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Weleda

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Weleda AG
IndustryCosmetics
Founded1921 by Rudolf Steiner and Ita Wegman
Headquarters
Arlesheim
,
Switzerland
Key people
Dr Aldo Ammendola (CRDO), Michael Brenner (CFO), Alois Mayer (COO), Nataliya Yarmolenko (CCO), Paul Mackay (President of the BOD)
Products
Revenue429,268,000 EUR (2019)
22,317,000 Euro (2020) Edit this on Wikidata
Total assets284,824,000 Euro (2020) Edit this on Wikidata
Number of employees
2,554 (2019)
Websitewww.weleda.com

Weleda is a multinational company that produces both beauty products and naturopathic medicines. Both branches design their products based on anthroposophic principles, an alternative medicine which has heretofore not proved its effectiveness. The company takes its name from the German form of the name of the 1st-century Bructeri völva Veleda. As well as being known to use green energy, Weleda uses natural ingredients grown using biodynamic methods and none of their ingredients or products are tested on animals.[1]

Weleda Group is member of the Union for Ethical Biotrade (UEBT).[2][3][4]

History

1920–24: founding and early history

In 1920, Rudolf Steiner, an Austrian philosopher, and Ita Wegman, a Dutch gynecologist founded "Futurum AG", in Arlesheim, Switzerland, and "Der Kommende Tag AG" (an incorporated company with the mission of encouraging economic and spiritual values) in Stuttgart, Germany. Their operating profits were meant to contribute to the financing of various anthroposophic undertakings such as constructing the Goetheanum and establishing the Free Waldorf School in Stuttgart.[5] In 1920, Der Kommende Tag AG acquired the former "Colonial-Werke Paul Rumpus" in Schwäbisch Gmünd. Today, this is the location of the Weleda headquarters.[6] In 1921, the two companies wanted to merge for financial reasons. In 1922, the Futurum AG was renamed Internationale Laboratorien AG (ILAG) and new shares were issued. At a general meeting, Rudolf Steiner asked the shareholders to give their shares in Der Kommende Tag to ILAG in order to secure the assets of both companies, which were in financial difficulties. The companies were merged under a new name: Internationale Laboratorien und Klinisch-Therapeutisches Institut Arlesheim A.G. The facilities in Germany became branches of the Swiss parent company. Following a suggestion by Rudolf Steiner, the name Weleda was registered as a trademark: on September 20, 1924 in Germany and on September 25, 1924 in Switzerland. It was also proposed to rename ILAG, the parent company accordingly. On 10 December 1928, the company officially registered under the new name Weleda AG, and it is still known as such today.[7][8] The Weleda company logo was designed by Rudolf Steiner. The logo is based on the Rod of Asclepius, a staff entwined with a snake, which is a symbol of the medical and pharmaceutical professions.

The establishment of Weleda coincided with Lebensreform, "life reform", a social movement in Germany that advocated alternative medicine and health food.[9]

From 1925: internationalisation

During the 1920s, Weleda expanded its product range. Some of the newly developed cosmetics are still part of the range today: toiletry milk (later iris milk), massage oil, rosemary bath, skin cream, soap, shaving soap, skin food, sun protection cream, hair washing powder, pine bath essence, and arnica essence. Weleda’s total turnover doubled between 1925 and 1928 and Weleda expanded internationally. A number of subsidiaries are founded in the 1920s: The British Weleda Co. Ltd. (1924), Handelsonderneming Weleda (Netherlands, 1926), The American Arlesheim Laboratories (1926), Veleda-Ges.m.b.H. (Czechoslovakia, 1926).[10]

From 1933: the National Socialist era

During the 1930s, parts of the Nazi Party (NSDAP) viewed anthroposophy as a movement that was contrary to National Socialism. As a consequence, Rudolf Steiner’s books were banned from Bavarian public libraries.[11] In 1935, the Anthroposophical Society was proscribed. Several times, Weleda was threatened with a ban on production, which it could avoid with considerable effort. In 1943, Weleda delivered a one-off consignment of frostbite protection cream to the German armed forces, the Wehrmacht. Since Weleda did not have the petroleum jelly needed to produce the frostbite protection cream that had been ordered, it was provided with this ingredient from the Wehrmacht’s own stock. The frostbite protection cream was delivered to Staff Surgeon Sigmund Rascher of the German air force. Rascher performed hypothermia experiments on prisoners in the Dachau concentration camp.[12] In the 1990s, Weleda distanced itself from these actions and apologized to the survivors’ association Aktion Kinder des Holocaust (AKdH). Weleda facilitated a comprehensive scholarly investigation of the events concerned, carried out by the history department of the University of Basel. Weleda survived the period of National Socialist rule and the Second World War relatively unscathed, as the German branches belonged to a company with its headquarters in neutral Switzerland.

From 1945: more recent developments

During Europe’s economic boom in the 1950s and 1960s, Weleda expanded its product range: therapeutic tea (1950), sea buckthorn elixir (1955), facial toner (1959), shaving cream (1960), lavender bath milk (1961), foot balm (1962), and chestnut shampoo (1966). From the 1950s onwards, Weleda continued to pursue an international course. Foreign subsidiaries were established in Italy (1953), New Zealand (1955), Sweden (1956), Brazil (1959), and Argentina (1965). The global demand for natural cosmetics increased continually during the 1990s and thereafter. By 1992, Weleda was represented in 30 countries with a range of over 10,000 products. Weleda established further international subsidiaries, such as Weleda Chile (1992), Weleda Peru (1993), Weleda Japan (1999), Weleda Slovakia (2000), and Weleda Finland (2004).[13]

Anthroposophic medicine

Weleda bases its pharmaceutical products on Holistic medicine and Anthroposophic medicine, the company considers itself a "world-leading manufacturer of holistic natural cosmetics as well as pharmaceuticals for anthroposophical therapy"[14]. Anthroposophic medicine is a medicine inspired by the philosophy called Anthroposophy.

Products

Weleda is known as the historical and main producer of fermented white mistletoe extract (Viscum album), marketed under the name of Iscalor. This treatment stems from a 1917 Steiner vision: «According to Rudolf Steiner, it is only through the appropriate blend of mistletoe summer and winter extracts that the mistletoe can deploy its "real healing power" on cancer».[15]

Sold as an anti-tumor, and widely used in the 1980s to cure different cancers in Switzerland and Germany (centers of Anthroposophic doctrine), its ineffectiveness has since been established and its use is not recommended by the Swiss Cancer Congress and the Swiss cancer league[16][17].

References

  1. ^ "Ralph Heinisch". Bloomberg. Retrieved 13 May 2016.
  2. ^ "Weleda joins UEBT". befair. Retrieved 9 July 2013.
  3. ^ "With Weleda on board, UEBT targets further biodiversity growth". Cosmetics Design. Retrieved 9 July 2013.
  4. ^ "Weleda joins Union for Ethical BioTrade". NNA News. Retrieved 9 July 2013.
  5. ^ Rudolf Steiner Nachlassverwaltung, ed. (1997). Rudolf Steiner und die Gründung der Weleda (PDF) (in German). Dornach: Rudolf Steiner Verlag. pp. 181ff.
  6. ^ Werner, Uwe (2014). Das Unternehmen Weleda 1921–1945. Entstehung und Pionierzeit eines menschengemäßen und nachhaltig ökologischen Unternehmens (in German). Berlin: Berliner Wissenschaftsverlag. pp. 35–36. ISBN 978-3-8305-3272-9.
  7. ^ http://www.weleda.de/Unternehmen/UeberWeleda/Geschichte
  8. ^ "Pickup Beauty". Thursday, 19 July 2018
  9. ^ Gregory, Alice (14 August 2017). "The Familiar Promise of Health and Happiness in a Bottle". The New York Times Style Magazine. Retrieved 14 September 2020.
  10. ^ Werner, Uwe (2014). Das Unternehmen Weleda 1921–1945. Entstehung und Pionierzeit eines menschengemäßen und nachhaltig ökologischen Unternehmens (in German). Berlin: Berliner Wissenschaftsverlag. p. 103. ISBN 978-3-8305-3272-9.
  11. ^ Gregory, Alice (14 August 2017). "The Familiar Promise of Health and Happiness in a Bottle". The New York Times Style Magazine. Retrieved 14 September 2020.
  12. ^ Werner, Uwe (1999). Anthroposophen in der Zeit des Nationalsozialismus (1933–1945) (in German). Berlin: Oldenbourg. p. 361. ISBN 3-486-56362-9.
  13. ^ "About us". Weleda. Retrieved 14 September 2020.
  14. ^ "who-we-are | Weleda UK". www.weleda.co.uk. Retrieved 2 June 2019.
  15. ^ Malet, Jean-Baptiste (July 2018). "L'anthroposophie, discrète multinationale de l'ésotérisme" [Anthroposophy, discreet multinational of esotericism]. Le Monde diplomatique (in French). 772: 16–17.
  16. ^ Schraub, Simon (1987). La Magie et la Raison, Médecines parallèles, psychisme et cancer (in French). Calmann-Lévy. pp. 125-129.
  17. ^ "Unconventional Cancer Treatments - Chapter 4: Herbal Treatments". Quackwatch. Retrieved 6 February 2019.
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