Lürssen (or Lürssen Werft) is a German
shipyard
A shipyard, also called a dockyard or boatyard, is a place where ships are shipbuilding, built and repaired. These can be yachts, military vessels, cruise liners or other cargo or passenger ships. Compared to shipyards, which are sometimes m ...
with headquarters in
Bremen-Vegesack and shipbuilding facilities in
Lemwerder, Berne and Bremen-Fähr-Lobbendorf.
Lürssen designs and constructs
yacht
A yacht () is a sail- or marine propulsion, motor-propelled watercraft made for pleasure, cruising, or racing. There is no standard definition, though the term generally applies to vessels with a cabin intended for overnight use. To be termed a ...
s,
naval ship
A naval ship (or naval vessel) is a military ship (or sometimes boat, depending on classification) that is used by a navy. Naval ships are differentiated from civilian ships by construction and purpose. Generally, naval ships are damage resili ...
s and special vessels. Trading as Lürssen Yachts, it is one of the leading builders of custom
superyacht
A superyacht or megayacht is a large and luxurious pleasure vessel. There are no official or agreed upon definitions for such yachts, but these terms are regularly used to describe professionally crewed motor or sailing yachts, ranging from to ...
s such as
Paul Allen
Paul Gardner Allen (January 21, 1953 – October 15, 2018) was an American businessman, computer programmer, and investor. He co-founded Microsoft, Microsoft Corporation with his childhood friend Bill Gates in 1975, which was followed by the ...
's
''Octopus'',
David Geffen
David Lawrence Geffen (born February 21, 1943) is an American film producer, record executive, and media proprietor. In music, he co-founded Asylum Records with Elliot Roberts in 1971 before founding Geffen Records in 1980, DGC Records in 1 ...
's
''Rising Sun'', and
Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan
Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan (; 7 September 1948 – 13 May 2022) was the second president of the United Arab Emirates and the ruler of Abu Dhabi, serving from November 2004 until his death in May 2022.
Khalifa was the eldes ...
's
''Azzam'', the second largest private yacht in the world at 180 m in length after the
REV Ocean''.
History
On 27 June 1875 the 24 year-old
Friedrich Lürssen set up a boatbuilding workshop in Aumund, a suburb of
Bremen
Bremen (Low German also: ''Breem'' or ''Bräm''), officially the City Municipality of Bremen (, ), is the capital of the States of Germany, German state of the Bremen (state), Free Hanseatic City of Bremen (), a two-city-state consisting of the c ...
,
Germany
Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...
. The focus of work in the first years was on work boats for fishing and ferry operations. Hull number one was a five meter long rowboat. From the 1880s Lürssen opened up the sport boat market. In 1886 the first motorboat in the world was built by Lürssen (according to his own account).
[''Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger''. 16. September 2011, P. 11]
In 2016 Lürssen acquired shipbuilding company
Blohm+Voss Blohm is a surname. Notable people with the surname include:
*Hans Blohm C.M. (born 1927), photographer and author
*Hermann Blohm (1848–1930), German businessman and co-founder of German company Blohm+Voss
*Irma Blohm (1909–1997), German politi ...
in a long-term partnership.
On 1 March 2018, a German consortium consisting of
Thyssen Krupp and Lürssen was excluded by the German government from the tender for the construction of the multi-purpose warship MKS 180 for the benefit of GNY (
German Naval Yards), belonging to the Prinvinvest group, and the Dutch shipbuilder
Damen.
On 14 September 2018, a
fire
Fire is the rapid oxidation of a fuel in the exothermic chemical process of combustion, releasing heat, light, and various reaction Product (chemistry), products.
Flames, the most visible portion of the fire, are produced in the combustion re ...
broke out in the floating dock at Fähr-Lobbendorf, burning the then-under construction structure of the yacht ''Sassi''. With around 900 emergency services deployed, it was the largest deployment of the Bremen fire brigade in the post-war period. The damage was estimated at more than 610 million euros.
On 29 September 2021, Peter Lürssen, owner of Blohm+Voss, announced downsizing of the company, from the ~ 580 workers, more than 100 would leave the company, the docks were to be reviewed, no more cruise ships would be renewed in Hamburg, nor tankers and container ships. B+V was to stay only with the NVL defence ships and the yachts business. The area of installations was to be reduced as well. The Department of Projects of New Buildings was dissolved.
Yachts
Below is a list of all the yachts built by Lürssen:
Naval Vessels Lürssen
NVL is the military division of Lürssen and is building small to medium size naval vessels mainly for exporting.
Australian Navy ships
Lürssen has the contract to design and build twelve
''Arafura''-class offshore patrol vessels for Australia.
Construction of the first two will be in
Adelaide
Adelaide ( , ; ) is the list of Australian capital cities, capital and most populous city of South Australia, as well as the list of cities in Australia by population, fifth-most populous city in Australia. The name "Adelaide" may refer to ei ...
by
ASC Pty Ltd. The remaining ten will be constructed in
Western Australia
Western Australia (WA) is the westernmost state of Australia. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east, and South Australia to the south-east. Western Aust ...
by
Civmec.
Lürssen was awarded a 2.6 billion contract in 2017 to build twelve patrol boats for the Australian Navy. Work began in Adelaide in mid-2018. Lürssen was the general contractor and was responsible for the design, construction management and the overall manufacturing process. The first "
Offshore Patrol Vessel" (OPV) was delivered in 2021 and replaced the
Royal Australian Navy
The Royal Australian Navy (RAN) is the navy, naval branch of the Australian Defence Force (ADF). The professional head of the RAN is Chief of Navy (Australia), Chief of Navy (CN) Vice admiral (Australia), Vice Admiral Mark Hammond (admiral), Ma ...
former
Armidale-class vessels.
Bulgarian Navy ships
In 2021 NVL started building two multi-purpose patrol ships for the Bulgarian Navy, in collaboration with MTG Dolphin Shipyard in Varna.
Naval ships
Naval ships built by Lürssen include:
* Many
E-boats of
World War II
World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
, based on Lürssen's design for
Otto Hermann Kahn's private yacht ''
Oheka II
''Oheka II'' was a private motor yacht built for German-born American investment banking, investment banker Otto Hermann Kahn by Lürssen in 1927. Capable of 34 knot (unit), knots top speed, she became the blueprint for the Kriegsmarine's Schnellb ...
''
* World War II
R boat
The R boats (''Räumboote'' in German, literally "clearing boats", meaning minesweepers) were a group of small naval vessels built as minesweepers for the ''Kriegsmarine'' (German navy) before and during the Second World War. They were used for ...
minesweepers
A minesweeper is a small warship designed to remove or detonate naval mines. Using various mechanisms intended to counter the threat posed by naval mines, minesweepers keep waterways clear for safe shipping.
History
The earliest known usage of ...
, including the first minesweeper (1929) fitted with a
Voith Schneider propeller
The Voith Schneider Propeller (VSP) is a specialized marine propulsion system (MPS) manufactured by the Voith Group based on a cyclorotor design. It is highly maneuverable, being able to change the direction of its thrust almost instantaneousl ...
(R8)
*
*
*
*
*
*
* , 1988 to Turkey
* , Brunei
*
Lürssen is currently also involved with the building of s and is part of the ARGE F125
joint-venture designing the s.
Class 424
German Navy
The German Navy (, ) is part of the unified (Federal Defense), the German Armed Forces. The German Navy was originally known as the ''Bundesmarine'' (Federal Navy) from 1956 to 1995, when ''Deutsche Marine'' (German Navy) became the official ...
wanted to replace its
SIGINT ships of Oste
class 423 by three new ships of
class 424. In June 2021, the
Bundestag
The Bundestag (, "Federal Diet (assembly), Diet") is the lower house of the Germany, German Federalism in Germany, federal parliament. It is the only constitutional body of the federation directly elected by the German people. The Bundestag wa ...
approved the development and procurement of three auxiliary ships as well as a training and reference reconnaissance facility (ARAA) for sea-based signal detection reconnaissance (ssA). As the main contractor, Lürssen was commissioned to develop the systems by February 2023. All services should be completed by 2029. The first of the three boats is scheduled to be put into service in 2027 and will mark the replacement of the fleet service boats ''Oker'', ''Alster'' and ''
Oste'' from the 1980this.
When concluding the contract with Naval Vessels Lürssen (NVL) in June 2021, the Federal Audit Office,
Bundesrechnungshof reported “significant concerns”. It criticized the fact that the Ministry of Defense only wanted to discuss with the shipyard after the contract had been signed how exactly the ships should be built. "Billions were awarded blindly and a very bad negotiating situation," wrote the
Süddeutsche Zeitung
The ''Süddeutsche Zeitung'' (; ), published in Munich, Bavaria, is one of the largest and most influential daily newspapers in Germany. The tone of ''SZ'' is mainly described as centre-left, liberal, social-liberal, progressive-liberal, and ...
. The Federal Audit Office feared "additional expenditure in the medium term."
In 2023, the ships only existed vaguely and sketchily on paper.The new building increased in price from 2.1 billion euros to 3.3 billion euros (2023).
The Federal court of Audit,
Bundesrechnungshof intervened in 2023 and stated that there were significant risks arising from the contract structure with Lürssen.
Gallery
Yachts
File:Dilbar-Barcelona 2017.jpg, '' Dilbar''
File:Megayacht Octopus.jpg, ''Octopus
An octopus (: octopuses or octopodes) is a soft-bodied, eight-limbed mollusc of the order Octopoda (, ). The order consists of some 300 species and is grouped within the class Cephalopoda with squids, cuttlefish, and nautiloids. Like oth ...
''
File:Rising Sun Yacht.JPG, '' Rising Sun''
File:Pelorus.JPG, '' Pelorus''
File:Yacht Eos Dartmouth Feb 2008.jpg, ''Eos
In ancient Greek mythology and Ancient Greek religion, religion, Eos (; Ionic Greek, Ionic and Homeric Greek ''Ēṓs'', Attic Greek, Attic ''Héōs'', "dawn", or ; Aeolic Greek, Aeolic ''Aúōs'', Doric Greek, Doric ''Āṓs'') is the go ...
''
File:London MMB »295 City Canal and "Kismet".jpg, '' Kismet''
File:1343 Azzam.jpg, '' Azzam''
File:2017-06-11 Luxusyacht AURORA bei der Lürssen-Werft Schacht-Audorf (2122).jpg, ''Aurora
An aurora ( aurorae or auroras),
also commonly known as the northern lights (aurora borealis) or southern lights (aurora australis), is a natural light display in Earth's sky, predominantly observed in high-latitude regions (around the Arc ...
''
File:RADIANT 1324.jpg, '' Radiant''
Warships
File:German Motor Torpedo Boat underway at speed prior to 1939.jpg, E-boat
File:Räumboot Algol.jpg, R boat
The R boats (''Räumboote'' in German, literally "clearing boats", meaning minesweepers) were a group of small naval vessels built as minesweepers for the ''Kriegsmarine'' (German navy) before and during the Second World War. They were used for ...
File:Bundespräsident Gustav Heinemann besucht die WERRA (A 68) im Tirpitzhafen zur Kieler Woche 1971 (Kiel 49.143).jpg, ''Zobel'' class
File:Jaguar - Dommel.jpg, ''Jaguar'' class
File:1974 Schnellboote Kl. 141.jpg, ''Seeadler'' class
File:KDB Darulehsan.jpg, ''Darussalam'' class
File:Fregatte F222 msu2017-8716.jpg, ''Baden-Württemberg'' class
File:KDB Syafaat (FPB-19).jpg, ''Ijtihad'' class
File:RSS Valiant sails next to the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt.jpg, ''Victory'' class
File:S62 Falke.jpeg, ''Albatros'' class
File:Chl LM39.jpg, ''Tiger'' class
File:ARA Intrepida (P 85).jpg, ''Intrépida'' class
File:Republic of Singapore Navy missile gunboat RSS Sea Dragon (P78) at Changi Naval Base, Singapore - 20070527.jpg, Seawolf-class
File:TCG P-336 Zıpkın 20171029 (5).jpg, ''Kılıç'' class
File:Minenjagdboot Grömitz.JPG, ''Frankenthal'' class
File:M1090 Pegnitz Nord-Ostsee-Kanal 1.JPG, ''Ensdorf'' class
File:M1063 Bad Bevensen Minenjagdboot der Frankenthal-Klasse der Bundeswehr (16557472387).jpg, ''Frankenthal'' class
See also
*
E-boat
References
External links
Lürssen DefenceList of Naval vessels as built by Lürssen GmbHYachts built by Lürssen - SYT
Some Lürssen's yachts videosYacht ''Vive la Vie'' Lürssen honored with the ‘Motor Yacht of the Year Award’ at the World Superyacht Awards 2010 in London for The 60m motor yacht Arkley
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lurssen
Companies established in 1875
Military vehicle manufacturers
German boat builders
Shipbuilding companies of Germany
Defence companies of Germany
German brands
Companies based in Bremen (city)
Manufacturing companies based in Bremen (state)
History of Bremen (city)
1875 establishments in Germany