History
The Heinrich Hecker Construction Company was founded on 1 April 1949 by Heinrich Hecker, a construction engineer. The young company started with 35 employees (32 skilled craftsmen and 3 salary earners). The first construction equipment and machines were stored at a place at Melkbrink in the town of Oldenburg. The first contracts included some smaller buildings and the machine hall of the peat power plant in Rühle. The time for founding a construction company was ideal concerning the historical background. There was a major housing shortage: each citizen had on the average a living space of 6 square metres.
The young company was developing rapidly. In the year following the foundation it doubled both its turnover and the number of its staff.
The positive development of he company led to the enlargement of the equipment and machine fleet. A storage place was rented along with an office in 1951 at Johann-Justus-Street in Oldenburg.
The office building at Johann-Justus-Way couldn´t meet the requirements of the expanding company for long, thus a decision was made in 1953 about acquiring a commercial property at Elsässer Street. By 1954 the engineer office became an independent division. The company purchased a second excavator and by using a frame leader and a Delmag Dieselbär excavator it was able to execute excavation and pile driving works. It was the first time for the company to cooperate in a partnership: in executing the Weser-Ems-Hall project. The company just turning seven years old expanded from then on not only in Oldenburg where the head office was located but they founded a branch in the town of Bremen.
In the following years the company made major investments in construction machines and equipment which enabled to execute a wide range of projects in structural and civil engineering. In 1962, when the most devastating storm flood of the century happened, the water management office in Brake contracted with the Hecker Company and other consortium members to execute the dam construction in Elsfleth-Lienen.
Under the new name Hecker Bau GmbH & Co.KG the company has been incorporated into the Depenbrock Company Group with competences focusing on civil and water engineering. The Depenbrock Group is with its annual turnover of € 570 million ten times larger than the Heinrich Hecker GmbH & Co. KG and it has currently 1.200 employees.
Mr. Dipl.-Ing. Karl-Heinrich Depenbrock is shareholder and managing director of the company, Mr. Dipl.-Ing. Christoph Wellendorf is the operative managing director. Ms. Hannelotte Hecker is in charge of the human resources management and the employee development at the entire Depenbrock Company Group.
