HAPAG
The Hamburg-Amerikanische Packetfahrt-Actien-Gesellschaft for shipping across the Atlantic Ocean was founded in Hamburg. In 1912, HAPAG built the first of their "Big Three" ocean liners; the Imperator, followed by its twin Vaterland. A third ship, Bismarck, was under construction at the outbreak of World War I and was completed after the war for White Star Line as the Majestic. These were the first liners to exceed 50,000 gross register tons and 900 feet (274 m) in length. During World War I, the majority of HAPAG's fleet of 175 ships were wiped out, and most of the surviving ships (including the "Big Three") had to be turned over to the winning side as war reparations. After the war's end, HAPAG rebuilt its fleet with much smaller ships than before the war.[5]
Norddeutscher Lloyd
Norddeutscher Lloyd (NDL) was formed in 1857 in the City-State of Bremen, offering passenger and cargo transportation between Bremen and New York, with an emphasis on emigration to the United States. Service started in June 1858 with the Bremen, the first of four steamships,[6] and the company established its American base at Hoboken, New Jersey. NDL eventually built a large fleet of ships that carried many thousands of emigrants westwards, with around 218,000 passengers transported across the Atlantic in 1913 alone.[7]
The outbreak of World War I resulted in the internment of 32 vessels in US ports, a status later changed to confiscation when the US entered the war in 1917.[8] Likewise, its Hoboken base was confiscated and turned over to the US Navy, which used it as a transshipping point for the duration of the war.[9] As with HAPAG, the NDL ships surviving the war were eventually confiscated as reparation, leaving the company to start over from scratch.
US operations were resumed in 1922, when NDL was able to purchase its former base from the United States Alien Property Administrator. NDL took delivery of new liners Bremen and Europa in 1929–30.[9][10]
During World War II, NDL repeated its World War I experience, with some parts of its fleet again being interned at the outbreak of the war, while a number of vessels remained under NDL control.[11] One such exception was the Bremen, which raced across the Atlantic, and achieved protection at Murmansk in 1939, before eventually making a dash for Bremerhaven, where she was ultimately destroyed by a fire in 1941.[12]
Passenger service resumed in 1954 with the Gripsholm formerly belonging to the Swedish American Line (the ship was renamed to MS Berlin (1925) only the following year).[13] Later two other second-hand ships, SS Bremen (1957) (formerly Pasteur) and MS Europa (1953) (formerly Swedish American Line's Kungsholm), were purchased.[9]
NDL attained several speed records over the years. Notable among them was the record for the run between Southampton and New York of eight days in 1881, which was set by the Elbe; and the record for the fastest transatlantic crossing set by the new Bremen in 1929 (see Blue Riband).[9]
Hapag-Lloyd
Hapag and NDL continued to compete until they established a joint-venture container line. The "Hapag-Lloyd Container Line", founded in 1967 and operating from 1968 onward, was established to share the huge investments related to the containerisation of the fleets. The two companies finally merged on 1 September 1970, under the name Hapag-Lloyd.[4]
Hapag-Lloyd was acquired in 1998 by Preussag AG (since 2002 named TUI AG (Hanover)), a tourism conglomerate, and became its fully owned subsidiary in 2002.[14]
In August 2008, TUI announced an intention to sell its entire stake in Hapag-Lloyd shipping activities before the end of that year. Industry speculation predicted a sale price of approximately US$5.9 billion.[15]
In October 2019, Hapag-Lloyd acquired a 10 percent stake in Container Terminal 3 (TC3) of the Tangier Med 2 port in Morocco.[16][17]
