Leo Maximilian Baginski

Who was Leo Maximilian Baginski?

Leo Maximilan Baginski, known as Max Baginski was a German entrepreneur, inventor and marketing specialist. He invented the „Spalt“-tablet, an analgesic bearing a characteristic split-mark. He donated the funds for building the Catholic parish church of St. Katharina in Bad Soden am Taunus, Germany.

Max Baginski was born as one of seven children of a mason and contractor. After the death of his father in 1897, he lived with aunt and uncle. After school he went to Berlin, where he completed a mercantile apprenticeship. He quit his first job after six months and started his own business marketing a first patented invention, an all-purpose bottle cap. In 1912 he acquired the pharmaceutical firm Dr. Ballowitz & Co. in Berlin. While he served in the German armed forces during World War I, his companies were run by three of his sisters. In 1920 he married Katharina Stanke. The couple had three daughters and one son..

The big success of another invention, a massage device, enabled Baginski to expand his enterprise. In 1931 he teamed up with the prominent serologist Hans Much and founded another company named „Prof. Dr. med. Much’sche Präparate m.b.