Bernd Arend: More than just a workplace 

Bernd Arend, former employee, Körber site: Hamburg-Bergedorf, Germany 

Forty-four years and two months – that's how long I worked at Körber. 

When I tell people that today,
most of them are surprised.  

I trained as a painter and decorator.
It was good work, and I enjoyed it.  

But every winter brought uncertainty.
There were fewer orders, less work,
and with that came less security.  

At some point, I heard that Hauni (today: Körber) was looking for employees. 

I asked myself:
Should I stay in the environment I knew?
Or should I take the step into the unknown?  

Many people around me advised me to stay where I was.
But my gut feeling told me something different.
So I decided to make a fresh start.  

Before long, I experienced something I had hardly known before: reliability.
It started with something simple – my salary always arrived on time.
My workday was well organized.  

I found myself in a professional environment, working with technologies far beyond anything I had experienced before. 

All of that impressed me from the very beginning.
But those weren't the reasons I stayed for so long.  

The real reasons became clear during challenging times.
When business was uncertain, and no one knew what the next few months would bring. 

In those moments, nobody simply waited for things to improve.
Instead, people looked for solutions together.
It was a mindset our founder, Kurt A. Körber, believed in.  

Sometimes we took on tasks that had little to do with our everyday jobs.
We sorted, counted, cleaned up, swept floors, worked outside – whatever needed to be done.  

For me, that was a defining moment.
It showed me what it means to face challenges together – and that everyone can make a meaningful contribution.  

Maybe that's why a gut decision turned into more than four decades with the company.