World War II Database

Contributor: C. Peter Chen

ww2dbaseIn 1804, the Jan Klawitter shipyard was established in the city of Danzig, then a part of the Kingdom of Prussia (now Gdansk, Poland). In 1844, the Prussian government purchased 5 acres of land on the Vistula River as the location for its first shipyard, including the Jan Klawitter facilities, and the construction work began immediately. In 1849, the shipyard neared completion and was named the Marine Depot. By 1854, the shipyard had the name of Royal Shipyard Danzig and reported to the Technical Department of the German Admiralty. In 1861, the shipyard expanded, acquiring land from the banks of the Vistula up to the gasworks. Already in place was one patent slip which consisted of three carriage trains which pulled the vessel onto a cradle and then out of the water onto a slip. Additionally there was a dock basin and a floating dry dock, a boiler-house and other various workshops. In 1871, it was renamed the Kaiserliche Werft Danzig. In 1878, a three-leg crane was purchased, and it was later put on a pontoon. As warships were becoming larger, the depth of the Visula was continually interfering with construction and the slips were not of sufficient length and width, thus by 1910 the shipyard had to settle for building smaller cruisers and repair work. In 1919, after WW1 and as Danzig became a free city subjected to demilitarization, it was renamed the Danzig Shipyard and Railway Workshops, with the city-state being its new owner. Very shortly after, the 33 submarines currently under construction were scrapped. In 1922, the shipyard became the joint stock company International Shipbuilding and Engineering Company Limited (German: Danziger Werft und Eisenbahnwerkstätten AG), or Danziger Werft for short, from its German name. Danziger Werft's ownership breakdown at this time was 30% by a French company, 30% by a British company, 20% by a Danzig bank, and 20% by a Polish bank. During the 1920s, the shipyard operated mostly under maximum capacity, generally building small merchant ships, tug boats, and motor boats. During the first half of the 1930s, the company suffered during the global economic down turn, but survived. In the late 1930s, as business increased, and Germany promised increased orders as it looked to expand its naval forces. Danziger Werft added a new tool shop, a new boiler plant, a compressed air workshop, a compressor plant, and a third slip for building ships up to 150 meters and up to 15,000 tons during this time. License production of MAN ship engines was also started. In the opening chapters of the European War of WW2, Danzig was taken over by Germany, along with the shipyard. One year later, the shipyard was officially taken over by German owners and was renamed Danziger Werft AG. During WW2, the shipyard built Type VII submarines for the German Navy, and it suffered many raids by Allied aerial bombing. After the war, the shipyard was largely dismantled by the Soviet Union. It was ultimately taken over by the Polish government and was merged with the nearby F. Schichau Danzig shipyard to form the new Stocznia Gdanska. It was renamed Stocznia Gdansk Spolka Akcyjna in 1990. It remains in operations at the time of this writing in 2019.

Ships Constructed at Danziger Werft AG

Danziger Werft AG Interactive Map

Photographs

Maps

Danziger Werft AG Timeline