Have you ever wondered who came up with the brilliant idea of using paper coffee filters to brew that delicious cup of coffee in the morning? Until 1908, only cloth filters existed, and only the wealthy could afford them. Ordinary citizens had to brew their coffee without the use of filters. That meant that grounds accumulated in the bottom of the cup, irritating 35-year-old Melitta Bentz of Dresden, Germany, no end. Not only that, but she had to scrub the copper pot after each use because the grounds clung to the sides.
Paper Coffee Filters are Born
Every morning, Melitta fantasized about a better way to brew coffee. Nothing seemed to work until one day when she had an idea. She took her old copper pot and punched a few holes in the bottom. Next, she ripped a sheet of blotting paper from her son’s school notebook and lined the bottom of the pot. Then she heaped ground coffee into the blotting paper, placed the contraption on top of a coffee cup and slowly poured boiling water over it. The result was delicious coffee dripping through the paper and straight into her cup. The paper coffee filter was born and changed the coffee drinking world.
Melitta Bentz Goes into Business
After having perfected her paper coffee filters and testing them on her acquaintances, Melitta applied for a patent. On 8 July 1908, the Kaiserliche Patentamt (Imperial Patent Office) in Berlin granted a patent for her “Filter Top Device lined with Filter Paper.” In the winter of the same year, Melitta Bentz went into business and founded her namesake company, Melitta. Her husband Hugo and their two sons, Horst and Willy, were the first employees of the new company. With a starting capital of about $30, the couple produced the first paper coffee filters in their five-room Dresden apartment. Their sons made the deliveries with a handcart. When Melitta and Hugo showed their product at the Leipzig Trade Fair the following year, the concept took off. To accommodate the need for expansion, the company moved several times within Dresden, and by 1929, it moved to Minden in northwestern Germany.
Have you ever wondered who came up with the brilliant idea of using paper coffee filters to brew that delicious cup of coffee in the morning? www.walled-in-berlin.com
The Melitta Group Today
Melitta is now an International company, specializing in coffee products, and employs more than 4,000 people across the world. The company is still family-owned and operated. Its American headquarters are located in Clearwater, Florida. The plant in Minden, Germany, is still in use today. Melitta Bentz, the housewife turned entrepreneur, died on 29 June 1950 at the age of 77.
For a sneak peek at the first 20+ pages of my memoir, Walled-In: A West Berlin Girl’s Journey to Freedom, click “Download a free excerpt” on my home page and feel free to follow my blog about anything German: historic or current events, people, places or food.
Walled-In is my story of growing up in Berlin during the Cold War. Juxtaposing the events that engulfed Berlin during the Berlin Blockade, the Berlin Airlift, the Berlin Wall and Kennedy’s Berlin visit with the struggle against my equally insurmountable parental walls, Walled-In is about freedom vs. conformity, conflict vs. harmony, domination vs. submission, loyalty vs. betrayal.
