Немецкая судостроительная и локомотивостроительная компания "Вулкан Штетин"

German shipbuilding and locomotive building company

Aktien Gesellschaft Vulcan Stettin (short AG Vulcan Stettin) was a German shipbuilding and locomotive building company. Founded in 1851, it was located near the former eastern German city of Stettin, today Polish Szczecin. Because of the limited facilities in Stettin, in 1907 an additional yard was built in Hamburg. The now named Vulcan Werke Hamburg und Stettin Actiengesellschaft constructed some of the most famous civilian German ships and it played a significant role in both World Wars, building warships for the Kaiserliche Marine and the Kriegsmarine later. Both yards became members of the Deschimag in the 1920s. The Stettin shipyard was closed in 1928, opened again in 1939. During World War II it exploited slave workers, and after the war, was taken over by the Polish government, while the Hamburg yard was sold to Howaldtswerke AG in 1930 and the Locomotive Department was sold to Borsig (company) [DE] in Berlin

A. G. Vulcan Stettin was founded 1851 as Schiffswerft und Maschinenfabrik Früchtenicht & Brock by the two young engineers Franz F. D. Früchtenicht and Franz W. Brock in the little village Bredow, which later became suburb of the eastern German city of Stettin. Its first ship was the small iron paddle steamer, named Die Dievenow for the service between the cities of Stettin and Swinemünde. Several small vessels followed, while the yard continuously was enlarged. When the yard went into financial problems, in 1857 the company was taken over by some entrepreneurs and politicians from Stettin and Berlin which founded the new company Stettiner Maschinenbau Actien Gesellschaft Vulcan. Ship construction was continued, but the solution of the financial trouble was expected by additionally constructing locomotives. A subsidiary company was founded, called Abteilung Locomotivbau in Bredow bei Stettin. In 1859 the first locomotive was delivered; all together the company built about 4,000 units in Stettin until it was sold to the Berlin company Borsig. In the future larger and larger ships were built, the facilities in Stettin could no longer sustain the scale of the operations. The yard built the s.

Thus a new shipyard was built in Hamburg between 1907 and 1909. From 1911, it was named Vulcan Werke Hamburg und Stettin Actiengesellschaft. The Hamburg yard was the scene of a week long strike in 1918 which was only brought to a close through the reading of the War Clauses.

Gustav Bauer, director of the marine engine section, supervised the work of Hermann Föttinger on the Fottinger hydraulic transmitter known as Vulcan Coupling and Vulcan Drive or fluid coupling. In 1924, Vulcan's Hermann Rieseler invented one of the first automatic transmissions, which had a two speed planetary gearbox, torque converter, and lockup clutch; it never entered production. (The less sophisticated Hydra Matic, which used a simple fluid coupling, was an available option on Oldsmobiles in 1940.)

In 1928 Vulcan Stettin went bankrupt and sold its Hamburg shipyard in 1930. The AG Vulcan Stettin had been closed.

Type VII C U boats (1941), out of six commissioned, only one, U 901 was launched in was ever in service.