Flugzeugbau Friedrichshafen GmbH was a German aircraft manufacturing company.

Overview

The company was founded in 1912 in

Friedrichshafen Friedrichshafen ( or ; Low Alemannic: ''Hafe'' or ''Fridrichshafe'') is a city on the northern shoreline of Lake Constance (the ''Bodensee'') in Southern Germany, near the borders of both Switzerland and Austria. It is the district capital (''Kre ...

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 ...

Theodor Kober Theodor Kober (born 13 February 1865 in Stuttgart; died 20 December 1930 in Friedrichshafen) was a twentieth-century German aviation engineer who contributed to the building of the first Zeppelin. Life As an engineer Kober had worked for a ba ...

who had previously worked for the Zeppelin company. The town, which is located by the

Bodensee Lake Constance (german: Bodensee, ) refers to three bodies of water on the Rhine at the northern foot of the Alps: Upper Lake Constance (''Obersee''), Lower Lake Constance (''Untersee''), and a connecting stretch of the Rhine, called the Lake ...

, was already famous in aviation circles as the place where

Zeppelin A Zeppelin is a type of rigid airship named after the German inventor Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin () who pioneered rigid airship development at the beginning of the 20th century. Zeppelin's notions were first formulated in 1874Eckener 1938, pp ...

airships were built. During the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, Flugzeugbau Friedrichshafen mainly built

seaplane A seaplane is a powered fixed-wing aircraft capable of takeoff, taking off and water landing, landing (alighting) on water.Gunston, "The Cambridge Aerospace Dictionary", 2009. Seaplanes are usually divided into two categories based on their tec ...

s for the '' Marine-Fliegerabteilung'' units of the

Imperial German Navy The Imperial German Navy or the Imperial Navy () was the navy of the German Empire, which existed between 1871 and 1919. It grew out of the small Prussian Navy (from 1867 the North German Federal Navy), which was mainly for coast defence. Wilhel ...

, and a highly successful series of land based medium bombers for the Imperial Air Service under the aegis of head designer Karl Gehlen. After the

Armistice An armistice is a formal agreement of warring parties to stop fighting. It is not necessarily the end of a war, as it may constitute only a cessation of hostilities while an attempt is made to negotiate a lasting peace. It is derived from the La ...

, the company took over the old Zeppelin shed at

Manzell Friedrichshafen ( or ; Low Alemannic: ''Hafe'' or ''Fridrichshafe'') is a city on the northern shoreline of Lake Constance (the ''Bodensee'') in Southern Germany, near the borders of both Switzerland and Austria. It is the district capital (''Kre ...

. They would also start production in

Weingarten Weingarten may refer to: Places * Weingarten, Württemberg, Germany ** Weingarten Abbey * Weingarten (Baden), Germany * Weingarten, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany * Weingarten, Thuringia, Germany * Weingarten, Switzerland * Weingarten, Missouri ...

and

Warnemünde (, literally ''Mouth of the Warnow'') is a seaside resort and a district of the city of Rostock in Mecklenburg, Germany. It is located on the Baltic Sea and, as the name implies, at the estuary of the river Warnow. is one of the world's busie ...

. When the company failed in 1923, their production facilities were taken over by

Dornier Flugzeugwerke Dornier Flugzeugwerke was a German aircraft manufacturer founded in Friedrichshafen in 1914 by Claude Dornier. Over the course of its long lifespan, the company produced many designs for both the civil and military markets. History Originally ...

References

* {{Fairchild Aircraft Defunct aircraft manufacturers of Germany Companies based in Friedrichshafen