Henry Gruber

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Heinrich A. Gruber (* 1899 in Steinberghaff ; † 1959 in Bremen ), known as Henry Gruber , was an important yacht designer in the late 1930s. He designed a wide range of sailing ships, which were characterized by elegant and harmonious lines. His designs, which were characterized by precise planning and precise construction, ranged from the windjammer to the revolutionary 12mR yacht Aschanti III . In Germany and also in the USA he made a lasting name for himself by designing faster yachts between 1920 and 1956. Born in a small town on theFlensburg Fjord he was called Henry early on, due to the strong Danish and Anglo-Saxon influences in the region.

Career

Due to his work as an engineer with the Imperial Navy, his father was able to offer the family a good standard of living and his son a good school education, which he completed in 1919, interrupted by a two-year service during the First World War with the Imperial Navy.

Henry Gruber worked after school for the Flensburger Schiffbau-Gesellschaft , then studied shipbuilding at the Technical University in Berlin and made his 1924 examination . He went to Kiel and constructed smaller boats and yachts there. After the war, old business relations between the United States and Germany were renewed. In 1925 Gruber went to New York City to build boats and yachts there. Aided by the booming economy in the USA, the American shipyards began to build a large number of racing and cruising yachts at this time.

In the United States, Henry Gruber worked for such well-known yacht designers as W. Starling Burgess for the next ten years . Here he assisted, among other things, with the designs for the yachts Nina (1928) and Enterprise (1930). Together with Burgess, Henry Gruber designed the Rainbow in 1933 , which won the America's Cup in 1934.

Henry Gruber also worked with New York designers Cox and Stevens. A partnership with the Megargel design office followed. The result of these various collaborations was the merger of Burgess and Donaldson, Megargel and Gruber.

The experts praised Gruber's designs in particular the 65-foot schooner Barlovento and the 39-foot sailing cutter Binker . During the years in the USA, Henry Gruber had always toyed with the idea of ​​returning to Germany. In 1935 he and his family moved to Flensburg . Here he founded his own design office. Henry Gruber worked closely with the Burmester shipyard in Bremen , which developed into the biggest competitor of the Abeking & Rasmussen shipyard.

In Germany the professional world celebrated him as the "German genius from America". And his success proved him right, because his yacht designs became celebrities in international yachting: u. a.

  • Peter von Danzig , now: Peter von Seestermühe
  • Roland of Bremen
  • North wind and east wind (sister ships)
  • Ashanti III
  • Roland of Bremen II
  • Heligoland
  • Norderney
  • Borkum

During the Second World War Henry Gruber was permanently employed at the Burmester shipyard, which was incorporated into the Abeking & Rasmussen shipyard because of the shipbuilding program.

In 1941 he was involved in building new branches in Swinoujscie . He also designed naval ships such as the KFK ( war fish cutter ) and was responsible for material logistics. After the war he was a middleman in the reconstruction of Germany due to his perfect knowledge of English and an unencumbered Nazi past. In the post-war years he mainly accompanied repair orders for ships.

Henry Gruber moved with the family to Bremen and continued to work for the Burmester shipyard. In the last few years until his retirement in 1956, yachts such as:

  • 4.5 KR dragonfly
  • 5.5 KR Bagatelle
  • 6.5 KR Moije
  • 24 KR stag schooner Ashanti IV
  • 11 KR Heike
  • 12 KR Hamburg VI.

Henry Gruber died in 1959 at the age of 60.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ website yachtsportmuseum.de Portrait Henry Gruber , accessed on September 14, 2015.
  2. ↑ website: trivia.de: Yachtarchiv 1940-1958, the German twelve , accessed on September 14, 2015.
  3. ↑ Yacht sport archive digital: 12-mR-Yacht "Aschanti 3" (H. Gruber, Werft Burmester), Yacht 1940, Issue 9, p. 99 , accessed on October 13, 2015.
  4. ↑ The Encyclopedia of Yacht Designers, pp. 186-188.
  5. ↑ Yacht sport archive digital: Henry Gruber, an ingenious designer, Yacht 1960, Issue 12, p. 446 , accessed on September 16, 2015.
  6. ↑ Yacht sport archive digital: Henry Gruber, an ingenious designer, Yacht 1960, Issue 12, p. 446 , accessed on September 16, 2015.
personal data
SURNAME Gruber, Henry
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Gruber, Heinrich A.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German yacht designer
DATE OF BIRTH 1899
PLACE OF BIRTH Steinberghaff
DATE OF DEATH 1959
Place of death Bremen