Our Roots: Founding And Beginnings In Hamburg (1924-1945)

After the company was founded in 1924, Adalbert Raps developed a production process for salt-free products. In his notebooks, he developed recipes, added and removed ingredients and wrote down the exact number of grammes meticulously. The former pharmacist took the benchmarks he learned about while studying pharmaceutics and applied them to the quality and flavour of his RAPS products with great success: They would soon be exported all the way to Switzerland. These goods were handled in the port of Hamburg, as shown on the photo.

The seizure of power by the National Socialists in 1933 entailed major societal, political and economic changes. The persecution of dissidents and minorities also became part of everyday life in Hamburg. Adalbert Raps did not get involved in politics. 

The RAPS company was seized by the turmoil of these times: Due to the Second World War that was unleashed by the National Socialists, it soon became near impossible to import spices. And it wasn’t long until the war fell back on Germany and Hamburg became the target of devastating air raids.