 In 1949 his son, Rudolf Bauerfeind, left Zeulenroda because of the policy of nationalisation in East Germany and rebuilt the company in western Germany, first in Darmstadt-Eberstadt and then in Kempen.Immediately after German reunification, in 1991, Hans B. Bauerfeind, grandson of the founder and chairman of the management board since 1976, returned Bauerfeind GmbH, as it then was, to Zeulenroda, buying a compression bandage manufacturer there and investing more than 100 million euros in a new production facility, a research centre and a new 57-metre headquarters building, the tallest new building constructed in Thuringia since reunification.The family-owned company became an "Aktiengesellschaft" in 2002.