Wienecke is one of the largest and most experienced companies in the world of tall ships. We have recently increased our capacity in order to open new lines of business for solution development.
About us
Wienecke is a family company with more than 115 years of experience. By using new technologies which have allowed us to keep updated we have known along time how to adapt and evolve when facing continued market changes.
The company is currently managed by the fourth family generation which follows the same principles and values of the founders.
Our history
Wienecke was founded 1st September 1900 by two shipmasters of German sailing ships which used to stop in Valparaiso, Chile, when coming from Europe via Cape Horn in order to load potassium nitrate in the North of Chile and then carry it to the Old Continent.
Due to the severity of weather in the area known as “The Roaring Forties” and the fearsome Cape Horn ships arriving in Valparaiso were fitted with new sails together with the necessary rigging and rope blocks for them to continue their journey.
The excellent quality of the work done in Valparaiso became quickly known to all shipping companies existing at that time and Wienecke became the leading supplier of sails and rope blocks for more than two hundred tall ships sailing from South America to Europe.
When the steam boats appeared and the Panama Canal was opened Wienecke redirected their product line thus beginning to manufacture textile elements and structures which together with sailmaking and rope blocks manufacture for sail training ships are currently their main activity.
-
Our milestones
1st September 1900
Wienecke is founded by the German shipmasters Adolf Wienecke and Friedrich Heyn, who decided to begin supplying the large demand for sails and rigging for the worn-out merchant marine ships which used to stop in Valparaíso after crossing Cape Horn at the golden age of potassium nitrate in Chile.
First Wienecke workshop in Valparaiso
1st September 1900 -
Our milestones
1906
In 1906 Wienecke had already consolidated its position in the local market as the main supplier of sails and rope blocks for tall ships arriving in the port. In less than a decade we had over sixty workers and the company became a great contribution to the industrial development of the city. That year Wienecke received their first blow: the earthquake occurred in Valparaiso on 16th August destroyed a big part of their facilities.
Wienecke workshop prior to the 1906 earthquake
-
Our milestones
1914
The consolidation of the Panama Canal as the most convenient connection between the Atlantic and the Pacific Oceans forced the German visionaries to redirect the company in order to compensate the shortage in demand for ship-related products. Wilhelm Wienecke, Adolf’s brother, and his wife Edith (born Edith Schulze) arrive from Germany in order to join the company and focus it on the non-marine business area.
First trip along the Panama Canal on 15th August 1914
-
Our milestones
1930
Wienecke makes the tent for the Valparaiso Circus with a seating capacity of over 15,000. That same year Friedrich Heyn retires from the company and Adolf and Wilhelm Wienecke take full control of the business.
Valparaiso Circus
-
Our milestones
1946
After the end of the Second World War and considering that neither Adolf nor Wilhelm had offspring, Edith invites her relatives to come the distant country located in the Southern Cone or the Americas. Having lost his father and mother and being 18 years old, her nephew Günter decides to come to Chile.
Günter Schulze on board during the Second World War -
Our milestones
1948
Günter arrives in Buenos Aires, Argentina, takes the Trans-Andean train and travels to Valparaiso in order to join Wienecke, his uncle’s business.
Valparaiso in the 1940’s
Chile
Office, Viña del Mar
Argentina
Representation
Brazil
Representation
Peru
Representation
Ecuador
Representation
Colombia
Representation
Venezuela
Representation
Mexico
Representation
U.S.A
Representation
Spain
Representation
Germany
Representation
Nautical chart obtained in Shoa.cl
Our experience
-
More than a century
of experience
-
Four
generations
-
Representatives
in twelve countries
