Blohm+Voss: История немецкого судостроения и машиностроения

German shipbuilding and engineering company

Blohm+Voss (B+V), also written historically as Blohm & Voss, Blohm und Voß etc., is a German shipbuilding and engineering company. Founded in Hamburg in 1877 to specialise in steel hulled ships, its most famous product was the World War II battleship Bismarck. In the 1930s, its owners established the Hamburger Flugzeugbau aircraft manufacturer which, shortly before the outbreak of World War II, adopted the name of its parent company. Following a difficult period after the war, B+V was revived, changing ownership among several owners, as Thyssen Group and Star Capital. In 2016, it became a subsidiary of Lürssen and continues to supply both the military and civilian markets. It serves two areas – new construction of warships as NVL B. V. & Co. KG, and new construction and refitting of megayachts. The company has been in operation, building ships and other large machinery, almost continuously for years.

Blohm & Voss was founded on 5 April 1877 by Hermann Blohm and Ernst Voss (or Voß) as a general partnership, to build steel hulled ships. It established a shipyard on the island of Kuhwerder, near the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg, covering with of water frontage and three building berths, two suitable for ships of up to length. The company name was shown with the ampersand, as B&V, until 1955. Shipbuilding was at that time dominated by the British, with even German customers preferring to buy from them. Initial business was confined to ship repairs, although B&V managed to build and later sell the three masted barque National. Eventually the first new build order arrived for the small cargo paddle steamer Burg, and the business took off. By 1882, the company had gained a reputation for quality and punctuality and was prospering. Initially, their products were steel hulled sailing ships designed for long sea voyages. At that time steamships had a relatively short range, while many of the advantages of steel construction still applied to sailing ships as much as to steam. The company built its first steamship in 1900, while still continuing to build sailing ships until the late 1930s.

When Hermann Blohm died, his two sons de and de took over. Ernst Voss left soon afterwards. By this time the company was in financial crisis, so the Blohm brothers diversified into aircraft, setting up the Hamburger Flugzeugbau (see below) in the summer of 1933. With the rise of the Nazi Party to power in 1933, Germany began to rearm and both companies became increasingly involved in the programme. The shipyard built both civilian craft and warships for the government, including the battleship German battleship Bismarck, before manufacturing U boats in quantity. In 1944 a subcamp of Neuengamme concentration camp was set up at the company's shipyard in Hamburg Steinwerder. It supplied labour to the company from July 1944 to April 1945. A report dated 29 August states:
blockquote|500 foreign female concentration camp prisoners, political, and criminal. Adjacent barracks camp, 11 guards, 17,000 m barbed wire, 380 Volts, tripwire. . The German foremen should be replaced by prisoners because the inmate overseers take a tougher line. Work performance is highly satisfactory. Productivity is higher than with the same number of German workers because work hours are longer and absenteeism is lower. . The gentlemen are of the opinion that the conditions sound harsher than they actually are. A memorial stands on the site of the camp and the company continues to pay an undisclosed amount to the Fund for Compensation of Forced Laborers. Steinwerder was badly damaged during the bombing of Hamburg in World War II and at the end of it, shipbuilding was forbidden.

In 1933 Blohm & Voss was suffering a financial crisis from lack of work. Its owners, brothers Rudolf and Walther Blohm, decided to diversify into aircraft manufacture, believing that there would soon be a market for all metal, long range flying boats, especially with the German state airline Deutsche Luft Hansa. They also felt that their experience with all metal marine construction would prove an advantage. They formed the Hamburger Flugzeugbau that summer. Its most significant designs were flying boats, mainly used by the Luftwaffe for maritime patrol and reconnaissance. Most numerous was the BV 138 Seedrache (initiated as the Ha 138), a twin boom trimotor, while the BV 222 Wiking was much larger. Largest of all was the BV 238 prototype, the largest aircraft built by any of the Axis forces. Other notable types include the asymmetric BV 141, which was built in moderate numbers but did not enter production. At the end of the war, aircraft production was shut down. Hamburger Flugzeugbau GmBH (HFB) re emerged in 1956, still under the ownership of Walther Blohm but no longer connected to B+V. It reopened the former B+V aircraft factory at Finkenwerder and subsequently underwent various further changes of ownership and company name, eventually becoming part of Airbus.

After the Second World War, the British continued to demolish the shipyards of Steinwerder. B&V, unable to restart shipbuilding work, all but ceased to exist for several years. In 1950, B&V created a new subsidiary company, Steinwerder Industrie AG, to manufacture machinery and boilers on the site. Its shipyard fortunes began to revive in 1952 when the new company was allowed to restart ship repair work and the City of Hamburg subsequently guaranteed it credit. By 1953 some 900 workers were back in employment. Even so, B&V would never regain its former size. In 1966 it took over neighbouring shipbuilder H. C. Stülcken Sohn. During the postwar years, B+V built oil rigs and developed a market for other offshore products such as support ships and pipelines. The company has also built ships for numerous commercial customers, including luxury yachts. Eclipse, built for Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich, is in length making it the second longest private yacht in the world. B+V still administers the Elbe 17 dry dock at Hamburg. The semi submersible drilling rig "Chris Chenery" was constructed in 1974 for The Offshore Co. of Houston, USA. When Thyssen AG and Krupp merged in 1999, B+V became a subsidiary of ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems. In December 2001, Blohm+Voss, Nordseewerke and Friedrich Lurssen Werft were awarded the contract to build the first five K130 fregatte MEKO. The first of them, Braunschweig, was built at Blohm+Voss, launched in April 2006 and commissioned in April 2008. Several problems with the equipment fit delayed commissioning, and the last was commissioned in 2013. In 2011 ThyssenKrupp agreed the sale of the Blohm+Voss civil shipbuilding division to British investment company STAR Capital Partners. The military division remained with ThyssenKrupp. In October 2016, regulatory approval was given for Lürssen to acquire Blohm+Voss from STAR Capital Partners. In April 2017 the company dismissed 300 employees from which were 1000. In September 2017, the German Navy commissioned the construction of five K130 corvettes by a consortium of North German shipyards including ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems, Blohm+Voss, and the German Naval Yards in Kiel. The Lürssen Group, which would be the main contractor in the production of the vessels, distributed its work between the two sites at Wolgast and B+V Hamburg to build only two, the F265 in 2021 and F266 in 2022. The contract was worth around 2 billion euros. On 25 July 2019, Peter Lürßen invested €20 million in Yard. The Dock 10 was covered with a 200 m long and 50 m high roof by a cost of €13 million. The mount of Steel Pillar above Dock's Walls started in October 2020. On 29 April 2021 the Yacht construction hull Project Opera, also called Coral Ocean, was transferred from Dock 17 to Dock 10 and both were tug to Berne, Germany to stay at least 2 years. The previous 146 m Project Sassi, which burned, remained only the engine section block, was part of the new Yacht Project Opera. Lürßen Dock 3 was transferred to Wilhelmshaven at Jade Yard. In Berne a Hall was extended. Mein Schiff 3 dock then in Dock 17, following by Aidacara and Aidamar, lasts cruise ships visiting the dock.

According to Hamburger Morgen Post Newspaper Interview and Meeting on 30 September 2021 and repeated at Hamburger Abendblatt, Peter Lürßen (61) personally presented himself to the workforce with news, saying Lürssen wouldn't make refit to cruise ships, except the Hapag Lloyd and P&O ones, an also company of Hamburg, and merchant ships like tankers and container ships in Hamburg anymore. The new building department was dissolved. All six floating docks were in review. The repair division was not a success. Despite the around 20 million euros invested in modern shipyard technology, the subletting of many halls and the shrinkage to only around a third of the used shipyard area, the costs were still too high and is not yet fit for the future. The location is too expensive compared to other shipyards, so structural measures and cost adjustments were necessary. The Business were split in two, construction of naval ships like Corvette in one called NVL and mega yachts as Lürßen itself.

Blohm & Voss was established in the days of sail and, although it built ships with steel hulls from the very first, it did not produce a significant steamship until 1900. Of the many hundreds of ships built by B+V, notable examples include: