Ms. Lürssen shipyard
| Ms. Lürssen Werft GmbH & Co. KG
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|---|---|
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| legal form | GmbH & Co. KG |
| founding | June 28, 1875 |
| Seat | Bremen , Germany |
| management |
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| Number of employees | 2466 |
| sales | 1,031.6 million euros |
| Branch | Shipyard |
| Website | www.luerssen.de |
| As of December 31, 2018 | |
The Lürssen Werft GmbH & Co. KG is a German shipyard , headquartered in Bremen district of Vegesack and shipbuilding facilities in Lemwerder , Berne and Bremen- Aumund . It is the largest company in the Lürssen Maritime Beteiligungen GmbH & Co. Kommanditgesellschaft (parent company and highest level of consolidation).
Other shipyards belong to the group of companies: Lürssen-Kröger (formerly Kröger-Werft in Schacht-Audorf , the Peene-Werft in Wolgast as well as Blohm and Voss and the Norderwerft in Hamburg . The shipyard is known for the construction of military speedboats and large civilian yachts.
history
Founding period
The namesake of the shipyard, Friedrich Lürßen , founded his own boat building workshop in Aumund near Bremen on June 28, 1875 at the age of 24 . The focus of work in the first years was on work boats for fishing and ferry operations. Hull number one was a five-meter rowboat. From the 1880s Lürssen opened up the sport boat market. In 1886 the first motorboat in the world was built by Lürssen (according to his own account). From around 1890 motor boats were produced in cooperation with the Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft and Lürssen quickly developed into the leading German motor boat yard. Orders from abroad were soon received.
When Otto Lürßen - son of the company founder - joined the company in 1906, the focus finally increased towards building motor boats. In the years up to the First World War , Lürssen boats successfully took part in international races. In 1911 the Lürssen-Daimler boat reached a speed of 27 kn (50 km / h), which was sensational for the time, at the “Championship of the Sea” in Monaco .
First World War
During the First World War, Lürssen built motor boats for various military purposes, including remote-controlled boats ( FL boats ) that were loaded with explosives to be used to ram enemy ships, but also shallow minesweepers (F boats) and submarines (UZ- Boats) with cannon armament and early motorized speedboats (LM boats).
Lürssen initially pursued the later so successful concept of the torpedo speedboat without an order from the Navy. Speeds of 35 kn (64.82 km / h) and more have already been achieved. Airship engines were also used for testing .
With the boats LÜSI 1 and LÜSI 2 (for Lürssen-Siemens), the first high-speed boats were built with the later typical arrangement of two torpedo tubes on the foredeck, but were not completed before the end of the war.
1918 to 1945
After the war, the shipyard shrank from around 700 to 100 employees. Initially, only small sport and work boats were made again. From 1920 on, the successes in motorboat building before the war could be built on. Foreign customs duty boats , lifeboats for the German Society for the Rescue of Shipwrecked People and the electric boats of the Königssee fleet were also part of the order book.
Based on the design of the motor yacht Oheka II sold in the USA (Oheka was the abbreviation for its owner Otto Hermann Kahn , a banker of German origin), boats were initially developed in secret for use as torpedo speedboats. In 1929 the shipyard received the first official order from the Reichsmarine for a boat designated as U Z (S) 16 for testing purposes. It had a length of m 28, a displacement of 51.6 tons and reached three Daimler-Benz - petrol engines a speed of 35.5 knots (65.75 km / h). It was not until 1932 that the camouflage designation was dropped and the boat was renamed S 1. In the period that followed, the model became the basic model for German speedboats with some changes. From 1929, the production of mine clearance boats was started in cooperation with Abeking & Rasmussen .
The first speedboats with diesel engines were delivered from 1933. This significantly improved the reliability and range of the boats. The size grew to a good 32 m in length, almost 5 m in width and 95 t total weight. Up to the end of the Second World War, the construction of speed boats became the core business of the Lürssen shipyard - also for export. The boats were wooden hulls as Doppelkraweel ( mahogany - White cedar ) on light metal - frames built from S-100 armored with a navigation station. With three Daimler-Benz MB-518 engines, speeds of over 42 knots could be achieved. Due to the favorable underwater hull shape, specially adjusted rudder rudders ( Lürssen effect ) and an improved foredeck structure, the boats were very seaworthy.
post war period
After the Second World War, shipbuilding was initially completely banned in Germany. Household items such as wooden tubs and pots were temporarily manufactured in the shipyard. But soon the first repair orders came in and from 1946 fishing cutters were built. After the owners returned from captivity in 1947, the company's involvement in commercial shipbuilding began. In 1949, according to the shipyard, the first post-war German freighter was delivered. By 1985, 80 small cargo ships, even tankers , had been built at the shipyard. The construction of lifeboats and cruisers was also resumed. In 1952 the shipyard was named "Lürssen-Werft".
From 1954 on, speedboats were built again, initially for sea border protection and for export (to Sweden ). With the establishment of the German Navy , naval shipbuilding became the mainstay of the shipyard again from 1957, starting with the Type 55 . Speedboats were not only built for the German Navy; next to Sweden u. a. also delivered to Indonesia and Singapore , Arab countries, South America ( Ecuador ), Spain and Turkey . In some cases, licensed buildings were also carried out abroad.
In addition to speedboats, Lürssen also produced minesweepers and hunting boats, police and customs boats , patrol boats , corvettes and various test vehicles , and in cooperation with other shipyards also frigates , tenders and task force supplies .
present
Today the company is run by the fourth generation, currently by cousins Peter and Friedrich Lürßen. The company employed over 1400 people in the 1980s. After a drastic reduction in staff numbers to around half, around 1200 people were employed in 2007; in 2011 there were around 1400 again, a large proportion of whom are engineers .
Military shipbuilding is an essential pillar of the shipyard, especially at the Hamburg shipyard Blohm + Voss . Lürssen also builds luxurious mega yachts , which began in 1988 and which utilizes around half of the shipyard's capacity.
In March 2020, an agreement for cooperation with German Naval Yards Kiel was concluded.
Military ships
The company builds warships up to the size of frigates for the German Navy and armed forces around the world.
Lürssen built a ship of the new frigate class F 125 for the German Navy: The frigate F 223 North Rhine-Westphalia was laid down near Lürssen in 2012 and delivered to the Navy on September 1, 2017.
The patrol boats with the project description IPV 60 are under construction. They are 60 meters long and can reach a speed of around 20 knots (37 km / h) with their two hybrid machines with an output of 5600 kW. They are intended for export and are seaworthy.
Mega yachts
Some of the more popular projects are:
- Limitless (1997)
- Skat (2002) for Charles Simonyi
- Carinthia VII (2002) for Heidi Horten
- Pelorus (2003), owned by David Geffen
- Octopus (2003) built for Paul Allen by HDW on behalf of Lürssen
- Rising Sun (2004) for Oracle CEO Larry Ellison
- Apoise (2006)
- Al Said (2008)
- Pacific (2010)
- Azzam , 2013 for Prince al-Walid ibn Talal , 180 meters long, longest private yacht in the world
In September 2018, a fire broke out in a floating dock at the Lürssen shipyard in Fähr-Lobbendorf. The dock and the yacht Sassi were badly damaged. With around 900 emergency services deployed, it was the largest deployment of the Bremen fire brigade in the post-war period. The damage was estimated at more than 610 million euros. According to the specialist magazine HANSA , the Sassi was completely destroyed. In December 2018, the dock with the Sassi arrived at the Blohm + Voss shipyard in Hamburg, which belongs to Lürssen . There the yacht was removed and the dock repaired. It arrived back in Vegesack in March 2019.
Acquisitions
On June 27, 1875, Friedrich Lürßen founded the shipyard in Aumund . Since the workshop had no direct access to the water, the boats had to be transported to the harbor basin by horse and cart until 1904. In 1904, an equipment and repair shop was set up at the Vegesack harbor .
In 1918 the main plant in Aumund burned down and production was completely relocated to Vegesack by 1924. In 1935 a production facility was built on the opposite side of the Weser in Lemwerder for the growing production of speedboats for the Navy .
Activities abroad began in 1969 with the establishment of the Hong Leong-Lürssen shipyard (in Butterworth, Malaysia ) together with the Malaysian Hong Leong group of companies. 1972–1980, however, production was completely relocated to Lemwerder, the head office remained in Vegesack.
In the period that followed, various takeovers were made, such as B. 1979 the yacht and boat yard Burmester in neighboring Bremen- Burg , 1985 the Kröger shipyard located on the Kiel Canal (which is, however, continued independently) and 1997 from the bankruptcy assets of the Bremer Vulkan the hall construction dock.
In 1999 the TBM shipyard in the US state of Washington was taken over and in the following year Lürssen became a shareholder in the American yacht shipyard Palmer Johnson .
In 2001 Lürssen took over the Schweers shipyard in Bardenfleth , which was run as Lürssen-Bardenfleth until it was closed in 2011 . Numerous boats were built here for the German Society for the Rescue of Shipwrecked People.
Further takeovers followed in 2006 with the Neue Jadewerft in Wilhelmshaven and in 2010 with the Rolandwerft in Berne .
After the bankruptcy of the Sietas shipyard , the Norderwerft was taken over by Lürssen on October 1, 2012, making it the fifth location of the Lürssen shipyard group. Lürssen took over the workforce of around 100 employees and has now signed a new 30-year lease for the site with the Hamburg Port Authority (HPA).
The Peene shipyard in Wolgast has been part of the Lürssen Group since May 2013 .
On September 28, 2016, the takeover of the Hamburg shipyard Blohm + Voss by Lürssen from the previous owner Star Capital Partners became known. Antitrust approval was granted at the end of October 2016.
At the end of October 2019, Lürssen took over the insolvent Elsflether shipyard .
Business premises
As of August 2020, the Lürssen Group operates the following facilities:
- Bremen-Vegesack: Headquarters
- Lemwerder: Ms. Lürssen Werft GmbH & Co. KG
- Berne: Ms. Lürssen Werft GmbH & Co. KG
- Bremen-Aumund: Ms. Lürssen Werft GmbH & Co. KG
- Hamburg: Blohm + Voss BV & Co.KG, Norderwerft Repair GmbH
- Wolgast: Peene-Werft GmbH
- Rendsburg: Lürssen-Kröger Werft GmbH & Co. KG
- Wilhelmshaven: New Jadewerft GmbH
Arms exports and controversy
In military shipbuilding, too, Lürssen has not only supplied the German Navy. The experience gained in building speedboats during World War II could be used in the early 1950s for a first order for speedboats for Sweden . Some examples of the following speedboat class 140 for the German Navy were also built for Indonesia and Saudi Arabia. A planned delivery of a draft based on this for Israel could not be realized due to political entanglements.
In the recent past, Chancellor Angela Merkel in 2011 advocated the export of patrol boats from the Lürssen shipyard to Angola .
At the end of 2012 it became known that the Saudi Arabian army wanted to buy patrol boats for the equivalent of around 1.5 billion euros from the Lürssen shipyard group. According to Spiegel, the border patrol boats are to be handed over to Saudi Arabia by 2015 at a unit price of between 10 and 25 million euros. The Lürssen shipyard's request to the Federal Security Council was approved in 2013. While the Federal SPD criticized the delivery, the Red-Green state government in Bremen held back with a statement. The Lürssen shipyard does not comment publicly on the business with Saudi Arabia.
Lürssen is building at least another 48 patrol boats for Saudi Arabia. In 2016, the Federal Security Council approved the export. Otfried Nassauer from the donation-financed Berlin Information Center for Transatlantic Security suspects that the ships will be equipped with 20 mm guns for self-protection and pointed out that Saudi Arabia originally ordered a total of 146 boats.
After the murder of the journalist Jamal Khashoggi and Saudi Arabia's role in the Yemen war , the German government stopped arms exports to the country in October 2018. Lürssen, on the other hand, continued to employ people in Saudi Arabia, helping with the training of ship crews and the maintenance of the delivered boats. According to an internal list, 29 Lürssen employees were still working in Saudi Arabia in December 2018.
literature
- Christian Ostersehlte: Yachts and yacht tenders for America. The USA business of Fr. Lürssen Yacht- und Bootswerft in Bremen-Vegesack in the inter-war period. In: Deutsches Schiffahrtsarchiv, Vol. 39, 2016, pp. 325–421.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c [1] Consolidated financial statements as of December 31, 2018 on Bundesanzeiger.de, accessed on June 19, 2020
- ↑ www.luerssen-defence.com
- ↑ www.luerssen-yachts.com
- ↑ a b c d Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger . September 16, 2011, p. 11
- ↑ career . Issue No. 09/2007, p. 26, column 1
- ↑ Eckhard-Herbert Arndt: Lürssen takes GNYK on board · National naval shipbuilding is strengthened through close cooperation. In: Daily port report of March 15, 2020, p. 1
- ↑ Video: The frigate entered the home port for the first time. Wilhelmshavener Zeitung, September 2, 2017, accessed on September 9, 2017 .
- ↑ FW-HB: Fire in a floating dock at the Lürssen shipyard , press release from the Bremen fire brigade, press portal, September 14, 2018, accessed on September 15, 2018.
- ^ After the fire near Lürssen: What the fire left over , report in the Weser-Kurier on November 29, 2018
- ↑ Burnt-out Lürssen yacht is scrapped in Hamburg , report in the trade journal HANSA on November 28, 2018
- ^ After a major fire near Lürssen: Dock with luxury yacht on the way to Hamburg. December 5, 2018, accessed March 29, 2019 .
- ↑ Floating dock at the Lürssen shipyard on the way back to Vegesack. March 27, 2019, accessed March 29, 2019 .
- ↑ The traditional Hamburg shipyard Blohm + Voss is sold , Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, September 28, 2016.
- ↑ Lürssen starts after the Cartel Office decision at Blohm + Voss , Kreiszeitung, October 31, 2016.
- ↑ Gorch Fock: Elsflether Werft goes to Lürssen-Werft , NDR, October 25, 2019.
- ↑ Florian Schwiegershausen, Friedemann Kohler: Bremer Lürssen-Werft buys “Gorch Fock” renovators , Weser-Kurier, October 28, 2019.
- ↑ [2] Lürssen Shipyards on luerssen-defence.com, accessed on August 26, 2020
- ↑ Deal with Lürssen shipyard: Saudi Arabia wants to buy German military ships . Spiegel, February 10, 2013
- ↑ taz Bremen: Lürssen supplies Saudi Arabia . July 8, 2016
- ↑ tagesschau.de: Despite the export stop: Lürssen continues to support Saudi Arabia. Retrieved March 24, 2020 .