Due to the great success and undiminished interest in the special exhibition "HAMBURG SÜD –
150 years on the world’s oceans", which opened in November 2021, the International Maritime
Museum Hamburg (IMMH) has decided to extend the special exhibition until 5 March 2023.
On deck 1 of the IMMH, the history of this important shipping company is presented in five
chronological sections from its foundation in 1871 to the present. On display are, among other
things, Hamburg Süd’s foundation charter, the special treaty with Emperor Dom Pedro II of
Brazil from 1888, various historical ship models showing the development of modern merchant
shipping, paintings never before shown in public, posters of a wide variety of passenger ship
voyages from four decades, photo albums, audio and video material and, as a "small" highlight,
the history of Hamburg Süd on a timeline using miniature ship models.
In addition to this special exhibition, the IMMH had opened the newly designed area on deck 6
in October 2021 on the subject of reefer shipping using Hamburg Süd as an example. From the
beginning of reefer shipping in 1877 to the present day, the entire range of development is
shown and vividly presented to IMMH visitors using ships and transport conditions.
In 2019, Hamburg Süd and the IMMH agreed on a cooperation for the development and
presentation of the shipping company’s historical collection. The aim of this cooperation is to
make the history of Hamburg Süd, founded in 1871, accessible to a broad public through ship
models, pictures, posters and documents as well as other exhibits, both as a special and as a
permanent exhibition.
The several years of preparatory work and the exhibitions were made possible by the
sponsorship of Dr. August Oetker KG, Bielefeld. The Hamburg Süd was owned by the Oetker
family for more than eight decades until it was sold to the Danish Maersk Group at the end of
2017.