I was at the store picking up medicine and I see a box of medicine called Bayer and it had the same Bayer badge on it too, which came first and is it one company?
I was at the store picking up medicine and I see a box of medicine called Bayer and it had the same Bayer badge on it too, which came first and is it one company?
Bayer is one of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world, with a stories history that includes the economic miracle post WW2, commercialising heroin, being merged into IG Farben and producing Zyklon B for the gas chambers in concentration camps, IG Farben broken up and Bayer being recreated, inventing Aspirin (what you probably saw in the pharmacy), acquiring Monsanto and being tied to a football club that achieved lots of second places.
Bayer Leverkusen 04 was started as a works team by employees of the company as a way for them to be physically active and isn’t limited to just football. Of course, the footballing division has since outgrown its amateur status. But the club is still owned by Bayer.
Is it true that the players were employed by Bayer? And when did it change?
It’s true but I don’t know when it changed.
Around the late 40s and early 50s, when the team went up to the second division. Some of them still worked for Bayer, but it wasn’t a necessity anymore.
In the 60s, when Bundesliga was originally formed, the teams became more professional and the number of employed players sank down.
Let me rephrase it, I didn’t mean employees playing for the team but players getting contracted by the company.
Edit: I don’t mean employees playing for the team but other players contracted by the company so they could play for the team
Used to be a thing, i would guess till late 60s and maybe even early 70s. Leverkusen wasn’t promoted to the first devision until 1978/79. I think Falko Götz even said something about securing a Job after football when he fleed from the DDR and joined Leverkusen
Do not forget the blood products contaminated with HiV which were then sold by Bayer in Asia and Latin America which caused 1000s of patients to develop Aids. For something a bit more recent.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24785997/
Definitely not one of the largest Pharma companies in the world. I’m not even sure if they are top 20 anymore.
Number 7 according to wikipedia
Certainly not in market cap
Yo I thought this was a “shitpost” because obviously not, obviously that’s just a common name… Dang.
It’s still funny to me how you can be owned by a literal evil megacorp and no one bats an eye as long as you dont win anything