Meyer Werft (; ) is 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 ...

company, headquartered in

Papenburg Papenburg (; East Frisian Low Saxon: ''Papenbörg'') is a city in the district of Emsland, Lower Saxony, Germany, situated at the river Ems. It is known for its large shipyard, the Meyer-Werft, which specializes in building cruise liners. Ge ...

at the river Ems. It was founded in 1795, as a builder of small wooden vessels. It has been owned and managed by the Meyer family for seven generations. Since 1997, it has been part of the Meyer Neptun Group, together with Neptun Werft in Rostock. In 2014, the company added the Turku shipyard in Finland to the group. Since then, it has also been a builder of luxury passenger ships. 700 ships of different types had been built at the yard. The Dock 2 Hall is the third largest shipbuilding hall and the fifth-largest usable volume in the world as of 2022. The shipyard is an anchor on the European Route of Industrial Heritage.

History

The shipyard was founded at the beginning of 1795 by Willm Rolf Meyer as a yard specializing in small wooden vessels. Josef Lambert Meyer began building

iron Iron is a chemical element; it has symbol Fe () and atomic number 26. It is a metal that belongs to the first transition series and group 8 of the periodic table. It is, by mass, the most common element on Earth, forming much of Earth's o ...

vessels in 1874. During the

Second World War 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 ...

, Meyer Werft mainly repaired ships, including ships from 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 It superseded the Imperial German Navy of the German Empire (1871–1918) and the inter-war (1919–1935) of the Weimar Republic.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 ...

''. There were once more than 20 shipyards in the Papenburg area, but today Meyer Werft is the only one remaining. Meyer Werft gained international recognition through the construction of roll-on/roll-off ferries, passenger ferries, gasoline tankers, container ships, livestock ferries and most recently luxury

cruise ship Cruise ships are large passenger ships used mainly for vacationing. Unlike ocean liners, which are used for transport, cruise ships typically embark on round-trip voyages to various ports of call, where passengers may go on Tourism, tours k ...

s. Meyer is one of the largest and most modern shipyards in the world with about 3300 employees, and home to the largest roofed dry docks in the world. The first covered dock was inaugurated in 1987 and was 370 meters long, 101,5 meters wide and 60 meters high. In 1990/91 the dock was extended by an additional 100 meters. In 2004, a second covered dock was built, which is announced to be extended to a full-length of 504 meters, a width of 125 meters and height of 75 meters in order to compete with Asian shipyards. Meyer Werft will as a result of this be able to build three

s a year. Because the yard at Papenburg is upstream on the river Ems, the giant ships to be delivered have to make a 36 km voyage to the Dollart bay. These voyages attract thousands of spectators. Up until the completion of the Ems river barrier in 2002, the journey was only possible at high tides. In September 2014 Meyer Werft acquired 70% ownership of STX Finland and the Turku shipyard STX Finland Oy from STX Europe with the state-owned Finnish Industry Investment owning the remaining 30%. The shipyard was renamed Meyer Turku Oy. Meyer Werft acquired the remaining 30% in 2015. During the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

, Meyer Werft ran into financial trouble due to a rise in energy and material costs for their shipbuilding contracts. In 2024, Meyer Werft needed €2.8 billion to complete its existing orders but were unable to obtain financing from banks. The German state and the

States of Germany The Federal Republic of Germany is a federation and consists of sixteen partly sovereign ''states''. Of the sixteen states, thirteen are so-called area-states ('Flächenländer'); in these, below the level of the state government, there is a ...

were asked to support the struggling shipyard. Chancellor Olaf Scholz proclaimed the systemic relevance of Meyer Werft in mid August 2024 and signaled the readiness to help out, pending approval by 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 ...

and the

European Commission The European Commission (EC) is the primary Executive (government), executive arm of the European Union (EU). It operates as a cabinet government, with a number of European Commissioner, members of the Commission (directorial system, informall ...

. On 13 September 2024, the German parliaments budgetary committee voted for the governments rescue plan. Research by '' Handelsblatt'' showed that the Federal Ministry of Finance had addressed the committee in a secret dossier and stressed the potential importance of the shipyard for military projects if global tensions should rise. However, Max Johns, Professor for Maritime Management with the HSBA called the claim of Meyer Werft's importance for military projects a "retroactive search for reasons" after politicians had already promised to help, and that ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems and Lürssen were already available. The contracts were signed on 16 September 2024, with the German government acquiring 80 % of the company for €400 million. A week after the signing, systemic malpractices in

management accounting In management accounting or managerial accounting, managers use accounting information in decision-making and to assist in the management and performance of their control functions. Definition One simple definition of management accounting is th ...

were discovered, with the management apparently unaware of the actual state of Meyer Werft projects and never having produced monthly financial statements.

Entry of the state of Lower Saxony and the federal government ( September 2024 )

A report from summer 2024 confirmed that Meyer Werft had a positive restructuring perspective. The shipyard needs fresh capital by September 15, 2024. There is no private investor in sight. That's why the state and federal government will support the cash-strapped shipyard. On the one hand, what is needed is a guarantee worth a good two billion euros, half of which is provided by the federal and state governments. On the other hand, Meyer Werft needs fresh equity capital. The talks are about around 400 million euros. This would mean that the state would take over the clear majority of the shipyard. The government of the state of Lower Saxony and the Scholz government signed contracts on September 16, 2024, by which the Federal Republic and the state of Lower Saxony take over around 80% of Meyer Werft. In addition to the economic importance, the potential military importance also became known as a justification for the state's entry. A report from EY-Parthenon confirms that the Papenburg shipyard location, with its existing infrastructure, has a high level of suitability and capacity to be able to build naval ships in the event of increasing security tensions. Papenburg is out of range of Russian short-range missiles stationed in Kaliningrad Oblast. The security expert Sebastian Bruns put this into perspective, among other things: because the Meyer Werft relies on the Ems to be dammed by the Ems barrage to transport the ships it has built, which therefore also needs to be protected.

Ships built at Meyer Werft

A large variety of ships have been built at Meyer Werft, including car carriers, cargo ships, container ships,

s, ferries, fishing vessels, gas carriers, lightvessels, paddlesteamers, passenger ships and Seebäderschiffs. During the last years, the shipyard was only building cruise ships. Since 2024, the company is building parts of Converter Platform. The decision was made during the beginning of the

List of shipyards

* Meyer Werft (located in

, Germany) * Neptun Werft (located in Rostock, Germany) * Meyer Turku (located in

Turku Turku ( ; ; , ) is a city in Finland and the regional capital of Southwest Finland. It is located on the southwestern coast of the country at the mouth of the Aura River (Finland), River Aura. The population of Turku is approximately , while t ...

Finland Finland, officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It borders Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bothnia to the west and the Gulf of Finland to the south, ...

)

References

External links