Today's Heitkamp BauHolding GmbH has its origin in the civil engineering company E. Heitkamp, which was founded in Herne-Wanne in 1892 by Engelbert Scharpwinkel. It originally had four employees. The company was originally known as E. Heitkamp. Towards the end of the 19th century, the
company built
canals and
roads for the farmers in the neighbourhood.
1902 Heinrich Heitkamp, the son of E. Scharpwinkel, assumed the management of the still young construction company and expanded its field of activity by entering the mining business which was the characteristic industry in the
Ruhr area at the time. In addition, he entered into other ventures. In the following decades, its construction activities were expanded beyond the limits of Herne and its original sectors to include civil engineering, railroad, and infrastructure projects, as well as mining services. At that time, the projects included, for example, the new construction of the Herne railway station, the construction of the Chemische Werke Hüls in Marl, earthwork, canal and regulation work for the Emschergenossenschaft and the Lippeverband, the beginning of
motorway constructions. In addition, they worked in shafting-sinking activities for regional coal mines, such as the Shamrock Mine, Unser Fritz Mine and others.
1946 to 1963 In 1946, the E. Heitkamp Tiefbaugeschäft in Wanne-Eickel was renamed to Bauunternehmung E. Heitkamp GmbH. His sons Heinrich and Robert became shareholders along with their father, Heinrich Heitkamp, Sr. Following the removal of war debris from their building, the field of activity was expanded to include other areas. Buildings for government agencies and the
Deutsche Bundesbahn were constructed and in the early fifties, the company started providing special mining services with underground track constructions. In 1957, Heitkamp entered the
power plant construction sector by executing a contract for the
Westerholt power plant owned by Hibernia AG. For the first time, refuse dumps were used for the construction of dams and roads. Heitkamp participated in the complete expansion of the Ruhr expressway from
Essen via
Bochum to
Dortmund as well as in the new construction of the
railway line between
Gelsenkirchen and
Haltern am See. This was followed by a participation in the construction of the Henrichshütte 2
steel plant in
Hattingen as well as the Brassert power plant in Marl and the Springorum power plant in
Bochum. A patent was issued on 28 May 1958 for the track-tamping machine developed by Heitkamp for underground track construction. In 1960, Heitkamp entered the tunnel construction sector when the company built the Erbscheidt tunnel in the course of the Bigge dam construction. In addition, Heitkamp was awarded contracts for the construction of the
Federal Ministry of Defence in Germany at the Hardthöhe in
Bonn. At this time, Heitkamp employed about 4,000 people.
1964 to 1980 In 1964, Robert Heitkamp took over the sole management and expanded the family company in the next decades to become one of the largest construction companies in
Germany. In the same year, Heitkamp built the first natural-draught
cooling tower for the power plant in
Ibbenbüren. This was followed by 53 cooling towers in Germany and another 38 cooling towers worldwide, including countries in the
African continent,
Australia,
Greece, the
Netherlands,
Spain, and the United States. In 1995, in the course of the largest individual contract in the history of the company, Heitkamp built two natural-draught cooling towers for the Lippendorf power plant, amongst others. In 1998, they built the highest natural-draught cooling tower in the world, reaching 200 meters, at the Niederaußem power plant.
1970 to 1981 Heitkamp participated in national and international construction projects that included, amongst others, power plant and
nuclear power plant projects, infrastructure, civil engineering,
structural engineering,
hydraulic engineering, and
mining projects. Heitkamp participated, among other companies, in the construction of the nuclear power plants in Brunsbüttel, Phillippsburg I and II and Brokdorf. In addition, they participated in the construction of nuclear power plants internationally in Tullnerfeld and
Zwentendorf in Austria and Gösgen-Däniken in
Switzerland. Heitkamp, along with the companies
Hochtief AG and Dykerhoff & Widmann AG, was awarded the contract to build the
reprocessing plant in
Wackersdorf. The construction, however, was stopped in 1989 for political reasons. They participated in German infrastructure projects including the participation in the construction of the subways in
Berlin,
Hanover,
Bielefeld,
Dortmund,
Stuttgart and
Munich. In addition, they participated in work on the
Autobahn 42, the Emscher expressway and the
Autobahn 45, also known as the Sauerland line. Internationally, Heitkamp was involved in road construction projects in
Sanaa, Yemen to
Taiz, Yemen; and Taiz to the
Red Sea. Also, they were involved in the subway construction in
Vienna, Austria. Before it was stopped for political reasons, they took over the technical lead management during the construction of the first
channel tunnel connecting
Dover with
Calais. They were involved with hydraulic engineering projects at that time including the construction of the
Obernau dam and the redirecting of the
Ruhr at
Neheim. Their international projects included the construction of the
Hofuf drainage project in
Saudi Arabia and the construction of a drainage tunnel in
Venezuela. Heitkamp expanded its civil engineering activities to include turnkey construction services. Heitkamp was involved in the construction of the 3-bay road bridge Zum Fürstenmoor that carried the road from
Hamburg to
Harburg, the Emscher bridge that carried the road from
Dortmund to
Deusenberg, and the Annener Berg bridge in the
Witten-Annen area. They also participated in the building of the underground parking lot at the
Cologne cathedral. Heitkamp was involved in many tunnel projects in the course of the Bundesbahn high-speed line from Kassel to Würzburg. Heitkamp was also involved in the construction of the Olympic site in Munich. During that period, Heitkamp was also involved in the construction of the
Technische Rathaus in
Frankfurt, the construction of the
Parkstadion in
Gelsenkirchen, buildings for
Technische Universität Berlin, work for the extension of the airports in
Frankfurt and
Hannover, the construction of the
Lower-Saxon state parliament in Hannover, hotel constructions such as the
Hotel Penta and
Hotel Steigenberger in Berlin and the construction of hospitals for the Federal Insurance Fund for Miners in
Recklinghausen and
Bochum as well as the clinical centre in
Münster. In the mining sector, Heitkamp was involved in the construction of the shaft
tower with reinforced
concrete for the Consolidation 3/4/9 mine in Gelsenkirchen and the construction of the new An der Haard mine in the Recklinghausen district. At this time, Heitkamp also began with the removal, marketing and stockpiling of tailings from mines in the Ruhr area. The railway construction division constructed
tracks for the Elmshorn-Barmstedt-Oldesloer-Eisenbahn AG. Internationally, it participated in the renewal of the railway line between
Riyadh and
Dammam in Saudi Arabia. Dr. Alfred Herrhausen became the first
chairman of the newly created advisory board.
1981 to 1999 In 1981, the company employed approximately 8,500 people and achieved a turnover of approximately 1.1 billion DM. Robert Heitkamp retired from the operational business and passed the management chair to his son, Prof. Dr. Engelbert Heitkamp. Until the
German reunification in 1990, Heitkamp expanded its field of activity in the
refurbishment, modernization and
redevelopment of structures. One of their first modernization projects included the two city hall towers in
Marl in
Westphalia. The
subsidiary Heitkamp Umwelttechnik GmbH was formed in 1985. Because of the widespread introduction of mobile phone networks, Heitkamp built stations for the
C-net of the
Deutsche Bundespost and later for the private D-net. Heitkamp participated in the building of the
Eurotunnel between Calais and Dover and in the construction of German subway and urban railway projects, notably in Dortmund. For the
Deutsche Bahn, Heitkamp engineered several works to support the new Cologne – Rhine/Main line. During this period, the company participated in the coating of the outer shell of the natural-draught cooling tower at the
cogeneration plant in
Völklingen, the natural-draught cooling tower for the nuclear power plant Isar 2 in
Landshut, the Hoheward railway tunnel at the Hoheward waste tip in Herten, and an
ICE train wash facility for the Deutschebahn in Hamburg-Eidelstedt. In addition, during this time period, the company took part in the construction of subway structures in Frankfurt,
Nuremberg,
Duisburg and Berlin, among others; the construction of the
A 560 motorway, the Hennef bypass, and the
Autobahn 57 between
Goch and the Dutch border; the construction of the interim storage facility for fuel elements in
Ahaus; an
apartment hotel, administrative building,
medical centre, and supermarket at the Ungererpark in Munich; construction of the headquarters of the
Aral AG in Gelsenkirchen-Scholven; and the construction of the
Daimler-Benz headquarters in Stuttgart-Möhringen. After the German reunification in 1990, Heitkamp participated in construction projects for the five new federal states and established offices in
Chemnitz,
Dresden,
Erfurt,
Magdeburg,
Potsdam,
Halle and
Rostock. This includes, amongst others, rebuilding the new synagogue in the Oranienburger Straße in Berlin,
coating the natural-draught cooling tower in Rostock, participating in the Markt Nordseite development in
Weimar, reconstructing parts of the Dutch district in Potsdam, participating in the Siemens Microelectronics Center in Dresden, and the lowering of the Rheinufer-Tunnel in
Düsseldorf and the extension of the
Autobahn 2 in the
Bottrop area. Mining construction activities included, amongst others, the
coke-side dust removal for the Zollverein coking plant in
Essen in addition to various projects in the
Ore Mountains. In 1990, Heitkamp merged with Deilmann-Haniel GmbH. The construction activities of both companies were combined in the E. Heitkamp GmbH, while the mining activities were combined in the Deilmann-Haniel GmbH. The civil engineering projects of were moved to make up the legally independent subsidiary Heitkamp Erd- und Straßenbau GmbH.
2000 until today In 2001, the activities of former Railway Construction Division were transferred to the independent subsidiary Heitkamp Rail GmbH. In this era, the company was involved in building the bridging structures (
Bügelbauten) at the
Berlin Hauptbahnhof; the construction of the
transparent factory (
Gläserne Manufaktur) of
Volkswagen in Dresden and the
Zollernhof in Berlin for the ZDF TV Studio; the construction of the National Bank building in
Riga,
Latvia; the construction of the double water-saving
lock in
Hohenwarte; the modernization of the former Mannesmann high-rise building in Düsseldorf; the construction and modernisation of the Marstallplatz Munich complex on
Maximilianstraße; the construction of the new Cologne – Rhine/Main line of the Deutsche Bahn; and the construction of a university building, including a library, for
Malmö University in
Malmö, Sweden. Due to a massive drop in
orders in the mining sector and the increasing competition in the German construction industry, Heitkamp-Deilmann-Haniel GmbH decided at the end of 2005 to take drastic
restructuring measures. In the course of these restructuring measures, the ATON GmbH acquired the parts of the domestic special mining and the international special mining division. ATON is today's Deilmann-Haniel International Mining and Tunnelling GmbH.
Heijmans, a Dutch group of companies, acquired the Heitkamp Rail GmbH. In addition, the Turnkey Construction Office in
Ratingen closed along with the offices in Düsseldorf, Dortmund,
Hamburg, Munich and Stuttgart. Also, the civil engineering departments of the Bauunternehmung E. Heitkamp GmbH were combined to make up the independent subsidiary Heitkamp Ingenieur- und Kraftwerksbau GmbH. In 2008, the Heitkamp-Deilmann-Haniel GmbH was renamed as Heitkamp BauHolding GmbH, which is its name today. The Heitkamp BauHolding GmbH combines now the following four business areas: civil engineering and power plant construction under the Heitkamp Ingenieur- und Kraftwerksbau GmbH brand; infrastructure building under the Heitkamp Umwelttechnik GmbH, Heitkamp Erd- und Straßenbau GmbH brand; universal construction under the Domoplan GmbH, Heitkamp ProjektPartner GmbH brand; and special construction under the BuM Beton- und Monierbau GmbH, Bergsicherung Schneeberg GmbH, and Bergsicherung Ilfeld GmbH brands. Currently, the largest project abroad involves the construction of the
Olkiluoto nuclear power plant in
Finland. They were involved under Heitkamp Erd- und Straßenbau GmbH brand in the construction of the Lake Phoenix in Dortmund-Hörde as well as the widening to 6-lanes and modernization of motorways, including the
Autobahn 1,
2,
40 and
42 motorways deserves special mention. They were also involved in the redevelopment of the
Kamener Kreuz In February 2009, Jürgen R. Thumann, a great-grandson of the founder of the company, took over the majority of the shares in the Heitkamp Group. Since then, he has been the chairman of the
board of directors. Heitkamp-Deilmann-Haniel GmbH changed its name to Heitkamp BauHolding. In 2013, the company relocated to a new headquarters on the Pluto site in Herne. In 2014, the Heitkamp bridge and civil engineering company was founded. == References ==