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.

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.

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.

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.

HAPAG and NDL had to surrender their shares in Woermann Line and DOAL to the German Reich.

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.