How our founders broke new ground in medicine and skin care, and how they continue to inspire us today. So health and beauty can unfold in harmony with nature and the human being. Our vision is a healthy world Before Weleda was founded, Rudolf Steiner held his First Course for Doctors in 1920. This series of lectures was organised by the chemist Oskar Schmiedel. The following year, the “Laboratorium at the Goetheanum” in Switzerland, founded by Oskar Schmiedel, was taken over. In Schwäbisch Gmünd in Germany, the commercial production of medicine and skin care products began. In the same year, Ita Wegman founded what is now the Arlesheim Clinic in Switzerland. Building on new ideas inspired by anthroposophy, our founders developed a bold vision that brings people and nature closer together. What is anthroposophy? Anthroposophy explores connections. At Weleda, our understanding of the harmonious connection between people and plants enables us to develop better natural products. Anthroposophic medicine takes a holistic view of the human being and promotes a healthy balance between body, mind and spirit. What inspired our founders? Weleda was founded by people who longed for a better future and struck out in new directions. The physician Ita Wegman and the philosopher and scientist Rudolf Steiner recognised the connections between nature and the human body, mind and spirit. They began producing medicines and body care products with natural ingredients. The connection between people and nature can be seen and felt in the products we make for your health and beauty – and also in how we do business. From a medical course to a medicinal herb garden Our products are available around the globe Doctors, pharmacists and like-minded people joined forces and founded their own Weleda branches across the globe. Today you can find our medicines and natural cosmetics in over 50 countries. Weleda has subsidiaries in 20 countries. We source our raw materials from all over the world. As a co-initiator and member of the Union for Ethical BioTrade (UEBT), we ensure that strict ethical criteria are applied to all our natural raw material supply chains. We grow our medicinal plants according to the principles of biodynamic farming in our eight Weleda gardens worldwide.
Anthroposophy
Founded by Rudolf Steiner Anthroposophy was founded by the philosopher and natural scientist Rudolf Steiner, together with like-minded colleagues. The research method has influenced other disciplines including education, architecture, art and medicine and its impact can still be witnessed every day at Weleda. It’s a worldwide research method, with European roots, that explores spirituality with science. It offers ways to better understand the laws of humans and how to act accordingly, giving formulas and suggested actions for various areas in life. From scientific thinking to spiritual experience In contrast to the thinking of the day in academic and university circles, Steiner used the word anthroposophy to refer to the investigation of the spiritual realm through scientific and spiritual experience, and it was this to which he devoted his work. Anthroposophy takes its starting point from exact scientific thinking. The precise research methods that are otherwise limited to the world of matter are then extended to the spiritual through science. Anthroposophy can be described as follows: Humans understand the world through their senses and the processes of their minds – the knowledge of these findings is then called anthropology. Anthroposophy extended this approach to spiritual level, because humans can also perceive their environment with feelings and thoughts. Steiner called anthroposophy ‘the wisdom of man’, because in Greek anthropos means man and sophia wisdom. Steiner went on to found the General Anthroposophical Society in 1923, whose mission remains to maintain a free cultural and intellectual life, and to promote research into the spiritual realm. For the spiritual research the School of Spiritual Science was established in Dornach, only a few kilometres away from today’s Weleda headquarters in Arlesheim. The architecturally remarkable home of the school is called the Goetheanum. It’s a centre for anthroposophy – designed by Rudolf Steiner himself – which includes two performance halls seating 1500, a gallery, lecture rooms, a library, bookstore, and administrative spaces for the Anthroposophical Society. Conferences on themes of general interest continue to take place here several times a year. The influence of anthroposophy on Weleda The goal of anthroposophy is the development of the whole human being. Today it has branches in many areas including education, architecture, art, medicine and agriculture. At Steiner’s instigation the Waldorf schools – also called Steiner schools and kindergartens – anthroposophic medicine, natural body care products and biodynamic farming emerged. All of these disciplines are still integral to the Weleda of today. Whether it be in the manufacturing of our medicinal products and natural cosmetics, or in our dealings with partners, suppliers and employees, we always see humans, society and nature as a holistic whole, bound together by the relationship between our daily
Oskar Schmiedel
A self-assured man who initiated the production of anthroposophic pharmaceuticals and cosmetics. Dr. Oskar Schmiedel (30 October 1887 – 27 December 1959) was a pharmacist, anthroposophist, therapist, Goethean scientist and theosophist. He studied chemistry at Munich University and then joined the Theosophical Society. In 1907, after hearing a lecture by Rudolf Steiner, he became his personal pupil and in 1912 he founded the chemical-theosophic laboratory, where plant colours were researched in an anthroposphic way. He started his own laboratory in 1913, principally to produce cosmetic products. Production of the first anthroposophic medicines Soon afterwards Schmiedel was asked by Rudolf Steiner to relocate his laboratory to Dornach. From a primitive shed on the site, he helped with the decoration of the first Goetheanum, but at the same time he had already started to produce his own anthroposphic medicines. From 1919, the intensive production of remedies started, first with the help of Dr. Ita Wegmann and later with the help of Dr. Ludwig Noll (1872 – 1930), together with whom he created a whole range of supplements. Director of Weleda for 35 years In 1922 Schmiedel became responsible for the research and manufacturing department of Weleda and, in 1924, he became director of the whole company, an arrangement which lasted until his death in 1959. Oskar Schmiedel is still known today as an exemplary pharmaceutical pioneer. It was he who founded the anthroposophic laboratory and started the production of cosmetic and pharmaceutical products. It was he, too, who asked Rudolf Steiner to hold a medical course for doctors – an action which more than any other started the ball of anthroposophic medicine rolling.
