Henkel Timeline

A journey back through our exciting company history.

More than 140 years of development: Something that began in 1876 as a small laundry detergent business has grown into an international company with about 53,000 employees and brands like Persil, Schwarzkopf and Loctite. Enjoy discovering Henkel’s history!

Explore our 140 years jubilee timeline!

Timeline 140 Years of Henkel

Treasures of our history

Would you have imagined that Henkel once imported Chinese tea or that the Pritt glue stick travelled into space? Enjoy discovering some surprising facts about our history!

1887: Henkel’s Thee

In 1887, the product range was expanded with Henkel’s Thee, making the company one of Germany’s biggest tea importers.

1898: Schwarzkopf opens a drugstore

The Schwarzkopf brand has its roots in Berlin: In 1898, chemist Hans Schwarzkopf and his wife Martha opened a retail store in Berlin’s Charlottenburg district and sold “dyes, remedies and scents”.

1902: Launch of the Floral fertilizer

Henkel and fertilizers? Until 1917, Henkel sold the Floral fertilizer – mainly in Germany – under the motto “Makes plants thrive and flower abundantly.”

1922: Birth of the “White Lady”

Who doesn’t know the “White Lady”? In 1922, artist Kurt Heiligenstaedt designed one of the most iconic advertising figures for Persil. She featured on posters, metal sheet signs, house gables and master clocks on large city squares until well into the 1960s.

1929: Sandwich board advertising

Henkel showed originality in its product promotion with sandwich ads – including for the first cold-water soluble Henkel glue, Mala-trocken, which was produced from 1929.

1932: Henkel movie

Henkel brought the talking film “Wäsche – Waschen – Wohlergehen” ‏(loosely translates to “Laundry, washing, well-being”) to German movie theatres and hit the bull’s eye: About 30 million moviegoers watched the 96-minute-long feature in the years that followed.

1947: Poly Color – the first liquid hair coloring

The first liquid hair tinting lotion by Poly Color adorned a nude Botticelli Venus in 1947 – and post-war Germany was up in arms about it. With a modified packaging, however, Poly Color soon became a huge success.

1969: The world’s first glue stick

Henkel invented Pritt after the “twist up” mechanism was tested on lipsticks – a revolution in the world of glue. In 2001, the Pritt glue stick was even tested in space and became the first brand on the planet to receive the “space-proof quality” seal.