The creation of Gehwol began in 1868, in the Westphalia region of Germany. Pharmacist, Eduard Gerlach, took over his father’s colonial goods store and transformed it into the region’s first drugstore. Eduard Gerlach, created GEHWOL, with the intention of selling it in the family store. Gehwol has since obtained international recognition and has become a synonym for healthy feet.

Eduard Gerlach is considered to be a pioneer of modern-day foot care, due to the fact that he developed the first industrially manufactured cream for the prevention and alleviation of foot ailments. Personal experience and professional knowledge were of great asset to him.

As a soldier, Eduard, was able to find out for himself how unbearably painful sore feet can be. As a pharmacist, he was able to successfully mix fundamental substances such as potassium carbonate, unsaturated fatty acids, mineral-based lubricants and disinfecting essential oils in such a way that he was able to market “E. Gerlach’s Preservative Cream” in 1882. His brand quickly found a ready market. Thanks to the unique properties of his special cream and his industrial method of production, Eduard Gerlach was the first person that was able to successfully manufacture foot care products in large quantities at low prices and always with consistent quality. Primarily due to this fact, foot care became affordable for a large portion of the general public and thus the prerequisites for the creation of a general foot care consciousness were laid down. A new era of foot care began. Eduard Gerlach received numerous international honours for his invention of the “Protection Cream”