1660: Pharmacy as the origin of the group The origins of the Heraeus family business go back to the 17th century. In October 1660, Isaac Heraeus (1636-1676) took over what was then the Faucque pharmacy in
Hanau-Neustadt, east of Frankfurt. In 1668, he opened his own pharmacy on the market square in Hanau-Neustadt under the name "Zum weißen Einhorn", which later became the
Einhorn Pharmacy. The Einhorn Pharmacy was run as a
count's court
pharmacy for a total of six generations until the middle of the 19th century. Heraeus understood the problems faced by goldsmiths. After a series of experiments, he first succeeded in melting platinum in large volumes and producing pure metal in 1856, using an
oxyhydrogen blowpipe he developed himself.
1889 – 1926: Inventions and patents In 1889, the two sons of the company founder, Wilhelm and Heinrich Heraeus, took over the management. Research and development was further pursued, and the physicist and chemist Richard Küch, a former school friend of the Heraeus brothers, joined the company in 1890. Küch's research resulted in the German Imperial Patent No. 63591 in 1891 for the gilding of platinum sheet, the first patent in the company's history. Küch then developed a process by which
quartz glass could be obtained by melting rock crystal at around 2000 °C. The quartz glass produced by the company was almost entirely free of defects and was of outstanding purity. It is still used in medicine and is a highly sought-after material in manufacturing on account of its translucence and resistance to heat and acids. With the advent of ceramic colors, more platinum was needed for production processes, and Heraeus started supplying products to the electrochemical and plastics industries. As the company continued to expand, it needed new premises – so in 1896, the
W.C. Heraeus Platinum Smelting Factory was established just outside Hanau, employing 40 people. As early as the 19th century, platinum had already been used in locking pins to hold false teeth in place. Platinum was also used to make filaments in light bulbs and non-corrosive electrical contacts in telephones. With the development of the
tanning lamp in 1904, Küch and Heraeus are regarded as the inventors of the UV high-pressure lamp and pioneers of body irradiation with artificial light sources for
medical light therapy. In 1906, Küch developed the standardized
resistance thermometer made of platinum, the principle of which is still used today in cars and ovens. In 1902, Charles Engelhard (1867-1950), brother-in-law of the two Heraeus brothers, became representative of the group in the
USA and founded the
Engelhard Corporation, a company for refining platinum,
gold and
silver. In 1909, Heraeus was transformed from a
general partnership into
W. C. Heraeus GmbH. Richard Küch became a co-partner and one of three managing directors. One of the most significant technical innovations in metal processing is credited to Heraeus: the melting of metals under
vacuum. Heraeus applied for a patent on this process on 12 January 1918 and was granted a German patent DE 345161. Heraeus was subsequently granted British patent GB 138648, Swiss patent CH 89145, and several French patents on the process. For a short time, Heraeus set up an independent division dedicated to this technology,
Heraeus Vacuumschmelze, which registered 84 German patents in 10 years.
1927 – 1945: Further development and setbacks Due to the
First World War,
hyperinflation in the Weimar Republic and the collapse of the precious metal market in
Russia, prices for platinum were subject to extreme fluctuations. Heraeus therefore focused its research activities on recycling techniques, and at the same time tried to find suitable materials to replace the precious metals. At this time, Wilhelm Heinrich Heraeus and his cousin Reinhard Heraeus took over the management of the company in the third generation for almost 40 years from 1927. Despite the turbulent times, the business continued to grow. With the outbreak of the
Second World War, numerous workers were drafted into military service. The company employed 1,500 forced laborers from the Hanau civilian labor camp. Production shifted to electrical contacts with low densities of precious metals, catalysts, and
rhodium reflectors for armament-related goods such as catalytic converters for
anti-aircraft searchlights. During air raids in 1944 and 1945, the company's facilities in Hanau were almost completely destroyed. Heraeus had the company's role in the Third Reich investigated in an independent scientific study at the end of the 1990s and joined the fund of the German business
Foundation Remembrance, Responsibility and Future for the compensation of forced laborers. Beginning in 1958, the company founded its first sales subsidiaries in
France and
Italy, followed by full subsidiaries and international holdings as of 1972. The company subsequently set up new quartz glass factories in
Japan and the
United States, followed by manufacturing facilities in
South Korea and the
Philippines to produce contact wires (
wire bonding) made of pure gold for use in semiconductor components. In 1970, Helmut Gruber, a physicist in the field of metallurgy, took over the management of the company, as well as the responsibility for the technology department across the group. He promoted activities in the field of quartz glass, precious metal chemistry and special metals as well as the establishment of subsidiaries abroad. Fun facts: Heraeus supplied the space-stable quartz glass for the still functional laser reflector for the exact determination of the distance between Earth and the Moon, which the Apollo 11 mission left behind on the lunar surface.
1983 – 2000: Founding of the holding company of gold with a Heraeus imprint From 1983 until 2000, Jürgen Heraeus, son of Reinhard Heraeus who was a member of the Board of Management since 1970, headed the company in the fourth generation. Under his management, the business grew into a global
group of companies. For this, a far-reaching reorganization of the company took place, as well as new management structures introduced. Following the founding of Heraeus Holding GmbH in 1985, the company underwent a comprehensive
decentralization in 1990. Under the umbrella of the management
holding, the group's core activities of precious metals, dental materials, quartz glass, sensors and medical technology were reorganized into five decentralized, independent management divisions. In 1991, a hydrogen tank exploded at the quartz glass site in Hanau, destroying large parts of the factory premises. In the same year, the company established a factory for the production of synthetic quartz glass for the manufacture of optical fibers in the chemical park in
Bitterfeld-Wolfen (Saxony-Anhalt) after
German reunification. Simultaneously, the company expanded internationally, especially in
Asia. As the company grew, sales and
operating profits reflected its standing as an international group.
2001 – 2019: Growth and restructuring At the beginning of 2000, Jürgen Heraeus took over as Chairman of the Supervisory Board of the family-owned company. For the first time, the management board did not include a family member. To exploit synergies throughout the group, Heraeus refocused its activities on core business, leading to further restructuring. The
Heraeus Med part of the company was sold in 2002, as were the group's shares in
Kendro Laboratory Products. At the same time, Heraeus intensified its involvement in industrial precious metals by expanding its activities in the field of thin film materials. In 2009, the W.C. Heraeus business segment was split into the new
Heraeus Precious Metals and
Heraeus Materials Technology business units, marking the first major restructuring. In 2013, Heraeus Dental was sold to the
Mitsui Group, a Japanese company. The same year, Jan Rinnert, Jürgen Heraeus' son-in-law, took over the company's management. He oversaw another major corporate restructuring in 2015. The existing structure of a
holding company overseeing six business units was transformed into a holding company overseeing eleven so-called Global Business Units (GBUs). For this purpose, Heraeus Precious Metals and Heraeus Materials Technology, two of the six existing business units, were dissolved and reorganized into seven GBUs. In October 2018, Heraeus extended its sales channels in Germany by opening the online platform
Heraeus-Gold.de in co-operation with the precious metals trader Ophirum GmbH. The platform allows retail customers to buy Heraeus precious metal bars and a variety of popular coins.
Since 2020: Acquisitions, sales and investments In 2021, Heraeus acquired the US company
Norwood Medical, a manufacturer of medical instruments, devices, and components with more than 1100 employees. The acquisition is considered one of the largest in the company's history. This was followed in 2022 by the acquisition of PET recycling company
Perpetual Technologies, which was renamed
Revalyu Resources at the same time. Also in 2022, Heraeus founded a joint venture with
BASF, with equal shares, to recover precious metals from spent automotive catalysts. The new company,
BASF Heraeus Metal Resource, produces recycled precious metals for high-tech industries in China. In April 2023, Heraeus sold its platinum temperature sensor business (
Heraeus Nexensos) to
Yageo, an electronic components company. In June 2023, the business portfolio was restructured and the previous division into Global Business Units and Start-ups was replaced by the designation
Operating Companies. At the end of 2023, Heraeus sold its specialty lighting business Heraeus Noblelight to the US-based
Excelitas Technologies Corp., based in Waltham, Massachusetts. In June 2024, Heraeus acquired 100% of McCol Metals, a Canadian company specializing in the recovery of iridium from spent mixed metal oxide electrodes. In 2025, the Chinese Haitian Group acquired Heraeus Photovoltaics (Shanghai), Heraeus Photovoltaic Technology (Shanghai), and Heraeus Photovoltaics Singapore, thereby acquiring the business of photovoltaic silver pastes for approximately 66 million euros. In May 2025, a leadership change occurred at Heraeus: the previous operational managing director Frank Stietz became the new chairman of the management board. He succeeds Jan Rinnert, who led the family business for twelve years. == Specialty Products ==