The era of the founder Bernhard Heinrich Feldhaus (*1821 † 1900)
1857
In 1857, the farm owner Bernhard Heinrich Feldhaus (*1821) made bricks in the open field fire from the Westerwiede district for the first time. He used the farm's own clay supplies to achieve additional income to agriculture with the brick production. This clay pit, located in the basic moraine landscape west of Remseder Straße to Bad Laer, delivered rich sound supplies. It was a millennium old craft that Bernhard Heinrich Feldhaus took up in the middle of the 19th century and which was to become the basis of a worldwide Company .
But at first it was not the brick production, but for a long time agriculture was in the foreground. Because primarily Bernhard Heinrich Feldhaus was a farmer with numerous lands and cattle stock. The Feldhaus family's full -time farm was able to look back on a long History . He was first mentioned around 1200. Understandably, it was not risked to give up the traditional farm too quickly in favor of the new project. With the combination of agriculture and brick operations, Feldhaus created a constellation that was common at the time. Many farmers used the sound supplies available on their own land for an additional sideline.
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Court building and new brick oven
1862
In 1862 Bernhard Heinrich Feldhaus built a new courtyard from the stones burned in his brick factory, which he had plastered. From now on, the construction activities have never ended. Bernhard Feldhaus notes his construction projects, but also the numerous purchases of lands or a sawmill in 1873, on the first pages of an advertising book, which forms a kind of chronicle. For example, it can be read here about 1866: "In 1866 I built a brick hut again. 70 f long and 48 f wide costs 200 thalers".
At that time, many buyers found the brick goods from Feldhaus . That will also have been the reason why Bernhard Feldhaus had a new brick oven built in 1868. On July 29, 1868, he received approval from the office Iburg for the commissioning of a newly built brick oven to enlarge the brick factory. It can be read in his chronicle: "1868 Neuhen brick oven created and residential building on the brick factory, both brick oven new mouth". Here it becomes clear that Feldhaus wanted to enlarge its brick factory considerably and had already planned accommodation for the brickwork workers.
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Agriculture and brick factory
1870s to 1900
In the 1870s to 1900, agriculture and brick operations exist side by side. The brick production was gradually increased due to the high demand.
The advertising book of the Feldhaus brick factory from 1869 to the mid -1880s provides in addition to the constellations of sales of agricultural products and cattle testimony from the extensive production of bricks, roof tiles, tubes and first pans. Kalk was also produced in large quantities in Feldhausin the field house, as the records prove. Hundreds of customers are noted here with their preserved brickworks. From this book it can also be seen in which area Feldhaus now had its customers. The towns of Remsede, Laer, Westerwiede, Müschen, Glane, Natrup, Versmold, Winkelsetten, Dissen, Dissen, Aschendorf, Iburg, Greven and Ostbevern appear in particular.
Mostly the stones of the brick factory were used for private houses at the time. An exception is the interior of the St. Marien Church in Bad Laer. It was built in 1874 after the dilapidated predecessor building had to be torn down. While the outer walls of Laerer Peepstein were built, the form Feldhauswere used for the columns, window cornices and wall supports. For a long time hidden by overpainting, the bricks came to light again during the renovation in 1966.
The second generation of Heinrich Feldhaus (*1861 † 1938)
The burning process has now been increasingly automated to meet the growing need for bricks. After the consequences of World War II and subsequent inflation had survived, the Feldhaus family did everything possible to further expand their brick factory. In 1929 Heinrich Feldhaus had an automatic pilot built over the ring oven. She had the advantage over the manual fill that the coal could now be supplied to the oven more economically and regularly. Although already developed in the late 19th century, vulnerability in Germany was only increasingly installed in Germany after the First World War. They promised a fuel saving of 20-30 percent compared to the manual.
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The Second World War
1939
In 1939, a channel drying of 60 m was built on the company premises, it was the last investment for many years. World War II and the post -war period interrupted the steady expansion of the Feldhaus brick factory for a few years. "Of course, the people here in the country never really felt bad," recalls Bernhard Joseph Feldhaus today. "Those who had their own agriculture always had enough food. You could have black battles. The people from the city made a pilgrimage to the country to get food."
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The Third Generation Helena era (*1904 † 1970) and Johann Heinrich Feldhaus (*1900 † 1955)
1950s
After the exhausting and difficult war and post-war times, calm returned again at the beginning of the 1950s and the Feldhaus family was able to concentrate on the expansion of the brick factory. On the 2nd Easter day of 1950, the Feldhaus family hit a heavy blow: the house and the family's farm building was completely destroyed by a fire.
Company heiress Helena Feldhaus and her husband Johann Heinrich Feldhaus have had the company in the third generation since the death of father Heinrich Feldhaus in 1938. Together they did everything they can in the following years to expand the brick factory. For the first time in the History of the brick factory, Johann Heinrich Feldhaus now led a trained brick master to the fortunes of the Company S. 96,000 stones could be produced in a tour in the ring oven per week. The necessary energy expenditure was compensated for by a steam engine in -house generation. A new press house was also built, which today is the oldest building on the site.
The era of the third and fourth generation Helena (*1904 † 1970) and Bernhard Feldhaus (*1938)
Until 1955, such a press house, a transformer station and a clipper. In addition, the drying system was enlarged. In 1955 Johann Heinrich Feldhaus died far too early at the age of 55. A large funeral procession with almost 1000 people, including the young briefs in their work costume, accompanied him to his final resting place in the Laer cemetery. Deaths and newspaper reports testify to how popular the late brickwarge was. Among other things, it can be read there: "Hard and undemanding against himself, he had a rare work energy and a safe, clear view. We will not forget his human quality and helpfulness."
In the following time, his wife Helena took the sole responsibility for the steam trace and the farm. Her advantage was that she was familiar with the work processes in the brick factory from a child's leg. She was also able to count on the support of her sons Bernhard and Heinrich, who actively touched in agriculture and brick factory. Bernhard Joseph Feldhaus still remembers that he always helped in the brick factory with his brother Heinz during the school holidays. The large ring oven was constantly in operation. There was a tour per week, in which 96,000 stones were burned in a total of 16 chambers. In summer, a supply was created to Rohlingen, which was then burned down in winter.
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New tunnel stove
1967
In 1967 it was also invested in the field of technology: the almost hundred -year -old ring oven had become dilapidated and, due to its high energy costs, was no longer profitable. The two sons Bernhard and Heinz had long since devoted themselves more and more to the brick factory business. Bernhard Feldhaus recognized the possibilities that a brick factory with modern equipment offered. After a visit to the Karl Walter & Co., Hanover company, the two brothers were able to convince their mother to build a new, contemporary 78 -meter -long tunnel stove. It was created in half a year of construction and had 20 tunnel ferners and 9 tunnel hedge trolleys for the reserve for the oven stock. Like the ring oven, the tunnel oven is a continuously operated fuel. In contrast to the ring oven, the burning goods are now moving on cars through a fixed fire zone.
The old ring oven was torn down and the feeder was installed in the place. This is followed by the college and two rollers. Now 3.0 t of sound could be prepared per hour. "On September 9, 1967", Bernhard Feldhausrecalls, "the first finished stones came from the new oven." In 1968 Bernhard Joseph Feldhaus took over the Company and ensured the constant further development. Brother Heinz also stayed in the company and is still an important support for his brother.
In the meantime, 30 employees worked at Feldhaus, and for the first time the Company now also had an operations manager, Mr. Hildebrand, who ensured the smooth running of production. And investments were further invested: a new clay camp and preparation hall was built. In addition, there was a preparation system, consisting of box feeders, used coller gang from the Händle, two rolling mills and new press facility from Breitenbach in Siegen. With the new technology you could now manufacture about a press output of 8,000 bricks per hour. At that time, Feldhaus mainly delivered to the Zierenberg company in Gütersloh, which made about 80 percent of sales.
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Further investments
1970
In the following years, Bernhard Joseph Feldhaus continued to expand the Company S: "Since 1970 there has been no year since we have not invested and rebuilt," he emphasizes in retrospect. It was important for the smooth production to be switched from heavy to light oil, for which you decided in 1970 after an oven fire. The investments are not only related to technical systems. While the organization has so far been handled by the private house, new offices on the company premises were built in 1972. And an extremely modern and family -friendly one had a children's playground built right next door.
Karl-Heinz Thele, who started as a locksmith near Feldhaus in 1972, became the right hand of Bernhard Feldhaus . He quickly proved to be a creative and technically expert employee, always looking for improvements and innovations related to brick production. At that time there were no fixed areas of responsibility: electricians were missing, and if there were problems with the systems, they tried to remedy them as much as possible. But now the company had become so complex that specialist knowledge was essential. Karl-Heinz Thele therefore trained as an electrical engineer at a school in Goslar for two years and then became manager at Feldhausin 1976.
Karl-Heinz Thele is responsible for a variety of innovations in technology and in the development of new products at the Feldhaus company and has made a decisive contribution to the success of the work. In order to achieve a gentler tuning of the clinker, Feldhaus decided in 1977 to switch the tunnel stove from the ceiling to the side firing. Thus, the system was one of the first tunnel stoves with a side firing across Germany. The fireplace with natural gas was now also carried out. At the same time, the oven was extended to 113 meters. Now the oven power could be increased to a push out of up to 12 cars. In 1970, 20,000 bricks were finally produced a day, so that agriculture was completely abandoned.
Impressions
Revolutionary technique for strap production
1981
An extremely important development for the future of the Company S took place in 1981. At that time, the first Thin Brick were developed at Feldhaus . Thin Brick means narrow bricks that are often used in connection with thermal protection measures to dress up old and new buildings (thermal insulation composite system).
Bernhard Joseph Feldhaus and Karl-Heinz Thele, who were keen to experiment, first tested the production of the straps with the switch-off process, which, however, turned out to be too complex. Later the straps were burned in the adhesive process, with several straps being fixed together with a special glue. Here, too, there were problems, since partly traces of the adhesive remained visible. But the manager Karl-Heinz Thele did not give up until he developed an optimal technique for strap production. An additional new combustion technology enabled the production of 40 percent more goods with the same energy consumption.
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Further growth
1983
Since the capacities for the production of clinkers were no longer sufficient, the decision was made to take over the company Bültmann from Werther in order to focus on the Pavers production.
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New tunnel stove with tunnel stove dryer
1994
In the meantime, the production of Thin Brick has been taking more and more space. Stones were almost three times oversold. There were often delivery times of six to eight weeks on many varieties. Especially in combination with suitable thermal insulation, they have become more and more an important building material in the renovation and modernization.
Feldhaus took this development into account and, under the direction of Karl-Heinz Thele in 1994, designed a new tunnel stove with a tunnel stove dryer, in which the straps were placed on the tunnel hinge as blanks. The previous drying process in the chamber dryer could be replaced by this new technology. "On the" November 9, 1995 ", says Bernhard Joseph Feldhaus," the first straps came out of the oven. Since then, the stove has burned down continuously (2020). "
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Technical innovations
1999
Feldhaus did not rest on the high standard that had been achieved so far during production. Again and again the employees did everything possible to get the optimal benefit out of the raw material. So far, the high committee of raw material that started when producing the angular straps was a major problem. Because these could only be produced as part of a full stone, with 85 percent committee.
Angle straps are needed to properly blend corners and windows. They cannot be distinguished from the conventional masonry. Therefore, the manager Karl-Heinz Thele, in cooperation with the Novoceric company, developed a procedure funded by the DBU as a project in 2001 to produce angular straps without a carrier stone. An elaborately designed strand especially for angular straps now allows to produce these stones in the extrusion process. As a result, energy and material consumption could be significantly reduced.
With the same amount of sound, almost six times more can be produced. This means that around 500,000 cubic meters of natural gas, 40,000 liters of diesel oil, 8,000 tons of tone and 2,500 tons of carbon dioxide are saved annually.
Feldhausis currently in the area of Thin Brick , also due to the numerous technical innovations developed here.
In combination with the construction of a new computer -controlled preparation system, computer -controlled recipe management and moisture control, the development and patenting of the angle strap production and the installation of robots for angular rod production, important milestones were put into a modern future. Even Chancellor Dr. Angela Merkel had informed herself in her time as Federal Environment Minister about Feldhaus 's products.
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The era of the fourth and fifth generation Bernhard Joseph (*1938) and Nicola Feldhaus (*1973)
2010
For strategic reasons, the entire production of all clinkers was centralized and the location in Werther was abandoned. For this purpose, the entire stove control in Brickwork was modernized.
Production techniques have been further developed and refined. So it was obvious that the infrastructure on the company premises constantly changed. With the purchase of Laerer Straße to Remseder Straße from the municipality, the site was able to continue to grow. A space expansion for all clinker products was created in 2014 and a new attractive factory access with a calibrated truck scales was also required. This was followed by the relocation of the rain retention basin and deep well holes for a new operational water supply. Initial and demolition work already announced the emergence of the visitor center.
With the development of the Feldhaus configurator for digital object planning, the digital age also breaks down in sales.
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A new era of customer care begins
2015
2015 is the year in which a completely new era of customer care begins: With the opening of the visitor center, architects, planners, building materials dealers, construction companies and private builders are now open to the doors for an extensive Advisory service .
The total of around 1,400 square meters and the outdoor facilities also invite you to specialist events and industry conferences. Feldhaus Klinker 's trade fair activities are also expanded. For the first time, the Company will be presented in Munich in 2015 at the “Bau” world leading trade fair. For sustainable energy supply, a new combined heat and power plant is created as a joint project with the local energy supplier.
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Energy transition at Feldhaus
Today
The company Company founded in 1857, is now successfully run by Bernhard Joseph Feldhaus and Nicola Feldhaus in the fourth and fifth generation. The expansion of the management around the long -time employee Ralf Conrad and Jörg Breier in 2023 results from the market policy developments of the recent times. In the long term, a wide range of expertise and deep industry knowledge ensure the existence of the Company s family against the background of the volatile market development. Far -sighted decisions and the proximity to the market have justified success and at the same time set the course for the future. In the meantime, more than 115 million clinkers, Thin Brick and plaster leave the Company s. And in the area of Thin Brick Feldhaus with its variety of range is market leading worldwide. A large spectrum of colors, structures and formats are produced and offer individual design options for private houses, business buildings and public construction projects.
In addition to the German market and sales bases in Europe and overseas, Feldhaus with around 150 employees, supplies many aspiring markets worldwide. There are currently more than 40 countries. The corona -related export restrictions were also unable to slow down growth. The share of sales abroad is around 50 percent. The Feldhaus brand is not only a guarantee of quality products in Germany. From the Baltic States to Asia to America, clinker products "Made in Bad Laer" are successfully processed.
The changing energy policy framework for Feldhaus Klinker is the chance to actively shape the future of the construction industry. With the assembly of a 9 MW/P solar system, the course for a CO2-reduced production of clinkers has been set with the aim of achieving climate neutrality in the burning process since 2022. Self -produced "green" hydrogen is the key to this project in which investments are made.
Numbers, data, facts
- Company premises 17.1 ha, including 8 ha of covered production and storage space
- Covered area completely occupied with PV modules
- One location, three stoves
- More than 115 million pieces of straps, blends and plasters per year
- Production of approx. 360 t burned material daily
- 6 press lines
- 9 product lines, 2,500 different articles
- Around 150 employees
- Export worldwide to over 40 countries
Our employees and you, our customers, have contributed to our success. New requirements motivate us to get our own innovations and combine competence and tradition for decades.
We are successful when they are. Build on our over 168 years of experience!
Your Feldhaus Team
Impressions
FELDHAUS
history over 168 years of success.
Feldhaus is an international Brickwork from Germany and employs around 150 employees at the Bad Laer location in Germany. We accompany architects, planners, builders and investors worldwide in construction projects of all sizes.
Our Team from the areas of architecture, construction and engineering, provide you with exactly the professional services and Advisory service sangbootes that you need for your construction project with clinkers. We would be happy to inform you personally about our product and Service offers. Our specialists will advise you competently and will be happy to answer all questions about our solutions.
Experience technological lead - for over 168 years. Look forward to a partnership -based cooperation with the oldest owner -managed Brickwork in Germany.
