Blohm + Voss Blohm + Voss ( also shown historically as Blohm & Voss and Blohm und Voss ) , is a German shipbuilding and engineering works . It is a subsidiary of ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems . ThyssenKrupp announced in December 2011 that it had agreed the sale of Blohm + Voss ' civil shipbuilding division to British investment company STAR Capital Partners , pending regulatory approval . The company built aircraft through Hamburger Flugzeugbau before and during World War II . History . It was founded on April 5 , 1877 , by Hermann Blohm and Ernst Voss as a general partnership . A shipyard was built on the island of Kuhwerder , near the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg , covering 15 , 000 m² with 250 m of water frontage and three building berths , two suitable for ships of up to 100 metres length . The company ' s logo is a simple dark blue rectangle with rounded corners bearing the white letters " Blohm + Voss " . Until 1955 the company name was shown with the ampersand . The company has continued to build ships and other large machines for 125 years . Despite being almost completely demolished after the end of World War II , it now builds warships both for the Deutsche Marine and for export ( see MEKO ) , as well as oil drilling equipment and ships for numerous commercial customers . The company is , along with Howaldtswerke at Kiel and Nordseewerke at Emden , a subsidiary of ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems . History during the Third Reich . With the rise of the Nazi Party to power in 1933 , Germany ' s rearmament in violation of the Versailles Treaty was begun . This began a sudden change in fortune for the company , run then by brothers Rudolf and Walther Blohm , which was taken out of a deep crisis . Until then specialising in shipbuilding , the company began to design and build aircraft for the German state airline , pre - war Deutsche Luft Hansa and the Luftwaffe . The aeronautical section of the company was named Hamburger Flugzeugbau , therefore the first planes it produced had the code " Ha " , but in September 1937 the aviation subsidiary was renamed " Abteilung Flugzeugbau der Schiffswerft Blohm & Voss " , later replaced by " BV " . Particularly noteworthy were the large flying boat s the company produced , especially the largest aircraft designed , built and flown by any of the Axis forces , the Bv 238 , and its ingenious approaches to aircraft building that even featured asymmetric designs . From July 1944 to April 1945 the company used inmates of its own concentration subcamp at its shipyard in Hamburg - Steinwerder , a subcamp of Neuengamme concentration camp . A memorial stands on the site of the camp and the company continues to pay an undisclosed amount to the Fund for Compensation of Forced Laborers . Ships and submarines . Notable ships built by the company include : Aircraft . From 1933 to 1945 , the company operated the Hamburger Flugzeugbau aircraft company . Although initially given the factory code Ha ( for the factory ' s official name ) , the link with Blohm & Voss shipyards proved too strong and therefore the early aircraft designs were called " Blohm & Voss , type Ha . . . " followed by the design number . To end this confusion , in 1938 the " Reichsluftfahrtministerium " changed the company code to BV . Aircraft and projects designed under the Ha and BV designations can be found at List of Blohm + Voss Aircraft and projects List of Major Internal Projects of the WW2 Era under the RLM : Although Hamburger Flugzeugbau re - emerged after the war and , under different names and ownerships , continues to build aircraft , it has no ties with Blohm & Voss .