Walther Blohm

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Friedrich Walther Blohm (born July 25, 1887 in Hamburg ; † June 12, 1963 in Lübeck-Travemünde ) was a German graduate engineer and entrepreneur , head of the Blohm & Voss shipyard and founder and head of Hamburger Flugzeugbau GmbH.

Life

childhood and education

Walther Blohm was the second child of the mechanical engineer Hermann Blohm and his wife Emmi Alwine, née Westphal. His brother Rudolf , with whom he would later run his father's shipyard together, was two years older. After starting school in 1894, he developed into a very good student who brought home "excellent" grades. However, he suffered from the stress of the additional private tuition in foreign languages ​​and the arts, which was deemed necessary in upper-class families. In 1906 he passed his Abitur and after completing his military service began studying mechanical engineering in Munich . During the semester break, he also completed a commercial internship. He passed the intermediate diploma examination with distinction and switched to the Technical University in Berlin for the main course . In the spring of 1914 he successfully completed his studies with the examination grade "good" as a graduate engineer. With the outbreak of the First World War he was drafted and after four years, shortly before the end of the war, he was released for use in the submarine building program . On September 20, 1918, he married Annemarie Brandis in Hamburg, whom he had already met during his student days in Berlin.

The "golden" twenties from Blohm & Voss

After the end of the war, Hermann Blohm handed the company over to his sons. While Rudolf represented the company externally from now on, Walther Blohm, with his technical training, was responsible for the "internal operations", for the extensive and varied production, for the technical and commercial departments. Due to the restrictions that the Versailles Treaty imposed on German armaments, it was necessary in the first post-war years to keep the company alive by building locomotives. In March 1921, the Reichstag approved state compensation for the shipping companies affected by war and reparations in the amount of 12 billion marks, with the condition that all new buildings had to be commissioned from German shipyards. Blohm & Voss, at that time the largest shipyard in the country, also benefited from the construction boom that this triggered. In addition to others, the new flagship "Albert Ballin" and the structurally identical "Deutschland" were created for HAPAG . In 1923 the Blohm family moved into a house built for them by the Hamburg architect Erich Elingius in the Alsterdorf district . The series of bankruptcies and mergers in shipbuilding that began in 1924 that followed the post-war boom did not affect Blohm & Voss. In 1928, the Europa , built on behalf of Norddeutscher Lloyd , was launched, three quarters of which was completed six months later and burned out. Although the cruise ship Milwaukee was built for HAPAG at the same time , the shipyard succeeded in handing the Europa over to the owner in March 1930. Regardless of the global economic crisis , the company was still working overtime in 1931. Only a year later, in 1932, did the crisis hit Blohm & Voss, who had to lay off 80% of their workforce (compared to 1929). In 1931 Walther Blohm bought an estate in Holstein.

National Socialism and War

Walther Blohm, who had met Adolf Hitler personally in the late 1920s, did not have a good impression of his abilities as a politician. He kept his distance from the National Socialists, he also stayed away from the propaganda establishment of the Harzburg Front , in contrast to his brother, who participated in it for the DNVP . But he agreed to Alfred Hugenberg's policy of attempting to moderate Hitler with a bourgeois-conservative counterweight.

Walther Blohm founded the Hamburger Flugzeugbau GmbH (HFB) in June 1933, after he had already occupied the shipyard with the construction of aircraft parts from the end of 1932. The aim of this company was to develop and build a large, overseas passenger aircraft. With the BV 222 this succeeded seven years later, but the 13 machines built were used for military purposes. In September 1935 , a new aircraft factory was inaugurated south of Hamburg, in Wenzendorf . The HFB expanded rapidly and, like the shipyard soon, mainly produced armaments. Even the damage inflicted on the facilities in the course of Operation Gomorrah did not have a lasting effect on production. However, Walther Blohm came more and more into conflict with the rulers, whose increasing influence on the company management he opposed. These disputes culminated in August 1944, when Karl Saur , the chief of staff in the “Speer Armaments Staff”, de facto disempowered the Blohm brothers and placed them under one of their own directors. It was particularly stressful for Walther Blohm that at the same time he was also suffering from great private worries. One of his three sons had died a little earlier, and another was a prisoner of war.

In October 1944, a branch of the Neuengamme concentration camp with 500 prisoners was set up on the site of the shipyard . According to statements that Walther Blohm put down in writing after the war, this happened against his declared will. Originally an occupancy of 1000 prisoners was planned, the reduction was made due to his resistance. The shipyard also provided medical care for the prisoners. In connection with his conflict with the rulers, there is also a - albeit mild - conviction by a field war tribunal at the end of December 1944: he was charged with the almost complete destruction of the Wenzendorf plant by bombers.

Occupation time

Shortly after the end of the war, Blohm & Voss was able to resume provisional activity, but only for a short time. On December 22, 1945 it had to be closed by order of the British administration, which declared the shipyard to be an "unnecessary" operation. In the following years, up to October 31, 1950, the facilities were completely dismantled. Walther Blohm was helpless and increasingly bitter about these developments. The family's house was confiscated in May 1945 and was only given back six years later.

Federal Republic

Reconstruction of the shipyard and loss of power

When West German shipyards were allowed to build merchant ships again in April 1951 and were subsidized by the state, the following upswing passed the company by. The family was unable to finance reconstruction, so - for the first time in the company's history - outside capital was sought. In the Steinwerder Industrie AG (STIAG) founded with this help, ships were repaired again from summer 1953. Walter Blohm, now in his 66th year of life, had suffered a (undiagnosed) physical breakdown in January, and it took him four months to recover.

After the first ships were built in 1954, it quickly became apparent that the shipyard, which was now officially called Blohm & Voss again, would not be able to survive without further funding. A partner was found in Phoenix Rheinrohr AG . And although the terms of the merger were favorable for Blohm & Voss, the cooperation between the partners increasingly deteriorated. The entrepreneurial self-image of the Blohm brothers and that of the steel managers did not match. There were complications and arguments, and it finally became clear that the question of power would be decided in favor of Phoenix Rheinrohr. In this situation, Walther Blohm tried to arrange his successor, but he was also defeated here. With the departure of the two brothers, the family would lose their influence on the composition of the board. Walther Blohm resigned from his functions in 1958. He's going, he said, before he was thrown out.

Success in aircraft construction

After aircraft were allowed to be built again in the Federal Republic of Germany from 1955, Walther Blohm continued his commitment here as well. Together with two partner companies he founded “Flugzeugbau Nord GmbH” and in July 1956 received the order for 40% of the Noratlas machines produced under license . Two years later, he began working again on his old dream of building a large commercial airliner. A first approach was a jet jet called HFB 314 for 78 passengers, which, however, did not receive the necessary financial support from the federal government at the time and therefore failed. He came on with the successor model, the HFB 320 , which was funded by both Hamburg and the federal government. In 1963 a model of the aircraft known as the “Hansa-Jet” was exhibited and met with great approval - and a first preliminary contract for two aircraft.

The last few years

From 1960 a dispute over Walther Blohm's eldest son Georg escalated at Blohm & Voss AG, whom he wanted to build up as his successor while still active on the company's board of directors. The argument between him and the chairman of the supervisory board Ernst Wolf Mommsen was conducted with increasing severity and by Walther Blohm with great emotional commitment. It ended two days after his 75th birthday when Georg was kicked out of the board. Although the allegations against his son, which had triggered the conflict, were withdrawn as untenable in June 1963, Walther Blohm had also seen himself abandoned by friends and family in the fight.

On June 11, 1963, Walther Blohm suffered a stroke following his wife's birthday party. He died the next day. He was buried at the Ohlsdorf cemetery in Hamburg.

The entrepreneur

At the burial of his body, Walther Blohm was honored as one of the last great patriarchs of the economy . He himself once said: “Working has to be very pleasant without any inconvenience”, and “The pace is set from above.” He ran his company according to these principles, and personal trust had priority over decision-making hierarchies and other “inconveniences”. He was brought up to this absolutist self-image as an entrepreneur. He could be contacted by any member of the workforce without prior notification. In addition, he earned the respect of his employees through his extensive technical knowledge, his daily company tours and the extensive detailed knowledge he gained. The family business Blohm & Voss also did not acquire any orders. Customers came to them.

The limits of such a patrician understanding of one's own role were already evident in the war years in the increasing friction with the Nazi rulers, who simply did not want to be talked into his company. In the post-war period, both Blohm brothers felt helpless because they had not learned to lobby between the interests of the occupying power and those of the local authorities and to influence decisions in their own interests. He also experienced the merger of the shipyard with Phoenix Rheinrohr as a personal defeat: "We were forced to become a stock corporation and we have to face the consequences." He accepted only with bitterness that he was now an "employed director" .

Awards

In February 1960 Walther Blohm was made an honorary senator of the TU Berlin.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Wiborg, Susanne. Walther Blohm: Ships and planes from Hamburg. Hamburg: Christians, 1993. ISBN 3-7672-1189-0 , p. 15.
  2. ↑ http://www.blohmvoss.com/index.php?level=4&CatID=1.10.22.26&inhalt_id=44 .
  3. ↑ Wiborg, p. 33.
  4. ↑ http://www.bundesarchiv.de/aktenreichskanzlei/1919-1933/0001/feh/feh1p/kap1_2/kap2_179/para3_7.html Cabinet meeting Fehrenbach on February 21, 1921.
  5. ↑ http://www.reichstagsprotokoll.de/Blatt2_w1_bsb00000032_00280.html Negotiations of the Reichstag, Volume 348, p. 2907 f.
  6. ↑ Wiborg, Susanne. Walther Blohm , p. 55
  7. ^ Wiborg, p. 56.
  8. ↑ Wiborg, p. 62 f.
  9. ↑ DIED: WALTHER BLOHM . In: Der Spiegel . No. 26 , 1963 ( online - 26 June 1963 ).
  10. ↑ Heinz Michaels: A Hanseatic man makes cash . In: The time . No. 25/1976 ( online ).
  11. ↑ Wiborg, Susanne. Walther Blohm. P. 105 ff.
  12. ↑ Wiborg, pp. 104, 108.
  13. ^ Wiborg, p. 131.
  14. ↑ Wiborg, p. 132.
  15. ^ Wiborg, p. 166.
  16. ^ Wiborg, p. 195.
  17. ↑ Thomsen, Tobi. Celebrity homes . Norderstedt 2016. ISBN 978-3-7412-9073-2 , p. 144.
  18. ^ Wiborg, p. 198.
  19. ↑ a b Wiborg, p. 34 f.
  20. ↑ a b Wiborg, p. 120.
  21. ^ Wiborg, p. 156.
  22. ^ Wiborg, p. 160.
  23. ↑ DNB 451159071 .
personal data
SURNAME Blohm, Walther
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Blohm, Friedrich Walther (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German graduate engineer and entrepreneur
DATE OF BIRTH July 25, 1887
PLACE OF BIRTH Hamburg
DATE OF DEATH June 12, 1963
Place of death Lübeck-Travemünde