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.
