--- title: "Kaweco History: Heidelberg 1883 to the Gutberlets" canonical: "https://stationerytimes.com/stories/kaweco-history/" description: "Who owns Kaweco and how old it is: the 1883 Heidelberg pen factory, Koch and Weber's name, the 1911 pocket pen, the 1930 sale and the Gutberlet revival of 1994." category: "Stories" published: 2026-10-21 updated: 2026-10-21 author: "Ellis Penhale" publisher: "Stationery Times" sources: 7 organizations: - name: "h&m gutberlet GmbH" country: "Germany" brands: ["Kaweco"] source: "https://www.kaweco-pen.com/impressum" --- # Kaweco History: Heidelberg 1883 to the Gutberlets > Kaweco is owned by h&m gutberlet GmbH, a family company in Nuremberg that bought the Kaweco name in 1994. The brand traces itself to the Heidelberger Federhalterfabrik founded in 1883; the Kaweco name comes from Heinrich Koch and Rudolph Weber, who took over in 1889, and the Sport pocket pen dates from 1911. - URL: https://stationerytimes.com/stories/kaweco-history/ - Category: Stories - Author: Ellis Penhale - Published: 2026-10-21 - Updated: 2026-10-21 ![A capped and posted Kaweco pocket pen above a company timeline from 1883 to 1999](https://stationerytimes.com/images/raster/kaweco-history-16x9.png) *Eight dates in Kaweco's history, from the Heidelberg factory of 1883 to the Gutberlet revival in Nuremberg.* Original drawing (SVG): . Drawings © 2026 Stationery Times, reusable with credit under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). ## Key takeaways - Kaweco counts from 1883, when Luce and Enßlen founded the Heidelberger Federhalterfabrik; Heinrich Koch and Rudolph Weber took it over in 1889, and their initials, K and W, gave the brand its name. - Kaweco dates the first pocket fountain pens for ladies, officers and sportsmen, the start of the Kaweco Sport, to 1911. - After the Heidelberg firm failed around 1929–1930, the Wiesloch pen maker Knust, Woringen und Grube bought the name, machines, stock and patents and created the three-part KA-WE-CO logo. - The Wiesloch Kaweco faded after the 1970s; in 1994 h&m gutberlet bought the name rights and relaunched the Sport based on its 1935 design. - Diplomat sold the relaunched Kaweco worldwide until 1999; since then Kaweco has run its own distribution from Nuremberg, where its pens are assembled. Kaweco is a 140-year-old name with a short modern history. The Heidelberg company that made it famous went bust around 1930, its successor faded after the 1970s, and today's Kaweco is the work of a Nuremberg family firm that bought the name in 1994. Kaweco's own site blocked our reader, so its German history is quoted as search engines index it, checked against German Wikipedia, which draws on a 2017 Kaweco book co-written by Michael Gutberlet. ## Who owns Kaweco and how old is it? **Kaweco is owned by h&m gutberlet GmbH of Nuremberg, which bought the rights to the Kaweco name in 1994, and the brand dates itself to 1883, which makes it 143 years old in 2026.** Kaweco's German history says the "h&m gutberlet gmbh" acquired the name rights in 1994; its legal notice names Michael Gutberlet and Sebastian Gutberlet among the managing directors. The 1883 date belongs to the Heidelberger Federhalterfabrik, founded by Luce and Enßlen. Kaweco itself notes that the name only appears in Heidelberg's address book in 1889, the year Heinrich Koch and Rudolph Weber took over. Two common dates differ from Kaweco's own. Kaweco gives 1994, not 1995, for the Gutberlet purchase, and it bases the modern Sport on a 1935 design rather than a 1934 one; we follow Kaweco. ## Kaweco timeline: 1883 to 1999 **Eleven dates trace the brand from Heidelberg to Nuremberg.** Dates come from Kaweco's German history as indexed, unless noted. | Date | Event | Source | |---|---|---| | 1883 | Luce and Enßlen found the Heidelberger Federhalterfabrik | Kaweco (DE) | | 1889 | Heinrich Koch and Rudolph Weber take over; new plant in Handschuhsheim | Kaweco (DE) | | 1909 | First Kaweco safety fountain pen | German Wikipedia | | 1911 | Catalog first mentions pocket pens for ladies, officers and sportsmen: the Sport | Kaweco (DE) | | 1914 | Kaweco takes over A. Morton & Co., a New York gold-nib maker | German Wikipedia | | 1921 | Company becomes a stock corporation | German Wikipedia | | 1929–1930 | Bankruptcy; Knust, Woringen und Grube of Wiesloch buys the name | Kaweco (DE); German Wikipedia | | 1935 | Sport design later used for the 1994 relaunch | Kaweco (DE) | | 1971 | Licence for the 1972 Munich Olympics; Sport set with an Olympic coin or pendant | Kaweco (DE); German Wikipedia | | 1994 | h&m gutberlet buys the name rights and relaunches the Sport | Kaweco (DE) | | 1999 | Exclusive distribution through Diplomat ends | Kaweco (DE) | ## Where does the name Kaweco come from? **From Koch, Weber and Company: the two businessmen who took over the Heidelberg pen factory in 1889.** Kaweco's German history says Heinrich Koch and Rudolph Weber built a new factory in Handschuhsheim, just outside Heidelberg, and marked their products HF, for Heidelberger Federhalterfabrik. German Wikipedia adds that the products carried the names Perkeo, Omega and Kaweco, that Kaweco soon became the company name, and that the firm had branches in Berlin, Paris, Zurich and Vienna. It puts the workforce at about 600 people, making some 130,000 fountain pens a year, around the First World War. Kaweco revived the Perkeo name in 2017 for a full-size resin starter pen; see our [Kaweco Perkeo](https://stationerytimes.com/guides/kaweco-perkeo/) guide. ## When was the Kaweco Sport first made? **In 1911, according to Kaweco, when its catalog first mentioned pocket fountain pens "for ladies, officers and sportsmen".** Kaweco calls this the birth of the Kaweco Sport, a pen short enough for a pocket that becomes full length with its cap posted on the end. The modern Sport follows a later version: Kaweco says the 1994 relaunch was based on the Sport design of 1935. Our [Kaweco Sport](https://stationerytimes.com/guides/kaweco-sport/) guide covers the plastic Classic Sport, our [Kaweco AL Sport](https://stationerytimes.com/guides/kaweco-al-sport/) guide the aluminum one, and the even smaller [Kaweco Liliput](https://stationerytimes.com/guides/kaweco-liliput/), which Kaweco dates to 1908, has its own guide. ## What happened to Kaweco in 1930? **The Heidelberg company failed, and a smaller pen maker from Wiesloch bought the brand.** Kaweco's history says the Badische Füllfederhalterfabrik Knust, Woringen und Grube, maker of Aurumia pens, bought the Kaweco name, machines, stock and patents; German Wikipedia says the bankruptcy proceedings opened in 1929, when the firm had about 200 employees. The new owners created the round logo with KA, WE and CO in three segments that Kaweco still uses. German Wikipedia also documents a darker chapter: the Wiesloch firm was honored as a Nazi "model company" in 1938, and co-owner Heinrich Woringen acquired a Jewish family's Mannheim shoe business under forced sale. ## Why did Kaweco fade in the 1970s and 1980s? **No primary source we could read explains or dates the decline; Kaweco's own timeline simply jumps from 1971 to 1994.** In 1971 Kaweco took the licence for the 1972 Munich Olympics and sold a Sport set with an Olympic coin, according to its German history and German Wikipedia. After that, Cult Pens' anniversary history says the company "was still going strong until the 1970s, but the brand faded after that". German Wikipedia says Friedrich Grube's son and family ran the business after his passing in 1960, but gives no closing date. We found no court record or company statement for when the Wiesloch firm stopped making pens, so we don't give one. ## How did the Gutberlets revive Kaweco? **By buying the name rights in 1994 and relaunching the Sport as a range of pocket pens.** Kaweco says h&m gutberlet brought out a new Sport series based on the 1935 design, as fountain pen, rollerball, ballpoint, mechanical pencil and clutch pencil. Diplomat became the exclusive worldwide distributor, a link that ended in 1999 when Diplomat was sold. Since 2000, Kaweco says, it has built its own distribution under the h&m gutberlet roof, and it now sells through distributors in dozens of countries. Kaweco says it assembles its pens in Nuremberg and labels the Classic Sport "Made in Germany". The Sport appears in our [best pocket pens](https://stationerytimes.com/guides/best-pocket-pens/) roundup and our [best fountain pens for beginners](https://stationerytimes.com/guides/best-fountain-pens-for-beginners/) list, and because it takes standard international cartridges, our [how to fill a fountain pen](https://stationerytimes.com/guides/how-to-fill-a-fountain-pen/) guide applies directly. For two other German pen houses, see our [LAMY history](https://stationerytimes.com/stories/lamy-history/) and [Pelikan history](https://stationerytimes.com/stories/pelikan-history/) stories. ## Frequently asked questions ### Who owns Kaweco? h&m gutberlet GmbH of Nuremberg, a family firm whose managing directors include Michael and Sebastian Gutberlet, according to Kaweco's legal notice. Kaweco's German history says the company bought the rights to the Kaweco name in 1994. ### How old is Kaweco? Kaweco counts from 1883, the founding of the Heidelberger Federhalterfabrik, which makes the brand 143 years old in 2026. The Kaweco name itself appears later: Kaweco says it was first listed in Heidelberg's address book in 1889. ### What does Kaweco stand for? The initials of Koch, Weber and Company. Heinrich Koch and Rudolph Weber took over the Heidelberg pen factory in 1889, and the firm later traded as Heidelberger Füllfederhalterfabrik Koch, Weber und Co. Its logo still splits the name into KA, WE and CO. ### When was the Kaweco Sport invented? Kaweco dates it to 1911, when its catalog first mentioned pocket fountain pens for ladies, officers and sportsmen. Today's Classic Sport follows the 1935 version of the design, which Kaweco used for its 1994 relaunch. ### Is Kaweco a German brand? Yes. It began in Heidelberg, moved to Wiesloch after 1930 and is now run from Nuremberg, where Kaweco says its pens are assembled; it labels the Classic Sport made in Germany. ### Did Kaweco go out of business? The original Heidelberg company went bankrupt around 1929–1930 and was bought by a Wiesloch pen maker. That Wiesloch business faded after the 1970s, and the brand was revived when h&m gutberlet bought the name rights in 1994. We found no primary source that dates its closure. ### Is Kaweco related to Diplomat pens? Only as a former distributor. After the 1994 relaunch, Diplomat sold Kaweco worldwide on an exclusive basis until 1999, when Diplomat itself was sold; since then Kaweco has built its own distribution. ## Sources - [Kaweco (German): Geschichte (company history; read as indexed by search, the page would not load for us)](https://www.kaweco-pen.com/Entdecke-Kaweco/UEber-Kaweco/Geschichte/) - [Kaweco: History (English version of the timeline; read as indexed by search)](https://www.kaweco-pen.com/en/Discover-Kaweco/About-Kaweco/History/) - [Kaweco (German): Impressum (h&m gutberlet GmbH, Nuremberg; managing directors; read as indexed by search)](https://www.kaweco-pen.com/impressum) - [Kaweco (German): CLASSIC SPORT series page (made and assembled in Germany)](https://www.kaweco-pen.com/Serien/CLASSIC-SPORT/) - [Wikipedia (German): Kaweco (secondary; citing Brandl and Gutberlet, Kaweco – Gutberlet crossing Kaweco, 2017)](https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaweco) - [Wikipedia (English): Kaweco (secondary)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaweco) - [Cult Pens: 140 Years of Kaweco (retailer history; the brand faded after the 1970s)](https://cultpens.com/blogs/news/140-years-of-kaweco)