- Hamburg Süd and the International Maritime Museum Hamburg (IMMH) have signed an agreement to catalog and display the historical collection of the shipping company.
- The project aims to make the history of Hamburg Süd accessible to the general public in the form of a permanent exhibition.
- Hamburg Süd’s founders also saw the importance of setting up a reliable liner shipping connection for the safe transport of their commercial goods to and from South America.
Hamburg Süd and the International Maritime Museum Hamburg (IMMH) have signed an agreement to catalog and display the historical collection of the shipping company, which was founded in 1871, says an article published in Seatrade Maritime News.
History of Hamburg Süd
Using important images, ship models, documents and other artifacts from Hamburg Süd’s archive, the project aims to make the history of Hamburg Süd accessible to the general public in the form of a permanent exhibition. There are also plans to organize a special exhibition for 2021 to mark the company’s 150th anniversary.
In addition, the comprehensive historical collection will be permanently available for research purposes at the International Maritime Museum, one of the leading museums in the maritime sector.
Several years to preparatory work
The financing needed for several years of preparatory work as well as the exhibitions has been secured thanks to a major donation from the Oetker family, which owned Hamburg Süd for more than eight decades. In 2017, the family sold the shipping company to its current owner, Maersk, the world’s largest liner shipping company, which is providing support to the collaboration.
Plans call for the International Maritime Museum to design an exhibition that will vividly depict the history of Hamburg Süd since its foundation during the years of emigration from Europe to North and South America in the second half of the 19th century, through the turbulent decades between the First World War, the global economic crisis, the Second World War and the post-war era, to general cargo shipping and, lastly, to the age of containerisation.
Development of Hamburg Süd
Hamburg Süd’s development over these ones and a half centuries will serve as an example of what several liner shipping companies from that period also went through.
For example, the fates of several thousand people who emigrated in the early years are closely tied with the name Hamburg Süd, and to this day, many of their descendants – mostly from South America – still send inquiries to the company’s office in Hamburg regarding passenger lists.
Safe transport of commercial goods
Hamburg Süd’s founders also saw the importance of setting up a reliable liner shipping connection for the safe transport of their commercial goods to and from South America. At that time, the luxury liners of the large shipping companies were the only way to travel from continent to continent. In fact, it wasn’t until the introduction of passenger aviation that shipping companies shifted their focus more and more on transporting goods of all kinds.
Attuning to global trends
“From the era of European emigration to that of container shipping, Hamburg Süd had a hand in shaping global trends just as the company itself was influenced by these processes,” said Dr. August Oetker on behalf of the Oetker family. “With our donation, we wish to make this rich, historical legacy, as well as the circumstances surrounding international shipping in the 19th and 20th centuries, come alive for a wide audience.”
Peter Tamm, chairman of the International Maritime Museum Hamburg, said: “I have enjoyed very close ties with Hamburg Süd and thereby also with the Oetker family throughout my professional career. So, I am pleased – personally but especially as the chairman of the International Maritime Museum Hamburg – that this cooperation has come about. The decision to entrust us with the historical collection is a great honour.”
Søren Skou, CEO of AP Møller – Mærsk commented: “The Hamburg Süd history and the many stories that have come out of its rich heritage over the past nearly 150 years are exactly that; they are Hamburg stories and they are Hamburg Süd stories. The archives and the artifacts that tell all these stories should remain where they belong.”
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Source: seatrade-maritime
