Companies
The German companies behind the stories: short, factual profiles that link to each company's official website.
21 companies
ASS Altenburger
Playing card maker in Altenburg, Thuringia, the town where Skat was invented; licensed in 1832, it has belonged to Belgium's Cartamundi …
BRITA
Family company from Taunusstein, Hesse, that launched the first household water filter jug in the early 1970s; named after the founder's…
Beiersdorf
Hamburg skin care group behind NIVEA, Eucerin and La Prairie, founded in 1882 on a patent for medical plasters and still majority-controlled…
Birkenstock
Footwear maker built around a contoured cork footbed, whose two-strap Arizona sandal of 1973 went from orthopaedic oddity to a global fashio…
Faber-Castell
Pencil maker near Nuremberg founded in 1761, run by the same family for eight generations and best known for the green Castell 9000 graphite…
Gerriets
Family firm near Freiburg that weaves, sews and welds stage curtains, backdrops and giant seamless projection screens for theatres, opera ho…
Glocken- und Kunstgießerei Rincker
Bell foundry in Sinn, Hesse, run by the Rincker family since 1590 and still casting church bells in loam moulds by hand, a process that take…
HARIBO
Family-owned confectioner that invented the gummy bear in 1922 and turned its Goldbears into one of the most recognisable sweets in the worl…
Herrnhuter Sterne GmbH
Manufactory in Herrnhut, Upper Lusatia, that hand-folds and glues the original 25-point Moravian star, a Christmas decoration born as a geom…
Hohner Musikinstrumente
Harmonica and accordion maker founded in 1857 in Trossingen, whose Marine Band has been in continuous production since 1896 and whose instru…
Johannes Klais Orgelbau
Family organ builder in Bonn since 1882, now in its fourth generation, whose pipe organs sound in Cologne Cathedral, the Elbphilharmonie, Be…
LAMY
Heidelberg writing instrument maker known for Bauhaus-influenced design, from the LAMY 2000 of 1966 to the safari school pen of 1980; part o…
Melitta Group
Family-owned Minden group built on Melitta Bentz's 1908 paper coffee filter; today it makes filters, coffee, coffee machines and househo…
Miele
Family-owned maker of premium domestic appliances and commercial machines, founded in 1899 and still run by the Miele and Zinkann families f…
Playmobil (geobra Brandstätter)
Toy brand from Zirndorf near Nuremberg, launched in 1974 with Hans Beck's 7.5 cm figures and made by geobra Brandstätter, part of the Ho…
Sennheiser
Family-owned audio specialist near Hanover making microphones, wireless systems and professional audio; owner of Neumann since 1991. Its con…
Steiff
Plush toy maker founded by Margarete Steiff in 1880, whose Bear 55 PB of 1902 was an early teddy bear, marked since 1904 with the famous But…
Teekanne
Family-owned tea company from Düsseldorf, founded in Dresden in 1882, that patented the double-chamber tea bag in 1949; its sister firm Teep…
Tetra
Aquarium and pond care brand from Melle, Lower Saxony, whose TetraMin flake food of 1955 changed fishkeeping worldwide; owned by the US grou…
Vorwerk
Family-owned Wuppertal group that began as a carpet factory in 1883 and now sells the Thermomix food processor and Kobold vacuum cleaners, l…
adidas
Sportswear group from a small Franconian town, founded by Adi Dassler in 1949, whose football boots and terrace trainers have shaped both el…
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