View source for Albert Ballin

{{short description|German businessman}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=June 2020}}
{{Infobox person
|name = Albert Ballin
|image = Albert Ballin 2.jpg
|birth_date = {{birth date|df=yes|1857|08|15}}
|birth_place = [[Hamburg]]
|death_date = {{death date and age|1918|11|9|1857|08|15|df=yes}}
|death_place = Hamburg
|occupation = Owner and manager of the [[Hamburg America Line]]
|spouse = 
|parents =
|children =
}}
'''Albert Ballin''' (15 August 1857 – 9 November 1918) was a German shipping magnate. He was the general director of the Hamburg-Amerikanische Packetfahrt-Actien-Gesellschaft (HAPAG) or [[Hamburg-America Line]], which for a time was the world's largest shipping company. Being the inventor of the concept of the [[cruise ship]], he is known as the father of modern cruise ship travel. Albert Ballin was a risk-taker who was willing to challenge his colleagues, foreign competitors, and domestic politics in order to build a successful shipping company. He focused on British rivals and was determined to expand HAPAG's global reach, he also worked closely with the Kaiser and supported expansion of the German navy.

{{SS|Augusta Victoria|1888|2}}, named after the German Empress [[Augusta Victoria of Schleswig-Holstein]] entered transatlantic service on 10 May 1889, from [[Hamburg]] to [[New York City]] via [[Southampton]]. Two years later, in 1891, she made the World's first Mediterranean [[Cruise ship|cruise]].

In 1901, Ballin built the Emigration Halls on the Hamburg island of [[Veddel]] to accommodate the many thousands of people from all over Europe who arrived at the [[Port of Hamburg]] every week to emigrate to North and South America on his company's ships. The island is now the ''[[BallinStadt]]'' Museum. In 1913, HAPAG owned three of the world's biggest ocean liners; however all were later seized as part of [[World War I]] reparations.

Facing the loss of his company's ships after World War I, Ballin committed suicide in Hamburg as the war ended.

[[File:4a15881u.tif|right|thumb|''Augusta Victoria'' as launched, about 1890]]

== Business ==
His father, Samuel Joseph Ballin (1804–1874), was a [[History of the Jews in Denmark|Danish Jew]] who had emigrated from [[Denmark]].<ref>[https://www.saxo.com/dk/rejsen-til-amerika_ole-soennichsen_indbundet_9788702203561 Rejsen til Amerika]: [https://www.saxo.com/dk/rejsen-til-amerika-droemmen-om-et-nyt-liv_ole-soennichsen_indbundet_9788702112825 Drømmen om et nyt liv] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190902180728/https://www.saxo.com/dk/rejsen-til-amerika-droemmen-om-et-nyt-liv_ole-soennichsen_indbundet_9788702112825 |date=2 September 2019 }} (Fortællingen om [[Danish Americans|de danske udvandrere]]), by [https://www.saxo.com/dk/forfatter/ole-soennichsen_4356476 Ole Sønnichsen] ([[Gyldendal]] 2013), Chapter 12</ref> Samuel 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 the Hamburg America Line; the line hired him in 1886 and made him general director in 1899.

Although extremely successful in developing the business, as a Jew, and only being the director, but not the owner of a company, he was not accepted by all of Hamburg society.<ref>{{cite book|last=Massie|first=Robert|authorlink=Robert K. Massie|title=[[Dreadnought: Britain, Germany and the Coming of the Great War]]|year=1991|publisher=Random House|location=New York, NY|isbn=0-394-52833-6|pages=798}}</ref> Nevertheless, he was respected and admired by Kaiser [[Wilhelm II]], by whom he was honoured with "[[:de:Hoffähigkeit|hoffähigkeit]]" (right of presentation at court). Ballin's home in Hamburg, which currently houses the [[UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning]], has a suite of rooms that were built specifically for the Kaiser, to be used when he visited Hamburg. Many different ship companies began to include ocean liners among their fleets 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. Ballin developed a plan to increase occupancy by offering idle ships to travel agencies in Europe and America in the winter. [[File:Albert Ballin (timbre RFA).jpg|right|thumb|200px|Postage stamp issued by the [[Deutsche Bundespost]] in 1957 in commemoration of Ballin's 100th birthday]]

The first modern cruise, which defined the journey not just as transport but as the actual reward, commenced on 22 January 1891, when ''Augusta Victoria'' sailed to cruise the Mediterranean for six weeks. Competitors at first ridiculed Ballin, who organized and supervised the voyage personally, but the project was a huge success. In order to accommodate the growing demand, another three of ''Auguste Victoria''{{'}}s sister ships operated as cruise liners, and in 1899, the Hamburg-America Line commissioned [[Blohm & Voss]] to construct the first purpose-built cruise ship, the ''[[Prinzessin Victoria Luise]]''. It was the very first ship specifically built as a cruise ship, one exclusively tailored for the needs of well-to-do passengers.

Ballin further expanded the fleet in 1900 when he acquired fourteen steamships from [[A. C. de Freitas & Co.]]<ref name=Lintzer>{{cite book|last=Lintzer|first=Gottfried|title=A. C. de Freitas & Co – Kaufmannsreeder|publisher=Norderstedt |year=2010|isbn=978-3-8391-5759-6|pages=117}}</ref><ref name=Kludas>{{cite book|last=Kludas|first=Arnold|title=Die Geschichte der Hapag-Schiffe|publisher=Hauschild |year=2007|isbn=978-3-89757-341-3|pages=204–212}}</ref> In 1901, Ballin built the Emigration Halls (now the Museum "BallinStadt") on the Hamburg island of [[Veddel]] to accommodate the many thousands of people from all over Europe who arrived at the Port of Hamburg every week to emigrate to North and South America on his company's ships.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/05/arts/05iht-ballin.1.6503104.html
|work=The New York Times
|title=BallinStadt: A passage from the Old World to the New
|last=Tzortzis
|first=Andreas 
|date=5 July 2007
|accessdate=29 January 2010}}</ref>

Ballin frequently traveled on the ships in his fleet and often spoke to other passengers to understand more about the ships and what improvements to make to Hamburg Amerika ships in the future. Ballin would take these ideas for improvements in hand and make sure they were implemented on both his current and future liners.

== World War I ==
[[File:Albert Ballin Gravesite.jpg|right|thumb|200px|Albert Ballin's [[gravestone]] in [[Hamburg]], [[Germany]]. It is located on [[land lot|landlot]] Q9, 430–433 in [[Ohlsdorf Cemetery]].]]
Ballin acted as mediator between Great Britain and the [[German Empire]] 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 Britain and Germany would continue to race one another in passenger liners but desist in their attempts to best one another's naval fleets. Working with his close friend the British financier [[Ernest Cassel]], they convinced the governments in London and Berlin to negotiate a solution to the [[Anglo-German naval arms race|naval arms race]] through the [[Haldane Mission]] of 1912. Unfortunately it was a failure.<ref>{{cite book|last=Massie|first=Robert|title=Dreadnought: Britain, Germany and the Coming of the Great War|year=1991|publisher=Random House|location=New York, NY|isbn=0-394-52833-6|pages=801}}</ref> Consequently, the outbreak of war deeply disillusioned him. Following [[SM U-21 (Germany)|U.21]]'s sinking of the British ships ''[[SS Malachite (1902)|Malachite]]'' and ''[[SS Primo|Primo]]'' in November 1914, Ballin advocated for unrestricted submarine warfare by German U-boats to blockade Britain's sea lines of communication.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Halpern |first=Paul |title=A Naval History of World War I |publisher=Naval Institute Press |year=1994 |isbn=9780870212666 |location=Annapolis |publication-date=1994 |pages=Pages 292}}</ref> Many of the Hamburg-America Line's ships were lost or suffered considerable damage during the hostilities.

Completely distraught upon hearing the news of the abdication of his benefactor and protector, Kaiser Wilhelm II, Ballin committed suicide by taking an overdose of sleeping pills<ref>Elon, Amos, The Pity of it All, 2002, pp. 342–342. {{ISBN|0805059644}}</ref><ref name=fox88>{{cite book|last=Fox|first=Robert|title=Liners: The Golden Age|year=2006|publisher=Tandem Verlag GmbH|location=Potsdam, Germany|isbn=978-3-8331-6186-5|page=88}}</ref> two days before the [[Armistice with Germany (Compiègne)|armistice]] ended World War I. Ballin's fears were soon to be realized; the company's flagships, the triumvirate {{SS|Imperator||2}}, {{SS|Vaterland|1913|2}} and ''[[RMS Majestic (1914)|Bismarck]]'', were ceded as war prizes to Great Britain and the United States.<ref name=fox88/>

== Honors ==
The {{SS|Albert Ballin||2}} was named in his honor, as is the Ballindamm, a street in central Hamburg. A postage stamp was issued by the [[Deutsche Bundespost]] in 1957 in commemoration of Ballin's 100th birthday.

== References ==
{{Reflist|2}}

== Bibliography ==
* Mark A. Russell. ''Steamship Nationalism: Ocean Liners and National Identity in Imperial Germany and the Atlantic World'' (Routledge, 2020). 354 pp. ISBN 978-1-03-223650-6. [https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showpdf.php?id=57086 online review]
* Lamar Cecil, ''Albert Ballin; Business and Politics in Imperial Germany, 1888–1918'' (Princeton University Press, 1967)
* Tobias Brinkmann: Why Paul Nathan Attacked Albert Ballin: The Transatlantic Mass Migration and the Privatization of Prussia's Eastern Border Inspection, 1886–1914. In: Central European History. 43, Nr. 01, 2010, S. 47–83. {{doi|10.1017/S0008938909991336}}
* Bernhard Huldermann, ''Albert Ballin'' (Berlin: Gerhard Stalling, 1922)
* Johannes Gerhardt: ''Albert Ballin (English edition)'' (Hamburg University Press, 2010)
: [http://blogs.sub.uni-hamburg.de/hup/products-page/publikationen/90/ online]
* Drew Keeling, “The Business of Transatlantic Migration between Europe and the United States, 1900–1914” (Chronos, 2012) {{ISBN|978-3034011525}}

== External links ==
{{Commons}}
*[http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/44135 Albert Ballin by Bernhard Huldermann at Gutenberg.org]
{{EB1922 Poster|Ballin, Albert|Albert Ballin}}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20041011123821/http://www.rrz.uni-hamburg.de/rz3a035/ballindamm.html Bio at University of Hamburg]
* D. Godsey, William: [https://encyclopedia.1914-1918-online.net/article/ballin_albert/ Ballin, Albert], in: [https://encyclopedia.1914-1918-online.net/home.html/ 1914-1918-online. International Encyclopedia of the First World War].
* [http://www.ballinstadt.net/BallinStadt_emigration_museum_Hamburg/english_BallinStadt_das_Auswanderermuseum_Hamburg_besonderes_Ausflugsziel_Ausflugsort_Erlebnisort_Freizeit_leisureworkgroup_Geschaeftsfuehrer_Jens_Nitschke_Berater_Museen_Fachmann_Entwicklung_Konzeption_Design_Erlebniswelt_Erlebnismuseum.html] Ballinstadt, Emigration Museum in Hamburg
* {{PM20|FID=pe/000952}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ballin, Albert}}
[[Category:1857 births]]
[[Category:1918 suicides]]
[[Category:19th-century German inventors]]
[[Category:Suicides in Germany]]
[[Category:Ship management]]
[[Category:Jews from Hamburg]]
[[Category:Burials at the Ohlsdorf Cemetery]]
[[Category:Hamburg America Line]]
[[Category:1918 deaths]]
[[Category:20th-century German Jews]]