BielefeldWith around 48,000 employees, German customs is one of the largest authorities with police duties and powers. More than 13,000 armed men and women must regularly carry out sensitive tasks: from collecting customs duties and enforcing state monetary demands to monitoring cross-border goods traffic and prosecuting illegal work and similar offenses, it’s all about money. The Federal Customs Administration is therefore subordinate to the Federal Ministry of Finance. To ensure that employees are adequately prepared, ten new “operational training centers” for customs are now being set up nationwide. The construction company Goldbeck emerged as the winner from an EU-wide tendering process for the contract: according to a statement, it is the largest construction contract in the Bielefeld-based company’s history.
The operational centers are being built in Beckum, Garching, Kümmersbruck, Eppingen, Heiligenhaus, Walsrode, Griesheim, Stahnsdorf, Chemnitz and Neumünster on behalf of the Federal Agency for Real Estate Affairs (BImA). An eleventh center for the border region with Switzerland was originally planned in Hüfingen.
Training centers allegedly a billion-dollar project
The Bild newspaper had already scandalized the plans for the project in 2023: Under the headline “Lindner wants to spend one billion euros on 11 shooting ranges,” it said that the Taxpayers’ Association had taken aim at the plans. The paper quoted Reiner Holznagel, the president of the Taxpayers’ Association: “The Federal Ministry of Finance’s plans for the new customs training centers apparently amount to a gold-plated solution and seem oversized.”
The customs and finance union defended the expenditure at the time by pointing out the high demands placed on customs employees in the fight against often violent criminals, thereby indirectly confirming the Bild report.
When asked, a Goldbeck spokesman declined to comment on the size of the order. The Federal Office of Real Estate Affairs has not yet responded to a corresponding inquiry. In the past, Goldbeck (more than 12,000 employees) had already fulfilled major orders worth more than 100 million euros each, for example in the construction of the Tesla factory in Brandenburg. The construction of a new factory for the arms manufacturer Rheinmetall on the Lower Rhine, agreed in 2023, is reportedly of a similar size. The total order value for the customs training centers is apparently secret, but is likely to be well into the three-digit million range.
The logic: plan once, build ten times
Each location will have a large sports hall, a shooting range complex and an operational training building on an area of 13,500 square meters. The exact start of construction varies locally, says Goldbeck. The first buildings are scheduled to be completed at the end of 2027. The training center for the 750 employees of the Bielefeld main customs office (including around 220 weapons carriers) will be in Beckum. It will be used jointly with the main customs offices in Dortmund, Münster and Osnabrück in a 2-shift system, said Ralf Wagenfeld from the press office of the Bielefeld main customs office.
“Excellent training standards are an important part of showing appreciation to customs officers, because they perform an important task in our country,” emphasizes Holger Hentschel, board member of BImA. “We are pleased that we have an innovative partner in Goldbeck, who is implementing state-of-the-art training centers nationwide with the same high quality.”
Thanks to a serial planning and construction method, the buildings will be identical for all locations: The company prefabricates key building elements industrially in its own factories and assembles them precisely on site. “The logic is economical and efficient: plan once, build ten times. With our systematic construction method, we can quickly build high-quality buildings for customs,” explains Jan-Hendrik Goldbeck, managing partner.
Read also: Goldbeck company builds new campus in Gütersloh district
Resources should be used efficiently to ensure sustainability. A holistic photovoltaic solution enables almost self-sufficient building operation. Not only the roofs produce electricity with photovoltaic modules, but also the facades of the buildings. In addition, cars park in the shade of solar carports. The roofs not only produce electricity, but also ensure that rainwater seeps away and the buildings are cooled by greenery. Plants on the facades support this effect.
Goldbeck is constructing the buildings using a hybrid wood construction method that combines the strengths of wood, concrete and steel. The lack of a basement protects the soil: “With our construction method, we create livable spaces and reduce the carbon footprint,” adds managing partner Jörg-Uwe Goldbeck.
