Consistently innovative

From Bautenwerk to Global Real Estate (GR): Bosch has been planning and building its properties and infrastructure with foresight for a hundred years. How did it all start? And where do we stand today? A journey through GR’s history.

Abearded cyclist wearing a hat stands on the plateau of Bosch’s Heidehof house. With an open, forward-looking gaze, he looks out over the Neckar valley below. The reflective stainless steel silhouette with a red stripe depicts Robert Bosch, the founding father and namesake of Robert Bosch GmbH. The place where Robert Bosch’s apple trees once grew connects two buildings from very different eras: On the one side is Bosch’s home, a late-classicist villa constructed in the early 20th century, and on the other is the modern, cantilevered Heidehof house, which was built in the early 2000s. It is home to the Bosch foundation, among other things. This is a place where the past and future become visibly intertwined, a place where Robert Bosch GmbH and the foundation connect.

There has always been a strong link between the past and the future at Bosch. This also applies to the company’s construction division, which was founded 100 years ago under the name Bautenwerk – the nucleus of today’s Global Real Estate. As a strategic partner that acts as a part of the Bosch Group, it has been fulfilling a unifying role for a century – for the foundation, the Robert Bosch Hospital, and all other properties belonging to the organization: GR connects people with spaces, locations, technology, and infrastructure and creates properties that adapt to the requirements of the workforce and the company as a whole.

If you want to understand how strong this foundation of values is, you have to delve even deeper into the past. Revisit the year 1911, for example, when Robert Bosch and his family moved into the stately mansion. At the time, the ‘Landhaus Bosch’ situated on the eastern slopes of Stuttgart was highly advanced from a technical point of view. A home telephone, a central vacuum cleaner, and a lift had been installed at the request of the owner – as well as a ventilation system that exchanged the air several times an hour. These features were quite unusual in residential buildings at the time, but they reflected the status quo that had existed in Robert Bosch’s factories for years. The visionary was well aware that fresh air and pleasant temperatures promote health and increase productivity. Just like bright light and a workshop where everything is in the right place and work is made easy by design.

The founder attached great importance to ensuring that the people working in his company were well cared for. Even before the turn of the century, the ambitious entrepreneur placed the wellbeing of his associates at the center of his considerations. This became one of the determining factors whenever Bosch had a new building constructed for his company. And that was a common occurrence. His Workshop for Precision Mechanics and Electrical Engineering grew faster than expected thanks to the invention of the magneto ignition device in 1897.

It didn’t take long for newly erected buildings to grow too small for the large number of associates working there. However, the Bosch company did not yet expand in a particularly strategic manner during these dynamic times; instead, any plot of land in the neighborhood was purchased as soon as it became available. This is how the corporate empire was created in the middle of a Stuttgart residential area. Robert Bosch often looked after the construction sites himself as he knew precisely what he wanted. He introduced the eight-hour working day, checked the quality of the material, and kept a close eye on the workers. Robert Bosch was not overly fond of the prevailing architectural style of his time. He rather emphasized functional construction and deliberately avoided the often playful ornamentation that was popular back then. The first Bosch factory designed based on these notions was completed in 1901 in the backyard of an apartment building in Hoppenlaustrasse. Stuttgart’s first reinforced concrete building was robust enough to house a large number of heavy machines – and was still considered modern decades later. Forty-five associates moved in. By and by, seven more buildings were built there, each of them featuring large windows.

Expanding to Feuerbach

At some point, space in the residential area became scarce. Around the time when Robert Bosch moved into his distinguished family villa fitted with factory ventilation, he shifted part of the production to neighboring Feuerbach and continued to expand there. This growth only came to a temporary halt during the First World War. Like most companies, Bosch struggled in the years that followed, but the company used the crisis to evolve on technical, entrepreneurial, and structural levels.

Finally, the hyperinflation of 1923 prompted the company management to plan buildings more systematically and with greater foresight going forward. To this end, it established a new business area: Bautenwerk, which was to manage the 20 existing properties and henceforth be responsible for all new construction activities. Bautenwerk was headed by two men: Karl Martell Wild, Chief Technical Director, and Fritz Riekert, retired Senior Building Officer. Their first measure was to expand the oil and isolith plant in Feuerbach. Above all, however, they drew up strategic development plans for Stuttgart and Feuerbach, the forerunners of today’s master plans.

And so the Bautenwerk began to plan and build for the long term “based on the knowledge of the past, the study of operational needs, and the certainty of future developments,” as was recorded in the Bosch construction history a few years later. The buzzword at the time: ‘site stock management.’ From then on, the construction department was always one step ahead of the company’s development. Its buildings consistently contributed to the ongoing growth of the company. But there were more crises to come. The Second World War broke out, and right in the middle of it, in March 1942, Robert Bosch died at the age of 80 from complications caused by a middle ear infection. By the end of the war, around two-thirds of his company’s buildings and facilities had been destroyed.

There was enough space for a corporate headquarters designed and built according to the latest standards. “But we didn’t just want to place a ‘box’ in this landscape,” emphasizes Wolfgang Sauer, one of the Schillerhöhe headquarters’ architects alongside his colleague Joachim Schiel. Instead, Bautenwerk erected a bold structure in a completely new architectural style, whose spatial concept is still modern in the present day. Sauer is presently 92 years old. Back when he was working for Bosch, he was in charge of design and implementation planning. During a visit to his retirement home in BerlinSpandau, he explained in detail how work was done in his day. The research building, the eleven-story administration building, and the canteen were designed from 1964 onward using drawing machines, pencils, and rapidographs. Throughout this process, everyone had an eye on the principles of the company founder: While the headquarters featured a sophisticated architectural design, it was highly functional and accounted for the activities of those who would work there. Long rows of windows allow a lot of light into the house, and the air can circulate freely. “It was always important to Robert Bosch that people were properly accommodated and that production ran smoothly,” recalls Wolfgang Sauer, who worked in the construction department for almost 30 years. “We’ve always upheld these principles.” Back then, this approach was summarized using the phrase “necessary, useful, comfortable.” This catchy description is said to go back to Hans Lutz Merkle, the Chairman of the Board of Management at the time.

New standards emerge in the 1970s

The move to Schillerhöhe was completed in 1970. Six years later, Bautenwerk was renamed Corporate Department of Facilities and Buildings and employed a staff of around 100 people. They took on more and more tasks and also started to optimize processes. Among other things, they developed standards for tenders, planning, and production buildings, which greatly speeded up all related workflows. However, environmental protection and sustainability still played a rather minor role at the time. Robert Bosch himself may have been a passionate cyclist who supplied his private laundry room with rainwater, but it was still many years before environmental issues became a key focus of building construction and maintenance in Germany.

From the mid-1980s on, the construction department increasingly designed sites that were to be built abroad. This introduced new challenges: Planners had to take country-specific regulations and cultural differences into account. This is still valid today. As a planner, Wolfgang Sauer was on the road a lot during this decade. However, at the same time he also supervised the renovation of the Bosch Villa, which became home to the Robert Bosch Stiftung in 1986. By that time, the construction department had long since gained a solid reputation throughout the Bosch Group. As a corporate department (ZA, later renamed C/RE), it was put in charge of global real estate management in 1997 and has been responsible for all properties ever since.

Today, the division, which has been merged with Facility Management in the meantime, is active across the entire Bosch world as a globally networked, strategic partner. The number of properties has increased a hundredfold since the founding of Bautenwerk. The tasks, too, have become more complex over the years. The approximately 4,500 associates of Global Real Estate (GR), as the service division has been called since 2022, tend to all tasks across the entire life cycle of the 2,200 properties. They procure, operate, optimize, and utilize land, buildings, and infrastructure in line with the global corporate strategy. And they make sure that everything works smoothly around the globe and on site.

Places that make people feel at home

What used to be separate overall development plans for individual areas have developed into a global network of master plans. Robert Bosch’s values still guide decisions made as regards architecture, technology, or infrastructure. Everything is being built as efficiently and ecologically as possible, and the well-being of staff is also a core concern. Just as in the founding days, strong emphasis is placed on the users – associates, partners, and service providers. “We create vitalizing places designed in a way that makes everyone feel at home,” says Alexander Lenk, President of Global Real Estate. “Our vision is a Home of Bosch shared across the Group.” Buildings and spaces that offer ideal working conditions and inspire people to meet, innovate, and be productive are essential for successful cooperation. Alexander Lenk knows what he and his team owe to the 100-year tradition of the construction department: “The anniversary means a lot to me. Our predecessors made many bold and smart choices that have laid the foundation upon which we can take the next big step.”

A showcase project: the new building in Yokohama

Bosch’s Japanese headquarters south of Tokyo illustrates just how inspiring these places can be. The colleagues from GR planned the energy-efficient, ultramodern new building in the port city of Yokohama from the outset as a hub for collaboration and exchanging ideas. The spirit of Robert Bosch shows in the open architecture: The functional rooms see a lot of sunlight, the modern ventilation system keeps them well tempered, and the toilets are operated using rainwater (more on page 52).

GR is also breaking new ground when it comes to collaboration: This is the first public-private partnership project in the company’s history. In cooperation with the municipality, Global Real Estate also built a cultural center with a concert hall. The Tsuzuki Ward Cultural Center connects the company headquarters with the neighborhood and opens up the site to visitors. “We are constantly changing,” says Jun Shimoyamada, who is overseeing the entire Yokohama project as project director. “Our flexibility ensures consistent progress.” There will be markets, festivals, and exhibitions with customers on site – and there is already a café. Shimoyamada has named it ‘1886,’ after the year Bosch was founded: “The café is a big hit. The people here love it!”

Visitors drink their coffee while enjoying the historic magneto ignition systems, horns, and giant car headlights. Jun Shimoyamada had these items shipped here just for this purpose.

“The future is rooted in the past,” he says with a smile. “That is our guiding principle.” The past and present connect.

Home of Bosch

Home of Bosch is more than just a place – it is the driving force behind all our projects. A vision that unites people, technology, and space to foster collaboration, innovation, and sustainability toward creating a better future for everyone.