Press release
Brodowin - On his first visit to Germany as British King, Charles III also visited Brodowin on Thursday, March 30, 2023. Accompanied by German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, British Ambassador Jill Gallard, UK Foreign Secretary James Cleverly and Brandenburg's Minister President Dietmar Woidke, the head of state learned about the special features of our organic farm, which has been a pioneer in organic farming and nature conservation since it was founded in 1991 as Germany's largest Demeter farm.
©British Embassy/Ivana Ross-Brookbank
Managing Director Ludolf von Maltzan was extremely pleased to have the special opportunity to share Brodowin's concept and philosophy with His Majesty King Charles III - both share an unreserved belief in and enjoyment of organic farming. Many of the farm's employees also took advantage of the unique opportunity to pay their respects to His Majesty on site, and some of the trainees were able to tell him personally about their everyday life on the farm.
The fact that the monarch chose an organic farm in Brandenburg on the outskirts of Berlin from numerous possible destinations underlines his decades-long enthusiasm for organic farming and thus also the recognition of our shared responsibility for stabilizing our climate and preserving biodiversity by using near-natural farming methods. Ludolf von Maltzan therefore sees the visit to the Brodowin eco-village as a considerable acknowledgement of the entire organic sector in Germany. It has received tremendous public attention today - that is a great gift to us all from the British King!
King Charles III has managed the farm at his country estate Highgrove exclusively according to organic principles since 1985; the high-quality organic products are sold in British markets under the organic brand "Duchy Originals", now "Waitrose Duchy Organic". The monarch is currently busy with the nature-oriented redesign of the gardens at Sandringham in Norfolk - aspects such as biodiversity and the creation of natural habitats for insects are explicitly emphasized in the published plans. It can be assumed that Charles' everlasting passion for natural food and nature-based agriculture will also leave its mark on the British palace as a result of his appointment as king.
King Charles used his visit to Brodowin to take a tour of the farm, find out about animal husbandry and crop rotation and even lend a hand with cheese production in our glass dairy. The result is an exclusive cheese - "Brodowiner Krone "* - which will be available from the Brodowin delivery service and organic specialist retailers once it has matured for eight weeks.
Incidentally, this is not the first visit by a Federal President to Brodowin: in 2013, we welcomed Joachim Gauck and his partner Daniela Schadt to our farm as part of their inaugural trip to Brandenburg; among other things, butter was churned together in the dairy back then.
The King's visit once again encouraged us in Brodowin to stick to producing high-quality, natural food - and to talk about it: as a demonstration farm for organic farming, we consider it our duty to share our work with the public in order to provide proper information about organic farming by offering guided tours and answering questions transparently.
Here you can also find the press release as PDF
Press contact:
Franziska Rutscher
f.rutscher@brodowin.de
Phone: 03334 81813-12
*For legal reasons, the product name "Brodowiner Königskäse" has been replaced by "Brodowiner Krone".
