Albert Ballin

- englische Ausgabe -
Erstausgabe
ISBN: 978-3-937816-80-7
Verlag: Hamburg University Press - Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek Hamburg Carl von Ossietzky

Buch, Englisch, Band 6 (en), 133 Seiten, GB, Format (B × H): 158 mm x 220 mm

Reihe: Mäzene für Wissenschaft

His was an unprecedented rise to the top: from the thirteenth child of a poor Jewish emigrant agent to the "sovereign of shipping" and "friend" of the Kaiser. It is hardly surprising that Alfred Ballin was one of the foremost figures of Wilhelmine Empire. From the beginning, he attracted attention at Hamburg-Amerikanische Packetfahrt-Aktien-Gesellschaft, known as Hapag for short. Under its manager Ballin, Hapag became the largest shipping line in the world. From 1907 until his tragic death on November 9th 1918, Ballin belonged to the board of trustees of the Hamburg Scientific Fondation, to which he also contributed in a special way. Ballin's biography sketches the unusual life of this man, who personified perhaps more than any of his comtemporaries the prominence and power of the second German Empire but at the same time also experienced its limits and weaknesses.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Gerhardt, Johannes

Weitere Mitwirkende

Watson, Christopher

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Contents
Publisher’s preface. p. 4
Foreword by the Chairman of the Executive Board of Hapag-Lloyd AG. p. 5
1. Prologue. p. 7
2. Early years. p. 10
Parents 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.24
Hapag 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 seminal Catastrophe of the 20th Century“. p.90
Economic 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. 117
7.Appendices. p. 121
Family tree (excerpt). p. 121
Albert Ballin and Hapag. p. 122
8. Sources, literature and photo credits. p. 124
9. Name index. p. 130

Leseproben

A few days after Albert Ballin’s death, Kurt Singer, editor-in-chief of the “Wirtschaftsdienst” and later lecturer in economics at Hamburg University, wrote on November 15th 1918: “Germany is losing its greatest shipowner, one of its most brilliant mediators and one of its most loyal advisors, but also the man who represented like none other the power and limits of the post-Bismarck empire as representative and as symbol. With him and in him an era goes to an end.”

Ballin was one of those who achieved a swift rise in Wilhelmine society and made the most of the scope for advancement in the German Empire, founded in 1871. Under his management, Hamburg-Amerikanische Packetfahrt-Actien-Gesellschaft, which was established in 1847 and called Hapag, became the world’s largest shipping company. Ballin’s career is all the more impres- sive because as son of a Jew who had emigrated from Denmark to Hamburg he had anything but a favourable start in life.

Ballin was an “honest admirer” of Wilhelm II. He shared this attitude with many members of the upper middle class, with bank directors, captains of industry and shipowners. They all sought proximity to the monarch, who did not basically restrict personal contact (unlike the Hohenzollern rulers before him) to members of the aristocracy. Ballin was able with his ships to generate a special aura of splendour around the monarch, which undoubtedly impressed him – the German Empire founded a few years before had, after all, scarcely a past with traditions capable of being magnificently presented on specific occasions. The Hapag luxury liners “Imperator”, “Vaterland” and “Bismarck”, launched between 1912 and 1914, have thus been regarded as typical examples of Wilhelminism, as “floating symbols” of an entire country and, by a certain analogy, Albert Ballin has been seen as a Wilhelminist. The prism through which the historic personality Albert Ballin is observed below has – as already indicated by the brief introductory comments – two focal points: one economic and one political.