Blohm + Voss (also shown historically as Blohm & Voss and Blohm und Voss), is a German shipbuilding and engineering works. It is a subsidiary of ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems. ThyssenKrupp announced in December 2011 that it had agreed the sale of Blohm + Voss' civil shipbuilding division to British investment company STAR Capital Partners, pending regulatory approval.[1][2] The company also oversees maintenance and repair of large cruise ships such as RMS Queen Mary 2 and the MS Queen Victoria.[3]
The company built aircraft through Hamburger Flugzeugbau before and during World War II.
History
Blohm & Voss in 1877
It was founded on April 5, 1877, by Hermann Blohm and Ernst Voss as a general partnership. 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 shown with the ampersand.
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 German Navy and for export (see MEKO), as well as oil drilling equipment and ships for numerous commercial customers.
The company is, along with Howaldtswerke at Kiel and Nordseewerke at Emden, a subsidiary of ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems.
History during the Third Reich
With the rise of the Nazi Party to power in 1933, Germany's rearmament in violation of the Versailles Treaty had begun. This began a sudden change in fortune for the company, run then by brothers Rudolf and Walther Blohm, which was taken out of a deep crisis.
Until then specialising in shipbuilding, the company began to design and build aircraft for the German state airline, pre-war Deutsche Luft Hansa and the Luftwaffe. The aeronautical section of the company was named Hamburger Flugzeugbau, therefore the first planes it produced had the code "Ha", but in September 1937 the aviation subsidiary was renamed Abteilung Flugzeugbau der Schiffswerft Blohm & Voss, later replaced by "BV".[4] Particularly noteworthy were the large flying boats the company produced, especially the largest aircraft designed, built and flown by any of the Axis forces, the Bv 238, and its ingenious approaches to aircraft building that even featured asymmetric designs.
From July 1944 to April 1945 the company used inmates of its own concentration subcamp at its shipyard in Hamburg-Steinwerder, a subcamp of Neuengamme concentration camp.[5] 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.[6]
Ships and submarines
Notable ships built by the company include:
Tall ships
Ocean liners and other passenger ships
- Prinzessin Victoria Luise (1900), a Hamburg America Line ship, the first ship built exclusively for cruising
- RMS Majestic (1914), a White Star Line liner and the largest ship in the world until the completion of the Normandie in 1935
- SS Cap Arcona (1927), a Hamburg Süd liner sunk with great loss of life near the end of the Second World War
- SS Monte Cervantes (1927), a Hamburg Süd liner lost near Tierra del Fuego in 1930
- SS Europa (1928), a Norddeutscher Lloyd liner and Blue Riband winner
- MV Monte Rosa (1930), a passenger liner and cruise ship that would become better known as the troopship Empire Windrush
- SS Potsdam (1935), a Norddeutscher Lloyd turbo-electric liner that served as an Allied troopship and then the Pakistani pilgrim ship Safina-E-Hujjaj.
- TS Pretoria (1936) and TS Windhuk (1936), Deutsche Ost-Afrika Linie passenger cargo liners.
- MV Wilhelm Gustloff (1937), Kraft durch Freude (Strength Through Joy) cruise ship and the world's worst maritime disaster when she was sunk towards the end of the Second World War
- MV Explorer (2001), used by the Semester at Sea university study abroad program
Private yachts
- A – 394-foot owned by the Russian billionaire Andrey Melnichenko
- Dubai – owned by the ruler of the Emirate of Dubai and the Prime Minister of the United Arab Emirates, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum
- Eclipse – the second-largest private yacht, owned by Russian businessman Roman Abramovich.
- Enigma – a modern yacht.
- Grille – built as the German State yacht (1935), converted to minelayer at the beginning of World War II, later reconverted to State Yacht of the Third Reich, Hitler's official maritime conveyance.
- Lady Moura – the 19th-largest private yacht
- MV Savarona – built for an American heiress in 1931. Later the Turkish Presidential yacht and now a charter yacht. Still among the largest yachts, at 446 feet (136 m) long.
Warships of World War I
Warships of World War II
Modern warships
| Blohm + Voss Shipbuilding |
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| Blohm + Voss shipyard entrance |
| Blohm + Voss Dock 10 in Hamburg |
| The Cosco Brisbane at Blohm & Voss Shipyard, April 2005 |
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Aircraft
From 1933 to 1945, the company 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 Reichsluftfahrtministerium changed the company code to BV.
Aircraft and projects designed under the Ha and BV designations can be found at
List of Blohm + Voss Aircraft and projects
List of Major Internal Projects of the WW2 Era under the RLM:
- Blohm & Voss BV P.111 – a design similar to the 237, except that it was a flying boat with three engines.
- Blohm & Voss BV P.170 – a 1942 design with three engines on the forward wing with the cockpit in the aft.
- Blohm & Voss BV P.178 - experimental jet powered dive bomber project.
- Blohm & Voss P.194 - tactical bomber project
- Blohm & Voss P.208
- Blohm & Voss BV P.211, a prototype jet fighter for the Volksjäger Emergency Fighter Program design competition
- Blohm & Voss P.212
- Blohm & Voss P.213, a prototype pulsejet miniature fighter for the Volksjäger design competition of the Emergency Fighter Program
Although Hamburger Flugzeugbau re-emerged after the war and, under different names and ownerships, continues to build aircraft, it has no ties with Blohm & Voss.
See also
References
Notes
Bibliography
- Gunston, Bill. World Encyclopedia of Aircraft Manufacturers. Stroud, UK:Sutton Publishing, Second edition, 2005. ISBN 0-7509-3981-8.
- 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 0-904609-14-6.
- Witthöft, Hans J. Tradition und Fortschritt - 125 Jahre Blohm + Voss (in German). Koehlers Verlag, 2002. ISBN 3-7822-0847-1.
- Wixey, Ken. Flugboots from Hamburg: An outline history of Blohm und Voss flying-boats Air Enthusiast No.82 July/August 1999 pp42–48
- Aviso Grille - Hitler's War Yacht - Revel Barker
External links
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