Meyer Werft

The Meyer Werft GmbH & Co. KG is one of the major German shipyards, headquartered in Papenburg at the river Ems. Founded in 1795 and starting with small wooden vessels, today Meyer Werft is one of world's leading builders of luxury passenger ships. Altogether about 700 ships of different types have been built at the yard. Its "Dockhalle 2" is the largest shipbuilding hall and the building with the fifth-largest usable space in the world.Meyer Werft has been owned and managed by the Meyer family for seven generations. Since 1997, it has been part of the Meyer Neptun Group together with Neptun Werft in Rostock. In 2014 the company added the Turku shipyard in Finland to the group.The shipyard is an anchor on the European Route of Industrial Heritage.Five of the ten largest cruise ships in the world have been built at the shipyard in Papenburg, and three more at Meyer Turku Oy shipyard.HistoryThe shipyard was founded at the beginning of 1795 by Willm Rolf Meyer as a wharf for the construction of small wooden vessels. Josef Lambert Meyer started the construction of iron ships in 1874. Until 1920 there were more than 20 dockyards in the Papenburg area, but today Meyer Werft is the only remaining shipyard in Papenburg. For seven generations it has been a privately held and family-owned company.