Lürssen

On 27 June 1875 the 24 year-old Friedrich Lürssen set up a boatbuilding workshop in Aumund, a suburb of Bremen, Germany. The focus of work in the first years was on work boats for fishing and ferry operations. Hull number one was a five meter long rowboat. From the 1880s Lürssen opened up the sport boat market. In 1886 the first motorboat in the world was built by Lürssen (according to his own account).^[4]

In 2016 Lürssen acquired shipbuilding company Blohm+Voss in a long-term partnership.^[5]

On 1 March 2018, a German consortium consisting of Thyssen Krupp and Lürssen was excluded by the German government from the tender for the construction of the multi-purpose warship MKS 180 for the benefit of GNY (German Naval Yards), belonging to the Prinvinvest group, and the Dutch shipbuilder Damen.^[6]

On 14 September 2018, a fire broke out in the floating dock at Fähr-Lobbendorf, burning the then-under construction structure of the yacht Sassi.^[7] With around 900 emergency services deployed, it was the largest deployment of the Bremen fire brigade in the post-war period. The damage was estimated at more than 610 million euros.

On 29 September 2021, Peter Lürssen, owner of Blohm+Voss, announced downsizing of the company, from the ~ 580 workers, more than 100 would leave the company, the docks were to be reviewed, no more cruise ships would be renewed in Hamburg, nor tankers and container ships. B+V was to stay only with the NVL defence ships and the yachts business. The area of installations was to be reduced as well. The Department of Projects of New Buildings was dissolved.^[8]

In June 2025, Lürssen's Australian operation was sold to Civmec.^[9][10]

Below is a list of all the yachts built by Lürssen:

Naval Vessels Lürssen [de] (NVL) was the military division of Lürssen, and builds small to medium size naval vessels, mainly for exporting. In September 2025 it was announced that NVL had been bought by German arms manufacturer Rheinmetall as part of its conglomeration of German defence production.^[11] Naval Vessels Lürssen (NVL) operates four shipyards in northern Germany.^[12][13]

German Navy ships

Braunschweig class

NVL Lürssen has been involved with the building of Braunschweig-class corvettes since 2004.

Baden-Württemberg class

NVL is part of the ARGE F125 joint-venture enterprise designing and building the Baden-Württemberg-class frigates since 2011.^{[citation needed]}

Class 424

Main article: Type 424 fleet service ship

German Navy wanted to replace its SIGINT ships of Oste class 423 by three new ships of class 424. In June 2021, the Bundestag approved the development and procurement of three auxiliary ships as well as a training and reference reconnaissance facility (ARAA) for sea-based signal detection reconnaissance (ssA). As the main contractor, Lürssen was commissioned to develop the systems by February 2023. All services should be completed by 2029. The first of the three boats is scheduled to be put into service in 2027 and will mark the replacement of the fleet service boats Oker, Alster and Oste from the 1980this.^[17]

When concluding the contract with Naval Vessels Lürssen (NVL) in June 2021, the Federal Audit Office, Bundesrechnungshof reported “significant concerns”. It criticized the fact that the Ministry of Defense only wanted to discuss with the shipyard after the contract had been signed how exactly the ships should be built. "Billions were awarded blindly and a very bad negotiating situation," wrote the Süddeutsche Zeitung. The Federal Audit Office feared "additional expenditure in the medium term."^[18]

In 2023, the ships only existed vaguely and sketchily on paper. The new building increased in price from 2.1 billion euros to 3.3 billion euros (2023).^[17][19] The Federal court of Audit, Bundesrechnungshof intervened in 2023 and stated that there were significant risks arising from the contract structure with Lürssen.^{[citation needed]}

• E-boat