Paul Morszeck founded the business that became Rimowa in Cologne in 1898. With Heinrich Görtz he ran a saddlery, Görtz & Morszeck, first in the Bechergasse and then at Filzengraben 18. From 1900 Morszeck was sole owner of a sample-case factory in the Röhrergasse in the northern old town, making travel trunks, hatboxes and cases for motor cars, mostly from plywood, card and leather.
The business grew quickly. In 1904 production moved to the Gilbachstraße in Neustadt-Nord, with a warehouse and repair shop kept in the Röhrergasse until 1913. In 1908 Morszeck turned the firm into a limited company (GmbH) and bought a factory building and house from the engine maker Karl Eberhard Hagen on Aachener Straße in Junkersdorf, which remained the company's base until 1986. His son Richard joined the firm in the 1920s and registered the Rimowa name in 1931. Casadi has not found reliable birth and death dates for Paul Morszeck.