Origins

For us, natural skin care has been our mission since 1967.

Today, more and more people are asking ecological and social questions – including about their skin care. And we provide answers, some of which haven’t changed for more than 50 years.

Different from day one.

• 1929 – The beginnings of WALA Heilmittel GmbH.

  Rudolf Hauschka establishes a process for producing plant extracts based on water, enabling them to remain stable without using any alcohol or preservatives. This achievement gains the young chemist the respect of the scientific world – and gives rise to the Foundation of WALA.
  
  

• 1935 – The market launch of WALA Medicines.

  WALA opens its laboratories and launches its first alcohol-free medicines – today known as WALA Medicines. For a long time, Rudolf Hauschka planned to offer skin care products alongside the pharmaceuticals.
  
  

• 1962 – The beginnings of Dr. Hauschka.

  Rudolf Hauschka meets researcher, formulator, esthetician and former medical student, Elisabeth Sigmund. With her ideas, her own formulations and a holistic skin care concept, Elisabeth Sigmund was the perfect fit for WALA.
  
  

• 1967 – The market launch of Dr. Hauschka.

  ‘Dr. Hauschka Heilende Kosmetik nach Elisabeth Sigmund’ (Dr. Hauschka Healing Skin Care by Elisabeth Sigmund) is launched. Even back then, we developed products for people, not markets: Our natural cosmetics are designed to meet human needs and use the vital powers of nature for skin care. Our initial aim was to develop skin care with good skin compatibility and caring properties – so natural skin care was the inevitable result.

About Rudolf Hauschka and Elisabeth Sigmund.

Rudolf Hauschka.

Dr. Rudolf Hauschka (1891-1969) was an adventurer and pathfinder, a visionary and archivist. Born in Vienna, the WALA founder studied chemistry and lived for science. But the main motivation for his future career as a scientist, which ultimately led to the development of WALA’s manufacturing processes, came from the founder of anthroposophy, Rudolf Steiner. The two met once in person. Steiner’s comment that “rhythm brings life” prompted Hauschka to look into new extraction processes. The technique developed by Rudolf Hauschka took into account the rhythmic polarities of nature – such as rest and movement, warmth and cold, day and night. The result was the first stable aqueous plant extracts produced without alcohol or preservatives. A quiet revolution, recognized by the scientific community and embraced by doctors who believed the body heals best when supported, not overwhelmed.

Elisabeth Sigmund.

Elisabeth Sigmund (1914–2013) was born in Vienna. She was a researcher, formulator, Red Cross nurse and natural skin care pioneer who had no interest in doing things the conventional way. She spent decades developing her own formulations from botanical extracts — long before “clean beauty” had a name. Elisabeth Sigmund played a key role in the development of Dr. Hauschka Skin Care. Her ideas live on today in Dr. Hauschka Skin Care products and the Dr. Hauschka Esthetics treatments.

When she met Rudolf Hauschka in 1962, she brought her ideas, her recipes, and a conviction that skin didn’t need to be corrected — only supported. Together, they created stable, preservative-free cream bases and fragrance blends made entirely from natural essential oils.

Her ideas live on in every Dr. Hauschka product made today. In 1971, she trained the first Dr. Hauschka Esthetician — establishing a hands-on tradition of care that has never stopped growing.

Today.

Made in Eckwälden.

We still work on the same piece of land that Rudolf Hauschka bought in the late 1950s in Eckwälden – an agricultural region in southern Germany at the foot of the Swabian Jura mountains. Many of our production steps are still carried out by hand.

Made by us.

We see ourselves as a team for whom our work is more than just a job. What does that mean, exactly? It means that in summer, when the calendula blooms in the fields, employees in other departments also pitch in with the harvest, because we not only inspire each other, we support each other too. What sets us apart from other manufacturers? We are only interested in what your skin needs, in what you need – not in where we can open up new markets and maximize profits. Sound radical? It’s certainly a different way of thinking and acting—one that is based on the idea of responsible ownership: the funds we generate go to the WALA Foundation and to our roughly 1,000 employees.

From the Farm to Your Community

The belief that growing things well changes everything didn’t stop in Eckwälden. In North America, it takes the form of The Giving Garden® — a national program rooted in the same philosophy as our formulas: that what we put back into the earth is as important as what we take from it.

Through community partnerships across the country, The Giving Garden® addresses food security while honoring the soil, the season, and the people who tend both.