Founded in Hamburg in 1877 to specialise in steel-hulled ships, its most famous product was the World War II battleship Bismarck.

In the 1930s, its owners established the Hamburger Flugzeugbau aircraft manufacturer which, shortly before the outbreak of World War II, adopted the name of its parent company.

Following a difficult period after the war, B+V was revived, changing ownership among several owners, as Thyssen Group and Star Capital.

By this time the company was in financial crisis, so the Blohm brothers diversified into aircraft, setting up the Hamburger Flugzeugbau (see below) in the summer of 1933.

[7] With the rise of the Nazi Party to power in 1933, Germany began to rearm and both companies became increasingly involved in the programme.

The shipyard built both civilian craft and warships for the government, including the battleship Bismarck, before manufacturing U-boats in quantity.

A report dated 29 August states: 500 foreign female concentration camp prisoners, political, and criminal.

[9] A memorial stands on the site of the camp and the company continues to pay an undisclosed amount to the Fund for Compensation of Forced Laborers.

Its owners, brothers Rudolf and Walther Blohm, decided to diversify into aircraft manufacture, believing that there would soon be a market for all-metal, long-range flying boats, especially with the German state airline Deutsche Luft Hansa.

It reopened the former B+V aircraft factory at Finkenwerder and subsequently underwent various further changes of ownership and company name,[14] eventually becoming part of Airbus.

Its shipyard fortunes began to revive in 1952 when the new company was allowed to restart ship repair work and the City of Hamburg subsequently guaranteed it credit.

During this period of resurrection the level of investment required meant that B&V moved out of private hands and became a publicly quoted company, 50% owned by Phoenix-Rheinrohr AG, itself soon to be consolidated into the Thyssen Group.

[16] During the postwar years, B+V built oil rigs and developed a market for other offshore products such as support ships and pipelines.

Eclipse, built for Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich, is 162 metres (531 ft 6 in) in length making it the second longest private yacht in the world.

In December 2001, Blohm+Voss, Nordseewerke and Friedrich Lurssen Werft were awarded the contract to build the first five K130 MEKO frigates for the German Navy.

[21][22] In 2011 ThyssenKrupp agreed the sale of the Blohm+Voss civil shipbuilding division to British investment company STAR Capital Partners.

The Lürssen Group, which would be the main contractor in the production of the vessels, distributed its work between the two sites at Wolgast and B+V Hamburg to build only two, Köln in 2021 and Emden in 2022.

The previous 146-m Sassi, which was burned to the point that only the engine section block remained, formed part of Opera.

Blohm & Voss was established in the days of sail and, although it built ships with steel hulls from the first, it did not produce a significant steamship until 1900.