At the end of the 19th century, courage and commitment
were needed for founding a company. The stock market
crash of 1873 set an abrupt end to the years of rapid
expansion; the economy was in crisis. This did not keep
Hermann Werner from continuing his work. In 1879, he
opened the “Hermann Pfleiderer Maschinenfabrik”, the
predecessor of the “Werner & Pfleiderer Maschinenbau-
fabrik” in Cannstatt, which was registered at the local
court some months later.
At the same time, Paul Pfleiderer, whom Werner knew
from university, already owned a patent for a mixer with
two elliptical loops. Both men partnered and successfully
introduced the mixer onto the German market. Soon,
Werner & Pfleiderer’s customers were requesting more
than individual equipment pieces, they were asking for
entire production lines. Werner recognized the opportu-
nity and decided to expand the production of WP - star-
ting with modern Perkins tube baking ovens. These were
WP History
A groundbreaking idea in a new dimension
In 1879, Hermann Werner started the production of dough mixing machines with four workers in an adjoining building on the premises in Cannstatt, Stuttgarter Straße 19.
