The history of F. W. DEUS GmbH & Co. KG
1856 The farmer, publican and carriage driver Friedrich Wilhelm Deus from Centralpunkt, Gemeinde Wald (today part of the city of Solingen), born on August 12th, 1831, marries Johanne Gesine Pauline Pophanken, daughter of a publican on December 2nd in Oldenburg.
1857 Friedrich Wilhelm Deus launches a goods transport service from the Pophanken public house, Lange Straße 92, Oldenburg.
1860 Friedrich Wilhelm Deus formally becomes a citizen of the city of Oldenburg on March 22nd.
1860 On June 15th, Gesche Pophanken, the daughter-in-law of F. W. Deus, launches a transport and package delivery service from the house in the Lange Straße, which now also includes a shop selling colonial wares.
1865/66 Friedrich Wilhelm Deus is frustrated in his attempts to build a gunpowder factory in Tungeln or Habbrügge - villages just outside Oldenburg.
1867 The Bremen – Oldenburg – Heppens (Wilhelmshaven) railway line is opened on July 15th.
1867 The next day Friedrich Wilhelms Deus starts Oldenburg's first public transport service, a bus from the railway station to the city centre.
1869 Friedrich Wilhelm Deus purchases several pieces of land in the area around the railway station for a hotel and for new premises for his transport company.
1869/70 Friedrich Wilhelm Deus builds the Hotel Deus at the corner of Bahnhofstraße and Bahnhofsplatz.
1876 The premises in the Lange Straße are sold and the transport businesses moves in to the Bahnhofsplatz 8.
1881 Shortly after it is founded, Friedrich Wilhelms Deus becomes a member of the German Furniture Transport Society (Deutsche Möbeltransport-Gesellschaft, DMTG, now the AMÖ).
1884 On November 20th, the F. W. Deus company is registered under the number 548 in the Oldenburg companies register.
1887 Friedrich Wilhelm Deus dies on April 17th, at the age of 55.
1891 F. W. DEUS is named Official Goods Transporter of the State Railway of the Grand Duchy of Oldenburg, and remained an official transporter of the German Federal Railway (Deutsche Bundesbahn) until 1975.
1892 On July 19th Deus’s heir, Pauline Pophanken, passes control of the family company to her son Emil, born June 14th, 1857.
1895 F. W. DEUS is given the title of Court Freight Transporter of his Royal Highness, The Grand Duke, retaining this honour until 1909.
1909 Emil Deus dies on August 15th, at the age of 52.
1910 Bertha Deus, Emil Deus’s widow, sells the company to her brother-in-law and Friedrich Wilhelms Deus’s youngest son, Ernst Deus, born May 16th 1869.
1929 Ernst Deus appoints a managing director, Bernhard Busch from Bremen, born September 23rd, 1898.
1933 Ernst Deus dies on July 7th, at the age of 64.
1934 Charlotte Schnegelsberg and Erna Schnegelsberg, the daughters of Ernst Deus, make Bernhard Busch a partner of the company.
1936 F. W. Deus enters the age of motor transport with the purchase of a Magirus and an Opel Blitz.
1945 Bernhard Busch becomes sole owner of the company as of January 1st.
1945 On April 21st bombing destroys about 60% of the offices, warehouses and function rooms at the Bahnhofsplatz 8.
1947 Bernhard Busch rents the former riding arena, Brüderstraße 15, from the city for the transport business.
1957 F. W. Deus reaches its 100th birthday on December 2nd. 95 workers and apprentices celebrate in the Hotel Deus and the Hotel Harmonie.
1959 In the night of July 18th, fire destroys 80% of the company's fleet, including all remaining horse-drawn carriages.
1959 F. W. Deus moves to new premises in the Artillerieweg 44-52, where the company will stay until 1982.
1956 F. W. Deus moves its offices from the Bahnhofsplatz, where they had been accommodated in temporary barracks until 1954 and then the first floor of the ARAG building for the last two years, to the Artillerieweg on October 1st.
1966 Bernhard Busch buys the railway freight company Ludwig Weelborg in Leer on May 24th, establishing a branch of F. W. Deus in Leer in the process.
1967 On December 1st, Bernhard Busch’s sons, Heiko and Jürgen, formally become partners of the company.
1973 On the day of his 75th birthday, September 23rd, Bernhard Busch is awarded the Lower Saxony Medal of Merit, First Class.
1973 On October 23rd, Carsten Busch becomes a partner of the F. W. DEUS KG. Also, the limited company Bernhard Busch-Speditionsgesellschaft mbH is founded.
1973 The Hotel Deus closes on December 31st.
1974 Effective from January 1st, Bernhard Busch passes control of the company F. W. DEUS GmbH & Co. KG, now a limited company in its own right, to his three sons.
1974 F. W. DEUS takes over the Karl Griffel transport company, setting up a branch of the company's premises in Wilhelmshaven and maintaining the Griffel name until 1993.
1975 The rail-freight contract with the Deutsche Bundesbahn expires ending 84 years of rail-freight cooperation.
1977 Bernhard Busch dies on February 10th at the age of 78.
1981 A contract with the city of Oldenburg is signed on September 1st, granting F. W. DEUS a perpetual lease on land in the industrial estate Tweelbäke, where DEUS invests €11.7 million in building three freight distribution centres (GüterVerteilZentren I – III).
1982 F. W. DEUS celebrates its 125th anniversary. In addition to its headquarters in Oldenburg, there are 15 further branches – in Leer (2), Varel (2), Wilhelmshaven, Papenburg, Emden, Nordenham, Brake, Westerstede, Bad Zwischenahn, Wildeshausen, Vechta und Bremen.
1982 The first building of the first of the three freight distribution centres can be formally opened on December 1st.
1985 The removal and transport systems network UTS Umzugs- und Transportsysteme GmbH & Co KG is co-founded by DEUS.
1987 Jürgen Busch retires from the management of the Bernhard Busch-Speditionsgesellschaft and F. W. DEUS on July 23rd.
1989 The cooperation network IDS Logistics GmbH & Co. KG, whose members had been informally cooperating since 1982, becomes a formal limited company thanks to F. W. DEUS’s involvement - DEUS is also a shareholder.
1989 German Parcel Paket-Logistik GmbH (GP) opens for business on August 1st. F. W. DEUS is a founding shareholder.
1991 Heiko Busch retires as joint managing director on February 4th, leaving Carsten Busch, born January 12th, 1946, as the sole managing director.
1998 F. W. DEUS GmbH & Co. KG reaches the peak of its growth: Turnover is 56 million Deutschmarks and there are 462 employees, premises cover c. 80 000 m², including 16 500 m² of temperature-controlled, fire-safe and burglar-proof warehousing, 2400 m² of offices, high-rack space for 6500 pallets, 7000 m² of space for block storage and 250 furniture containers.
1998 German Parcel is sold to the British Royal Mail on December 31st.
2000 A road off the August-Wilhelm-Kühnholz-Straße in the industrial estate in Tweelbäke is named after the company's founder, Friedrich Wilhelm Deus.
2004 Carsten Busch’s son, Raoul Busch, born January 2nd, 1973, becomes managing director on September 1st.
2005 Company partner and former managing director Heiko Busch dies on July 4th, at the age of 70.
2006 F. W. DEUS GmbH & Co. KG becomes a member of the Deutsche Möbelspedition GmbH & Co. KG (German furniture removers) as of January 1st.
2006 As of June 1st, 70% of F. W. DEUS’s capacities are sold to Kühne und Nagel (KN). This represents a change in strategy based on mass market growth to concentration on core competences, namely removals, warehousing, new furniture logistics and other specialised logistics services.
2007 On September 1st, F. W. DEUS celebrates its 150th anniversary at the company's headquarters, Friedrich-Wilhelm-Deus-Straße 4-6.
