The Maschinenbauanstalt Übigau, full name ''Dresdener Actien-Maschinenbau-Verein, Maschinenbau-Anstalt Uebigau'',albert-gieseler.de
Dresdener Actien-Maschinenbau-Verein, Maschinenbau-Anstalt Uebigau
/ref> was a German engineering firm based in the present-day district of Übigau in the city of

Dresden Dresden (, ; Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; wen, label=Upper Sorbian, Drježdźany) is the capital city of the German state of Saxony and its second most populous city, after Leipzig. It is the 12th most populous city of Germany, the fourth larg ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

History

In June 1836 the Dresden Engineering Society (''Dresdener Actien-Maschinenbau-Verein'') was form and, that same year, founded the ''Maschinenba-Anstalt Übigau'' which opened on 1 January 1837. A significant part was played by

Johann Andreas Schubert Johann-Andreas Schubert (19 March 1808 – 6 October 1870) was a German general engineer (''Universalingenieur''), designer and university lecturer. Life Schubert was born on 19 March 1808 in Wernesgrün (Vogtland) in the Kingdom of Saxony in ...

, engineer and professor at the Royal Dresden Institute of Technology, who subsequently acted as technical director and chairman of the board. Among the employees of the company was Christian Johann Heinrich Schmidt who later became Saxony's first

locomotive driver A train driver, engine driver, engineman or locomotive driver, commonly known as an engineer or railroad engineer in the United States and Canada, and also as a locomotive handler, locomotive operator, train operator, or motorman, is a pers ...

. The site of the engineering firm was Übigau House (''Schloss Übigau'') and the land immediately to the north, towards Altübigau.dresden-uebigau.de
Maschinenbauanstalt Übigau
/ref> In 1836, ownership of the house was transferred to the engineering firm who used it to house their management offices and construction rooms. The production sites were adjacent to the north. The engineering works was founded to realize some of Schubert's projects. One of them was the construction of the first German steam locomotive, the Saxonia, for the Leipzig and Dresden railway. In 1837, Schubert also designed the drive for the ''Königin Maria'', one of the first steamships on the Upper

Elbe The Elbe (; cs, Labe ; nds, Ilv or ''Elv''; Upper and dsb, Łobjo) is one of the major rivers of Central Europe. It rises in the Giant Mountains of the northern Czech Republic before traversing much of Bohemia (western half of the Czech Repu ...

. In April 1838, however, he left the company to devote himself to his teaching position. Since there was neither an official construction contract nor sufficient technical experience, production of the Saxonia posed a high risk for the company. Mainly due to a lack of orders, the economic situation of the firm remained tense in the period that followed. On 15 June 1841, it was decided to close the factory.archiv.sachsen.de: The Dresden Engineering Society offered it for private sale in July 1841. In 1863 the ''Schlick'sche

shipyard A shipyard, also called a dockyard or boatyard, is a place where ships are built and repaired. These can be yachts, military vessels, cruise liners or other cargo or passenger ships. Dockyards are sometimes more associated with maintenance a ...

'' emerged here, a company that from 1877 as ''Kette A.G.'' became the most important German inland shipyard for

barge Barge nowadays generally refers to a flat-bottomed inland waterway vessel which does not have its own means of mechanical propulsion. The first modern barges were pulled by tugs, but nowadays most are pushed by pusher boats, or other vessels ...

s and

passenger ship A passenger ship is a merchant ship whose primary function is to carry passengers on the sea. The category does not include cargo vessels which have accommodations for limited numbers of passengers, such as the ubiquitous twelve-passenger freig ...

s. In 1892 it was joined by the shipbuilding research department of ''TU Dresden'' and by 1920 the ''Dresdner Maschinenfabrik und Schiffswerft Übigau'' had 1,500 employees. Apart from ships it also made

boilers A boiler is a closed vessel in which fluid (generally water) is heated. The fluid does not necessarily boil. The heated or vaporized fluid exits the boiler for use in various processes or heating applications, including water heating, central h ...

, large engines and dredgers. By 1930, when it had to close for 5 years as a result of the worldwide economic crisis, it had delivered 1,400 ships from its slipways to places as far away as

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

and

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the southe ...

. In 1945 the firm was totally destroyed; it later reformed as ''VEB Dampfkesselbau Übigau'', building boiler systems for large ships until the 1990s, and vehicle

cranes Crane or cranes may refer to: Common meanings * Crane (bird), a large, long-necked bird * Crane (machine), industrial machinery for lifting ** Crane (rail), a crane suited for use on railroads People and fictional characters * Crane (surname), ...

as well from its

privatisation Privatization (also privatisation in British English) can mean several different things, most commonly referring to moving something from the public sector into the private sector. It is also sometimes used as a synonym for deregulation when ...

in 1990 until its

insolvency In accounting, insolvency is the state of being unable to pay the debts, by a person or company ( debtor), at maturity; those in a state of insolvency are said to be ''insolvent''. There are two forms: cash-flow insolvency and balance-sheet i ...

in 2001 . The yard had its own shipping berth with 48 steamers and

cargo ships A cargo ship or freighter is a merchant ship that carries cargo, goods, and materials from one port to another. Thousands of cargo carriers ply the world's seas and oceans each year, handling the bulk of international trade. Cargo ships are usu ...

References

External links

Übigau Shipyard 1863-2001, photos and passenger steamer ''Dresden'' in 1926
* There is an English-language German railway forum a
Railways of Germany
{{DEFAULTSORT:Maschinenbauanstalt Ubigau Transport in Saxony Defunct locomotive manufacturers of Germany