Phönix Laboratorium

Phönix Laboratorium is a German family-owned maker of spagyric and homoeopathic medicines, based in Bondorf in Baden-Württemberg. It was founded in 1925 in Stuttgart-Vaihingen by the naturopath and chemist Conrad Johann Glückselig [2]. Beauty buyers know it mainly for a small line of body oils and a balm sold under the phoenix® name since 2003, a range that grew out of two of the company's former topical medicines.

The company passed its centenary in 2025 and remains in the hands of the founder's family. It describes itself as one of the few independent, mid-sized pharmaceutical family businesses in Germany [2]. Its work rests on "spagyrics", an old alchemical approach to preparing plant and mineral remedies, and several of the founder's methods are written into the German Homoeopathic Pharmacopoeia.

Conrad Johann Glückselig was born on 13 July 1864 in Weidenberg. According to the company's own history, his thinking drew on three sources: his knowledge of natural healing, his theosophical world view, and alchemical-spagyric tradition. Reading theosophical literature, above all the works of the 17th-century mystic Jakob Böhme, is said to have led him to spagyrics.

From 1896 Glückselig worked as a naturopath. He first used plant-based and so-called electrohomoeopathic preparations, but soon switched to spagyric recipes that he produced himself. The company says these treatments made him known as a "theosophical doctor" and alchemist, and that other practitioners began to use his remedies as well.

In 1914, at the suggestion of the writer Alexander von Bernus, Glückselig went to Stift Neuburg near Heidelberg, where von Bernus owned a nearly finished laboratory for spagyric preparations. Glückselig brought his knowledge of growing medicinal plants and his laboratory experience, and the laboratory was completed. The company's account adds that von Bernus kept Rudolf Steiner, the founder of anthroposophy, regularly informed about the recipes, and that Steiner often visited Stift Neuburg during this period.

After that collaboration Glückselig returned to his own practice and remedy development in Stuttgart-Vaihingen. He translated theosophical writings into German and founded a theosophical group in Stuttgart, the "Loge Nr. 8", which he led until his death. The company also notes his early interest in breeding especially vital vegetables, which he considered a basis of human health.

In 1925 he founded the Alchymistisch-Spagyrische Laboratorium Phönix to manufacture his medicines [2]. The firm used a logo with a snake and the letters ASLP. In the company's reading, the A stood for alchemy, the S-shaped snake for spagyrics, the L for laboratory and the P for Phönix.

Glückselig died on 2 October 1934, less than a decade after founding the laboratory. His widow, Luise Glückselig (née Grieshammer), and his daughter, Elise Glückselig, kept the business going. The company states that the political circumstances of the Second World War threatened its existence, and that production of its biological medicines continued under conditions that are hard to imagine today.

From the mid-1950s Elise Glückselig ran the firm on her own; her mother died in 1961. On 1 October 1972 the founder's grandson, Jochen Kadau, joined the company and took over its leadership. The company says he ran it in the spirit of his grandfather.

Growth in the 1970s forced a move. A new building went up in Bondorf in 1978 and was occupied in 1979. In the same period the business was converted into a limited liability company under the name Phönix Laboratorium GmbH. Elise Glückselig, the founder's daughter, died in 1999 at the age of 103.

The next generation of management came from within the family circle. Dr. Ekkehard Titel, who had worked as an assistant to the management since 2000, became managing director in December 2004 [2]. He is still named as managing director in the company's legal notice [8].

Later milestones were mostly about capacity and range. In 2009 the company expanded its production, shipping and storage space and installed a photovoltaic system that, by its own account, covers the firm's electricity demand. In 2013 it launched 12 spagyric mineral-salt distillates as medicines, made from the 12 main salts of Schüssler biochemistry, a 19th-century system of mineral-salt remedies.

For its 90th anniversary in 2015 the main building was modernised, raised by a storey and enlarged. The work greatly expanded the laboratory space and added a seminar room for training. In 2018 the company broadened its spagyric range with a second manufacturing method, the Zimpel process. It first took over tinctures made this way by the firm Müller-Göppingen, and from 2018 produced them in a purpose-built new building at its own site [2].

Phönix Laboratorium has no parent company. It has remained with the Glückselig family and its circle for its whole history: first the founder, then his widow and daughter, then his grandson, and since 2004 Dr. Ekkehard Titel from the family circle. The company is registered as Phönix Laboratorium GmbH at the district court in Stuttgart, with its seat in Bondorf [8].

The only documented acquisition is the takeover of the Zimpel-process tinctures from Müller-Göppingen, which the company later began producing itself.

At heart, Phönix Laboratorium is a pharmaceutical company rather than a cosmetics house. According to the company, its range covers 38 spagyric and more than 60 homoeopathic preparations [2]. It counts itself among the principal manufacturers in the spagyric field and has developed treatment programmes for practitioners, such as its PHÖNIX Ausleitungskonzept and PHÖNIX Aufbaukonzept.

The company describes spagyrics as a set of special processes that, following the Renaissance physician Paracelsus, make the healing properties of natural raw materials available for medicinal use [11]. Its educational material frames the method around the three alchemical principles of Sulphur, Mercurius and Sal.

Tradition is the value the company returns to most often. It says its spagyric-homoeopathic preparations stand for an awareness of tradition and consistently high quality. It goes further, stating that preserving tradition is both the foundation and the task for its future. The website greets visitors with the line "gemeinsam besser werden – jeden Tag", roughly "getting better together, every day".

Production, quality-control analysis, sales and administration are all under one roof in Bondorf. The company holds a certificate as a manufacturer under GMP (Good Manufacturing Practice) [2]. This is a pharmaceutical manufacturing standard, not a cosmetics or ethics label.

### The phoenix® care line

Next to its medicines, the company has offered body-care products under the phoenix® brand since 2003. The company page says the brand is based on the former topical medicines Kalantol A and Kalantol B. An older page on the company's website still shows the same four products under the earlier name "Kalantol® Pflegeserie" [10]. Each product comes in 30 ml and 100 ml sizes.

- phoenix® Harmonie-Öl is labelled "balancing and relaxing". It combines argan oil, jojoba oil and cold-pressed olive oil from organic cultivation, with essential oils of ginger, yarrow, chamomile and a trace of frankincense. The company presents it as a massage and whole-body oil that can also be used on dry hair ends. - phoenix® Vital-Öl is labelled "invigorating and refreshing". It is an oil extract of St John's wort in native olive oil, with essential oils of eucalyptus, lavender, rosemary and peppermint. It is offered as a massage oil and for daily care of dry skin. - phoenix® Aura-Öl is labelled "balancing and clarifying". Its base is a blend of almond and coconut oil, with lavender and eucalyptus essences. The company says all of its components come from organic cultivation. - phoenix® Pflege-Balsam is labelled "regenerating and cleansing" and is described as a traditional plant extract after C. J. Glückselig. It combines myrrh, gum arabic, arnica, rosemary, calendula, St John's wort, Peru balsam and cajeput oil. The water-soluble balm is intended for the care of skin and mucous membranes.

The company markets the oils and the balm as "Naturkosmetik", German for natural cosmetics, and as purely plant-based products without added preservatives or fragrances [4]. Because the formulas contain essential oils, "no added fragrance" does not mean they are unscented. No third-party natural-cosmetics or organic certification seal is named for the line; the organic and natural wording is the company's own.

### Spagyric methods

The company's most lasting technical legacy lies on the medicine side. Glückselig's spagyric manufacturing processes were included in the German Homoeopathic Pharmacopoeia (HAB) as rules 54a and 54b, labelled "spag. Glückselig", and 54c, labelled "Glückselig" [2]. The company regards this inclusion as a key condition for securing the future of the therapy. The 2013 mineral-salt distillates and the 2018 addition of the Zimpel process extended that spagyric range.

The company also sells a separate pharmacy line, the phöno series, which includes products named phöno Gripp, phöno Ven and phöno Uren. These are medicines rather than cosmetics.

Phönix Laboratorium is active. Its company page marks more than 100 years of the business, and leaflets for three of the four phoenix® care products carry a version code dated May 2026 [5]. The company states that it employs 35 people, with manufacturing in Bondorf. Its medicines and care products are sold mainly through pharmacies.