Pflüger

Pflüger is a family-owned German pharmaceutical company that makes homeopathic medicines and Schüßler salts, a range of mineral-salt preparations, at its home site in Rheda-Wiedenbrück. The business was founded on 1 January 1949 as the Homöopathisches Laboratorium Alexander Pflüger, although its roots reach back to a naturopathic practice run by the founder's father in the late 1920s [13]. It is now led in the third generation by the pharmacists Horst Pflüger and Astrid Kipp.

Medicines remain the core of the company, but since 2017 Pflüger has also moved into personal care, first with a toothpaste and later with mineral-salt skin creams and body lotions sold through pharmacies. The creams and lotions, launched in 2022 and 2024, carry the company's Schüßler approach from tablets into face and body care. The company is active and introduced new products as recently as June 2026.

The company traces its origins to Georg Pflüger, a naturopath (Heilpraktiker) who developed his own homeopathic preparations and used them with his patients. Pflüger's history page dates this practice to 1929 [2], while a 2019 company announcement places the start of his formulations, together with a book of recipes, in the late 1920s [14]. The company's about page puts it more loosely at the beginning of the last century.

In 1949 his son Alexander Pflüger began producing his father's formulas on an industrial scale. On the first day of that year he founded the Homöopathisches Laboratorium Alexander Pflüger in Rheda-Wiedenbrück, and in the same year he published the company's first homeopathic formulary. Company accounts describe a modest start. Production began in the family's private house with only a handful of staff, making homeopathic complex remedies (mixtures of several single remedies aimed at a specific complaint) and, from the 1960s, Schüßler salts as well.

Pflüger treats 1949 as its founding year and celebrated its 70th anniversary in 2019 and its 75th in 2024. The 1929 date is presented as the roots of the family business rather than its formal founding, so the two dates describe different stages of the same story rather than competing claims.

Growth was steady over the following decades. Production facilities went up on the company grounds in Wiedenbrück in 1951, and by 1965 Pflüger employed 25 people. From 1978 the company bought a plot of about 15,000 square metres in the Rheda district, first building a warehouse and then, in 1984, a 1,500-square-metre production site for solid and liquid dosage forms with its own quality control. Further extensions followed in the early 1990s.

The year 2000 marked a turning point for the Schüßler business. According to the company's own chronicle, Schüßler salts were enjoying a "renaissance" in the media at the time. Pflüger enlarged its production area by about 1,300 square metres and expanded its Schüßler division. In 2007 a new administration building brought every department, from regulatory affairs to shipping, under one roof on Röntgenstraße in Rheda-Wiedenbrück.

The 2010s brought more public visibility. In 2011 the first television commercial featuring Horst Pflüger was broadcast on the German channel ZDF. The pharmacist Astrid Kipp became managing director in 2013. In 2014 the company opened a 1,600-square-metre logistics centre and came into possession of the original letters of Dr. Wilhelm Heinrich Schüßler, the man after whom the salts are named. Advertising campaigns ran under slogans such as "Natürlich schüßler ich. Aber preisbewusst." (2014) and "Schüßlern mit Pflüger – einfach klüger" (2017), both playing on "schüßlern" as a verb for using the salts.

In 2019, its anniversary year, Pflüger moved its quality control, quality assurance and cleaning teams into a new 1,150-square-metre building. The bicentenary of Schüßler's birth in 2021 was marked with a documentary and a book, and in the same year all 27 Schüßler salts became available as globuli, the tiny pellets widely used in homeopathy. The 75th anniversary year of 2024 brought a new supplement line, Pflüger PUR vitamins and minerals, launched on 1 April, followed by three mineral-salt body lotions in July.

Pflüger is an independent family business. Horst Pflüger, a pharmacist and the grandson of Georg Pflüger, is the owner (Firmeninhaber) [2]; he celebrated his 70th birthday in June 2018. He runs the company together with Astrid Kipp. No parent group, outside shareholders or acquisitions are documented. Legally, the business operates as Homöopathisches Laboratorium Alexander Pflüger GmbH & Co. KG, a German limited partnership whose general partner is Pflüger-Pharma GmbH [3].

The size of the workforce has been stated slightly differently over time. The company's website currently describes a staff of 130 [1], while a company press release issued for the 75th anniversary in January 2024 gave the figure as 140 [13].

Pflüger frames its work around "natural healing" and says its actions are deliberately in harmony with people, nature and the environment. It presents itself as a mid-sized firm that combines tradition with progress, and it stresses that its medicines are made in Germany. Its self-image is summed up in seven values whose German initials spell out the company name: persönlich (personal), fortschrittlich (progressive), lebendig (lively), überzeugend (convincing), gemeinschaftlich (communal), erfolgreich (successful) and respektvoll (respectful).

Some of these values show up in everyday company life. According to Pflüger, staff from every department join an annual oat harvest, and the company says it favours regional suppliers. In 2015 it opened an on-site childcare group, "Ratz & Rübe", for children under three, and the same new building houses a naturopathic practice.

Pharmacies are central to the business model. The creams are sold only in pharmacies, and the company has built up its own field sales force along with training courses for pharmacists, pharmacy technicians, midwives, doctors and naturopaths. Since early 2025 customers have been able to reserve Pflüger products for collection at local pharmacies.

Schüßler salts are the products most closely associated with the company. Pflüger follows the "biochemistry" of Dr. Schüßler and, according to the company, makes the salts strictly to his specified standard potencies. The packs are easy to spot thanks to large coloured numbers, one for each salt. As of 2024 the company produced 27 Schüßler salts in six dosage forms, including powders, lactose-free drops and large packs of 4,000, and it describes this as the broadest Schüßler range in Germany [13]. Twelve combinations are aimed at common everyday complaints. For beauty-minded users, the company singles out salt No. 11, Silicea, which it calls the mineral salt of beauty and links with skin, hair, nails and connective tissue.

Homeopathy is the second pillar. The range comprises around 130 complex remedies, about 60 per cent of which are still based on Georg Pflüger's original formulas, and more than 90 per cent of which are licensed medicines with a named area of use [14]. Better-known products include Otofren, a remedy for middle-ear infections that was given new packaging in 2019; Nervoregin, promoted in 2021 with a campaign on the theme of gratitude; Ranocalcin for back complaints; and the Rhino-Pflüger nasal spray, launched in March 2022. In October 2022 the company introduced single remedies as Globuli Pflüger in a dosing dispenser designed for clean, measured use. Company sources give the initial number of remedies as both eight and ten; three more, Pulsatilla, Nux vomica and Rhus toxicodendron, followed in June 2026.

Personal care is a newer and smaller part of the business. In 2017 Pflüger launched MinOral, a toothpaste combining selected minerals based on Schüßler's biochemistry with xylitol, which the company says helps prevent tooth decay. It is sold exclusively in pharmacies and is described as compatible with homeopathy and suitable for vegans.

In January 2022 the company added six mineral-salt creams for face and body, the Mineralstoff-Creme-Mischungen A, E, G, N and V and the face cream Ge. They pair mineral salts with plant oils. According to Pflüger, almond oil nourishes the skin with vitamins, castor oil has an anti-inflammatory effect and avocado oil adds moisture. The company says the creams are aimed at skin problems as well as joint, muscle and vein complaints.

The three Mineralstoff-Lotionen, labelled S, R and B, followed in July 2024. Pflüger states that they are free of silicones, paraffins, mineral oil, fragrance, dyes and microplastics [8], and they are sold without folding boxes or package leaflets.

Environmental measures have been part of the company's story since 2010, when it installed a photovoltaic system on its warehouse roof. A second array of 362 modules followed in 2019, which the company says generates about 60,000 kWh a year for its own use. Pflüger has been certified under the ÖKOPROFIT environmental-management scheme since 2015 and published its first sustainability report in 2023 [13]. The company says it deliberately uses recycled paper, glass containers and fully recyclable plastics, and avoids unnecessary packaging. Its mother tinctures, the plant extracts from which many homeopathic remedies are made, are prepared from medicinal plants grown organically. In 2026 a staff team took part in the STADTRADELN cycling campaign, saving an estimated 938.6 kilograms of CO2 by leaving their cars at home.

Most of Pflüger's awards have recognised it as an employer and as a local business. It won first place in the "Familie gewinnt" competition for family-friendly employers in 2011 and the competition's audience award in 2016. In 2020 the town of Rheda-Wiedenbrück presented it with its annual business award. The Globuli dosing dispenser won a silver medal at the VISION.A Awards 2023 in the category for the best redesign of an existing product [13]. In 2026 the company received the Aponow Best Practice Award 2025 for its pharmacy click-and-collect service [2].

Pflüger is an active company. Recent activity includes the three new Globuli single remedies introduced in June 2026, a company podcast, "Frauenbewusst", released every four weeks since November 2025, and regular company news; the latest item, dated September 2026, welcomed two new apprentices [11]. The firm remains family-owned and continues to manufacture its medicines in Rheda-Wiedenbrück.