About Feuerverzinken

Feuerverzinken

Feuerverzinken is the international trade journal for hot-dip galvanizing, published quarterly by the Industrieverband Feuerverzinken (the German hot-dip galvanizing industry association) of Düsseldorf. Since 1971 the magazine has presented outstanding galvanized projects from architecture, civil engineering, and steel and metal construction, alongside concentrated practical knowledge of corrosion protection. Distributed free of charge within Germany — and free online and as an iPad edition since 2012 — it is the industry's showcase and technical reference in one.

Overview

Feuerverzinken appears quarterly as the international specialist journal of the hot-dip galvanizing industry. Published since 1971 (the print edition's bibliographic record dates to 1968), it addresses process users: architects and engineers, steel and metal builders — the professionals who specify, design, and build with galvanized steel. The ISSN 0173-2412 marks the print edition; the online edition has been catalogued since 2008.

The magazine is free: it can be obtained at no cost within Germany from the Industrieverband Feuerverzinken, and since 2012 the online version and the iPad version have also been available free of charge — a deliberate strategy of maximum reach for an industry association's journal. Free distribution is the association's marketing logic: every architect who browses the project features is a potential specifier of galvanized steel, and every engineering student who reads the technical articles is a future customer of the galvanizing plants. The 2024 issues document the current editorial team: Marco Göllrich and Iqbal Johal in the editorial office, with the publisher being the Industrieverband Feuerverzinken e.V. and the publishing house the Institut Feuerverzinken GmbH (managing director Sebastian Engelskirchen), both at Mörsenbroicher Weg 200, 40470 Düsseldorf.

History

The journal was launched in 1971 by the Industrieverband Feuerverzinken, the association representing Germany's batch-galvanizing industry — the plants that dip steel components into molten zinc to protect them from corrosion for decades. The early 1970s were the era of Germany's infrastructure expansion, when galvanized steel was proving itself in bridges, transmission towers, and industrial construction; the journal gave the young industry its technical voice. In its 41st year (around 2012), the magazine was comprehensively revised: new format, new layout, and additionally published as an iPad magazine and internet magazine — an early digital move for a trade journal, making the title available on mobile devices with the features of a typical iPad magazine: links, more images, additional information, interviews, and videos.

The international dimension has grown: the 2013 imprint described the title as the "Internationale Fachzeitschrift der Branchenverbände in Deutschland, Großbritannien und Spanien" (international specialist journal of the industry associations in Germany, Great Britain, and Spain) — the galvanizing industry's European cooperation made visible in the masthead. The 2024 imprint lists the publisher as the Industrieverband Feuerverzinken e.V. with the Institut Feuerverzinken GmbH as the publishing house — the association's service organization.

Coverage and Content

The editorial formula combines project showcase with technical depth. Each issue presents outstanding hot-dip galvanized projects from architecture, civil engineering, and steel and metal construction — the 2024 issues featured, among others, the Baumkronenpfad (treetop path) at Beelitz, a 700-meter construction of 690 tonnes of galvanized structural steel winding through the historic sanatorium grounds, crossing the ruins of the "Alpenhaus" and offering views to Berlin from its observation platform after 200 climbed steps. These project features demonstrate the material's architectural and engineering possibilities while serving as inspiration for specifying architects — and as proof that galvanized steel can be beautiful, not just durable.

The technical coverage provides concentrated practical knowledge of corrosion protection: galvanizing of reinforcing steel (where carbonation and chloride attack threaten — the de-icing-salt-loaded concrete structures of bridges and parking garages, concrete buildings in maritime atmospheres, fair-faced concrete structures), the new general building-authority approval (abZ) for galvanized reinforcing steels — which for the first time allows a reduction of the concrete cover and creates a wealth of practice-relevant simplifications — resource-efficient solutions, and innovations such as infralightweight concrete, which enables monolithic construction methods but requires corrosion-resistant reinforcement. The sustainability dimension runs through the coverage: galvanized steel as a durable, circular material, its fire-protection properties (increasingly used for its fire-protection characteristics), and its role in the energy transition — grid expansion, wind and solar energy.

The association's prizes are a recurring editorial theme: the Deutscher Verzinkerpreis für Architektur und Metallgestaltung (German Galvanizing Prize for Architecture and Metal Design), endowed with 15,000 euros and awarded since 1989 to outstandingly solved building tasks — architects, engineers, steel and metal builders, locksmiths, art smiths, designers, and building owners from Germany, Austria, and Switzerland can participate — and the Innovationspreis Feuerverzinken, awarded since 2003 (in even years since 2006) for innovative products and research opening new fields of application for hot-dip galvanizing, aimed at companies, planners, researchers, and inventors. The prize coverage — with independent juries, tens of thousands of euros in prize money, and the documentation of the winning projects — is the industry's self-celebration and its public showcase in one.

Organization and Ownership

Feuerverzinken is published by the Industrieverband Feuerverzinken e.V. (federal association, formerly Bundesverband Feuerverzinken), Mörsenbroicher Weg 200, 40470 Düsseldorf (phone +49 211 690765-0), with the Institut Feuerverzinken GmbH as the publishing house and service organization. The editorial team (2024) comprises Marco Göllrich and Iqbal Johal; earlier editors-in-chief include Holger Glinde, who led the title through its 2012 digital relaunch and the years of international expansion. The association and its service organization represent the German batch-galvanizing industry: in 2021 more than 2 million tonnes of steel were batch-galvanized in Germany.

As an industry association's journal, the magazine's economics are institutional: the title is a member service and industry-marketing instrument, distributed free within Germany and free digitally worldwide. The readership — architects, engineers, steel and metal builders — is exactly the specifier audience the galvanizing industry needs to reach: the professionals whose material choices determine whether a bridge, a stadium, or a transmission tower gets its decades of corrosion protection from a zinc bath. Circulation figures beyond the stated free distribution and financial details are not publicly confirmed.

Digital Presence

The magazine's digital presence centers on feuerverzinken.com/zeitschrift (short link fv.lc/zeitschrift), where the online and iPad editions are available free of charge — the digital versions offering the full iPad-magazine feature set: links, additional images, supplementary information, interviews, and videos. The "Arbeitsblätter Feuerverzinken" (worksheets) are available as online and app versions for smartphones and tablets via fv.lc.

The brand maintains an active social-media presence: Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Pinterest, and LinkedIn (linkedin.com/company/feuerverzinken) — a broad channel mix for a B2B trade journal, reflecting the visual appeal of galvanized architecture: the crystalline zinc patterns, the monumental steel structures, the interplay of metal and landscape that photographs so well. The association's COP28 presentation in Dubai (2023) — "we believe in the power of innovation; hot-dip galvanizing stands for progress, sustainability, and resource-efficient use of steel" — illustrates the international communication strategy in which the magazine plays a central role. For an industry whose product is durability itself, Feuerverzinken's combination of free print distribution, free digital editions, and project-driven storytelling keeps the material — and the industry behind it — visible to the architects and engineers who decide what the built environment is made of. In a construction industry increasingly judged on lifecycle performance and circularity, the journal's message — that a zinc coating can protect steel for generations without maintenance — is the industry's strongest argument, made quarterly, in print and pixels, since 1971.