One of Germany’s oldest family run removals companies, Hertling, is celebrating the 60th anniversary of its Frankfurt branch. The company began trading in 1865 in Berlin and also has offices in Eberswalde and Hamburg.

After the 2nd World War the ‘Cold War’ began and the political situation in Europe, especially in Berlin, was extremely tense. The city's future was uncertain. Many companies moved parts of their operations or moved completely to West Germany to escape the turmoil. For Hertling, the question of establishing a branch in West Germany arose not only because of the uncertain situation in Berlin, but also because one of its major customers Hertie - a large German department store chain - relocated its administrative headquarters from Berlin to Frankfurt. By also opening an office in the city, Hertling was able to ensure this important customer could continue to be serviced even if its Berlin operation became unviable.

On 1 May, 1961 the business registration was completed and the new Hertling office was opened at Thomasiusstrasse 14 in Frankfurt am Main.

Friedrich, a fourth-generation Hertling, was ready to take on the task of opening the new branch ensuring the continuation of the business even in the event of the feared ‘closure’ of West Berlin. With just the essentials, pens, paper, and a typewriter, he got to work. The first office was a shop with a very small warehouse. The driveway to the courtyard was so narrow, according to Friedrich, “You could hardly get into the courtyard with a car, and although I had assistance from the head office in Berlin, the first few years were very tough. I had to start from zero on the site,” he said.

Because of the economic boom in West Germany at that time, and full employment, it was very difficult to find staff and Friedrich had to do much of the work himself, including picking up the air freight from Berlin, looking after Hertie and at the same time, trying to find new customers.

After a lot of hard work, the branch slowly blossomed. A local moving company was acquired and in 1967 the company moved to Eckenheimer Landstrasse. Later, a branch manager was engaged and Fredrich was able to return to Berlin after years of building up the business.

In 1991 the branch moved into its present office building and warehouse on a spacious plot of land at Berner Strasse 36 in Frankfurt Nieder-Eschbach.

Today, almost 30 employees work at the Frankfurt site with a fleet of vehicles on hand for every size of move. In addition, the branch now has extensive storage space, a container warehouse with almost 400 wooden containers and over 100 steel containers, as well as a self-storage facility. The range of services and capacities of the branch have grown significantly since it was founded. Removals are carried out for private customers and corporate customers locally, nationally and internationally. In addition, storage services, in particular the storage of files and record-management, are now part of the many services provided by the branch.

Manager, Michael Horn is today responsible for directing business at the Frankfurt office and is looking forward to joining the rest of his team for a proper celebration as soon as the COVID-19 pandemic is over.

Photos: Friedrich Hertling with Fima Hertling (right) in Berlin; Friedrich Hertling in 2015.