ABSTRACT
During the Second World War, the cigarette of choice of soldiers in the German Wehrmacht would likely have been manufactured by the Reemtsma Company. Begun in Erfurt on the eve of the First World War by Johann Bernhard Reemtsma (1857-1925), it controlled, by the eve of the Second and its move to Hamburg, some 75 percent of the domestic market. Its guiding lights were by then the founder’s sons Philipp Fürchtegott Reemtsma (1893-1959) and Hermann Fürchtegott Reemtsma (1895-1961), with the former the dominant figure in creating one of the great industrial success stories of the century. By shrewdly marketing his product under brand names (such as “R6” and “Gelbe Sorte” before the war, “West,” “R1” “Ernte 23” and “Peter Stuyvesant” after it), he created an expectation of standard quality in his customers that translated into ever-increasing sales.
