Dr. Siegfried Roestel, the former Managing Director of F. von Lochow-Petkus GmbH (now KWS LOCHOW GMBH), passed away on April 16, 2020, just before he turned 93.

He was born on May 3, 1927, grew up in Pomerania and studied agriculture in Greifswald before coming to the Federal Republic of Germany, where he initially decided to embark on a civil service career.

After completing an internship as a trainee lawyer, Siegfried Roestel passed the Second State Bar Examination and was hired at the company’s Sales department in 1959, earning the position of head of the North Branch Office, in which capacity he was granted general commercial power of attorney in 1967. In 1968, Siegfried Roestel was appointed to the two-man management team, where he was responsible for breeding, administration, finance and the Klausheide farm. KWS had been able to take over 51 percent of the shares from Dresdner Bank at the same time and one of the first tasks of the new Managing Director was to foster cooperation with the new parent company. That included the takeover of KWS’ cereal breeding activities, which were organized in Heine-Peragis at the time. The result was a sudden doubling of seed revenue since, in addition to rye and oats, the portfolio included strong-selling wheat and barley varieties. However, there was also protracted legal action instituted by a shareholder who believed that the purchase price was too high. KWS was also able to take over his shares in 1975, after which only the von Lochow family had a stake in the company besides KWS.

The company posted record results in the following years, which earned it the nickname “pretty daughter company” in Einbeck. Of course, not everything went smoothly and there were also tough, turbulent and exciting spells. That included construction of the new company headquarters in Wohlde, when the company had to give up its Hasselhorst location, the establishment of agencies and foundation of companies abroad, sale of the land in Klausheide, the repurchase of Petkus and purchase of the cereals breeding operations in Bernburg. Siegfried Roestel retired in 1992, meaning the new management that had to follow in his big footsteps was then responsible for consolidating the recent acquisitions. He had delivered the “best results in the company’s history” on several occasions and had again done so in his final year – setting a high bar by which the new management was to be measured. And it fulfilled those great expectations by and large. The departing Managing Director accompanied it for a few years as a member of the Management Board, but stepped down from all his operational activities when he left. At the same time he also retired from the posts he held in associations: Deputy Chairman of the Cereals Department in the German Plant Breeders Association (BDP) (since 1977), Chairman of the Cereals Department at ASSINSEL (now the International Seed Federation (ISF)) (since 1983), and Chairman of the Hanover Seed Multiplier Association (VHS).

For 23 years, Siegfried Roestel played an influential role in shaping the company’s development with his great expertise and management skills, helped it make crucial advances and thereby laid the foundation for its position today as an international enterprise. In doing so, he always proceeded with great prudence. Sayings like “We don’t get money by spending it!” or “We’d have to be completely mad!” were often heard when ideas he thought risky were put on the table. His subtle Pomeranian humor frequently helped break deadlocks in negotiations and – backed by his deep know-how in the fields of agriculture, seed and breeding – he often prevailed with his points of view.

After his retirement, Siegfried Roestel lived with his wife in his house with a garden near to the former headquarters in Hasselhorst until mid-2010, but here, too, he made a clean break and chose to spend his final years surrounded by all the amenities of urban life in Celle. Everyone who got to know Dr. Siegfried Roestel more closely came to respect him and he will live on in their memory. |