About Holzbau & Ausbau

Holzbau & Ausbau

Holzbau & Ausbau is the monthly bulletin of the Baden-Württemberg carpenters' and timber-construction association (HOLZBAU Baden-Württemberg), the professional organization of the Zimmererhandwerk in Germany's leading timber-construction state. The approximately 24-page magazine informs and reports on all news from the fields of technology and the trade, serving the member businesses with the information they need for their daily work. Its compact format is deliberate: busy craft entrepreneurs need the essentials, not the encyclopedia, and the monthly bulletin delivers exactly that, the technical updates, association news, and business guidance that keep a timber-construction business current and competitive. Published in Stuttgart and distributed through the association's portal holzbau-online.de, it is the communication organ of a craft that is booming: Baden-Württemberg leads Germany with a timber-construction rate of 35.2 percent for approved residential buildings, and the magazine is the voice of the builders behind that success.

Overview

Holzbau & Ausbau appears monthly as the Mitteilungsorgan of the Baden-Württembergischer Zimmerer- und Holzbauverband, addressing the member carpentry and timber-construction businesses. The magazine's compact format, around 24 pages, delivers the essentials: technical news, association announcements, training and continuing-education offerings, legal and business-management guidance, and reports from the trade's events. The content is tailored to the practical needs of the craft businesses: what is new in technology, what the association offers, and what the members must know.

The association behind the magazine, HOLZBAU Baden-Württemberg, supports its members with advice on technical questions, legal challenges, business management, and communication. The magazine is the print extension of this service: it brings the association's knowledge to the businesses month by month. The portal holzbau-online.de complements the print bulletin with current news, from the WorldSkills competitions to the industry's events and studies.

History

The Baden-Württemberg carpenters' association has a long tradition of member communication, with Holzbau & Ausbau as its current monthly organ. The German National Library documents the journal's bibliographic continuity, including its relationship with "Zimmermeister intern," the information bulletin of Holzbau Deutschland, the federal association of German master carpenters in the Central Association of the German Construction Industry, which appeared as a supplement to Holzbau & Ausbau from 2010 to 2017.

The magazine has accompanied the timber-construction boom of recent decades: the Holzbauquote, the share of timber construction in building completions, has risen continuously for over twenty years, reaching 23 percent for residential buildings in 2024 and 24.4 percent in 2025. In Baden-Württemberg, the heartland of German timber construction, the rate reaches 35.2 percent. The magazine has documented this transformation from the craft's perspective: the new technologies, from CNC joinery to prefabricated timber modules, the growing demand for sustainable construction, and the professionalization of the trade.

Coverage and Content

The technical coverage addresses the craft's core: timber-construction techniques, from traditional joinery to modern engineered-wood systems; building physics, from thermal insulation to fire protection; and the machinery and tools of the trade. The association news keeps members informed about the organization's work: collective-bargaining developments, training initiatives, and the political advocacy for the craft. Legal and business-management topics address the challenges of running a craft business: contracts, liability, succession, and digitalization.

Training and youth development are standing topics: the magazine reports on the WorldSkills competitions, where carpenters like Florian Dorer from Furtwangen won the silver medal in "Skill Carpentry" at the WorldSkills Shanghai 2026, and on the growing number of apprentices, which rose 5.5 percent to 9,082 in 2025. Event coverage includes the DACH+HOLZ International trade fair, the Barcamp Holzbau, and the association's own gatherings. Studies, such as the Ferdinand Steinbeis Institute's research on sharing production and personnel capacities in timber construction, bring the science to the practitioners. The magazine thus functions as the trade's knowledge hub: the place where the craft's technical, economic, and political questions are addressed together.

The Carpentry Craft

The Zimmererhandwerk that Holzbau & Ausbau serves is one of Germany's oldest and most tradition-conscious crafts, with roots reaching back to the medieval guilds. The carpenter's craft combines ancient knowledge, the geometry of roof structures, the art of traditional joinery, with cutting-edge technology: modern carpentry businesses work with CNC-controlled joinery centers, 3D planning software, and prefabricated timber modules. This blend of tradition and innovation defines the trade's identity and the magazine's editorial challenge: honoring the craft's heritage while preparing its practitioners for the industrialized future.

Training is the craft's lifeblood: the apprenticeship as Zimmerer remains one of the most popular craft trainings, with 9,082 apprentices in 2025, up 5.5 percent, and a growing share of young women (6.4 percent). The competitions, from the national championships to the WorldSkills, showcase the craft's excellence and attract the next generation. The magazine's coverage of training, from apprenticeship marketing to the master-craftsman schools, supports the businesses in their most critical task: finding and forming the skilled workers on whom the timber-construction boom depends.

The Timber-Construction Boom

Holzbau & Ausbau serves a craft at the center of the construction industry's climate transformation. Timber construction's market share has grown unbroken for over two decades: from 11 percent in 2000 to 24.4 percent of approved residential buildings in 2025. In single- and two-family homes, the timber share reaches 28 percent, nearly on par with brick; in non-residential buildings, halls, commercial and administrative structures, it stands at 25 percent. Only in multi-story residential construction does timber remain a niche at 8 percent.

This boom creates both opportunities and challenges for the carpentry businesses: order books are full, but skilled workers are scarce, and the industrialization of timber construction, with prefabrication and automation, changes the craft's working methods. The magazine's role is to help the member businesses navigate this transformation: reporting on the technologies, the training, and the business strategies that determine who thrives in the timber-construction boom.

Organization and Ownership

Holzbau & Ausbau is published by the Baden-Württembergischer Zimmerer- und Holzbauverband (HOLZBAU Baden-Württemberg), based in Stuttgart. The association represents the carpentry and timber-construction businesses of the state, providing technical advice, legal support, business-management guidance, and communication services. The magazine is the association's monthly communication organ, distributed to the member businesses.

The business model is the association-magazine model: the publication is financed through the association's membership contributions and advertising from the industry's suppliers, targeting the craft businesses' purchasing decisions. The portal holzbau-online.de extends the association's communication online, with current news, event announcements, and the digital services for members.

Digital Presence

The portal holzbau-online.de is the association's digital home and the magazine's online companion, updated with current news: the WorldSkills successes, the ZDB managing-directors' conference, the DACH+HOLZ International fair, the Barcamp Holzbau, and the latest studies. The site presents the association's services, from technical advice to training, and the magazine's content reaches members through both print and digital channels.

For a monthly association bulletin, the digital presence provides the timeliness that the print rhythm cannot: the news of the trade, from competition results to political developments, appears online as it happens. The combination of the monthly print magazine's depth with the portal's immediacy makes Holzbau & Ausbau the central medium of the Baden-Württemberg carpentry trade, serving the craft businesses that are building Germany's timber future. In a state where more than a third of new residential buildings rise in timber, the magazine is both the chronicle and the instrument of a construction revolution.