Shipyards in Dresden
The first iron shipyards in Dresden emerged with Saxony's industrialization in the 19th century and the freedom of trade introduced in Saxony in 1861. Until 1945 the shipyards in Dresden went through an eventful development.
Dresden Actien Mechanical Engineering Association (1836)
The Elbdampfschiffahrts-Gesellschaft , founded in 1836 , awarded the Dresden Actien-Maschinenbau-Verein an order to build three paddle steamers in 1836. The company had been given the privilege of transporting goods and people on the Elbe section in the Kingdom of Saxony for five years. She started the business in 1837 with Queen Maria . In 1838 the Dresden Actien-Maschinenbau-Verein delivered the Prinz Albert and the Dresden . The hulls of Queen Maria and Prince Albert were built on the banks of the Elbe in Johannstadt and equipped with machines and boilers in the Übigau mechanical engineering institute . In 1851 the Royal Privilege Saxon Steamship Company took over the Bohemian competition including ships and from 1867 on was called the Saxon-Bohemian Steamship Company (SBDG).
Shipyards of the Saxon-Bohemian Steamship Company (SBDG)
Shipyard in Blasewitz (1855–1898)
A shipyard was planned and built for the maintenance and repair of the company's own ships, so that the company's own ships could be repaired and converted independently. In 1855, the company in Blasewitz acquired a town estate with suitable areas for a repair yard. On the site, a slipway and, by today's standards, a simple ship's elevator system made up of beams that are fixed in the ground and lead into the water (known as sledge timbers) with hand winches were built in order to later build new ships and jetties . Boilers and machines should only be repaired and not designed or built. Soon there were some storage sheds, but the work was initially only carried out in the open air. About 35 workers and employees were employed. In 1863 the first simple building was erected as a workshop for the various trades. A boiler and a steam engine were added from 1864 .
From 1857 they began to build new paddle steamers. The first three came from other companies due to the lack of infrastructure and were only assembled in Blasewitz. The following steamers were largely built at the now expanded shipyard. Since the village of Blasewitz had developed into a villa suburb of Dresden at the end of the 18th century, complaints about noise and soot increased. With the construction of the Elbe Bridge, known as the Blue Wonder , from 1891 it became clear that the directly adjacent shipyard had to move. Up until 1898, in addition to the many repairs that were also carried out on behalf of third parties, four ferry steamers and 44 passenger steamers that were up to 61 meters long were built according to our own designs. Seven of the passenger steamers built here are still in service today. In 1879 the passenger paddle steamer Dresden was built as construction no. 15 built at the Blasewitz shipyard. Today it sails as the city of Wehlen on the Upper Elbe and is the oldest paddle steamer in the Saxon steamship industry. In 1895 the company found a suitable plot of land with 36,000 m² in Laubegast and left the Blasewitz site.
Shipyard in Laubegast (from 1897/98)
After lengthy disputes regarding the approval of the shipyard and the various shipyard buildings with the municipal council in Laubegast, the shipyard was able to start work in 1898, mainly for the care and maintenance of its own ship fleet. The slipway, known as the ship's elevator, was not continuous, but had to be interrupted on the banks of the Elbe for the existing paved towpath with a width of 3.4 m. One of the conditions was that the wooden sledges in the elevator position could only be laid out during the day during the lifting operations. Since at that time the sleds on which the ships were hoisted over earth winds with around 70 workers in manual operation did not yet have wheels (slip), it took one to two days until the ship was up. From 1898 a steam engine was purchased to generate power and energy, also to be able to operate an electrical lighting system.
The shipyard's first new build was the upper deck steamer Auguste Victoria , which was delivered in 1899. Another four new buildings were built by 1914. The focus, however, has always been on conversions, repairs and maintenance work on around 20 paddle steamers and cargo steamers of the Saxon-Bohemian Steamship Company (SBDG). A total of around 35 ships had to be looked after.
The company merged in 1923 on January 1, 1922 with the Neue Deutsch-Böhmische Elbeschiffahrt Aktiengesellschaft (NDBG) founded in 1907 , which was primarily active in the freight and towing business. On March 21, 1923, the (New) Sächsisch-Böhmische-Dampfschiffahrts-Gesellschaft (SDBA) was re-established with half of the participation of the NDBG. As part of this merger, the shipyard, which now had to look after two fleets, was restructured, staffed and renamed the shipyard and machine factory Dresden-Laubegast . In 1927 a slipway with rails was built on which the ship's wagon could be moved with little resistance. The winches are electrically driven and the entire system was developed by the WUMAG Department shipyard Übigau delivered. There were few orders in the period of inflation . The company tried to bridge this time by building agricultural machines.
After the Übigau shipyard went bankrupt in 1930, the Laubegast shipyard was temporarily the only efficient shipyard on the Upper Elbe. In 1929 the shipyard in Laubegast built the Leipzig as the last paddle steamer. She was put into service as a concert and luxury steamer. From 1943 to 1945 the Leipzig was used as a hospital ship. It is the youngest and at the same time the largest side paddle steamer operated by the Saxon Steamship Company. In 1936/37 a mobile gantry crane was built on the slipway, which meant that the mainly manual material transports in this area could be carried out more efficiently and quickly. From 1937 the shipyard was busy again with new constructions and during the war two motor tankers, pioneer boats in series and pressure hulls for submarines were built.
Schlicks shipyard in Dresden Neustadt (1863–1905)
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Following his early technical talents, Otto Schlick became a shipbuilding engineer and studied from 1858 at the Technical College in Dresden, the forerunner of the Technical University of Dresden. In 1863 he founded a shipyard in Dresden, which specialized in the construction of river boats. In 1864 he submitted an application to expand his shipbuilding business license to include mechanical engineering. After the construction of a slipway, a three-aisled shed was built as a shipbuilding workshop in 1865 and a mechanical engineering workshop and a small civil servants' residence in 1868. In 1869 Schlick stopped working at the shipyard and moved to Budapest, the management was transferred to Mr Kellner. From 1878 the management passed to Otto Libertz, who was previously chief engineer at Norddeutsche Schiffbau-Aktiengesellschaft . Schlick was now working here as the technical director.
In 1872 Schlick's shipyard was converted into the Saxon Steamship and Mechanical Engineering Company and in 1884 it became the property of the Austrian Northwest Steamship Company (ÖNWDG) , which was headed by Libbertz in Dresden. As a result, a three-storey administration building and a new machine building hall were built. The shipyard was expanded considerably in 1887 and new workshops, a riveting hall, a welding shop and storage sheds were built. The forge was converted into a boiler shop and the old joinery and shipbuilding workshop were replaced by new buildings. On the Elbe side, the Neustädter Hafen was built on the shipyard site . Due to speculative transactions by the general manager on behalf of the company, losses of millions were incurred. Therefore, the general meeting of shareholders decided to transfer the steam ship and mechanical engineering company to a newly founded AG under German law with its seat in Dresden.
This was founded in 1899 as Dresdener Maschinenfabrik & Schiffswerft AG Dresden-Neustadt . The property had become too small in the meantime and so from 1905 the area of the Übigau shipyard and factory was leased and bought in 1906. The two shipyards and machine factories were merged and in 1905 the company moved to Übigau. This ended the shipbuilding activity on the site in Leipziger Strasse acquired by Schlick.
Shipyard in Übigau (1873 / 78–1930)
The "Freight Shipping Company in Dresden" (FSG) founded in 1871 set up a shipyard in Übigau in 1873, where repairs were carried out for the shipping company. When the " Kettenschleppschiffahrt der Oberelbe " (KSO ), founded by engineer Ewald Bellingrath (1838–1903) in 1869, took over the FSG in 1877/78, their ships and the repair yard, which employs 40 workers, also became the property of the KSO.
Bellingrath had the workshops of the shipyard equipped with the tools, facilities and buildings required for iron ship, boiler and mechanical engineering, and had his own iron and metal foundry built. A new steam center with three boilers was used for energy supply. In addition to repairs, the construction of the new ship now played an important role. In order to be able to take ships on land and launch them into the water, a slipway with a load capacity of around 500 tons was built. As the successor to the KSO, the "Chain - Deutsche Elbschiffahrts-Gesellschaft" , founded in 1881 and briefly referred to as the "chain", took over all ships and the shipyard. Initially the shipyard built barges mainly for the "chain", from 1881 with Queen Carola also wheeled tugs.
Due to the close cooperation between the Übigau shipyard and the Technical University (TH) Dresden , Germany's first shipbuilding research institute was built on the shipyard site in 1892 and, under the direction of Bellingrath and the shipyard director Berthold Masing , who acted from 1890 to 1906, was used for valuable practical tests of improved ship shapes. Around 1896 the Prussian government tried in vain to take over the innovative research institute in order to expand it into a suitable hydrological institute.
In 1905/06 the Übigau shipyard and the shipyard originally founded by Schlick, which had previously operated as Dresdner Maschinenfabrik & Schiffswerft AG Dresden-Neustadt and had space problems, merged their operations in Übigau. They were now called "Dresdner Maschinenfabrik & Schiffswerft Übigau AG". After the merger with the new foundry, conversions and modernization of other workshops, a very efficient river shipyard was created, which also designed and built land dredgers, steam engines for onshore power generation and machines for seagoing ships. Activities in the Danube region led to the establishment of a branch in Deggendorf in 1912 , for which machines and boilers were supplied. Sometimes a kind of section production was operated in Übigau, which built complete ships in individual parts that were only put together and riveted after shipping in Regensburg.
After the First World War , the shipyard was given many orders to compensate for war losses and to meet reparation obligations. The ensuing inflation caused major problems at the shipyard and, by a resolution of the general meeting in 1923, led to the takeover by Waggon- und Maschinenbau Görlitz (WUMAG), which was established in 1849 and then renamed Waggon- und Maschinenbau AG Görlitz, Shipyard Übigau . In 1927 the company was spun off into an independent stock corporation called Übigau AG, shipyard, machine and boiler factory . That affected the plant in Übigau and Deggendorf. The shares were largely taken over by WUMAG. The order situation remained difficult and the delivery program was expanded to include excavators for open-cast mining. The economic crisis led to bankruptcy in 1930 and soon after to the closure of the shipyard, and the bankruptcy proceedings with WUMAG as the main creditor dragged on until 1936.
In 1931 the remains of Übigau AG became the company Übigau for excavator construction, mechanical engineering and shipbuilding mbH . During this time, some bucket and suction excavators were built. In 1935 the shipyard was resumed as Übigau-Werft GmbH on a modest scale in the repair and new construction area. Bucket and suction dredgers were delivered to hydraulic engineering companies as new constructions. In addition, tugs were built with sophisticated high-pressure steam systems for propulsion. In 1935, an arc welding company founded in 1919 by two AG Weser engineers moved to the shipyard site that had been cannibalized by the bankruptcy administrator, took over the mechanical engineering hall and operated as the Übigau steam boiler factory . Boilers were repaired and rebuilt with around 400 employees. In 1944 a large new hall was built, here the company participated with 32 others in the section construction of the submarines of the type XXI , which were finally assembled in Hamburg, Bremen and Danzig.
literature
- Bertram Kurz, Helmut Düntzsch: Shipyards in Dresden . 2nd Edition. Sax-Verlag, Beucha 2006, ISBN 3-934544-62-2 .
- Horst Oebius: An outline of the history of the research institute for hydraulic engineering and shipbuilding, Berlin between 1884 and 1945, in: BAW Karlsruhe, Mitteilungsblatt No. 78, 1998, self-published.
- Günter Dame, Dietrich Strobel: Shipbuilding between Elbe and Oder . 1st edition. Koehlercha, 1993, ISBN 3-934544-62-2 .
- Eike Lehmann: Shipbuilding Research in Germany Yesterday and Today, 2003 Hamburg, Seehafen Verlag, ISBN 3-87743-804-0
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Author collective (2004), p. 21.
- ↑ Author collective (2004), p. 32.
- ↑ Author collective (2004), p. 36.
- ↑ Author collective (2004), p. 43.
- ↑ Lars U. Scholl: When the witches towed ships . 1st edition. Ernst Kabel Verlag, 1985, ISBN 3-8225-0006-2 , p. 41 .
- ^ Eike Lehmann: Shipbuilding research in Germany . 1st edition. Koehler, 1993, ISBN 3-87743-804-0 , p. 15 .
- ^ Günter Dame, Dietrich Strobel: Shipbuilding between Elbe and Oder . 1st edition. Koehlercha, 1993, ISBN 3-934544-62-2 , p. 199 .
- ↑ Author collective (2004), p. 77.
- ↑ Author collective (2004), p. 79.