Michael Stoffregen-Büller From »Anyone approaching Münster-Osnabrück Westphalia Airport from the east will, after flying over the park-like landscape of the Münster- land and crossing the ribbon of the Michael Stoffregen-Büller into the World Dortmund-Ems Canal, see the highly modern glass and steel buildings of a FIEGE – smallish German airport. But while still The Portrait of a Family Firm only modest in terms of size, in terms of growth it is a giant... However, beside the terminal buildings and the control tower, located on the approach road to the airport, is another distinctive building, which reaches to a height of 41 metres. The author Who, the traveller may ask, can have The company commissioned such an ambitious project Michael Stoffregen-Büller, TV from a star of the architectural profession »Fiege – The Portrait of a journalist. North German Broad- and raised such a highly visible landmark Family Firm« is the subtitle of casting Corporation in Han- this book, which tells of the over/Hamburg. Bavarian Broad- as this in such a distinctly rural location? struggles and successes of four casting Corporation in Munich. The answer is provided by the building generations, covering a period TV journalist on ”Monitor” itself: FIEGE.« from the late 19th to the start and editor-in-chief of ”Welt- of the 21st century. It is the spiegel” at the West German story of the ambitious develop- Broadcasting Corporation in ment from a small rural family Cologne. Ten years as editor- haulage business working with in-chief, TV commentator and horse and cart into one of the deputy director of program- most interesting logistics com- ming at the Hesse Broad- panies in Europe. The chronicle casting Corporation in Frank- of the impressive rise of this furt, followed by many years as Greven family also reflects a head of the WDR Regional highly fascinating chapter in Studio in Münster. the economic history of the German region of Westphalia. From Westphalia into the World Westphalia From Michael Stoffregen-Büller From »Anyone approaching Münster-Osnabrück Westphalia Airport from the east will, after flying over the park-like landscape of the Münster- land and crossing the ribbon of the Michael Stoffregen-Büller into the World Dortmund-Ems Canal, see the highly modern glass and steel buildings of a FIEGE – smallish German airport. But while still The Portrait of a Family Firm only modest in terms of size, in terms of growth it is a giant... However, beside the terminal buildings and the control tower, located on the approach road to the airport, is another distinctive building, which reaches to a height of 41 metres. The author Who, the traveller may ask, can have The company commissioned such an ambitious project Michael Stoffregen-Büller, TV from a star of the architectural profession »Fiege – The Portrait of a journalist. North German Broad- and raised such a highly visible landmark Family Firm« is the subtitle of casting Corporation in Han- this book, which tells of the over/Hamburg. Bavarian Broad- as this in such a distinctly rural location? struggles and successes of four casting Corporation in Munich. The answer is provided by the building generations, covering a period TV journalist on ”Monitor” itself: FIEGE.« from the late 19th to the start and editor-in-chief of ”Welt- of the 21st century. It is the spiegel” at the West German story of the ambitious develop- Broadcasting Corporation in ment from a small rural family Cologne. Ten years as editor- haulage business working with in-chief, TV commentator and horse and cart into one of the deputy director of program- most interesting logistics com- ming at the Hesse Broad- panies in Europe. The chronicle casting Corporation in Frank- of the impressive rise of this furt, followed by many years as Greven family also reflects a head of the WDR Regional highly fascinating chapter in Studio in Münster. the economic history of the German region of Westphalia. From Westphalia into the World Westphalia From Michael Stoffregen-Büller From Westphalia into the World FIEGE – The Portrait of a Family Firm Aschendorff Münster Imprint Published for: Fiege Group, Greven Illustrations selected by: Lisa Fiege, Uschi Fiege, Renate Schindler-Tiedemann Original German title: Aus Westfalen in die Welt. FIEGE – Porträt eines Familienunternehmens English translation: Timothy J. Nuttall Layout / Design / Cover: design-agentur Naumilkat, www.naumilkat.de Produced and printed by: Druckhaus Aschendorff, Münster Published by: Aschendorffsche Verlagsbuchhandlung GmbH & Co., Münster ISBN: 3-402-05173-7 © 2000 Aschendorffsche Verlagsbuchhandlung GmbH & Co., Münster This work is protected by copyright. All rights reserved, in particular the right of translation, reprin- ting, reproduction of illustrations, broadcasting, reproduction by photomechanical or similar means or storage in any medium by electronic means. Printed on acid-free paper Contents 1 The beginnings – Joan Joseph Fiege, carter and farmer 8 The second generation – 22 2 Josef Fiege, carrier, farmer and publican Further ahead through motorization – 34 3 From local carrier to long-distance transport business 4 Alone at the wheel – Josef Fiege Junior 54 5 1945 – A new beginning for Fiege after the defeat 70 Success and expansion – 82 6 The Fiege business and the Economic Miracle 7 Transport Forwarding Bodymaking Tankers 96 8 The zero hour – The firm of Fiege without Josef Fiege 112 9 A dangerous reef – Last-minute rescue 124 New premises in Greven-Reckenfeld – 136 10 Klein-Wiele and the great leap forward Up among the leaders – 150 11 The first ecological goods service centre in Europe On the way to becoming market leaders – 166 12 Alsace Erfurt Berlin 13 Harvest 96 – From Greven to the world 184 14 Fiege – The World of Logistics 200 No standing still – 216 15 The Fiege Group at the end of the 20th century “Reaching goals” – 232 16 Not just an advertising slogan but a formula for success 3 Towering upwards – the Fiege Headquarters at Münster-Osnabrück Airport Anyone approaching Münster-Osnabrück Airport from the east will, after flying over the park-like landscape of the Münsterland and crossing the ribbon of the Dortmund-Ems Canal, see the highly modern glass and steel buildings of a smallish German airport. But while still only modest in terms of size, in terms of growth it is a giant. With passenger vol- umes increasing at double-figure rates, it is growing faster than any other airport in Germany. Münster-Osnabrück Airport, or FMO in short, is surrounded on all sides by green countryside but is the gateway to a highly interesting economic region, one that is character- ized by small and medium-sized business structures and is at an ideal location on the edge of the so-called ”Blue Banana”, that belt of prosperity identified by the EU Commission in Brussels as stretching from London in the north-west, taking in the regions on the River Rhine and in the state of Baden-Württemberg in the south-west of Germany, and extending down to Lombardy in the north of Italy. The Münsterland lies in the north-west of Germany, and with mechanical engineering, metalworking, the food industry, textile and chemical companies and any number of small but innovative firms, it can enjoy all the advantages of its geographical position, but without any of the disadvan- tages of a great conurbation. The growing airport with its plans for further expansion stands as a symbol for the exciting development of this part of Westphalia. Anyone arriving here will sense this, and will at the same time also see another symbol of this progress. This is a tall, distinctive building, located beside the round- 5 about on the approach road to the airport, and with a height of 41 metres it makes the terminal buildings and even the control tower itself look small. An office building of severe and simple style, it is the work of Josef Paul Klei- hues, a local Westphalian architect, but one who has been responsible for designing buildings throughout the world – in Chicago and Santiago de Compostela, in Berlin and Gro- ningen – as well as holding professorships in Dortmund and New York, and whose name is also familiar to people out- side the profession. But who, the traveller may ask, can have commissioned such an ambitious project from a star of the architectural profession and raised such a highly visible landmark as this in such a distinctly rural location? The answer is provided by the building itself: FIEGE. Heinz Fiege and Dr. Hugo Fiege This is the ”headquarters” of a leading logistics services company, with 7,000 employees, subsidiaries at 157 loca- tions in Europe, and business activities extending all the way to the Far East. It is the control centre of a company which, with its record growth rates and innovative ideas, has repeatedly caused a stir. 6 This success is the work of brothers Heinz and Dr. Hugo Fiege, who in the course of a mere 25 years have turned a modestly-sized haulage and forwarding business into what is now an internationally operating group of companies and a leader in the industry. The two brothers manage their en- terprise from the 9th floor of the headquarters from where they can watch aircraft taking off and landing – themselves symbols of technological progress and world-spanning con- nections – but from where also, from the conference rooms on the top floor, they can look out over the green expanse of the Münsterland and back to their own rural origins. They can even see the farm where, as boys, they slept in one room and where they had to be out at first light to help with the animals. There is something American about the career of these two entrepreneurs, although they have always stayed loyal to their Westphalian roots.