It was Franz Anton Hartmann who founded the company in 1856. His father, Josef Hartmann, had already started transporting goods for the Paderborn merchants in the first half of the 19th century in his role as Höker. The tradition of the transport sector began with him.
For more than 100 years, until 1960, the company headquarters were located directly on Paderborn's Marienplatz, and the radius of action quickly expanded beyond the East Westphalian region, which was followed by the first trips to the Leipzig trade fair and transport for the Paderborn merchants.
After Franz Anton Hartmann laid the foundation stone for the company in 1856, his son Andreas Hartmann Senior took over his father's business in 1875. Around 1890, he bought a plot of land in the centre of Paderborn and replaced the half-timbered house there with a new building. From then on, the company's home was Marienplatz 7.
On 1 February 1898, "F.A. Hartmann Spedition und Möbeltransport zu Paderborn" was entered in the commercial register of the royal district court in Paderborn. The signature of Andreas Hartmann can be seen at the bottom left of the document.
Carl Hartmann continues the business of his father Andreas Hartmann.
Carl Hartmann buys the first furniture lorry worth 50,000 Reichsmarks. The moving families initially travelled in the passenger cabin, as only a few had their own car. The photo from 1924 shows a satisfied moving customer surrounded by the Hartmann team.
The Büssing furniture lorry had a trailer, solid rubber tyres and a passenger cabin.
Shortly after Carl Hartmann took over the management of the company in 1914, four years of uncertainty immediately followed due to the First World War. But this was not to be the last war in the history of F.A. Hartmann. At the end of the Second World War, on 17 January 1945, the company headquarters on Marienplatz were also hit. The buildings and vehicle fleet were reduced to rubble, and even the horse-drawn carriages did not survive the bombing raid.
"Everything was destroyed by the bombing raids of the Second World War. Our lorry was called up by the Wehrmacht and everything else, such as the horse-drawn vehicles and the horses themselves, did not survive the bombing. So there was nothing left of the company. Paderborn was 85% destroyed. In 1948/49, things slowly got going again, but really, really slowly. At that time, the mainstay of the company was the removals business. Until the end of the war, many people were evacuated from the Ruhr area to Paderborn, as the hardship there was even greater. From 1949 onwards, people wanted to move back home. Our removal business expanded during this time."
(Rolf Hartmann in an interview from 2016)
After the end of the war, the longest era in the company's history to date began when Rolf Hartmann joined the company in 1949. With just two horse-drawn vehicles, one lorry and six employees, Rolf Hartmann started a company period that lasted around 50 years under his leadership. As early as the mid-1950s, Rolf Hartmann crossed the Alps twice in 14 days to transport goods from Paderborn to Rome, e.g. for the motherhouse of the Sisters of Christian Charity.
F.A. Hartmann continued to operate dynamically on Marienplatz. However, due to its growth and strong development, the site became too small in the early 1960s and something new was needed. Rolf Hartmann then decided to relocate the F.A. Hartmann headquarters to Kolberger Straße. They needed a larger area and secured a plot of land in Kolberger Strasse for the development of 12,000 square metres.
Rolf Hartmann continued to pull the company's strings, but after 30 years, the capacities on Kolberger Strasse became too small. In 1991, Rolf Hartmann found what he was looking for: 60,000 square metres in Halberstädter Straße were to become the company's new home. His wife Christa was involved in the artistic design of the new office wing.
Today, the site is still home to administration, logistics and our relocation division.
At the beginning of the 1990s, the fifth generation, consisting of Andreas, Susanne and Sabine Hartmann, joined Rolf Hartmann in the company.
At the beginning of the 2000s, the time had come for the fifth Hartmann generation to take over. Rolf Hartmann handed over responsibility for the company to his children Andreas and Sabine. Andreas Hartmann is responsible for the forwarding and logistics divisions, while sister Sabine Hartmann takes over the international removals business.
At this time, the company has over 100 employees, 15 of whom are trainees.
After the move to Halberstädter Straße, the first extensions were built just a few years later, such as the construction of the high-bay warehouse, a container hall for the removals division and a further 3,000 square metre logistics hall, which was subsequently expanded by 2,500 square metres.
After less than 20 years, the capacities at Halberstädter Straße were already exhausted. Structural changes were necessary, especially for the growing general cargo business, in order to be able to handle the volumes quickly and efficiently. For this reason, a state-of-the-art freight forwarding terminal was built in 2008 on a greenfield site on Pamplonastrasse, just 800 metres from the logistics and administration building. A 5,000 square metre transshipment warehouse called Terminal 2 (T2 for short) with spacious office and outdoor areas was created.
In 2010, the company ventured out of Paderborn. Andreas Hartmann took over a haulage company in Ibbenbüren in order to make the Hartmann name known in the region around Osnabrück. Four years later, the site expanded with the construction of the new haulage and logistics terminal in Ibbenbüren-Schierloh in the familiar Hartmann building design. Managing Director Christian Feld was always there.
Since then, Hartmann International Systemlogistik has been operating in Ibbenbüren with around 70 employees on an area of 18,000 square metres with direct access to the A30 motorway.
In 2014, Hartmann International's Paderborn site joined the CargoLine cooperation network. It not only became a partner company, but also a CargoLine shareholder with effect from 1 January 2015.
An important reason for the change is the strong expansion of the freight forwarder. "The economic success of recent years requires a reorganisation that takes account of the strong volume growth," explains Andreas Hartmann in 2015.
The change also comes at an ideal time for CargoLine. With the new member Hartmann International, the logistics network is strengthening the East Westphalia location in the long term.
2017 sees the construction of Lager24/7, a self-storage facility with 562 storage boxes, which offers private and commercial customers the opportunity to store or temporarily store goods and personal belongings. Lager24/7 offers storage spaces from one to 20 square metres, a 24/7 access system and round-the-clock video surveillance.
The international private and corporate removals division has been operating independently since 2018 under the name Hartmann International Umzug & Projektlogistik GmbH & Co. KG.
After the completion of the Terminal 2 expansion in summer 2022, construction began shortly thereafter on the innovative logistics property, Terminal 3, on Pamplonastraße. This modern terminal also includes a hazardous materials warehouse and is connected to Terminal 2 via a direct tunnel.
The terminal was completed on schedule in spring 2024.