# Bombastus ## Facts | | | |---|---| | Founded | 1904 | | Origin | Germany | | Headquarters | Freital (Saxony, near Dresden) | | Status | Active | | Manufacturing | Freital, Saxony, Germany (own works and own sage fields at the company site) | | Distribution | Multi-channel | | Website | https://www.bombastus.de/ | Bombastus is the brand of Bombastus-Werke AG, a German maker of natural remedies, medicinal teas and personal-care products based in Freital, a town on the edge of Dresden in Saxony. The company was founded in 1904 and named after Theophrastus Bombastus von Hohenheim, the Renaissance physician better known as Paracelsus. Its range today covers licensed herbal medicines, medicinal and herbal teas, Schüßler salts, pharmaceutical base materials, essential oils, and a smaller line of oral- and skin-care products, among them a mouthwash concentrate the company has made since its first year. What sets Bombastus apart from most pharmacy brands is that it grows one of its key raw materials itself. Since 1914 it has cultivated perennial sage (Salvia officinalis) on its own fields around Freital, and a Saxon state portal for regional specialities describes it as the largest grower of perennial sage in Europe [11]. The company lived through two world wars, nationalisation in the German Democratic Republic (GDR) and reprivatisation after German reunification, and it remains active, with regional press covering its sage harvests in 2025 and its sowing season in 2026. ## Origin & founders According to the company, Emil Bergmann, Max Däbritz and Otto Braune founded the business in 1904 in Potschappel near Dresden, today part of Freital, to produce natural remedies [2]. German-language Wikipedia gives the same three founders and dates the registration to 1 April 1904, when the firm was set up as a limited partnership (Kommanditgesellschaft) with its first premises on Burgwartstraße in Potschappel [8]. A private website documenting the history of East German fragrance and cosmetics names the first founder as Emil Herrmann rather than Emil Bergmann [12]; the company's own account and Wikipedia both give Bergmann. The sources also frame the original business differently. Bombastus presents its early years as the making of natural remedies. Wikipedia says the firm first produced cosmetic preparations, and the Saxon specialities portal describes it as founded as a manufactory for mouth, tooth, hair and skin care preparations [11]. The two accounts overlap more than they conflict: the mouthwash that the company still sells, and which it calls its mouthwash classic since 1904, sits in both categories. The choice of name was deliberate. In the company's telling, firms of that era often took grand names meant to express what moved their founders most deeply. The three men chose Paracelsus, the 16th-century physician, as their namesake. Bombastus explains that what made him exceptional among healers four centuries earlier was a holistic view of physical and mental wellbeing, in which healing plants and minerals worked only alongside an effort to keep people in harmony with the natural order. The company links its founding to the "back to nature" mood of the years around 1900, which it describes as a reaction against the darker sides of the then-new industrial age. ## History & milestones The young firm did not stay in Potschappel for long. In 1906 it moved to Zauckerode, another district of present-day Freital. The collector site on East German cosmetics history says a new factory building was put up there and became the company headquarters, and that a pharmaceutical division focused on medicinal plants was set up under medical supervision. Sage cultivation began around the time of the First World War. The company dates its own fields to 1914, and Wikipedia also gives about 1914, adding that the first plantings covered roughly 30 hectares and that Bombastus was the only business in Europe growing perennial sage. Sources differ slightly on the first harvest. A 2025 report in the Dresden news site Oiger places it in 1914 [9], while the Saxon specialities portal says the fields were laid out in 1914 and first harvested in 1915 [11]. The collector site, by contrast, says sage cultivation began only in the 1920s [12]. The early harvests were done entirely by hand. According to the Oiger report, up to 50 women tied on large picking aprons and gathered the top shoots row by row from July to September, and the leaves were dried in the attic of the company's main building. Board member Markus Kunze told the paper that a picker typically harvested about ten kilograms of fresh sage in a working day of six to eight hours. The collector site describes a turbulent first half-century. During the First World War, it says, regular production stalled and the company kept going by making detergents. Business recovered between 1924 and 1938, before the Second World War disrupted operations again, and the currency collapse and reform of 1945 to 1948 caused further losses. After 1948, exports to West Germany eventually resumed despite the division of the country. Wikipedia summarises the post-war decades as a period of production and sales difficulties in the GDR. According to the collector site, pressure from the ruling SED party grew steadily in the GDR. The still-private works were nationalised in May 1972 and attached to VEB Arzneimittelwerk Dresden, a state-owned pharmaceutical maker [8]. The collector site notes that the health-care, pharmaceutical and cosmetic lines continued to expand under state ownership until 1990. By 1989 the company employed 70 people, according to Wikipedia. German reunification brought the company back into private hands. It was privatised as a limited-liability company (GmbH) on 1 July 1990 and has traded as a stock corporation (Aktiengesellschaft) since 22 August 2000 [8]. Wikipedia records revenue of about eight million euros in 2003 and about twelve million euros in 2011. Bombastus marked 120 years of its works in 2024. ## Ownership Bombastus-Werke AG is a stand-alone company. No parent company or sister brands are documented, and the company's legal notice lists the stock corporation at Wilsdruffer Straße 170 in Freital as the operator. Wikipedia names Markus Kunze and Markus Kannegießer as its management. The company's ownership history is closely tied to twentieth-century German politics. It began as a limited partnership of three founders, passed into state ownership in the GDR in 1972, and returned to private ownership in 1990, first as a GmbH and from 2000 as an AG. Wikipedia lists about 150 employees, though its most recent revenue figure dates from 2011. ## Philosophy & positioning Bombastus builds its identity around the Paracelsus legacy. The company says it still makes its products to traditional recipes combined with current knowledge, following what it calls the harmony principle of its namesake. Its logo, a stylised treble clef, is described by the company as an expression of that idea of harmony. The motto used on its website, "Bombastus – ein Name der verpflichtet", translates roughly as "Bombastus – a name that carries an obligation". A second line, "tradition and innovation in harmony with nature", heads the company's account of its values. The company positions itself firmly in pharmacy territory. Its website opens with a reference to proven pharmacy quality since 1904, and its stated aim for tea and every other product is excellent quality in each pack. Bombastus says strict rules apply to all of its production. Plants destined for processing are to be grown naturally and harvested in a way that protects both the plant and its active compounds. The company stresses process safety and hygiene in its works, and says that independent testing laboratories as well as its own in-house laboratory continuously monitor the quality of raw materials and finished goods. The products are sold through the company's online shop, through pharmacies and at its information centre at the Freital headquarters. A section of its website for business customers offers order forms, certificates of analysis, test specifications and safety data sheets, along with access to the MSV3 electronic ordering system. ## Products & innovation According to Bombastus, its catalogue holds more than 200 products for health and wellbeing. The bulk of the range is medicinal and herbal. Wikipedia lists its most important teas as a cough and bronchial tea, chamomile flower tea, raspberry leaf tea and sage tea, and adds that the company also makes mouthwash, ointments, drops, toothpaste, cosmetic products, essential oils and food supplements. Chamomile flowers, for example, are sold as a licensed herbal medicinal tea, traditionally used for stomach and intestinal complaints, colds and local inflammation. Oral care is the oldest part of the business. Mundwasser Bombastus®, a mouthwash concentrate, is presented by the company as its mouthwash classic since 1904. It sits alongside Mundspray Bombastus®, a mouth spray, and Mundfrisch Bombastus®, a sugar-free lozenge for fresh breath. The company describes the mouthwash and spray as containing plant ingredients with antibacterial properties; it does not present this as a clinically proven effect. The skin-care line is small and built mainly around ointments and creams with plant oils. Arhama®-Salbe is a care ointment made from linseed oil and beeswax, which Bombastus recommends for skin around the edges of wounds, for dry and cracked patches and for scar care. Salbeiblüten-Salbe contains an extract of sage blossom, and the company says it soothes dry skin such as that seen with psoriasis and atopic eczema. Salwo-Hautvaseline is a protective petroleum jelly with selected essential oils, which the company says protects like ordinary petroleum jelly but feels like skincare. Other items include a skin tonic with sage-blossom extract from the company's own fields, a protective ointment with olive and calendula (marigold), a rich cream with witch hazel water, sage extract, almond oil and jojoba oil, a skin and massage cream with shea butter, jojoba, patchouli and rose oils, and Arameta-Essenz, a cosmetic eye water with neroli oil from controlled organic cultivation. No brand-wide certifications or vegan, cruelty-free or organic claims are documented. Organic sourcing is mentioned only at product level, for the neroli oil used in the eye water and an eye cream. ### Sage from field to pack Sage runs through the whole range, from Salbeitee Bombastus® and sage leaves in tea bags to the skin tonic, the sage-blossom ointment and a preparation named Salbei-Koloquinten-Mixtur Bombastus®. The company points out that the Latin name Salvia comes from salvare, meaning to heal or to save. The Saxon specialities portal calls Bombastus the only manufacturer that processes every part of the sage plant, while Oiger describes the company turning flowers, shoot tips, stems and leaves into teas, wound ointments and other products. The cultivation cycle is described in detail on the company's website and in regional press. Field edges are cleared, hoed and mulched each spring to stop weeds spreading in. New fields are prepared with a reverse rotary tiller that separates fine soil from stones and plant remains, and straw is worked into the ground. Once temperatures stay above freezing, a precision seed drill places the seeds about 20 centimetres apart. Sage needs light to germinate, so the seeds are only lightly covered with soil. A May 2026 report in meiDresden added that the seeds come from plants on the company's own fields, and that field manager Daniel Lehmann normally relies on rainfall alone, since sage dislikes waterlogged ground and the slightly stony soil acts as natural drainage. Harvesting follows two rhythms. The blossoms are usually picked in June, from about one hectare of plants, once the company's quality control has confirmed that their content of active compounds is at its peak. The flowers are then steeped for several months in an alcohol and water mixture in stoneware vats. On the remaining fields, plants are cut back before they flower so that their energy goes into the leaves. Lehmann told Oiger that sage needs dry, sunny weather just before the leaf harvest to reach the desired content of essential oils. Most leaves are now harvested by a converted tractor that needs about four hours per hectare. In 2025, Oiger reported, sage for tea was harvested on nine hectares, with roughly 2,800 kilograms of fresh leaves per hectare yielding about 650 kilograms of dried tea [9]. A small share is still picked by hand for a hand-harvested shoot-tip tea. That work takes about 600 hours to gather 400 kilograms of fresh sage, which becomes 100 kilograms of dried tea. In 2024 the hand-picked variety accounted for 1,700 packs, or 1.6 percent of the 103,200 packs of sage tea the company sold. The leaves are dried by a process that Bombastus says it has refined over generations. For 48 hours, the leaves move on conveyor belts about eight metres long across eight levels, while air at a controlled temperature flows through them [4]. They are then crumbled and packed. The size of the operation varies from year to year. Wikipedia gives 43 hectares in Wurgwitz as the source of the company's sage, and the specialities portal speaks of about 40 hectares under management. According to meiDresden, the company manages 40 hectares in rotation between sage and catch crops, of which 13 hectares carried sage in 2026, including 2.5 hectares of new sowings [10]. As of that report, the leaves from the new plants were not expected to be harvested until summer 2027, after their first growing year. ## Recognition No awards are documented for the company. Its standing rests mainly on regional recognition. The Free State of Saxony's portal for regional specialities lists "Salbei aus Freital" (sage from Freital) as a regional product and names Bombastus tea and Bombastus mouthwash as the company's best-known products. Regional media in the Dresden area, including Oiger and meiDresden, have reported on its harvests and expansion plans, and its GDR-era history is documented by collectors of East German fragrance and cosmetics. ## Current status Bombastus is active. Bombastus-Werke AG continues to grow, process and sell its sage-based and other products from Freital, and its online shop is operating. In August 2025, Oiger reported that the company was harvesting sage on nine hectares, had announced an open day at its main building on Wilsdruffer Straße, and planned a new cleanroom that would double its production capacity for ointments and tablets to 1,800 square metres by 2029 [9]. In May 2026, meiDresden covered the start of that year's sowing season. The news section of the company's own website was last updated in February 2024. The company's documented sales channels are its own shop, pharmacies and its Freital information centre, and no international distribution is documented. ## Timeline {#belagg-timeline} | Year | Event | Source | |---|---|---| | 1904 | Founded on 1 April 1904 as a Kommanditgesellschaft in Burgwartstraße, Potschappel (today Freital) by Emil Bergmann, Otto Braune and Max Däbritz; initially produced cosmetic preparations. | https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bombastus-Werke | | 1906 | Company moved to Zauckerode. | https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bombastus-Werke | | 1914 | Start of perennial sage (Salvia officinalis) cultivation on the company's own fields in Freital. | https://www.bombastus.de/UEber-uns/ | | 1915 | First sage harvest from the Freital fields. | https://www.regionales.sachsen.de/spezialitaeten/details/salbei-aus-freital | | 1972 | Nationalised in May 1972 and attached to VEB Arzneimittelwerk Dresden (GDR). | https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bombastus-Werke | | 1972 | Nationalised by the GDR state and attached to VEB Arzneimittelwerk Dresden. | https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bombastus-Werke | | 1990 | Privatised as a GmbH on 1 July 1990 after German reunification. | https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bombastus-Werke | | 1990 | Reprivatised as a GmbH (1 July 1990); converted to an AG in 2000. No current parent company named in the Impressum. | https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bombastus-Werke | | 2000 | Operating as an Aktiengesellschaft (AG) since 22 August 2000. | https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bombastus-Werke | | 2024 | 120th anniversary ("120 Jahre Bombastus-Werke. Unsere Geschichte"). | https://www.bombastus.de/UEber-uns/Blick-hinter-die-Kulissen/ | | 2025 | Announced plans for a new cleanroom doubling ointment and tablet production capacity, to 1,800 m², by 2029. | https://oiger.de/2025/08/12/bombastus-freital-salbei-ernte-geht-nach-regenzeit-weiter/194930 | ## Signature products {#belagg-products} - **Mundwasser Bombastus® (mouthwash concentrate)** — Der Mundwasser-Klassiker seit 1904. Pflanzliche Inhaltsstoffe mit antibakteriellen Eigenschaften. — https://www.bombastus.de/ - **Arhama®-Salbe** — Pflegesalbe aus Leinöl und Bienenwachs. Für Haut im Wundrandbereich; trockene, rissige Hautstellen; zur Narbenpflege. — https://www.bombastus.de/Produkte/Hautpflege/ - **Salbeiblüten-Salbe** — Pflegesalbe mit Salbeiblüten-Extrakt. Beruhigung für trockene Haut wie bei Schuppenflechte und Neurodermitis. — https://www.bombastus.de/Produkte/Hautpflege/ - **Salwo-Hautvaseline** — Schutz- und Pflegevaseline mit ausgesuchten ätherischen Ölen. Schützt wie Vaseline, trägt sich wie Hautpflege. — https://www.bombastus.de/Produkte/Hautpflege/ - **Salbeitee Bombastus® (sage medicinal tea)** — Abgepackt erhalten Sie ihn als unsere Arzneitees Salbeiblätter im Aufgussbeutel und Salbeitee Bombastus®. — https://www.bombastus.de/Salbeianbau/ ## Key ingredients {#belagg-ingredients} sage (Salvia officinalis) from own cultivation · linseed oil · beeswax · neroli oil (from controlled organic cultivation) · calendula (marigold) · witch hazel water · jojoba oil · shea butter Source: https://www.bombastus.de/Produkte/Hautpflege/ ## Proprietary technologies & patents {#belagg-tech} - In-house sage-leaf drying process (unnamed): 48 hours on ~8 m conveyor belts over 8 levels with temperature-controlled air, developed over generations — https://www.bombastus.de/Salbeianbau/ ## Mentioned in {#belagg-press} - **Oiger (Dresden regional news)** (2025) — Report on the 2025 sage harvest in Freital (9 ha harvested for tea, partial hand harvest, history of the first harvest in 1914) and plans for a new cleanroom by 2029. — https://oiger.de/2025/08/12/bombastus-freital-salbei-ernte-geht-nach-regenzeit-weiter/194930 - **meiDresden (Dresden regional news)** (2026) — Report (6 May 2026) on the 2026 sowing season: 40 ha managed in rotation, 13 ha under sage including 2.5 ha newly sown. — https://meidresden.de/?catid=8&id=22083%3Aauf-den-feldern-der-bombastus-werke-stehen-dieses-jahr-13-hektar-unter-salbei-dazu-zaehlen-2-5-hektar-neusaat&view=article - **regionales.sachsen.de (Saxony regional specialties portal)** — Listing 'Salbei aus Freital' describing Bombastus as the largest perennial-sage grower in Europe and the only manufacturer processing all parts of the sage plant. — https://www.regionales.sachsen.de/spezialitaeten/details/salbei-aus-freital ## Sources 2. (T1) https://www.bombastus.de/UEber-uns/ 4. (T2) https://www.bombastus.de/Salbeianbau/ 8. (T3) https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bombastus-Werke 9. (T3) https://oiger.de/2025/08/12/bombastus-freital-salbei-ernte-geht-nach-regenzeit-weiter/194930 10. (T3) https://meidresden.de/?catid=8&id=22083%3Aauf-den-feldern-der-bombastus-werke-stehen-dieses-jahr-13-hektar-unter-salbei-dazu-zaehlen-2-5-hektar-neusaat&view=article 11. (T3) https://www.regionales.sachsen.de/spezialitaeten/details/salbei-aus-freital 12. (T3) https://www.ddr-duftmuseum-1949-1989.de/bombastus-freital/ --- Glowpedia · · Published 2026-10-05 Please cite with a link to the article URL.