Blohm & Voß
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| Private, GmbH | |
| Industry | Shipbuilding |
| Founded | 1877 |
| Founder | Hermann Blohm and Ernst Voss |
| Headquarters | Hamburg, Germany |
| Products | Ships, Oil rigs, Aircraft. |
| Parent | Lürssen |
| Website | blohmvoss.com |
Blohm+Voss (B+V), also written historically as Blohm & Voss and Blohm und Voss, is a German shipbuilding and engineering company, Founded in 1877, its most famous product is the World War II battleship Bismarck.
B+V is currently a subsidiary of Lürssen and continues to supply both the military and civil markets. The company also carries out related activities, including building oil rigs, managing a dockyard and maintenance and repair of large cruise ships.
In the 1930s its owners established the Hamburger Flugzeugbau which built aircraft before and during World War II and, shortly before the outbreak of war, became a subsidiary of its parent company and adopted its name.
Blohm & Voss was founded on 5 April 1877, by Hermann Blohm and Ernst Voss (or Voß) as a general partnership. It established a shipyard on the island of Kuhwerder, near the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg, covering 15,000 m² with 250 m of water frontage and three building berths, two suitable for ships of up to 100 metres length. The company name was shown with the ampersand, as B&V, until 1955.
The company's initial products were steel-hulled sailing ships designed for long sea voyages. At that time steamships had a relatively short range, while many of the advantages of steel construction still applied to sailing ships as much as to steam. The company built its first steamship in 1900, while still continuing to build sailing ships until the late 1930s.
When Hermann Blohm died, his two sons Rudolf and Walther took over. Ernst Voss left soon afterwards. By this time the company was in financial crisis, so the Blohm brothers diversified into aircraft, setting up the Hamburger Flugzeugbau (see below) in the summer of 1933.
With the rise of the Nazi Party to power in 1933, Germany began to rearm and both companies became increasingly involved in the programme.
From July 1944 to April 1945 the company used inmates of its own concentration subcamp at its shipyard in Hamburg-Steinwerder, a subcamp of Neuengamme concentration camp. A memorial stands on the site of the camp and the company continues to pay an undisclosed amount to the Fund for Compensation of Forced Laborers.
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Wikipedia