Henkel's story begins in 1876 with a twenty-eight-year-old merchant who was interested in science: Fritz Henkel. On September 26, 1876, Fritz and two partners founded the company Henkel & Cie in Aachen, Germany and marketed their first product, a universal detergent based on silicate. During the following years, the Henkel family and thousands of their employees built Henkel into a global company.