By the beginning of the 1920s HOCHTIEF had developed from its modest origins in
Frankfurt into an established construction corporation, but it still could not be
compared with the huge companies in heavy industry in terms of its balance
sheet total, for instance, or the numbers it employed. The names of the
industrialists that ran these companies are still very well known today,
such as Emil Kirdorf (1847-1938) or August Thyssen (1842-1929). One
outstanding member of this group was Hugo Stinnes (1897-1924), who even
as a very young man had built up a large and successful corporation.
Head office moves to Essen in 1922
The Stinnes group included mining companies, shipping lines and
engineering companies. Together with Thyssen, Hugo Stinnes held the majority
of the shares in RWE, then as now a major utility in the Ruhr region around
Essen. For his construction projects he finally looked for a construction
company that he could integrate into his concern, and he was supported in
this project by his employee, Albert Vögler (1877-1945), whose brother
Eugen managed the HOCHTIEF branch in Essen.
Eugen Vögler (1884-1956) negotiated a contract with the Stinnes group,
signed on February 10th, 1921, to create a "community of interest" under
which all Stinnes construction projects were to be carried out by HOCHTIEF.
The company's head office was transferred to Essen in 1922 as part of the
integration into the Stinnes Group. Despite all these changes, the directors
of HOCHTIEF did everything they could to ensure continuity. The company
had officially taken the name of HOCHTIEF in 1923, or to give it is full value,
"HOCHTIEF Aktiengesellschaft für Hoch- und Tiefbauten vorm. Gebrüder Helfmann".
Construction materials to France
It emerged soon after this that Stinnes' plans for HOCHTIEF went far beyond
a "normal" business relationship. The starting-off point for his ideas was a
reconstruction program, finalized on March 15th, 1922, under which German
money and physical assets were to be sent to the French industry as part of
the post-war reparations. Stinnes was quick to realize the business possibilities.
On August 14th, 1922, he signed an agreement with the French industrialist
Guy Louis Jean de Lubersac (1878-1932), who represented the French side,
on the delivery of goods that mainly provided for shipments of construction
materials to France and counted as part of the reparations. HOCHTIEF
was to coordinate these deliveries and charge a fee for the work.
HOCHTIEF found a highly lucrative business beckoning, but it did not come
about because French troops occupied the Ruhr industrial area; this was the
French government's reaction to the general delays in the payment of
post-war reparations.
