Albert Ballin was a risk-taker who was willing to challenge his colleagues, foreign competitors, and domestic politics in order to build a successful shipping company.

He focused on British rivals and was determined to expand HAPAG's global reach, he also worked closely with the Kaiser and supported expansion of the German navy.

[1] Samuel was part owner of an emigration agency that arranged passages to the United States, and when he died in 1874, young Albert took over the business.

Ballin developed a plan to increase occupancy by offering idle ships to travel agencies in Europe and America in the winter.

Ballin acted as mediator between Great Britain and the German Empire in the tense years prior to the outbreak of World War I. Terrified that he would lose his ships in the event of naval hostilities, Ballin attempted to broker a deal whereby Britain and Germany would continue to race one another in passenger liners but desist in their attempts to best one another's naval fleets.

Working with his close friend the British financier Ernest Cassel, they convinced the governments in London and Berlin to negotiate a solution to the naval arms race through the Haldane Mission of 1912.

Completely distraught upon hearing the news of the abdication of his benefactor and protector, Kaiser Wilhelm II, Ballin committed suicide by taking an overdose of sleeping pills[7][8] two days before the armistice ended World War I. Ballin's fears were soon to be realized; the company's flagships, the triumvirate Imperator, Vaterland and Bismarck, were ceded as war prizes to Great Britain and the United States.