Johann Friedrich Weskott

Johann Friedrich Weskott (1821-1876) was a master dyer who co-founded the company with Friedrich Bayer in 1863. Weskott supplied the technical knowledge of dye production and process control while Bayer ran sales. He died in 1876, 13 years after the founding, but the manufacturing base he established carried the company's early growth in synthetic dyes.

Johann Friedrich Weskott was a German master dyer who co-founded what became Bayer. In 1863 he and his friend Friedrich Bayer, a dye salesman, formed Friedr. Bayer et comp. in Barmen, now part of Wuppertal, Germany. Bayer concentrated on sales and commercial expansion; Weskott provided the hands-on technical work needed to make synthetic dyes at consistent quality, overseeing production of fuchsine and aniline dyes. That manufacturing capability was what allowed the young firm to grow before it moved into pharmaceuticals. Weskott died in 1876, more than two decades before the Aspirin trademark was registered. Johann Friedrich Weskott was born in 1821.