The creation of a quality brand In 1868, in Lübbecke in the Westphalia region of Germany, the pharmacist Eduard Gerlach took over his father Ludwig’s colonial goods store and expanded it with a drugstore. With his drugstore, which was the first of its kind in the county at that time, Eduard Gerlach laid the foundation for a prospering family business, which, with the brand name GEHWOL, has obtained international recognition and has become a synonym for foot care.

Eduard Gerlach is rightly so considered to be a pioneer of modern foot care, due to the fact that he developed the first industrially manufactured cream for the prevention and alleviation of foot ailments. Personal experience and professional knowledge were of great assistance to him.

As a soldier he was able to find out for himself how unbearably painful sore feet can be. As a pharmacist, he was able to successfully mix fundamental substances such as potassium carbonate, unsaturated fatty acids, mineral-based lubricants and disinfecting essential oils in such a way that he was able to market “E. Gerlach’s Preservative Cream” in 1882. His brand quickly found a ready market. Thanks to the unique properties of his special cream and his industrial method of production, Eduard Gerlach was the first person that was able to successfully manufacture foot care products in large quantities at low prices and always with consistent quality. Primarily due to this fact, foot care became affordable for a large portion of the general public and thus the prerequisites for the creation of a general foot care consciousness were laid down. A new era of foot care began. Eduard Gerlach received numerous international honours for his “Preservative cream”.