"The Twisted Road to a Research Project. Forced Labor at Bahlsen, Shitstorms and the Unexpected Opening of the Archives"

If ever there was a typical German Mittelstand company, it is Bahlsen, the country's leading biscuit
manufacturer. Founded in 1889, it is still 100% family-owned. It was and was family-led until 2018.
It has specialized in high-quality products, cultivated strong brands, and fostered a culture of
paternalism and secrecy. It has always been proud of its tradition and its success not only in
Germany but also in global markets. It became a multinational by acquiring companies throughout
Europe and the U.S. beginning in the 1960s. Although it employed up to 11,000 people in the 1980s
(2,400 today), it remained essentially a Mittelstand company that was never able to rub shoulders
with the global giants of the industry, such as General Mills, United Biscuits, Kellogs, Nestle,
Nabisco, or Mondelez. Bahlsen was too weakly capitalized and too insistent on absolute
independence and unrestricted family control. In 2019, a major scandal erupted when the company's
young heiress publicly claimed that during the Nazi period, forced laborers from Poland and Ukraine
were treated very well by Bahlsen and received the same wages as regular German workers. A
tremendous shitstorm ensued, with many people calling for the young woman's ouster and a boycott
of the company's products. Bahlsen's reputation was in serious jeopardy as all major media picked
up the story. The family was shocked and, after much deliberation, commissioned an independent
investigation. For the first time in their history, they granted two historians unrestricted access to
their extensive archives. The research began in 2020 and a 600-page book was published in 2024,
immediately hitting the bestseller lists. This paper will describe the difficult genesis and conception
of a project that no one originally wanted, as well as the working conditions and the complicated
publishing process. The paper will also summarize the main results of the project and consider the
reception of the book by the public, the media, and the family.