The pride of Europe's largest economy, the biggest and most successful German enterprises turn over billions of dollars a year and have massive international reach. From retail juggernauts and financial services giants to automotive behemoths like BMW and Volkswagen, we profile the 30 Teutonic powerhouses that are the envy of the world.

Founded by merchant Fritz Henkel in Aachen in 1876, chemical and consumer goods firm Henkel is famed for its much-loved go-to brands, which include household names Persil, Loctite and Schwarzkopf. Like many long-established German companies, the firm has a chequered history, having used slave labour during World War II, but has since made amends and compensated victims. Now based in Düsseldorf, Henkel has 53,700 employees, 85% of whom work overseas.

MediaMarktSaturn Retail Group is Europe's number one consumer electrics retailer with 1,022 locations in 14 countries across the continent. The company, which started out in 1961 with one store on Cologne's Hansaring but is now headquartered in the Bavarian city of Ingolstadt, operates brands including Media Markt, Saturn and iBood, and employs 62,000 staff.

This immense family-owned technology group was founded in 1851 and specialises in precious and rare earth metals, medical tech, sensors, quartz glass, and more, supplying the steel, healthcare, telecoms, automotive and chemical industries in 40 nations. Based in Hanau, the conglomerate has 100 companies under its wing and 13,000 employees. Heraeus is particularly renowned for its gold production and state-of-the-art lab and hospital equipment.

The second biggest sportswear company in the world after Nike, Adidas is a German icon. Established in 1924 by Adolf Dassler in his mother's laundry room in Herzogenaurach, the firm, which was then called Dassler, was selling 200,000 pairs of shoes a year by the 1940s. In 1947, Adolf Dassler renamed the business Adidas after falling out with his brother Rudolf, who went on to found rival company Puma. Today, Adidas employs more than 57,000 people and produces over 900 million products.

Discount retailer Aldi Nord also came about due to a brotherly dispute. Siblings Theo and Karl Albrecht expanded the family firm founded by their mother in Essen in 1913. In 1960, the brothers split the chain into Aldi Nord and Süd after disagreeing over whether they should sell cigarettes. Theo's Aldi Nord, which opted to stock tobacco, now operates stores in Northern Germany, France, Spain, Denmark, Poland, Portugal, Belgium and Luxembourg, and owns US chain Trader Joe's. 

Discover other family feuds which spawned two successful companies

Germany's leading construction company, Hochtief is a major player in the US, as well as scores of other countries. Founded in 1874, the firm built Germany's first nuclear plant and was instrumental in the Bauhaus movement, though its history is tainted by its use of slave labour in the Nazi era and involvement in the construction of the Führerbunker and other HQs of Hitler. Revived after the war, the company's triumphs include Istanbul's Bosphorus Bridge and the Commerzbank Tower in Frankfurt.

SAP SE was established in Weinheim in 1972 by five former IBM employees and has grown to become Germany's largest software firm. Now based in Walldorf, the tech company, which focuses on enterprise software and is investing heavily in IoT and cloud computing, has offices in more than 130 countries and supplies hundreds of thousands of corporations around the world.

One of the world's largest financial services companies, Deutsche Bank was founded in Berlin in 1870 and supported emblematic Teutonic companies like Bayer, Krupp and Daimler in their early days. Like other German firms that existed in the 1930s and 1940s, the bank collaborated with the Nazi regime, and has since apologised for its involvement and issued compensation to victims. Today, the organisation operates in 58 countries and has 91,700 staff in total.

E.ON was created in 2000 following the merger of VEBA and VIAG, two state-owned energy companies that started out in the 1920s. Now one of the largest electric utility companies in the world, E.ON, which is headquartered in Essen, has bought a number of major power companies including the UK's Powergen and Swedish firm Sydkraft, and has millions of customers in over 30 nations.

Founded in 1912 by pharmacist Eduard Fresenius, healthcare colossus Fresenius runs hospitals in Germany and Spain, and provides healthcare services to clients in over 100 countries with a particular emphasis on kidney dialysis. The company is based in Bad Homburg vor der Höhe and has a total of 275,000 employees worldwide.

As well as being Germany's largest airline, Lufthansa is the biggest carrier in Europe. Established in 1926 and re-founded in 1953, the airline offered the first international flights in 1956. Together with its many subsidiaries, which include Austrian Airlines, Brussels Airlines, Eurowings and Swiss, Lufthansa has a fleet of over 700 aircraft, 135,000 employees and carries an impressive 130 million passengers a year.

Wholesale/cash and carry leviathan Metro Group was founded in 1964 and has grown to become one of the world's largest warehouse retailers. Based in Düsseldorf, the group has two main sales divisions, Metro and Makro Cash & Carry and hypermarket chain Real, and operates in Europe, Africa and Asia.

Established in 1915 to make gears for Zeppelin airships, ZF Group is now one of the world's leading auto parts manufacturers. The firm is best-known for its driveline and chassis technology, not to mention its axel systems, and has a presence in 40 countries spanning six continents. Headquartered in Friedrichshafen, ZF Group employs a total of 146,148 people worldwide.

One of the largest pharmaceutical companies on the planet, Bayer was founded in Barmen in 1863 as a dye factory. The firm trademarked Heroin in 1898, brought the world Aspirin, which it launched in 1899, and sold the first widely-used antibiotic. Bayer's parent company used slave labour during World War II, which Bayer apologised for in 1995. Last year, the firm acquired controversial US agrochemical business Monsanto. Bayer's many brands include Berocca, Claritin, Dr Scholl's, Levitra and Roundup. 

From one of the planet's largest pharmaceutical firms to one of its biggest steel producers, thyssenkrupp was formed in 1999 following the merger of Thyssen AG and Krupp. It was established in 1811, has a bewildering 670 subsidiaries worldwide and a workforce of 161,000. The company also makes industrial machinery and builds elevators, ships and high-speed trains, and is headquartered in Essen and Duisburg.

Deutsche Bahn is the second-biggest transport company in the world and Europe's largest railway operator. The group's subsidiaries operate in 130 countries and its trains carry billions of passengers a year. Based out of Berlin and majority owned by the German state, Deutsche Bahn employs 331,600 staff.

Admired for its quality tyres, Continental also makes everything from brake systems and vehicle electronics to powertrain and chassis components. The firm originated in 1871 as a rubber manufacturer and was the first company in the world to make grooved tyres. Headquartered in Hanover, the enterprise operates in 60 countries and employs 243,230 people globally.

One of the world's largest reinsurers, Munich Re was founded in 1880 by banker Carl von Thieme and is notable for being the only company that remained in the black after paying out claims resulting from the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. As you might have guessed, the firm is based in Munich, and has a workforce of around 42,000. Its major shareholders include investment genius Warren Buffett.

After the great Aldi cigarette split, Karl Albrecht, who was Germany's richest person when he died in 2014, took over the discount retailer's stores in the south of the country, and oversaw the company's expansion into the UK, Ireland, Australia, Switzerland and the US. Boasting annual revenues of more than double that of Aldi Nord, Aldi Süd also owns Slovenia's Hofer chain. All in all, there are more than 10,000 Aldi stores in 20 countries.

Discover more about Aldi and how it's growing across the world

This retail and tourism cooperative group has its fingers in many pots. Established in 1927, the Cologne-headquartered multinational enterprise has numerous divisions, which include supermarket chains like REWE and BILLA, discount retailers, hotels and tour operators. Its workforce totals 345,000.

The world's largest postal and international courier company, Deutsche Post DHL Group was created in 1995 following the privatisation of Germany's state-run postal service. Based in Bonn, the firm snapped up US logistics company DHL in 2002 and now operates in over 220 countries. With 550,000 staff, Deutsche Post DHL Group is one of the largest employers in the world.

BASF is the biggest chemical producer on the planet. Like Bayer, it was founded as a dye factory in the 1860s and was once part of the same parent company IG Farben. Notorious for its involvement in the Holocaust, the conglomerate was split up after World War II. BASF went on to diversify into consumer electronics and used to make cassette tapes, which it stopped producing in the 1990s. Today, the firm operates in more than 90 countries.

Deutsche Telekom is one of the companies that emerged in 1995 following the privatisation of Germany's state-run postal service. The firm has major interests in a number of big-name telecoms businesses including T-Mobile and BT Group, and operates in countries in Europe, Africa, Asia, and North and South America. Based in Bonn, it counts a total of 216,000 staff worldwide.

From its humble beginnings in Robert Bosch's backyard in Stuttgart in 1886, Bosch has become one of the world's largest engineering, household appliance and consumer electronics companies. As is the case with other firms in our round-up, the business used forced labour during the Nazi era. Today, the Gerlingen-headquartered enterprise operates across four engineering and electronics sectors and has 410,000 employees.

Based in Berlin and Munich, industrial manufacturing company Siemens produces a vast array of products from trains and turbines to hospital scanners and fire alarms. Again, the company, which was founded in 1847, used slave labour during the Nazi era and, shockingly, had a plant at Auschwitz. Like the other companies mentioned, Siemens has issued apologies for this dark part of its history and has striven to compensate victims.

The leading grocery chain in Europe, Schwarz is the world's fourth-largest retail group and the parent of the Lidl and Kaufland brands. Founded in 1930 by Josef Schwarz and expanded in the 1970s by his son Dieter, who sought to emulate the success of Aldi, the Neckarsulm-based group now has over 11,200 locations in Europe and the US, and hundreds of thousands of employees.

BMW started out in Munich in 1916 as aircraft engine manufacturer Bayerische Motoren Werke and didn't begin producing cars until 1928. The firm had a questionable record during the Nazi era for which it has since atoned, and was rebuilt after the war, enjoying great success from the 1960s onwards thanks to its luxury cars. Today, BMW produces 2.5 million high-end vehicles a year and has 134,682 staff.

One of the world's largest insurance companies, Allianz has a presence in 70 countries and provides insurance and financial services to 87 million people worldwide, more than the entire population of Germany. Founded in Berlin in 1890, the company is now headquartered in Munich and has a workforce of 142,460.

Formed in 1926, Daimler is best-known for the Mercedes-Benz marque. It too had links with the Nazis for which it has apologised and has taken steps to compensate forced labourers. As well as Mercedes-Benz, the Stuttgart-based company produces vehicles under a number of other marques including Fuso, Smart and Western Star. Last year, the group, which has 298,700 employees, sold 3.4 million vehicles.

Germany's largest company and the world's biggest automaker by sales, Volkswagen has courted controversy over the years, from its Nazi origins in 1937 to the recent emissions scandal, but has always managed to bounce back. The Wolfsburg-based firm, which produces cars under marques including Audi, Bentley and Lamborghini, has 656,000 employees and sold a record 10.8 million vehicles last year.

Take a look at some iconic ad campaigns that turned companies' fortunes around