Christiani & Nielsen

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Christiani and Nielsen is a Danish civil engineering office founded in 1904 by Rudolf Christiani and the naval lieutenant (prime lieutenant) Aage Nielsen (1873–1945) in Copenhagen . Today they belong to the Thai GP Group. Before the war, the construction industry was one of Denmark's most important export markets and Christiani & Nielsen played a major role in this.

Reinforced concrete pioneer in Denmark and expansion

They were pioneers of reinforced concrete in Denmark and were particularly active in hydraulic engineering and harbor construction, for example pile foundations, quays, arched bridges and sinking tunnels. They expanded rapidly: in 1906 a branch was founded in Aarhus, in 1908 in Hamburg (by Christiani himself), in 1910 in Saint Petersburg (by Nielsen), in 1913 in London, 1916 in Norway, 1917 in Brazil, 1918 in Sweden and 1919 in France. Later branches followed in Australia (1923), Africa (South Africa 1937), the USA (1939) and 1930 the first in Asia (Siam). They built harbor and shipyards, bridges, industrial plants, silos, roads, airfields and power plants worldwide. There were certain conflicts between Christiani and Nielsen. Christiani pushed for global expansion while Nielsen was more down to earth and cautious and advocated consolidation. Ultimately, Christiani, who had a very good international reputation as an engineer, prevailed.

Seaplane Harbor, Seaplane Harbor , Tallinn

Cooperation with Germany in World War II and the post-war period

In the 1930s they were significantly involved in the German motorway construction, but they also had good relations with France. In November 1940 Christiani & Nielsen decided to only work on civil projects with the Germans in Denmark, but not abroad (for example Norway, the Netherlands or France). The question of employing forced laborers was ignored and they worked with the Todt Organization in Norway and France, for example on submarine bunkers and other marine structures in St. Nazaire, Bordeaux, La Rochelle. This continued until the summer of 1944, shortly before the liberation of France, and was not called into question by the bombing raids. In Norway, the company was involved in the construction of Nordag (a joint venture between the Luftwaffe and IG-Farben) for the aluminum industry in Aardal - a raw material that the German Air Force needed and cheap electrical energy (Koppenberg Plan). Even then, this led to criticism from the Norwegian side and, after the war, to legal investigations. From Christiani's point of view, however, her approach was legitimate in a time of crisis for the company. He also managed to portray this as the activity of the Norwegian subsidiary, so that the Allies in 1941/42 criticized the Swedish activities for the Nordal in particular. In 1943 Christiani was increasingly attacked in the underground press and worried about the increase in attacks by the resistance, he developed the plan for a Swedish occupation of Norway and Denmark and therefore contacted the German governor in Denmark Werner Best , who reacted positively, but also demanded that Christiani prominent supporters found in Sweden. Christiani held talks in Stockholm, mostly with business people (the Norwegian government in exile and Swedish diplomats were negative) and in January 1944 the plan came to the press and led to heavy criticism. She was even picked up in the New York Times and named Christiani as a collaborator with Best. This drew the attention of the American authorities to the company and in 1944 they were blacklisted by the Americans (Operation Safehaven primarily served to prevent the National Socialists from hiding capital in neutral countries, but it mainly affected German companies). That was a heavy blow for the company, as it had benefited greatly from the exclusion of German companies in Brazil and received a major contract from the US-financed development of the Brazilian steel industry. After the war, in the case of Christiani & Nielsen, Britain and the US insisted that Christiani withdraw from the company and become a public company. In 1946 Rudolf Christiani's son Axel took over the engineering office. In 1958 the company became a stock corporation.

In 1946 sales were higher than in 1938. In the five years of the war, the company had a turnover of 300 million Danish kroner and a profit of 55 million, half of it in South America, mainly Brazil, but also Argentina and Venezuela. In the first nine months of 1946 they had a worldwide turnover of 65 million kroner and were the largest Danish company with around 7,000 employees. In Norway, too, the company had increased its sales tenfold in 1946 compared to 1938 (sales 0.8 million crowns) and was doing well despite efforts to bring charges against Christiani. The company also received large orders for the reconstruction of France. The head office in Denmark had 1.9 million kronor in sales (roughly the same as in Holland), but in Brazil it was 13 million, in Venezuela 9, in Argentina 10 and Uruguay 6 million, in France 3 , 7 million in England and almost 8 million in Sweden. Only the once so lucrative German market had failed.

A civil engineer at Christiani & Nielsen was, for example, Jørgen Brinch Hansen and the founder of COWI Christen Ostenfeld also worked in the French branch before he founded his own engineering office.

For the Maastunnel in Rotterdam with caissons they developed a special sand flushing system (by the engineer Aage E. Brettning).

The Siam branch was established in 1930. Christiani% Nielsen passed into Thai ownership in 1992 and became a leading construction company in Thailand. The seat is in Bangkok.

Projects (selection)

Projects of the Danish company (selection):

Buildings in Thailand (selection):

  • Democracy Monument in Bangkok, 1939–1940
  • Klong Toey Harbor
  • The Krungthep , Krungthon and Nonathburi bridges over the Chao Phraya River in Bangkok, 1954–59
  • Rajadamnern boxing stadium
  • Sukhothai Hotel in Bangkok
  • Rajamangala Stadium for the 13th Asian Games, 1998
  • All Season Place (administration building)
  • SCG 100 Years New (administration building)
  • Prince Mahidol Acoustic Hall ( Mahidol University Concert Hall ), 2014

Other buildings by the Thai company:

literature

  • Fifty years of civil engineering, Christiani & Nielsen 1954
  • 75 years of civil engineering, Christiani & Nielsen 1979
  • Christen Ostenfeld: Christiani & Nielsen, Jernbetonens danske pionerer, Polyteknisk Forlag, Lyngby 1976.
  • Steen Andersen: Escape from 'Safehaven': The case of Christiani & Nielsen's blacklisting in 1944, Business History, Volume 51, 2009, pp. 691-711
  • Steen Andersen: Between imperative and risk. The case of Christiani & Nielsen's market entry in Norway 1941-45, Scandinavian Economic History Review, Volume 59, 2011, pp. 3-28

Web links