 | |
| Company type | GmbH |
|---|---|
| Industry | Tobacco |
| Predecessor | Badische Tabakmanufaktur Roth-Händle Dresdner Emballagenfabrik Zigarettenfabrik Manoli  |
| Founded | 1910 in Erfurt, German Empire |
| Founder | Bernhard Reemtsma |
| Headquarters | , |
| Parent | Imperial Brands |
| Website | reemtsma.com |
Reemtsma Cigarettenfabriken GmbH is one of the biggest tobacco and cigarette manufacturing companies in Europe and a subsidiary of Imperial Brands. The company's headquarters is in Hamburg, Germany.
Reemtsma was created in 1910 in Erfurt, Germany. [1] In 1918, the production was automated.[ citation needed ] In the twenties, many German cigarette firms went bankrupt, and the market was increasingly dominated by a few large, highly automated manufacturers, such as what Reemtsma became. [2]
By 1920, Reemtsma had attracted the talents of tobacco expert David Schnur, who became a shareholder and oversaw blending and sourcing. [3]
In 1921, the trade mark "R6" was introduced in the market by Hans Domizlaff. [1] In 1923, production was moved to Altona, now part of the city of Hamburg, where Reemtsma's main headquarters remain. In 1930, Reemtsma took over the Berlin-based Problem Cigarettes .
In July 1932, Philipp Fürchtegott Reemtsma, head of the company, met with Adolf Hitler, Rudolf Hess, and Max Amann. Reemtsma's ads ran in the publications of other political factions, but had been banned from Nazi party publications. However, the Nazi publications lost money, and the party needed money for election campaigning. Hitler scolded Reemtsma for having Jewish partners and managers, but they agreed to an initial deal on half a million marks of advertising. [2] [4]
During the Third Reich the company prospered despite the official anti-tobacco policy of the Nazis. [5] Shortly after the Nazis took power in 1933, Philipp Reemtsma asked Hermann Göring, then the highest official in Prussia, to do something about a court case and SA attacks against the company. In early 1934, Göring called off the court case in exchange for three million marks; Reemtsma subsequently paid him a million a year, in addition to substantial donations to the party. By July 1934 the Night of the Long Knives had removed the threat of the SA. Reemtsma's Jewish partners, notably David Schnur, [6] emigrated, along with many Jewish employees, with help from Reemtsma. [2]
In 1937, the company merged with "Haus Neuerburg" and reached a 65% market share. Between 1933 and 1939, the firm's profits increased tenfold to 114 million reichsmarks. In 1939, Philipp F. Reemtsma was promoted leader of the Fachuntergruppe Zigarettenindustrie part of the National Socialist economy and recognized by Göring as a Wehrwirtschaftsführer . [7] Cigarettes were distributed free to soldiers, including minors, as part of their pay, and the market continued to grow rapidly. [8]
Forced labour was used by Reemtsma during the war, with prison camps set up at some locations. [7] Reemtsma also used forced labour, including child labour, to harvest tobacco in the Crimea, with the local population being given bread and flour in return for their work. [9]
By 1941, tobacco taxes made up about a twelfth of state income, and antismoking efforts were being discouraged. [8] In 1942 there was a shortage of tobacco, and 2/3 of all German tobacco factories were shut down, [7] some to be converted into armaments factories. Tobacco went on the ration, retarding the rapid rise in consumption. Reemtsma remained profitable. [2]
Reemtsma's financial support of the Nazis was unparalleled among German companies. The Sturmabteilung and other party organizations were given six-figure sums, and the Hitler Youth were given an aircraft. [7] After the war, Philipp Reemtsma was charged with having paid 12.3 million reichsmarks to Göring. No legal conviction was forthcoming, and he was released after twenty months. In 1948 he was considered denazified and continued running the business, reinstating or compensating his partners who had fled. [2]
In 1980, Philipp Reemtsma's only surviving son, coming of age after his death, refused to take over the company and sold his shares. [2] He later privately undertook to compensate surviving Crimeans for their unpaid labour for his father. [9]
The German coffee producing company Tchibo then bought the majority of Reemtsma. [2] The shares were sold in 2002 to Imperial Tobacco; at the time, it was the world's fourth-largest tobacco company. [10] It is now a daughter company of the renamed Imperial Tobacco, Imperial Brands.
Today, Reemtsma sells cigarettes, loose tobacco, cigarillos as well as other tobacco products. Although predominantly distributed in Germany, some tobacco products are distributed across Europe. Brands such as Gauloises are produced and distributed by Reemtsma in Germany, but by Imperial Tobacco in other territories.
Some of their most famous brands include
Imperial Brands plc is a British multinational tobacco company headquartered in London and Bristol, England. It is the world's fourth-largest international cigarette company measured by market share after Philip Morris International, British American Tobacco and Japan Tobacco and the world's largest producer of fine-cut tobacco and tobacco papers.
Tchibo is a German chain of coffee retailers and cafés known for its range of non-coffee products that change weekly. The latter includes: clothing, furniture, household items, electronics and electrical appliances. In Germany, Tchibo's slogan is "Every week a new world". Tchibo has further expanded its product range to sell services such as travel, insurance, and mobile-phone contracts.
Gauloises is a brand of cigarette of French origin. It is produced by the company Imperial Tobacco following its acquisition of Altadis in January 2008 in most countries, but produced and sold by Reemtsma in Germany. Until 2017 the cigarette was manufactured at a plant in Riom, Puy-de-Dôme, in France, but they are now manufactured in Poland.
In the early 20th century, German researchers found additional evidence linking smoking to health harms, which strengthened the anti-tobacco movement in the Weimar Republic and led to a state-supported anti-smoking campaign. Early anti-tobacco movements grew in many nations from the middle of the 20th century. The 1933–1945 anti-tobacco campaigns in Nazi Germany have been widely publicized, although stronger laws than those passed in Germany were passed in some American states, the UK, and elsewhere between 1890 and 1930. After 1941, anti-tobacco campaigns were restricted by the Nazi government.
The Secret Meeting of 20 February 1933 was a secret meeting held by Adolf Hitler and 20 to 25 industrialists at the official residence of the President of the Reichstag Hermann Göring in Berlin. Its purpose was to raise funds for the election campaign of the Nazi Party.
The Sturm Cigarette Company was a cigarette company created by the Nazi Party's Sturmabteilung (SA). The sale of its cigarettes provided the SA with operating funds and a channel for political messaging. Coercion and violence were used to increase sales.
Deutsche Ost-Afrika Linie was a shipping line, established in 1890 as an alternative to the existing shipping services to East Africa, including German East Africa (1891–1919), then dominated by United Kingdom shipping lines.
Ernte 23 is a German brand of cigarettes, currently owned and manufactured by Reemtsma, a subsidiary of Imperial Tobacco. "Ernte" is German for "harvest".
Jan Philipp Fürchtegott Reemtsma is a German literary scholar, author, and patron who founded and was the long-term director of the Hamburg Institute for Social Research. Reemtsma lives and works mainly in Hamburg.
Mahala Problem, officially Problem oHG, was a cigarette company from Berlin, popular and successful before and after the First World War. The company was founded on March 25, 1889, by Szlama Rochmann in Berlin, and later bought in 1932 by Reemtsma.
Atika was a German cigarette brand which was owned and manufactured by Reemtsma, a subsidiary of Imperial Tobacco. Production of cigarettes under the "Atika" brand was discontinued in 2016.
Cabinet is a German brand of cigarettes, currently owned and manufactured by Reemtsma, a subsidiary of Imperial Brands. It is mainly sold and found in the New states of Germany.
Eckstein No. 5 was the oldest still existing German brand of cigarettes which was owned by Reemtsma, a subsidiary of Imperial Tobacco
Juno was a German brand of cigarettes, owned and manufactured by Reemtsma, a subsidiary of Imperial Tobacco. The brand was discontinued in 2016.
R6 is a German brand of cigarettes, currently owned and manufactured by Reemtsma, a subsidiary of Imperial Brands.
Roth-Händle is a former tobacco manufacturing company based in Lahr, Germany. The brand is now managed by Reemtsma, a subsidiary of Imperial Tobacco since 2002.
Senoussi was a German brand of cigarettes that was owned and manufactured by Reemtsma, a division of Imperial Tobacco. The brand was discontinued in 2002.
A war of annihilation or war of extermination is a type of war in which the goal is the complete annihilation of a state, a people or an ethnic minority through genocide or through the destruction of their livelihood. The goal can be outward-directed or inward, against elements of one's own population. The goal is not like other types of warfare, the recognition of limited political goals, such as recognition of a legal status, control of disputed territory, or the total military defeat of an enemy state.
The Judenvermögensabgabe was an arbitrary special tax imposed on German Jews under the Nazi dictatorship. The tax was only a part of a larger series of actions taken by the Nazis to systematically plunder Jewish assets.
David Schnur was an Austrian tobacco entrepreneur.
Reemtsma was also vulnerable, however, because one member of his governing board, David Schnur, was Jewish
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1Australia only; 2Brands of Habanos, a 50:50 joint venture between Imperial Tobacco and Cubatabaco ; 350% share; 4formerly, "Commonwealth Brands" | |||||||
