At the end of World War II the company's headquarters (which had in any case been sold in 1942) had been severely damaged by bombing and all its large vessels either destroyed or seized. It was left with only the freighter "Bogotá", which was in Japan. Relicensed by the American military administration on November 29, 1945 as a "coastal shipping and stevedoring company," it started again, as after World War I, practically from zero, offering tugboat and daytripper services. Kulenkampff and Bertram constituted the Board and there were at first only 350 employees. In 1948, the first Hapag-Lloyd travel agency opened. Business initially consisted of emigration and a limited amount of tourism. Beginning in 1949, German companies were permitted to order and to build ships of up to . In 1950, the NDL placed its first post-war orders at the Bremer Vulkan shipyard, the Rheinstein class (, 13 knots).