Hans Bahlsen

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Hans Bahlsen (born May 9, 1901 in Hanover ; † March 9, 1959 in Nauheim in the Wetterau district ) was a German engineer , entrepreneur and co-managing director of the Bahlsen company .

Life

Hans Bahlsen was the oldest son of company founder Hermann Bahlsen . From 1919 to 1920 he trained as a baker and locksmith in his father's business. From 1920 to 1922 Hans Bahlsen studied mechanical engineering at the Mittweida technical center . From 1922 to 1925 stays abroad followed. a. in England, Holland, Finland and the USA. In 1928 Hans Bahlsen took over the technical management of the H. Bahlsen biscuit factory in Hanover and formed the management with his younger brothers Werner Bahlsen and Klaus Bahlsen .

In May 1933, Hans Bahlsen joined the NSDAP ( membership number 3.555.351) and the SS , where he was listed as a member of an SS motor standard . He left the SS in December 1934, ostensibly in response to an order to leave the church . Hans Bahlsen also cooperated later on business with the SS, for example with the planned supply of fruit pies. Earlier reports had always emphasized the company's distance from the Nazi state, so the Nazi salute was avoided on the company premises . It was known, however, that the Bahlsen company did business with the Wehrmacht during World War II and employed around 200 forced laborers between 1942 and 1945 , mainly women from Eastern Europe. As it became known in 2019, the company also managed a biscuit factory in Kiev during the war and from there, in cooperation with the SD, deported Ukrainian women to Hanover. In the context of denazification , Hans Bahlsen was classified as a “ fellow traveler ”; his younger brothers Werner and Klaus, who had financially supported the SS until 1935 but did not join the NSDAP until 1942, were evidently regarded as “relieved”.

After 1945, Hans Bahlsen played a key role in rebuilding the company in Hanover and expanding the export of goods to Canada and the USA. In 1951, the Technical University of Hanover awarded Hans Bahlsen an honorary doctorate in the field of corrosion on processing machines in the food industry. In 2015, the historian Christian-Alexander Wäldner demanded that Bahlsen lose his honorary title because he had profited from the exploitation of foreign workers during the Nazi era.

His son Hermann Bahlsen jr. (1927–2014) took over the management of the company for a long time after the death of his father and gradually withdrew from the company between 1993 and 1996. Hans Bahlsen's grandsons Alexander (1957–2019), Hubertus (* 1959) and Dagmar (* 1963) come from his first marriage.

In 1950 Hans Bahlsen published two scientific papers: "On the influence of water" and "The influence of foodstuffs through corrosion on processing machines".

literature

  • Walther Killy (Ed.): German Biographical Encyclopedia . Volume 1. KG Saur Verlag, Munich 1995, p. 268.
  • Edgar Kalthoff (ed.): Lower Saxony life pictures. Volume 6 August Lax Verlag, Hildesheim 1969, pp. 91-107.
  • Hansi Kessler (text), Nikolai Borg (collaborator): Bahlsen, 1889–1964. H. Bahlsen's Keksfabrik KG, Hanover 1964.
  • Uwe Lehmeniek: From the cakes factory to the Bahlsen Group. On the operational and workforce history of the Bahlsen company. Offizin-Verlag, Hannover 1996, ISBN 3-930345-05-6 .
  • Titus Arnu: Hermann Bahlsen (= Made in Germany ). Ullstein Verlag, Berlin 1999, ISBN 3-548-35943-4 (Ullstein book 35943).
  • Waldemar R. Röhrbein in: the same with Klaus Mlynek (Ed.): Stadtlexikon Hannover . From the beginning to the present. Schlütersche Verlagsgesellschaft, Hannover 2009, ISBN 978-3-89993-662-9 , p. 43.
  • Jan-Peter Domschke, Sabine Dorn, Hansgeorg Hofmann, Rosemarie Poch, Marion Stascheit: Mittweida's engineers all over the world. University of Applied Sciences Mittweida, Mittweida 2014, p. 22f.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ n.v . : Bahlsen, Hans in the database of Niedersächsische Personen (new entry required) of the Lower Saxony State Library , as of April 14, 2009, last accessed on May 19, 2019.
  2. ↑ a b Arne Semsrott : New documents: Bahlsen cooperated with the SS and ran a factory in occupied Kiev (update). In: FragDenStaat. May 18, 2019, accessed May 18, 2019 .
  3. ↑ Jürgen Dahlkamp : Bahlsen brothers were NSDAP members and SS supporters. In: Der Spiegel , May 17, 2019; Christian Müßgens: The Bahlsen brothers were in the NSDAP. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung , May 17, 2019; both accessed on the same day.
  4. ↑ Simon Benne: Prince defends renaming of Beindorff-Allee. In: Hannoversche Allgemeine Zeitung . October 23, 2015, accessed May 19, 2019 .
  5. ↑ Zach Laing, Nick Eagland: Pilot who crashed on Gabriola Iceland remembered as 'kind', 'amazing' man. In: Vancouver Sun . December 12, 2019, accessed December 13, 2019 .
personal data
SURNAME Bahlsen, Hans
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German entrepreneur, co-managing director of the Bahlsen company
DATE OF BIRTH May 9, 1901
PLACE OF BIRTH Hanover
DATE OF DEATH March 9, 1959
Place of death Nauheim , Wetterau district