Beate Uhse

Her mother told her about the Knaus-Ogino method, used for determining the days that a woman is unable to conceive. The young pilot recalls this as she sits at the typewriter, after World War 2. She writes four pages. Unable to think of a better name, she calls it “Pamphlet X”. For five pounds of butter, she has the pamphlets printed and sells them for two Reichsmark each. The name of its author: Beate Uhse.

In the '40s, Beate (Uhse) and her husband, Ernst-Walter Rotermund, founded the first mail-order condom business in Flensburg. In the '50s they opened a lingerie store and a laboratory for cosmetic and pharmaceutical products as well as founded their own brand of condoms. They added a publishing house in the '60s, Super 8 film production in the '70s, video production later on, and the list goes on ...

Although she was indicted around 2,000 times and faced about 700 lawsuits in the ’50s and ’60s, nothing held the erotic revolutionary back from turning the most beautiful activity in the world into a “hot issue”.

In 1981, Beate Rotermund transformed her business into a joint-stock company. Beate and her youngest son, Ulrich Rotermund, continued to run the Beate Uhse stores, while sons Klaus Uhse and Dirk Rotermund headed the mail-order business, which now operates under the name Orion Versand GmbH & Co. KG.

With eight catalogues, 140 stores throughout Europe and wholesale operations, Orion is a global player today. The language of love is spoken all around the world. Its Flensburg headquarters sends out up to 5,000 packages every day while managing 12,000 different items. Want to find out more?

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