APPENDIX BALLISTOL –THE COMPANY

BALLISTOL GmbH is a company embedded in tradition that emerged from F.W. Klever GmbH. For over four generations, the BALLISTOL products have been manufactured in Germany and sold worldwide. The core product, Ballistol Universal Oil, was originally designed as a wound and gun oil for the imperial army. However, it soon developed into an incredibly versatile household product. Since then, millions of consumers have experimented with Ballistol Universal Oil and have found more and more surprising new applications for it. A product that can be used on people, animals and technology.

The Invention Of Ballistol Universal Oil

In 1874, in Cologne, Friedrich Wilhelm Klever, a lawyer with entrepreneurial talents, founded Chemische Fabrik F.W. Klever. He started with the production of coal-based oils and fats, and soon acquired a mine in order to be independent from raw-material suppliers.

The company made a breakthrough at the turn of the century, when the German Imperial Army needed an all-round oil with very special properties: a Universal Oil that would be suitable for all the materials of a gun – for cleaning, care, and conservation of the metal parts, wooden stocks, and leather straps. At the same time, it was to be used by soldiers as a wound oil for smaller injuries, skin cracks, and abrasions.

Such a Universal Oil was successfully developed in 1904. The son of the company founder, Dr. Helmut Klever, who was at that time a chemistry lecturer at the Technical University of Karlsruhe, developed the special oil with all of the desired properties.

The new Universal Oil was named “Ballistol”, from the word “ballistic” and the Latin “oleum”, meaning “oil”. From 1905, the Ballistol Universal Oil was used in the German Army and became increasingly well known as a “miracle oil” in the years afterwards, thanks to its surprising versatility.

In the following years, millions of consumers experimented with Ballistol Universal Oil and found more and more surprising new applications. After the Second World War, which only the branch factory in Leverkusen survived, the sites in Cologne and Krefeld were relinquished. In 1971, the young chemist Dr. Heinrich Zettler joined the company and from then on ran it as the managing director.

Dr. Heinrich Zettler recognized the potential of the BALLISTOL brand, and took over the company after the death of Jenny Klever in 1989, together with his wife Herta. They gradually developed it into a commercially healthy and globally operating brand manufacturer. In 2006, Dr. Heinrich Zettler passed the company onto his sons Dr. Christian Zettler and Andreas Zettler, who now manage BALLISTOL GmbH.

BALLISTOL has been manufactured in Germany and sold worldwide for over four generations. Originally developed as a weapon and wound oil for the imperial army, it soon became a valued household product in Germany, Austria and Switzerland.

You can nd more background and details about BALLISTOL and Ballistol Universal Oil in the BALLISTOL story.