Emanuel Bronner

Bottle of Dr. Bronner's Magic Soap

Emanuel H. Bronner (February 1, 1908 - March 7, 1997) was the eccentric maker of Dr. Bronner's castile soap, a concentrated liquid notable for the vast amount of lather produced from a few drops and the vast amount of tiny text on its packaging. Although his parents were killed in the Holocaust, Bronner believed in the goodness and unity of humanity.

He was born in Heilbronn, Germany, to the Heilbronner family of soap makers. He emigrated to the United States in 1929, dropping "Heil" from his name to protest the rise of Hitler. He pleaded with his parents to emigrate with him for fear of the Nazis, but they refused. His last contact with his parents was in the form of a postcard saying, "You were right. —Your loving father."

He started his business making products by hand in his home. The product labels were crowded with statements of Bronner's philosophy, which he called "All-One-God-Faith" and the "Moral ABCs". Many of Bronner's references came from Jewish and Christian sources, such as the Shema and the Beatitudes; others from poets such as Rudyard Kipling. Sometimes they contained unusual product statements, for example suggesting a contraceptive use for the soap. They became famous for their idiosyncratic style, including hyphens to join long strings of words and the liberal use of exclamation marks. In 1947, while promoting his "Moral ABC's" at the University of Chicago, Bronner was arrested and committed to a mental hospital from which he escaped after several electroconvulsive therapy treatments.

After moving his family several times, he settled in Escondido, California, where eventually his soap-making operation grew into a small factory. At his death in 1997, it produced over a million bottles of soap and other products a year but was still not mechanized. The firm has been the subject of many published articles and has supported many charitable causes.

After Bronner's death, his family continued the business. They have said the labels he wrote will not change except when required by government regulations. The only change in the soap formula is the substitution of hemp seed oil for jojoba. This marketer reports that this makes the soap milder and less drying. The pH of their liquid castile soaps is about 9 to 10. The labels are now printed with hemp seed ink.

Sample text

The following is from the wrapper on one of his bars of soap, literally every centimeter of which is covered with similar dense text.

Absolute cleanliness is Godliness! Who else but God gave man Love that can spark mere dust to life! Poetry, uniting All-One! All brave! All life! Who else but God! "Listen Children Eternal Father Eternally One!

Einstein, 1939, after Nazis & Commies united, proposed spacebombs that destroy all, unless we finally teach the Moral ABC's the real Rabbi Hillel taught Jesus to unite all in All-One-God-Faith. As teach astronomers Abraham - Israel - Moses - Buddha - Hillel - Jesus - Spinoza - Paine - Sagan & Mohammed, inspired every 76 years, 6000 years by the Messenger of God's Law, the sign of the Messiah, Halley's Comet: "WE'RE ALL ONE OR NONE!" "THERE IS NO GOD BUT GOD!" "TEACH LOVE THY ENEMY!" "LISTEN CHILDREN ETERNAL FATHER ETERNALLY ONE!" Israel-Moses-Buddha-Jesus-Mohammed: ONE! ALL ONE!

Quoting Einstein's nephew, Dr. E.H. Bronner (a chemist who had also been a prisoner of war during WWII) in a letter printed in The Catholic Mirror, Springfield, MA, January 1952:

"It appears that the citizens of Massachusetts are among the `next` on the agenda of the water poisoners.

"There is a sinister network of subversive agents, Godless `intellectual` parasites, working in our country today whose ramifications grow more extensive, more successful and more alarming each new year and whose true objective is to demoralize, paralyze and destroy our great Republic--from within if they can, according to their plan--for their own possession.

"The tragic success they have already attained in their long siege to destroy the moral fiber of American life is now one of their most potent footholds towards their own ultimate victory over us.

"Fluoridation of our community water systems can well become their most subtle weapon for our sure physical and mental deterioration. ...

"As a research chemist of established standing, I built within the past 22 years, 3 American chemical plants and licensed 6 of my 53 patents. Based on my years of practical experience in the health-food and chemical field, let me warn: fluoridation of drinking water is criminal insanity, sure national suicide. Don`t do it.

"Even in small quantities, sodium fluoride is a deadly poison to which no effective antidote has been found. Every exterminator knows that it is the most efficient rat-killer. ... Sodium fluoride is entirely different from organic calcium-fluoro-phosphate needed by our bodies and provided by nature, in God`s great providence and love, to build and strengthen our bones and our teeth. This organic calcium-fluoro-phosphate, derived from proper foods, is an edible organic salt, insoluble in water and assimilable by the human body, whereas the non-organic sodium fluoride used in fluoridating water is instant poison to the body and fully water soluble. The body refuses to assimilate it.

"Careful, bonafide laboratory experimentation by conscientious, patriotic research chemists, and actual medical experience, have both revealed that instead of preserving or promoting `dental health,` fluoridated drinking water destroys teeth, before adulthood and after, by the destructive mottling and other pathological conditions it actually causes in them, and also creates many other very grave pathological conditions in the internal organisms of bodies consuming it. How can it be called a "health" plan? What`s behind it?

"That any so-called "doctors" would persuade a civilized nation to add voluntarily a deadly poison to its drinking water systems is unbelievable. It is the height of criminal insanity.

"No wonder Hitler and Stalin fully believed and agreed from 1939 to 1941 that, quoting from both Lenin`s Last Will and Hitler`s Mein Kampf: "America we shall demoralize, divide, and destroy from within." ...

"Are our Civil Defense organizations and agencies awake to the perils of water poisoning by fluoridation? Its use has been recorded in other countries. Sodium fluoride water solutions are the cheapest and most effective rat killers known to chemists: colorless, odorless, tasteless; no antidote, no remedy, no hope: Instant and complete extermination of rats.

.... "Fluoridation of water systems can be slow national suicide, or quick national liquidation. It is criminal insanity--treason!" Dr. E.H. Bronner, Mfg. Research Chemist, Los Angeles.

List of products (past and present)

• Liquid Castille Soap
  • Peppermint
  • Almond
  • Baby Mild
  • Tea Tree
  • Eucalyptus
  • Lavender
• Solid Castille Soap
  • Peppermint
  • Almond
  • Baby Mild
  • Tea Tree
  • Eucalyptus
  • Lavender
  • Rose
  • Lemon
• Sal Suds
• Food Products
  • Mineral Bouillon
  • Cheezon Corn
  • Corn Sesame
  • Calcium Malt
  • Hawaiian Syrup
  • Raw Vege Instant Soup
  • Balanced Mineral Seasoning
  • Dulse

External links

• Dr. Bronner's Magic Soaps Home Page
• Documentary about Dr. Bronner
• Dr. Bronner Fan Page
• On his soapbox: Man of ideas lathered his cleansing product with messages
• Next to Godliness: The story behind Dr. Bronner's soap
• Dr. Bronner Quote Generator
• Why the weird religious ravings on Dr. Bronner's soap? (from The Straight Dope)
• Germs Drummer arrested for possession soap