# DoppelherzPharma ## Facts | | | |---|---| | Founded | 1921 | | Origin | Germany | | Headquarters | Flensburg | | Owner | Queisser Pharma GmbH & Co. KG | | Status | Active | | Manufacturing | Flensburg, Germany | | Distribution | Multi-channel | | Website | https://www.doppelherz.ch/ | DoppelherzPharma is the German health brand better known simply as Doppelherz, a name taken from its emblem of two hearts, one red and one black. It began as a herbal tonic that the Essen druggist Josef Peter Hennes put together in 1919; the tonic was first sold, and the Doppelherz trademark registered, in 1921 [2]. Today the brand belongs to Queisser Pharma GmbH & Co. KG of Flensburg, in northern Germany, whose subsidiary Doppelherz Pharma GmbH makes chemically synthesised and some plant-based medicines under the same name [10]. Over the following century the range grew from that single tonic into dietary supplements, mostly non-prescription herbal medicines and medical devices, sold in more than 60 countries. The company counts more than 250 products in Germany alone, for adults, children and animals. Its beauty line, Doppelherz Beauty, consists of supplements taken by mouth for skin, hair and nails. The brand is active: in October 2025 it opened an additional quality-control laboratory in Flensburg. ## Origin & founders Doppelherz grew out of two separate businesses that were later joined together. The older of the two dates to 1897, when the trained pharmacist Alfred Queisser, who had come to Hamburg from Lusatia in the Dresden district, opened a small pharmaceutical factory there. According to the brand's own history, Queisser concentrated on health and personal-care goods such as creams, liquid soap and toothpaste, and kept growing the firm despite difficult conditions. The second root, and the one that gave the brand its name, lay in Essen. There Josef Peter Hennes, a druggist, developed the original recipe for what is now sold as Doppelherz Energie-Tonikum, a tonic made from herbs and other natural ingredients. Hennes founded a company, Doppelherz Chemische Fabrik J. P. Hennes GmbH, to produce and market it, and the business stayed in family hands for more than half a century. The brand's founding date depends on which event is counted. The recipe dates from 1919. The brand's own timeline calls 1921, the year of the first sale and the trademark registration, the foundation stone of Doppelherz; this article follows that date. The owning company, Queisser Pharma, traces its corporate history back to 1897. The early packaging looked quite different from today's. The tonic was first sold under the word "Doppelherz" in capital letters, alongside a stylised nurse holding a red and a black heart above her head. The combined word-and-picture mark used today began to take shape after the Second World War. Until the 1950s the tonic came in glass bottles wrapped in printed paper; later bottles carried glued-on labels. ## History & milestones For decades Doppelherz was a one-product brand. The company says the tonic was its very first product and long remained its only one. Advertising made it a household name in Germany. In the 1950s, the brand recalls, elegant housewives dressed in its red and black colours promoted the tonic, and the two-heart symbol came to stand for vitality and well-being. A run of slogans followed: "Darauf kann man nicht verzichten" ("You can't do without it", 1950), "Stärkt Kreislauf, Nerven und Ihr Herz" ("Strengthens circulation, nerves and your heart", 1973) and, best known of all, "Die Kraft der zwei Herzen" ("The power of two hearts", 1980) [9]. Television took over from 1982. The company says that campaign, which ran for many years, is still well remembered by customers, and it singles out the distinctive "boom-boom" sound of its television spots from the 1980s and 1990s. In 1998 and 1999 a gift pack and a Christmas television spot featuring Father Christmas made the tonics, by the brand's account, the most-bought health product of the holiday season. By 1975 Doppelherz had reached annual sales of 35 million Deutschmarks. The family era ended in 1976 with the sale of the company (see Ownership). In 1987 Queisser Pharma moved its headquarters and Doppelherz production to Flensburg, into the former works of Hansen rum, a business that also belonged to the Dethleffsen family. At that point the tonic was the company's top-selling product and, with a 20 per cent share, the second most important brand in the German market for tonics, a market the business newspaper Handelsblatt put at an estimated 130 million Deutschmarks that year [9]. The move to Flensburg coincided with the first real broadening of the range. In the late 1980s Queisser added garlic and vitamin E preparations and a sugar-free, alcohol-free version of the tonic, Vital Tonikum N. From 1999 the growing supplement range was grouped under the name "Doppelherz aktiv", which comprised 18 products by 2002. In 2006 the company launched "Doppelherz system", a line sold only in pharmacies. The brand describes 2011 as a turning point in its own image: products once aimed at the heart, vitality and energy in old age had become a broad range of medicines and supplements for the whole family, in a variety of modern forms. In 2014 the company built its own laboratory in Flensburg, and from 2016 new product spots were made for online formats rather than television. The international story runs alongside. From the 1990s Doppelherz was exported to Poland, Russia, Romania, Bulgaria and the Baltic states. Queisser founded its first foreign subsidiary in Russia in 2007, and sales expanded into Asian, South American and African countries from around 2010. In China, products are sold in their original packaging with a Chinese sticker; Manuel Neuer and the Chinese actress Qin Lan have appeared as brand ambassadors there. A cooperation with the Alibaba Group helped the company gain market share in China in recent years. By its 2024 account, the brand sells worldwide through six subsidiaries and through partners in more than 60 countries, supported by a recently opened logistics centre in the north of Schleswig-Holstein. German Wikipedia places that logistics centre in Handewitt, near Flensburg. The tonic's centenary fell in 2021, and the brand now presents itself as having been at its customers' side "for over 100 years". ## Ownership Doppelherz is owned by Queisser Pharma GmbH & Co. KG, a mid-sized pharmaceutical company based in Flensburg. Queisser in turn belongs, through HGDF Familienholding, to the Dethleffsen family of Flensburg, descendants of the rum trader Herm. G. Dethleffsen, whose business was founded in the town in 1738 [2]. The family group is also the majority owner of the Flensburger Pilsener brewery and of FRS. Sources differ on when the Doppelherz and Queisser businesses were merged. Queisser's own English-language history states that the company became Queisser Pharma in 1976, when it merged with the business of Josef Peter Hennes [8]. German Wikipedia gives a more detailed sequence: in 1976 Claire Hennes, Josef Peter Hennes's daughter-in-law and by then sole owner, sold the company for reasons of age to the Flensburg spirits firm Hermann G. Dethleffsen; Queisser Pharma, a Hamburg maker of toothpaste (Kaliklora) and denture adhesive creams (Protefix), joined the Dethleffsen group from 1978, after which Doppelherz was merged into it [9]. A 2012 portrait in the German pharmacy trade publication APOTHEKE ADHOC places the merger much earlier, in the 1920s [11]. The brand's own history speaks only of the 1970s and says the combined company has belonged to HGDF Familienholding since the end of that decade. This article follows the owner's date of 1976. APOTHEKE ADHOC also sketched the wider family business in 2012. The Dethleffsens gradually withdrew from their original spirits trade from 1994; the Bommerlunder schnapps, once in their portfolio, was sold to Berentzen. At the time of that portrait, seven family members of the eighth generation were active in the business, which was run by the cousins Andreas and Hermann Dethleffsen. The same article put Queisser's latest annual revenue at 140 million euros, half of it earned abroad. Beyond Doppelherz, Queisser's brands include the Protefix range of denture adhesives, Stozzon against mouth and body odour, and Litozin, a line of rose-hip supplements; the 2012 portrait also listed Ramend. The company sells homeopathic preparations for babies and small children as well. Figures for the size of the workforce also vary. The brand's 2024 timeline speaks of more than 600 employees, while German Wikipedia gives around 800 [10]. ## Philosophy & positioning Doppelherz presents itself as a German family-health brand. Its central statement is that "health should not be a luxury" ("Gesundheit darf kein Luxus sein"). The company describes its mission as offering good and sensible dietary supplements, medical devices and medicines at an affordable price and making them accessible to many people. The tagline is "Von Herzen für dich", roughly "From the heart, for you". The brand explains its logo as a promise: the black heart stands behind the red one, in the same way the company says it stands behind its customers. Other values it lists are quality standards and expertise from Germany, science-based product development, and the health of the whole family. Distribution is deliberately broad. The company says its products are available in pharmacies, drugstores, grocery stores, online pharmacies and on online platforms, while the "Doppelherz system" line is reserved for pharmacies. In 2012 the pharmacy range was offered by the company's own field sales team in around 8,000 pharmacies, according to APOTHEKE ADHOC. ## Products & innovation The tonic remains the brand's best-known product. Around one million litres of Doppelherz Energie-Tonikum are produced, bottled, packed and dispatched from the Flensburg site each year, according to the owner [8]. Around it the range has grown into several product lines, among them Doppelherz aktiv, Doppelherz system, Doppelherz Beauty and Doppelherz pure, covering areas such as eye health, energy, immunity, muscles and bones, and omega-3 fatty acids. Omega-3 products have been a particular strength. In 2012 APOTHEKE ADHOC reported that Queisser held a 40 per cent share of the omega-3 market [11], and German Wikipedia states that Doppelherz led the pharmacy segment for non-prescription fish-oil preparations in 2016. Other well-known products include Doppelherz aktiv Omega-3 and the eye supplement Doppelherz aktiv Augen Plus, which contains lutein. According to IQVIA market data cited by Wikipedia, Doppelherz "Aktiv Magnesium" ranked third among the most-requested dietary supplements in German retail in 2017. The beauty line consists of supplements rather than creams. Doppelherz Beauty Skin + Hair + Nails combines millet, zinc, wheat germ oil, biotin and pantothenic acid, and Doppelherz Beauty Kollagen + Silicium is sold as tablets. The brand supports these products with standard nutrition statements, such as that biotin contributes to the maintenance of normal skin and that zinc contributes to the maintenance of normal hair, nails and skin. Quality control is a large part of how the company describes itself. It says that pharmacists, chemists and pharmaceutical technicians in its Flensburg laboratory check every batch of every raw material before processing, and that more than 30 specialists test every product batch before sale. The company guarantees that each Doppelherz product is safe and contains exactly the stated amount of active ingredient for its whole shelf life. Because the laboratory built in 2014 had become too small, a further laboratory opened in October 2025, focused on quality control for supplements, cosmetics and complementary animal feed. ## Sustainability The owner states that it has been certified to the environmental management standard DIN EN ISO 14001 since 1997 and to an energy-management standard since 2016. It also says it runs on green electricity from hydropower, is reducing packaging and plastic, and gives 2025 as the start of its reporting under the EU's CSRD sustainability-reporting rules. No third-party sustainability labels for individual products are documented. ## Recognition In 2021, the brand's centenary year, Doppelherz reports receiving a BEST BRANDS TopTen Award in the category "Gesundheit & Wohlbefinden" (health and well-being). Independent market figures point to a strong position in German retail. A 2017 statistic from the trade newspaper Lebensmittel Zeitung, cited by German Wikipedia, ranked Doppelherz as the leading over-the-counter brand maker in German grocery and drugstore retail with a 15 per cent share, ahead of Merz, Klosterfrau, Omega Pharma and Kneipp; drugstore own-brands together held 21 per cent [9]. The company itself had already claimed market leadership across the whole over-the-counter category in grocery and drugstores in 2014. ## Controversies Doppelherz's krill-oil products have drawn criticism from environmental groups. In a documentary on Antarctic krill fishing first broadcast in 2018, a team from the German public broadcaster NDR accompanied a Greenpeace expedition and supported the organisation's criticism of krill fishing and of using krill oil in omega-3 supplements; NDR's accompanying text named Doppelherz krill-oil products from Queisser Pharma [9]. According to the company, the krill oil comes from the market leader Aker Biomarine. In response to Greenpeace's campaign, Aker Biomarine and other krill-fishing companies agreed to work with the organisation and to stop fishing voluntarily in parts of the ecologically sensitive coastal areas. German Wikipedia's article on the owner states that Greenpeace accuses Queisser of breaching Antarctic protection treaties through the krill fishing behind its omega-3 capsules [10]. The same article records an episode from the owner's earlier history: during the Nazi era, from 1933, the company took part in an antisemitic campaign against its competitor Beiersdorf [10]. ## Current status Doppelherz is an active brand. Its owner, Queisser Pharma, continues to develop and produce products in Flensburg and sells them through subsidiaries and partners in more than 60 countries. The most recent dated milestone is the additional quality-control laboratory opened in October 2025, and the brand's website carried a 2026 copyright notice. ## Timeline {#belagg-timeline} | Year | Event | Source | |---|---|---| | 1897 | Pharmacist Alfred Queisser's small pharmaceutical factory in Hamburg (one root of today's Queisser Pharma) makes creams, liquid soap and toothpaste. | https://www.doppelherz.ch/marke/historie | | 1919 | Essen druggist Josef Peter Hennes develops the original recipe of the Doppelherz Energie-Tonikum from herbs and natural ingredients. | https://www.doppelherz.ch/marke/historie | | 1921 | Doppelherz tonic first sold and registered as a trademark. | https://www.doppelherz.ch/marke/historie | | 1976 | Claire Hennes sells the Doppelherz company to Flensburg spirits firm Hermann G. Dethleffsen (today HGDF Familienholding); Queisser's own history dates the merger into Queisser Pharma to 1976. | https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doppelherz | | 1976 | Sole owner Claire Hennes sold the Doppelherz company to Flensburg spirits company Hermann G. Dethleffsen (today HGDF Familienholding). | https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doppelherz | | 1976 | Hennes's Doppelherz business merged with Queisser to form Queisser Pharma (per owner's English company history). | https://www.queisser.com/company/tradition-future | | 1982 | First Doppelherz TV campaign; brand calls it cult status. | https://www.doppelherz.ch/marke/historie | | 1987 | Queisser Pharma moves headquarters and Doppelherz production to Flensburg (former Hansen rum factory). | https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doppelherz | | 1997 | Owner certified to environmental standard DIN EN ISO 14001. | https://www.doppelherz.ch/marke/nachhaltigkeit-bei-doppelherz | | 1998 | Gift pack and Christmas TV spot make the tonic the best-selling health product of the Christmas season (brand claim). | https://www.doppelherz.ch/marke/historie | | 1999 | Expanded supplement range grouped under 'Doppelherz aktiv'. | https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doppelherz | | 2006 | Launch of pharmacy-exclusive line 'Doppelherz system'. | https://www.doppelherz.ch/marke/historie | | 2007 | First foreign subsidiary founded, in Russia. | https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doppelherz | | 2014 | Brand states it is market leader in German grocery and drugstore retail across the OTC category; in-house lab built. | https://www.doppelherz.ch/marke/historie | ## Awards {#belagg-awards} | Year | Awards | Category | Source | |---|---|---|---| | 2021 | BEST BRANDS TopTen Award | Gesundheit & Wohlbefinden (brand-reported) | https://www.doppelherz.ch/ | ## Signature products {#belagg-products} - **Doppelherz Energie-Tonikum (the original 1919/1921 tonic)** — Das Tonikum war das allererste Produkt der Marke und blieb auch lange das einzige. — https://www.doppelherz.ch/marke - **Doppelherz Beauty Skin + Hair + Nails** — Doppelherz Beauty Skin + Hair + Nails — https://www.doppelherz.ch/ - **Doppelherz Beauty Kollagen + Silicium** — Kollagen + Silicium Produkttyp: Nahrungsergänzungsmittel Menge:30 Tabletten — https://www.doppelherz.ch/produkte/doppelherz-beauty - **Doppelherz aktiv Omega-3** — Doppelherz aktiv Omega-3 — https://www.doppelherz.ch/ - **Doppelherz aktiv Augen Plus** — Doppelherz aktiv Augen Plus — https://www.doppelherz.ch/ ## Key ingredients {#belagg-ingredients} Biotin · Zink (zinc) · Hirse (millet) · Weizenkeimöl (wheat germ oil) · Pantothensäure (pantothenic acid) · Lutein · Omega-3 (EPA/DHA) Source: https://www.doppelherz.ch/ ## Mentioned in {#belagg-press} - **APOTHEKE ADHOC** (2012) — Trade-press portrait 'Die Kraft von Doppelherz' (Carolin Bauer, 21.06.2012) on Queisser Pharma's history, Dethleffsen ownership, Doppelherz system launch and omega-3 market share. — https://www.apotheke-adhoc.de/nachrichten/detail/markt/die-kraft-von-doppelherz/ - **Lebensmittel Zeitung (via German Wikipedia)** (2017) — Statistic cited by Wikipedia: Doppelherz market leader among OTC brand makers in German grocery and drugstore retail with 15% share. — https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doppelherz ## Sources 2. (T1) https://www.doppelherz.ch/marke/historie 8. (T2) https://www.queisser.com/company/tradition-future 9. (T3) https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doppelherz 10. (T3) https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queisser_Pharma 11. (T3) https://www.apotheke-adhoc.de/nachrichten/detail/markt/die-kraft-von-doppelherz/ --- Glowpedia · · Published 2026-10-17 Please cite with a link to the article URL.