History

Sartori & Berger was founded in 1858 in Kiel by Geheimrat August Sartori.

The management of ships as well as services for shipping were the focus of a successful and continuous development. Pioneering work was carried out with the company’s own passenger ships between Kiel and Korsör as well as S & B cargo ships for transports between Kiel, Gdansk, the Baltic and other Baltic ports as well as the long-distance ferry service.

In 1895, with the opening of the Kiel Canal, Sartori & Berger established their agency offices for the passage of transit ships, an activity which is still continuing today. The company experienced the conversion from sailing to steam engines and counted despite fleet losses due to the effects of the war over 100 ships in its ship register in three generations of the Sartori family.

In the 1950s, the Hamburg-Chicago line operated a line service between North European ports and the Great Lakes in North America. Due to the expansion of the locks, this service operated by S&B special ships could no longer be continued.

At the end of the 1960s, the merchant and shipowner Knud Broder Knudsen from Rendsburg became the owner of Sartori & Berger and transferred the management to his son Volkert Knudsen in 1970.

Through the sale of older tonnage, newbuildings and purchases of ships a new modern fleet of cargo ships was established, which were engaged in a worldwide service. Before the break-down of the freight markets by the first global oil crisis, all ships could be sold up to the mid-1970s. The traditional shipping business was therefore discontinued. The reorientation of the activities shifted to services for shipping and transport and the expansion of a comprehensive network of branches in all German seaports and the Kiel Canal.

On the occasion of the company’s 150th anniversary, Volkert Knudsen after a 40-year period handed over the management of the company to his son Jens Broder Knudsen as shareholding managing director.

Today, Sartori & Berger, with its successful employees, is active as port- and Kiel Canal agent ,freight- and port agent for ferry lines and cruise lines, P&I correspondent, operates stevedoring, forwarding, customs clearance and warehousing, is a project manager in the wind offshore sector and offers expertise in occupational safety and quality management.

In 2015, S & B expanded its network and opened its branch offices in Poland.