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Aktien-Gesellschaft Vulcan Stettin (short AG Vulcan Stettin) was a German
shipbuilding Shipbuilding is the construction of ships and other Watercraft, floating vessels. In modern times, it normally takes place in a specialized facility known as a shipyard. Shipbuilders, also called shipwrights, follow a specialized occupation th ...
and locomotive building company. Founded in 1851, it was located near the former eastern German city of
Stettin Szczecin ( , , ; ; ; or ) is the capital and largest city of the West Pomeranian Voivodeship in northwestern Poland. Located near the Baltic Sea and the German border, it is a major seaport, the largest city of northwestern Poland, and se ...
, today Polish
Szczecin Szczecin ( , , ; ; ; or ) is the capital city, capital and largest city of the West Pomeranian Voivodeship in northwestern Poland. Located near the Baltic Sea and the Poland-Germany border, German border, it is a major port, seaport, the la ...
. Because of the limited facilities in Stettin, in 1907 an additional yard was built in
Hamburg Hamburg (, ; ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg,. is the List of cities in Germany by population, second-largest city in Germany after Berlin and List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, 7th-lar ...
. The now named Vulcan-Werke Hamburg und Stettin Actiengesellschaft constructed some of the most famous civilian German ships and it played a significant role in both World Wars, building warships for the
Kaiserliche Marine The adjective ''kaiserlich'' means "imperial" and was used in the German-speaking countries to refer to those institutions and establishments over which the ''Kaiser'' ("emperor") had immediate personal power of control. The term was used partic ...
and the
Kriegsmarine The (, ) was the navy of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It superseded the Imperial German Navy of the German Empire (1871–1918) and the inter-war (1919–1935) of the Weimar Republic. The was one of three official military branch, branche ...
later. Both yards became members of the
Deschimag Deutsche Schiff- und Maschinenbau Aktiengesellschaft (abbreviated Deschimag) was a cooperation of eight German shipyards in the period 1926 to 1945. The leading company was the shipyard AG Weser in Bremen. History The Deschimag was founded in ...
in the 1920s. The Stettin shipyard was closed in 1928, opened again in 1939. During World War II it exploited slave workers, and after the war, was taken over by the Polish government, while the Hamburg yard was sold to
Howaldtswerke Howaldtswerke-Deutsche Werft GmbH (often abbreviated HDW) is a German shipbuilding company, headquartered in Kiel. It is part of the ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems (TKMS) group, owned by ThyssenKrupp. The Howaldtswerke shipyard was founded in Kiel i ...
AG in 1930 and the ''Locomotive Department'' was sold to in Berlin


History

A.G. Vulcan Stettin was founded 1851 as Schiffswerft und Maschinenfabrik Früchtenicht & Brock by the two young engineers ''Franz F. D. Früchtenicht'' and ''Franz W. Brock'' in the little village ''Bredow'', which later became suburb of the eastern German city of ''Stettin''. Its first ship was the small iron
paddle steamer A paddle steamer is a steamship or steamboat powered by a steam engine driving paddle wheels to propel the craft through the water. In antiquity, paddle wheelers followed the development of poles, oars and sails, whereby the first uses were wh ...
, named ''Die Dievenow'' for the service between the cities of ''Stettin'' and ''Swinemünde''. Several small vessels followed, while the yard continuously was enlarged. When the yard went into financial problems, in 1857 the company was taken over by some entrepreneurs and politicians from Stettin and Berlin which founded the new company Stettiner Maschinenbau Actien-Gesellschaft Vulcan. Ship construction was continued, but the solution of the financial trouble was expected by additionally constructing locomotives. A subsidiary company was founded, called Abteilung Locomotivbau in Bredow bei Stettin. In 1859 the first locomotive was delivered; all together the company built about 4,000 units in Stettin until it was sold to the Berlin company
Borsig Borsig is a surname. Notable people with the surname include: * (1867–1897), German entrepreneur * August Borsig (1804–1854), German businessman * Conrad von Borsig (1873–1945), German mechanical engineer * Ernst Borsig (1869–1933) ...
. In the future larger and larger ships were built, the facilities in Stettin could no longer sustain the scale of the operations. The yard built the s. Thus a new shipyard was built in
Hamburg Hamburg (, ; ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg,. is the List of cities in Germany by population, second-largest city in Germany after Berlin and List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, 7th-lar ...
between 1907 and 1909. From 1911, it was named Vulcan-Werke Hamburg und Stettin Actiengesellschaft. The Hamburg yard was the scene of a week-long strike in 1918 which was only brought to a close through the reading of the War Clauses.


Automatic transmissions for motor vehicles

Gustav Bauer, director of the marine engine section, supervised the work of
Hermann Föttinger Hermann Föttinger (9 February 1877 in Nuremberg – 28 April 1945 in Berlin) was a German engineer and inventor. In the course of his life he submitted over 100 patent applications, but he is most notable for inventing fluid coupling. Career ...
on the Fottinger hydraulic transmitter known as ''Vulcan Coupling'' and ''Vulcan Drive'' or
fluid coupling A fluid coupling or hydraulic coupling is a hydrodynamics, hydrodynamic or 'hydrokinetic' device used to transmit rotating mechanical power.
. In 1924, Vulcan's Hermann Rieseler invented one of the first
automatic transmission An automatic transmission (AT) or automatic gearbox is a multi-speed transmission (mechanics), transmission used in motor vehicles that does not require any input from the driver to change forward gears under normal driving conditions. The 1904 ...
s, which had a two-speed planetary gearbox,
torque converter A torque converter is a device, usually implemented as a type of fluid coupling, that transfers rotating power from a prime mover, like an internal combustion engine, to a rotating driven load. In a vehicle with an automatic transmission, the ...
, and lockup
clutch A clutch is a mechanical device that allows an output shaft to be disconnected from a rotating input shaft. The clutch's input shaft is typically attached to a motor, while the clutch's output shaft is connected to the mechanism that does th ...
; it never entered production., p. 62. (The less-sophisticated
Hydra-Matic Hydramatic (also known as Hydra-Matic) is an automatic transmission developed by General Motors Corporation's Oldsmobile Division, the ''Hydramatic'' was the first mass-produced fully automatic transmission developed for passenger automobile us ...
, which used a simple fluid coupling, was an available option on
Oldsmobile Oldsmobile (formally the Oldsmobile Division of General Motors) was a brand of American automobiles, produced for most of its existence by General Motors. Originally established as "Olds Motor Vehicle Company" by Ransom E. Olds in 1897, it produc ...
s in 1940.) The original coupling further developed in collaboration with Harold Sinclair of Fluidrive Engineering of Isleworth for Daimler of Coventry and matched with a manually controlled epicyclic gearbox went into production in England in 1929.


Shutdown

In 1928 Vulcan Stettin went bankrupt and sold its Hamburg shipyard in 1930. The AG Vulcan Stettin had been closed.


New enterprise

1939 a new company - also named Vulcan - was founded on the site of the former Stettin-shipyard. All together 34 construction numbers were started in the following years, including 18 type-VII C submarines. But because of the war only a few ships could be launched and completed. Among these were two submarines, but only one of them () was ever in service while the second one () was destroyed by allied air attacks before. During the war the yard exploited slave workers and had its own prisoner camp, part of the prisoner population engaged in anti-Nazi resistance, successfully sabotaging several constructed ships After
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 ...
the slave workers were freed and the shipyard was finally taken over by the Polish government and the new
Szczecin Shipyard Szczecin Shipyard or New Szczecin Shipyard (Polish: ''Stocznia Szczecińska Nowa'') was a shipyard in the city of Szczecin, Poland. Formerly known as ''Stocznia Szczecińska Porta Holding S.A.'' (until 2002) or ''Stocznia im. Adolfa Warskiego' ...
was started at this site. The Szczecin Shipyard named one of its wharfs "Wulkan" and two slipways "Wulkan 1" and "Wulkan Nowa".


Ships built by AG Vulcan Stettin (selection)

* 1851, Constr.No. 1,
Paddle steamer A paddle steamer is a steamship or steamboat powered by a steam engine driving paddle wheels to propel the craft through the water. In antiquity, paddle wheelers followed the development of poles, oars and sails, whereby the first uses were wh ...
''Die Dievenow'', first built ship * 1873, CNo. 66, SMS Preussen, first
ironclad An ironclad was a steam engine, steam-propelled warship protected by iron armour, steel or iron armor constructed from 1859 to the early 1890s. The ironclad was developed as a result of the vulnerability of wooden warships to explosive or ince ...
warship build * 1877, CNo. 74, , ironclad warship * 1879, for Shipping Company on the Don, Azov and Black Seas with their tributaries (). After 1886 belonged to
Russian Steam Navigation and Trading Company The Russian Steam Navigation and Trading Company ( or ROPiT , also referred as Russian S.N.Co.) of Odessa was one of the biggest joint stock steamship companies in Imperial Russia. Structure ROPiT was established in 1856 and ceased to exist in 1 ...
* 1880, Corvette ''Olga'' * 1881–1882, and for Chinese Navy * 1887, protected cruiser for
Kaiserliche Marine The adjective ''kaiserlich'' means "imperial" and was used in the German-speaking countries to refer to those institutions and establishments over which the ''Kaiser'' ("emperor") had immediate personal power of control. The term was used partic ...
(Imperial German Navy); 1922 broken up * 1889, ''Scandia'' Hamburg America Line liner, sold to U.S. Army Quartermaster Department 1898 serving as U.S. Army Transport ''Warren'' until 1922, sold, burned sunk Shanghai 1924 * 1891, for Kaiserliche Marine, 1910 sold to the Osman Navy * 1892,
Aviso An ''aviso'' was originally a kind of dispatch boat or "advice boat", carrying orders before the development of effective remote communication. The term, derived from the Portuguese and Spanish word for "advice", "notice" or "warning", an ...
and imperial yacht for
Kaiser Wilhelm II Wilhelm II (Friedrich Wilhelm Viktor Albert; 27 January 18594 June 1941) was the last German Emperor and King of Prussia from 1888 until his abdication in 1918, which marked the end of the German Empire as well as the Hohenzollern dynasty ...
; 1923 broken up * 1897, 4-funnel , won 1898
Blue Riband The Blue Riband () is an unofficial accolade given to the passenger liner crossing the Atlantic Ocean in regular service with the record highest Velocity, average speed. The term was borrowed from horse racing and was not widely used until ...
* 1897, Passenger ship ''Königin Luise'' for
Norddeutscher Lloyd Norddeutscher Lloyd (NDL; North German Lloyd) was a German shipping company. It was founded by Hermann Henrich Meier and Eduard Crüsemann in Bremen on 20 February 1857. It developed into one of the most important German shipping companies of th ...
(NDL), 1935 broken up * 1897–1899, great cruisers and * 1899, Steamer ''König Albert'' for NDL, 1926 broken up * 1901,
Pre-dreadnought battleship Pre-dreadnought battleships were sea-going battleships built from the mid- to late- 1880s to the early 1900s. Their designs were conceived before the appearance of in 1906 and their classification as "pre-dreadnought" is retrospectively appli ...
for Kaiserliche Marine * 1900, Passenger ship ''Deutschland'' * 1902, 4-funnel Kaiser-class ocean liner * 1902, Pre-dreadnought battleship for Kaiserliche Marine * 1903, Torpedo boat * 1903–1904, s and for Kaiserliche Marine * 1905, Pre-dreadnought for Kaiserliche Marine; sunk in Battle of Jütland in June 1916 * 1906, Passenger ship ''Kaiserin Auguste Victoria'' * 1906, 4-funnel Kaiser-class ocean liner * 1907, light cruiser for Kaiserliche Marine * 1906–1907, s , , and for the Hellenic Royal Navy * 1909, for Kaiserliche Marine, became later Osman cruiser , sunk 1918 by mines * 1907, Passenger ship * 1907, Passenger ship * 1907, for Kaiserliche Marine * 1909, CNo. 294, small experimental ship ''Föttinger Transformator'' with steam turbine and hydrodynamic transmission (Föttinger Transformator) propulsion * 1909, for Kaiserliche Marine; sunk 1914 in the Battle of Helgoland Bight * 1910, cruiser ROU ''Uruguay'', for National Navy of Uruguay. Out of service in 1951, scrapped in the 1960s. * 1912, Destroyers (ex-German V-class destroyer ''V6'') and (ex-''V5'') for the Hellenic Royal Navy * 1914, Imperial yacht for Kaiser Wilhelm II, not in service, 1923 scrapped in Hamburg * 1915, for Kaiserliche Marine * 1913, Passenger ship for HAPAG, not finished during war, 1919 British war-booty and renamed , 1952 scrapped * 1913, Passenger ship for
Norddeutscher Lloyd Norddeutscher Lloyd (NDL; North German Lloyd) was a German shipping company. It was founded by Hermann Henrich Meier and Eduard Crüsemann in Bremen on 20 February 1857. It developed into one of the most important German shipping companies of th ...
, supply ship for German raiders in World War I, seized by Peru 1917, renamed ''Callao'', chartered by
United States Shipping Board The United States Shipping Board (USSB) was a corporation established as an emergency agency by the 1916 Shipping Act (39 Stat. 729), on September 7, 1916. The United States Shipping Board's task was to increase the number of US ships supporting ...
(USSB) and transferred to U.S. Navy 26 April 1919 and commissioned USS ''Callao'' (ID-4036), decommissioned 20 September 1919. Sold at auction by USSB, renamed ''Ruth Alexander'' by Dollar Steamship Lines. * 1914–1918, All together 32 torpedo boats ( - , - , - , and ) * 1915, and for Kaiserliche Marine, 1918 both internment in
Scapa Flow Scapa Flow (; ) is a body of water in the Orkney Islands, Scotland, sheltered by the islands of Mainland, Graemsay, Burray,S. C. George, ''Jutland to Junkyard'', 1973. South Ronaldsay and Hoy. Its sheltered waters have played an impor ...
* 1916–1917, ''Rostock'' and ''Wiesbaden'', both not finished before the end of the war * 1922, Passenger steamer ''München'' for NDL, 1931 renamed and 1938 only ''Steuben'', sunk 1945 in the
Baltic Sea The Baltic Sea is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that is enclosed by the countries of Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Sweden, and the North European Plain, North and Central European Plain regions. It is the ...
by Soviet submarine , about 3,000 people, mainly refugees, killed * 1923, Passenger steamer ''Stuttgart'' for NDL, sunk 1943 by US Air Force * 1926, Passenger ship for beach resort service, used as minelayer in WWII, 1942 sunk by
Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the Air force, air and space force of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. It was formed towards the end of the World War I, First World War on 1 April 1918, on the merger of t ...
in Rotterdam * 1941, Type VII-C U-boats and , but only U 901 was ever in service


Ships built by AG Vulcan Hamburg (selection)

* 1911/12, for Kaiserliche Marine * 1913/14, Passenger ship * 1913/14, for Kaiserliche Marine * 1913/14, Merchant ship * 1914, Battleship '' Salamis'' for Hellenic Navy, construction stopped with beginning of war, 1932 scrapped in Bremen * 1915–1917, All together 69 U-boats of types UE 1, UE 2, UB III, UC I and UC II for Kaiserliche Marine * 1916, Modified (Replacement Yorck), construction stopped and after war broken up * 1917, for Kaiserliche Marine, not finished before end of war * 1922, Merchant ship ''Cap Norte''


Ships built by AG Vulcan Stettin (selection)


Civilian ships

* (1896) * (1900) * '' Kronprinz Wilhelm'' (1901) * (1902) * (1906) * (1906) * (1907) * (1907) * (1913)


Naval ships


Battleships

* (1881) * (1882) * (1890) * (1890) * (1900) * (1902) * (1904) * (1907)


Cruisers

* (1883) * (1887) * (1887) * (1887) * (1897) * (1897) * (1897) * (1898) * (1901) * (1902) * (1903) * (1906) * (1908) * (1910) * (1913) * (1915) * (1915) * (1915)


Destroyers

* (1906) * (1906) * (1907) * (1907) * (1912) * (1912)


Submarines (U-boats)

* Type VII-C U-boats (1941), out of six commissioned, only one, was ever in service.


Torpedo Boats

* (1914) * (1914) * (1914) * (1914) * (1914) * (1914) * (1915) * (1915) * (1915) * (1915) * (1915) * (1915) * (1915) * (1915) * (1916) * (1916) * (1916) * (1916) * (1916) * (1916) * (1916) * (1916) * (1916) * (1916) * (1916) * (1916) * (1916) * (1916) * (1916) * (1916) * , ex-Dutch ''Z-4'', later Polish * (1918)


Ships still afloat

* ''Gryfia'', ex-''Tyras'' (1887), small railway ferry, today in
Szczecin Szczecin ( , , ; ; ; or ) is the capital city, capital and largest city of the West Pomeranian Voivodeship in northwestern Poland. Located near the Baltic Sea and the Poland-Germany border, German border, it is a major port, seaport, the la ...
, Poland * ''Wittow'' (1895), small railway ferry, today shown in the harbour of Barth, Germany * Icebreaker ''Suur Tõll'' (1914), today a museum ship in
Tallinn Tallinn is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Estonia, most populous city of Estonia. Situated on a Tallinn Bay, bay in north Estonia, on the shore of the Gulf of Finland of the Baltic Sea, it has a population of (as of 2025) and ...
Icebrecher Stettin Hamburg Museum Ship


References

* Armin Wulle: ''Der Stettiner Vulcan. Ein Kapitel deutscher Schiffbaugeschichte''. Koehlers Verlagsgesellschaft mbH, Herford 1989, * Dieter Grusenick: ''Lokomotivbau bei der Stettiner Maschinenbau AG „Vulcan“''. B. Neddermeyer VBN, Berlin 2006, * Christian Ostersehlte: ''Von Howaldt zu HDW. 165 Jahre Entwicklung von einer Kieler Eisengießerei zum weltweit operierenden Schiffbau- und Technologiekonzern''. Koehler-Mittler, Hamburg 2004, * Arnold Kludas: ''Die Geschichte der Deutschen Passagierschiffahrt. Band 1: Die Pionierjahre von 1850 – 1990'' (= Schriften des Deutschen Schiffahrtsmuseums. Bd. 18). Ernst Kabel Verlag GmbH, Hamburg 1986, * Arnold Kludas; ''Die Seeschiffe des Norddeutschen Lloyd 1857 bis 1970'', Weltbild Verlag GmbH, Augsburg 1998, * Bodo Herzog, ''Deutsche U-Boote 1906 – 1966'', Manfred Pawlak Verlagsgesellschaft mbh, Herrsching 1990, * Siegfried Breyer, ''Schlachtschiffe und Schlachtkreuzer 1905 - 1970''J. F. Lehmanns Verlag München 1970,


External links


Summary of ''AG Vulcan Stettin''


{{Authority control Former submarine builders Shipbuilding companies of Germany Locomotive manufacturers of Germany Defunct manufacturing companies of Germany Companies of Prussia Manufacturing companies established in 1851 Vehicle manufacturing companies disestablished in 1945 1851 establishments in Prussia German companies established in 1851 1945 disestablishments in Germany History of Szczecin Companies based in Szczecin