The prestigious family-run Bremen-based German superyacht shipyard, LURSSEN, is celebrating over 140 years of shipbuilding. Within just four generations, the LURSSEN family has turned a small boat building workshop into a top class North German shipbuilding company through entrepreneurship, determination, as well as the highest standards of quality.
Lurssen shipyard in Lemwerder ©Lurssen
On 27 June 1875, twenty-four-year-old boat builder Friedrich Lürßen established the family-run company, which today belongs to the world-renowned yacht manufacturers with more than 1,000 highly qualified staff at its Bremen site. Since then, the Lürssen shipyard has built more than 13,000 boats and ships – all at the Bremen shipyards or their North German sister shipyards that are presently part of the Lürssen group.
“The history of the shipyard is still closely linked to our own family history and that of many of our staff”, comments Friedrich Lürßen, who manages the North Bremen company in its fourth generation with his cousin Peter Lürßen. “The family and staff’s genuine identification with the shipyard business and an informal company structure with tight employee loyalty have always been supporting pillars of our success. In addition to technical expertise and practical skills, high levels of flexibility and strength of innovation among our workforce have been the decisive drivers of growth in our shipyard business as a specialty supplier of high-technology ship construction since the beginning.”
180m mega yacht AZZAM built by LURSSEN ©Klaus Jordan
At the end of the 1980s, the current owners Friedrich and Peter Lürßen started to intensify the construction and manufacture of individual luxury yachts, establishing it as a second business activity alongside naval shipbuilding.
This has proven to be a huge success. Today, 25 of the Top 100 yachts have been constructed by Lürssen (8 of the Top 20), including such outstanding vessels as mega yacht Carinthia VII, sailing yacht EOS, as well as the 180m giga yacht AZZAM, currently the largest private yacht in the world.
95m superyacht KISMET by LURSSEN – Image credit to Guillaume Plisson
“As a family company it makes us proud and happy to be able to look back, in a turbulent industry, on 140 years of successful shipbuilding history on the River Weser,” says Peter Lürßen. “At the same time, our company anniversary motivates us as a family business to continue manufacturing unique ships for the global market together with our employees and to successfully live up to our great-grandfather’s motto to impress through performance and quality.”
More charter yachts built by Lurssen.
