Peter Bruckmann started to work in the silverware factory run by his family when he was 22 years old. When he later took over the company, he stressed the importance of progressive industrial design. Co-founder and long-time president of the German Werkbund, he joined the Württemberg parliament as a member of the Liberal Party / German Democratic Party (FVP/DDP) in 1915.
In Heilbronn, Bruckmann championed the construction of a city theatre. It was inaugurated in 1913 with a play he had written himself. He also backed the Neckar Canal and supported the Heilbronn branch of the German Alpine Club.
Peter Bruckmann received numerous honours for his accomplishments. In 1933 he was forced out of all his offices (by the Nazis who had just seized power).