Scholpp replaces phone mast in Mannheim

The Rosengarten Mannheim is one of Germany’s leading conference and event centres. The listed building features architecture in the Art Nouveau style.

Recently, it became necessary to replace the phone mast on the roof of a building extension. For this, German lift specialist Scholpp used a Liebherr MK 140-5.1 mobile crane.

During the operation, the crane worked in luffing jib mode with the full counterweight of 13.3 tonnes allowing access to the 64.2-metre maximum reach. Other supporting features included Vario Jib technology and all-electric crane operation.

Liebherr MK 140-5.1 at work in Mannheim, Germany (Photo: Liebherr)

“For this job, I opted for the MK 140-5.1 mobile construction crane,” explained Florian Schmid, branch manager at Scholpp in Mannheim.

“Alternatively, a 350 tonne mobile crane could have been used but to achieve the required reach we would have had to fit a luffing jib. This solution would have been considerably more expensive for our client.”

Choice of crane

The project was ideal for the five-axle Liebherr crane, a model which achieves performance numbers previously only seen in larger crane classes. The Vario Jib makes it particularly flexible as it allows the crane to be converted from a trolley jib into a luffing jib in only a short time.

In luffing jib mode, the MK 140-5.1 can achieve height of up to 94.4 metres with a maximum load of one tonne.

Using electric power was also idea for the inner-city location. The hotels surrounding the work site were unaffected during the operation due to the low noise.

Founded in 1956, Scholpp has celebrated two anniversaries in 2026. First, the 100th birthday of its founder, Alfred Scholpp. And it is also the 70th anniversary of the company.