In late she was very briefly renamed TS Hanseatic. Several variants of the ship's name were used through her career. In order to finance this, a new company German Atlantic Line was founded and shares of the new company were offered to past Hamburg Atlantic Line passengers.
The unusual scheme was successful, and an order was placed for the new ship at Deutsche Werft , Hamburg in November The new ship, eventually named Hamburg was originally planned to operate both as an ocean liner and as a cruise ship , similarly to Queen Elizabeth 2 , under construction at the time.
However, by the time Hamburg was delivered in March , German Atlantic Line, as the whole company was known by then, had abandoned liner service and Hamburg was used for full-time cruising. The first Hanseatic had burnt in September , and instead of replacing her Hamburg now entered service alongside the second Hanseatic that had been purchased from Zim Lines in The ship's interiors were modernized , however most public spaces were in the same configuration as they were when the ship was built until the end of her career.
The operations of the German Atlantic Line were badly hit by the oil crises in Her career under the new name proved short however, as already on 1 December German Atlantic Line ceased operations, the newest Hanseatic was laid up in Hamburg and placed for sale. On December 28, a grenade was thrown onto the deck injuring two crew members. Anti-Castro Cuban exiles claimed responsibility. No one was injured and she continued the cruise to Saint Thomas and New York before being dry docked for repairs.
An incident of a different nature took place while the ship was inbound to New York on 18 September , when the port authorities declined the ship's right to make port due to the Soviet Union's involvement in Afghanistan at the time.
