With the development of the Nivea cream, Oscar Troplowitz established the worldwide success of the Hamburg company Beiersdorf. He also set standards as a social benefactor.
by Janine Kühl, NDR.de
The most famous skin cream in the world, paid vacation, Tesa film, a day care center, the Hamburg city park and numerous paintings:In all areas in which Oscar Troplowitz was involved, he left something important for posterity.
In 1890, the pharmacist Oscar Troplowitz acquired the small company Beiersdorf in Altona and turned it into a globally operating company.Oscar Troplowitz comes from a Jewish family. He was born on January 18, 1863 in Gleiwitz, Upper Silesia. As a young man, I was primarily interested in architecture and art. But first the son of master builder Ludwig Troplowitz followed his father's wish and completed an apprenticeship as a pharmacist with his uncle Gustav Mankiewicz in Breslau and then studied pharmacy. In 1888 he received his doctorate in humanities in Heidelberg. The decisive step followed in 1890:With the financial support of his uncle, Troplowitz bought Paul Carl Beiersdorf's "factory for dermotherapeutic preparations" in Altona. A year later he brought his fiancée Gertrud, Gustav Mankiewicz's daughter, and married her.
Nivea, Labello, Leukoplast and Tesa-Film
Troplowitz does not simply continue the business, which primarily manufactures plasters. He surrounds himself with capable dermatologists and chemists and dedicates himself to research with great enthusiasm. This results in products that are now an integral part of our everyday lives. One of his employees, the chemist Isaak Lifschütz, makes a groundbreaking invention with the emulsifier "Eucerit":Thanks to the oil-water mixture, a new kind of cream can be produced. The snow-white Nivea is named after the Latin "nix, nivis" for snow and immediately begins its successful march around the world.
Nivea Creme is one of Beiersdorf's most successful products. It came onto the market in 1911 and soon became a bestseller.Even before the Nivea cream, probably his most famous invention, Troplowitz launched groundbreaking products. In 1901 he developed a medical adhesive bandage, the Leukoplast. The Labello, the epitome of the lip balm, and the rotating case that went with it went on sale in 1909. Finally, in 1911, Nivea conquered households. As early as 1896, a rubber adhesive film was created in the Beiersdorf laboratory, which became a bestseller as Tesa film in the 1930s. However, the Pebeco toothpaste that Troplowitz developed remains a flop.
Products with a zest for life:innovative marketing
The company grows steadily, from eleven employees in 1890 to around 500 in 1918. In 1892, Beiersdorf, as the company name continues to be, moves to Hamburg-Eimsbüttel. Here the new company owner can expand production and switch to mechanical operation. Troplowitz not only relies on innovation in the areas of research and production. Advertising plays a large part in global sales success. The enterprising entrepreneur made international contacts early on and quickly marketed his products beyond the German borders. In 1914, people can buy Beiersdorf products almost anywhere in the world.
Free lunch and breastfeeding rooms
Troplowitz lets his employees share in the success by improving working conditions. This is how he secures their loyalty. He gradually reduced working hours from 60 hours to a 48-hour week, granted paid vacation and set up a nursery for unmarried workers - an early form of the day-care center. In addition to an aid fund for women workers, Troplowitz's employees benefited from a company-owned savings bank from 1906, which guaranteed at least one percent more interest than public savings banks.
Troplowitz is not only constantly looking for new ways in research and marketing, but has also repeatedly introduced new social benefits over the years. From 1912 his employees get a free lunch. Finally, Troplowitz founds a pension fund into which all workers and employees of the company are allowed to pay. Under the socially committed boss, only one employee resigns - due to a lack of tasks as a result of improved production processes. As the company grew, Troplowitz hired the man again. "The success that has continued to this day shows that Troplowitz was not just an extraordinary personality, but also combined the rare character of an innovative researcher and strategically intelligent entrepreneur," says Thorsten Finke, corporate historian at Beiersdorf AG. "He shaped a special corporate culture that still has an impact today."
Picasso's absinthe drinker above the desk
During the last decade of his life, Oscar Troplowitz used his wealth to further his great passion:art. He supports young Hamburg painters and collects German and French Impressionists, including works by Camille Corot, Auguste Renoir, Max Liebermann and Max Slevogt. The young painters Friedrich Ahlers-Hestermann, Fritz Friedrichs, Franz Nölken and Thomas Herbst are frequent guests in Troplowitz's house on the Outer Alster. In 1909, the art lover was the first German private collector to buy a Picasso from the American writer Gertrude Stein in Paris:The Absinthe Drinker, a gloomy picture that he hung over his desk to the horror of many.
Six years as a member of parliament
The founding of the Hamburg city park goes back to the commitment of Oscar Troplowitz, among other things.Troplowitz's commitment to the common good is not limited to his company and private charity. As a member of the Left Liberals, he was a member of the Hamburg Parliament for six years, from 1904 to 1910. He later became a member of various deputations, mainly in the fields of education, construction and finance. In addition to improving the schools, those who remained childless are particularly interested in increasing the number of green spaces. The construction of Hamburg's city park goes back to his work, among other things.
Jewish tradition of the zedaka as the driving element
dr Christian Walda, former director of the Jewish Museum Rendsburg, sees three main motives for Troplowitz' far-reaching commitment:the educated middle-class and Hanseatic ideal of humane promotion, the desire of Jewish citizens for integration, and the religious tradition of the so-called zedaka, the charity and obligation to mutual support. These were "important reasons for Jewish and Jewish-born upper class citizens of the Kaiser era and the Weimar Republic to get extremely involved in social and cultural activities," says Walda.
Oscar Troplowitz died of a stroke on April 27, 1918 at the age of only 55. A street named after him in Hamburg-Eimsbüttel and a tomb in the Ohlsdorf cemetery commemorate the entrepreneur and patron of the arts. Troplowitz bequeathed 18 paintings from his extensive private collection to the Hamburger Kunsthalle.