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Visits by politicians
The great economic importance of plant breeding for the Federal Republic of Germany was demonstrated by the visits by President Roman Herzog (July 1995) and Chancellor Helmut Kohl (February 1998) to Einbeck.
Helmut Kohl’s visit came at a time when the government had initiated funding for research in the field of genetic engineering. This step would enable German bioscience to “catch up with the U.S. in research,” noted insideKWS when reporting on a working meeting attended by Andreas Büchting and Kartz von Kameke, President of the German Plant Breeders Association (BDP). “If we fail to take action in research and development now, that will mean lost jobs in ten years’ time,” said Helmut Kohl.
Roman Herzog voiced similar concerns three years earlier: Preserving Germany as a research location was important in order to safeguard jobs and social security. During his visit, he termed genetic engineering a “key technology of the 20th century. It must be approached without prejudice.”
Both visits also drew demonstrators protesting genetic engineering – and the politicians reached out to them. |
What a party!
It was a party that long-serving employees still rave about today: More than a thousand guests celebrated the company’s 150th anniversary in 2006 under the slogan “KWS YOUnited.” On September 6, colleagues from all over the world got to know each other in person at festively decked tables on Einbeck’s market square. The next day, the specially rehearsed song “We all work for an orange company” rang out – giving Andreas Büchting “goosebumps and a feeling of happiness all in one.” A bicycle tour to the Wetze estate with 1,300 participants brought the company a bit closer together – in addition to the sensational “willingness of KWS employees there to put up and look after colleagues personally. We’ve become an international family,” enthused Andreas Büchting. |
Dual honor
Andreas Büchting’s first honorary doctorate was awarded by the Georg August University in Göttingen in 2002, and the second by the University of Hohenheim in 2011. He received these accolades for his commitment to modern plant breeding and environmentally friendly farming, while at the same time encouraging critical dialogue between research, agriculture and consumers – far beyond KWS and plant breeding. |
Plus 2,000%
Plain facts: If we compare the net sales figures for 1975/1976, Andreas Büchting’s first full fiscal year after joining the company in June 1975, with those for 2021/2022, the last full fiscal year before his departure, we can see how impressively the company has grown.
Building knowledge together
From 1996 to 2008, Andreas Büchting was Chairman of the German Association to Promote Private Plant Breeding (GFP). In the same year, the GFP Liaison Office to the European Union was established in Brussels, and a year later the GFP Patent Office was set up to protect the results of the GFP’s collaborative research. In 1998, at the initiative of the GFP, the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research launched the research program “Genome Analysis in the Biological System of the Plant” (GABI) and the association WPG (Wirtschaftsverbund Pflanzengenomforschung GABI e.V.) was founded. Its chairman was Andreas Büchting. These successful activities in associations and bodies helped advance important programs relating to plant research, delivering lasting benefits to the research landscape in Germany. |
Visible growth
KWS’ headquarters have changed a lot over the past decades. 1,588 colleagues from 50 nationalities now work at the Einbeck location. In line with KWS’ growth, the capacities of research and office buildings, production facilities and greenhouses at Einbeck have been expanded again and again to meet increasing requirements. Today, it exudes the image of a modern company campus. And it keeps on growing: Construction of a new building for processing and storing breeding material has begun. |
© KWS SAAT SE & Co. KGaA 2025
