The Staedtler pencil has a 400-year history: where did this invention come from?

Erasers, pencils of all thicknesses, and fluorescent markers. Also colored pencils, crayons, pastels, scissors, paintbrushes, and watercolors. Today, the Staedtler logo—a white silhouette of the head of the god Mars on a navy blue background—is omnipresent on the shelves of Catalan stationery stores. In fact, in Spain and Portugal alone, the German brand has an annual turnover of around €20 million. The Iberian Peninsula is an important market for the company, which in 2022 had a turnover of €386 million worldwide. It has subsidiaries in 26 countries and sells its products in 150 countries. Most of its production centers are located in Germany, where two-thirds of its manufactured products originate. In total, the workforce totals more than 2,200 workers. But how many years did it take for the business to reach these dizzying figures?

The Staedtler story goes back a long way: it began in the early 17th century in the city of Nuremberg. Today, more than half a million people live there, but in 1636, the number barely exceeded 40,000. One of them was Friedrich Staedtler, the son of a gold and silver drawer. Born in November 1636, he began working as a wood merchant. When he was 30, he opened an independent workshop making wooden pencils and graphite leads. The business did well and was passed down through the generations until 1834, when it ended up in the hands of his great-great-grandson, Johann Sebastian Staedtler. As a child, he had watched his father, Paulus Staedtler, make all kinds of graphite pencils and had learned his trade.

However, when it was his turn to take the helm, he wanted to go a step further: he launched a line of colored pencils made from a moist, pasty wax and mechanized the production process. The first color was red, and it was a best-seller. Soon, in 1844, he had already found a way to manufacture other colors, mixing many pigments and drying them in special ovens.

The success of colored pencils

On October 9, 1835, Johann Sebastian Staedtler opened his first large-scale factory. Increasingly improved versions of his colored pencils began to appear. By 1860, under the name Creta Polycolor, he was already marketing a color range with more than 100 references. This invention opened Staedtler's doors to new countries, such as Austria, England, Italy, Russia, and France. Despite having only 54 workers, more than two million pencils left the Nuremberg factory each year.

With the arrival of the 20th century, everything accelerated. In 1900, Staedtler registered the Mars trademark, one of the most popular in the catalog: a blue-coated pencil. But the design that marked a turning point came in 1934. That year, the company introduced the Noris—nicknamed for the city of Nuremberg—which was sold with its wood tinted with black and yellow stripes. In the 1960s, the company began a process of diversification. First, with an ink marker called Lumocolor—another classic—then with an eraser. From then on, everything became more specialized. In 1988, for example, the first extra-fine-tipped ballpoint pen appeared, under the name Marsgraphic, which also became very popular, especially among lovers of the visual arts.

In 1996, it was the turn of the Fimo product range, a type of modeling clay that is very easy to shape and hardens with air or by putting it in the oven. The invention was by Sophie Rehbinder-Kruse, the daughter of a doll maker. She made the discovery while trying to find a new clay to make her heads. In 1978, Staedtler acquired the company that was marketing it and retained all rights to the product, which has been back in stationery stores since 2009. The company's latest step forward has been in the area of sustainability: from lines of recycled wood pencils and erasers made from natural materials to the development of technologies that make pen ink take longer to dry, extending the product's lifespan. In between, there have also been ventures with tech giants like Samsung: together they introduced a smart pen for digital tablets, following the classic aesthetic of the Noris model.