The Stollwerk Chocolate Factory

Eighty per cent of the workers in this factory are women, six hundred of these being foreign. The factory provides homes for these foreign workers, twelve nationalities living in five homes, and although they often cannot understand each others languages, they seem to get on together very well. This language barrier was overcome at the factory by printing all notices in several languages, and there were also Interpreters readily available. Our party was split up into several smaller groups
and each group was shown around the factory by a guide. The whole distance round the factory is ten kilometres, but we only walked three of these, though we managed to see all the main processes. We were first shown the caramel producing part of the factory, then we were shown all the other different processes of production. We saw the chocolates being decorated and wrapped, along with other sweets, and finally, after seeing how the boxes were made, we watched them being
packed, ready for export from the factory. Many of the chocolates made there had centres filled with liqueurs We were told that the centres for these chocolates must be prepared first, before the actual chocolate itself. The processes of production in this factory are very similar to those of our factory at Cadbury's. And we were told that although these two factories are rivals, in one sense of the word, they do work in dose harmony with one another. Many visitors from the Cadbury factory are
received at the Stollwerk factory, where they discuss each other's methods of chocolate production.

The Stollwerk Chocolate Factory / Words
foreign     fremd, ausländisch
foreign workers     Gastarbeiter
to provide     besorgen
to get on     sich vertragen
the barrier     die Barriere, das Hindernis
to overcome     überwinden
to print     drucken
the notice     die Notiz, die Nachricht, der Anschlag
the Interpreter     der Dolmetscher
readily     bereitwillig
available     verfügbar
to be readily available     jederzeit zur Verfügung stehen
to split up     teilen
the guide     der Führer
the distance     die Strecl<e, die Entfernung
to manage     fertigbringen, schaffen
the main process     das Hauptverfahren
to wrap     einpacken
sweets     Süssigkeiten
the box     der Karton, die Schachtel
the centre     die Füllung
liqueur     Likör
actual     eigentlich
similar     ähnlich
rival     Konkurrent
the sense     der Sinn
dose     eng
the harmony     die Eintracht

The Stollwerk Chocolate Factory   / Questions
1. Do mostly men work in this factory?
2. What does the factory provide for its foreign workers?
3. How was the language barrier overcome?
4. How far did the English visitors walk?
5. What did they see first?
6. What did they see last?
7. How do Stollwerk and Cadbury cooperate?
8. From which countries do foreign workers come to Germany?
9. From which countries do foreign workers come to Britain?
10. What is a "language barrier"?

Discussion and essay topics
1. Are sweets good for children?
2. The Problems of the "Gastarbeiter" in Germany and of coloured people in England.

The Stollwerk Chocolate Factory  / Notes

Cadbury's Schokoladenfabrik hat sich hier in England von den kleinsten Anfängen zu einer der größten und modernsten Fabriken entwickelt. Die Cadbury's sind eine alte Quäkerfamilie und haben ihre Arbeiter und Angestellten immer sehr gut behandelt Sie sorgen nicht nur für ihre jungen Angestellten, die Gelegenheit haben, jede Art von Sport zu treiben. Sie haben auch besondere Räume für die. die bereits im Ruhestand sind, und die sich dort mit ehemaligen Mitarbeitern treffen
und Billard oder andere Spiele spielen. Bourneville ist ein Stadtteil, den diese Familie vollkommen entwickelt hat mit billigen Wohnungen für ihre Arbeiter und Angestellten. In der Fabrik selbst sieht man meistens Frauen, Männer nur, um die Maschinen in Ordnung zu halten oder in der Druckerei und Kartonherstellung