About Us

The history of our company began in 1936 at the civil registry offices of Berlin: Maria and Karl Trebbau recorded the addresses of soon-to-be-married couples from the public announcements of marriage banns. From the original idea “Newlyweds move in together and need furniture!”, the thought emerged that these young people had an even greater need. The collected addresses were then made available to other companies as well. This address offering remained unrivaled in Germany for many years.

After a five-year war-related pause and the move from Berlin to Cologne, the business operations of the company were resumed in 1946 under the name “Adressenverlag und Direktwerbeunternehmen Karl Trebbau” in Cologne-Mannsfeld.

In 1948, Karl Trebbau became a founding member of the Working Group of Address Publishers, the precursor organization to the German Dialogue Marketing Association (DDV).

Karl-Peter Trebbau, the son of the founding family, joins the company.

Electronic data processing is introduced at Trebbau. Since then, all addresses have been recorded and processed electronically.

Karl-Peter Trebbau takes over the management of the company.

After part of the operation had to be outsourced, a new building was constructed at Schönhauser Straße in 1980, along with the expansion of the letter shop.

In 1989, the address offering was completely restructured with the establishment of list broking.

In 1993, when the classic Cheshire label was pushed into the background by inkjet printing, Trebbau had already put the first three inkjet machines into operation.

As one of the first German dialogue marketing providers, Trebbau went online in 1996. The technological advancement was also further driven forward.

In early 2000, the first two computer- and camera-controlled envelope machines were put into operation.

In 2001, the Trebbau Printing Center was established.

In 2009, the media division was integrated into the company’s service portfolio. This provides our customers with all the synergies between traditional advertising and dialogue marketing.

In 2016, the company celebrated its 80th anniversary and now operates as a full-service provider for both online and offline media. This allows us to generate the available added value for our customers from the cross-media connections of these advertising worlds: from detailed consulting on media and dialogue marketing target groups, list broking and list management, the selection of the most effective media, data optimization with specialized software, to personalization, mailing customization, as well as letter shop, production, printing, and shipping services.

With the current renaming of the company to Trebbau direct media GmbH in March 2017, we also reflect the synergy effects between dialogue and traditional media in the company name.

On May 25, 2018, the European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) came into effect. The new regulation specifically addresses the legal foundations of data processing, the rights of data subjects, and the responsibilities of controllers. Of course, customer data at Trebbau is processed in accordance with the strict requirements of the GDPR, thereby continuing to meet all legal requirements in the field of data protection.

We are focusing on experienced individuals from within our own ranks for the future and development of the company, who have been living and responsibly implementing the Trebbau mentality for years. To support the management, Ms. Silke Zierfuß and Mr. Jörg Jeske were appointed to the management team in the first quarter of 2023.

• Ms. Zierfuß will lead the areas related to target groups and data processing.
• Mr. Jeske will lead the letter shop and production department.

With over 30 years of professional experience, both are highly knowledgeable in the industry and, in collaboration with our experienced team leaders and our managing director Mr. Hennig, will lead the company.