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
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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