World War II Database

Contributor: Al Griffis

ww2dbaseIn 1837, entrepreneur Karl Martin Ludwig Schetelig, son of a clockmaker, was authorized by the city council of Lübeck, Germany to start a machine shop. Three years later, his firm began building and repairing boilers on ocean-going steamships. It was interesting to note that around this time Hermann Blohm, later the founder of the Blohm und Voss shipyard and machinery maker, began his engineering career under Schetelig. In 1845, Schetelig partnered with architect and businessman Georg Heinrich Kollmann to expand his operations, forming Maschinenfabrik und Eisengießerei Kollmann & Schetelig OHG. In 1873, Kollmann & Schetelig merged into a well-funded new company, Lübecker Maschinenbau-Gesellschaft, building a wide array of products, including dredgers, tugboats, ferry boats, and excavators. In the spring of 1918, the firm launched its first ocean-going ship, followed by the construction of two torpedo boat destroyers, which would not be completed due to the German defeat at the end of WW1. The company's shipyard operation expanded after WW1. In the 1920s and the 1930s, a number of ferries, tugboats, floating cranes, freighters, and passenger ships were launched. Starting in Sep 1939 and into the 1940s, during WW2, the German Navy contracted the company, now known as Lübecker Schiff- und Maschinenbau AG, to build M-class minesweepers. After the war, the company remained in operations. In 1950, it was reorganized as the Orenstein-Koppel and Lübecker Maschinenbau AG. In the 1970s, it expanded into the building of tankers. In 1993, it was taken over by Krupp, and the name was changed to Krupp Fördertechnik GmbH. In 2000, shipyard was sold to a group of Hamburg investors, and it was subsequently renamed Lübecker Maschinenbau Gesellschaft. The dredgers division was sold to a Dutch company and was renamed VOSTA LMG B. V. In 2007, the company was reorganized as LMG Anlagenbau GmbH. Shipbuilding operations ceased in Jul 2010 while it focused its now limited industrial efforts on the building of wind turbines. A number of the shipyard and factory spaces were leased to other businesses, such as the Kulturwerft Gollan event center, which opened its doors in Sep 2015.

Ships Constructed at Lübecker Schiff- und Maschinenbau AG

Lübecker Schiff- und Maschinenbau AG Interactive Map

Lübecker Schiff- und Maschinenbau AG Timeline