Deutsche Ost-Afrika Linie

You can help expand this article with text translated from the corresponding article in German. (January 2011) Click [show] for important translation instructions. View a machine-translated version of the German article. Machine translation, like DeepL or Google Translate, is a useful starting point for translations, but translators must revise errors as necessary and confirm that the translation is accurate, rather than simply copy-pasting machine-translated text into the English Wikipedia. Consider adding a topic to this template: there are already 2,263 articles in the main category, and specifying|topic= will aid in categorization. Do not translate text that appears unreliable or low-quality. If possible, verify the text with references provided in the foreign-language article. You must provide copyright attribution in the edit summary accompanying your translation by providing an interlanguage link to the source of your translation. A model attribution edit summary is Content in this edit is translated from the existing German Wikipedia article at [[:de:Deutsche Ost-Afrika Linie]]; see its history for attribution. You may also add the template {{Translated|de|Deutsche Ost-Afrika Linie}} to the talk page. For more guidance, see Wikipedia:Translation.

Deutsche Ost-Afrika Linie

Industry	Shipping, transportation
Founded	1890; 135 years ago (1890)
Defunct	1934
Headquarters	Altstadt
Area served	East Africa, Indian Ocean
Parent	Woermann-Linie

Deutsche Ost-Afrika Linie (German East Africa Line, or DOAL) was a shipping line, established in 1890 as an alternative to the existing shipping services to East Africa, including German East Africa (1891–1919), then dominated by United Kingdom shipping lines.

In 1888, the board of the trading firm Woermann-Linie made plans to set up a scheduled service to East Africa as the existing routes were dominated by British lines. The following year the Reichstag approved such a shipping line and in January 1890 the Chancellor began looking for a German shipping company to set up a line to Africa subsidized for over ten years with 900,000 marks a year. As no company was ready, the Reich announced the establishment of a shipping company.^[1]

On 19 April 1890 DOAL was founded with a capital of six million marks by a consortium of German banks and the Hamburg merchants Adolph Woermann, F. Laeisz, August Bolten, and Hansen & Co. C. Woermann took over the management with Adolph Woermann as Chairman of the Supervisory Board.^[2] The line began operating on 23 July 1890 with two steamships bought from the Woermann line. Beginning in 1891, the service consisted of weekly departures from Hamburg via the Mediterranean to Bombay and Zanzibar.

The first years of operation were difficult due to the British takeover of Zanzibar in November 1890 and the loss of two ships in the first three years. By 1894 the routes were extended to South Africa, and profits were posted for the first time. In 1900 the government contract with annual subsidies of 1.35 million marks was extended by 15 years and the share capital increased to ten million marks. In 1901, a bond for five million marks was issued to build more ships.

In 1894 the company added a route from Hamburg to Durban in South Africa via the Cape and commissioned for this service Herzog (1896, 4,933 GRT) and Koenig. In 1895 DOAL introduced instead the new steamships on the route Hamburg – Suez – Dar es Salaam, and from 1898 also Durban was connected via Suez, no longer via Cape Town, in order to avoid a clash with the British. Only from 1901, when the Boer War was no longer a political obstacle, a new 'Rund-um-Afrika' (round Africa) route was operated by DOAL on the circuit Hamburg – Bremerhaven – Cape Town – Suez – Hamburg and in reverse direction. For this main line the Kronprinz and Kurfürst were introduced, steamships with a grey hull, white superstructure and a buff funnel, topped with an arrangement of black/white/red rings, referring to the colours of the flag of the German Empire.

More difficult years followed until 1907, as new competitors appeared and the British lines increased competition. DOAL and Woermann Line then responded to an offer by Albert Ballin to form a joint venture with Hamburg America Line (HAPAG). HAPAG and Woermann took part in the operation of DOAL, and each allocated one or two ships for an extension of the line from South Africa to West Africa. Woermann Line was involved in the shared service and in 1908 the Hamburg-Bremen Africa Line also joined. The increased number of departures improved business.

After the death of Adolph Woermann in 1911, Eduard Woermann succeeded him. In 1914 the company's fleet consisted of 22 steamships, totalling about 110,000 GRT.

The subsidy contract of 1900, which expired in 1915, was not extended as a result of the war. In 1916 Woermann sold Woermann Line and DOAL to a consortium made up of HAPAG, Norddeutscher Lloyd (NDL) and Hugo Stinnes.^[2] The company lost all ships due to the First World War and the Versailles Treaty.

The Stinnes shares were taken over by HAPAG and NDL in 1921.^[2]

In 1927 the Deutschen Afrika-Dienst-Vertrag of 1907 was continued for a further 20 years and in the following years the corporate structure stabilised. In 1928 the 9,552 GRT Watussi and Ubena were introduced as the first two-funnel turbine steamships of the company under the DOAL name, employed on the Rund-um-Afrika route.

A year after the Nazi Party was elected, German shipping was reorganized in 1934, in which the large shipping groups were divided. HAPAG and NDL had to surrender their shares in Woermann Line and DOAL to the German Reich. In 1936 two larger turbine steamships were launched: Pretoria and Windhuk, of 16,662 GRT each.

In 1942, during World War II, this line and the Woermann-Linie owned by the cigarette manufacturer Philipp Fürchtegott Reemtsma, were taken over by John T. Essberger of Germany.^[1] Deutsche Afrika-Linien lost both fleets in post-war reparations.

• Deutsche Afrika-Linien/John T. Essberger Group of Companies
• German East Africa topics
• East Africa Protectorate
• Kenya Colony

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Deutsche Ost-Afrika Linie.

• Documents and clippings about Deutsche Ost-Afrika Linie in the 20th Century Press Archives of the ZBW