Dyckerhoff, Karl Ludwig

Merchant

born: 13.09.1869 in Biebrich

died: 10.12.1938 in Wiesbaden

After completing a commercial apprenticeship and working as a sales representative in Antwerp and London, Dyckerhoff joined the then general partnership Dyckerhoff & Söhne in 1896 under the management of his father Gustav Wilhelm Wernhard Dyckerhoff. His commercial career there began with a trip to North, Central and South America from January to September 1896 to explore the market. When Dyckerhoff & Söhne was transformed into a limited company, Dyckerhoff was appointed Managing Director in 1911.

In the same year, he began his political career as a councillor for the town of Biebrich. He campaigned for the Volkswohlgebäude and the Wilhelmsbad. He also set up a public kitchen in Biebrich during and after the war. He took an active part in the First World War as an officer. In 1917, he moved to the War Ministry in Berlin as a department head and worked there at the cement compensation office. After the war, Dyckerhoff continued his work as managing director of the cement factory in Amöneburg, which was occupied by French troops during the occupation of the Rhineland.

Dyckerhoff led the company through difficult times. The construction industry had been suffering from the economic crisis since 1929. It had not yet reached its peak when Danatbank - the company's house bank - closed its counters in the summer of 1931. In October 1931, there was a merger with the Westphalian cement company Wicking, in which Dyckerhoff & Söhne GmbH was merged into the new Portland-Zementwerke Dyckerhoff-Wicking AG. Dyckerhoff moved to the company's supervisory board as chairman. The Dyckerhoff family retained the majority of shares. However, the financial difficulties were not resolved until 1935. In 1936, the name Wicking disappeared from the company name again with the renaming to "Dyckerhoff Portland-Zementwerke AG".