Under its first head, Oltmann Johann Dietrich Ahlers, the company withdrew from the Baltic and limited its Mediterranean activities to the Iberian Peninsula, but its affiliate the Asiatische Linie was able to compete well in trade with India by concentrating on the less well served East Coast ports,[1] and the fleet was expanded with newer ships.

[2] In World War I the company lost 81 vessels, a total of 437,489 GRT,[3] all but one ship,[1] the Soneck, with which service to Spain resumed in August 1919.

[2] After World War II, DDG Hansa had lost all their ships to bombing and seizure by the Allies, and the headquarters building was demolished.

[9] In 1948, the company restarted, at first in shipwreck recovery and towing using barges, and then in 1950 resuming freight service to India and Persia with three secondhand ships.

[4][10] In 1956, the company had a fleet of 44 ships, mostly second-hand and new heavy freighters, sailing between Bremen, India, Pakistan, Ceylon, Burma, and the Persian Gulf.

[11][14] The company also diversified into the container field, including experimentation with floating containers, and Roll-on/roll-off cargo haulage; Mariaeck and Brunneck, commissioned in 1968, could handle up to 800 tonnes of RoRo cargo,[11] and in the 1970s DDG Hansa circumvented congestion problems at Persian Gulf and Red Sea ports by using large RoRo ships and its own terminals.

[19] In the second half of the 1970s, DDG Hansa invested large amounts of money updating the fleet and diversifying; a bad economic climate and the weakness of the U.S. dollar against the mark then led to financial difficulties.