From family business to internationally active group of companies
The history of the family business begins in the 1920's in Zeulenroda in East Thuringia where, at one time, almost every compression stocking sold in the world was manufactured.
1929 Bruno Bauerfeind founds a company specializing in the manufacturing of medical compression stockings.
1939 Rudolf Bauerfeind, son of the company's founder, already has 100 employees.
1949 The politics of the Soviet occupying force is anything but business-friendly, so the Bauerfeind family leaves Zeulenroda and starts over in Darmstadt-Eberstadt.
1972 Hans B. Bauerfeind, grandson of the company founder, takes over the company Diedrich Grote Nachfolger in Kempen and merges the companies in Darmstadt and Kempen in 1978 into Bauerfeind GmbH with headquarters in Kempen.
1984 The new production facility in Kempen begins operations. In the next few years, Bauerfeind establishes its own distribution companies in Europe and the USA and takes over the specialized firms Berkemann in Hamburg and Globus K. Kremendahl in Remscheid, among others.
1988 Bauerfeind UK was founded.
1991 Hans B. Bauerfeind returns to his home town Zeulenroda with the family business. The manufacturer of compression stockings, supports, orthoses, orthopedic inserts and, since 2001, prosthetic components as well, operates both nationally and internationally in four business sectors.
With considerable capital expenditure, the following have been built at company headquarters in Zeulenroda:
1994 what are probably the most modern production facilities for medical compression stockings,
1999 the Bauerfeind Innovation Center, the company's central think tank, which has been operating under the name Bauerfeind AG since 2002,
2003 the Logistics Center, and
2004 the new Administration Building - at 57 meters, it is the tallest new construction in the region since Reunification.
2005 Bauerfeind extends the Co Partnerschaft Deutschland (co-partnership Germany) entered into in 2001 with the National Olympic Committee (now the Deutscher Olympischer Sportbund) for another three years. As official outfitter to the German Olympic Teams, Bauerfeind is also supporting the team doctors and physical therapists by supplying the German Olympic athletes in Beijing in 2008.
2007 Bauerfeind establishes a Quality Partner Program for specialty medical retail trade in Germany. The goal of the program is to ensure the quality of advisory services and service provision in the trade, and therefore provide the best possible care for patients. In the meantime, more than 1,000 partners in the retail sector/workshop have joined the partner program.
Beginning October 2007, Berkemann will continue to be directed by owner Thomas Bauerfeind as an independent company.
In November 2007, the Fachhochschule Münster (Münster Technical College) awards an honorary professorship to Hans B. Bauerfeind, thus recognizing his commitment to the study of the technology of orthopedics.
At the end of February 2008, Prof. Hans B. Bauerfeind is elected as President of the IHK (Chamber of Industry and Commerce) of East Thuringia in Gera.
