The Bayer Group has its origins in Germany. Friedrich Bayer and Johann Friedrich Weskott founded the company in Wuppertal in 1863. Today, Bayer employs some 35,000 people at 20 sites in Germany alone. Below you will find an overview of the German sites
Further information on the German sites
Read more about the organizational units and production sites.
Bayer site in Bergkamen
Bergkamen is home to Pharmaceuticals' biggest active substances production facility.
- The 1,500 employees working at the site produce active substances and intermediates of ultra-high purity.
- The combination of microbiological fermentation steps with chemical reactions makes Bayer in Bergkamen a specialist with more than 50 years of experience in the production of high-quality pharmaceutical active substances.
- This site focuses on contrast agents and steroid hormones for contraception and hormone replacement therapy.
- Overall, 60 active substances are produced at Bergkamen in more than 300 synthesis stages.
Bayer site in Berlin
Berlin is home to the headquarters of Pharmaceuticals.
- Germany’s capital city is very important for research and production at Pharamaceuticals among other companies.
- Approximately 4,800 Bayer employees are based here overall, including about 2,000 in research and development and 1,600 in product supply.
- The Berlin Supply Center specializes in the formulation contrast agents, e.g. Magnevist, a contrast agent for magnetic resonance imaging, as well as on packaging of the YAZ family of contraceptives and the MS drug Betaferon.
- The former main laboratory in which steroids research began in the 1920s now houses the historical pharmaceuticals collection.
Bayer site in Bitterfeld
Some 750 employees work at Consumer Health’s Bitterfeld Supply Center.
- This site focuses on the production of pharmaceuticals for self-medication.
- Bitterfeld is one of the biggest Aspirin producers in the world and has highly automated pharmaceutical production facilities.
- Bayer also produces Alka-Seltzer, Talcid and Aleve here.
Important products manufactured at the Darmstadt site include Iberogast to treat gastrointestinal illnesses.
Around 180 employees work at Consumer Health in Darmstadt.
- The site specializes in herbal medicines (phytopharmaceuticals).
- Important products manufactured at the Darmstadt site include Iberogast to treat gastrointestinal illnesses and Laif, a mild herbal anti-depressive product.
Bayer site in Dormagen
Dormagen is home to the Crop Science Divisions's largest and most important production site in the world.
- Approximately 1,200 employees work for the Crop Science Divison here.
- Bayer has been producing crop protection products in Dormagen since 1962.
- Currently, 34 different active substances and 14 formulaton types are produced at this site.
- The most important products include the insecticides Gaucho, Calypso and Poncho.
- Important fungicides produced in Dormagen are Antracol, Proline and Impulse
- Important herbicides produced here are Laudis, Lecspro and Betanal.
- Approximately EUR 300 million has been invested in major investment projects at the Dormagen site between 2013 and 2016.
- There are two areas at Dormagen:
- Global Active Ingredients Operations with five Active Ingredient Plants and one Formulation Plant
- Industrialization with Process Development and one Multipurpose Plant.
- In addition to the Crop Science Division, some 60 other companies also operate at the Dormagen Chempark. The site is the biggest employer in the Neuss district on the Rhine.
Bayer site near Frankfurt
At the Höchst industrial park near Frankfurt am Main, the Crop Science Division maintains important research and production operations.
- Frankfurt is a center of expertise for herbicides.
- Some 830 Bayer employees work here in the research and production of herbicides and insecticides.
- What’s special about the Frankfurt site is that it is the only location where the Crop Science Division covers the entire chain from research through to production.
- The research and development units concentrate mainly on new herbicidal active ingredients.
- The production facilities focus on both active substances manufacturing and the formulation and filling of ready-to-use products.
- In the fall of 2014, the Crop Science Division inaugurated a new “Wheet Resistance Competence Center” here.
Further information on the Höchst industrial park and the Crop Science site (in German)
Bayer site in Grenzach-Whylen
Some 500 employees work at the Consumer Health Supply Center in Grenzach.
- Grenzach produces, packages and distributes ointments, creams and lotions, as well as pre-filled syringes for pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, dietary supplements and medical products.
- The facility has received numerous certifications and awards in the area of “career and family.”
Bayer site in Grundhof
In Grundhof in the German state of Schleswig-Holstein, Crop Science breeds and ships winter and summer oilseed rape/canola for the European market.
- Grundhof is a center of expertise for seed breeding.
- Its product range comprises ten summer and 25 winter canola varieties.
- Bayer has 20 years of experience in the successful breeding of canola.
- The site currently employs 17 people.
Jenapharm is an independent subsidiary of Pharmaceuticals.
Jena is the base of operations for Jenapharm GmbH & Co KG, an independent subsidiary of Pharmaceuticlas that has been a Bayer Group company since 2006
- Jenapharm is the market leader in both women’s health care – in the oral contraception and menopause management segments – and in andrological products in the field of testosterone therapies.
- Jenapharm’s portfolio also includes modern long-term contraceptive methods and a special range of dermatological products and contrast agents.
- Some 180 employees are based in Jena.
Bayer site in Kiel
The Animal Health Supply Center Kiel has a workforce of around 600.
- About 50 percent of all animal health products sold by Bayer worldwide are produced in Kiel and shipped to more than 70 countries.
- The company’s core competencies include the production of solids and semisolid forms, liquids and parenterals, as well as packaging.
Bayer site in Knapsack
The Knapsack chemical park south of Cologne is home to an important Crop Science Division production site.
- It has a production capacity of 19,700 metric tons of active substances and intermediates per year. At this site, the Crop Science Division produces a broad spectrum of active substances, safeners and precursors for internal processing into downstream products at other sites.
- The site houses four production plants and a logistics and shipping facility.
- Important precursors and intermediates for the herbicides Liberty and Basta and the fungicides Flint, Previcur and Flamenco are produced here; Knapsack is also the exclusive production site for the safeners isoxadifen-ethyl and mefenpyr-diethyl.
- Bayer has maintained operations at the Knapsack site since 2002.
- 220 people are employed there.
Bayer Group Headquarter in Leverkusen
The Bayer Group is headquartered in Leverkusen.
- Some 1,000 people work in Supply Center Leverkusen, making this city one of Pharmaceuticals' most important production sites.
- Solid and liquid pharmaceuticals are produced and packaged in Leverkusen.
- Among the products manufactured in Leverkusen are Adalat, Avalox/Avelox, Glucobay, Levitra, Nexavar and Xarelto.
- Leverkusen also serves as the headquarters of Bayer Vital GmbH, the company that markets the products of Pharmaceuticals, Consumer Health and Animals Health in Germany.
- It currently has a workforce of around 1,850, most of whom are employed in the field force.
Bayer site in Monheim
Monheim serves as the headquarters of the Crop Science Divison and the Animal Health business unit.
- The Crop Science Division researches and develops new crop protection products and directs the global marketing activities of its products at this site.
- The Crop Science Division employs some 2,000 people on the approximately 65-hectare site, most of them chemists, biologists, engineers, commercial staff and lab technicians housed in ten scientific institutes and in administrative offices. The campus character of the facility is underlined by its extensive green areas, greenhouses and the Tropicarium, which with its more than 400 tropical and subtropical crops forms the centerpiece of the site.
- Animal Health is one of the world’s leading providers of veterinary medicines. The business unit is committed to promoting animal health and supporting veterinarians and animal owners with its portfolio of innovative treatment options and products.
- Around 400 people work for Animal Health in Monheim in Research, Development and Administration.
- With the “Bayer Bee Care Center”, Bayer aims to promote dialogue with external partners on this issue.
- In 2011, a children’s daycare center opened in Monheim at which Bayer offers 60 childcare places. The center has received numerous awards for its “zero-emissions-building” concept.
Further information on Bayer’s activities in Monheim (in German)
Bayer site in Weimar
Some 480 employees work at the Pharmaceuticals Supply Center in Weimar.
- The site has 33,000 square meters of floor space on which hormone-containing solid pharmaceuticals (contraception, hormone substitution) are manufactured and packaged for Pharmaceuticals.
Bayer site in Wuppertal-Elberfeld
This site is the birthplace of the Bayer Group: in 1866 the company’s founders Friedrich Bayer and Johann Friedrich Weskott opened the first factory here for the production of dyestuffs.
- Wuppertal-Elberfeld is highly specialized in chemical technology and biotechnology.
- This site houses two facilities: the research center on Aprather Weg and the plant in the Wupper Valley.
- Some 2,600 people work here, half of them at the Aprath Research and Development Center.
- The site is characterized by close proximity between pharmaceutical research, chemical and biotechnological active substances development, and production.
- Research: Research focuses on cardiology and oncology. Most active substances produced in Wuppertal were also researched and developed by Bayer at that site.
- Production: In all, some 20 active substances are produced in the Wuppertal Supply Center – including active ingredients for the cancer drug Nexavar, the diabetes treatment Glucobay, the antibiotic Avalox/Avelox and the anticoagulant Xarelto.
Further information on Bayer’s activities in Wuppertal-Elberfeld (in German)