Buzz
In 1920, a struggling 27-year-old candy maker from Bonn, Germany, named Hans Riegel left his job and began crafting sweets in his kitchen, using a marble slab, a kettle, and bags of sugar. His early products were hard, colorless candies that he sold at local shops and street festivals. His only helper was his wife, Gertrud, who would deliver the candies on her bicycle.
As for the name of his business, Riegel chose to fuse the first two letters from his first name, last name, and his hometown: Ha from Hans, Ri from Riegel, and Bo from Bonn, which resulted in Haribo.
Though Riegel’s initial candies sold reasonably well, he wanted to create something distinctive to set himself apart from the many candy brands in Germany. He observed that gummy sweets like wine drops, gumdrops, and Jujubes were widely loved, but their shapes lacked creativity. Inspired by the dancing bears that entertained children at festivals across the country at that time, Riegel decided to create a bear-shaped chewy candy.
Riegel’s Tanzbären, or 'dancing bears,' were thinner and longer than the gummy bears we know today, and they sold two for about one cent. They were also available only in one color: gold. To achieve that unique chewy texture, Riegel used gelatin, a substance once reserved for the rich but becoming more widely accessible. Naturally, kids loved Tanzbären, and within a decade, Haribo grew from a small business with one employee to over 160. By the time World War II began, the company employed over 400 people and was producing candy in large quantities.
World War II severely impacted production, reducing Haribo’s workforce to just 30 employees. Riegel passed away in 1945. After the war, his sons, Hans and Paul, revived the company, quickly rebuilding the staff to over 1000 within five years.
In 1960, as Haribo set its sights on global expansion, they introduced the smaller gummy bears we recognize today. The company named them Gummibärchen, meaning 'little gummy bears,' and in 1967, they unveiled a multicolored version. By 1975, Haribo had trademarked the name Goldbären, or 'gold bears,' to honor its early history.
Today, Haribo produces over 100 million gummy bears every day, with factories around the world, a far cry from the small kitchen in Bonn, Germany, where it all began.
