Passion for every project.
How Leonhard Weiß put down roots in Göppingen.
At the beginning of his career, Leonhard Weiß lived from one construction project to the next, travelling wherever there was work to be done. After his marriage to Ottilie Streicher in 1908 and the birth of his daughter Emma a year later, Leonhard Weiß put down roots for the first time. He began to build up a company in Göppingen, initially from a small office in the first flat they shared in Karlstraße. He had no government support, no reserves and no loans. Leonhard Weiß relied on his experience, his knowledge - and his good reputation.
From 1912, he received his first contracts from the municipality of Göppingen. He carried out levelling work for the extension of the cemetery and the construction of several new roads in one of the city's districts. This was the start of a close working relationship between the local council and the young builder. Leonhard Weiß and the people he hired for the projects built tracks, roads, footpaths and pavements. As part of the extension of the sewerage system, LEONHARD WEISS also built pipe sewers and house connections. It also diverted the Mühlbach and Stadtbach streams, built bridges for heavy goods vehicles and even constructed the new Göppingen ice rink.
In 1931, the town planning officer wrote about the collaboration: Mr L. Weiss is a competent civil engineer who knows how to tackle small and large building projects and set up building sites in an exemplary manner. The personal contact with Mr Weiß has always been pleasant and the invoicing of the various works has also been smooth.
Due to the difficult economic times - after the First World War came inflation and then the Great Depression - Leonhard Weiß could not afford to employ permanent staff. He himself is on site every day and always completes the projects 'on time' and without 'inconvenience'. Whether it was for the larger clients, such as the Reichsbahn and the Royal Railway Construction Section, who entrusted him with their work
In 1921, for example, he was entrusted with work on the 4.6 kilometre UnterböbingenHeubach branch line, or for companies, most of which contracted him to build industrial tracks. This was the beginning of his collaboration with Neckarwerke A.G. (now EnBW), followed by other companies in the region, such as the Salach paper factory and the Schwenk cement works in Ulm, to whom Leonhard Weiß supplied materials for track construction.
However, the real breakthrough came in the mid-1930s with the economic upturn. LEONHARD WEISS could now be found on the numerous large construction sites in the region, for example on roadworks on the district roads around Göppingen and on supraregional railway lines such as Ulm-Stuttgart or Ulm-Friedrichshafen on behalf of the Reichsbahn.
What has characterised Leonhard Weiß ever since his first project in Göppingen is that he drives every project forward with passion. It makes no difference whether he is renewing the tracks at Biberach station while operations continue or laying a new path for the forestry office. He finds solutions, shares his knowledge and is always personally available. The roots he put down as an entrepreneur in Göppingen in difficult times are paying off. The oneman business in his private home has grown into a respected company that is known far beyond the borders of Göppingen.