World War II Database

Contributor: Al Griffis

ww2dbaseIn 1855, the city of Klaipeda in the Russian Empire began constructing the area that would later be known as Winter Harbor. In 1875, the city was connected to the Preußische Ostbahn (Prussian Eastern Railway) system. In 1878, port facilities were modernized and expanded. In 1917, the city was connected by rail to Riga, Russian Empire to the north. In Feb 1918, Lithuania declared independence from the Russian Empire, and Klaipeda was the third largest city in Lithuania at the time. In the following year, 1919, Paul Lindenau, the son of a former employee of Ferdinand Schichau of Elbing, Germany (now Elblag, Poland), purchased some of the shipbuilding equipment in Klaipeda and started the Lindenau shipyard in Klaipeda with 200 employees. Between 1921 and 1922, the port facilities were modernized again with the construction of new loading and unloading facilities. After building a number of wooden ships, in 1922, the shipyard completed its first ocean-going metal ship, a freighter named Cattaro. In 1923, the Lithuanian government appointed a three-member Port Directorate board to oversee the business community in the port area. In 1936, the Lindenau shipyard received a gantry crane with a 2,600-ton lifting capacity from J. W. Klawitter. In the mid-1930s, the shipyard expanded at a steady pace. In 1938, it completed the largest ship built in Lithuania to date, the passenger ship Helgoland, built for the HAPAG Company. In Mar 1939, Germany forcibly annexed the Klaipeda region, which the Germans called Memel, and the Lindenau shipyard with an ostensibly German background grew under the new administration, receiving the order to build three minesweepers from the German Navy. Within months, it acquired additional land to the south to build two additional slips with scaffolding, and the work to add three 5-ton gantry cranes also started before the start of the European War in Sep 1939. At this time, the shipyard employed approximately 600 workers. In late Sep 1939, the German Navy ordered three minesweepers, though their keels would not be laid down until all the expansion work had been completed in 1941. In 1942, the shipyard purchased a 1,600-ton floating drydock. The Lindenau shipyard was at its greatest production capacity, with almost 900 employees. In Aug 1944, as Soviet troops neared, the shipyard was made ready for evacuation. Everything needed for shipbuilding that could be carried away was stowed on ships. The 2,600-ton floating drydock was made ready to be towed to Gdynia (German: Gotenhaven) in occupied Poland, and the 1,600-ton floating drydock was made ready to be towed to Pillau, Germany (now Baltiysk, Russia). The 2,600-ton drydock was later towed to Kiel, Germany. In Jan 1945, whatever remained of the Lindenau shipyard in Klaipeda was abandoned. Soviet forces captured the city on 28 Jan 1945. After the war, in 1945, under Soviet supervision, a ship repair company was established at the former Lindenau site. Meanwhile, the equipment relocated to Kiel was used to establish a new Lindenau shipyard in the Christianspries district in the northern part of the city, near the Bay of Kiel, where the new company would continue its operations into the present day.

Ships Constructed at Lindenau GmbH Schiffswerft und Maschinenfabrik

* Projected dates; not actual

Lindenau GmbH Schiffswerft und Maschinenfabrik Interactive Map

Photographs