HamburgAmerica

Hamburg-America Line, officially Hamburg-Amerikanische Packetfahrt-Aktien-Gesellschaft (HAPAG), was a German shipping company founded in 1847 in Hamburg to establish regular steamship service between Germany and North America. It quickly expanded its network to South America, Africa, and the Far East, becoming the largest and most influential German liner in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

The company operated a series of prominent transatlantic passenger liners and carried large numbers of European emigrants to the United States and Canada. As a major force in international trade and maritime transportation, HAPAG helped shape global shipping routes, ports, and logistics, and it played a key role in the development of long-distance passenger and cargo services that endured into the modern era.

The two world wars brought severe disruption: much of HAPAG’s fleet was damaged, interned, or seized, and German commercial shipping faced postwar restrictions and reconstruction needs. After rebuilding during the mid-20th century, HAPAG continued operations and, in 1970, merged with its rival Norddeutscher Lloyd (NDL) to form the modern container-focused company Hapag-Lloyd AG, based in Hamburg. The HAPAG brand and its legacy remained associated with one of the oldest and most influential German shipping lines.

Today, Hapag-Lloyd AG is a leading global container shipping company, continuing the historical legacy of the Hamburg-America lineage and maintaining a strong presence in international trade and logistics with headquarters in Hamburg.