge-neration 1888-1919, Stuttgart 1950Hamann, Johann; Hamann, Heinrich:Traumreisen – Kreuzfahrt – “Excursionen” vonHamburg in die Welt in den Jahren 1891–1914. MitTexten von Susanne Wiborg, Hamburg 1995Hamburg-Amerika Linie: Die Hamburg-Ame-rika Linie. Gestern und heute – innen und außen,Hamburg 1937Hamburger Abendblatt No. 280 (December1st 1989): Späte Ehrung für Carl von Ossietzky undAlbert BallinHamburger Echo No. 242 (October 14th 1904):Bade bei BallinHamburger Fremdenblatt No. 17 (January21st 1891): Passagier-Liste des Doppelschrauben-Schnelldampfers “Auguste Victoria”; No. 114 (June23rd 1910): Der Kaiser in Hamburg; No. 120 (Mai24th 1912): Der StapellaufHamburger Neueste Nachrichten No. 49(February 28th 1900): Kriegsflotte und Welthandel;

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mission der Bayerischen Akademie der Wissen-schaften, Band 1, Berlin 1953, p. 561–562Klemm, David: HAPAG-Verwaltungsgebäude,Ballindamm/Ferdinandstraße, 1900–1903. in: Horn-bostel, Wilhelm; Klemm, David (ed.): Martin Hal-ler. Leben und Werk 1835–1925, Hamburg 1997(Schriftenreihe des Hamburgischen Architekturar-chivs), p. 160–161Klemm, David: Das Schiffahrtsplakat im Wandelder Zeiten, in: Matthes, Olaf; Prange, Carsten (ed.):Hamburg und die Hapag. Seefahrt im Plakat,Hamburg 2000, p. 42–55Kludas, Arnold: Die Geschichte der Hapag-Schiffe. Band 2: 1901-1914, Bremen 2008Kolb, Eberhard: Der Frieden von Versailles,München 2008 (Beck’sche Reihe; 2375)Kühlmann, Richard von: Erinnerungen, Hei-delberg 1948Lepsius, Johannes; Mendelssohn-Bartholdy,Albrecht; Thimme, Friedrich (ed.): Die großePolitik der europäischen Kabinette 1871–1914. Band24: Deutschland und die Westmächte, Berlin 1925Lepsius, Johannes; Mendelssohn-Bartholdy,Albrecht; Thimme, Friedrich (ed.): Die großePolitik der europäischen Kabinette 1871–1914. Band28: England und die deutsche Flotte 1908–1911, Ber-lin 21927Lepsius, Johannes; Mendelssohn-Bartholdy,Albrecht; Thimme, Friedrich (ed.): Die großePolitik der europäischen Kabinette 1871–1914. Band31: Das Scheitern der Haldane-Mission und ihreRückwirkung auf die Tripelentente 1911–1912, Ber-lin 21927Leutner, Mechthild; Mühlhahn, Klaus(ed.): Kolonialkrieg in China. Die Niederschlagungder Boxerbewegung 1900–1901, Berlin 2007(Schlaglichter der Kolonialgeschichte; 6)Lewinsohn, Richard: Art. Ballin, Albert, in:Herlitz, Georg; Kirschner, Bruno (ed.): JüdischesLexikon: ein enzyklopädisches Handbuch jüdi-schen Wissens in vier Bänden, Band 1, Berlin 1927,p. 697–698Machtan, Lothar: Die Abdankung. WieDeutschlands gekrönte Häupter aus der Geschichtefielen, Berlin 2008Mathies, Otto: Hamburgs Reederei 1814–1914,Hamburg 1924Matthes, Olaf: Die HAPAG – ein historischerStreifzug, in: Matthes, Olaf; Prange, Carsten (ed.):

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Hamburg und die Hapag. Seefahrt im Plakat,Hamburg 2000, p. 6–17Mosse, Werner E.: Die Juden in Wirtschaftund Gesellschaft, in: Mosse, Werner E. (ed.): Judenim Wilhelminischen Deutschland 1890–1914, Tü-bingen 1976 (Schriftenreihe wissenschaftlicher Ab-handlungen des Leo Baeck Instituts; 33), p. 57–113Mosse, Werner E.: Wilhelm II and the Kaiser-juden. A Problematical Encounter, in: Reinharz, Je-huda; Schatzberg, Walter (ed.): The Jewish responseto German culture. From the enlightenment to thesecond world war, Hanover, London 1985, p. 164–194Mosse, Werner E.: Drei Juden in der WirtschaftHamburgs: Heine – Ballin – Warburg, in: Herzig,Arno (ed.): Die Juden in Hamburg 1590 bis 1990.Wissenschaftliche Beiträge der Universität Ham-burg zur Ausstellung “Vierhundert Jahre Juden inHamburg”, Hamburg 1991, p. 431–446Murken, Erich: Die großen transatlantischen Li-nienreederei-Verbände, Pools und Interessengemein-schaften bis zum Ausbruch des Weltkrieges. Ihre Ent-stehung, Organisation und Wirksamkeit, Jena 1922Nathan, Kurt: Der deutsche Schiffahrtskampfvon 1913. Das Hapag/Lloyd-Problem vor dem Welt-krieg. Ein Beitrag zur Frage der deutschen Groß-schiffahrtsorganisation, Dissertation Kiel 1935Nipperdey, Thomas: Deutsche Geschichte1866–1918. Band 2: Machtstaat vor der Demokra-tie, München 1992Pelc, Ortwin: Von Hamburg um die Welt. DieFahrtgebiete der HAPAG im 19. und 20. Jahrhun-dert, in: Matthes, Olaf; Prange, Carsten (ed.):Hamburg und die Hapag. Seefahrt im Plakat,Hamburg 2000, p. 18–29Petzet, Arnold (ed.): Heinrich Wiegand. EinLebensbild, Bremen 1932Pfeiffer-Belli, Wolfgang (ed.): Harry GrafKessler. Tagebücher 1918–1937, Frankfurt am Main1961Pierenkemper, Toni: Gewerbe und Industrieim 19. und 20. Jahrhundert, München 1994 (Enzy-klopädie deutscher Geschichte; 29)Pinette, Kaspar: Albert Ballin und die deutschePolitik: ein Beitrag zur Geschichte von Staat undWirtschaft 1900-1918, Hamburg 1938Plievier, Theodor: Der Kaiser ging, die Gene-räle blieben. Vorwort von Hans-Harald Müller,Frankfurt am Main 1981 (Bibliothek der verbrann-ten Bücher)

Prange, Carsten: Zur Entwicklung der Passa-gierschiffahrt bei der HAPAG und dem Norddeut-schen Lloyd, in: Matthes, Olaf; Prange, Carsten(ed.): Hamburg und die Hapag. Seefahrt im Plakat,Hamburg 2000, p. 30–41Pulzer, Peter: Die jüdische Beteiligung an derPolitik, in: Mosse, Werner E. (ed.): Juden im Wil-helminischen Deutschland 1890–1914, Tübingen1976 (Schriftenreihe wissenschaftlicher Abhandlun-gen des Leo Baeck Instituts; 33), p. 143–239 Ritter, Gerhard A.: Der Kaiser und sein Ree-der. Albert Ballin, die HAPAG und das Verhältnisvon Wirtschaft und Politik im Kaiserreich und inden ersten Jahren der Weimarer Republik, in: Zeit-schrift für Unternehmensgeschichte 42 (1997), p. 137–162 Röhl, John C. G.: Philipp Graf zu Eulenburg –des Kaisers bester Freund, in: Röhl, John C. G.:Kaiser, Hof und Staat. Wilhelm II. und die deut-sche Politik, München 41995, p. 35–77Röhl, John C. G.: Kaiser Wilhelm II. und derdeutsche Antisemitismus, in: Röhl, John C. G.:Kaiser, Hof und Staat. Wilhelm II. und die deut-sche Politik, München 41995, p. 203–222Rohrmann, Elsbea: Max von Schinckel. Han-seatischer Bankmann im wilhelminischen Deutsch-land, Hamburg 1971 (Veröffentlichungen desHWWA-Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung-Ham-burg)Ropp, Friedrich von der: Zwischen Gesternund Morgen. Erfahrungen und Erkenntnisse,Stuttgart 1961Rosenbaum, Eduard: Albert Ballin: a note on theStyle of his economic and political Activities, in:Leo Baeck Institute: Year-book 3 (1958), p. 257–299 Sächsische Industrie 3/4 (1915/16): General-direktor Ballin über die Freiheit der Meere, p. 22-23Schiefler, Gustav: Eine Hamburgische Kultur-geschichte 1890–1920. Beobachtungen eines Zeit-genossen. Bearbeitet von Gerhard Ahrens, HansWilhelm Eckhardt und Renate Hauschild-Thies-sen, Hamburg 1985 (Veröffentlichungen/Verein fürHamburgische Geschichte: 27)Schinckel, Max von: Lebenserinnerungen,Hamburg 1929Schmidt-Ott, Friedrich: Erlebtes und Er-strebtes, 1860–1950, Wiesbaden 1952Schmoll, Friedemann: Naturschutz und Anti-semitismus zwischen Kaiserreich und Nationalso-

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zialismus, in: Radkau, Joachim; Uekötter, Frank(ed.): Naturschutz und Nationalsozialismus, Frank-furt, New York 2003 (Geschichte des Natur- undUmweltschutzes; 1), p. 169–182 Schneider, Wolf: “Mein Feld ist die Welt”. Al-bert Ballin, in: Geo Special Hamburg, Hamburg2001, p. 92–100Schölzel, Christian: Albert Ballin (1857–1918): “Ein Schiffsherr ist’s … Ein Kaiser neigt sichvor dem jüdischen Mann …”, Teetz 2004Schröder, Hans Joachim: Die Brüder Augus-tus Friedrich und Gustav Adolph Vorwerk, Ham-burg 2009 (Mäzene für Wissenschaft; 5)Schultz, Bernd (ed.): James Simon. Philan-throp und Kunstmäzen, München 22007Schumpeter, Joseph: Theorie der wirtschaftli-chen Entwicklung. Eine Untersuchung über Unter-nehmergewinn, Kapital, Kredit, Zins und den Kon-junkturzyklus, Berlin 51952Seiler, Otto J.: Einhundert Jahre Ostasienfahrtder Hapag Lloyd AG, Hamburg 1986Singer, Kurt: Der Tod Albert Ballins, in: Singer,Kurt: Staat und Wirtschaft seit dem Waffenstill-stand, Jena 1924, p. 8–13Sombart, Werner: Die Juden und das Wirt-schaftsleben, München, Leipzig 1918Sösemann, Bernd (ed.): Theodor Wolff. Tage-bücher 1914–1919. Der Erste Weltkrieg und die Ent-stehung der Weimarer Republik in Tagebüchern,Leitartikeln und Briefen des Chefredakteurs am“Berliner Tageblatt” und Mitbegründers der “Deut-schen Demokratischen Partei” 2 Teile, Boppard1984 (Deutsche Geschichtsquellen des 19. und 20.Jahrhunderts; 54) Straub, Eberhard: Albert Ballin. Der Reederdes Kaisers, Berlin 2001Stubmann, Peter Franz: Albert Ballins letzteStunden, in: Welt am Sonntag No. 45 (November9th 1958)Stubmann, Peter Franz: Mein Feld ist dieWelt: Albert Ballin, sein Leben, Hamburg 1960[expanded new edition of the Ballin biography pub-lished in 1926, destroyed in 1933]Tirpitz, Alfred von: Ballins politische Weltan-schauung, in: Deutsche Allgemeine Zeitung No. 157(April 2nd 1922)Tirpitz, Alfred von: Politische Dokumente.Band 1: Der Aufbau der deutschen Weltmacht,Stuttgart, Berlin 1924

Trepsdorf, Daniel K. W.: Afrikanisches AlterEgo und europäischer Egoismus. Eine komparativeStudie zur Selbst- und Fremdenperzeption im wil-helminischen Deutschland und spätviktoriani-schen Großbritannien (1884–1914), Dresden 2006Turbinen-Schnelldampfer Imperator, publ.by Literarisches Bureau der Hamburg-Amerika Li-nie, Hamburg 1913Ullmann, Hans-Peter: Das Deutsche Kaiser-reich 1871-1918, Frankfurt am Main 1995Ullrich, Volker: Die nervöse Großmacht. Auf-stieg und Untergang des deutschen Kaiserreichs1871–1914, Frankfurt am Main 1997Vierhaus, Rudolf (ed.): Das Tagebuch derBaronin Spitzemberg geb. Freiin v. Varnbühler:Aufzeichnungen aus der Hofgesellschaft des Ho-henzollernreiches, Göttingen 51989 (Deutsche Ge-schichtsquellen des 19. und 20. Jahrhunderts; 43)Vietsch, Eberhard von (ed.): Gegen die Un-vernunft. Der Briefwechsel zwischen Paul GrafWolff Metternich und Wilhelm Solf 1915–1918. Mitzwei Briefen Albert Ballins, Bremen 1964 (Zeugenihrer Zeit) Warburg, Eric M.: Zeiten und Gezeiten. Erin-nerungen, Hamburg 1982Warburg, Max M.: Aus meinen Aufzeichnun-gen, New York 1952 [privately published]Wegner, Matthias:Hanseaten. Von stolzenBürgern und schönen Legenden, Berlin 2001Wehler, Hans-Ulrich: Das Deutsche Kaiser-reich 1871–1918, Göttingen 71994 (Kleine Vanden-hoeck-Reihe; 1380)Wiborg, Susanne; Wiborg, Klaus: 1847–1997. Unser Feld ist die Welt. 150 Jahre Hapag-Lloyd, Hamburg 1997Wiborg, Susanne: Mit Volldampf der Zeit vor-aus, in: Die Zeit No. 30 (July 17th 2003)Wiborg, Susanne: Albert Ballin, Hamburg32007 (Hamburger Köpfe) Wigoder, Geoffrey: Art. Ballin, Albert, in:Dictionary of Jewish biography, New York, Lon-don, Toronto u. a. 1991, p. 44Williamson, Samuel R.: The politics of grandstrategy. Britain and France prepare for war, 1904–1914, Cambridge, Massachusetts 1969Witthöft, Hans Jürgen: HAPAG. Hamburg-Amerika Linie, Herford 31997Wolff, Theodor: Der Marsch durch zwei Jahr-zehnte, Amsterdam 1936

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Wulf, Peter: Schwerindustrie und Seeschiffahrtnach dem Ersten Weltkrieg: Hugo Stinnes und dieHapag, in: Vierteljahrschrift für Sozial- und Wirt-schaftsgeschichte 67 (1980), p. 1–21Zbikowski, Dörte: Die Sammlung Rauert inihrer Zeit, in: Caspers, Eva; Henze, Wolfgang;Lwowski, Hans-Jürgen (ed.): Nolde, Schmidt-Rottluff und ihre Freunde. Die Sammlung Marthaund Paul Rauert Hamburg 1905-1958, Hamburg1999, p. 11–96Zielenziger, Kurt: Albert Ballin, in: Zielenzi-ger, Kurt: Juden in der deutschen Wirtschaft, Ber-lin 1930, p. 175–191 Zimmerer, Jürgen: Deutsche Herrschaft überAfrikaner. Staatlicher Machtanspruch und Wirk-lichkeit im kolonialen Namibia, Hamburg 2001(Europa-Übersee. Historische Studien; 10)Ders.; Zeller, Joachim (ed.): Völkermord inDeutsch-Südwestafrika. Der Kolonialkrieg (1904–1908) in Namibia und seine Folgen, Berlin 2003···································································

Despite careful research, the right holders could notbe identified for all illustrations. If anyone assertscopyright, he should contact Hamburg ScientificFoundation. ··································································· Photo credits: bpk (p. 103)bpk/Th. Jürgensen (p. 83) Hamburg Office for Protection of Monumentsphoto archives (p. 56)Hamburg Office for Protection of Monumentsphoto archives/Heinrich Hamann (p. 57)Photo Sebastian Frost (p. 7)Hamburger Abendblatt/Klaus Bodig (p. 76)Hapag-Lloyd AG, Hamburg (p. 8, 14, 16 ff., 27 ff., 31 ff., 36 ff., 40 ff., 45-52, 55, 58, 62 ff., 66, 73 ff.,85, 112, 118 ff.) Hugo Stinnes KG (p. 96) Museum für Hamburgische Geschichte/v. Rosa-lowski (p. 75) Heinz Hueber private archives (p. 18 ff., 105) Hamburg State Archives (remaining photos) Stubmann, Peter Franz: Mein Feld ist die Welt:Albert Ballin, sein Leben, Hamburg 1960 (p. 11) VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2008 (p. 53 ff.)

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The names of persons specified in Chapter 1-6 aregiven below. Notes and the name Albert Ballin arenot considered. A * indicates that on the specifiedpage there is (also) a photo of the specific person orthe name of a painter. In most cases, only the firstforename is given. Aristocratic titles are omitted inthe index, as they are noted in the main text. ···································································Ahrens, Eduard 29Albert I., König der Belgier 101Arn(h)old, Eduard (?) 117Auerbach, Berthold 10Auguste Victoria, German Empress 33, 76··································································· Bach, Franz 30Ballin, Amalia 10, 11*, 12, 25Ballin, Irmgard 16, 18*, 19*, 76, 109Ballin, Joseph 12Ballin, Marianne 16, 18*, 19*, 20*, 35, 72, 108,109, 119Ballin, Samuel Joel (Joseph) 10, 11*, 12Barlach, Ernst 30Bassewitz 77Bauer, Gustav 77Bethmann Hollweg, Theobald 77, 79, 84, 85, 86,93, 98, 99, 100, 101Berg, Friedrich 106, 107Berliner, Joseph 117Bielfeld, Heinz 76, 103, 105Bismarck, Otto 58, 59, 81, 93Blumenthal, Schiffsingenieur 19Bohrdt, Hans 53*, 54*Bornemann 52*Borsig, August 117Bosse, A. 62*Bülow, Bernhard 79, 81, 83, 92Bülow, Otto 76

Burchard, Johann Heinrich 77··································································· Caprivi, Leo 76Carr, Edward 13, 15, 24Cassel, Ernest 77, 84, 85*, 86, 87Cassel, Felix 85*Cecil, Lamar 41, 86, 93, 100Churchill, Winston 84, 93Cuno, Wilhelm 97··································································· Delbrück, Clemens 99Delbrück, Hans 101Dernburg, Bernhard 102Deutsch, Felix 117··································································· Ecker, Dr. 62*Edens, Henning 7*Edward VII., King of Great Britain and Ireland 85Eggers 77Einstein, Albert 102Erzberger, Matthias 61Eulenburg, August 76··································································· Fischer, Fritz 101, 107Fischer, Karl 108Francke, Ernst 36Franz Ferdinand, archeduke of Austria 93Friedlaender (?), Friedrich 117Fürstenberg, Aniela 74Fürstenberg, Carl 18, 74, 77, 79, 94··································································· Geißler, Hermann 29Gerson, Hans 119Gerson, Oskar 119Godeffroy, Adolph 24Goetz, Adolf 117

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Name index

[9]

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Goetzen, Graf von 77Goldmann, Professor 11Goschen, Edward 93Graupenstein, Friedrich Wilhelm 14*Grey, Edward 84, 92, 93··································································· Haldane, Richard 84, 85, 86Haller, Martin 29, 31Harden, Maximilian 79Heckscher, Siegfried 82Helfferich, Karl 95Helmolt 63*Himer, Kurt 20, 26Hindenburg, Paul 98, 103*, 106Hirsch, Samuel Moritz 10Hitler, Adolf 102Hoffmann, Ludwig 30Höger, Fritz 30Holtzendorff, Arndt 98, 99, 102, 104Holtzendorff, Henning 83*Hornicke, Demetrius 40Huben, E. 82Hugenberg, Alfred 96, 104Hulbe, Georg 76Huldermann, Bernhard 79, 92, 117, 118Hutten-Czapski, Bogdan 107··································································· Ilberg, Friedrich 76··································································· Jäckh, Ernst 99Jagow, Gottlieb 92, 93, 98Jürgens 52*··································································· Kallmorgen, Georg 72Kennan, George 90, 94Krupp, Alfred 117, 119Kühlmann, Richard 18, 98

··································································· Laeisz, Carl 25, 26*, 60Laeisz, Ferdinand 24, 25Lichnowsky, Karl Max 92Ludendorff, Erich 98, 103*, 106, 108Lundt, Werner 72··································································· Max, successor to the throne of the Grand Duchyof Baden 106Meier, Hermann Henrich 117Mensing 76Merck, Ernst 24Merck, Johannes 38, 39, 58, 64, 77, 108, 117Mewes, Charles 34, 41, 77Meyer, Joseph 10Morgan, John Pierpont 58, 64, 65*, 66, 67Morley, John 93Müller, Georg Alexander 76, 97, 107Münch, Ingo 119Murken, Erich 19··································································· Naumann, Friedrich 99Nipperdey, Thomas 100Nolde, Emil 16··································································· Ohlendorff, Heinrich 77O’Swald, William 77··································································· Peters, H. 63*Pinette, Kaspar 118Platon 100Plessen, Hans 76Plievier, Theodor 108Predöhl, Max 77··································································· Quidde, Ludwig 102···································································

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Rathenau, Walther 77, 96, 117Rauert, Paul 16, 18Reuchlin, J. G. 62*Reuchlin, O. 63*Reusch, Paul 96Reuter, Bernhard 40Rhodes, Cecil 118Ritter, Gerhard A. 104Rockefeller, John 118Rohrbach, Paul 102Ropp, Friedrich 79Rosenbaum, Eduard 20, 108, 109··································································· Sachse 77Scheidemann, Philipp 109Schiefler, Gustav 30Schinckel, Max 20, 39, 58, 77, 96, 97, 98, 100,101, 104Schmidt-Rottluff, Karl 16Schmoller, Gustav 58, 102Schneider, Wolf 119Schröder, Carl August 77Schumpeter, Joseph 13Schwarz, Direktor 77Schwormstädt, Felix 55*Seyde 62*Siemens, Werner 117, 119Simon, James 77Singer, Kurt 7Sloman, Robert Miles jr. 13Sombart, Werner 117, 118Stangen, Carl 44Stinnes, Hugo 95, 96*, 97, 98, 102, 104, 106, 108Storm, Ad. 62*Strasser, E. 62*Strasser, Mariette 76Stresemann, Gustav 95Stubmann, Peter 26, 108, 109, 117, 118Süß Oppenheimer, Joseph 118

··································································· Tatter, Ch. 62*Tirpitz, Alfred 82, 83*, 84, 85, 86, 92, 94, 104Toorn, W. H. 63*Treuteler, Karl Georg 76Troeltsch, Ernst 102Trotha, Lothar 60, 61··································································· Valentini, Rudolf 76Vorwerk, Adolph 60··································································· Wahnschaffe, Arnold 100, 101Warburg, Eric 107Warburg, Max 39, 77, 79, 84, 85*, 93, 107, 109Warnholtz 77Weber, Alfred 102Weber, Max 20, 22, 102Wiborg, Susanne 40, 82Wiegand, Heinrich 26, 36, 63*, 64, 66*Wiese, Leopold 102Wilhelm, Crown Prince of the German Empire76Wilhelm II., German Emperor 8, 35, 39, 40, 46*,53, 61, 64, 72, 74, 75*, 76, 77, 79, 80, 82, 83*, 84,85, 86, 92, 97, 98, 103*, 106, 107, 118, 119Wilmink, J. 63*Wilson, Woodrow 104, 106, 107Witt 77Woermann, Adolph 26, 60, 61, 64, 97Woermann, Eduard 97, 98Wolff, Guido 26Wolff, Theodor 19, 74, 79, 81, 100, 101, 102, 108,117Wolff Metternich, Paul 92, 104, 106Wolffsohn, Wilhelm 12··································································· Zeppelin, Ferdinand 47Zielenziger, Kurt 65

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Imprint

Bibliographical information of the German Na-tional Library The German National Library registers this publi-cation in the German National Biography; detailedbibliographical data can be called up in the inter-net via http://dnb.d-nb.de. The online version of this publication is freely avail-able on the publishers’ website (open access). TheGerman National Library has archived the networkpublication. This is permanently available on thearchive server of the German National Library.

Open access via the following websites: Hamburg University Press – http://hup.sub.uni- hamburg.de Archive server of the German National Library – http://deposit.d-nb.de

ISBN 978-3-937816-80-7ISSN 1864-3248

© 2010 Hamburg University Press, Verlag derStaats- und Universitätsbibliothek Hamburg Carlvon Ossietzky, Deutschland

Production: Elbe-Werkstätten GmbH, Hamburg,Deutschland, http://ew-gmbh.deBasic design: Peter Schmidt Group, HamburgLayout: Michael SauerProofreader: Renate GerhardtPublisher: Dr. Ekkehard Nümann

I should like to express my special appreciation to thosewho read the manuscript or parts of it and gave im-portant tips: Prof. Dr. Ludwig Gerhardt, Renate Ger-hardt, Frank Glashoff, Prof. Dr. Horst Gronemeyer,Prof. Dr. Wilhelm Hornbostel, Mag. Heinz Hueber,Prof. Dr. Hans-Dieter Loose, Dr. Ekkehard Nümann,Klaus Pidde, Prof. Dr. Barbara Vogel and SusanneWiborg. It goes without saying that any errors never-theless remaining in the text are to be attributed to theauthor. All quotations taken of the german sources have beentranslated into English by Christopher Watson. (JG)

Hamburg Scientific Foundation Edmund-Siemers-Allee 1, Raum 11320146 Hamburghttp://hmb-wiss-stift.de

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Alb

ert

Bal

lin

His was an unprecedented rise tothe top: from the thirteenth child ofa poor Jewish emigrant agent to the“sovereign of shipping” and “friend”of the Kaiser. It is hardly surprisingthat Albert Ballin was one of theforemost figures of the WilhelmineEmpire. From the beginning, heattracted attention at Hamburg-Amerikanische Packetfahrt-Actien-Gesellschaft, known as Hapag forshort. Under its manager Ballin,Hapag became the largest shippingline in the world.

From 1907 until his tragic death onNovember 9th 1918, Ballin belongedto the board of trustees of theHamburg Scientific Foundation, to which he also contributed in aspecial way. As a member of the ex-pedition committee, he played agreat part in the realisation of thelarge Pacific expedition to the Bis-marck Archipelago and New Guinea(1908–10), which confirmed Ham-burg’s reputation as a centre forscience.

This biography sketches the unusuallife of this man, who personifiedperhaps more than any of his con-temporaries the prominence andpower of the second GermanEmpire but at the same time alsoexperienced its limits and weak-nesses.

The following titles have so far beenpublished in the series “Patrons forScience” (in German):

Volume 1 The founders of the HamburgScientific Foundation

Volume 2 Sophie Christine and Carl Heinrich Laeisz. A biographical approach tothe times and issues of their lives

Volume 3 Eduard Lorenz Lorenz-Meyer. A Hamburg merchant and artist

Volume 4 Hermann Franz Matthias Mutzen-becher. A Hamburg insurer

Volume 5 The brothers Augustus Friedrichand Gustav Adolph Vorwerk. Two Hamburg merchants

Volume 6 Albert Ballin

Volume 7Ernst Friedrich Sieveking. Firstchairman of the HanseaticAppellate Court

Albert Ballin

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