German East Africa Line

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House flag of the German East Africa Line

The German East Africa Line ( DOAL ) is a Hamburg shipping company founded in 1890 , which is now operated as Deutsche Afrika-Linien . It is part of the Deutsche Afrika-Linien / John T. Essberger Group of Companies .

history

Postcard of the German East Africa Line, with steamer Prinzregent , painted by Willy Stöwer
Steamer of the German East Africa Line in the port of Zanzibar , 1901

In 1888 the German government had Adolph Woermann work out plans to set up a liner service to East Africa, as the existing traffic was dominated by British lines. The following year the Reichstag approved such a line and in January 1890 the Reich Chancellor began to look for a German shipping company to set up a line to Africa subsidized over ten years with 900,000 marks annually  . After no company could be found, the Reich announced the establishment of a corresponding shipping company. On April 19, 1890, the German East Africa Line was founded with an initial capital of 6 million marks by a consortium of German banks and the Hamburg merchants Adolph Woermann, F.Laeisz , August Bolten , and Hansen & Co. Carl Woermann took over management with his father Adolph Woermann as chairman of the supervisory board. With two purchased steamers of the Woermann Line , the Reichstag and the Bundesrath , the line began operating on July 23, 1890.

With the conclusion of the Reichspostdampfer contract of 1890, the German East Africa Line also committed itself to setting up two coastlines on the East African coast. This resulted in the coastal service of the German East Africa Line .

The first years of operation of the DOAL turned out to be quite difficult after the British takeover of Zanzibar in November 1890 and two ship losses in the first three years. By 1894, the shipping area was expanded to South Africa and for the first time in the black. In 1900 the subsidy contract with annual subsidies of 1.35 million marks was extended by 15 years and the share capital was increased to 10 million marks. In 1901 a loan of five million marks followed in order to build more ships.

More difficult years followed until 1907, as new competitors emerged and the British lines exerted increased competition. The German East Africa Line and Woermann Line then accepted an offer from Albert Ballin to establish a joint venture with HAPAG . HAPAG and Woermann took part in the operation of the German East Africa Line and hired one or two ships for an extension of the line to South Africa to West Africa. The Woermann line was integrated into the community service and in 1908 the Hamburg-Bremen Africa line also joined. The increased number of departures ensured an improvement in business. After the death of Adolph Woermann in 1911, Eduard Woermann succeeded him. At the beginning of 1914, the DOAL was the tenth largest German shipping company immediately after the closely connected Woermann Line, with 31 ocean-going vessels totaling 104,380 GRT. The subsidy contract of 1900, which expired in 1915, was not extended due to the war. In 1916 Woermann sold the Woermann Line and the German East Africa Line to a consortium made up of HAPAG, North German Lloyd and Hugo Stinnes . During the First World War and the Versailles Treaty , the company lost all ships.

The Ussukuma built in 1920 .

The Stinnes shares were taken over by HAPAG and NDL in 1921. In 1922, the Woermann-Linie and the DOAL, which had had a joint board since 1916, practically merged, although they remained legally independent. In 1927 the German Africa Service Treaty of 1907 was continued for another 20 years and in the following years it was briefly found in calmer waters. One year after the seizure of power by the Nazi Party in 1934 carried out a reorganization of the German shipping, in which the major shipping companies have been split. HAPAG and Norddeutsche Lloyd had to surrender their shares in Woermann Line and German East Africa Line to the German Reich. The ships they employed in the Africa service also became the property of the newly founded "Deutsche Afrika-Linien".

In 1941 the Reich sold these shares to the cigarette manufacturer Philipp F. Reemtsma . He sold it to the shipowner John T. Essberger , who continued the German-East-Africa Line after the war as Deutsche Afrika-Linien, but no longer operated the Woermann Line.

DOAL mail steamer in “All Around Africa” service until 1914

Surname Shipyard GRT Length
[m]		 Passengers Launch
i. D. DOAL		 further fate
Crown Prince Blohm & Voss
No. 140 		5645 125.3 188 10.04.1900
06.30.1900		 Between deck for 116 men. 1914 sought protection in Lourenco Marques , used as a hospital ship from October 1916 to the end of 1917 . In 1918 the Quelimane was taken over as a transporter for the Portuguese Navy and scrapped in 1927.
Elector Reiherstieg shipyard
No. 407 		5654 125.2 270 July
9, 1901 October 13, 1901		 May 6th, 1904 sunk on the way home off the Portuguese coast after accruing
mayor Flensburg SG
No. 210 		5945 125.3 250 02/27/1902
06/19/1902		 1914 in Hamburg, 1919 delivered to France: Macoris 1935 demolished
Prince Regent Blohm & Voss
No. 164 		6341 126.8 175 01/10/1903
04/6/1903		 Between deck for 120 men, 1914 to Tenerife , 1919 delivered to France: Cordoba 1932 demolished
Field Marshal Reiherstieg shipyard
No. 410 		6142 126.7 268 02/21/1903
06/24/1903		 Tween deck for 120 men, 1914 in Dar es Salaam , 17 August 1915 damaged by gunfire from HMS Hyacinth , repaired by the British in 1916 and in service as Field Marshall , 1922 sold to China, 1947 sunk
admiral Blohm & Voss
No. 178 		6341 126.8 264 25.06.1905
09.23.1905		 Tween deck for 106 men, sought protection in Lourenco Marques in 1914, confiscated by Portugal in 1916: Lourenco Marques , scrapped in 1950
princess Blohm & Voss
No. 182 		6387 126.8 298 December
23, 1905 April 20, 1906		 1914 in Hamburg, 1919 delivered, first under the British flag, in 1921 to France: General Voyron , scrapped in 1934
general Blohm & Voss
No. 203 		8063 136.9 283 07/13/1910
02/25/1911		 Between deck for 70 men, Messina in 1914, then Smyrna, Constantinople, living quarters, hospital and auxiliary ship of the German Mediterranean division made available to the Turks , confiscated by France in 1918 in Odessa: Azay le Rideau , scrapped in 1937
Tabora Blohm & Voss
No. 211 		8022 136.9 316 18.04.1912
06.29.1912		 1914 Dar es Salaam, sunk by British ships on March 23, 1916
Kigoma Reiherstieg shipyard
No. 451 		8156 137.0 310 30.01.1914
04.28.1914		 The march was canceled in 1914 and returned to Hamburg in 1919, first under the British flag, in 1921 to France: Algeria , 1922 bought by Hapag, renamed Toledo , in 1927 again in the Africa service, scrapped in 1934

DOAL steamer in "Africa" ​​service in the 1930s

Even in the years of the global economic crisis , Africa was served on two routes. Once "via Cape" and once "via Suez". The end point was Lourenço Marques in Portuguese East Africa . Until the beginning of 1931 six, after that only five, Africa turbine ships were used, built in the 1920s by Blohm & Voss, which sailed the routes every three weeks.

  • Adolph Woermann
  • Njassa (sister ship of Adolph Woermann)
  • Toledo , until 1931
  • Tanganyika, sold in 1936
  • Ubena (almost identical to the sister ship Watussi)
  • Usambara (sister ship of Adolph Woermann)
  • Ussukuma (almost identical to the sister ship Wangoni)
  • Wangoni
  • Watussi

literature

  • Hartmut Rübner: Concentration and Crisis in German Shipping. Maritime economy in the German Empire, in the Weimar Republic and in National Socialism . Published in cooperation with the German Maritime Museum , Bremerhaven, Hauschild-Verlag, Bremen 2005, ISBN 978-3-89757-238-6 (also dissertation at the University of Bremen 2003).
  • Otto Mathies: Hamburg's shipping company 1814–1914 . Friederichsen-Verlag, Hamburg 1924, DNB  366593625 .
  • Bodo Hans Moltmann, Walter Kresse: History of German merchant shipping , Hanseatischer Merkur, Hamburg 1981, ISBN 3-922857-02-7 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Kludas: Ships of the German Africa Lines , p. 19f .: The mail steamers Reichstag ex Eduard Bohlen and Federal Councilor ex Aline Woermann
  2. ^ Kludas: Ships of the German Africa Lines , p. 23: Loss of the mail steamer Kanzler on September 5, 1891 in the Rovuma Delta
  3. ^ Kludas: Afrika-Linien , p. 138 Coastal steamer Emin lost after December 29, 1893
  4. ↑ Kludas: Afrika-Linien , p. 12f.
  5. ↑ Kludas: Afrika-Linien , p. 13.
  6. ↑ a b ???
  7. ↑ a b Kludas: Ships of the Africa Lines , p. 48.
  8. ↑ Kludas: Afrika-Linien , p. 50.
  9. ↑ a b Kludas: Afrika-Linien , p. 57
  10. ^ Kludas: Afrika-Linien , p. 65
  11. ↑ Kludas: Afrika-Linien , p. 65f.
  12. ↑ Kludas: Afrika-Linien , p. 66.