Hans Riegel, the man behind Germany's Haribo confectionery and much-loved gummy bears, has died aged 90 from heart failure, his office said on Tuesday. Riegel spent almost 70 years at the helm of Haribo, which was founded by his candymaker father in 1920. From a small firm struggling with the shortages of post-war Germany, he built it into a world famous brand exporting to 100 countries.
German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle said Riegel had made Haribo such a global brand that "wherever I travelled in recent years, the gummy bears had arrived long before me". Haribo, short for Hans Riegel Bonn, came to epitomise Germany's highly successful Mittelstand - the small, actively-managed firms which make up the backbone of the economy. Fruit-flavoured gummy bears were originally called dancing bears, inspired by the performing brown bears that once appeared at circuses and fetes. The fierce expression on their jelly faces was replaced with a smile in a 2007 makeover.