Josef Wagner was born into a family of nine children who worked on a farm at Hausen near Augsburg,  
Germany.

After graduating from secondary school, he gained his first technical knowledge as an apprentice in Augsburg from 1929 to 1932. He went on to study motor vehicle and aircraft design at the State Technical College in Constance, Germany, as well as electrical engineering at the State Technical College in Augsburg.

Following employment as an engineer with various Augsburg companies, he began his professional career in 1936 when he joined the world famous airplane makers, Messerschmitt-Flugzeugwerke. After the end of World War II, Josef Wagner went to Friedrichshafen, which had been largely destroyed. He started up in an old shed, reconditioning and selling damaged machinery.

In 1953, he began developing an electrical paint-spraying tool for skilled contractors and homeowners. The tool was a new innovation in its day, equipped with an electric drive so that it could be plugged into any socket. This was the humble start of the Wagner company.

The Josef Wagner Foundation
In 1975, Josef Wagner transferred the majority of share capital to a Swiss foundation established by him to serve charitable and public welfare purposes. A five-member Foundation Council supervises allocation of funds in accordance with foundation by-laws.

Wagner History
The electric power spray tool that Josef Wagner developed in 1953 was produced in his own plant and sold with great success to painters and homeowners. In 1965, the company began the development and production of airless high-pressure paint spraying equipment for painters, decorators, and industrial paint shops.

Having established this second main product division, the company quickly grew into Europe's largest maker of airless paint spraying equipment and systems. The mid-1970's saw the start of development work on pneumatically operated paint spraying systems.

Meanwhile, for the same range of customers, the company designed and started producing a broad range of electrostatic paint spraying and powder coating equipment.

Wagner Supplies The World 
From its early years, the company directed much of its activity toward export trade.

In 1963, Wagner established its first wholly-owned foreign subsidiary in Switzerland. Relocated in 1973 from Lucerne to Altstatten in the Swiss Rhine valley, the firm operates today as J. Wagner AG. To supply the largest market, the United States, Wagner set up as early as 1972 its own distributing subsidiary in Plymouth, Minnesota. In 1978, Wagner opened its own U.S. manufacturing plant.
 
Spraytech
Spray Tech Corporation was founded in October 1970 to import, distribute and service high-pressure airless paint spray equipment. In 1972, the original founders of Spray Tech decided to sell the company to their major source of supply – J. Wagner GmbH of Germany with principle offices in Switzerland and worldwide business activities.

Wagner Spray Tech Corporation is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Wagner Holding, Inc. Manufacturing started in 1973 and today we have full research and development, engineering, manufacturing, and distribution capabilities. Wagner develops and markets a wide array of painting and decorating products and services – all designed to make it easier for the end user to prepare, apply, or clean up painting tasks.

The technical and financial support obtained from Wagner has enabled the company to expand and become a market leader in the painting and decorating business around the world. With our worldwide resources for research and design, Wagner is continually exploring new designs and marketing techniques to maintain a leadership position in home painting and decorating, commercial painting, and industrial fine finishing. Wagner is strongly committed to aggressive growth through innovative marketing, high technology engineering, and quality manufacturing.