He was a famous shipowner, one of the most important Jewish personalities in the time of the German Empire and is the patron saint of the Emigration Museum BallinStadt Hamburg. Highly respected as a gifted businessman, diplomat and human being, and at the same time derided as an “imperial Jew,” he always remained an outsider with his unusual and complex personality. As general director of HAPAG, he was also responsible for the construction of the emigrantion halls on te Veddel, where the museum is located today.