Blohm + Voss
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| Type | Private |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1877 |
| Founder(s) | Hermann Blohm and Ernst Voss |
| Headquarters |  Hamburg, Germany |
| Industry | Shipbuilding |
| Owner(s) | ThyssenKrupp |
| Parent | ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems |
| Website | www.blohmvoss.com |
Blohm und Voss is a German shipbuilding and engineering works. It was founded on April 5, 1877, by Hermann Blohm and Ernst Voss as a general partnership named Blohm & Voss. A shipyard was built on the island of Kuhwerder, near the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg, covering 15,000 m² with 250 m of water frontage and three building berths, two suitable for ships of up to 100 metres length. The company's logo is a simple dark blue rectangle with rounded corners bearing the white letters "Blohm+Voss". Until 1955 the company name was Blohm & Voss.
The company has continued to build ships and other large machines for 125 years. Despite being almost completely demolished after the end of World War II, it now builds warships both for the Deutsche Marine and for export (see MEKO), as well as oil drilling equipment and ships for numerous commercial customers.
The company's name is often found spelled Blohm + Voß in German (and occasionally English) sources.[1] Today Blohm + Voss is (along with Howaldtswerke at Kiel and Nordseewerke at Emden) a subsidiary of ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems.
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[edit] History of the company during the Third Reich
With the rise of the Nazi Party to power in 1933 began Germany's rearmament in violation of the Versailles Treaty. This began a sudden change in fortune for the company, run then by brothers Rudolf and Walther Blohm, who was taken out of a deep crisis. Blohm & Voss, which had until then specialized in shipbuilding, also began to design and build aircraft for use by both the German state airline, Lufthansa, and the air-force, Luftwaffe. The aeronautical section of the company was named Hamburger Flugzeugbau [1], therefore the first planes it produced had the code "Ha", which was later replaced by "BV".[2] Particularly noteworthy were the large flying boats the company produced, as well as ingenious approaches to aircraft building that even featured asymmetric designs.
From July 1944 to April 1945 Blohm & Voss used inmates of its own Nazi concentration subcamp at its shipyard in Hamburg-Steinwerder. The camp was a subcamp to the Neuengamme concentration camp.[3] Now a memorial stands in the former site of the camp and the company keeps paying an undisclosed amount to the Fund for Compensation of Forced Laborers.[4]
[edit] Ships and submarines
Notable ships built by Blohm + Voss include:
- Petschili (1903), Pamir (1905), Passat (1911), Peking (1911), Pola (1916), Priwall (1917), and other Flying P-Liners
- The three-mast barques and school ships of the Gorch Fock class
Ocean liners and other passenger ships:
- SS Europa
- SS Cap Arcona sunk with great loss of life near the end of World War II
- Wilhelm Gustloff, currently the world's worst maritime disaster when she was sunk near the end of WWII
- M/V Explorer, the ship currently used by the Semester at Sea university study abroad program
- Prinzessin Victoria Luise first vessel built, for Hamburg-America Line, exclusively for cruising
Private yachts:
- Grille - built to be the official German State yacht (1935), converted to minelayer at the beginning of WW2, later reconverted to State Yacht of the 3rd Reich, Hitler's official maritime conveyance.
- Savarona - built for an American heiress in 1931. Later the Turkish Presidential yacht and now a charter yacht. Still among the largest few yachts in the world at 446 feet (136 m) long.
- Dubai - owned by the ruler of the Emirate of Dubai and the Prime Minister of the United Arab Emirates, His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum.
- Enigma - a modern yacht.
- Lady Moura - the 19th largest private yacht .
Warships of World War I:
- SMS Glyndwr, light seaplane carrier converted from a merchant
- SMS Scharnhorst, an armoured cruiser
- SMS Seydlitz and SMS Derfflinger, two battlecruisers that both got heavily damaged in the Battle of Jutland, but stayed afloat and brought their sailors home
Warships of World War II:
- Admiral Hipper, a heavy cruiser
- Bismarck, a battleship
- many Type VII, Type XVII, Type XXI and Type XXVI U-boats
Modern warships:
- F209 Rheinland-Pfalz, a Bremen class frigate
- F215 Brandenburg, the first Brandenburg class frigate
- F219 Sachsen, the first Sachsen class frigate
- 4 Almirante Brown class destroyer MEKO 360 for Argentine Navy
- Aradu (F89) MEKO 360 class destroyer for Nigerian Navy
- Vasco da Gama (F330) MEKO 200 PN frigate for Portuguese Navy
[edit] Aircraft
From 1933 to 1945, Blohm & Voss also operated the Hamburger Flugzeugbau aircraft company. Although initially given the factory code Ha (for the factory's official name), the link with Blohm & Voss shipyards proved too strong and therefore the early aircraft designs were called "Blohm & Voss, type Ha..." followed by the design number. To end this confusion, in 1938 the Reichsluftfartministerium gave in to the unavoidable and changed the company code to BV.
Aircraft designed under the Ha and BV designations include:
- Blohm & Voss BV 40, glider interceptor
- Blohm & Voss Ha 137, prototype dive bomber
- Blohm & Voss BV 138, military patrol flying-boat (early versions designated as Ha 138)
- Blohm & Voss Ha 139, long-range seaplane
- Blohm & Voss Ha 140, torpedo bomber seaplane (prototype)
- Blohm & Voss BV 141, reconnaissance (asymmetric)
- Blohm & Voss BV 142, reconnaissance + transport
- Blohm & Voss BV 143, glide bomb (prototype)
- Blohm & Voss BV 144, transport
- Blohm & Voss BV 155, high-altitude interceptor (formerly Me 155)
- Blohm & Voss BV 222 Wiking (Viking), transport flying-boat
- Blohm & Voss BV 238, flying-boat (prototype)
- Blohm & Voss BV 246 Hagelkorn (Hailstone), long-range radar-homing glide bomb
Although Hamburger Flugzeugbau re-emerged after the war and, under different names and ownerships, continued to build aircraft until the present day, this company has no more ties to the Blohm & Voss shipyards.
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[edit] References
[edit] Notes
- ^ See ß for an explanation of the use of this letter and changes in German spelling that have taken place over the last century with regard to its use.
- ^ [http://www.nadir.org/nadir/initiativ/ikrg/buch/b_v/kap202.htm B+V Geschichte v. 1933-1938 - Die Rüstungskonjunktur ab 1933]
- ^ The camp Blohm & Voss is listed as No. 550 Hamburg in the official German list (List in German)
- ^ Herbert Diercks, Der Hamburger Hafen im Nationalsozialismus, 2008
[edit] Bibliography
- Meyhoff, Andreas. Blohm & Voss im »Dritten Reich«, Eine Hamburger Großwerft zwischen Geschäft und Politik (Hamburger Beiträge zur Sozial- und Zeitgeschichte, Band 38) (in German). Hamburg, Germany: Forschungsstelle für Zeitgeschichte in Hamburg, 2001. ISBN 3-89244-916-3.
- Pohlmann, Herrmann. 'Chronik Eines Flugzeugwerkes 1932-1945. B&V - Blohm & Voss Hamburg - HFB Hamburger Flugzeugbau (in German). Motor Buch Verlag, 1979 ISBN 3-87943-624-X.
- Prager, Hans Georg and Bishop, Frederick A.(Transl.). Blohm + Voss: Ships and Machinery for the World. London: Brassey's Publishers Limited, 1977. ISBN 0-90460-914-6.
- Witthöft, Hans J. Tradition und Fortschritt - 125 Jahre Blohm + Voss (in German). Koehlers Verlag, 2002. ISBN 3-78220-847-1.
- Aviso Grille - Hitler's War Yacht - Revel Barker
[edit] External links
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