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Albert Ballin ca. 1910

Albert Ballin (15 August 1857, Hamburg - 9 November 1918, Hamburg) was a German businessman. He was born into a modest family of Hamburg. His father was part owner of an emigration agency that arranged passages to the United States, and when he died in 1874, young Albert took over the business. He developed it into an independent shipping line, saving costs by carrying cargo on the return trip from the US. This brought him to the attention of Hamburg-America, who hired him in 1886, and made him general director in 1899.

Although extremely successful in developing the business, as a Jew he was not accepted by Hamburg society. Nevertheless, he became friends with Kaiser Wilhelm II.

Before World War I many different ship companies started including cruise ships among their fleet, to add luxury and comfort to sea travel: Due to bad weather conditions in the winter months the transatlantic ocean liners could not operate at full capacity, and Ballin thought of a scheme to increase the occupancy by offering idle ships to travel agencies in Europe and America in the winter. The first modern cruise, which defined the journey not just as transport but as the actual reward, commenced on 22 January 1891, when the SS Auguste Victoria (named after the German empress) set sail to cruise the Mediterranean for six weeks. The competitors initially sniggered at Ballin, who organised and supervised the voyage personally, but the project was a huge success. In order to accommodate the growing demand another three of the SS Auguste Victoria’s sister ships operated as cruise liners, and in 1899 the Hamburg-America Line ordered a new ship at the Blohm und Voss shipyard. It was the very first cruise ship, one exclusively tailored for the needs of well-to-do passengers.

Ballin was frequently take vacations on the ships in his fleet. During his vacation would frequently speak to passengers travelling with him, to find out about the ships in his fleet and what improvements that would like made to future Hamburg Amerika ships. Ballin would take these improvements in hand and make sure that would be placed on both his current and future liners

Ballin acted as mediator between the United Kingdom and Germany in the tense years prior to the outbreak of World War I. Terrified that he would lose his ships in the event of naval hostilities, Ballin attempted to broker a deal whereby the United Kingdom and Germany would continue to race one another in passenger liners but desist their attempts to best one another's naval fleets. Consequently the outbreak of war deeply disillusioned him. Many of the Hamburg-America Line's ships were lost or suffered considerable damage during the hostilities.

Discouraged at the destruction of his work building the Hamburg-America fleet, and perhaps fearing the loss of his ships, Ballin committed suicide by taking an overdose of sleeping pills two days before the armistice ended World War I. Ballin's fears were soon to be realized; the company‘s flagships, the triumvirate SS Imperator, SS Vaterland and SS Bismarck were ceded as war prizes to Great Britain and the United States.

The SS Albert Ballin was named in his honor, as is the Ballindamm, a street in central Hamburg.

• Lamar Cecil, Albert Ballin; business and politics in imperial Germany, 1888-1918 (Princeton University Press, 1967)
• Bernhard Huldermann, Albert Ballin (Berlin: Gerhard Stalling, 1922)

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

Albert Ballin

• Bio at University of Hamburg
• Emigration World BallinStadt Emigration Museum in Hamburg