The ancestors of the founder of Dr. Bronner's opened his first soap factory in the Swabian town of Laupheim near Ulm in 1858. Between 1880 and 1890, the family business expanded and opened a larger factory in Heilbronn, which produced the first liquid soaps. These were supplied to public washrooms throughout Germany. Emanuel Heilbronner was born in 1908 and, following the family tradition, became the third generation to learn the soap-making trade.
In 1929, Emanuel Heilbronner emigrated to the USA to realize his own ideas for soap production, taking with him the recipes for the family business's high-quality bar and liquid soaps. In protest against the National Socialists, Emil dropped the 'Heil' from his surname. His two sisters also emigrated from Germany in time in the 1930s, but their parents died in the Auschwitz and Theresienstadt concentration camps.
Finally, in 1948, Emanuel Bronner founded the forerunner of today's company "Dr. Bronner's Magic Soaps" and began producing his famous peppermint soaps. During the lectures he gave for the Association of Mankind (a project he dedicated himself to after the Second World War), he distributed his soaps. However, he quickly realized that some visitors only took his soaps instead of listening to him. For this reason, he printed his philosophy on the bottle labels, where it can still be read today in a barely altered form.
The soaps' initially small but loyal following grew rapidly in the late sixties, when a real boom in Dr. Bronner's soaps began. Almost solely through word of mouth, they became cult soaps of their time in the USA and were soon available in all health food stores. Today, Dr. Bronner's Magic Soaps is the best-selling natural soap brand in North America and delights consumers from all walks of life.
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