Leowerke
| LEO-WERKE GmbH VEB Elbe Chemie Dresden Dental Cosmetics GmbH & Co. KG Dresden |
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| legal form | |
| founding | 1907 (as Leo Laboratory ) |
| Seat | Dresden , Germany |
| management |
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| Number of employees |
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| Branch | dental care |
| Website | www.dental-kosmetik.de |
The Leowerke was founded in 1907 by Ottomar von Mayenburg as the Leo Laboratory for the manufacture of Chlorodont toothpaste in the attic of the Löwen Pharmacy . This toothpaste was awarded the gold medal at the international hygiene exhibition in Dresden in 1911. In 1917, the actual Leowerke began operating at Katharinenstrasse 4 in Dresden-Neustadt .
Rise to global brand by 1945
As early as 1917, the Leowerke had sixty employees. In the following seven years, the company expanded to become the largest dental care product manufacturer in Europe with over 1500 employees (1932) in 27 branches at home and abroad. Almost all components such as lime , peppermint and the packaging were produced in-house, making the company almost self-sufficient . Clever advertising combined with awareness-raising campaigns (The tooth is alive! Think about it and act accordingly!) , In addition to improved dental hygiene among the population, not least brought about the strong expansion. The trading cards with animal motifs that are enclosed with the tubes, which were produced in several series, are still sought-after collector's items today.
During the Second World War , the company was also entrusted with educating people about correct oral hygiene.
Reconstruction after 1945 and state-owned company (VEB)
The factories were badly destroyed during the bombing raids in February 1945, but were soon rebuilt in November and production resumed.
Because of the expropriation and nationalization in the Soviet zone of occupation , the headquarters of Leo-Werke and Heinsius von Mayenburg Verwaltungsgesellschaft mbH were relocated to Frankfurt / Main in 1950. 1952 remained in the East Leowerke were considered state-owned enterprise Elbe-Chemie nationalized and were as such major producer of oral and dental hygiene. In this VEB, the competitors Lingner-Werke ( Odol ) and Biox Ultra went on.
The product range was expanded to include the children's toothpaste Putzi . However, in the early 1980s these classics disappeared from the shelves.
After the fall of the Berlin Wall: reprivatisation
In 1990 the VEB Elbe-Chemie was administered as Dental Kosmetik GmbH & Co. KG Dresden by the Treuhandanstalt Berlin. On May 1st, 1992 the company was reprivatised and taken over by ARGENTA . While Putzi survived the fall of the Wall, the production of Chlorodont was not restarted. Today Dental-Kosmetik GmbH & Co. KG has 118 employees and produces 300,000 tubes of toothpaste and 30,000 bottles of mouthwash every day.
Products
The main product has always been the Chlorodont toothpaste. From 1924 to 1966, the Leo cream and the famous Leo pills (a herbal laxative made from aloe , rhubarb root and buckthorn extract ) were marketed with the slogan “Like balm for the intestine” and the Pitralon aftershave . Still produces Dental Cosmetics GmbH & Co. KG Dresden the Putzi -Zahncreme, the classics of Leowerke however, are no longer produced.
Web links
- History of the Leowerke
- Chlorodont website
- History of the Löwen Pharmacy (since 1560) (PDF; 1.1 MB)
- Website of Dental Kosmetik, today's company
Individual evidence
- ↑ Main State Archive Dresden ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ^ Sächsische Zeitung of May 8, 2018
