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In 1853 Daniel Straub and the brothers Schweizer founded the „Plaquéfabrik Geislingen”.
After Louis and Friedrich Schweizer left the firm in 1866, the management was reorganised and the manufacture was named “Straub und Sohn”. Through a fusion with the “A. Ritter und Co., Versilberungsanstalt – Stuttgart”, the “Württembergische Metallwarenfabrik” or WMF was established. Three years later a glassworks was established in addition, for the sole purpose of producing glass liners for WMF tableware. Under Carl Haegele the company expanded massively, already before the turn of the century and built up branches in Warsaw, Vienna and London. Between 1900 and 1907 many art nouveau designs went into production, some by well known designers like Albin Müller and probably also by Peter Behrens. Albert Mayer, the artistic director, was the person who was responsible for these changes. The international success and the resulting economic profit gave room for experimenting with new techniques and for developing a different line of decorative products for a new group of clients without the need for instant profitability. Hugo Debach (director since 1904) established the “Neue kunstgewerbliche Abteilung” (NKA) in 1925. As a result of this some new technical innovations in the field of glass and metal were made followed by further innovations in 1935 when a ceramic studio was added to the NKA. It was also Hugo Debach who brought Karl Wiedmann and ceramics expert Gerda Conitz to the WMF. During these years there were also quite some well known designer like Prof. Fritz August Breuhaus de Groot, Prof. Richard Riemerschmid and Prof. Paul Haustein working as freelance designers for the WMF.
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