The company which was later to become the Horn-Linie was originally founded in 1864 by Heinrich C. Horn in Schleswig as a coal trading company. Horn soon established ties with the maritime trade, and in 1879 he purchased his first three ships and began trading in the Baltic and North Seas. In 1906 the company H.Horn operated 21 steamships, the largest private fleet in Germany at that time.

The company survived World War I despite losing much of its fleet. In 1920, Henry Horn, the eldest son of H.C. Horn, established a liner service to the Caribbean. It was also in the twenties that the Horn-Linie played a major role in the process of changing from steam to motor propulsion in shipping.

By the end of the Second World War, the Horn-Linie had lost its entire fleet and its office building. From 1949 onwards, H.M. Stinnes, a partner in the former company, continued the trademark "Horn-Linie" independently as a maritime agency, securing the general representation of the French line "CGT", which turned out to be of fundamental significance for the future development of the company.

With the launch of the vessel "Hornfels" in 1951, the Horn-Linie was able to restart the tradition as shipowner, deploying the growing fleet in a joint venture with the "CGT", which later took over an important stake in the Horn-Linie. As a result of a long-standing cooperation in the shipping business, the American Del Monte Group also acquired part of the Horn-Linie in the early nineties.

Horn-Linie (GmbH & Co.) is fully owned by "Fresh Del Monte Produce Inc." Coral Gables, Florida. In 1997 the Horn-Linie was fully integrated into "Fresh Del Monte Produce Inc." http://www.freshdelmonte.com, Coral Gables, Florida.

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