We’re creating viewer supported news. Become a member!Dr. Bronner’s Magic Castile soap has been the top selling organic soap in North America for many years. Have you ever stopped and wondered about the man behind the company and how it all got started? Well, without further ado, here are 15 things you probably didn’t know about Dr. Bronner and his magic castile soap.
1. Emanuel Bronner Was Born Into Soap
Bronner was part of a third generation family of Jewish master soap makers in Germany. His family was celebrated for decades for their important liquid soap innovations for the country. Unfortunately, Bronner’s relationship with his father and uncles had begun to sour, so he emigrated to the United States in 1929 for a fresh sart and to begin consulting for American soap companies. (I know I’m not the only one who is glad he did!)
2. He Began His New Life In The U.S. Lecturing About World Peace
Bronner was passionate about world peace and spent years spreading his life philosophy, which he called Bronner’s Peace Plan, to anyone who would listen. It eventually became known as “the Moral ABC.” Essentially, he believed that if people stopped focusing on their differences and instead thought about how we are actually all the same, we would all be better off on what he termed this “Spaceship Earth.”
3. His Philosophy For World Peace Was Borne Of Tragedy
In the 1940s Bronner received the devastating news that his parents and other family members who stayed in Germany had been murdered in Nazi death camps. Shortly after this, his wife fell ill and passed away, leaving Bronner with his two sons and daughter. He put all three children into foster care so that he could put more focus and attention on refining his speeches. Eventually his oldest son, Ralph, joined his father on the lecture circuit and continued spreading the Moral ABC long after his father’s death in 1997.
4. Bronner Was Once Committed To A Mental Institution — By His Sister
After learning that Bronner had abandoned his children to pursue his lectures, his sister had him committed to Elgan Mental Health Center outside Chicago, where he was subject to electric-shock treatments. In the mid 1940s, Bronner escaped, fled to California, and started to identify himself as a Rabbi. It was here that he began mixing up large batches of the liquid soap his family had been making for decades.
5. His Now-Famous Peppermint Soap Became A Giveaway To Anyone Who Attended His Lectures
After noticing people were attending just for the soap, Bronner began to print his talks on the bottles. He spent much of his life refining the 30,000 word creed by which he led his life and his company still prints on the soap today. Try out his peppermint soap for yourself.
6. The Company Now Bases Its Business Practices On Bronner’s Philosophy
There are six principles that guide the employees of Dr. Bronner’s Magic Castile Soap:
“Work hard! Grow! Do right by customers. Treat employees like family. Be fair to suppliers. Treat the earth like home. Give and give.”
One reason we respect this company is that they cap the salary of the top CEO’s of the company to no more than 5 times that of the lowest salary of their workers. In this age of corporate greed, this fact is to be applauded. To finish reading the rest of the interesting facts on Dr. Bronner’s magic soaps, go finish reading the article over on the site at Collective Evolution.