Dr. Werner Stauf From hide glue to cold glue

Dr. Werner Stauf (1900-1987) was also known in the Siegerland as the "Siffemann" (dialect for soap man) because in the post-war years he went round the villages on his bike selling soap he had made himself.

Dr. Werner Stauf, who had gained his doctorate at the University of Leipzig with a thesis on gelatine, entered the paternal business in 1930 in a difficult situation. In the Third Reich the glue stock was subjected to strict quotas by the "Reich Chemicals Agency", and so production had to be severely cut back. In December 1939 a state order was even issued to close the STAUF glue factory down and to join a so-called "Arbeitsgemeinschaft" or joint venture. The glue stock quota of the Siegen hide glue factories was processed from 1940 on in the Freudenberg glue factory Otto Nöll. With this in mind Dr. Werner Stauf developed a process for recovering hide glue from abrasive paper and abrasive cloth waste. With this discovery it was possible to resume production: from 1941 to 1944 all abrasive waste from Germany was recycled in the Siegen factory. But this mode of production also came to an abrupt end: in two air raids on 16 December 1944 and 1 February 1945 the entire production facilities and all the raw material and finished goods stocks were destroyed.

Glue slabs and glue flakes Up to the Second World War hide glue was manufactured in panel and flake form.

Adhesives for construction After the end of the second World War, Dr. Werner Stauf made a virtue out necessity: he decided not to resume hide glue production. For decades the odour nuisance from the animal waste products had continually led to conflicts with people living around the factory and to restrictions imposed by the authorities. Instead Dr. Werner Stauf developed a new lind of glue made from surplus water glass. A new course was set with the cold glue "Viskos": the great success created the economic basis for recosntructing the company. The cold glue "Viskos" could be used to glue hardboard to concrete and led to a specialisation in construction adhesives. In the subsequent period Dr. Werner Stauf concentrated completely on setting up a manufacturing division for dispersion adhesives. In 1952 the first dispersion adhesive for full-spread glueing of parquet was launched onto the market in the form of the "STAUF Rapid-M2A".     December 1944 The factory installations were completely destroyed in 1944/45 during allied bombing raids on Siegen.   Reconstruction After the destruction caused by the World War, a modern adhesives factors was erected.