The Freudenberg corporate archives are also a treasure trove for scientists and business historians. About one third of the 250 to 300 research requests per year come from external interested parties. Around 150,000 archive units on 3,000 linear meters of storage space - whether written documents, memorabilia, awards or product samples - tell countless company stories.
Time and time again, these provide evidence of Freudenberg's special identity as a values-based technology company, with many instructive examples for the present and the future. For example, the archives contain originals of the first seals and the first Simmerring, which Freudenberg produced at the end of the 1920s and the beginning of the 1930s respectively. "We don't just have the objects, but the closed documentation for them. We can show why Freudenberg started making seals," Horchler explains.
Not to be forgotten: The tasks of the Corporate Archives also include looking after the company exhibition. Although it is – and this is a cliché! - in the basement of the visitor center in the Weinheim industrial park. But it too is bright, friendly and modern and forward-looking in its presentation of the past.