Howaldtswerke-Deutsche Werft GmbH (often abbreviated HDW) was a German shipbuilding company, headquartered in Kiel. It is now part of TKMS (ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems). The Howaldtswerke shipyard was founded in Kiel in 1838 and merged with Hamburg-based Deutsche Werft to form Howaldtswerke-Deutsche Werft (HDW) in 1968. The company's shipyard was formerly used by Friedrich Krupp Germaniawerft until the end of World War II.
History
HDW was founded 1 October 1838 in Kiel by engineer August Howaldt and entrepreneur Johann Schweffel under the name Maschinenbauanstalt und Eisengießerei Schweffel & Howaldt (Machine Factory and Iron Foundry Schweffel & Howaldt), initially building boilers.
The first steam engine for naval purposes was built in 1849 for Von der Tann, a gunboat for the small navy of Schleswig-Holstein. In 1850, the company built an early submarine, Brandtaucher, designed by Wilhelm Bauer. It had been intended to build the boat in Rendsburg