 | |
| Company type | GmbH |
|---|---|
| Industry | Shipbuilding |
| Founded | 1875; 151 years ago (1875) |
| Founder | Friedrich Lürssen |
| Headquarters | , Germany |
Area served | Worldwide |
Key people | Peter Lürssen (CEO) |
| Products | Yachts |
| Revenue | €1.83 billion |
Number of employees | 1,935 |
| Divisions | Fr. Lürssen Werft Lürssen Logistics Lürssen Yachts Lürssen Schacht-Audorf (Rendsburg) Lürssen Berne-Bardenfleth |
| Website | www.luerssen.de |
| Footnotes / references Slogan:my firm shall be known as the leader in both quality and performance. (Friedrich Lürssen, 1875) | |
Lürssen (orLürssen Werft) is a Germanshipyard with headquarters inBremen-Vegesack and shipbuilding facilities inLemwerder, Berne and Bremen-Fähr-Lobbendorf.
Lürssen designs and constructsyachts,naval ships and special vessels. Trading asLürssen Yachts, it is one of the leading builders of customsuperyachts such asPaul Allen'sOctopus,David Geffen'sRising Sun, andKhalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan'sAzzam, the second largest private yacht in the world at 180 m in length after theREV Ocean.[2][3]
On 27 June 1875 the 24 year-oldFriedrich Lürssen set up a boatbuilding workshop in Aumund, a suburb ofBremen,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 companyBlohm+Voss in a long-term partnership.[5]
On 1 March 2018, a German consortium consisting ofThyssen 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 thePrinvinvest group, and the Dutch shipbuilderDamen.[6]
On 14 September 2018, afire broke out in the floating dock at Fähr-Lobbendorf, burning the then-under construction structure of the yachtSassi.[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 toCivmec.[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 manufacturerRheinmetall as part of its conglomeration of German defence production.[11] Naval Vessels Lürssen (NVL) operates four shipyards in northern Germany.[12][13]
Naval ships built by Lürssen in the past include:
Lürssen has the contract to design and build twelve (reduced to six)Arafura-class offshore patrol vessels for Australia.[14] Construction of the first two will be inAdelaide byASC Pty Ltd. The remaining four will be constructed inWestern Australia byCivmec.[citation needed]
Lürssen was awarded a $2.6 billion contract in 2017 to build twelve patrol boats for the Australian Navy. Work began in Adelaide in mid-2018. Lürssen was the general contractor and was responsible for the design, construction management and the overall manufacturing process. The first "Offshore Patrol Vessel" (OPV) was commissioned in 2025 and replaced theRoyal Australian Navy's formerArmidale-class vessels.[15]
In 2021 NVL started building two multi-purpose patrol ships for the Bulgarian Navy, in collaboration with MTG Dolphin Shipyard in Varna.[16]
NVL Lürssen has been involved with the building ofBraunschweig-class corvettes since 2004.
NVL is part of the ARGE F125joint-venture enterprise designing and building theBaden-Württemberg-class frigates since 2011.[citation needed]
German Navy wanted to replace itsSIGINT ships of Osteclass 423 by three new ships ofclass 424. In June 2021, theBundestag 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 boatsOker,Alster andOste 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 theSüddeutsche 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]
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