In 1949, engineer Gunther Eheim started his company for the "repair and manufacture of technical toys" in Esslingen near Stuttgart. The business premises for the start-up were his father-in-law's veranda. Model trains were repaired and rebuilt here. The company later moved to Deizisau, just a few kilometres away, where Eheim developed his still legendary model trolley bus in 1953. The breakthrough came with a fountain for model railway layouts and the first waterproof centrifugal pump with magnetic coupling designed for this purpose. The idea of combining this centrifugal pump with a cleaning tank led to the development of a suction filter for aquariums.
The first Eheim filter system went into series production in 1963. By 1971, 100,000 Eheim aquarium filters were already in use worldwide. Ten years later, the company was already manufacturing on 10,000 square metres of production space. In 1981, a filter generation with synchronous motor technology was created, followed by a product line for garden ponds in 1985. In 1993, Eheim acquired the aquarium construction company Müller & Pfleger (mp) in Rockenhausen (Rhineland-Palatinate). In 2002, Eheim took over the Jäger company in Wüstenrot (Heilbronn district) and the aquarium heating rods. From 2014, new LED lighting concepts for freshwater and saltwater aquariums were developed in the company's own lighting laboratory. In 2021, Eheim was included in the "Brands of the Century" almanac and honoured with the "German Standards" brand award. In 2023, the company was also honoured as "Specialist Retail Brand of the Year".
Gunther Eheim, who died in 2013 at the age of 93, was one of the pioneers of the twentieth century. Mefire Kouotou took over the management of the company in 2016. He emphasises: "Eheim's 75-year history is proof of our continuous innovation and our commitment to the highest quality."
