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The company was founded in 1867 by Lloyd Foster, as the Norddeutsche Schiffbau-Gesellschaft, in the town of Gaarden, near Kiel. The idea of the company was to construct war and merchant ships. In 1876 the company built the personal yacht of Kaiser Wilhelm II, the SMY Hohenzollern.
The company went bankrupt in 1879 and had to be sold and became property of the Märkisch-Schlesischen Maschinenbau und Hütten-Aktiengesellschaft. They had constructed steam engines in Berlin since 1822. A few year later this company also got in trouble and in late 1882 a new company was founded, the Schiff- und Maschinenbau-Actien-Gesellschaft Germania.
A few more warships were constructed and the company also had a very good reputation concerning the construction of torpedo boats. However the financial problems were never far away and by the end of August 1896 Krupp took over, as they were very interested in building warships themselves. Between 1898 and 1902 the company doubled its surface and new and large slips were constructed. In 1902 the company changed name and became the Friedrich Krupp Germaniawerft
In 1908, Germaniawerft built the schooner Germania for Gustav Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach, based on a design from Max Oertz. It was the first yacht of its size built in Germany. In the period preceding World War I, it also built a number of battleships for the Kaiserliche Marine, including SMS Posen, SMS Prinzregent Luitpold, SMS Kronprinz Wilhelm and SMS Sachsen. During the First World War, the company turned to building U-boats. A total of 84 U-boats were delivered to the Kaiserliche Marine.