Too Big for the Old Works
In 2017, the operations of Sartorius in Göttingen were consolidated at the Sartorius Campus in the Grone district of the city. For close to 120 years, the beating heart of the company had previously been located on a site on Weender Landstraße, which was built in 1898 on a green meadow that, back then, was at the edge of the city.
The book Herausgewachsen aus dem Alten Werk (“Too Big for the Old Works”) is a 127-page collection of photographs and recollections of long-standing employees, and documents the large-scale move in photographic snapshots.
From the Old Works to the Sartorius Quartier
In 2017, the area surrounding the Old Works on the edge of the city center of Göttingen had since become densely built up. This represented one of the main reasons for moving all operations to Grone, as the site on Weender Landstraße no longer offered any potential for expansion. However, this expansion was urgently needed; the company, founded in 1870 by Florenz Sartorius, had since developed into a fast-growing international partner of the biopharmaceutical industry. The mind, engine, and heart of the company can now be found at the Sartorius Campus, which has been continually expanded since the late 1980s.
The Old Works site on Weender Landstraße is now home to the Sartorius Quarter. The name is not the only reminder of the location’s long industrial tradition: sections of the historical architecture have been fully renovated and incorporated within a plan for the sustainable development of the site. In addition to event spaces and hotels, as well as newly developed residential space, the Life Science Factory – initiated by Sartorius – is also located on the site; here, entrepreneurial scientists and start-ups receive support as they take their first steps outside academic institutions.
Spanning 3,300 square meters, this four-story building houses fully equipped state-of-the-art laboratories, a prototype development workshop, and office space. As such, the Life Science Factory keeps the spirit of Florenz Sartorius alive, who founded his precision mechanical workshop at the young age of 24.