Everyone knows German cars. BMW, Mercedes, Porsche, Volkswagen … but open your wardrobe, your bathroom cabinet or your jewellery box and you may find plenty of brands you didn’t know were German. Some of the world’s most famous names in fashion, perfume and jewellery started in small German towns — often with a story behind them that is stranger than fiction.

This post started in one of my lessons. We were reading a text about brands from one of the books I teach from, and JOOP! came up. My student looked up, surprised: “JOOP! is German?” That got me thinking — how many brands do my students wear, use and know without realising they’re German?

So, do you know these German brands?

Sportswear and outdoor

Adidas and Puma — two brothers, one town

Both brands come from the same small Bavarian town: Herzogenaurach. Brothers Adi and Rudolf Dassler made shoes together until they fell out in 1948. Adi founded Adidas (from Adi Dassler), and Rudolf founded Ruda — which he soon renamed Puma.

The feud split the town in two. The river Aurach separated the factories, workers drank in different pubs and went to different bakers, and each company backed its own football club. Locals even got a nickname — the town of “bent necks” — because people looked down at each other’s shoes to see which side they were on. The brothers are buried at opposite ends of the same cemetery.

Who owns them now? Adidas is a publicly listed company owned by thousands of shareholders, and it is still headquartered in Herzogenaurach. Puma is also listed — and in 2026, Chinese sportswear group Anta Sports agreed to buy about 29% from the French Pinault family, making it Puma’s largest shareholder.

Jack Wolfskin — the paw print

That paw logo you see on jackets and backpacks all over the world? German. Jack Wolfskin was founded in 1981 by Ulrich Dausien and is based in Idstein, near Frankfurt.

Who owns it now? Chinese group Anta Sports (since 2025).

Luxury and designer

Hugo Boss — from a small-town workshop

Hugo Ferdinand Boss opened his workshop in Metzingen in 1924 — and the company’s headquarters is still there today. Surprisingly, the brand famous for sharp suits only started making men’s suits in the 1950s.

Who owns it now? Hugo Boss is a listed company, but British retailer Frasers Group has been buying up shares and held almost 48% by August 2026 — a takeover story still unfolding.

JOOP!

Designer Wolfgang Joop built his brand in Hamburg, and the JOOP! logo — exclamation mark included — became a trademark in 1988. Fun connection: JOOP! is now owned by the Holy family’s fashion group — the same Holy brothers who helped turn Hugo Boss into a global brand.

Who owns it now? Holy Fashion Group (since 2008), which is based in Switzerland.

Jil Sander — the “Queen of Less”

Heidemarie Jiline Sander opened her first boutique in Hamburg in 1968. Her clean, minimalist style earned her the nickname “Queen of Less”.

Who owns it now? Italian fashion group OTB (since 2021), which also owns Diesel.

Karl Lagerfeld — Hamburg’s most famous export

Born in Hamburg in 1933, Karl Lagerfeld became one of the most famous designers in the world. He led Chanel from 1983 until his death in 2019 and worked with Fendi for more than 50 years. He also once said he would marry his cat, Choupette, “if it were legal”.

Who owns it now? The Karl Lagerfeld fashion brand belongs to American company G-III Apparel Group (since 2022).

Escada — named after a racehorse

Founded in Munich in 1978 by Margaretha and Wolfgang Ley, Escada took its name from an Irish racehorse.

Who owns it now? American investment firm Regent (since 2019).

MCM — what do the letters mean?

Michael Cromer München. The Munich brand was founded in 1976 and is now a huge success in Asia, where it makes most of its sales.

Who owns it now? South Korea’s Sungjoo Group, led by businesswoman Kim Sung-joo.

Everyday fashion

Tom Tailor

Founded in Hamburg in 1962 — but not as Tom Tailor. The company started out as Henke & Co. and only got its now-famous name in 1989.

Who owns it now? Chinese group Fosun (full owner since 2020). It is still headquartered in Hamburg.

Marc O’Polo — the trick question

German? Well… yes and no. Marc O’Polo was founded in Stockholm in 1967 by two Swedes and an American named Jerry O. Sheets. People kept writing his name as “O’Sheets”, as if he were Irish — so the founders added an “O’” to their favourite explorer, Marco Polo. The company moved its headquarters to Bavaria in 1997 and has been run from Germany ever since.

Who owns it now? The German Böck family — Werner Böck, the brand’s original German partner, is the majority shareholder, and his son Maximilian became CEO in 2021.

Shoes, accessories and jewellery

Birkenstock — from 1774 to Barbie

The Birkenstock family’s shoemaking story goes back to 1774. The famous contoured cork footbed arrived in the 1890s. Once seen as a “sensible” (or “ugly”) sandal, Birkenstock became a fashion icon — and got a huge boost from the Barbie movie in 2023.

Who owns it now? Birkenstock is listed on the New York Stock Exchange (since 2023). Its majority owner is investment firm L Catterton, which is backed by LVMH — the French luxury group behind Louis Vuitton.

Thomas Sabo

The jewellery and charm brand was founded in 1984 in Lauf an der Pegnitz, near Nuremberg, and is still based there.

Who owns it now? Still independent and run by its founder, Thomas Sabo.

A. Lange & Söhne — a watch brand reborn

Founded in Glashütte, Saxony, in 1845. After German reunification, the founder’s great-grandson re-founded the company on 7 December 1990 — exactly 145 years to the day after the original.

Who owns it now? Swiss group Richemont (since 2000).

Beyond fashion: perfume, skincare, and pencils

Farina — the original Eau de Cologne

The world’s oldest perfume maker is in Cologne, and it is still family-run. In 1709, Johann Maria Farina created a fresh citrus scent and named it Eau de Cologne — “water from Cologne” — after his adopted city. That’s why we still say “cologne” today. His customers included Mozart, Goethe, Napoleon and Beethoven, and Queen Victoria once ordered 600 bottles.

Who owns it now? Still the Farina family — more than 300 years later.

4711 — a perfume named after a house number

In 1794, French troops occupied Cologne and numbered every house in the city. The house on Glockengasse where Wilhelm Mülhens made his Eau de Cologne became number 4711 — and the number became the brand. The twist? 4711 began as a rival to Farina’s original and ended up even more famous.

Who owns it now? German fragrance company Mäurer & Wirtz (since 2006, when it bought 4711 from Procter & Gamble).

Nivea — “snow-white” from Hamburg

Nivea creme was launched by Beiersdorf in Hamburg in 1911, and the famous blue tin arrived in 1925. The name comes from the Latin niveus — snow-white.

Who owns it now? Still Beiersdorf in Hamburg. Its majority shareholder (about 54%) is the Hamburg-based maxingvest group — the family holding company behind Tchibo coffee.

Faber-Castell — pencils since 1761

Cabinet maker Kaspar Faber started making pencils in Stein, near Nuremberg, in 1761, making Faber-Castell one of the oldest pencil makers in the world. Today it produces around 2 billion pencils a year. Count Lothar von Faber also campaigned for trademark protection — which helped bring about Germany’s first trademark law in 1875.

Who owns it now? Still the Faber-Castell family, now in its eighth generation.

Staedtler — a classroom classic

Johann Sebastian Staedtler founded the company in Nuremberg in 1835 — but Nuremberg’s city records mention a pencil maker called Friedrich Staedtler as early as 1662. The yellow-and-black Noris pencil is a classroom classic, and Staedtler also makes Fimo modelling clay.

Who owns it now? Still a private German company, headquartered in Nuremberg.

Stabilo — the swan and the highlighter

Founded in Nuremberg in 1855, the company’s swan logo comes from the Schwanhäußer family name (Schwan = swan). Its STABILO BOSS highlighter, launched in 1971, has sold around 2.6 billion — that’s almost five every second.

Who owns it now? Still the Schwanhäußer family, now in its sixth generation. Headquarters: Heroldsberg, near Nuremberg.

Coming soon: the stories behind the brands

This post is just the beginning. Many of these brands have a story far too good to fit into a few lines — family feuds, copycat perfumes, a racehorse and a misspelt surname among them. Over the coming weeks, I’ll be taking a closer look at the brands one by one, each with its full story.

A little note from me: I’ve checked every fact in this post carefully, and everything was correct at the time of writing in 2026. But the business world moves fast — brands are bought and sold, and some of these stories are still unfolding as I write. If you spot something that has changed, I’d love to hear from you so I can keep this post up to date!

I’m excited to be part of your language journey – let’s make it a successful one!

Warm regards,
Nadia