Melitta Bentz: The Woman Who Invented the Coffee Filter

Who invented the coffee filter? The paper coffee filter you put in your pour-over cone or drip machine goes back to one woman: Melitta Bentz, a homemaker in Dresden, Germany. In 1908 she registered a coffee filter with the Imperial Patent Office in Berlin and, the same year, founded the company that still carries her first name.

Her idea was simple and brilliant: separate the grounds from the coffee with a sheet of paper. No more gritty cups, no more bitter, overboiled brews, and far less mess. Here is her story, checked against the records of the German Patent and Trade Mark Office, followed by practical tips for brewing with the invention she gave us.

Key takeaways

• Melitta Bentz was born in Dresden on 31 January 1873 and died on 29 June 1950.
• She filed her coffee filter as a utility model on 20 June 1908; it was registered on 8 July 1908.
• Her company was entered in the commercial register on 15 December 1908 with starting capital of 72 pfennigs.
• The business moved from Dresden to Minden in 1929, where the Melitta group is still based.

The problem with coffee in 1900

Around 1900, home coffee was often made by boiling grounds in water, or by steeping them and pouring through cloth or a metal sieve. The results were frequently bitter, cloudy and full of sediment. Cloth filters had to be washed and could hold stale flavors. Metal strainers let fine particles through.

Bentz, by most accounts, was simply tired of grounds in her cup and of the bitter taste. She wanted a clean, sediment-free brew without the work.

A brass pot and a sheet of blotting paper

According to the German Patent and Trade Mark Office (DPMA), Bentz experimented with a brass pot, punching holes in its base so it could act as a sieve. The missing piece was something to catch the fine grounds. She found it in her son’s school exercise book: a sheet of blotting paper, cut to fit the base of the pot.

Hot water poured over the grounds flowed through the paper and the holes into the cup below, leaving the grounds behind. The coffee was clear and clean-tasting, and the paper with the grounds could simply be thrown away.

The 1908 registration

On 20 June 1908, she filed her filter with the Imperial Patent Office in Berlin. It was protected as a Gebrauchsmuster, a German utility model, which is a lighter form of protection than a full patent. It was registered on 8 July 1908 under a description of a coffee filter with a curved, recessed base and inclined flow holes. The original documents were lost during the Second World War.

From a Dresden apartment to a global brand

Bentz did not stop at the invention. On 15 December 1908, her business was entered in the commercial register in Dresden as M. Bentz, with a registered starting capital of 72 pfennigs. Its first premises were a room in the family’s apartment. Her husband, Hugo Bentz, and their sons Willy and Horst became involved as the business grew.

The company’s history also includes a darker chapter: during the Nazi era, it was run as a National Socialist model plant and switched to military production during the Second World War, a period that the family company has since acknowledged and examined. After the war, it returned to coffee and expanded internationally.

Her legacy: the whole pour-over world

Every paper-filtered method traces back to the principle she popularized: a paper barrier, a bed of grounds and gravity. That includes:

• Automatic drip coffee makers, which became common in homes from the 1970s.
• Manual pour-over cones and flat-bottom brewers.
• Paper filters for Aeropress and cold brew.

Paper does more than block grounds. It traps much of the coffee oil and the finest particles, which is why paper-filtered coffee tastes cleaner and lighter-bodied than French press coffee.

Brewing tips: a better pour-over at home

1. Rinse the paper. Pour hot water through the empty filter to remove papery taste and warm the cone, then discard the water.
2. Bloom. Pour about twice the coffee’s weight in water (30 g for 15 g coffee) and wait 30–45 seconds while fresh coffee bubbles and releases gas.
3. Pour in stages. Add the rest of the water in slow circles, keeping the bed evenly wet.
4. Adjust. Too sour or thin? Grind finer. Too bitter or slow? Grind coarser.

Paper filtering suits clean, bright coffees with lots of aroma, like washed African and Central American single origins, as well as smooth breakfast-style blends.

Coffees for your filter

To taste what a paper filter does best, explore our single origins, from fruity Ethiopian and Kenyan coffees to sweet Latin American ones. For an easy morning drip pot, Breakfast Blend is a smooth, nutty medium roast of South American coffee. Choose whole bean, or Standard grind for drip and pour-over; every bag is roasted 1–5 days before delivery.

Coffee filter FAQ

Who invented the coffee filter?

Melitta Bentz of Dresden, Germany, invented the paper coffee filter system and registered it in 1908.

What did Melitta Bentz use for the first filter?

A brass pot with holes punched in its base and a sheet of blotting paper from her son’s school exercise book, according to the German Patent and Trade Mark Office.

Did Melitta Bentz get a patent?

She registered her filter as a utility model (Gebrauchsmuster) with the Imperial Patent Office in Berlin in 1908, a form of protection often described as a patent in English.

Is the Melitta company still around?

Yes. The Melitta group is still family-owned and based in Minden, Germany.

Sources

1. Melitta Bentz: Ingenious Women, German Patent and Trade Mark Office (DPMA).
2. 110 years of the coffee filter, DPMA, 2018.
3. Melitta Bentz, Wikipedia, accessed 2026.
4. Coffee Standards, Specialty Coffee Association.

Facts checked in October 2026.

Keep reading: The history of coffee · Whole bean vs ground coffee · Shop single origins