Blohm + Voss

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. The company built aircraft through Hamburger Flugzeugbau before and during World War II.

History


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 Deutsche Marine 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 was 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". 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. 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.

Ships and submarines
Notable ships built by the company include:

Tall ships

 * Flying P-Liners, including Petschili (1903),  Pamir (1905),  Passat (1911),  Peking (1911)'',  Pola (1916) and  Priwall (1917)Priwall (barque)
 * Prinzess Eitel Friedrich (1909) (later Dar Pomorza)
 * The three-mast barques and school ships of the Gorch Fock class

Ocean liners and other passenger ships

 * RMS Majestic (1914), a White Star Line liner and the largest ship in the world until the completion of the SS Normandie in 1935
 * SS Cap Arcona, a Hamburg Süd liner sunk with great loss of life near the end of the Second World War
 * SS Europa (1928), a Norddeutsche Lloyd liner and Blue Riband winner
 * MV Explorer, used by the Semester at Sea university study abroad program
 * Norway, built as the transatlantic liner SS France (1961), refitted as a cruise ship
 * 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 and TS Windhuk, Deutsche Ost-Afrika Linie passenger cargo liners.
 * Prinzessin Victoria Luise, a Hamburg America Line ship, the first ship built exclusively for cruising
 * MV Wilhelm Gustloff, Kraft durch Freude (Strength Through Joy) cruise ship and the world's worst maritime disaster when she was sunk towards the end of Second World War

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.
 * GERMAN AVISO 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 ft long.

Warships of World War I

 * SMS Glyndwr, light seaplane carrier converted from a merchant ship
 * SMS Von der Tann, battlecruiser
 * SMS Goeben, battlecruiser
 * SMS Moltke, battlecruiser
 * SMS Scharnhorst, armoured cruiser
 * SMS Seydlitz and SMS Derfflinger, battlecruisers that were heavily damaged in the Battle of Jutland; both stayed afloat and brought their crews home.

Warships of World War II

 * GERMAN CRUISER Admiral Hipper, heavy cruiser
 * GERMAN BATTLESHIP Bismarck, battleship
 * Many Type VII, Type XVII, Type XXI and Type XXVI U-boats

Modern ships

 * Aradu, a MEKO 360H1 frigate for the Nigerian Navy
 * (MEKO 360H2) destroyers for the Argentine Navy
 * Rheinland-Pfalz, a
 * Brandenburg, the first
 * Sachsen, the first
 * NRP Vasco da Gama, a (MEKO 200PN) frigate for the Portuguese Navy
 * Z28-class patrol boats for the Argentine Coast Guard

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 40 glider interceptor
 * Blohm & Voss Ha 135 Two seat single engine sports biplane 1933
 * Blohm & Voss Ha 136 experimental single seat single engine low wing advanced trainer
 * 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 226, a long range radar homing glide bomb
 * Blohm & Voss BV 237, a single seat single engine asymmetric layout ground attack aircraft project development of the Bv 141
 * Blohm & Voss BV 238 flying-boat (prototype), the single largest Axis aircraft design of the war years to fly
 * Blohm & Voss BV 246 Hagelkorn (Hailstone), long-range radar-homing glide bomb
 * 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.