Spitzner

Spitzner is a German maker of body care, bath, sauna and massage products, based in Ettlingen near Karlsruhe at the northern edge of the Black Forest. The company traces its origins to 1949, when the pharmacist Professor Wolfram Spitzner set up a small pharmaceutical laboratory in the town [2]. For decades the Spitzner name stood mainly for medicines, including a line of cold remedies. Today it is attached to shower foams, skin and massage oils, bath additives and sauna infusions, all developed and produced at the same Ettlingen site.

Between 1986 and 2022 the business belonged to the Schwabe group, a German manufacturer of herbal medicines, before it was sold to a new owner. The company's website now presents Spitzner as an independent family business, and the available accounts of who owns it today do not fully match. The brand is active, with new product launches and dated publications in 2026.

Spitzner began life as the "Pharmazeutisches Laboratorium Ettlingen" (Ettlingen Pharmaceutical Laboratory), founded in 1949 by Professor Dr. Wolfram Spitzner, a pharmacist. According to the company, the laboratory's key early product was Pinimenthol, which became the basis of a range of remedies for colds. Spitzner describes the decades that followed as a journey through the natural world, guided by a firm belief in the healing power of plants. That idea still shapes how the company presents itself.

From the 1960s, by the company's own account, Spitzner moved beyond pharmacy products into physiotherapy and professional wellness, supplying thermal spas and upscale hotels. This professional side of the business, built around massage, bathing and sauna products, later became the foundation for the range now sold to consumers.

Much of the company's later history is tied to Dr. Willmar Schwabe, a herbal-medicine group founded in Leipzig in 1866 by the pharmacist of the same name and now headquartered in Karlsruhe-Durlach. According to the German pharmacy trade publication APOTHEKE ADHOC, Schwabe took over W. Spitzner Arzneimittelfabrik in 1986 [10]. For the next quarter of a century Spitzner operated as a Schwabe subsidiary, marketing pharmacy brands such as Umckaloabo, Lasea and Pinimenthol.

In December 2012 Schwabe announced that it would bring those pharmaceutical brands into the parent company [8]. Marketing was to be merged at the Spitzner site in Ettlingen, and the trade press reported at the time that the Spitzner name would leave the pharmacy market, with only production continuing under it. Both Ettlingen and Schwabe's Durlach plant were kept as production sites. From then on, Pinimenthol, Umckaloabo and Lasea were Schwabe products rather than Spitzner ones. What stayed with the subsidiary was a line of body care and wellness products.

In February 2022 Schwabe said it intended to part with both the Ettlingen production site and the Spitzner subsidiary [9]. The group explained that semi-solid forms such as ointments and creams, the main output in Ettlingen, had become less important within its overall portfolio. It wanted to concentrate investment on solid and liquid medicines at a single central production site in Karlsruhe. The plan was for the subsidiary and its products to pass to a new owner, who would also keep producing semi-solid forms in Ettlingen and develop the site further.

The search for a buyer ended in late July 2022, and the sale was reported in mid-August [10]. The business passed to a newly founded company, W. Spitzner Arzneimittelfabrik GmbH, which was to be run as an independent mid-sized firm with two arms: contract manufacturing and branded products. Under contract, the site would continue to make ointments, creams, medicinal baths and some liquid medicines for the Schwabe group. Employees were to be offered transfer to the new company, and the handover was planned for early October 2022. One of the new managing directors said at the time that the company was glad to see the old name revived.

Two later additions to the range appear without dates on the company's website. One is Pure Nature Oil, a line of natural sauna and wellness products. The other is a shower-foam edition made with Karlsruher SC, sold under the label "1894-Partner des KSC".

Accounts of who owns Spitzner today differ. The August 2022 trade-press report names Fidelio Management as the new owner of W. Spitzner Arzneimittelfabrik GmbH, with Frank Elsen and Andreas J. Mayer as managing directors. According to Schwabe, Fidelio's shareholders were the two managing directors together with several generalists from the pharmaceutical and healthcare sectors [10].

The company's own website names no parent company. It describes Spitzner Group GmbH as a traditional family business based in Ettlingen, currently with 80 employees [2]. Its legal notice lists Spitzner Group GmbH, entered in the commercial register in Karlsruhe, as the operator, with Andreas Josef Mayer and Prof. Dr. Walter Schober as managing directors [3]. No later report confirms whether Fidelio Management still holds the business. The current owner is therefore not publicly documented beyond these two descriptions.

Spitzner's brand core is the phrase "Gesundheit aus Pflanzenkraft", roughly "health from the power of plants". The company calls itself a healthcare company and says its aim is for people to feel comfortable in their own skin. It states that it develops and makes its products in-house in Ettlingen, following the strict criteria that also apply to the manufacture of medicines, a link back to its pharmaceutical origins.

According to the company, its present focus is twofold: building its own brand portfolio, and developing and producing cosmetics and wellness products. Much of the range started life as professional products for spas, saunas and massage practices. Spitzner says it wants to give health-conscious consumers access to these professional products as well. It sells directly through its online shop, which ships within Germany and to Austria, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, France, Italy and Spain, and through a factory outlet at the Ettlingen site.

The company also stresses quality control. It says every raw material passes a selection process in which it is checked for its ingredients, purity and unwanted contaminants, and that only material passing these tests goes into production. Spitzner states that it works to the rules of Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP), the internationally recognised quality standard covering manufacturing, packaging and storage, at every stage, and documents this work.

The range covers body care, bathing, sauna, massage and sport. Body care includes shower foams, lotions, deodorants, hand cream and skin oils. Spitzner describes its shower foams as distinctive in scent, foam texture and yield, and says they were dermatologically tested with a rating of "very good". Matching skin-care foams followed, most recently in two scents named FrischeKick and LebensFreude.

Alongside the foams sit the Aroma skin and massage oils, which the company describes as 100 per cent natural and built on individual scent blends. According to Spitzner, the shower foams and the skin and massage oils are vegan and free of parabens, silicones, PEG (a family of synthetic ingredients), microplastics and mineral oils. A separate Sensitive line is formulated without perfume, fragrances or dyes; the company highlights aloe vera, almond oil, jojoba oil and avocado oil among its ingredients.

Bath products remain close to the company's medicinal roots. Its oil and special baths, such as a valerian oil bath, use essential oils that Spitzner says meet pharmacopoeia standard [2]. The company explains that a medicinal plant reaches this standard when its content of active plant substances is at least as high, and of the quality, that the European Pharmacopoeia, the official European reference for medicines, requires.

Sauna products form the other large group. These include sauna infusions, the scented liquids poured onto the heater during a sauna session, as well as additives for steam baths. Spitzner says classic infusions such as Saunamed, Eucalyptus and Spruce rank highly with many sauna operators and their guests. A newer line under the Pure Nature Oil name offers ready-to-use, water-based natural infusions made with 100 per cent pure essential oils, in scents including eucalyptus-menthol, spruce, lavender, lemongrass, orange and peppermint. The website also carries supplements under a partner label, "spitzner x feel forever young".

All of Spitzner's sauna infusions carry the quality seal of the Deutscher Sauna-Bund, the German umbrella association for public sauna facilities, hotels with saunas, sauna-cabin makers and traders, founded in 1947. The seal was introduced in 2000, and Spitzner says it took part from the very start as a long-standing maker of sauna infusions [5]. Products carrying it are analysed and certified by an independent institute. Only natural or nature-identical fragrances are allowed, solvents are limited to a short list, and infusions meant for sauna temperatures above 105 °C may contain no emulsifiers. The seal also requires safe packaging, exact dosing aids and clear guidance on use. No other third-party certifications are documented.

For readers interested in formulations, the company publishes an A-to-Z glossary on its website. It explains, in German, each ingredient used across the range, from plant oils and extracts to preservatives, colourants and the fragrance components that must be declared on the label.

Spitzner calls sustainability part of its DNA. The company's reasoning starts with its raw materials: plants are the basis of its products, so it says it can only keep offering them if the plants it needs can be harvested reliably for decades. Sustainable cultivation on healthy soils is therefore described as essential, as are long-term, trusting relationships with suppliers, for example in lavender processing.

The company says emissions and energy use in production and administration have been a focus area for some time, to protect air and soil. It also frames sustainability in economic and social terms, citing sound business practice, a responsible personnel policy and production carried out exclusively in Germany.

Spitzner is active. Its website runs a live online shop and an online magazine; the most recent dated article, on rubs for wellbeing and relaxation, appeared on 12 May 2026 [4]. At the same time the homepage promoted the new Pure Nature Oil infusions and new products in the Sensitive line. Development and production remain at the company's site in Ettlingen. There is no indication of a presence outside Europe.