Blohm + Voss

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Blohm + Voss Schiffswerft und Maschinenfabrik 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".

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.

From about 1930 to 1945 Blohm & Voss also designed and built aircraft for use by both the German state airline, Lufthansa, and the air-force, Luftwaffe. Particularly noteworthy were the large flying boats the company produced, as well as ingenious approaches to aircraft building that often featured asymmetric designs. Although the aviation arm was originally known as Hamburger Flugzeugbau and their aircraft bore the designation "Ha", this quickly fell from use and newer designs received "BV" instead.

Until 1955 the company name was Blohm & Voss.

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.

Contents

[edit] Ships and submarines

Notable ships built by Blohm + Voss include:

Tall ships:

Ocean liners and other passenger ships:

Private yachts:

  • 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 long.
  • Enigma - a modern yacht

Warships of World War I:

Warships of World War II:

Modern warships:

[edit] Aircraft

From 1933 to 1945, Blohm & Voss also operated the Hamburger Flugzeugbau aircraft company. Although initialy 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:

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] Notes

  1. ^ 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.

[edit] External links

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