The Helfmann Brothers (1873-1896)

HOCHTIEF was founded by two brothers: Balthasar (1848-1896) and Philipp Helfmann (1843-1899). Balthasar Helfmann originally served an apprenticeship as a mechanic, and Philipp took up the trade of a mason. In 1872 Philipp Helfmann moved away from Kelsterbach, where he and his brother had been born, to the Bornheim district of Frankfurt to start up in business as a lumber merchant. Soon after that he become a building contractor. His brother Balthasar followed him in 1873, having previously worked as a self-employed mechanic in Frankfurt. In 1874 the Bornheim address book first recorded the firm as "Helfmann Brothers".

Clear division of responsibilities between the founders of the firm

There was a clear division of labor between the two brothers. Balthasar concerned himself more with carrying out the building work and with the increasing size of the company.

Philipp's field of work focused more and more on the banking business and the gaining of new orders that, from year to year, were gaining steadily in importance. Philipp's son-in-law, Hans Weidmann (1862-1948), who worked in the company for many years and recorded its history in a detailed chronicle, described Balthasar as the craftsman of the two brothers. Philipp Helfmann was described as dominant, dynamic, and far-sighted. As his son-in-law reported, he seems to have been a self-made man:

"Philipp Helfmann was everywhere at once, whether expected or unexpected: in the office, on the storage lot, in the workshops, and out on the construction sites. He usually traveled at night in order to be on the construction sites before work started in the morning, so that he could gain an overview of the status of the work without any outside influence and before the foremen, supervisors, or engineers could report to him."

HOCHTIEF probably established before 1875

The timing of the establishment of a construction company seems to have been well chosen. Frankfurt am Main had been part of Prussia since 1866. This political change brought enormous new impetus to the process of industrialization. New firms established themselves, followed by large numbers of workers. In Bornheim alone the number of inhabitants in 1875 was more than twice what it had been in 1864. As the number of inhabitants increased, so did the demand for homes, and the factories also still needed to be built. The second phase was the construction of the infrastructure: traffic routes had to be built, mainly railroads, but the town councils were also anxious to see the municipal drainage system expanded.

The economic crisis that started in 1873 brought this boom to an end, and the general economic situation gives rise to the plausible assumption that the Helfmann brothers had incorporated before the economy turned sour. This fact, together with investigations into the lifetimes of the brothers, indicate that Philipp and Balthasar Helfmann had established their building company prior to 1875, even though this has always been regarded as the year of establishment.

University of Giessen: the first major construction contract

The Helfmann Brothers initially built houses "speculatively" - at their own risk, for sale on the open market when completed.

After only a short time the firm received its first major construction order: The University of Giessen (1878-1879), a provincial city some miles north of Frankfurt. Another major contract was for the Frankfurt Courthouse in a central street called "Neue Zeil" (1884-1886). In 1878 the brothers built the printing foundry of Bauer in Bockenheim (now one of the eastern suburbs of Frankfurt am Main), which came to be known popularly as the "Chimney Academy". Other industrial buildings followed, and the brothers were also busy with excavation and civil engineering, for example with the sewage treatment plants built for the City of Frankfurt between 1883 and 1887.

The company blazed new trails in the construction business with the prestigious Hotel Kaiserhof project in Wiesbaden (1893-1895). It was built on a turnkey basis: the contract covered everything from the bricks and mortar to the interior fittings, and even included appointing the doctor to supervise the spa treatments.

Construction materials produced in-house

The order books were so full during the 1880s that the brothers went over to producing their own construction materials. They first built a brick and tile works on one of the main highways leading into Frankfurt, the Eschersheimer Landstrasse, and later a ring-kiln brickworks in Heddernheim.

The brick and tile works were later joined by a sawmill and an extensive fleet of vehicles, but they soon gave up a stonemason's shop because it did not pay off.

Select projects:

University of Giessen, 1878-1879