Gustav Kuhr
Gustav Kuhr (born January 17, 1914 in Steinort , district of Königsberg i. Pr. , † June 1, 2000 in Bremerhaven ) was a German boat builder . In the post-war period he built a shipyard in Wesermünde / Bremerhaven , where the first closed and unsinkable lifeboats were later built.
Life
Gustav Kuhr's parents were the fisherman Gottlieb Johann Kuhr and his wife Rosina Elise nee. Freudenfeld . Both came from families on the Curonian Spit . After the confirmation , Kuhr went fishing on the Curonian Lagoon for six years . He then did an apprenticeship as a boat builder from 1934 to 1937 at Adolf Groß's shipyard in Labiau . He worked as a journeyman for six years at a boatyard in Königsberg . Before the Chamber of Crafts in East Prussia, he passed the master craftsman's examination in boat and shipbuilding. In evening courses he trained as a shipbuilding technician.
shipbuilding
At the time of the German occupation of Poland , from 1943 onwards, he manufactured sections for submarines at the Vistula shipyard in Schröttersburg . At the beginning of 1945 he switched to Blohm & Voss , where he worked as an operations engineer in the acceptance of submarines.
After he had fetched his wife from East Prussia under adventurous circumstances , he settled in Wesermünde due to family contacts. While looking for a place to repair ships, he found barracks on the Lune that had housed soldiers from the Tabar anti-aircraft battery during World War II . In November 1945 he leased twelve rooms with 260 m 2 from the former naval site administration . At the Lunewerft Wesermünde, G. Kuhr , fishing cutters were repaired and wooden boats were built. In 1946 he built a slipway with six refugees from East Prussia . The proximity of the fishing port was favorable; but the sluice to the Weser could only be passed when there was a tie. Despite the good order situation, Kuhr therefore relocated operations in 1952 to the premises of the Lloyd Werft Bremerhaven at the New Harbor . There he ran a small floating dock and a locksmith's shop .
K-boat
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From 1954 he developed the world's first closed lifeboat made of steel . His experience in building submarines was of benefit to him. The reason for its development were the many shipwrecks of German deep-sea fishing between 1949 and 1954. Hundreds of seamen capsized and drowned in open lifeboats.
Fascinated by cast resin and polyester resin , Kuhr switched boat building from steel to plastic in 1958 . The closed lifeboats had ballast tanks that were automatically flooded after hitting the water and straightening the boat. The Federal Patent Office patented this invention. For the drive of the unsinkable "K-Boots" a made diesel engine . The prototype could accommodate 50 people. In vain, Kuhr hoped that the International Ship Safety Conference in London in 1960 would abolish the regulation on open lifeboats - although the representatives of the Soviet Union were most firmly in favor of the innovation.
The mass production could be tackled, as Burmeister & Wain ordered 16 K-boats. In order to be able to manufacture the 8.10 m long and 3.06 m wide plastic boats, a large hall with a constant air temperature of 12 ° C was required. Kuhr found them on the premises of Maschinenbau und Eisenbau GmbH Hans Seebeck, southeast of Bremerhaven-Lehe train station . The 300 m 2 hall at Am Fleeth burned down with all the boats in January 1962. Kuhr found a new production facility in the hall of a restaurant in Spaden . The delivery date of the Danish boats could be kept. Success in Germany did not materialize because the shipowners shied away from the costs and preferred life rafts .
In 1964, Kuhr moved into a new business on the west side of fishing port II. The floating dock was also located there. K-lifeboats for 38, 48, 56, 64 and 120 people were built behind the young fishing school . The hulls were built in pressure hull form. The polyester plastic was sprayed on and reinforced with fiberglass. The plastic keel ran around the entire hull and was fitted with an iron half-round rail. A central longitudinal bulkhead gave the boat additional longitudinal stability. The seats were designed as air boxes and were used to accommodate the equipment. The main floating body was located inside the boat, which could be accessed via four folding hatches.
When the Howaldtswerke built eight factory ships for the Soviet Union, Kuhr delivered the lifeboats.
“With the completely closed motor boats that resemble a small submarine, which were tested under the toughest conditions, the Soviets are breaking new ground. They are already equipping the four fish refrigerated transporters built by Burmeister and Wain in Copenhagen with 16 closed plastic boats, and the supplying Lune shipyard in Bremerhaven has been able to book follow-up orders for a further 28 of their K lifeboats. The Russians are also equipping the refrigerated vessels they have ordered from Götaverken in Sweden with 12 of these new lifeboats. "
In the meantime the K-boats had passed another aptitude test. In Yugoslavia , 13 tankers were built on Soviet accounts. Fireproof lifeboats were required . Together with Reichhold Chemie AG, Kuhr had developed a fire-retardant material that came close to the heat resistance of asbestos in its outer layer . Mice on board the boats survived the 15-minute ordeal at the shipyard in Vela Luka without damage.
Nevertheless, the See-Berufsgenossenschaft refused to approve the closed lifeboats as long as there was no experience on ships flying the German flag. In 1968 the 100th Kuhr lifeboat was delivered to the Soviet state shipping company Sudimport . She had all of her ships built in Finland, Yugoslavia and Denmark equipped with Kuhr lifeboats. This did not make Kuhr wealthy; because the Soviet Union had forced him, knowing his economic situation, to surrender the righting patent. Gradually all countries introduced closed lifeboats for new ships. The International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea prescribes it.
Plastic boats
In the mid-1960s, Kuhr also built motor and sailing boats for self-construction. The crab cutter Apollo (Wremen) was launched on March 6, 1970 at the Lunewerft. In 1973 the Kutter Juwel was again a joint building with the Seebeck shipyard . At 26 m, it was the largest privately used GRP ship. There were no follow-up orders here either. Kuhr built lifeboats and plastic vehicles for the German Navy .
The arrival of factory ships in the early 1970s rapidly worsened the situation of German fishermen and brought about the decline of the Bremerhaven fishing port . When the Western European Union issued new fishing quotas for the North and Baltic Seas as part of a common fisheries policy in 1976 , the small fishermen no longer had a future. In 1973 Kuhr closed his shipyard, which at times employed 40 people. The Rickmers shipyard took over the site and buildings of the Lunewerft in 1976. He advised associations and authorities as an expert for glass fiber reinforced plastics in boat and shipbuilding.
East Prussian reminiscence
In his apartment above the workshop at Fischereihafen II, Kuhr built ship models of Kurenkähnen . A 1:10 scale model with spa pennants was exhibited in the German Maritime Museum in 1986 . From 1988 to 1992 he was a consultant for the reconstruction of the Hanse cog from 1380 according to the methods of the Kurenkahn builders in East Prussia.
Kuhr was "20 years ahead of his time". When the further development of free-fall lifeboats brought his idea to life, he died at the age of 86. He was buried in the Alt-Wulsdorf cemetery in Wulsdorf .
family
In 1939, Kuhr married Frida Luise Bojahr in Schaaken. The marriage had four children. Two daughters died after escaping in 1945. Two sons were born in Bremerhaven in 1946 and 1949. Frida Kuhr died on January 27, 2002.
Honorary positions
- Chairman of the German Boat and Shipbuilding Association (1967–1971)
literature
- The German glass-fiber lifeboats . In: Shipbuilding and Shipping Record. September 13, 1962.
- Lars Schmitz-Eggen: The plastics smith from the New Harbor. Gustav Kuhr and the history of the Lunewerft 1945–1976 . Books on Demand, 2012, ISBN 978-3-8448-1953-3 . GoogleBooks
Web links
- Peter Raap : Free passage for lifeboat "K" - Gustav Kuhr and the Lunewerft. In: Niederdeutsches Heimatblatt. 2008.
- Hansekogge (DSM)
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e f D.JP: Kuhr, Gustav. In: Hartmut Bickelmann : Bremerhaven personalities from four centuries . Publication of the Bremerhaven City Archives 2003, ISBN 3-923851-25-1 , pp. 182-183.
- ↑ a b c d e f Peter Raap, Niederdeutsches Heimatblatt der Männer vom Morgenstern (2008)
- ↑ Nordsee-Zeitung . June 23, 1960.
- ↑ Nordsee-Zeitung. January 20, 1962.
- ↑ Supply ships for offshore wind farms are now being fitted out at the pier .
- ↑ Fire attempt with a closed steel lifeboat for tankers . In: Hansa . 102nd year (1965), p. 535 f.
- ↑ Soviets take K-boats with a kiss. Bremerhaven boat builder only celebrates triumphs abroad. Fireman cried: the mice survived the fire . In: Nordsee-Zeitung. January 5, 1965.
- ↑ a b Message from Peter Raap
- ^ Photo of the tombstone , tombstone project from genealogy.net, accessed on July 3, 2017.
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Kuhr, Gustav |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Kuhr, Franz Gustav (full name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German boat builder and shipyard owner |
| DATE OF BIRTH | January 17, 1914 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Steinort , East Prussia |
| DATE OF DEATH | June 1, 2000 |
| Place of death | Bremerhaven |