Robert Zimmermann (shipbuilding engineer)

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Robert Zimmermann (born June 3, 1851 in Hamm , Westphalia, † January 5, 1912 in Eutin ) was a German shipbuilding engineer .

Life and achievement

Robert Zimmermann was the first son of the staff and battalion doctor Gustav Heinrich Eduard Zimmermann from the 1st Battalion of the 4th Guards Landwehr Regiment in Hamm in Westphalia. After the early death of his father, he was able to leave high school and pursue his wish to pursue a technical career.

He began his first job at the renowned Klawitter shipyard in Gdańsk . After finishing the trade school, Robert Zimmermann moved to the shipbuilding department of the Royal Trade Academy in Berlin . During his studies there, Zimmermann met consul Hermann Henrich Meier , the powerful chairman of the supervisory board of North German Lloyd . He recommended that he first go to Scotland after graduation to gain international experience. In the summer of 1873 Zimmermann successfully completed his studies. A letter of recommendation from Meier gave him the chance to start at the renowned Caird & Company shipyard in Greenock (Scotland), which at the time was building ships for North German Lloyd. Although he had no practical experience, he was employed in the technical office. Through the mediation of another sponsor, Zimmermann switched to the Palmer Shipbuilding and Iron Company , whose shipyard was in Jarrow-on-Tyne . In 1880 he became head of the technical office of the Barrow Shipbuilding Company in Barrow-in-Furness .

In 1884 Zimmermann left Great Britain to take on a leading position in the management of the Germania shipyard in Kiel . In 1895 he said goodbye to Kiel and took up his position at the head of what was then the largest German shipyard, the Stettiner Maschinenbau AG Vulcan . Under his direction, ships were built in Stettin whose technical performance enabled the Bremen and Hamburg shipping companies to win the coveted " Blue Ribbon " for the fastest ocean crossing. Due to his excellent work in Kiel and Stettin, Zimmermann was appointed "Royal Secret Building Councilor and Shipbuilding Director".

Because of the depth of the Oder , no larger ships could be built in Stettin. The shipyard management under Zimmermann was forced to look for a more favorable location, which they found in the Hamburg free port in 1906 . There the prerequisites for permanent shipbuilding were given. Despite this favorable development, the almost sixty-year-old carpenter retired after he had successfully negotiated the modernization of the Chinese navy with the government in Beijing in 1908/09. Just as the private house, built according to his designs, was finished, he suffered strokes from which he died.

Zimmermann was married to a British woman and had four sons and three daughters.

Ships planned and designed by Zimmermann

Among other things, Zimmermann designed the following ships or played a leading role in the project planning:

Caird & Co.

Palmer's Shipbuilding and Iron Company

  • numerous warships and commercial steamers, primarily for British shipowners

Technical office in Barrow-in-Furness, later Barrow Shipbuilding Company

  • numerous warships and commercial steamers, primarily for British shipowners

Germania shipyard in Kiel

Military contracts
Civil vehicles
  • Mail ship Bonn for North German Lloyd (1895)
  • Post ship hall for the North German Lloyd
  • various freight steamers
  • some sailing yachts

Stettiner Maschinenbau AG Vulcan

Fast steamer
personal data
SURNAME Carpenter, Robert
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German naval engineer
DATE OF BIRTH June 3, 1851
PLACE OF BIRTH Hamm
DATE OF DEATH January 5, 1912
Place of death Eutin