Gründerzeit house façades are witnesses to the development at the turn of the century. In the next two decades the town built the waterworks on the present "Bernhard-Hahn-Straße" with its water tower visible for kilometres, the electricity works, the slaughterhouse, the swimming baths and a large school building for the gymnasium on the "Südpromenade". The founding of a korn distillery, a brewery, a malthouse and a dairy acted as new outlets for agriculture. In 1910 Arnold Koepe built an engineering workshop in the former Karl Müller plush weaving mill in order to manufacture coal wagons for the mines. In 1916 Ferdinand Clasen took over the operation and in 1920 founded the Erkelenz Engineering Factory ("Erkelenzer Maschinenfabrik") from this firm on "Bernhard-Hahn-Straße" that employed up to 200 workers.