80 years
of experience in construction.
Our 80th company anniversary is an excellent opportunity to take a look together at the past, present and future.
By way of this brochure, we would like to give you a little insight into our eventful history as well as our current service spectrum and equipment. Moreover, we would like to thank you for the trust you have placed in us.
Emil and Louis Möller founded the firm Hoch- und Tiefbau Gebrüder Möller on 8 May 1933 in the town of Asbach, near Schmalkalden during a time of high inflation, recession and while the National Socialists were rising to power.
At this time, the company primarily built and renovated detached houses.
Due to the extended war captivity of Emil Möller, Louis Möller had to take over the running of the firm alone during the following years. When Emil Möller returned in 1947, the two brothers decided to go separate ways. Louis left the former Russian occupied zone and settled near Hanau in Hesse. His brother, Emil Möller, moved from Asbach to Mittelschmalkalden, partly due to his marriage to Lore Kössel on 09.02.1956. In addition to construction and civil engineering, the company additionally specialised in the field of road construction. During the winter months, concrete elements were manufactured for housing projects. Even at this time, the firm's area of operations reached as far as the Weimar region. Among other projects, today's Kasseler Straße as well as Schmalkalden marketplace were extended by the firm in the Schmalkalden area. At that time, road construction consisted largely of natural stone paving and had to be executed without the help of large-scale machinery.
In 1977 Emil Möller was killed in a road traffic accident, which meant that his 21-year-old son, Hagen Möller, had to take over the running of the company. The subsequent years, marked by planned economies and socialism, meant that is wasn't an easy task to maintain the firm. Challenges, such as a lack of materials and technical equipment, frequently slowed down the development of the company. At the time, the firm had very few items of machinery at its disposal. The company had only one Type W50 truck, two Belarus wheeled excavators and a stationary 15t compactor from the firm's founding years in the way of technology for building smaller roads and squares. The company withdrew from building construction entirely during this time. Despite all these difficulties and the ever-present threat of nationalisation of private companies, Hagen Möller managed to save the company during this period of its history with just three employees.
Political reforms presented the company with opportunities on the one hand, but also challenges on the other. For a small company, marked by a deprived post-war economy, it wasn't an easy task to survive such difficult times and the transition into a market economy. However, the company made the most of the opportunities afforded by the times and expanded extremely quickly. Helped by investments and low-interest KFW-loans, the company was able to invest in the latest machinery. A total of 20 employees worked primarily in collaboration with the former utilities companies such as Telekom and water utilities. Due to the desolate infrastructure in the new states, this business field offered a good start for the company during the years of reform.
Over time, the company specialised in an additional sector, complete site development for commercial premises. The growing fleet resulting from this as well as the continuously increasing number of employees could no longer permanently remain at the old corporate site in Mittelschmalkalden. Unfortunately, the current industrial estate to the west of Schmalkalden was unable to offer sufficient adjoining real estate for the company, so that a 13,000m² site in an industrial estate to the north of Breitungen had to be purchased. In 1997 the company built a multi-purpose building with a total covered area of 1000m² on the site. This forms the company's current headquarters. We were proud to open an additional new site at the site where our company was founded, at the Asbach industrial estate in 2002.
During the subsequent years, the company focussed primarily on the development of outdoor facilities and smaller roads. Unfortunately, non-tariff-bound companies increasingly penetrated this sector. Sinking prices and the saturated market meant that the company had to re-orient itself again. Initial work in the field of asphalt road construction was provided by building of the Mommelstein cycle route and the Trusetal skating route. In 2006, management focused on opportunities in the area of road maintenance and repair. In this way, the company submitted a bid in a tender for the rural
district of Schmalkalden-Meiningen and won the bid as newcomer to the sector from the road construction department of South-West Thuringia. Looking back, we are still extremely grateful for the trust placed in us.
During the following years there were many investments in more modern and efficient technology, so that the company is today able to cover the complete asphalt sector without the use of sub-contractors.The following section turns away from the past and offers a look at the present and future of Möller.
The company has been maintaining state roads and highways for many years in the area of Wartburg and the
Schmalkalden-Meiningen district. Annual contracts for towns in this area continue to represent a sales field for the firm. In 2009 the company purchased a corporate site in Dreißigacker and built an additional hall their. In times of increasing raw material and energy costs, being close to the customer is an important factor for the firm. This means that thanks to its transport and construction logistics, the company is today able to service an area within a radius greater than 100km, including services such as road milling, asphalt paving, compacting and construction site safety and is able to be on site and ready for operations from one day to the next.
Möller today represents an innovative, modern family-run company with trained staff and modern technology, tuned to the requirements of the market. With Markus Möller, who learned road construction from the ground up, the family-run company is well equipped into its third generation.
