Founder Adolph Müller launches the company Büsche & Müller in Hagen - paving the way for VARTA's future.
When AEG and Siemens fail in their endeavors to produce accumulators, they decide to invest in the Varta predecessor. The result: the Accumulatorenfabrik AG - in short AFA.
"Baker-Runabout" - this is the name of the first American electromobile introduced to the German market by company founder Adolf Müller. With batteries by the Varta precursor AFA, of course.
The first North Pole expedition to use electric light in icy nights: the accumulators by Varta precursor AFA pass the chill test of minus 50 degrees. After three years, polar explorer Fridjof Nansen successfully returns in 1896.
After the acquisition of eleven accumulator factories across the globe, the company expands in subsequent years.
The AFA daughter VARTA (Vertrieb, Aufladung, Reparatur Transportabler Akkumulatoren - distribution, recharging, repair of portable accumulators) is established. It manufactures small, portable lead accumulators for, among other things, flashlights and engine ignitions.
Varta precursor AFA takes over the Pertrix Chemische Fabrik AG, developers of the first ever storable dry-cell battery. Ever since then, Varta's battery range has been the most comprehensive on the market.
Airship giant "Hindenburg" is equipped with Varta batteries only. It is not the Varta products which cause the fatal explosion but the easily flammable hydrogen gas inside the zeppelin.
The first dry-cell batteries leave the production line at the new Ellwangen portable battery plant - still under the company name of BMF.
Prelude to mass production: the Ellwangen portable battery plant devises a paperlined battery with double-clad separator. 23 countries adopt the patent.
