, 2003 '', in the museum in
Dresden HDW was founded 1 October 1838 in
Kiel by engineer
August Howaldt and entrepreneur under the name
Maschinenbauanstalt und Eisengießerei Schweffel & Howaldt (Machine Factory and Iron Foundry Schweffel & Howaldt), initially building
boilers. The first
steam engine for naval purposes was built in 1849 for
Von der Tann, a
gunboat for the small navy of
Schleswig-Holstein. In 1850, the company built an early
submarine,
Brandtaucher, designed by
Wilhelm Bauer. It had been intended to build the boat in
Rendsburg but
Danish forces advanced too close during the
First Schleswig War, so construction was moved to Kiel. The first ship built under the company's new name
Howaldtswerke was a small steamer, named
Vorwärts, built in 1865. Business expanded rapidly as Germany became a maritime power and, by the start of the 20th century, around 390 ships had been completed. In 1892, the company started a subsidiary in
Austro-Hungarian Fiume on the coast of the
Adriatic Sea. The subsidiary closed ten years later, but the yard remains open under the name
3. Maj. With Kiel being one of the two main bases of the
Kaiserliche Marine, the shipyard also benefited much from navy maintenance, repair and construction contracts. During
World War I the company also built a number of
U-boats. By 1937, the company had yards in Kiel and in Hamburg, and was taken over by the
Kriegsmarine. During
World War II, Howaldtswerke built 33
VIIC U-boats in Hamburg and 31 in Kiel. After the end of World War II, Howaldtswerke was the only major shipyard in Kiel that was not dismantled. The yard flourished during the "
economic miracle" of the 1960s, with the construction of freighters and tankers, and again expanded by opening a shipyard in Hamburg. Howaldtswerke merged with
Deutsche Werft in Hamburg in 1968, and the company took the new name
Howaldtswerke-Deutsche Werft (HDW). In 1982, HDW took out ads in American newspapers offering to sell the U.S. Navy the rights to build a Type 2000 submarine in the U.S. using American labor and materials. Pressure from cheaper competitors in
Japan and
South Korea caused the closure of the Hamburg yard in 1985. In March 2002, the American financial investor One Equity Partner (OEP) took over the majority of Babcock AG at HDW. Shortly after that, Babcock AG had to file for insolvency and called for a reserved transaction, but the OEP was able to avoid this. In January 2005, HDW became a subsidiary of
ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems (TKMS), which also part-owned
Kockums of
Malmö,
Sweden and 24.9% of
Hellenic Shipyards Co. of
Skaramangas,
Greece. The group employs around 6,600 workers. In 2009, HDW worked with
Kockums and
Northrop Grumman to offer a derivative in the American
Focused Mission Vessel Study, a precursor to the
Littoral combat ship program. In July 2011, TKMS announced that it has confirmed an existing deal to sell the civilian shipbuilding assets of HDW Gaarden to
Abu Dhabi MAR. ==Ships built by HDW (selection)==