Early Concrete Constructions in Germany – A Review with Special Regard to the Building Company Dyckerhoff & Widmann

The birth of concrete construction in Germany has often been associated with the period of Modernism and its well-known architects. What is frequently forgotten, however, is that the essential principles in the use of the material had already been established in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, and that this had been the work, not of architects, but of newly established building companies, some of which went on to become the most important in Germany. With reference to the company Dyckerhoff & Widmann, Karlsruhe, this paper will demonstrate how, in the course of just a few decades, these companies managed to establish a recognised and accepted place for the new material in the field of construction.