The roots of the company Pelikan go back to the year 1838, when chemist Carl Hornemann founded a production for ink and water colors close to Hanover, Germany. In 1871, he sold the company to his production manager Gunther Wagner, who added the Pelikan from his family’s coat of arms to make his inks easily recognizable. He entered Pelikan as a trade mark in 1879 and thus made it one of the oldest brands in Germany. The company grew and expanded with the products ink, glue and water colors. In 1929the first Pelikan fountain pen was born and in the following decades the company established its international reputation as a manufacturer of high-quality fountain pens.