30 years after reunification –
 163 years of KWS

1856

The birth of KWS The farmer Matthias Christian Rabbethge laid the foundation for today’s KWS back in 1856, when he obtained the majority stake in Zuckerfabrik Klein Wanzleben, a refinery founded 18 years earlier. The “man in the cap” acted shrewdly and resolutely by soon acquiring the young entrepreneur Julius Giesecke as a competent and financially strong partner. He also sent his two sons Carl and Matthias to study at university, which was unusual for a farmer in his day. That investment paid off: With the knowledge he gained from systematic selection and crossing of sugarbeet, Matthias Rabbethge junior created the foundations for the company’s rapid success.

1885

Savior in the hour of need In that fateful year, Carl Valentin Rabbethge rescued the company from impending bankruptcy. After disclaiming his inheritance, he moved to Einbeck and managed a farm there. Following the sudden death of his brother Matthias Rabbethge in 1885, he returned to Klein Wanzleben, took over the company that had been left leaderless, and reorganized the creditors and investors in a newly founded stock corporation named Zuckerfabrik Kleinwanzleben. 1885 was also the year the company registered its first brand name and the trademark “Kleinwanzlebener Original” at the Royal Patent Office.

1900

World market leader in sugarbeet The respected botanist 
Dr. Wilhelm Raatz played a key part in helping KWS become the largest seller of sugarbeet seed worldwide around the year 1900. He developed new tables of values for beet selection and a systematic means of classifying sugarbeet into four directions of breeding – which soon became a standard procedure in the industry. Buoyed by sales of its sugarbeet seed, the company established its first international branch in Winniza, Ukraine, in 1900. Seed was produced and bred there. However, this lucrative foreign business was forfeited without compensation during the October Revolution in 1917.

1920

Start of diversification As a consequence of the losses suffered due to the First World War, the company’s management expanded its breeding program to include further crops at the beginning of the 1920s. From then on, fodder beet, potatoes and cereals were a firm part of the portfolio of varieties from the company in Klein Wanzleben. In hindsight, this strategic realignment toward diversification proved to be a path-breaking move that has impacted KWS’ development to the present day.

1945

Collapse and new beginning KWS had used forced laborers from Eastern Europe during the Nazi dictatorship. The company stands by its historical and moral responsibility, as evidenced by its participation in the Foundation “Remembrance, Responsibility and Future” that was established in 2000.

After the Second World War, Klein Wanzleben was in the Soviet Occupation Zone, with the result that the company was expropriated and unable to continue as a going concern. Before the Soviet army marched in, British soldiers transported the owners and their families, a number of directors of breeding and around 60 tons of elite seed to Lower Saxony in an adventurous cloak-and-dagger operation at the end of June 1945. KWS managed to start up again in Einbeck and was back on the road to success within a short time.

1952

Establishment of the Institute for Plant Breeding The Institute for Plant Breeding, which was founded in Klein Wanzleben in 1952 and renamed Institute for Beet Research in 1967, was affiliated with the Academy of Agricultural Sciences in Berlin. Sugarbeet research and breeding in the GDR was focused in Klein Wanzleben. Around 260 people were employed there in 1989.

1963

Approval of the first monogerm sugarbeet variety After the enormous effort of selecting around half a million plants, eight monogerm seed bearers were able to be identified in Klein Wanzleben in the 1950s. As a result of this, the first monogerm sugarbeet variety obtained approval in the GDR in 1963 – earlier than in the Federal Republic. Despite this breeding success, the performance of the GDR’s sugarbeet varieties soon lagged far behind the level in the west. The responsible institutions in the GDR tried various means, both legal (through cooperating with KWS, see page 8) and illegal (under “Operation Crystal,” see page 10), to catch up before the fall of the wall.

1969

Betaseed – entry into the American sugarbeet market KWS had supplied farmers in North America with sugarbeet seed before the Second World War – and in particular Carl-Ernst Büchting, the personality who put his stamp on KWS at this time, strove to win back this market. That required patience and staying power. Ten years earlier, KWS had founded the company Incoseed in Canada, with the objective of selectively developing varieties there to meet the requirements of that region. In 1969, the results of this breeding work were contributed to Betaseed, a venture initially established together with an American company. Betaseed is now a wholly-owned subsidiary of KWS and the market leader for sugarbeet seed in the U.S.

1972

First lab for cell biology Cutting-edge cell and molecular biology technologies are now an indispensable part of modern plant breeding. Solid investments in research and development have helped KWS secure its competitiveness throughout the more than 160 years it has been in existence. KWS commenced biotechnology research in 1972 by setting up the “General Research” working group, which was able to use the company’s first lab for cell biology. Until 2010, KWS pooled its research and development activities for all crops at PLANTA Angewandte Pflanzengenetik und Biotechnologie GmbH, a company it established in 1984. KWS now invests around 18 percent of its net sales – a sum of €200 million in 2018 – in research and development of new varieties. 170 employees will move into the newly built second Biotechnology Center in the spring of 2020.

1990

Back to the roots The fall of the wall in 1989 meant KWS was able to return to the company’s cradle in Klein Wanzleben. Since the 1980s, KWS had maintained small-scale business relations with the GDR and the Institute for Beet Breeding (IfR), where the neighboring socialist state had concentrated its sugarbeet breeding activities. A decision was made in 1990 to buy back the breeding station in Klein Wanzleben, and conduct performance tests and set up a quality control lab for sugarbeet (and later corn) there. KWS now has 65 employees in Klein Wanzleben.

2000

Internationalization ramped up Back in the 20th century, KWS already had its sights set on expanding its business operations worldwide in the moderate climatic zone. That strategic goal became an even greater focus in the new millennium. Since the year 2000, KWS has been represented almost throughout the entire American Corn Belt with its joint venture AgReliant. As a result, the Corn Segment overtook sugarbeet as KWS’ strongest contributor to net sales from the 2005/2006 fiscal year on.

Other landmarks in our international engagement include entry into the Brazilian seed market with two joint ventures in 2012 and the start of our cooperation with the Chinese company KENGFENG – KWS SEEDS CO., LTD. in China in the field of corn seed.

2019

Seventh generation of the founding family boosts the Executive Board The seventh generation of KWS’ founding family has been represented on the Executive Board since January 2019 in the person of Felix Büchting. The new member is responsible for the Business Units Cereals, Human Resources and Farming and is committed to further strengthening KWS’ corporate culture, which is founded on a tradition of family ownership, with its pillars of independence, continuity and reliability. |