Bahlsen: The German Biscuit Story Since 1889

A Bahlsen biscuit looks simple: crisp edges, a golden bake and a clean snap. Yet behind that familiar cookie is more than 130 years of German baking history, beginning with a small operation in Hanover.

Bahlsen’s story is one of careful branding, industrial innovation and a biscuit that became a household name.

From ten employees to a German biscuit name

Hermann Bahlsen founded the company in Hanover in 1889. The business began with ten employees and grew into a family-run biscuit company whose products would travel far beyond Germany.

Two years later, the company introduced the butter biscuit that became its defining product.

Why is it called the Leibniz biscuit?

The Leibniz biscuit was named for Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, the philosopher and mathematician closely associated with Hanover. The name gave the new biscuit a strong local identity while helping it stand apart from English-style biscuits of the period.

Its rectangular shape, scalloped edge and embossed lettering became part of the design. The recipe emphasized a crisp, buttery bite that paired naturally with coffee, tea or cocoa.

The word “Keks” and a changing food culture

Bahlsen also helped popularize the German word Keks, adapted from “cakes,” as the everyday term for a crisp biscuit. The shift reflects a broader moment when packaged foods and recognizable brands were becoming part of modern European life.

What had once been a bakery specialty could now be consistently made, protected in packaging and enjoyed well beyond its place of origin.

More than Leibniz

Bahlsen’s assortment expanded to chocolate-coated biscuits, filled sandwich cookies, wafers and elegant wafer rolls. The textures vary, but the products share the same useful versatility: formal enough for a dessert plate, easy enough for an afternoon snack.

Shop Bahlsen cookies at European Deli, from Leibniz butter biscuits to chocolate wafers and Waffeletten.

A classic that still belongs beside the coffee cup

Bahlsen has changed with the times, but the appeal of its best-known biscuit has not. It is crisp, dependable and instantly familiar—the kind of simple food that becomes part of family routines and memories.

Read more about the fourth-generation family business on Bahlsen’s official company page.