Schweisfurth Foundation

The Schweisfurth Stiftung (Schweisfurth Foundation) is a German non-profit foundation founded in 1985 by the entrepreneur Karl Ludwig Schweisfurth. It works for a future-proof agriculture and food economy, combining practical research, project management and dialogue formats. Its thematic priorities are humane livestock farming, the connection between city and countryside (Stadt-Land-Tisch), food sovereignty, and environmental and water protection. The foundation is operational: it initiates and runs its own projects with partners rather than awarding scholarships or funding doctorates on application. The foundation grew out of a radical personal turnaround. Karl Ludwig Schweisfurth, born in Herten in 1930 and a trained master butcher, took over his parents' butcher shop after the Second World War and built it into Herta, one of Europe's largest meat-processing companies, processing around 100,000 pigs and 20,000 cattle per month. In the 1980s he could no longer bear the industrial system of meat production, sold Herta to Nestlé and founded the Schweisfurth Stiftung in 1985. At the same time he built up the Herrmannsdorfer Landwerkstätten near Glonn, an organic farming and craft-food operation. The foundation is based in Munich. Since July 2020 Niels Kohlschütter, an agricultural scientist specialising in biodiversity and sustainable value-creation spaces, has been its executive board member (Vorstand), succeeding the agricultural ethicist and publicist Franz-Theo Gottwald after 35 years. Karl Ludwig Schweisfurth's daughter Anne Schweisfurth, a dairymaid, educator and curator, chairs the foundation council (Kuratorium); the sociologist Christa Müller is deputy chair. Among its activities, the foundation awards the annual BioThesis research prize for organic food economics together with the Lebensbaum Stiftung, the Assoziation ökologischer Lebensmittelhersteller and Biofach; since 2015 it has awarded the Wolfgang Staab Nature Conservation Prize, endowed with 20,000 euros, for work on river and floodplain landscapes; and since 2007 it has honoured chefs and kitchens with the Tierschutz-Kochmütze (animal-welfare chef's hat) under its Tierschutz auf dem Teller® project. It publishes the book series Agrarkultur im 21. Jahrhundert with Metropolis-Verlag and contributes to the annual Kritischer Agrarbericht. In 2013 it received the Munich Environmental Prize, and its Tierschutz auf dem Teller® project was recognised as a selected location in the "Germany – Land of Ideas" competition in 2012 and with the "Werkstatt N" quality seal in 2011, 2012 and 2015. In 2025 the foundation marked its 40th anniversary.

The Schweisfurth Stiftung was founded in 1985 by Karl Ludwig Schweisfurth, a trained master butcher born in Herten in 1930. After the Second World War he took over his parents' butcher shop and, inspired by the giant slaughterhouses of Chicago, built it into Herta, one of Europe's largest meat-processing companies. At its height the business processed roughly 100,000 pigs and 20,000 cattle per month into sausage, sold vacuum-packed at ever lower prices — a symbol of the West German economic miracle's logic of "bigger, faster, further and cheaper". In the 1980s Schweisfurth underwent a profound change of heart. He could no longer endure the industrial system of meat production: the suffering of animals, the loss of craft skills, and food that had long ceased to be a means of living. He sold Herta to the food group Nestlé and founded the Schweisfurth Stiftung in 1985. At the same time he began building the Herrmannsdorfer Landwerkstätten near Glonn in Bavaria, an organic farming and craft-food enterprise intended to demonstrate a smaller, finer, more artisanal alternative with respect for animals and nature. The foundation has been operational from the outset, initiating and running its own projects with partners rather than making grants on application. Its work spans practical research, project management and the design of dialogue spaces. Thematic priorities include humane livestock farming, Stadt-Land-Tisch (strengthening links between urban and rural areas), food sovereignty, and environmental and water protection. It promotes awareness of the value of food across production, processing, distribution and consumption, and is committed both to future thinkers and to practitioners and artists in nutrition, health, agriculture, animal breeding, education and upbringing. For 35 years the agricultural ethicist and publicist Franz-Theo Gottwald served on the foundation's executive board. In July 2020 he was succeeded by the agricultural scientist Niels Kohlschütter, whose focus is biodiversity and the design of sustainable value-creation spaces. Karl Ludwig Schweisfurth's daughter Anne Schweisfurth, a dairymaid, educator and curator at the Hafenmuseum Speicher XI in Bremen, chairs the foundation council (Kuratorium); the sociologist and managing partner of the anstiftung, Christa Müller, is deputy chair. Karl Ludwig Schweisfurth died in Munich in 2020. Over the decades the foundation has developed a distinctive set of prizes and programmes. From 1998 to 2002 Anne Schweisfurth, in cooperation with the Vereinigung für Ökologische Ökonomie, awarded the Schweisfurth Research Prize for Ecological Economics. Together with the Lebensbaum Stiftung, the Assoziation ökologischer Lebensmittelhersteller e.V. and Biofach, the foundation awards the annual BioThesis research prize for bachelor's, master's and doctoral theses on sustainability questions in the organic food sector. Since 2015, financed by the Wolfgang Staab Nature Conservation Fund, it has awarded the 20,000-euro Wolfgang Staab Nature Conservation Prize for outstanding achievements in the sustainable development of river and floodplain landscapes. Since 2007 it has honoured chefs and kitchens with the Tierschutz-Kochmütze under the project Tierschutz auf dem Teller®. In 2002 the founders Karl Ludwig Schweisfurth, Franz-Theo Gottwald and Meinolf Dierkes wrote the guiding document "Agrar- und Ernährungskultur", which still provides the conceptual background for the foundation's work. The foundation publishes the book series Agrarkultur im 21. Jahrhundert with Metropolis-Verlag and contributes to the annual Kritischer Agrarbericht. It received the Munich Environmental Prize in 2013, and its Tierschutz auf dem Teller® project was named a selected location in the "Germany – Land of Ideas" competition in 2012 and received the "Werkstatt N" quality seal from the German Council for Sustainable Development in 2011, 2012 and 2015. In 2025 the foundation celebrated its 40th anniversary, and it continues to run current projects such as the Mitmach-Regionen initiative, which aims to help people advance the ecological and social transformation of their regions.

• 2025

  Foundation marks its 40th anniversary and publishes its 2025 annual report

• 2020

  Karl Ludwig Schweisfurth dies in Munich; Niels Kohlschütter becomes Vorstand in July, succeeding Franz-Theo Gottwald

• 2015

  Wolfgang Staab Nature Conservation Prize first awarded (20,000 euros)

• 2013

  Foundation receives the Munich Environmental Prize

• 2012

  Tierschutz auf dem Teller® named a selected location in the "Germany – Land of Ideas" competition

• 2011

  Tierschutz auf dem Teller® receives the "Werkstatt N" quality seal (again in 2012 and 2015)

• 2007

  Tierschutz auf dem Teller® project begins awarding the Tierschutz-Kochmütze

• 2002

  Founders write the guiding document "Agrar- und Ernährungskultur"

• 1998

  Schweisfurth Research Prize for Ecological Economics awarded (until 2002)

• 1993

  With the Reemtsma Stiftung, the foundation supported the establishment of a professorship for Applied Farm Animal Ethology at the University of Kassel in Witzenhausen for Prof. Dr. Detlef Fölsch

• 1985

  Schweisfurth Stiftung founded by Karl Ludwig Schweisfurth after he sold Herta to Nestlé

• 1930

  Karl Ludwig Schweisfurth born in Herten, Germany

Operational non-profit foundation and think-and-do tank for humane livestock farming, organic agriculture, food sovereignty and sustainable city-country relations in Germany.

1. 1Schweisfurth Stiftung official websiteschweisfurth-stiftung.de
2. 2Geschichte - Schweisfurth Stiftungschweisfurth-stiftung.de
3. 3Schweisfurth Foundation - Wikidatawikidata.org
4. 4Schweisfurth Stiftung - Wikipedia (German)de.wikipedia.org