Louis Leitz

Louis Leitz was a German inventor and founder of Esselte Leitz GmbH & Co KG, trained as a woodturner and also worked as a mechanic.

Biography

Leitz was born in Ingersheim, Kingdom of Württemberg, in 1846. In 1896, he made some important changes to the development of ring binders, in Stuttgart-Feuerbach. Leitz created the lever arch file, a standing binder with a riveted lever arch mechanism and space-saving slots into the cover, thereby introducing the modern ring binder. In 1911, he introduced the "finger hole" on the side of the binder to aid removal from crowded shelves. Leitz died in Stuttgart.
The Louis Leitz Foundation was founded in his memory on 30 November 2001. The foundation's budget is 120,000 euros per annum.