The imperial shipyard Wilhelmshaven needed a powerful and high lifting crane to help complete battleships before the outbreak of the World War I. The crane was completed in 1915 and originally was known as the Grosser Schwimmkran, but was christened Langer Heinrich. The crane was built by Demag in Duisburg and the float pontoon for the crane was built by AG Weser. The crane needed to lift gun turrets, ship components and sometimes entire ship hulls. It was used to assemble the German cruiser Admiral Graf Spee and German battleship Tirpitz. The pontoon float is 50.42 m by 30.92 m with a depth draft of 3.05 m. The crane displaces 3,898 tons and was powered by two triple expansion steam engines with 1,000 HP each until being refitted with Diesel engines in 1955. The crane had three smaller hoists for lifting 10, 20 and 50 tons. The main hoist has two 125 tonne lifting units which could be coupled for a combined lift of 250 tonnes. The crane had a maximum jib tower height of 81.4 m. The crane is self-propelled with two propellers and floats on pontoons. The pontoon has 41 compartments, some of which can be flooded to counterbalance the load. The superstructure can be rotated through 360 degrees. The crane has a deadweight of 2,393 tons. It was so famous in its day that it used to be pictured on some German bank notes, Deutsche Marks.
