Melitta Bentz
Inventor and entrepreneur
Dresden housewife who invented the paper coffee filter and founded the Melitta company.
Melitta Bentz wanted coffee without grounds and without the bitterness of long-boiled coffee. She punched holes in the bottom of a brass pot and put a sheet of paper in it, and in 1908 she obtained protection for her filter holder.
The same year she founded a company with her husband Hugo. The company, which took her first name, grew into one of Europe’s major makers of coffee filters and coffee makers.