There are a number of companies that I’ve known my entire life, without realizing that it started here and not in the US. I knew that BMW, Mercedes, and Audi were all German companies. I was clear that Bayer (the pharmaceutical company) was from Germany. But there are a bunch of European names that surprised me.
Red Bull is an Austrian company. The tiny Smart car was a joint venture between Swatch and Mercedes. There are two that really surprised me, though.
Adidas and Puma: Adolph “Adi” Dassler and his brother, Rudolf “Rudi” Dassler founded Gebrüder Dassler Schuhfabrik (the Dassler Brothers Shoe Factory) in the 1920s. They split in 1947, and Rudolf created a competing shoe company, called Ruda at first, and later renamed to Puma. In 1949, Adi renamed his company to Adidas.
I spent my high school years thinking that the name Adidas was an acronym for “All day I dream about sports,” but it’s really named for the founder. Adi Dassler. As a result, I’ve always mispronounced the name. I was pronouncing this ah-deed-ahs, but that’s wrong. The emphasis is on the first and third syllables, not the middle syllable: Ah-dee-das.
Haribo, the company that made the first Gummibärchen, or Gummy Bears, is from Bonn, Germany. I thought Haribo was a Japanese company, but it was founded in 1920 by Hans Riegel, Sr. The name of the company is a portmanteau: Hans Riegel, Bonn.
Are there any companies with origins that have surprised you?
Whimsy. Tacos. The DMV. 
I knew Adidas was German, but had no idea about Puma! Woah, mind blown!
I didn’t know until I moved to Germany that Werther’s Original are German.
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Isn’t the Dassler family story fascinating?
There’s a bunch more companies that I couldn’t think of when I was writing this post, too.
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Adidas and Puma were big surprises to me as well. I also didn’t know Siemens and ThyssenKrupp were German, although it makes sense. I know there were others that surprised me that are slipping my mind right now
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The Dassler story definitely surprised me too. Even more so when I learned that both companies are still based in little Herzogenaurach to this day. I have visions of the brothers spying on each other around town in the 1950s, standing at windows with binoculars, wearing funny mustaches/trench coats, etc.
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I knew about the ones you mentioned, but when I grew up, I always thought that Kraft (maker of ketchup, mayo, processed cheese etc) was a German company 😉
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Speaking of childhood foods, I just learned that Capri-Sun is actually from a German company! Wild (Rudolf Wild GmbH & Co. KG) introduced Capri Sonne in Germany in 1969, and they were introduced to the US as Capri-Sun in 1981!
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You know, it used to feature in my lunchbox on a daily basis when I was a kid 😉
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I knew about the cars but pretty surprised by the shoes and gummi bears!
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You always share such interesting facts!
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I always research the hell out of the things that I post, and then promptly forget all of it. When I get back to the States, I’m totally gonna re-read everything to see where I’ve been. 😀
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I guess the Smart cars make sense – they kinda look like Swatch watches! And your Adidas ‘meaning’ is much more pure than our one over the pond!
I had a Japanese boyfriend once who phoned me at (I kid you not) 2am or something because he’d found that 7/11 wasn’t, as he thought, Japanese, but American. He wasn’t happy when I replied “well, duhhh”
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I was so astonished to see all the 7-11 stores in Hong Kong!
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