This article proposes to take a fresh look at Germany’s colonial past and its key players in order to trace the particular influence of economy in colonial contexts. It presents the Gutehoffnungshütte (GHH) as a colonial actor outside the sectors typically explored in the context of the colonial economy. GHH’s prestige project of the Sanaga Bridge in the colonial state of Cameroon is used to analyse colonial networks in the first wave of globalization as well as connecting colonial projects in the metropolis with material, logistics and personnel on the ground at colonial construction sites. It traces path dependencies and competitive advantages that enabled the GHH to become a key player not just in Germany’s industrialisation process, but also in the German colonisation of Africa.