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Did you know they are German? Famous brands and their history When thinking of famous products made in Germany the first thing to spring to mind is usually the automotive sector: Mercedes Benz, BMW or Volkswagen are renowned and loved all over the world. But there are other well recognized brands people normally do not associate with Germany including sweets and famous football shoes. TEXT: JESSICA HOLZHAUSEN | PHOTOS: PRESS IMAGES

While“Made in Germany”today is recognized as a sign of quality it was, in its origin, meant in a completely different way: In the 19th century during the industrial revolution the English labelled German products with this sign to signal their bad quality and to protect the regional market from cheaper products imported from the continent.“Made in Germany”was then something comparable to what many might

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think of cheap plastic toys “Made in China” today. High quality products such as German cars, sport equipment and electronic devices slowly changed that image. A little bear conquers the world Everyone likes sweets and so did the German candy maker Hans Riegel in Bonn. After finishing school and apprenticeship he worked for sweet manufacturers all over

Germany before, in 1920, he founded his own sweet factory in Bonn: Haribo – a shortened version of his name and the town his factory was situated in. Haribo up until today stands for Hans Riegel Bonn. According to the records Hans Riegel declared starting his business with nothing else except a bag of sugar. In 1922 Hans Riegel invented a candy figure that today is known all over the world. He called it the “Tanzbär” (the dancing bear), a figure made from sugar, gum arabic that was later substituted by gelatine, acidifier and different flavours. Today the “Tanzbär” is better known as Haribo Goldbär and where once Hans Riegel had worked on his own, today Haribo has more