"From a "waste" product to a global brand. The history of Aral begins as early as 1881 in Gelsenkirchen-Bulmke-Hüllen (northeast of Gelsenkirchen city centre) in a coking plant. During the production there, in which coke is produced from coal by means of a dry distillation process, raw gas is produced as a by-product. However, this raw gas was not considered a "waste" product, but was further processed into benzene, among other things. Thus, on 28 November 1898, 13 mining companies founded the "West German Benzene Sales Association" in Bochum. As early as 1906, they merged with the "East German Benzene Sales Association" to form the "German Benzene Association". This is how the first logo was created from the crossed mallets and irons of mining in conjunction with the letter abbreviation DBV. In the next few years, due to various company restructurings, this developed into the abbreviation BV for "Benzene Association". However,
the developments did not come to a standstill and as early as 1924 the BV designed and presented a "gasoline-benzene-gas mixture", which became known as "gasoline" a little later. The fuel owes the addition ARAL to the basic components of benzene, because benzene belongs to the aromatics and to the aliphates. Without further ado, the first two letters of both chemical groups were taken and combined to form ARAL. Thanks to the continuously growing number of motor vehicles, the benzene association became one of the largest fuel distribution organizations in Germany in the 1920s. For trademark protection reasons, all articles and the fleet were designed in the company color blue from 1930 onwards. The little blue Ape, however, is more of a pure advertising vehicle than a transport vehicle, but still makes a great impression."
