About BauPortal

BauPortal

BauPortal is the specialist journal of the BG BAU — the Berufsgenossenschaft der Bauwirtschaft, Germany's statutory accident-insurance institution for the construction industry. Appearing eight times a year and currently in its 138th volume (2026), it is one of the oldest continuously published construction journals in Germany, with roots reaching back to 1888. As the BG BAU's professional journal, it provides specialist knowledge about current and future developments in the construction sector: new machines, equipment, and methods, always viewed against the background of occupational and operational safety. Its editorial spectrum spans construction technology, machinery technology, occupational safety, safety engineering, commercial vehicles, special civil engineering, masonry construction, demolition and recycling technology, concrete technology, pipe jacking, formwork, tunnelling, track construction, and earthworks. With the ISSN 1866-0207 (print) and 2190-5800 (online) — and an e-journal edition since 2001 — it combines the insurance institution's prevention mandate with the industry's technology coverage.

Overview

The Berufsgenossenschaften occupy a unique position in German economic life: as the carriers of statutory accident insurance, they both insure the companies and supervise their safety — and they test the machines and equipment the industry uses. BauPortal is the BG BAU's editorial instrument for this dual role. Its program fuses two information streams that elsewhere run separately: the construction-technology coverage (the machines, the methods, the materials) and the safety coverage (the occupational-safety regulations, the accident-prevention knowledge, the testing procedures). Every machine presentation is read through the safety lens; every safety topic is grounded in the construction practice.

The journal's distinctive editorial asset is its test reporting: the published test reports of the Berufsgenossenschaft's testing procedures for machines and equipment give the journal, as its self-description notes, an intermediary function between industry and buyers — the manufacturers' products are examined by the institution that insures their users. The readership is the construction industry's professional world: the companies insured by the BG BAU — more than 614,000 commercial enterprises — their managers, safety officers, and engineers, plus the machinery manufacturers and the public building authorities. The journal's intermediary function — the test reports mediating between industry and buyers — deserves its institutional explanation. When a construction company buys a machine, it buys both the productivity and the risk: the accidents the machine can cause are the BG BAU's insurance cases. The Berufsgenossenschaft therefore tests machines and equipment in its own procedures, and BauPortal publishes the reports — giving the buyers an assessment from the institution that bears the accident costs, independent of the manufacturers' claims. This triangle — manufacturer, buyer, insurer-tester — is unique in the German trade press: no commercial machinery magazine can replicate the insurer's testing authority, and no insurance circular can match the trade journal's technology coverage. BauPortal's 138 volumes are the record of this triangle's operation through more than a century of German construction mechanization.

History

BauPortal's volume count tells its age: the 2026 issues are the 138th volume, placing the founding in 1888 — the era of Bismarck's social legislation that created the Berufsgenossenschaften themselves. The journal grew with the accident-insurance system for construction: through the industrialization of building, the two world wars, the post-war reconstruction, and the Federal Republic's infrastructure decades, it documented the machinery and methods while advancing the prevention mandate. The BG BAU itself was formed in its current shape by the merger of the regional construction Berufsgenossenschaften, decided in 2005 — the journal continued as the unified institution's specialist organ.

The digital turn came early: BauPortal has been available as an e-journal since 2001, among the first German construction journals to establish the parallel digital edition. The current format — eight issues a year, each appearing at the quarter's middle — balances the specialist journal's depth with the industry's pace. The 2026 issues show the contemporary program: the construction-law practice notes (the Federal Court of Justice decisions on planning liability), the safety topics (the heat-action plans for construction companies facing rising temperatures), and the technology coverage. Through 138 volumes, the journal's dual identity — the industry's technology journal and the insurance institution's prevention organ — has remained its constant.

Coverage and Content

Each issue's program reflects the construction industry's safety-and-technology agenda. The machinery and methods coverage treats the industry's equipment world: the new machines and devices, the construction methods from special civil engineering to pipe jacking and tunnelling, the concrete and masonry technology, the formwork systems, and the commercial vehicles. The occupational-safety coverage — the journal's institutional core — addresses the prevention topics: the fall protection for roof work, the heat protection (the BG BAU's heat-action plans for indoor and outdoor construction sites), the hazardous substances, and the safety engineering. The test reports — the published results of the BG testing procedures for machines and equipment — give the readers the institution's independent assessment.

The construction-law coverage provides the legal orientation: the practice notes on current court decisions (the architects' and builders' liability, the obstruction notifications) translate the jurisprudence into the companies' daily reality. The management coverage treats the organizational topics: the cross-disciplinary management questions, the climate and environment aspects of construction technology. The service topics — events, media, certifications — keep the readers connected to the industry's institutions. The combination — technology, safety, law, management — makes the journal the construction companies' comprehensive professional companion.

Organization and Ownership

BauPortal is published by the Berufsgenossenschaft der Bauwirtschaft (BG BAU), headquartered in Berlin (the row's Munich reflects the historical seat), at Bundesallee 210, 10719 Berlin. The BG BAU is one of Germany's large Berufsgenossenschaften: as the carrier of statutory accident insurance for the construction industry and construction-adjacent services, it covers more than three million insured persons, around 614,000 commercial companies, and some 48,000 private building projects. Its statutory mandate is promoting occupational safety and health protection to prevent work accidents and occupational diseases — and providing medical care, rehabilitation, reintegration, and financial compensation when they occur.

The editorial team: Matthias Dietz (editor-in-chief), Anke Templiner (managing editor), Jessica Mena de Lipinski, and Stephan Imhof. Responsible in the press-law sense is Michael Kirsch, the chief executive; the technically responsible editor is Dipl.-Ing. Björn Kass, head of the prevention department. Layout and typesetting are by TAU GmbH, Berlin; printing by Dierichs Druck+Media in Kassel. The journal is financed within the BG BAU's institutional budget — the prevention mandate, not the advertising market, funds the editorial work — which underwrites its independent test reporting. (The BG BAU also publishes "BG BAU aktuell," the member magazine, as a separate title.)

Digital Presence

The journal's digital home is bauportal.bgbau.de, the web magazine carrying the current issues' content, the archive, and the service topics — events, media, certifications — which now appear only in the web magazine. The e-journal edition, available since 2001, provides the digital reading of the print issues. The BG BAU's digital ecosystem — bgbau.de with its topic portals (safety and health, fall protection, heat and sun), the newsletters, and the social-media channels (Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, LinkedIn, TikTok, Bluesky) — extends the journal's prevention communication into the continuous digital flow.

After 138 volumes — from the 1888 founding through the social-insurance century to the digital present — BauPortal operates as the construction industry's safety-and-technology journal: the machinery and methods coverage through the prevention lens, the independent test reports mediating between industry and buyers, and the insurance institution's editorial voice — eight issues a year in print and as e-journal, and continuously online at bauportal.bgbau.de — the prevention institution's journal for the industry it insures.