The Meyer Werft is one of the remaining large German shipyards, headquartered in Papenburg. Since 1997 it has been part of the Meyer Neptun Group together with Neptun Werft in Rostock.

Founded in 1795 as a wharf for the construction of wooden ships, Josef Lambert Meyer started the construction of iron ships in 1874. Until 1920 there were more than 20 dockyards in the Papenburg area. Today, Meyer Werft is the only remaining shipyard in Papenburg. For more than six generations it has been a privately held and family owned company.

It gained international recognition through the construction of roll on/roll off ferries, passenger ferries, gasoline tankers, container ships, livestock ferries and most recently luxury cruise ships.

Meyer Werft is home to some of the largest roofed dry docks in the world. The first covered dock was inaugurated in 1987 and was 370 meters long, 101,5 meters wide and 60 meters high. In 1990/91 the dock was extended by an additional 100 meters. In 2000 a second covered dock was built.

Meyer is one of the largest and most modern shipyards in the world with 2300 employees. It specializes in cruise ships of Panamax size for the shipping companies Royal Caribbean International and Norwegian Cruise Line (owned by Star Cruises). As of 2006, its most recent project was the construction of the NCL America Pride of Hawaii. It also delivered the Norwegian Pearl to Norwegian Cruise Line in November 2006. Current cruise liner projects include Norwegian Gem for Norwegian Cruise Line and Celebrity Solstice for Celebrity Cruises (owned by Royal Caribbean International). Meyer Werft is also constructing two new ships for Disney Cruise Line.

Due to its upstream location on the river Ems, the giant ships to be delivered have to make a 36 km voyage to the Dollard bay and which each time attracts thousands of spectators. Up until the completion of the Ems river barrier ("Emssperrwerk") in 2002 the journey was only possible at high tides.