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History 1945-1970
1954
NDL resumes passenger liner services to New York, while Hapag focuses on cargo business.
When rebuilding their fleets and regular services, Hapag and NDL chose joint services on most of their routes that didn`t allow mutual competition to develop.
Hapag did not resume passenger services over the Atlantic, but instead focused mainly on cargo business.
Under the flag of NDL from 1954 large liners - such as the "Bremen", "Berlin" and "Europa" - once again sailed to New York. In the mid-sixties scheduled flights finally took over from ships as a means of passenger transport over the Atlantic.
1966
Hapag and North German Lloyd transport the first standard containers in the North Atlantic trade.
1968
Hamburg-American Line and North German Lloyd establish Hapag-Lloyd Container Line, each contributing two vessels for the North Atlantic, thereby introducing the first European full containerships to the world market.
October 25th 1968 marks an historic event for German and European shipping: on this day the 13,382 GRT motor vessel "Weser Express" of North German Lloyd opened the North Atlantic service of Hapag-Lloyd Container Linien - the alliance between the two North Atlantic lines of Hapag and Lloyd - and thus the first European full container service across the Atlantic to New York. This marked the official start of an inexorable process that in only a few years revolutionized liner shipping, its ships and its structure as well as port infrastructure and indeed the entire transport chain from inland shipper to consignee.
The "Weser Express" was followed two weeks later by Hapag's "Elbe Express" across the Atlantic, carrying containers loaded in Hamburg, Bremerhaven, Antwerp and Rotterdam bound for New York, Baltimore and Norfolk. The sister ships "Mosel Express" and "Alster Express" were delivered soon afterwards, making it possible to offer a weekly service with a 28-day round voyage on this route. Working in a very close partnership, Hapag and North German Lloyd had thus entered the new era of cargo transport by sea and land.
1970
On September 1st Hapag and NDL merge to form Hapag-Lloyd AG retroactively from January 1st 1970, thus ending 113 years of chapter of rivalry.
Hapag-Lloyd discontinues passenger liner shipping across the North Atlantic.