Frerichswerft

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Frerichswerft
legal form GmbH
founding 1905
resolution 1935
Seat Einswarden, Germany
Branch Shipbuilding

View from the Weser to the Frerichswerft in Einswarden

The J. Frerichs & Co shipyard  - or Frerichswerft for short - was a German shipyard in Einswarden on the Lower Weser from 1905 to 1935 . Then aircraft were assembled there by Deschimag under the name Weser-Flugzeugbau GmbH until 1945; today the site is part of the EADS Group, Premium AEROTEC .

Company history

Foundation of the machine factory in Flethe (1840)

The company J. Frerichs & Co was in 1840 by the Bremen dyeing merchant Jacob Frerichs and English engineers Henry Taylor and William Waller as a machine factory, an iron foundry and Boilermakers in Flethe founded / Rönnebeck at the Unterweser. The English experts brought the necessary specialist knowledge for the construction of steam engines into the company. At the beginning, a large part of the approximately 60 workers came from England, and some of the necessary resources and raw materials also came from there.

Relocation to Osterholz

In 1865 the company moved from Rönnebeck to Osterholz near Bremen, the old site was given up. The settlement of the new company was of great importance for the former places Osterholz and Scharmbeck and their surroundings, it became an important economic factor in the region. Many citizens found employment there as locksmiths, blacksmiths, molders, iron foundries or model makers.

Since there were no male heirs to continue the company, the company was converted into the J. Frerichs & Co. AG joint-stock company in 1900 .

Shipyard in Einswarden (1905)

In order to be able to enter shipbuilding more intensively, the company expanded considerably. After an agreement had been reached with the Grand Duchy of Oldenburg, in 1905 a site in Einswarden - today part of Nordenham - on the Oldenburg side of the Lower Weser was acquired to build a shipyard for the construction of seagoing ships. The acquired land was about 17  hectares . From 1912 onwards, the company traded under the name Schiffswerft J. Frerichs & Co. and in 1914 the company management also moved from Osterholz to Einswarden. I.a. were tankers and during World War minesweepers built. Before the war and after 1920, new buildings for the Hamburg-Bremen Africa Line were also built here .

Construction of diesel engines (1910)

The Osterholz company started building diesel engines for ship propulsion early on. So from 1911 tail-wheel motor boats were delivered. Better known were the Werra and Wotan , fishing boats with motor drives. The Wotan was a motor logger with 100 HP drive power, which received international attention from experts at the 1912 fishing exhibition in Copenhagen. It was built on its own account and later taken over by Visurgis Heringsfischerei AG Nordenham. In the meantime, Hugo Junkers had given them the license to build their diesel engines so that they could also build more powerful drive engines. Such a drive system with two diesel engines of 1,100 hp each according to the Junkers patent (DRP no. 220 124) was installed in the Arthur motor tanker by Gwinner . They were engines operated according to the diesel process with two working pistons rotating in opposite directions in a cylinder.

Takeover of the Braker Thyen shipyard (1917)

Emergency money from the Frerichswerft from 1921

A further expansion of the shipyard activities took place in 1917 when, after the death of the last owner, the Braker shipyard G. H. Thyen and the dry dock facility were acquired. Under the name Frerichsdock, Brake , repair work on ships was later carried out here. Up until the First World War, the company mainly built tug steamers, rear-wheel steamers for export to South America, freight steamers and the associated steam engines and steam boilers or marine diesel engines, but also components for general mechanical engineering and even complete manufacturing plants. Armaments were produced in the Osterholz plant during the war and repairs were carried out on ships and locomotives in the early post-war years.

In 1926 the company was split into two independent stock corporations, with the shipyard in Einswarden being renamed Frerichswerft AG while the Osterholz company was continued as J. Frerichs & Co. AG Osterholz Scharmbeck . In 1927 the iron foundry in Einswarden burned down and was not rebuilt due to financial difficulties.

Incorporation into Deschimag (1930)

The Osterholz company also ran into financial problems despite the satisfactory order situation. In 1930, with the consent of the shareholders, the company was merged with the newly founded Deutsche Schiff- und Maschinenbau Aktiengesellschaft (Deschimag), but operations in Osterholz had to be closed a year later in July 1931 due to high debt. As the main creditor, the city of Osterholz-Scharmbeck acquired the property with the factory buildings. Shipbuilding in Einswarden was given up in 1935. With the help of Deschimag, the liquidation of the company was averted by satisfying the creditors.

Both the premises and part of the workforce were to be retained for the planned aircraft construction. In 1934 Deschimag started manufacturing aircraft. Airplanes were assembled in the Einswarden company until 1945 under the name Weser-Flugzeugbau GmbH . After the war, the company was changed to Finanz und Verwaltungsgesellschaft Weser GmbH , because aircraft construction was prohibited and the production plant was idle. In 1945 the Deschimag company was dissolved.

Current condition

With the beginning of the Korean War in 1956, the company name (company) was changed back to Weser-Flugzeugbau GmbH . The major overhaul of helicopters took place at the site and the construction of aircraft segments and aircraft fuselage parts began. In 1964 the location was incorporated into the United Flugtechnische Werke GMBH (VFW). After numerous other name changes, the location belonged to Airbus Deutschland GmbH from 2001 . Since 2008 the location has been part of the Premium AEROTEC company, which is part of the EADS Group.

Shipyard ships (selection)

See also

literature

  • Günther Diercks, Reinhold Thiel: J. Frerichs & Co. Frerichswerft . HM Hauschild GmbH, Bremen 2001, ISBN 3-89757-092-0 .
  • Peter Kuckuk , Hartmut Roder : From the steam launch to the container ship: Shipyards and shipbuilding in Bremen and in the Lower Weser region in the 20th century. Bremen University of Applied Sciences (ed.), Steintor Verlag, Bremen 1988, ISBN 3-926028-38-6 .
  • Peter-Michael Pawlik: From the Weser to the World, Volume II . Hauschild Verlag , Bremen 2003, ISBN 3-89757-150-1 .

Web links

Coordinates: 53 ° 30 ′ 42.2 ″  N , 8 ° 31 ′ 7.9 ″  E