# Allgäuer Latschenkiefer ## Facts | | | |---|---| | Founded | 1973 | | Origin | Germany | | Headquarters | Homburg (Saarland) — seat of owner Dr. Theiss Naturwaren GmbH; mountain pine oil distillation in Sonthofen (Allgäu) | | Owner | Dr. Theiss Naturwaren GmbH | | Status | Active | | Manufacturing | Sonthofen, Germany (mountain pine oil steam distillation, since 1981), Homburg, Germany (further processing and lab analysis at company headquarters) | | Distribution | Pharmacy | | Website | https://www.allgaeuer-latschenkiefer.de/ | Allgäuer Latschenkiefer is a German brand of care products for feet, legs, muscles and joints, built around an essential oil distilled from mountain pine (*Pinus mugo*), a dwarf pine that grows on the slopes of the Allgäu Alps. The brand dates its founding to 1973 [2], although its owner describes a much longer tradition. Since 2005 it has belonged to Dr. Theiss Naturwaren GmbH, a company based in Homburg in the Saarland. The range centres on foot care for callus (thickened, hardened skin) and dry feet, alongside muscle gels, leg lotions and the traditional rub known as Franzbranntwein. What distinguishes the brand from most pharmacy labels is that it grows its own raw material. According to the company, mountain pines are raised on its own plantations in the Allgäu, the alpine region between Lake Constance and the Lech river, and steam-distilled at its plant in Sonthofen before the oil is sent to Homburg for further processing. Between 2020 and 2024 the brand name also reached a wider public on the shirt front of the football club 1. FC Kaiserslautern. ## History & milestones The brand's own website states that Allgäuer Latschenkiefer has existed since 1973, and repeats the date when it describes the work invested since then in its products and in the cultivation of its pines [2]. The owner's account points further back. On its brand page, Dr. Theiss Naturwaren says the label has combined traditional herbal knowledge with modern research "for over 85 years", without naming a starting year [6]. Taken literally, that would put the brand's roots in the early 1940s or earlier. Neither source reconciles the two figures, and this article follows the 1973 date given by the brand itself. Production in the Allgäu took a more permanent form in 1981. The company says its production site in Sonthofen, where a distillation plant extracts oil from pines grown on its own plantation, has existed since that year [3]. The change of ownership came in 2005, when Dr. Theiss Naturwaren took over Allga Pharma GmbH, the company behind the brand [7]. The new owner describes the business it acquired as a traditional company and says it has since built it into one of the most sought-after names in leg care, an assessment that comes from the company rather than from outside observers. The brand gained its widest public exposure through football. Dr. Theiss Naturwaren already had a history with 1. FC Kaiserslautern: the club dates the company's first spell as its main sponsor to 2010–2014, while German Wikipedia gives three seasons, from 2010 to 2013. After returning to the shirt as sleeve sponsor in 2019, the company placed the Allgäuer Latschenkiefer logo on the front of the club's shirt from the 2020/21 season. In 2022 it extended that arrangement by two seasons, and the club noted that the logo also appeared on the shirts of its U21 side and on the sleeves of its youth teams [12]. From the 2024/25 season Löwen Entertainment took over as main sponsor, ending four seasons with Allgäuer Latschenkiefer on the shirt front [13]. ## Ownership Allgäuer Latschenkiefer is owned by Dr. Theiss Naturwaren GmbH, headquartered in Homburg in the Saarland. The group acquired the brand in 2005 through its takeover of Allga Pharma GmbH. The brand's website lists it alongside the group's other labels: medipharma cosmetics, Dr. Theiss, Lacalut and proff. According to German Wikipedia, the group markets its products internationally, while in Germany the mountain pine products are sold exclusively through pharmacies [7]. The division of labour within the group is geographical. Cultivation and distillation remain in the Allgäu, while the oil is processed further and analysed in the laboratory at the company headquarters in Homburg. ## Philosophy & positioning The brand's tagline is "Von Natur aus gut", roughly "good by nature". Its self-description rests on the idea of control over the whole chain. The company says that everything from planting through harvest to the manufacture of finished products is planned and monitored, and describes its production as a closed process that is ecologically responsible and subject to strict quality controls. Place plays a large part in how the brand presents itself. According to the company, mountain pine oil varies considerably with genotype, climate, warmth, light and location, and the harsher the conditions, the more oil the pines produce. It credits the climate of the Allgäu mountains with making the difference. The brand also says its steam distillation preserves the full effect of the oil, yielding a quality that earlier extraction methods could not achieve. The owner frames the brand in slightly different terms. Its brand page speaks of products that support movement, mobility and foot health with plant extracts, of "pharmacy quality", and of an active lifestyle close to nature. It describes the approach as a combination of plant expertise and pharmaceutical know-how, with development and production carried out in-house at sites in Germany. ## Products & innovation The range is organised around three areas of the body: feet, legs, and muscles and joints. The oil appears in ointments, creams, gels, fluids, masks and shower gels, though the brand notes that it is contained in many of its products rather than all of them. Foot care, and callus care in particular, forms the core of the current range. Products highlighted by the brand include the Hornhaut Reduziercreme (a callus-reducing cream) and a creamier version of it, the Hornhaut Reduzierspray, the Hornhaut Entferner Maske Plus, and a 10 % urea foot cream-gel and foot foam. According to the owner, formulas combining salicylic acid, urea and mountain pine oil are meant to loosen callus gently and keep the skin supple. For muscles and joints, the brand offers a cooling active gel and a warming intensive gel, while a leg lotion is aimed at heavy, tired legs. Franzbranntwein and other rubs complete the traditional side of the range, and the brand has added a shower gel, the Alpenglück Verwöhn-Dusche. The company attributes several effects to its key ingredient, describing mountain pine oil as promoting blood circulation and as having anti-inflammatory and antibacterial properties [3]. These are the brand's own statements. No third-party certifications are documented. ## Sustainability The brand's sourcing is shaped by the legal status of its raw material. Wild mountain pine is specially protected in Germany, so the company cultivates its own. Staff raise thousands of seedlings by hand in pots before planting them out on more than 100 hectares of the company's own land, at altitudes of up to 1,400 metres. How long the pines grow before harvest is described differently across the brand's own website. The homepage says the trees are fully grown after five to seven years [1]; the brand page and the production page give twelve to thirteen years [2]; and a page about the Allgäu region gives twelve to thirteen years in one passage and about fifteen years in another [4]. The company presents its harvest method as a sustainability measure. Cutting is spread over several years so that gaps can be replanted and seed trees left standing for natural regrowth, which means no area is clear-cut. The oil is taken from the branches. The material is chipped, loaded into pressure tanks and treated with steam; in the resulting distillate, collected in a glass vessel, the oil separates from the water and rises to the top. According to the brand, the ash left over is used as fertiliser for new seedlings, and in summers with many pests, extra nest boxes are put up so that birds can keep the trees clear. The brand also points out that mountain pines on the steep Allgäu slopes help protect against avalanches. ## Recognition The brand's products have been assessed by two German consumer testing organisations, which list them under the spelling "Allgäuer Latschen Kiefer". In its 2018 test of callus-reducing foot creams, Stiftung Warentest rated the 75 ml Hornhaut Reduziercreme "good" overall, with a score of 2.4 on a scale where lower is better. The cream scored 1.9 for callus reduction and 2.3 for application and skin feel, but only "satisfactory" (3.5) for its labelling [9]. ÖKO-TEST has been more sceptical of the category as a whole. In a test of 20 callus products first published in 2012 and updated for its 2013 cosmetics yearbook, it included the brand's Hornhaut Profi-Reduzierer. The magazine concluded that no supplier of a cosmetic callus cream had shown a clear advantage over an ordinary care cream, and it criticised one tested product containing mountain pine oil for introducing delta-3-carene, a strongly allergenic terpene, without naming that product in its published summary [10]. In a 2023 ÖKO-TEST comparison of 20 foot creams and balms with 10 % urea, the brand's urea foot cream was rated "satisfactory", in the middle of a field where eleven products scored "very good" and two "insufficient" [11]. ## Current status Allgäuer Latschenkiefer is an active brand. In 2026 its German-language website presented a current product range, flagged the Hornhaut Entferner Maske Cremig and the Alpenglück Verwöhn-Dusche as new, and featured a film about the distillation of its pine oil, published in October 2025. Dr. Theiss Naturwaren continues to list it among its brands. The brand's period as main shirt sponsor of 1. FC Kaiserslautern ended in 2024. ## Timeline {#belagg-timeline} | Year | Event | Source | |---|---|---| | 1973 | Brand founded (brand site: 'Seit 1973 gibt es Allgäuer Latschenkiefer') | https://www.allgaeuer-latschenkiefer.de/allgauer-latschenkiefer/die-marke | | 1981 | Production site with distillation plant opened in Sonthofen ('Seit 1981 existiert die Produktionsstätte von Allgäuer Latschenkiefer in Sonthofen') | https://www.allgaeuer-latschenkiefer.de/forschung-und-produktion | | 2005 | Allga Pharma GmbH with the Allgäuer Latschenkiefer brand taken over by Dr. Theiss Naturwaren GmbH | https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dr._Theiss_Naturwaren | | 2005 | Acquired by Dr. Theiss Naturwaren GmbH (takeover of Allga Pharma GmbH with the Allgäuer Latschenkiefer brand) | https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dr._Theiss_Naturwaren | | 2018 | Stiftung Warentest rates Hornhaut Reduziercreme 'gut (2,4)' in its test of callus-reducing foot creams (05/2018) | https://www.test.de/Fusscreme-gegen-Hornhaut-im-Test-5311507-5312579/detail/2018311000!5/ | | 2019 | Dr. Theiss Naturwaren returns to the 1. FC Kaiserslautern shirt as sleeve sponsor | https://fck.de/blog/allgaeuer-latschenkiefer-verlaengert-sein-engagement-als-hauptsponsor/ | | 2020 | Allgäuer Latschenkiefer logo becomes main shirt sponsor of 1. FC Kaiserslautern from the 2020/21 season | https://fck.de/blog/allgaeuer-latschenkiefer-verlaengert-sein-engagement-als-hauptsponsor/ | | 2022 | Main-sponsor contract with 1. FC Kaiserslautern extended by two seasons (to 2024) | https://fck.de/blog/allgaeuer-latschenkiefer-verlaengert-sein-engagement-als-hauptsponsor/ | | 2024 | Brand leaves the FCK shirt front; Löwen Entertainment becomes main sponsor from 2024/25 after four seasons of Allgäuer Latschenkiefer | https://www.der-betze-brennt.de/news/15807-ab-2024-25-neuer-hauptsponsor-fuer-die-roten-teufel.php | ## Signature products {#belagg-products} - **Hornhaut Reduziercreme** — Hornhaut Reduziercreme — https://www.allgaeuer-latschenkiefer.de/ - **Hornhaut Entferner Maske Plus** — Hornhaut Entferner Maske Plus — https://www.allgaeuer-latschenkiefer.de/ - **10 % Urea Fuß-Cremegel** — 10 % Urea Fuß-Cremegel — https://www.allgaeuer-latschenkiefer.de/ - **Hornhaut Reduzierspray** — Hornhaut Reduzierspray — https://www.allgaeuer-latschenkiefer.de/ - **Franzbranntwein** — Von Franzbranntwein und Einreibungen bis hin zu Spezialpflege für beanspruchte Füße und Hornhaut. — https://www.naturwaren-theiss.de/produkte-marken/allgauer-latschenkiefer ## Key ingredients {#belagg-ingredients} Latschenkiefernöl (mountain pine oil, Pinus mugo Turra; own-grown, steam-distilled) · Urea · Salicylic acid Source: https://www.naturwaren-theiss.de/produkte-marken/allgauer-latschenkiefer ## Proprietary technologies & patents {#belagg-tech} - Allgäuer Latschenkiefernöl (oil from own mountain pine plantations, steam-distilled in the company's own plant in Sonthofen) — https://www.allgaeuer-latschenkiefer.de/allgauer-latschenkiefer/die-marke ## Mentioned in {#belagg-press} - **Stiftung Warentest (test.de)** (2018) — Hornhaut Reduziercreme (75 ml) rated 'gut (2,4)' overall in test 'Hornhautreduzierende Fußcremes 05/2018'; Hornhautreduzierung 'gut (1,9)', Deklaration 'befriedigend (3,5)'. — https://www.test.de/Fusscreme-gegen-Hornhaut-im-Test-5311507-5312579/detail/2018311000!5/ - **ÖKO-TEST** (2012) — 'Allgäuer Latschen Kiefer Hornhaut Profi-Reduzierer' (Dr. Theiss, Apotheke) included in test of 20 callus products (Handbuch Gesundheit 6/2012, updated in Jahrbuch Kosmetik 2013). Article states no cosmetic callus-cream supplier could prove a clear advantage over an ordinary care cream, and that one tested product contained Latschenkiefernöl introducing the allergenic terpene Delta-3-Caren (product not named in the free text). — https://www.oekotest.de/gesundheit-medikamente/20-Hornhautmittel-im-Test_101213_1.html - **PTA IN LOVE (reporting ÖKO-TEST)** (2023) — In ÖKO-TEST's test of 20 foot creams with 10 % urea, 'Allgäuer Latschen Kiefer 10 Prozent Urea' was rated 'befriedigend'. — https://www.pta-in-love.de/oeko-test-fusscreme-aus-der-apotheke-abgeschmiert/ - **1. FC Kaiserslautern (fck.de)** (2022) — Club announcement that Dr. Theiss Naturwaren stays main shirt sponsor with the Allgäuer Latschenkiefer brand for two more seasons; brand logo also on U21 shirt and youth-team sleeves. — https://fck.de/blog/allgaeuer-latschenkiefer-verlaengert-sein-engagement-als-hauptsponsor/ - **Der Betze brennt** (2024) — Reports that Löwen Entertainment replaces Dr. Theiss Naturwaren ('Allgäuer Latschenkiefer') as FCK main shirt sponsor from 2024/25, after four years. — https://www.der-betze-brennt.de/news/15807-ab-2024-25-neuer-hauptsponsor-fuer-die-roten-teufel.php ## Sources 1. (T1) https://www.allgaeuer-latschenkiefer.de/ 2. (T1) https://www.allgaeuer-latschenkiefer.de/allgauer-latschenkiefer/die-marke 3. (T2) https://www.allgaeuer-latschenkiefer.de/forschung-und-produktion 4. (T2) https://www.allgaeuer-latschenkiefer.de/allgauer-latschenkiefer/das-allgau 6. (T2) https://www.naturwaren-theiss.de/produkte-marken/allgauer-latschenkiefer 7. (T3) https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dr._Theiss_Naturwaren 9. (T3) https://www.test.de/Fusscreme-gegen-Hornhaut-im-Test-5311507-5312579/detail/2018311000!5/ 10. (T3) https://www.oekotest.de/gesundheit-medikamente/20-Hornhautmittel-im-Test_101213_1.html 11. (T3) https://www.pta-in-love.de/oeko-test-fusscreme-aus-der-apotheke-abgeschmiert/ 12. (T3) https://fck.de/blog/allgaeuer-latschenkiefer-verlaengert-sein-engagement-als-hauptsponsor/ 13. (T3) https://www.der-betze-brennt.de/news/15807-ab-2024-25-neuer-hauptsponsor-fuer-die-roten-teufel.php --- Glowpedia · · Published 2026-10-05 Please cite with a link to the article URL.