hipping magnate Albert Ballin had a vision. He saw a future of leisurely sea travel available to anyone willing to pay the price of a ticket. The late-19th century director of the Hamburg-Amerikanische Packetfahrt-Actien-Gesellschaft (HAPAG), or Hamburg-America Line, knew the future of the company rested beyond shipping cargo across the Atlantic.
The Jewish son of a Danish immigrant took over his father’s immigration agency in 1874. But he became part of Germany’s elite (an odd fit because corrosive attitudes towards Jews were already taking shape) when he transformed the family business into an independent shipping line, earning the attention of HAPAG executives who hired him in 1886 and made him their general director in 1899.
