This part of Thermos had been located behind the "Iron Curtain" since 1945 but the German reunification encouraged foreign investments.

In the United States, the word thermos is a genericized trademark used sometimes, since the early 20th century, as a term for any vacuum-insulated flask regardless of manufacturer.

[4][6] In 1892, James Dewar, a Scottish-born scientist, working at Cambridge University, invented the vacuum-insulated flask, a scientific vessel for storing liquefied gases.

In 1906, the company Thermos GmbH was formed by Burger with Albert Aschenbrenner and Gustav Robert Paalen.

When Burger and Thermos GmbH did so, Dewar sued, but lost his court case to claim intellectual property rights to the invention.

[10] The citizens of Norwich, Connecticut, US sought out the Thermos company to build and operate a plant on the banks of the Thames River.

[13] The construction of the plant was a boon for Norwich, which helped the employment of the area after the decline of the textile industry.