In 1969 Mr. Gerold Hetzel founded in Düsseldorf a planning office for building equipment. This was a very good decision with regard to the timing, since a quarter of a century of reconstruction was coming to an end. High-quality construction was now the main concern, resulting in greater demands being placed on the technical equipment of buildings.

All kinds of buildings, such as administration and office buildings, department stores and major shops, shopping centres and malls, hotels, cultural facilities, hospitals and residential buildings such as apartment blocks required integrated, economically-oriented solutions regarding building equipment.

Mr. Hetzel, a well-known and respected figure in this particular specialized field, took up the challenge and managed the company by himself for almost 20 years, with the result that an engineering company was founded in 1988. Experienced partners who had been involved with the company right from the very beginning now formed a management team, and this was the birth of HTW, Ingenieurgesellschaft Hetzel, Tor-Westen und Partner.