Arnold Bernstein was a German-American shipowner and pioneer of transatlantic cargo transport, which he revolutionised since he was transporting goods without the usual wooden boxes and was thus able to reduce freight rates. When the 1929 Great Depression

Great Depression

The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...

 made the use of 'swimming garages' impractical, Bernstein then turned his cargo ships into passenger ships, with just one travel class

Travel class

A travel class is a quality of accommodation on public transport. The accommodation could be a seat or a cabin for example. Higher travel classes are more comfortable and more expensive.-Airline booking codes:...

 (which he called tourist class) rather than the three that were usual. One of the first Jewish 'merchant princes', he was one of the victims of the Nazi appropriation policies

Aryanization

Aryanization is a term coined during Nazism referring to the forced expulsion of so-called "non-Aryans", mainly Jews, from business life in Nazi Germany and the territories it controlled....

.

Life

The eldest son of the Jewish businessman Max Bernstein and his wife Franziska Altmann, he fought in the German artillery during the First World War and was awarded the Iron Cross

Iron Cross

The Iron Cross is a cross symbol typically in black with a white or silver outline that originated after 1219 when the Kingdom of Jerusalem granted the Teutonic Order the right to combine the Teutonic Black Cross placed above a silver Cross of Jerusalem....

first class.

Ships

Under German Flag

• Max, Freighter
• Keilberg, Freighter
• Betty, Tugboat
• Odin, Freighter
• Aegir, Freighter
• Frithjof, Freighter
• Max Bernstein, Freighter
• Falkenstein, Freighter
• Johanna, Freighter
• Charlotte, Lighter
• Schleswig-Holstein, Freighter
• Eberstein, Freighter
• Hohenstein, Freighter
• Gerolstein, Freighter & Passenger Ship
• Königstein, Freighter & Passenger Ship
• Ilsenstein, Freighter & Passenger Ship
• Lichtenstein, Freighter
• Lahnstein, Freighter
• Traunstein, Freighter
• Drachenstein, Freighter
• Gravenstein, Freighter
• Pennland, Freighter & Passenger Ship
• Westernland, Freighter & Passenger Ship

Under non-German flag

• Panamanian, Freighter
• Orbis, Freighter
• Continental, Passenger Ship
• Europa, Passenger Ship
• Silver Star, Passenger Ship
• Atlantic, Passenger Ship

External links