Episode 1: Albert Ballin Trailer

Albert Ballin began in his father’s small emigrant office near the Hamburg docks. Within two decades, he directed HAPAG, built the largest shipping fleet in the world, and advised Kaiser Wilhelm II in person.

He pioneered modern cruise travel and turned transatlantic migration into a highly organized business.

This episode follows his ascent from outsider to confidant of the Kaiser — and examines the fragile position of a Jewish industrialist at the height of imperial Germany.