Elbe 17

The dry dock Elbe 17 is one of the largest dry dock in Europe. It is located on the grounds of the Blohm Voss shipyard in Hamburg harbor towards the jetties. It is used primarily for the repair of ships, but can also be used for new buildings.

In May 1938, the High Command of the Navy ( OKM ) awarded the construction contract for a dry dock of 351 m length, 59 m width and a water volume of 240,000 m³, which was empty three pumps with a capacity of 11,000 cubic meters per hour. It was planned as a construction and repair dock for the 62 496 t big battleships of the H- class (Z -Plan), which would have had a length of 277.8 m and a width of 37.2 m. To avoid a reduction due to the enormous weight of the ships, the bottom plate of the dry docks of 9 m thick reinforced concrete was produced. The Z -Plan was rejected beginning of the war, but the dock completed in spite of the high costs in 1942, but no longer used as a dry dock. In war, its concrete walls also served as an air raid shelter. They offered 6000 seeking protection space.

It was built partly on the premises of Blohm & Voss, partly on the site of the former shipyard of Janssen & Schmilinsky. It was built by the company Dyckerhoff & Widmann KG from Munich. Paid it was from the imperial treasury. Blohm & Voss had carry out the works as trustee and to make the Dock ready for use, and manage the use case and manage. Owner was still the German Reich.

After the war, the entrance gate was dismantled and the dock used as a harbor basin. Against the command of the British occupying power to blow up the dock in January 1950, public opinion ran storm, especially in the detonations and the barely 150 meters away has Old Elbe Tunnel could be affected. On the day of the planned demolition, thousands of people gathered on the St. Pauli jetties along the harbor road, on the Stintfang and Steinwerder to protest strongly against the measure. At the last minute the demolition was postponed and finally canceled soon after the command.

At a cost of 6 million DM industrialist Willy Schlieker left the dock repair and re-open on June 2, 1959.

As well as the cruise ship Freedom of the Seas ( 339 m long, 56 m wide and the largest ships ever eindockten, the container ship Sovereign Maersk were on the dimensions ( in September 1999, 347 m long, 42.8 m wide) in April 2006 products) or weight the Queen Mary 2 ( 66,000 tonnes unladen weight, 345.03 m long, 41.08 m wide, in November 2005, May and November 2006 and October / November 2008).