16th September 1934 Norddeutscher Lloyd Bremen
Official postcard of the Norddeutscher Lloyd Bremen depicting the cruise ship 'General von Steuben'. Ref: 16.09.1934
SS General von Steuben was a German passenger liner and later an armed transport ship of the German Navy that was sunk in the Baltic Sea during World War II. She was launched in 1923 as München (after the German city, sometimes spelled Muenchen), renamed General von Steuben in 1930 (after the famous German officer of the American Revolutionary War), and renamed Steuben in 1938.
During World War II, the ship served as a troop accommodation vessel, and from 1944 as an armed transport. On 10th February 1945, while evacuating German military personnel, wounded soldiers, and civilian refugees during Operation Hannibal, the ship was torpedoed by the Soviet submarine S-13 and sank. An estimated 4,000 people lost their lives in the sinking. Source: Wikipedia
NORDDEUTSCHER LLOYD BREMEN
Norddeutscher Lloyd (NDL) was a German shipping company. It was founded by Hermann Henrich Meier and Eduard Crüsemann in Bremen on 20th February 1857. It developed into one of the most important German shipping companies of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and was instrumental in the economic development of Bremen and Bremerhaven. On 1st September 1970, the company merged with Hamburg America Line (HAPAG) to form Hapag-Lloyd AG.
From 1928 to 1939, the volume of passengers travelling between the US and Europe declined sharply. In 1928, the NDL transported about 8% of a passenger volume of 1,168,414 passengers; in 1932, 16.2% of the 751,592 passengers transported; in 1938, around 11% of 685,655 passengers. In addition, there was significant new competition from new Italian, French and British superliners: the Italian Rex (51,062 GRT) and Conte di Savoia (48,502 GRT), the French Normandie (79,280 GRT), and the British Queen Mary (80,744 GRT).
The 1929 economic crisis which began in the US affected the German shipping companies. The NDL and the HAPAG therefore entered into a cooperation agreement in 1930, and beginning in 1935, instituted joint operations in the North Atlantic. The first signs of a merger were visible. By 1932, the NDL was in an economic crisis, with about 5,000 employees let go, salary cuts, and red ink. Glässel was dismissed. The government placed both NDL and HAPAG in trusteeship under Siegfried von Roedern, and following the death of Stimming, Heinrich F. Albert briefly became head of the NDL, followed after some eighteen months by the National Socialist Rudolph Firle. Bremen State Councillor Karl Lindemann was chairman of the board from 1933 to 1945. A programme of economic recovery by divestments and restructuring was initiated. HBAL and the Roland Line became independent companies once more, and other lines took over services to Africa and the Mediterranean. The Nazi regime ordered both NDL and HAPAG to relinquish ships to other lines which were to operate in their regions without competition from other German companies, in particular to Hamburg Süd, the Deutsche Afrika-Linien and the Deutsche Levante Linie.
In 1935, the Scharnhorst, Gneisenau, and Potsdam, each with about 18,000 GRT, were placed in service for the Far East. The modernisation of the fleet continued and in 1937 the line made modest profits.
In 1939 the Erlangen slipped out of Lyttelton Harbour (New Zealand) on 28th August, on the eve of World War II, ostensibly for Port Kembla, New South Wales, where she was to have filled her coal bunkers for the homeward passage to Europe. She then headed for the subantarctic Auckland Islands, where she successfully evaded the cruiser HMNZS Leander, and re-stocked with food and wood. The freighter then made a desperate and successful escape, using jury-rigged sails, to Valparaíso, Chile, in South America. She then made her way into the South Atlantic where, on 24th July 1941, she was intercepted off Montevideo by HMS Newcastle and scuttled by her crew.
In 1939 NDL had in service 70 vessels with a total of 562,371 GRT, including the sail training vessel Kommodore Johnsen (now the Russian STS Sedov), 3 daytrip ships, 19 tugs and 125 small ships, and employed 12,255, 8,811 on vessels. Nine further freighters were completed after the outbreak of World War II. This entire fleet was either lost during the war or awarded to the Allies as reparations. Columbus had to be sunk in 1939; Bremen burned in 1941; Steuben was sunk in the Baltic in 1945 with the loss of some 4,000 lives; Europa, claimed by France, became the Liberté in 1947.
The Reich was the primary stockholder in the company, but in 1941/42, NDL was once more privatised and cigarette manufacturer Philipp Reemtsma became primary stockholder. Dr. Johannes Kulenkampff, a board member since 1932, and Richard Bertram, a board member since 1937, became Chairman in 1942.
At the end of World War II the company's headquarters (which had in any case been sold in 1942) had been severely damaged by bombing and all its large vessels either destroyed or seized. It was left with only the freighter Bogotá, which was in Japan. Relicensed by the American military administration on 29th November 1945 as a 'coastal shipping and stevedoring company', it started again, as after World War I, practically from zero, offering tugboat and day-tripper services.
Source: Wikipedia
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