A new start in Einbeck

June 1945, Klein Wanzleben in the Magdeburger Börde plain, where since 1856 the Rabbethge and Giesecke families had conducted business with their agricultural company, Rabbethge & Giesecke AG (the official name since 1937). But that was soon to change: With the division of Germany under the Allies, the situation in Klein Wanzleben also changed. Previously under American, then British occupation, the village was to be allotted to Russia, another of the victorious powers, in the future. That decision had far-reaching repercussions, as it would have meant that the British no longer had control over the successful sugarbeet company in Klein Wanzleben. Great Britain wanted to use the seed material to stabilize its own sugar production again and increase yields – and ideally with the elite seed from the sugarbeet experts Rabbethge & Giesecke.

On June 18, 1945, two British officers, Kenneth Hunt and Pieter van der Heijden, therefore appeared at the farm to relocate it to the British zone before the change in occupying force. “One of history’s better ‘raids’,” as Kenneth Hunt put it.

In just two days, 60 tons of elite seed, laboratory material and breeding documents were loaded onto 35 trucks. Further goods were transported away in railroad wagons. However, the leading figures in the company were also to move to the West along with the seeds. They included Oscar Rabbethge (grandson of company founder Matthias Christian Rabbethge), Karl Büchting (grandson of Matthias Christian Rabbethge’s business partner and co-owner Julius Giesecke) and his brother-in-law Ernst Giesecke junior.

Reason for the choice of location

How was the new site selected? In February 1945, with the end of the war in sight, the families who owned the company had already moved elite seed to the Rotenkirchen estate near Einbeck, which the Rabbethge family had leased since 1863. Now they left everything behind in Klein Wanzleben except for a few personal belongings and set off for Einbeck on the evening of June 20. On the very day of their arrival, a new location for the company was found together with the local mayor – our current company grounds.

Even back then, #makeyourselfgrow seems to have been a guiding principle of KWS, as everyone involved worked to get the business back off the ground. A temporary granary was built on the site of a former shoe heel factory, but it was soon replaced by the old elite storehouse. On the Rotenkirchen estate, the hall and salon were transformed into a provisional germination station.

Investing in the future has always been part of the company’s history. The old elite storehouse, at the time the largest construction project in the British occupation zone, has now given way to our new building and largest investment project at a cost of over €50 million – providing more space for the future and for our employees. Around 1,600 people from 51 nationalities now work at Einbeck on an area of 130,000 square meters – in pursuit of our KWS vision of “Seeding the future for generations” day after day. |

Source: “Planting Seeds for Success – 150 Years of KWS” by Betina Meißner (Göttingen 2007)