# BIOMARIS ## Facts | | | |---|---| | Founded | 1937 | | Origin | Germany | | Headquarters | Bremen | | Status | Active | | Manufacturing | Bremen, Germany (Parallelweg, Bremen-Walle) | | Distribution | Multi-channel | | Website | https://www.biomaris.com/ | BIOMARIS is a German maker of thalasso cosmetics, meaning skin and body care built around seawater and other marine ingredients. The family-owned company is based in Bremen, where it develops, produces and fills its products. It began not as a cosmetics house but as a seawater drinking-cure business, founded by the Bremen merchant Walter Brachmann in the 1930s. Face creams came later, and today the range covers more than 120 face and body products. The company dates its founding to 1937, the year Brachmann first presented his seawater cure drink at the Leipzig Trade Fair [3]. German Wikipedia gives 1934, when he registered the legal predecessor company [9]. BIOMARIS is still run by the founding family, now in its third generation, and remains active, with a network of its own shops on the German North Sea and Baltic Sea coasts and a large online business. ## Origin & founders According to the company, the idea took shape in 1936, when Walter Brachmann attended a lecture in a Bremen villa given by Dr. Helmuth Braun on the effects of seawater on the human body. Brachmann set out to turn that idea into a product. On 25 July 1934 he had already founded the firm Biolabor Walter Brachmann GmbH & Co. KG, and in 1937 he introduced the "Helgoländer Meerwasser-Kurgetränk", a seawater cure drink named after the North Sea island of Helgoland, at the Leipzig Trade Fair. The two founding dates describe different moments rather than a factual error. 1934 marks the legal company, 1937 the public launch of the drink that became the business, and on 1 September 1938 Brachmann filed the Biomaris trademark with the German Patent and Trade Mark Office [9]. This article follows the company's own date of 1937, which the Bremen newspaper WESER-KURIER also uses. The drink found buyers quickly. The brand's timeline says that within two years BIOMARIS was supplying seawater to a number of German mineral-water factories. In 1946 the company opened its first seawater drinking hall on the East Frisian island of Borkum, inside a promenade hall built in 1912; a pipe of about 400 metres carried seawater to the treatment plant. German Wikipedia describes it as the first drinking-cure hall in a North Sea resort. ## History & milestones In the early 1950s Brachmann defended the effects of his product in court, according to both the company and German Wikipedia. Afterwards he launched Biomaris vital, a bottled isotonic drink that the brand's timeline calls its first "energy drink". In 1952 the company moved to a new plant on Parallelweg in the Bremen district of Walle, which is still its headquarters. The site had an underground storage tank and a large filter system for seawater. The same year BIOMARIS bought the passenger ship Atlantic, built in 1871, and converted it into a tanker. From 1955 the MS Biomaris Atlantic collected what the company calls deep seawater from the North Sea off Helgoland. The ship served until 1982. Since then the water has come in special containers from a northern current near Greenland. The company now describes the source more broadly as the North Atlantic. Through the 1950s and 1960s the range grew beyond the cure drink. BIOMARIS sold lemonades such as Biomaris Kola, shipped sea salt to factories in Switzerland, the Benelux countries and North and South America, and supplied treated seawater to the pharmaceutical industry for nasal sprays. The move into skin care is dated differently by different accounts. The brand's own timeline places its seawater "cure from the outside" and the Hautcreme skin cream in 1964 [3], German Wikipedia says the company developed and sold skin cream from 1960 [9], and WESER-KURIER says only that the first cosmetic product, a face cream, appeared in the 1960s. In the early 1970s the company added food supplements such as vitamin, mineral and brewer's yeast tablets. To make room for them, the Biomaris business was moved into a new subsidiary, Biomaris GmbH & Co. KG, founded on 2 March 1971. Over the following years the company expanded into hair lotion, shampoo, foot gel and bath oil. From 1977, according to its timeline, it sent customers a newsletter with order cards twice a year, the start of its mail-order business. A research expansion in 1985 led to many new cosmetic and wellness lines. In 1993 BIOMARIS replaced its old logo, the sea god Neptune holding a drinking cup, with the wave design it still uses. The same year it advertised with Wilhelm Wieben, a newsreader on the German television news programme Tagesschau. In 1996 it opened its first online shop; the company notes that only a handful of German websites allowed online ordering at the time. In 1999 the company opened its first own beauty and wellness centre in the North Sea resort of St. Peter-Ording, next to an existing drinking-cure hall. Its first overseas representations, in Thailand and South Korea, followed soon after. German Wikipedia states that BIOMARIS was the only provider of seawater drinking cures until 2000, but that most of its revenue by then came from care products and make-up, across a range of more than 300 items. In 2007 BIOMARIS worked with the chef Jörg Müller on four table salts for fine dining. After an internal company analysis in 2012, it invested more heavily in the brand and trimmed the range to focus on face and body care. In 2016 the entire look of the products was redesigned, a change managing director Stefan Mulder later described to WESER-KURIER as a decisive step. The company marked its 85th anniversary in 2022 with a range of more than 120 cosmetic products and a rebuilt online shop. ## Ownership BIOMARIS is independent and not part of a larger beauty group. The founder's grandson, Benjamin Winter, now leads the business as the third generation of the family [3]. According to German Wikipedia, the operating company is Biomaris GmbH & Co. KG, and its limited partner and the owner of the Biomaris and Maris trademarks is the family holding Walter Brachmann GmbH & Co. KG [9]. The main change of ownership in the group's history went the other way. In 1997 the food-supplement business was moved into a separate company, Biolabor. The Winter family then sold Brachmann Verwaltungsgesellschaft mbH, together with Biolabor, to Holger U. Birkigt, a former head of the coffee company Eduscho. The Biomaris brand and company stayed with the family [9]. German Wikipedia states that Biolabor is today Sanotact, part of DMK. Since autumn 2024, Stefan Mulder has shared the management with Benjamin Winter, who remains a partner in the business. WESER-KURIER reports that Mulder spent about 25 years in the industry, including product development at L'Oréal in Paris and at Schwarzkopf, despite having studied business rather than chemistry. ## Philosophy & positioning BIOMARIS presents itself as a specialist in thalasso cosmetics, with the motto "Gesundheit & Schönheit aus dem Meer" (health and beauty from the sea). The company says all of its products are based on marine ingredients, chiefly its deep seawater, sea salt and marine algae. On its research page the wording is slightly softer, saying the deep seawater is the basis of "almost all" products. The company's argument rests on the water in its formulas. Speaking to WESER-KURIER, Mulder said a cream is about 70 percent water, which most manufacturers filter to be as neutral as possible. BIOMARIS instead uses part of the seawater with its minerals, salts and trace elements, so that in his words the water phase "becomes the active phase" [10]. The water arrives in containers and is stored in an 80,000-litre underground tank beneath the Bremen site. Distribution is described differently depending on who is asked. The company's own site points customers to BIOMARIS shops on the North Sea and Baltic Sea coasts, other points of sale, cosmetic partners and pharmacy ordering [2]. WESER-KURIER reported in 2026 that the products are not sold in drugstores or perfumeries, but only in the company's 21 own shops on the coast [10]. Mulder told the paper that the products need personal advice and that drugstore retail is "not at all our goal". Customers, he said, usually meet the brand on holiday by the sea and then keep buying online. German Wikipedia also lists cosmetic studios, spa and wellness facilities and online shops. The company's own online shop ships within Germany, and German Wikipedia records a presence in 27 countries, including Japan, Saudi Arabia, Thailand, South Korea and Israel, through trade partners. WESER-KURIER also reports that the company relies on close customer contact by phone and email rather than advertising to stay visible. ## Products & innovation The best-known product is the Hautcreme, a skin cream sold in a triangular tin with a blue lid. BIOMARIS calls it its flagship and says it has been in the range for about 60 years. It is sold for the whole family and for dry skin, and a fragrance-free version is offered that the company describes as suitable also for people with atopic eczema. The Hautlotion body lotion sits beside it as one of the brand's two "product favourites". Beauty from the Sea, a day and night face cream, is the company's main face cream. According to WESER-KURIER, the range of more than 120 products runs from shampoo to foot cream and is divided into lines. The Basic line is aimed at people aged 25 to 35, the AgeDefinition System at older skin, and Men's Nature at men. The company also names lines such as DermaCare MED and AromaThalasso. The original seawater cure drink is still sold as part of the range. Two ingredients carry the brand's own names. MeeresTIEFwasser, often shortened to MTW, is the deep seawater at the base of the products. The Hydro-Formel is an algae-based complex that the company markets with what it calls a "collagen banking effect". Other recurring ingredients include sea buckthorn oil and shea butter. The company says that developing a new product takes at least 18 months, including a series of tests before large-scale production. Formulas are developed in its own laboratory at the Bremen headquarters. The brand's timeline credits a 2020 launch, Body Butter Vanilla Dream, with selling out within days in its coastal shops and online. BIOMARIS says the large majority of its range is free of animal-derived ingredients, but some formulas deliberately use beeswax and lanolin for their care properties. Some products are labelled fragrance-free, though not the whole range. No third-party certifications, such as cruelty-free, vegan or organic seals, are documented for the products. ## Sustainability The company has used electricity from 100 percent renewable sources since 2014. Its shipping cartons carry the RESY recycling symbol and, like its product folding boxes, are FSC-certified. BIOMARIS says it does not use nanomaterials or solid microplastic particles, and that it buys shea butter and jojoba and argan oils from certified organic farming. Package leaflets are mostly offered digitally through a QR code, and the company says it will stop printing them entirely by 2028. It names protection of the oceans as a particular concern. That concern also shapes its research ties. From 2010 to 2013 BIOMARIS and MARUM, the Center for Marine Environmental Sciences at the University of Bremen, jointly awarded an annual Biomaris research prize of EUR 5,000 for marine science in Bremen. The company also sponsors ICYMARE, an international conference for young marine researchers, and attended its 2025 edition in Bremerhaven. ## Recognition BIOMARIS says it has received the "Innovativ durch Forschung" (innovative through research) seal several times from the Stifterverband für die Deutsche Wissenschaft, a German association that supports research, though it does not give the years. In December 2013 the consumer magazine Öko-Test gave its top rating to the Biomaris protecting cream med [9]. According to German Wikipedia, German women's magazines such as Brigitte, Gala, Bunte and Frau im Spiegel regularly feature BIOMARIS products in their beauty tips. The brand has also appeared regularly in spa directories and seaside resort guides since the 1950s, which ties it closely to German seaside-spa culture. ## Controversies In December 2009 the consumer advice centre in Hamburg, the Verbraucherzentrale Hamburg, criticised the Biomaris skin cream, among other products, for containing ingredients that were not organic, although the name "Biomaris" suggested otherwise [9]. According to German Wikipedia, the company responded by changing formulations and focusing more on natural cosmetics. ## Current status BIOMARIS is active. In September 2026 its website was running a seasonal promotion and presenting new and limited-edition products, and in February 2026 the company launched a WhatsApp channel. WESER-KURIER profiled the company in June 2026, reporting annual revenue of about EUR 12 million, more than half of it from the online shop [10]. The company is preparing for its 90th anniversary in 2027, counted from its own founding date. As of June 2026, Mulder told WESER-KURIER that the next goal was a new product line for the anniversary, built around the theme of longevity. He also said the company has no plans to leave Bremen. ## Timeline {#belagg-timeline} | Year | Event | Source | |---|---|---| | 1934 | Walter Brachmann founds the legal predecessor company 'Biolabor Walter Brachmann GmbH & Co. KG' in Bremen (25 July 1934), per Wikipedia. The brand itself dates its founding to 1937. | https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biomaris | | 1936 | A lecture by Dr. Helmuth Braun in a Bremen villa on the positive effects of seawater on the human organism, attended by Walter Brachmann, inspires Brachmann to commercialise it (brand page) | https://www.biomaris.com/biomaris-welt/unternehmen/einzigartig-biomaris/ | | 1937 | Brachmann presents the 'Helgoländer Meerwasser-Kurgetränk' (seawater cure drink) at the Leipzig Trade Fair; this is the brand-stated founding year | https://www.biomaris.com/biomaris-welt/unternehmen/zeitreise/ | | 1938 | Trademark 'Biomaris' filed with the German Patent and Trade Mark Office (1 September 1938) | https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biomaris | | 1946 | First Biomaris seawater drinking hall (Ausschank) opens on the North Sea island of Borkum | https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biomaris | | 1952 | Move to the current headquarters and plant at Parallelweg, Bremen-Walle | https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biomaris | | 1955 | The company's own tanker, MS Biomaris Atlantic, starts fetching deep seawater from the North Sea off Helgoland (decommissioned 1982) | https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biomaris | | 1964 | Seawater applied externally: the brand timeline's 1964 entry ('Meerwasserkur von außen') features the Hautcreme skin cream, part of the range for about 60 years and today the brand's flagship in a triangular tin with blue lid. The timeline does not date the tin; Wikipedia says skin cream from 1960 (see conflicts) and places the triangular cream pot in the years after 1971. | https://www.biomaris.com/biomaris-welt/unternehmen/zeitreise/ | | 1971 | Biomaris business spun off into the subsidiary Biomaris GmbH & Co. KG (2 March 1971) | https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biomaris | | 1982 | Tanker decommissioned; deep seawater is since shipped to Bremen in special containers from a northern current near Greenland | https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biomaris | | 1993 | Logo changes from Neptune with a drinking cup to the current wave design | https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biomaris | | 1996 | First BIOMARIS online shop | https://www.biomaris.com/biomaris-welt/unternehmen/zeitreise/ | | 1997 | Divestiture, not an acquisition of the brand: the owner family Winter sold Brachmann Verwaltungsgesellschaft mbH, with the spun-off food-supplement business Biolabor, to former Eduscho CEO Holger U. Birkigt. The Biomaris brand and company stayed with the family. Per Wikipedia, Biolabor is today Sanotact, part of DMK. | https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biomaris | | 1999 | First own beauty & wellness centre opens in St. Peter-Ording | https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biomaris | ## Awards {#belagg-awards} | Year | Awards | Category | Source | |---|---|---|---| | — | 'Innovativ durch Forschung' seal, Stifterverband für die Deutsche Wissenschaft (awarded multiple times; years not stated) | research-performing company | https://www.biomaris.com/biomaris-welt/unternehmen/forschung/ | | 2013 | Öko-Test top rating (Bestnote) | Biomaris protecting cream med | https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biomaris | ## Signature products {#belagg-products} - **Hautcreme (skin cream in a triangular tin with blue lid; in the range since 1964 per brand timeline)** — Produkt-Lieblinge Hautcreme & Hautlotion — https://www.biomaris.com/ - **Hautlotion (body lotion)** — Produkt-Lieblinge Hautcreme & Hautlotion — https://www.biomaris.com/ - **Beauty from the Sea (day & night face cream)** — Gesichtspflege für Tag & Nacht – die beliebte BIOMARIS Creme pflegt Ihre Haut zart und geschmeidig. — https://www.biomaris.com/ - **MeeresTIEFwasser drinking cure (the brand's original seawater cure drink)** — Im MeeresTIEFwasser, dem traditionellen Kurgetränk, liegt der Ursprung der Erfolgsgeschichte von BIOMARIS. — https://www.biomaris.com/biomaris-welt/unternehmen/ - **Body Butter Vanilla Dream** — Die neue Body Butter Vanilla Dream sprengt alle Verkaufsrekorde. In den Shops an Nord- und Ostseeküste und auch im Online-Shop ist sie innerhalb weniger Tage ausverkauft. — https://www.biomaris.com/biomaris-welt/unternehmen/zeitreise/ ## Key ingredients {#belagg-ingredients} MeeresTIEFwasser (brand-named deep seawater, sourced from the North Atlantic) · Meersalz (sea salt) · Meeresalgen (marine algae) · Sanddorn-Öl (sea buckthorn oil) · Shea-Butter Source: https://www.biomaris.com/biomaris-welt/unternehmen/ ## Proprietary technologies & patents {#belagg-tech} - MeeresTIEFwasser (MTW), the brand-named deep seawater base · BIOMARIS Hydro-Formel (algae-based), marketed with a 'Kollagen-Banking-Effekt' — https://www.biomaris.com/ ## Mentioned in {#belagg-press} - **WESER-KURIER (Bremen regional daily, business section)** (2026) — Company profile 'Biomaris in Bremen: Fast 90 Jahre Entwicklung von Meerwasserkosmetik' (27 June 2026), with an interview of managing director Stefan Mulder. Covers owner Benjamin Winter, 120+ products, 21 own shops at the North and Baltic Sea, the online shop bringing in more than half of about EUR 12 million annual revenue, and a planned 2027 'Longevity' line. — https://www.weser-kurier.de/bremen/wirtschaft/biomaris-in-bremen-fast-90-jahre-entwicklung-von-meerwasserkosmetik-doc8684uym9w098d0y1a5x - **Bild der Frau, Bunte, Brigitte, Gala, Lisa, Die Aktuelle, Frau von Heute, Frau im Spiegel** — Per Wikipedia's 'Rezeption' section, these German magazines regularly recommend Biomaris products in beauty tips. Individual articles were NOT verified in this harvest. — https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biomaris ## Sources 2. (T1) https://www.biomaris.com/biomaris-welt/unternehmen/ 3. (T2) https://www.biomaris.com/biomaris-welt/unternehmen/zeitreise/ 9. (T3) https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biomaris 10. (T3) https://www.weser-kurier.de/bremen/wirtschaft/biomaris-in-bremen-fast-90-jahre-entwicklung-von-meerwasserkosmetik-doc8684uym9w098d0y1a5x --- Glowpedia · · Published 2026-09-30 Please cite with a link to the article URL.