About us

Gottfried Puhlmann is a long-established family business and a leading provider of energy infrastructure, specialising in cable laying, road construction and district heating. For more than 130 years, leading regional and national network operators and utility companies have relied on the company’s extensive expertise for complex infrastructure projects.

1888
The company was founded on 23 March 1888 as a stone-laying firm in Berlin-Zehlendorf

1910
The company’s trademark is its cobblestone paving. It dominates the townscape almost unrivalled within a radius of 5 to 10 kilometres of the company’s premises. Other services include road surfacing, and the laying of cables and fittings for the Reichspost and other utility companies. Puhlmann already employs 22 pavers. Turnover stands at 90,000 gold marks.

1933 – 1935
The construction of roads, car parks, airfields, the sharp bends of the Berliner Ring and the AVUS north bend form part of Gottfried Puhlmann’s main contract portfolio. In 1935 alone, the company generates a turnover of 4 million Reichsmarks and the number of employees is also rising rapidly.

1938
The company celebrates its 50th anniversary. The founder, Gottfried Puhlmann, receives numerous honours, including his appointment as Honorary Master of the Berlin Guild of Stonemasons, Pavers and Road Builders. Sadly, he does not live to see this special day; he dies shortly before it, just one month after his 75th birthday. Richard Hansmann is now the sole owner of the company.

1946 – 1948
The post-war period also had an impact on the company. Richard Hansmann was commissioned to extend the airport runways. However, due to the shortage of materials, which was particularly acute in Berlin, there were not enough raw materials for the construction. Hansmann had an idea: he used track ballast from dismantled railway tracks. The idea worked and business picked up again.

1948 – 1951
In 1948, a new company was founded from the remnants of the Puhlmann construction sites in central Germany: ‘Gottfried Puhlmann in Arnstadt’. In the spring of 1949, “Gottfried Puhlmann, Allgemeine Bauunternehmung in Marne/Holstein” commenced operations. The “Südwestdeutsche Baugesellschaft” was founded in Freiburg in 1951.

1952
A golden age dawned. The turnover of the three (West German) Puhlmann companies in Berlin, Marne and Freiburg increased tenfold.

1963
From this year onwards, Gottfried Puhlmann Berlin was involved in underground railway construction as part of joint ventures; reinforced concrete structures were built, retaining walls became a speciality, and the aesthetic use of concrete became a hallmark of the 1970s.

1971 / 1972
In 1971, Puhlmann took over a small paving firm in Munich (Gottfried Puhlmann Munich). The East German Puhlmann firm in Arnstadt was expropriated in 1972 and merged into the municipal repair department for roads and utility lines.

1986
New site in Schleswig-Holstein. Puhlmann takes over the civil engineering and hydraulic engineering division of the long-established construction firm Paul I. Peters in Husum, which had gone into liquidation.

1988
The five Puhlmann companies celebrate their 100th anniversary.

1989 – 2006
Things move at a rapid pace following reunification. Numerous start-ups and takeovers (e.g. in Greifswald, Wuppertal, Bernau and an East-West Berlin joint venture) bear witness to the (modest) construction boom. Shortly afterwards, some sites file for bankruptcy or close down again.

1992
This year, which was heavily influenced by German reunification, was the most successful year in the long history of Gottfried Puhlmann. With an annual turnover of almost exactly DM 100 million, a profit of DM 11 million was achieved.

Since 1996
The Berlin-based parent company was split into three independent firms for consolidation purposes: Gottfried Puhlmann Berlin, Gottfried Puhlmann Havelländische Bauunternehmung and GEPE Steinstraßenbau GmbH & Co. KG. The Puhlmann company has always managed to recover from every crisis: when GEPE Steinstraßenbau began to falter, it was able to consolidate itself again through its own efforts.

2021
Gottfried Puhlmann becomes a member of the FRIEDRICH VORWERK Group.

2023
SKS Straßenbau GmbH is renamed Gottfried Puhlmann Hamburg GmbH in order to consolidate all road construction and cable laying activities in the city of Hamburg and the surrounding area within a single company.

2024
Gottfried Puhlmann GmbH Havelländische Bauunternehmung moves from Berlin-Zehlendorf to the new premises in Ludwigsfelde, alongside other subsidiaries of the FRIEDRICH VORWERK Group.

2025
New location of Gottfried Puhlmann GmbH, a construction company based in the Havelland region, in 17039 Brunn.