Trondhjems mekaniske Værksted or TMV was a major shipbuilding company in

Trondheim Trondheim ( , , ; sma, Tråante), historically Kaupangen, Nidaros and Trondhjem (), is a city and municipality in Trøndelag county, Norway. As of 2020, it had a population of 205,332, was the third most populous municipality in Norway, and ...

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and t ...

History

It was founded in 1872 by engineer and industrialist, Sophus August Weidemann. Weidemann had started in 1864 as manager of one of the pioneer companies in Trondheim. Weidemann resigned from his manager position in 1871 and founded Trondhjems mekaniske Værksted the following year.''Sophus August Weidemann''
The company grew gradually until the turn of the century, when it had over 700 employees and was one of Norway's largest companies. For many years TMV was the biggest employer in Trondheim. When Germany invaded Norway in 1940 it pressed TMV into war service. German authorities seized the ship , which TMV had launched in 1939 and was completing for a British shipping company, and assigned it to the ''Deutsche Dampfschiffahrts-Gesellschaft "Hansa"'' (

DDG Hansa DDG Hansa, short for Deutsche Dampfschiffahrts-Gesellschaft Hansa (German Steamship Company Hansa; in modern orthography, Deutsche Dampfschifffahrts-Gesellschaft Hansa) was a major German shipping company specialising in heavy freight and schedul ...

). In 1960 the Norwegian holding company Aker bought the majority of TMV's shares, merging them into the Aker Group. The company was closed in 1983. The former location of the company's shipbuilding business is still referred to as TMV by some citizens of Trondheim. The site currently houses the offices of the

Nedre Elvehavn Nedre Elvehavn is a neighborhood in the city of Trondheim in Trøndelag county, Norway. It is situated the borough of Østbyen, just on the east side of the river Nidelva (across the river from Midtbyen, although it is generally considered to b ...

borough of Trondheim. The entire area has been subject to an

urban renewal project Urban renewal (also called urban regeneration in the United Kingdom and urban redevelopment in the United States) is a program of land redevelopment often used to address urban decay in cities. Urban renewal involves the clearing out of blighte ...

. Solsiden shopping centre was built on the grounds in October 2000, and the surrounding area now has several

apartment building An apartment (American English), or flat (British English, Indian English, South African English), is a self-contained housing unit (a type of residential real estate) that occupies part of a building, generally on a single story. There are ...

s and a

hotel A hotel is an establishment that provides paid lodging on a short-term basis. Facilities provided inside a hotel room may range from a modest-quality mattress in a small room to large suites with bigger, higher-quality beds, a dresser, a ref ...

. The history of the area as a shipyard is preserved; the

dry dock A dry dock (sometimes drydock or dry-dock) is a narrow basin or vessel that can be flooded to allow a load to be floated in, then drained to allow that load to come to rest on a dry platform. Dry docks are used for the construction, maintenance, ...

s, many of the company buildings and even some of the shipbuilding equipment (such as a large crane) is still present. When a pedestrian bridge connecting Nedre Elvehavn to the

city centre A city centre is the commercial, cultural and often the historical, political, and geographic heart of a city. The term "city centre" is primarily used in British English, and closely equivalent terms exist in other languages, such as "" in Fren ...

of Trondheim was built in 2003, it was named '' Verftsbrua'', meaning "the (ship)yard bridge".

References

External links

TMV private archive
are kept at NTNU University Library Defunct manufacturing companies of Norway Shipbuilding companies of Norway Aker ASA Companies based in Trondheim Manufacturing companies established in 1872 1872 establishments in Norway Manufacturing companies disestablished in 1983 {{Norway-company-stub