{
    "id": 1070603,
    "title": "What does Haribo stand for?",
    "slug": "what-does-haribo-stand-for",
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    "url": "https://sweeties.net/wiki/what-does-haribo-stand-for/",
    "modified": "2026-09-26T13:03:05+01:00",
    "excerpt": "Haribo stands for HAns RIegel BOnn: the first two letters of the founder's first name, surname and home town. The story behind the name.",
    "content_text": "Haribo is not a made up word. It is an abbreviation, formed from the first two letters of three words: the founder's first name, his surname and the city where he started the business.\nHAns RIegel BOnn\nHA is for Hans, the founder's first name. His full name was Johannes Riegel, but he was known as Hans.RI is for Riegel, his surname.BO is for Bonn, the German city where he was born and where he set up the company.\nPut together, they make Haribo. This kind of name, built from the first syllables of several words, is called a syllabic abbreviation.\nHow it started\nHans Riegel worked at a confectionery factory before leaving to start his own sweet company. On 13 December 1920 it was entered in the commercial register in Bonn. According to the company, his starting equipment was a sack of sugar, a copper pot, a marble slab, a stool, a stove and a roller. In 1921 he bought a house in the Kessenich district of Bonn, which became Haribo's first factory, and his wife Gertrud became the company's first employee.\nIn 1922 he created a fruit gum shaped like a bear, called the Tanzbär, or Dancing Bear. Since 1960 Haribo has called its bears Goldbears. See Hans Riegel and the gummy bear.\nHaribo in Britain\nHaribo came to Britain in 1972, when it bought Dunhill's, a maker of liquorice Pontefract cakes founded in the 18th century. It has production in Pontefract and at Castleford in Yorkshire: see Pontefract cakes.\nStill a family business\nAfter Hans Riegel died in 1945, his sons Hans and Paul ran the company for decades. Ownership is now split between two family holding companies, and in 2018 the headquarters moved from Bonn to Grafschaft in Rhineland Palatinate, though Bonn is still a production site. The name, though, still points back to Bonn, where it all began.\nFor a common question about Haribo sweets, see is Haribo made from pig?",
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