 With Albert Ballin as its director the Hamburg-America Line became the world's largest transatlantic shipping company around the start of the 20th century, and Hamburg was also home to shipping companies to South America, Africa, India and East Asia.Hamburg became a cosmopolitan metropolis based on worldwide trade.Hamburg was the port for most Germans and Eastern Europeans to leave for the New World and became home to trading communities from all over the world (like a small Chinatown in Altona, Hamburg).