100 years of CHRISTMANN + PFEIFER
1925 to 2025: One hundred years of a heartbeat of steel.
Welcome to the long tradition of CHRISTMANN + PFEIFER! One that we look back on with particular pleasure in 2025. Because the steel heart of our group of companies is still beating strongly at the age of 100. Just as the hearts of our founding fathers Wilhelm Christmann and Otto Pfeifer beat strongly for steel. They founded the company in 1925 to manufacture sheet metal and steel products for the construction industry. Steel lockers were added just a few years later.
Steel has therefore always been at the heart of our business activities. Thus, it is hardly surprising that our company's first self-built factory building was also supported by a steel structure. This, in turn, was so good that others also wanted such a hall construction... Well, and so we are still building steel halls today - and of course much more in the meantime.
Two divisions: Building and Furnishing
Soon after our company was founded, the industrial production of hall constructions and steel lockers laid the foundation for the development of the two divisions CONSTRUCTION and FURNISHING. Today, these operate as economically independent divisions under the umbrella of a joint holding company.
Building
We, the Construction division, produce heavy structural steelwork and build halls and facilities for industry and commerce. We also realize multi-storey parking lots, bridges and modular buildings. Addditionally, we plan a wide range of construction projects and take on their turnkey implementation - including office buildings, logistics sites and rescue stations.
Learn MoreFurnishing
In addition to steel lockers, our colleagues in the Furnishing division produce and sell furnishing solutions for changing rooms, workshops and offices - from craft businesses to large corporations.
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Training Center
In addition, with the C + P Training Center, we have been making our expertise in metalworking professions available to other companies in Central Hesse as an inter-company training and advanced training center since 1999.
Learn MoreThe founding fathers of the C + P Family
Our work today is built on a solid foundation. Let's take a look at the people who laid the foundations at the time.
Wilhelm Christmann
Born in 1900 in Wiesenbach as one of nine siblings. After elementary school, he learns the blacksmith's trade from one of his father's uncles. As he has ambitions and wants to achieve something in life, he attends a technical school in Altenburg (Thuringia) at the beginning of the 1920s. He is regarded as strict and disciplined. He is the creative head of the company. As he dies at the age of 57, he only lives to see the beginnings of the success story that he has helped to initiate. However, his two daughters, Gerda and Erika, remain partners until their deaths and also remain involved in the company's operations. Erika completes an apprenticeship as a commercial clerk at C + P and works there until her marriage. Gerda's husband, her daughter and a grandson also work in the company for some time over the following decades.
Otto Pfeifer
Called “OP” by everyone, he comes from an ancestral line of blacksmiths and locksmiths that goes back to the early 19th century. After leaving school, he trained as a locksmith in nearby Biedenkopf. Until his death in 1971, he enjoyed a reputation at CHRISTMANN + PFEIFER as a person of respect and authority whose word carried weight. His son Walter Pfeifer (1934-2014) is Managing Director of the construction division from 1975 to 1985. This division is then taken over by Rolf Heinecke (until 2024) and Karsten Kußmann, two specialists from outside the family.
Jacob Hainbach
From 1936, as the third partner, he is the man of numbers at CHRISTMANN+ PFEIFER. Born in 1887, he began a commercial apprenticeship after school and was soon appointed authorized signatory in his training company - a job that he continued to hold in parallel for ten years after joining CHRISTMANN + PFEIFER. In 1949 he became Managing Director. His son Horst Hainbach (1929-2019) was Managing Director of the furnishing division from 1975 to 1991, followed by his nephew Uwe Hainbach. In 2018, Tomas Kirschenfauth, a new addition to the company, takes over.
From generation to generation - family values, strong structures
With our entrepreneurial origins in rural Central Hesse around Breidenbach (the so-called "Hinterland"), we still feel a special connection to the region today. Generations from many families work for us - we know each other, appreciate each other and operate on an equal footing with flat hierarchies and a hands-on mentality.
These values also characterize our company management: many of our shareholders are descendants of our founding fathers Wilhelm Christmann, Otto Pfeifer and Jacob Hainbach and some of them are still active in the company themselves. And even though a supervisory board appointed by the shareholders has been guiding the fortunes of CHRISTMANN + PFEIFER with strategic foresight since 1985, our family identity remains unaffected.
Today, we combine the strengths of a family business with the structure of a corporate group: short decision-making processes, flat hierarchies and a binding cooperation meet performance, clout and know-how.
1925
Company founded by Wilhelm Christmann (1900-1957) and Otto Pfeifer (1896-1971). This is followed by the construction of the first own steel construction hall in Wiesenbach (today part of Breidenbach).
1935
Start of industrial production of steel structures for hall buildings and steel lockers. This marks the first development of the two divisions Building and Furnishing.
1936
Commercially trained Jacob Hainbach (1887-1979) joins the company as a third partner.
1937
Opening of the first assembly hall for the steel construction department and own railway siding. The first office building is built on the district road to Wiesenbach.
1939
Conversion to war economy, the hall and plant construction sector remains stable.
1945
Company management under the supervision of the US military government and brief restructuring of the portfolio due to the general shortage of materials.
1948
Currency reform and economic miracle ensure rapid recovery and rising employee numbers.
1949
Jacob Hainbach becomes Managing Director.
1962
A major fire destroys the entire steel construction hall, but it is quickly rebuilt.
1975
Horst Hainbach (for the furnishings division) and Walter Pfeifer (for the construction division) take over the management from Jacob Hainbach.
1982
Installation and commissioning of a new production line for steel construction.
1985
Appointment of a Supervisory Board. Rolf Heinecke becomes Managing Director of the construction division and replaces Walter Pfeifer.
1988
Construction of a further steel construction hall for the production of Preflex® composite girders for bridge construction.
1993
Takeover of the steel construction division from Saxonia AG in Freiberg / Saxony. Turnkey construction becomes part of the service portfolio.
1996
Restructuring of the group of companies: the operational areas of construction and furnishing are economically separated from each other and from now on operate independently under the umbrella of a joint holding company.
1998
Establishment of a sales office in Regensburg.
2000
Relocation of the headquarters of the construction division from Breidenbach to Angelburg. Establishment of a sales office in Leipzig.
2015
Development and market launch of the modular Preflex® Parking Garage as a construction product.
2019
Inauguration of a new production hall for the Preflex® Parking Garage at the Breidenbach site.
2020
Development and sale of modular building solutions as a new construction product.
2022
Investment of two million euros to modernize the Freiberg steel construction production facility.
2024
Karsten Kußmann becomes Managing Director of the construction division and replaces Walter Pfeifer.
2025
Establishment of a sales office in the Rhine-Mine-Area.
From the "Hinterland" to Saxony
We realize construction projects in many exciting locations: from Hamburg to Munich, Cologne to Erfurt - and also internationally, for example in Cyprus, Haiti or Saudi Arabia. All these projects are handled and managed from our eight company sites in Germany, including two own production facilities.
We have our origins in the Hessian "Hinterland", where our company was founded. But why “Hinterland”? The term originates from the time of the Landgraviate of Hesse-Darmstadt, for whom the region around Biedenkopf and Breidenbach was obviously a quite remote outlying area. The term “Hinterland” has remained to this day and is still worn with pride.
In addition to our founding location, we are now also deeply rooted in our other locations - after all, some have been in existence for over 25 or even 30 years.
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