You can let yourself be spoiled with tasty specialties from our kitchen now, here at the place that was once called the „Schnürboden“. Every new ship at the Meyer Werft had its beginnings here. Each individual part of a planned ship had to be outlined here in its original size. Originally these were measured and drawn with strings (“Schnüren”) and hence the name „Schnürboden“ („string floors“).
Then the model ships (“Malle”) were created; these were template models made of wood or sheet iron. They served as prototypes for the final pieces. The term “Malle” comes from the Middle High German word “mal”, which means shape or label. For this reason, the huge „Schnürboden“ or drawing floors were also known as “Mallboden” or model floors. It took special skills and a lot of experience to create these models, as most curved or bent areas of a ship’s frame or exterior needed to be pre-constructed exactly as the original.
The pieces would then be cut, bent, forged or carpentered according to the models in the ship construction workshops. Today, a part of this complex work has been shifted to the design engineer’s offices. Using computers, thousands of individual blueprints and drawings are generated for each new ship construction project; these are then transferred directly to steel sheets using optical writing technology.
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