“The late Adolph Woermann was a man whom we may truly describe as the ideal of what a Hanseatic citizen should be. Secretary of State Dernburg himself once told me that he knew quite well that the work he was doing for the benefit of our colonies would never come up to what Adolph Woermann had achieved in the face of the greatest imaginable difficulties.
“Never before, perhaps, has any private shipowner displayed so much daring as we see embodied in the business he has built up through his labours. Woermann has developed the means of communication between Germany and her African colonies to such perfection that even the similar work performed by British shipping men has been overshadowed. He has done this without receiving any aid from the Government; in fact, he had to overcome all sorts of obstacles which were put in his way by the bureaucracy. His confidence in his work was not shaken when losses had to be faced. Then, more than ever, he had his eyes firmly fixed on his goal; and practically every vessel which he had built to facilitate communication between the German mother country and her colonies represented a fresh step forward towards a higher type, thus increasing the immense personal responsibility with which he burdened himself. His patriotism was of the practical kind; he did his work without asking for the help of others, especially without that of the Government.
“And now he has died in bitter disappointment. His striking outward appearance has always reminded us of the Iron Chancellor, but the similarity in the character of the two men has only become apparent during the last few years. It is well known that when the troubles in the colonies had been settled he was accused of having enriched himself at the expense of the country. He never lost his resentment of this accusation; and even though his accusers can point to the fact that the court which had to investigate the claims put forward by the Government gave judgment to the effect that some of these claims were justified, it must be said in reply that this statement of the case is inadequate and one-sided. All that was proved was that Woermann, who hated red tape, and who never had recourse to legal assistance when drawing up his agreements, did not use as much caution in this matter as would have been advisable in his own interest. The facts that have become known most clearly disprove the accusation that he had made large profits at the expense of the country, and that he had used the country’s distress to enrich himself. To the task of carrying out the troop transports he devoted himself with his customary largeness of purpose, and he accomplished it magnificently. In order to be able to do so, he had enlarged his fleet by a number of steamers, and the consequence was that, when the work was achieved, he had to admit himself that he had over-estimated his strength. When my late colleague Dr. Wiegand, the Director-General of the North German Lloyd, and I were asked to express an expert opinion on the rates which Woermann had charged the Government, we found them thoroughly moderate; in fact, we added a rider to the effect that if either of our companies had been entrusted with those transports, we could only have carried out a very few expeditions at the rates charged by Woermann. Woermann, however, carried through the whole task; and when it was done he found himself compelled to pass on to the shoulders of the Hamburg-Amerika Linie part of the excessive burden which he had taken upon himself.
“His iron determination would have enabled him to dispense with the assistance thus obtained. But by that time his accusers had commenced their attacks on his character, and when the Government had officially taken up an attitude against him, he became a prey to that resentment to which I have referred before. All those who had the privilege of being associated with him during the past few years must have noted with grief how this great patriot gradually became an embittered critic. The heavy blow also led to the breakdown of his health, and during the last years of his life we only knew him as a sick man.
“If it is borne in mind how strong, how masterful, and how self-reliant a man has passed away with Adolph Woermann, it is sad to think that in the end he was not strong enough after all to bear on his own shoulders entirely the immense burden of responsibility which he had taken upon himself, and that he received nothing but ingratitude as the reward of his life’s work, although he was actuated by truly patriotic motives throughout. Still, this shall not prevent us from acknowledging that he was the greatest, the most daring, and the most self-sacrificing private shipowner whom the Hanseatic cities have ever produced—a princely merchant if ever there was one. He was a true friend and an earnest well-wisher to the city in which he was born, and to the country which he served as a statesman. We are sincerely grateful to him for the work he has done, and in honouring his memory we know that we are paying tribute to the greatest Hanseatic citizen who had been living in our midst.”
To complete the enumeration of the many rate wars which occurred during the first decade of the twentieth century, we must make brief reference to the competition emanating in 1909 from the so-called “Princes’ Trust” (Fürstenkonzern) and its ally, viz. a Hamburg firm which had already fought the Woermann Line. The object of the fight was to secure the business from Antwerp to the Plate. The struggle ended with the acquisition of the shipping interests of the Princes’ Trust, the business career of which came to a sudden end shortly afterwards by a financial disaster causing enormous losses to the two princely families concerned—the house of Hohenlohe and that of Fürstenberg. The details connected with this affair are still in everybody’s memory, and it would be beyond the scope of this volume to enter into them. It should be mentioned, however, that in connexion with the settlement arrived at the two big companies undertook to start some transatlantic services from the port of Emden, and in particular to establish a direct line for the steerage traffic to North America. The necessary arrangements to this end had just been made when the war broke out, and further progress became impossible.
The transatlantic pool was considerably extended in scope during those years. More than once, however, after the rate war with the Cunard Line had come to an end, the amicable relations existing between the lines were disturbed, e.g. when the Russian Volunteer Fleet opened a competing service—a competition which was got rid of by the aid of the Russian East Asiatic S.S. Company; when some British lines temporarily withdrew from the steerage pool, and when some differences of policy arose between the Hamburg-Amerika Linie and the North German Lloyd. The Hamburg company demanded a revision of the percentages, contending that the arrangements made fifteen years ago no longer did justice to the entirely altered relative positions of the two companies. The discussions held in London in February, 1908, under Ballin’s chairmanship, which lasted several days, and in which delegates of all the big Continental and British lines, as well as of the Canadian Pacific Railway Company took part, led to the formation of the Atlantic Conference (also known as the General Pool). It was supplemented in the following year by that of the Mediterranean Conference. Both these agreements were renewed in 1911, and further agreements were concluded with the Russian and Scandinavian lines to complete the system. Agreements on so large a scale had never before been concluded between any shipping companies.
This network of agreements existed until it was destroyed through the outbreak of the war.
During the fluctuating conditions which characterized the shipping business of those years the year 1908 witnessed a depression which, in its after-effects, is comparable only to that caused by the cholera epidemic sixteen years earlier. Business had been excellent for a fairly long time, but it became thoroughly demoralized in the second half of 1907, and an economic crisis of a magnitude such as has seldom been experienced began to affect every country. No part of the shipping business remained unaffected by it; hundreds and hundreds of ocean-going liners lay idle in the seaports of the world.
Very gradually prospects began to brighten up in the course of 1908, so that the worst of the depression had passed sooner than had been expected. Indeed, in one respect the crisis had proved a blessing in disguise, inasmuch as it had strengthened the inclination of the shipping concerns everywhere to compromise and to eliminate unnecessary competition—the formation of the general pool, in fact, being the outcome of that feeling. The subsequent recovery made up for the losses; and the succeeding years, with their very gratifying financial results, and their vast internal consolidation, represent the high-water mark in the development of the Hamburg-Amerika Linie.