Past – Present – Future!
Over 100 Years of Experience
The idea of reusing existing building materials in new construction projects is deeply rooted in our family’s multi-generational tradition.
In 1899, the company Wilhelm Jaeger, Straßen- und Tiefbau KG was founded. As a road and civil engineering contractor, we have always reused construction materials recovered during demolition work. Reclaiming natural stone surfaces (cobbles, setts, edging stones), reusing existing sub-base layers, and recycling bulk materials such as limestone, RCL, gravel, sand, chippings, and topsoil have long been standard practice for us.
The challenges of the First and Second World Wars — especially the scarcity of building materials — led us even back then to carefully search demolished and bombed buildings for reusable bricks and stones, which we then processed and reintegrated into new construction.
In the early 1970s, with the commissioning of our first asphalt mixing plant, we laid the foundation for reusing reclaimed asphalt in the production of new asphalt materials. Thanks to modern asphalt milling machines, we are now able to efficiently recycle up to 40% of reclaimed asphalt into new bituminous base layers — a sustainable, energy-saving approach that closes the material loop.
In recent years, economic pressures have significantly increased the use of recycled materials in road construction. To this day, a large proportion of broken clinker bricks is used as sub-base material in road building. As a result of structural change in the Ruhr region, high-quality industrial clinkers and historic hand-fired bricks are often crushed and wasted in road construction — instead of being preserved for their true value.
Driven by a deep appreciation for historic clinker bricks and the unique charm they bring to façades, the vision for Klinker Historika was born.
The time was right
Our company was founded in 2016 as Klinker Historika GmbH with a clear mission: to rescue these unique, characterful bricks from being senselessly crushed into road base material, and to preserve their unmatched patina and rich color variations for the next generation.
Looking ahead…
To create the space needed for our future growth, in April 2022 we acquired the former "Muhr Brickyard" in Rees-Empel on Speldorper Straße. On this 50,000-square-meter site — surrounded by the historic kilns and chimneys — we are developing a new home for Klinker Historika, designed to support our long-term vision.
Here, the first "brickyard without a smoking chimney" has found its home — a place where the sustainable story of the clay brick will continue to be written for years to come.
