Krupp - The German Steel Empire

A cover from Germany 🇩🇪 with a very interesting postmark ! 

Friedrich Krupp Germaniawerft (often just called Germaniawerft, "Germania shipyard") was a German shipbuilding company, located in the harbour at Kiel, and one of the largest and most important builders of U-boats for the Kaiserliche Marine in World War I and the Kriegsmarine in World War II. The original company was founded in 1867 but went bankrupt and was bought out by Friedrich Krupp. Krupp was very interested in building warships and in the time before the First World War built a number of battleships for the Kaiserliche Marine, including SMS Posen, SMS Prinzregent Luitpold, SMS Kronprinz, and SMS Sachsen. A total of 84 U-boats were built in the shipyard during the war. After the war it returned to the normal production of yachts and transports.

After the war, the partially ruined shipyard was one of the first facilities dismantled by the victorious Allies. The population of heavily bombed Kiel protested furiously this decision, but to no avail. The site was broken up and not rebuilt. In the late 1960s, the grounds were purchased by Howaldtswerke-Deutsche Werft as a submarine-building shipyard. As of 2015, submarines are being built at the site.

The Krupp family - a prominent 400-year-old German dynasty from Essen, is famous for their production of steel, artillery, ammunition and other armaments. The family business, known as Friedrich Krupp AG, was the largest company in Europe at the beginning of the 20th century, and was important to weapons development and production in both world wars. One of the most powerful dynasties in European history, Krupp flourished for 400 years as the premier weapons manufacturer of Germany. From the Thirty Years' War until the end of the Second World War, it produced battleships, U-boats, tanks, howitzers, guns, utilities, and hundreds of other commodities.

Thanks Dustin for this beautiful cover :)