Ferdinand Gottlob Schichau (30 January 1814 – 23 January 1896) was a German
mechanical engineer and businessman.
Schichau was born in
Elbing,
West Prussia (modern Elbląg,
Poland) to a
smith and
iron worker
Iron () is a chemical element with symbol Fe (from la, ferrum) and atomic number 26. It is a metal that belongs to the first transition series and group 8 of the periodic table. It is, by mass, the most common element on Earth, right in front ...
. He studied engineering in Berlin and visited the
Rhineland and England. In 1837 he started his own
company
A company, abbreviated as co., is a Legal personality, legal entity representing an association of people, whether Natural person, natural, Legal person, legal or a mixture of both, with a specific objective. Company members share a common p ...
in Elbing. He also built a shipyard in
Pillau near
Königsberg (
East Prussia
East Prussia ; german: Ostpreißen, label=Low Prussian; pl, Prusy Wschodnie; lt, Rytų Prūsija was a province of the Kingdom of Prussia from 1773 to 1829 and again from 1878 (with the Kingdom itself being part of the German Empire from 187 ...
) (today
Baltiysk,
Kaliningrad Oblast).
The ''
Schichau-Werke'' became a large
industrial complex, which employed several thousand
people. Schichau made
hydraulic presses, industrial machines and
steam engine
A steam engine is a heat engine that performs mechanical work using steam as its working fluid. The steam engine uses the force produced by steam pressure to push a piston back and forth inside a cylinder. This pushing force can be trans ...
s. For his
worker
The working class (or labouring class) comprises those engaged in manual labour, manual-labour occupations or industrial work, who are remunerated via wage, waged or salary, salaried contracts. Working-class occupations (see also "Designation ...
s he erected a large living quarter section in Elbing. The ''
Borussia'', constructed by him, was the first
screw-vessel in Germany.
Schichau gained an associate when his daughter married around 1873
Carl H. Ziese (1848 -1917) the constructor in 1874 of the first
compound steam engine to be integrated in a German
gunship
A gunship is a military aircraft armed with heavy aircraft guns, primarily intended for attacking ground targets either as airstrike or as close air support.
In modern usage the term "gunship" refers to fixed-wing aircraft having laterally-mo ...
.
The company had so many orders that it became necessary to construct another large shipyard in nearby
Danzig (Gdańsk) as well. In 1896 Schichau employed about 4,000 labourers his private assets were appraised at 30 million
German gold mark. Schichau died in Elbing on 23 January 1896, his son in law (Ziese) continued to lead the company till his own death in 1917. Ziese's only daughter, Hildegard, married Swedish Engineer Carl Carlson.
After her husband's death, Hildegard Carlson ran the former firm of her father Carl and grand father Ferdinand building, mainly, railway engines till the thereafters of a company active till no less than 1945.
When Elbing and Danzig were transferred to Poland after
World War II, Schichau's memory all but disappeared. The street in Elbing named after him (''Schichaustraße'') was renamed ''ul. Stoczniowa'', and his statue was destroyed. His contributions only recently became known in Poland at the end of the
Cold War
The Cold War is a term commonly used to refer to a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc. The term '' cold war'' is used because the ...
.
Schichau's name remains in the
Schichau Seebeck Shipyard at
Bremerhaven.
Schichau-Seebeck Shipyard
/ref>
References
External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Schichau, Ferdinand
1814 births
1896 deaths
People from Elbląg
19th-century German businesspeople
German mechanical engineers
19th-century German inventors
People from West Prussia
German railway mechanical engineers
German railway entrepreneurs