Bauerfeind

Bauerfeind AG is a German health care equipment company, one of the largest manufacturers of orthopaedic stockings and inserts in the world. Its headquarters are in Zeulenroda-Triebes, Thuringia. It is a family company, not listed on any stock exchange.

Bauerfeind headquarters in Zeulenroda, Thuringia
See Bauernfeind for the surname.

The company was founded in Zeulenroda in 1929 by Bruno Bauerfeind as a manufacturer of medical rubber stockings. In 1949 his son, Rudolf Bauerfeind, left Zeulenroda because of the policy of nationalisation in East Germany and rebuilt the company in western Germany, first in Darmstadt-Eberstadt and then in Kempen.[1][2] Immediately after German reunification, in 1991, Hans B. Bauerfeind, grandson of the founder and chairman of the management board since 1976,[3] returned Bauerfeind GmbH, as it then was, to Zeulenroda,[2] buying a compression bandage manufacturer there and investing more than 100 million euros in a new production facility, a research centre and a new 57-metre headquarters building,[4] the tallest new building constructed in Thuringia since reunification. The family-owned company became an Aktiengesellschaft in 2002.[1]

Hans Bauerfeind has built up the company to an international group. There are currently approximately 2,000 employees, 800 of them in Zeulenroda,[5] and subsidiaries in a number of countries, including Austria, France, Great Britain, Italy, Spain and the United States.

Sales in 2015 were 203.7 million euros. [6]

The medical aids are therefore “made in Germany” and are partly made by hand. Dirk Nowitzki has been a worldwide brand ambassador for the company since January 2016.[7]

It has developed computer applications such as software to model clients' legs in three dimensions for accurate fitting.[5][8] For the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, Bauerfeind supplied not only compression stockings but 750 pairs of health shoes manufactured by their Berkemann subsidiary.[9] Hans Bauerfeind himself holds more than 60 patents and in 2007 was awarded an honorary professorship by the Fachhochschule Münster for his and the company's role in the establishment of the course of study in technical orthopaedics at German technical universities and the company's extensive financial support for the programme at Münster.[1] The company also participates in an international education programme and awards a prize of its own.[1] Bauerfeind also owns the Bio-Seehotel in Zeulenroda, which has several times been named one of Germany's best conference hotels.[10] It was created in 2006 as a further conversion of a conference centre which had been a Free German Trade Union Federation hotel.[11]

References
  1. Christoph Hachtkemper, Stehende Ovationen für einen Unternehmer und Förderer, Press release, Fachhochschule Münster, 29 November 2007 (in German)
  2. Hans B. Bauerfeind, "Gewagt und gewonnen", Die Welt 25 September 2010 (in German)
  3. According to the Fachhochschule Münster press release, 1979.
  4. Andreas Hummel, "Unternehmer der Wende", Frankenpost 29 July 2010 (in German)
  5. Norbert Block, "Cebit-Premiere: Bauerfeind ist bei 'Deutschland bewegt sich' aktiv", Thüringische Landeszeitung 4 March 2011 (in German)
  6. "Startseite – Bundesanzeiger".
  7. OTZ (2019-04-13). "Bauerfeind würdigt einmalige Karriere von Dirk Nowitzki". www.otz.de (in German). Retrieved 2022-08-26.
  8. Natascha Plankermann, "Tragbarer Ersatz für das Herz: Neuentwicklungen bei der Medizinmesse Medica in Düsseldorf", Die Welt 23 November 2008 (in German)
  9. Burkhard Riering and Hagen Seidel, "Olympisches Geld", Die Welt 13 August 2004 (in German)
  10. Homepage of Bio-Seehotel Zeulenroda "Auszeichnungen", Bio-Seehotel Zeulenroda 06 June 2017 (German).
  11. "Bio-Hotel", 365 Orte im Land der Ideen, Die Welt 9 May 2010 (in German)
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