Klar

Klar, trading as Klar Seifen, is a German soap manufactory based in the Heidelberg region. It was founded in 1840 by master soapmaker Philipp Klar and has remained in family hands across five generations [7]. The company describes itself as Germany's oldest soap manufactory, a claim it carries in its tagline and across its branding [10]. Its products are still made largely by hand using recipes handed down through the family, a continuity that anchors the brand's positioning.

The manufactory is active under fifth-generation leadership. It sells directly through its own webshop, runs a flagship store in Heidelberg, and reaches several European markets through localised country sites and specialist retail partners. In 2025 it marked 185 years in business.

According to the company's history, Philipp Klar learned the craft of soap-boiling as a journeyman, travelling on the traditional German Wanderschaft to perfect his trade. The brand's own account records that this journey took him as far as St. Petersburg, where he learned what he needed to produce high-quality soap. A company blog adds that he also travelled to Grasse in France, the historic centre of European perfumery [4]. On his return in 1840 he opened a workshop with an attached shop on Hauptstraße in Heidelberg.

The present-day Heidelberg store stands on the same street where Philipp Klar first made and sold his soap, a point the company frames as a return to its founding location after almost two centuries.

The business passed to Philipp's son Theobald Klar around the turn of the twentieth century. Theobald expanded the workshop during the period of industrialisation and developed many of the recipes still used today. After the Second World War, Theobald's sons continued the firm and broadened its public profile through large advertising campaigns. In the early 1970s, Theo and Klaus took over production, opening new sales channels and steadily growing the contract-manufacturing side of the business known as Lohnherstellung.

Around the turn of the millennium, Niels Klar revived the brand as its fifth-generation representative, expanding the company's own-label range alongside the traditional contract work [7]. Two more recent developments stand out. In 2019 the company began converting its entire range to palm-oil-free ingredients. During the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, when soap and hygiene products were scarce in many places, Klar Seifen says it donated 200,000 Kernseifen (bars of household soap) to private individuals and charitable organisations [2].

Klar Seifen makes a broad range of solid soaps and related care products, spanning body and shower soaps, facial soaps, solid shampoo and conditioner, deodorant creams, hand creams and shaving products. The classic 100-gram bars remain among its best-sellers. Alongside everyday and care soaps scented with lemongrass and sandalwood, the line includes traditional German specialty formulations built around sulfur, birch tar and brine, the German-heritage retailer Manufactum notes [8].

Production leans on traditional methods. The Fendrihan editorial series reports that the manufactory still uses 100-year-old soap molds and produces its bars largely by hand, and that its soaps are made without dyes or preservatives [7]. The brand is symbolised by a polar bear logo.

The company's milled shaving soap has a steady following in traditional wet-shaving circles. On forums such as Badger & Blade and at specialist shaving retailers, reviewers describe the classic shaving soap as a dense, long-lasting bar that performs well once its water balance is right [12].

Klar Seifen presents itself as a five-generation family manufactory that holds to traditional cold-process soap-making while modernising incrementally for sustainability. In its own words, it stays true to the historic recipes of the manufactory while continuing to innovate and digitise the business. The company places quality and handcraft at the centre of its identity and refers to its long-serving staff as more a family than a group of colleagues.

The company makes several environmental and ethics claims, drawn chiefly from its own materials. It states that all of its products and ingredients are 100% vegan, and reports that it has been PETA-certified since 2021 [1]. It also describes its soaps and shampoos as manufactured plastic-free and made in the Heidelberg region, and lists COSMOS certification for its palm-oil-free formulations.

The move to the Plankstadt site in 2020 is central to this positioning. The company says the building was fitted with a solar (photovoltaic) installation that generates all of its required energy, and that the location combines production with an on-site shop and factory tours [2]. These sustainability claims are stated by the company and were not independently audited for this article.

The brand has drawn editorial attention from heritage-focused outlets rather than mainstream beauty press. Manufactum profiles Klar's range at length, describing the products as "soap of indisputable quality" made by "proven procedures and recipes which have been handed down" [8]. The Fendrihan blog ran a multi-part "Klar Seifen in Pictures" series documenting the manufactory's history, process and values [7]. In 2025, the regional outlet Speyer-Kurier published an anniversary feature marking 185 years of the company [10].

Klar Seifen is active. It operates under fifth-generation family leadership and distributes through its own webshop, with localised country sites for markets including Belgium, Denmark, France, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Austria, Poland and Sweden, alongside international retail partners. Its Instagram account remains active, and its 185-year anniversary was covered in the press in 2025 [10].