Dyckerhoff & Widmann AG (Dywidag) was a construction company based in Munich, Germany (formerly based in Karlsruhe, Wiesbaden and Berlin, Germany).
History
The company was founded under the name Lang & Co. in 1865 by the German cement pioneer Wilhelm Gustav Dyckerhoff (1805–1894) in Karlsruhe, Germany.[1] In the early years the company was mainly engaged in the production of concrete components. In 1866 Dyckerhoff's son Eugen Dyckerhoff (1844–1924) entered the company. He and his father-in-law Gottlieb Widmann changed the company's name to Dyckerhoff & Widmann and made it one of the leading companies for concrete construction in Germany. Starting in the field of construction engineering in the 1880s, the company soon got contracts for impressive buildings like the Centennial Hall (Jahrhunderthalle) in Wrocław.
The company introduced many innovations in the field of concrete construction. Eugen Dyckerhoff developed the Stampfbeton, a compressed concrete that became a standard for concrete construction in Germany in the 19th century. At the end of the 1920s the company developed the Zeiss-Dywidag-System. For this concrete shell construction system the company was awarded an Edward Longstreth Medal of Merit by the Franklin Institute in 1938.[2]