Bahlsen
| Bahlsen GmbH & Co. KG
|
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|---|---|
 |
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| legal form | GmbH and Co. KG |
| founding | 1889 |
| Seat |
Hanover , Germany
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| management | Management Board (Scott Brankin, Jörg Hönemann), from April 7, 2020: Phil Rumbol |
| Number of employees | 2,830 (2017) |
| sales | € 559 million (2017) |
| Branch | Food production |
| Website | www.thebahlsenfamily.com |
Bahlsen is a German family business in the bakery industry based in Hanover . Today's Bahlsen GmbH & Co. KG was founded in 1889 by Hermann Bahlsen (1859–1919).
Company data
Annual sales in 2017 were 142,686 tons. Today, production takes place in the plants in Barsinghausen near Hanover , in Varel in Frisia , in Berlin and in two plants in Poland (in Skawina and Jawornik).
Between 1996 and 1999 the company belonged to the three shareholders Werner Michael Bahlsen, Lorenz Alexander Bahlsen, the later founder of Lorenz Snack-World and Andrea von Nordeck († 1998) in equal parts. From 1999 to 2018 Werner Michael Bahlsen was the sole shareholder and managing director at the same time. Today he is Chairman of the Board of Directors
Product idea and brand strategy
Leibniz cakes
In 1891, Bahlsen named his butter-flavored biscuits ( Butter Cakes ) after the long-standing Hanoverian court librarian and philosopher Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz . At the time, he was looking for a durable product to feed the soldiers and came across rusks . The advertising slogan for the butter biscuits was in 1898: “What does mankind eat on the go? Of course Leibniz Cakes! ”Due to a lack of knowledge of English, many customers pronounced the word cakes in German (“ Ka-kes ”), so that Bahlsen later changed the spelling to biscuit . In 1911 the word biscuits used by Bahlsen was included in the Duden as a translation for the English cakes .
TET trademark
In 1903, the jumping horse, registered as a trademark since 1896, was replaced by the TET symbol designed by the graphic artist Heinrich Mittag . The ancient Egyptian hieroglyph ḏt
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(written by Bahlsen as “tet”) means “everlasting”, referring to long-life baked goods. The Hanoverian museum director Friedrich Tewes had brought the idea with him from a trip to Egypt to use the ancient Egyptian word TET for the biscuit packs. In 1904 the first TET pack of Leibniz cakes came on the market for 30 pfennigs (equivalent to around two euros today). From 1954, thermoplastic rigid packaging was used, an aluminum foil welded into the coating .
Artistic advertising stamps (1912–1914)
The artistic advertising stamps issued by Bahlsen between 1912 and 1914 were a special element of advertising . There was a total of eight series of artist's brands that were designed by various artists such as Heinrich Vogeler or Otto Obermeier . Änne Koken designed two series. Series C by Änne Koken from January 1913 (see photo) tells the secret of the success of the Bahlsenkek biscuits in twelve pictures:
"Mix in flour / and eggs / milk from the cow,
spicy butter / sugar
/ and bake,
pack cleanly,
ready for travel / all over the world,
heavenly food / for little money."
The advertising stamps were popular collectibles. Other artists for Bahlsen's advertising stamps were Karl Bernhard , Heinrich Mittag and Lucian Bernhard .
The main character and narrator of the picture story on the stamps is a winged putto . The brands in this series show the required ingredients, the manufacturing and packaging process and the worldwide distribution of the product. The advertising stamps were sent to customers in exchange for vouchers that were enclosed with the cookie packs. There were twelve artist's brands for twelve vouchers.
Artistic field postcards (1914–1916)
During the First World War , Bahlsen issued a total of 64 field postcards. He was also able to win renowned artists for this: Änne Koken (3), Ferdinand Spiegel (3), Walter Georgi (25), Josse Goossens (16), Ludwig Hohlwein (9), Carl Otto Czeschka (6) and Julius Diez (2).
Manufacturing and administration building
In 1911, an administration building on Podbielskistraße and a production building on Lister Straße were built around the older factory in the Hanover district of List . The buildings are among the best architectural achievements of Art Nouveau in Hanover.
In the administration building there is next to the foyer the small and the large conference room, which are decorated in Art Nouveau style. Below is a colored wall frieze by Georg Herting , a more than five meter high colored window front by Adolf Hölzel and a picture frieze by Julius Diez with the title The goddess TET on her throne .
The representations of the Leibniz biscuit appear several times on the magnificent natural stone facade made of Langensalza travertine . Today baked goods are no longer produced at the original company headquarters. The large building complex has been renovated and converted. In addition to the Bahlsen administration, there is Podbi Park , a business district with offices, a hotel, municipal facilities (citizens' office, city library) and a shopping arcade.
In 1974 the head office moved into a new office building on the corner of Podbielskistraße and Eulenkamp , which was built according to plans by Jörn Köhnke , Dieter Bahlo and Klaus Stosberg . It was very modern at the time and stood out for its honeycomb architecture. In 2000 the administration was moved back to the previous headquarters due to asbestos contamination . The Podbielskistraße / Eulenkamp building was demolished in 2001.
In 2018, after more than 80 years, a statue of Hoetger, which had been hidden and thus saved since the time of National Socialism, depicting the TET goddess , was found and reassembled at the Bahlsen headquarters in Hanover.
Art Nouveau facade of the administration building from 1911 made of Langensalza travertine
Bahlsen biscuit factory from 1911 in Hanover
Former manufacturing building on Lister Strasse
Bahlsen plant in Barsinghausen (2012)
Access to the Bahlsen factory in Varel (Oldb)
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Company history
Origin and economic success
In 1889 the Hannoversche Cakesfabrik was taken over by the factory business engl. Cakes and Biscuits and had ten employees at the time. The Leibniz biscuit was invented in 1891 and also made in the USA in 1894. In 1893, Bahlsen received a gold medal for his products at the Brussels Food Exhibition , and in the same year he was awarded a gold medal for his biscuits at the World Columbian Exposition in Chicago .
In 1899 the company had 300 employees and in 1905 the first assembly line production took place in Europe . In 1912 the company was renamed H. Bahlsen's biscuit factory . In 1913, Bahlsen employed around 1,700 people.
In 1916 and 1917, Bahlsen had plans for a test- tube city developed under the name TET-Stadt in Hanover, which were never realized. It was intended to be both a place of residence and a place of work for the employees of the Bahlsen works.
Hermann Bahlsen died on November 6, 1919, and Hans Bahlsen took over the company. For the first time after the First World War, the Leibniz biscuits were produced according to the original recipe. In 1922 the company only had 633 employees.
time of the nationalsocialism
The time of National Socialism went hand in hand with economic success for the company. In particular, the express tin can introduced in 1933 with a pound of biscuits for one Reichsmark became a bestseller. In 1935, Bahlsen re- launched the Salzlette . Until then, the pretzel stick was only available in the USA.
As a result of the scarcity of raw materials due to the Second World War , the range was reduced to eleven items. When Bahlsen was named a " war-important company" and thus an armaments company, it made emergency provisions for German soldiers and produced crispbread and rusks.
From 1940 onwards, at least 200 forced laborers from seven countries had to work in the Bahlsen factory, mostly Polish and Ukrainian women who were forced to live in barracks camps . It could also have been around 500 people. 60 claims for compensation by former forced laborers against Bahlsen were dismissed by the Hanover Regional Court in 2000 due to the statute of limitations.
In addition, Bahlsen apparently cooperated with the SS and managed a biscuit factory in occupied Kiev. During the retreat of the Germans, the Bahlsen company took all of the factory's equipment, systems and materials with them to Germany. The company directors Hans , Werner and Klaus Bahlsen were members of the NSDAP and promoted the SS.
In 2019, the company heiress and shareholder Verena Bahlsen was criticized after she had commented on the forced laborers in World War II in the Bild newspaper : “That was before my time and we paid the forced laborers just as the Germans did and they paid well treated. "
The company initially reacted with a press release from the company's view of the time during National Socialism, then published a statement by Verena Bahlsen in which she regretted her statements "with personal words" and wanted to have Bahlsen's role at the time of National Socialism examined scientifically. The company explained: “ Manfred Grieger from the University of Göttingen is currently charged with putting together an independent panel of experts and working with them to write a scientifically sound company history. In this context, the role of the forced laborers at Bahlsen and how the company dealt with them is also examined in more detail. "
In the course of research by the weekly newspaper Die Zeit , it turned out that Verena Bahlsen's statement about the level of the wages for forced laborers did not correspond to the facts. The average gross weekly wage of a German worker at that time was 44 Reichsmarks. According to the evaluation of Bahlsen wage cards, the Bahlsen forced laborers were paid only five to ten Reichsmarks per week.
After the Second World War
In 1945 the factories and distribution structures were rebuilt. In 1963 the manufacturer Feurich-Keks from Munich was taken over. The company also took a stake in the Wilhelm Liebelt company in Hamburg and entered the nut business . Since 1964 Bahlsen has been cooperating with Flessner KG , which since 1951 has operated the first automatic production plant for potato chips in Europe. In 1985, Flessner KG was completely taken over by Bahlsen. In the same year Bahlsen launched peanut flips on the German market.
In 1966, Bahlsen took over the Brokat cake factory in Oldenburg , which was sold to an American group in 1991. In 1967 Bahlsen of North America and sales companies for Luxembourg and the Netherlands were founded, followed in 1969 by a sales company for Belgium. In 1968 the Gubor chocolate factory in the Black Forest was taken over. In the same year, what was then the most modern chip factory in Europe was put into operation in Neunburg vorm Wald .
From 1971 to 1976, the future Prime Minister of Lower Saxony, Ernst Albrecht, was the managing director. During this time Bahlsen developed into an international company and increasingly set up sales companies and distribution centers in other European countries, for example in Spain and the United Kingdom in 1972. In 1980 the Austin Quality Foods Company in Cary (North Carolina) was taken over and production started in the USA. In 1987 production at the main plant in Hanover was given up and relocated to nearby Barsinghausen . In 1989 the centenary was celebrated with a “selection of the finest chocolate-coated biscuits and waffles”. Bahlsen has been producing worldwide since the 1990s, for example in Poland and France.
At the beginning of the 1990s, the Dauerbackwaren GmbH , which had been re- privatized in Radebeul, Saxony, was taken over, but the plant was shut down in 1992/1993. In 1991 the company also acquired the first Thuringian biscuit factory in Bad Liebenstein . In 1993 the group was restructured; A distinction was made between the two divisions “sweet” and “snack”, which produced separately. The company was renamed again in 1995 from Hermann Bahlsen Keksfabrik KG to Bahlsen KG . In 1994 Bahlsen took over the French biscuit and cake producer St Michel , which was sold again in 2006. In 1995 Bahlsen took over Brandt's pastry division (Brandt and Gottena).
In 1999, after family problems, Bahlsen KG split into three divisions: sweet (Bahlsen), salty (Lorenz Bahlsen Snack Group, renamed Lorenz Snack World in 2001 ) and real estate with the other brands of the group (such as Soletti and Kelly , today from managed by a holding company in Switzerland). The two divisions, which are no longer called Bahlsen, are now completely independent companies with no ties to Bahlsen.
In 2002 the two-brand strategy was created ; In addition to the well-known company logo, two new logos for the two product brands Bahlsen and Leibniz were developed and introduced. In 2005 cake production was relocated from the Oldenburg (Oldbg.) Location to Varel . The Oldenburg production site was thus closed, and factory sales were maintained elsewhere. In 2009, the private label subsidiary Gottena ( Schneverdingen ) was renamed Bisquiva . In 2011 the plant in Barsinghausen was named "Factory of the Year 2011" by the magazine Produktion after extensive renovations .
Cookie theft
At the beginning of 2013, Bahlsen hit the headlines after unknown thieves stole the "golden biscuit" from the flagship on the facade of the company headquarters. It is a gilded representation of a Leibniz biscuit made of brass, weighing around 20 kilograms , which the sculptor Georg Herting created around 1910 with the façade figures Brezelmänner . Shortly after the theft, the Hannoversche Allgemeine Zeitung and Bahlsen received a letter of confession with extortionate content. It demanded a donation of the reward previously promised by Bahlsen to an animal shelter in Langenhagen, as well as a donation of biscuits to the Hanoverian children's hospital on the Bult . The letter was accompanied by a photo of an unknown person in a cookie monster costume posing with the cookie . Bahlsen then offered on Facebook to donate 52,000 cookie packs to 52 social institutions if the cookie was returned. On February 5th the gilded biscuit was found again. It hung on the statue of the Lower Saxony horse in front of the Leibniz University in Hanover. The police are investigating the unknown perpetrators for theft and extortion.
The company as well as the blackmailer used the symbolism of the company founded Leibniz biscuit with 52 teeth (52,000 packets of biscuits, 52 social institutions, return. At 5.2) which, like the Auffindeort (Leibniz University) after the Hanoverian court librarian Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz named is. On July 11, 2013, the biscuit was hung up again at the headquarters.
literature
- H. Bahlsen's Keksfabrik KG: Bahlsen 1889–1964. Company chronicle on the occasion of the 75th day of foundation. Hanover 1964.
- Olaf Matthes: Brand management and style change in advertising for LEIBNIZ-KEKS from H. Bahlsen's Keksfabrik KG Hannover. Diploma thesis at the University of the Arts. Berlin 1988.
- Uwe Lehmeniek: From the cakes factory to the Bahlsen Group. On the operational and workforce history of the Bahlsen company (= working papers of the labor movement project in Hanover , vol. 18). Ed. from the Association for Education and Knowledge in Hanover. Offizin-Verlag, Hannover 1996, ISBN 3-930345-05-6 .
- Wolfgang Leonhardt : List and Vahrenwald, two defining districts of Hanover. Hamburg 2005, ISBN 3-8334-3333-7 .
- Rainer Ertel : Bahlsen GmbH & Co. KG. In: Klaus Mlynek, Waldemar R. Röhrbein (eds.) U. a .: City Lexicon Hanover . From the beginning to the present. Schlütersche, Hannover 2009, ISBN 978-3-89993-662-9 , p. 43 ff.
- Dieter Tasch : From the bakery to a global company. The history of the Hermann Bahlsen biscuit factory. In: Dieter Tasch, Horst-Dieter Görg (Hrsg.): It started in Hanover ... biscuits - bread rolls - calculating machines. About personalities, traditional companies and milestones in the history of technology. With contributions by Torsten Hamacher and others. In cooperation with the Technik-Forum Hannover e. V. Leuenhagen & Paris, Hannover 2011, ISBN 978-3-923976-84-3 , pp. 48-55.
- Tobias Hoffmann (Ed.): Art and the cookie jar. 125 years of Bahlsen. Cologne 2014, ISBN 978-3-86832-228-6 . Catalog for the exhibition in the Bröhan Museum, Berlin.
- Reiner Meyer: The advertising art of the Bahlsen biscuit factory in Hanover from 1889–1945. Dissertation in 1999 at the Department of Historical and Philological Sciences at the Georg-August University in Göttingen. Münster 1999; Digitized via the German National Library
Web links
- Official Bahlsen website
- Official website of Bahlsen Austria
- Early newspaper articles on Bahlsen in the 20th century press kit of the ZBW - Leibniz Information Center for Economics .
- Article of Die Zeit about Werner Michael Bahlsen , December 2004
- Interview with Werner Michael Bahlsen in the FAZ , February 28, 2005
Individual evidence
- ↑ https://www.thebahlsenfamily.com/de/unternehmen/ueber-uns/management/
- ↑ https://app.handelsblatt.com/unternehmen/mittelstand/gebaecksteller-phil-rumbol-wird-erster-familienfremder-bahlsen-chef/25633378.html
- ↑ a b c thebahlsenfamily.com: Numbers, data, facts (PDF)
- ↑ https://www.northdata.de/Bahlsen,+Lorenz+Alexander,+Burgdorf/1blu
- ↑ https://www.tagesspiegel.de/wirtschaft/ein-keks-imperium-zerbroeselt/80420.html
- ↑ https://www.manager-magazin.de/unternehmen/artikel/bahlsen-werner-m-bahlsen-uebergibt-fuehrung-an-manager-team-a-1204644.html
- ↑ https://www.thebahlsenfamily.com/de/impressum/
- ↑ Semiotics. A handbook on the theoretical basics of nature and culture. (= Handbooks of linguistics and communication science 13). Walter de Gruyter, Berlin 2004, ISBN 3-11-017962-8 , p. 3547, ( books.google.com ).
- ↑ Babette Kaiserkern: Änne Koken - Introduction to life and work . Lecture on June 17, 2007 in the Historical Museum, Hanover.
- ↑ Reiner Meyer: The advertising art of the biscuit factory Bahlsen in Hanover from 1889-1945. Dissertation in 1999 at the Department of Historical and Philological Sciences at the Georg-August University in Göttingen. Münster 1999; Digitized via the German National Library
- ↑ Reiner Meyer: The advertising art of the biscuit factory Bahlsen in Hanover from 1889-1945. Dissertation in 1999 at the Department of Historical and Philological Sciences at the Georg-August University in Göttingen. Münster 1999, p. 277f .; Digitized via the German National Library
- ↑ Köhnke, Korn. In: General artist lexicon online. (ID _93b04400-f4d2-4351-9a39-ea5a5109263d).
- ^ Bahlsen building. In: arch INFORM .
- ↑ HAZ from June 6, 2018: Lost statue of the TET goddess is back
- ↑ Chronicle. In: Bahlsen Family. Retrieved May 11, 2019 .
- ↑ Christine Weißenborn: Bahlsen against Bahlsen. In: Handelsblatt . November 14, 2010, accessed May 11, 2019 .
- ↑ Bahlsen - a biscuit makes a world career. In: NDR . Retrieved May 11, 2019 .
- ^ Felix Bohr: Brown cookies. In: Spiegel Online . May 13, 2019, accessed May 14, 2019 .
- ↑ a b Forced labor in the "Bahlsen" biscuit empire, title thesen temperamente , November 4, 2019
- ↑ Christoph Kapalschinski: Use of forced laborers: Letter from Werner Bahlsen refutes statements by his granddaughter Verena. In: Handelsblatt. Retrieved May 18, 2019 .
- ↑ Forced labor pays off. In: jungle world. Hagalil , December 6, 2000, accessed May 11, 2019 .
- ↑ Arne Semsrott: New documents: Bahlsen cooperated with the SS and ran a factory in occupied Kiev (update). In: FragDenStaat. Retrieved May 18, 2019 .
- ↑ The Bahlsens and the SS. In: Der Spiegel. Retrieved May 18, 2019 .
- ↑ News 38- news38.de: Verena Bahlsen: Who is this millionaire heiress? May 16, 2019, accessed May 17, 2019 .
- ↑ Company website: 2019. The Bahlsen Family, accessed May 17, 2019 .
- ↑ Bahlsen paid his slave laborers so badly. In: Spiegel Online. May 22, 2019, accessed May 18, 2019 .
- ↑ Our story. 1889 - today , on the website of Lorenz Bahlsen Snack-World GmbH & Co KG .
- ↑ a b c Chronicle on the Bahlsen Family website .
- ^ Large district town of Radebeul (ed.): Stadtlexikon Radebeul. Historical Manual for the Lößnitz. Second, slightly changed edition 2006, ISBN 3-938460-05-9 , p. 208 f.
- ↑ Plant renovation beats 'greenfield' planning. , produktion.de, December 15, 2011. Retrieved July 21, 2012.
- ↑ bim / dapd: Bahlsen headquarters: thieves steal golden biscuits. Spiegel Online, January 24, 2013, accessed January 29, 2013 .
- ↑ Profile of the Bahlsen product brand. Facebook, January 29, 2013, accessed January 30, 2013 .
- ↑ haz.de
- ↑ n-tv.de n-tv.de, dpa / AFP