Dr Hauschka and the Rhythm of Skin

This year marks the 50th year of Dr Hauschka Skincare, so it seems appropriate to write a little about the two Rudolfs who made it possible, as well as Elisabeth Sigmund who did so much to develop the treatment side, as well as the skincare products.

In 1924, Dr Rudolf Hauschka, creator (with Elisabeth Sigmund) of the eponymous skin care range had a meeting, in a corridor, which would literally change his life: he met Dr Rudolf Steiner at a conference, the year before Steiner died.

Rudolf Steiner 

Born in 1891, in Austria, the younger Rudolf was a keen biochemist and was looking for a way to preserve plant extracts without the use of alcohol or synthetic preservatives, in a way that would retain the essence of the original plant. He asked Dr Steiner a seemingly simple question: "What is the meaning of life?" (I think we'd all like the answer to that one.) 

Anyway, he got his answer. Rudolf Steiner told him to study Rhythm, because "Rhythm carries life." 

Most women are pretty aware of rhythms; we have the obvious monthly one, then day and night, heat and cold, dry and moist: all these different modalities of life and rhythm surround us, and we take then for granted, without really thinking about them, but Dr Hauschka was inspired by this concept, so proceeded to experiment with various methods of extracting and preparing his plant extracts. 

By potentising them according to homeopathic principles and using his unique 'rhythmical processing', which involved exposing the plant extracts to the elements and rhythms of nature, he succeeded in creating an water-based extract of rose petals which remained stable without the use of alcohol or preservatives. 

If you or your children have ever tried to make Rose Water, you'll know that initially the mix smells beautiful, but in a day or so, it's pretty rank and only fit for the compost heap. Dr Hauschka's, however, lasted for over 30 years, and formed the basis of the mother-tincture that was used for medicines, by Hauschka's company WALA. 

(Wala is an acronym for Warmth and Ash, Light and Ash or, more probably, in German:Wärme-Asche und Licht-Asche, which stands for the rhythmical process developed by Rudolf Hauschka)

In 1935, still working with the impulses of anthroposophy, Dr. Hauschka opened the first WALA laboratory in Germany. There was a bit of a blip in the period between 1939 -1945, and Rudolf Hauschka, like all the best people, spent some time incarcerated; a pretty common occurrence at that point. He was lucky enough to survive the war, and WALA continued its medical work, expanding and creating a range of medicines that today numbers over 900 different products, plus the Dr Hauschka skin care range.

This was a co-creation with the renegade Esthetician and anthroposophist Elisabeth Sigmund. She was ordering WALA medicines to use in her own skincare creations and they began to correspond.  Dr. Hauschka asked for her thoughts and ideas about creating an holistic skin care range based on Anthroposophical principles, and was so intrigued and delighted with her input, that she was invited to visit WALA HQ in 1964. 

From then on they collaborated and the first WALA skin care products appeared in 1967. Initially the products were labelled with both their names: 

Dr R Hauschka and 
„Heilende Kosmetik nach Elisabeth Sigmund“ (roughly translated as 'healing cosmetics from Elisabeth Sigmund') but her name was dropped at some point; I don't know why. It often happens to women in science, though. It might have been considered better to use the prefix Dr. and Elisabeth had given up her medical training in order to work as a nurse during the war, and never gone back. 

Rudolf Hauschka's grave at Wala

The resulting partnership was remarkably fruitful and creative. When Dr Hauschka died in 1969, Elisabeth Sigmund carried on with their joint work. She developed the Dr Hauschka Classic Facial treatment, the Facial Gymnastics and started the development of colour cosmetics - makeup with the same curative ingredients as the skincare range. 

Elisabeth Sigmund's grave at WAL

Elisabeth Sigmund died in 2013 at the age of 99, wearing her favourite Dr Hauschka lipstick to the end, and still a keen student of Rudolf Steiner and Anthroposophy.

They both stayed at WALA though; their grave are in the lovely little cemetery in the grounds where they worked so hard.