Carl Heinrich Theodor Knorr (1800–75)

The name Knorr is synonymous internationally with the culinary products of prepared soups and dried stock. The Knorr food company was founded by Carl Heinrich Theodor Knorr.

Knorr was born in Meerdorf near Braunschweig, Lower Saxony, in 1800. His father was a teacher but Carl Heinrich trained as a merchant. After the death of his first wife, Knorr met Amalie Henriette Caroline Seyffardt on a visit to Heilbronn in Baden-Württemberg, where her father was a leading merchant. They married and opened a grocery and colonial goods store there in 1838. In the same year he invested capital from his wife’s dowry in establishing a steam-powered factory at Heilbronn to process chicory as a coffee substitute. The factory was a great success, employing over 50 workers, but in 1855 he sold it and invested in developing a woollen mill at Heilbronn. This was a failure and he closed the business and returned to the grocery trade, founding the company C. H. Knorr Engros-Geschäft, which specialised in dealing in rice and barley among other produce. He traded products from the region to markets across Germany and Austria-Hungary.

In the 1870s, Knorr began producing flours from pulses, which were sold under the brand name Bienenkorb. He and his sons began experimenting with drying vegetables and meat extracts to create instant soup mixes, following earlier innovations in France and Britain. They began manufacturing them on a large scale. The products not only reduced time needed for cooking but also preserved the nutritional value of foodstuffs without the need for refrigeration. The Knorr factory produced some of the earliest commercial dried soups, laying the foundation for the convenience food industry.

Knorr died in Heilbronn in 1875, shortly after launching his dried soup line. His sons continued to expand the business, creating the dried stock cube and other products. The Knorr brand became known internationally.