Albert Ballin — Reading Notes

Those were the times when the private residence and the business premises of the merchant and of the shipping man were still under the same roof; when a short walk of a few minutes enabled the shipowner to reach his vessel, and when the relations between him and the captain were still dominated by that feeling of personal friendship and personal trust the disappearance of which no man has ever more regretted than Albert Ballin. Throughout his life he never failed to look upon as ideal that era when every detail referring to the ship and to her management was still a matter of personal concern to her owner. He traced all his later successes back to the stimulating influence of those times; and if it is remembered how enormous was then the capacity for work, and how great the love of it for its own sake, it must be admitted that this estimate was no exaggeration. True, it is beyond doubt that the everyday surroundings in which his boyhood was spent, and the impressions gained from them, powerfully influenced his imagination both as boy and growing youth. It may, however, also be regarded as certain that the element of heredity was largely instrumental in moulding his character.

Ballin belonged to an old Jewish family, members of which--as is proved by ancient tombstones and other evidence--lived at Frankfort-on-Main centuries ago. Later on we find traces of them in Paris, and still later in Central and North Germany, and in Denmark. Documents dating from the seventeenth century show that the Ballins at that time were already among the well-to-do and respected families of Hamburg and Altona. Some of the earliest members of the family that can be traced were distinguished for their learning and for the high reputation they enjoyed among their co-religionists; others, in later times, were remarkable for their artistic gifts which secured for them the favour of several Kings of France. Those branches of the family which had settled in Germany and Denmark were prominent again for their learning and also for their business-like qualities. The intelligence and the artistic imagination which characterized Albert Ballin may be said to be due to hereditary influences. His versatile mind, the infallible discernment he exercised in dealing with his fellow-men, his artistic tastes, and his high appreciation of what was beautiful--all these are qualities which may furnish the key to his successes as a man of business. His sense of beauty especially made him extremely fastidious in all that concerned his personal surroundings, and was reflected in the children of his imagination, the large and beautifully appointed passenger steamers.

Ballin always disliked publicity. When the Literary Bureau of his Company requested him to supply some personal information concerning himself, he bluntly refused to do so. Hence there are but few publications available dealing with his life and work which may claim to be called authentic. Nevertheless--or perhaps for that very reason--quite a number of legends have sprung up regarding his early years. It is related, for instance, that he received a sound business training first in his father's business and later during his stay in England. The actual facts are anything but romantic. Being the youngest of seven brothers and sisters, he was treated with especial tenderness and affection by his mother, so much so, in fact, that he grew up rather a delicate boy and was subject to all sorts of maladies and constitutional weaknesses. He was educated, as was usual at that time, at one of the private day-schools of his native city. In those days, when Hamburg did not yet possess a university of her own, and when the facilities which she provided for the intellectual needs of her citizens were deplorably inadequate for the purpose, visitors from the other parts of Germany could never understand why that section of the population which appreciated the value of a complete course of higher education--especially an education grounded on a classical foundation--was so extremely small. The average Hamburg business man certainly did not belong to that small section; and the result was that a number of private schools sprang up which qualified their pupils for the examination entitling them to one year's--instead of three years'--military service, and provided them with a general education which--without any reflection on their principals--it can only be said would not bear comparison with that, for instance, which was looked upon as essential by the members of the higher grades of the Prussian Civil Service. Fortunately, the last few decades have brought about a great improvement in this respect, just as they have revolutionized the average citizen's appreciation of intellectual culture and refinement.