How it all began:
55 years of Sterillium® history

Being inspired by 200 years of hygiene history and the tradition of people fighting for health centuries ago

Florence Nightingale Florence Nightingale

Join us on a short journey through 200 years of medical history. Meet women and men who revolutionized our knowledge of hygiene. And find out why the fight against SARS-CoV-2 is only the latest milestone on our path to a safer future.

The origins of healthcare

The battle against SARS-CoV-2

The novel corona virus has the world in its grip. Countries are at a standstill. Hospitals are reaching their limits. But there is also a tremendous amount of human solidarity. HARTMANN joins the global fight against SARS-CoV-2: Sterillium® production runs 24 hours a day. Find out how we work together to ensure the protection of health professionals here.

Golden standards of research

You have to be able to trust a product like Sterillium® unconditionally. We are therefore proud to be the world's most scientifically researched hand disinfectant with approximately 60 scientific publications in trade journals in 2015.

Microscopic examination
Der Anstieg an Virus-Ausbrüchen seit Beginn dieses Jahrhunderts fordert Händedesinfektionsmittel mit breiter viruzider Wirksamkeit. Damit ist Sterillium® med mit einer ausgezeichneten Hautverträglichkeit binnen 30 Sekunden gegen alle Viren für den ganzjährigen Einsatz bestens geeignet.

Time Saver

Surgeon washes her hands

In a surgeon's job, every second can count. In 2005, Sterillium® was the first hand disinfectant to be approved for surgical hand disinfection with a reduced exposure time from 3 to 1.5 minutes.

Back to the Basics

Sometimes less is more. That's why Sterillium classic pure®, one of the first colour- and perfume-free hand disinfectants, is being introduced to protect users with sensitive skin more gently.

Sterillium production

First!

Hand disinfection

The first effective disinfection fighter against all viral infections: Sterillium® Virugard is introduced and secures a place on the Robert Koch Institute's list (areas A + B) of tested and approved disinfectants as the first highly effective virucidal hand disinfectant.

Pioneering work

What a time to be alive: The first bottles of Sterillium® come out of production. An absolute novelty, because it is the first marketable alcoholic hand disinfectant worldwide.

Retro Sterillium Advertising

First Factory

Bacollolfactory 1924

The beginning of something big: pharmacist Dr. Kurt Bode founds the factory in Hamburg, which becomes a pioneer in the field of disinfection just a short time later. The first product is a pioneer in modern hand hygiene: Bacillol, a phenolic soap preparation.

Hot stuff

Louis Pasteur discovers the tiniest creatures during his experiments in a Parisian laboratory. He feverishly searches for ways and means to kill them in order to prevent their possible involvement in diseases. At some point, heat came into play and the microorganisms were forced into submission. Pasteurisation was born. A method that is still relevant today.

Louis Pasteur
Louis Pasteur, french biologist and chemist in the mid 19th century

The "Savior of Mothers"

Ignaz Philip Semmelweis
Ignaz Philip Semmelweis Hungarian physician and scientist

Ignaz Philip Semmelweis is a true hero in the history of hygiene. Before 1847, an unusually high number of mothers lose their lives at birth by today's standards. Semmelweis introduces hand washing with chlorinated lime as a solution at the Vienna Clinic. A method that has never been used anywhere else. This measure proves its worth and saves the lives of countless women.

The beginnings of modern care

Florence Nightingale is born on May 12th, 1820. She will go on to revolutionize nursing. From the age of 25, she devoted herself entirely to medicine, becoming an expert in all matters of public health care, hygiene, and a recognized hospital reformer. In her nursing school at St. Thomas Hospital in London, she taught disinfection methods from 1873. This was years before the discoveries of Robert Koch and Louis Pasteur led to a broader understanding of infections. In 2020, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson survived a corona infection in the same hospital where Nightingale founded her school almost 150 years earlier. Not least thanks to the teachings of the mother of all nurses that are still the basis for medical standards today. Her birthday on May 12th is still considered "Nurses' Day" today.

Florence Nightingale, founder of modern nursing
Use disinfectants safely. Always read label and product information before use.

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