In 1897, metallurgist and metallurgical expert Max Wagner founded the "GLYCO Metall Gesellschaft" in Schierstein together with engineer Hermann Leonhard and Heinrich Ludendorff, owner of the "Schiersteiner Metallwerk", an initially small company for the production of bearing metals, primarily for mechanical engineering and railroad companies. The name "GLYCO" was derived from the metal alloy name of the same name, an English patent. After Wagner's death in 1908, his widow Julie Elisabeth Wagner took over the company. With the outbreak of the First World War, however, as an Englishwoman she was forced to sell the company and return to England.

Three employees of the company, the businessman Wilhelm Loos (1881-1939), the technician Felix Daelen (1868-1944) and the managing director Moritz Gaebler, acquired the company shares in 1915. After Gaebler left the company in 1919, Loos and Daelen each owned half of the company, now called "Glyco-Metallwerke Daelen & Loos oHG". GLYCO remained in the possession of the Daelen and Loos families until their shares were sold to the US automotive supplier "Federal Mogul" in 1990. Before the Second World War, GLYCO-Metall-Werke expanded to become Germany's largest plain bearing manufacturer due to the company's own development of interchangeable plain bearings and the increasing series production of engines for cars and trucks. Due to the war, production also increasingly shifted to engine parts for military vehicles. After the end of the war, household and agricultural appliances such as waffle irons, irons and ring rollers were produced for a time until plain bearing production could be resumed. The improvement of production processes, the development of new bearing materials, the takeover of plain bearing companies in Braunschweig and Wildemann/Harz and the establishment of subsidiaries in Italy and Brazil formed the GLYCO Group into the largest plain bearing manufacturer in Europe with over 3,000 employees.

With the start of production of "sputter bearings" and the takeover of the company by the Federal-Mogul Corporation, the now renamed Federal-Mogul Wiesbaden GmbH became the world market leader in the field of large-volume, heavy-duty series parts. Further new developments in lead-free, environmentally friendly bearing materials and coating processes were introduced into production in order to meet the changing, more demanding market requirements. All products manufactured in Wiesbaden, such as bearing shells, bushings, thrust elements and semi-finished products of the internationally renowned GLYCO® and GLYCODUR® brands, are essential engine components. The Wiesbaden site currently employs around 1,300 people. Federal-Mogul Holdings Corporation is a leading global supplier of powertrain and safety technologies for the automotive/commercial vehicle, marine, aerospace, power generation and industrial markets, as well as for the global aftermarket business. Federal-Mogul was founded in Detroit (USA) in 1899 and is headquartered in Southfield/Michigan. The company employs more than 50,000 people in 34 countries, including 15 locations in Germany alone.