Emanuel Bronner
American soapmaker
title: "Emanuel Bronner" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["20th-century-american-businesspeople", "businesspeople-from-san-diego-county,-california", "american-company-founders", "manufacturing-company-founders", "activists-from-california", "jewish-american-activists", "american-pacifists", "jewish-pacifists", "american-blind-people", "people-from-escondido,-california", "naturalized-citizens-of-the-united-states", "american-people-of-german-jewish-descent", "jews-who-immigrated-to-the-united-states-to-escape-nazism", "german-emigrants-to-the-united-states", "german-people-of-jewish-descent", "people-from-heilbronn", "20th-century-american-jews", "1908-births", "1997-deaths", "businesspeople-in-the-soap-industry"] description: "American soapmaker" topic_path: "geography/united-states" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emanuel_Bronner" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0
::summary American soapmaker ::
::data[format=table title="Infobox person"]
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| name | Emanuel Bronner |
| image | BronnerNaturalizationCertificatePhoto.jpg |
| alt | A black and white photo of a man |
| caption | Bronner 1936 |
| birth_name | Emanuel Theodor Heilbronner |
| birth_date | |
| birth_place | Heilbronn, German Empire |
| death_date | |
| death_place | Escondido, California, U.S. |
| occupation | Soap maker, entrepreneur |
| known_for | Dr. Bronner's Magic Soaps |
| :: |
| name = Emanuel Bronner | image = BronnerNaturalizationCertificatePhoto.jpg | alt = A black and white photo of a man | caption = Bronner 1936 | birth_name = Emanuel Theodor Heilbronner | birth_date = | birth_place = Heilbronn, German Empire | death_date = | death_place = Escondido, California, U.S. | other_names = | occupation = Soap maker, entrepreneur | years_active = | known_for = Dr. Bronner's Magic Soaps | notable_works =
Emanuel Theodore Bronner (born Emanuel Heilbronner; February 1, 1908 – March 7, 1997) was the founder of Dr. Bronner's Magic Soaps. He used product labels to promote his moral and religious ideas, including a belief in the goodness and unity of humanity.
History
Bronner was born in Heilbronn, Germany, to the Heilbronner family of soap makers. He immigrated to the United States in 1929, dropping "Heil" from his name due to its association with Nazism. He became a naturalized citizen of the United States in 1936. As he and his family were Jewish, he pleaded with his parents to immigrate with him for fear of the then-ascendant Nazi Party, but they refused. His last contact with his parents was in the form of a censored postcard saying, "You were right. —Your loving father." His parents were murdered in the Holocaust.
Career
He started his business making products such as castile soap by hand in his home. The product labels are crowded with statements of Bronner's philosophy, which he called "All-One-God-Faith" and the "Moral ABC",{{Cite news | last = Foster | first = Tom | title = The Undiluted Genius of Dr. Bronner's | work = Inc.com | access-date = 2014-10-24 | date = 2012-04-03 | url = http://www.inc.com/magazine/201204/tom-foster/the-undiluted-genius-of-dr-bronners.html | archive-date = April 5, 2012 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20120405154924/http://www.inc.com/magazine/201204/tom-foster/the-undiluted-genius-of-dr-bronners.html | url-status = live | last = Philpott | first = Tom | title = Why Did Top Scientific Journals Reject This Dr. Bronner's Ad? | work = Mother Jones | access-date = 2014-10-24 | date = 2014-10-20 | url = https://www.motherjones.com/tom-philpott/2014/10/read-dr-bronners-gmo-ad-thats-too-hot-nature-and-science | archive-date = June 3, 2017 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20170603192326/http://www.motherjones.com/tom-philpott/2014/10/read-dr-bronners-gmo-ad-thats-too-hot-nature-and-science | url-status = live
In 1946, while promoting his "Moral ABC" at the University of Chicago, Bronner was arrested for refusing to leave the dean's office, despite the fact he was invited to the campus to lecture by a local student group. He was then committed to the Elgin Mental Health Center, a mental hospital in Elgin, Illinois, from which he escaped after shock treatments. Bronner believed those shock treatments brought about his eventual blindness.
After escaping from Elgin, Bronner hitch-hiked to Los Angeles, California. Over time Bronner started a family and eventually settled in Escondido, California, where his soap-making operation grew into a small factory. At his death in 1997, it produced more than a million bottles of soap and other products per year, but was still not mechanized. The firm has been the subject of many published articles and has supported many charitable causes.
Legacy
After Bronner's death, his family has continued to run the business. His grandson David Bronner is currently CEO.{{Cite web | last = Harkinson | first = Josh | title = How Dr. Bronner's Soap Turned Activism Into Good Clean Fun | work = Mother Jones | access-date = 2014-10-24 | date = 2014-05-24 | url = https://www.motherjones.com/environment/2014/02/dr-bronners-magic-soap-david-bronner-gmo-hemp | archive-date = May 12, 2017 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20170512224033/http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2014/02/dr-bronners-magic-soap-david-bronner-gmo-hemp | url-status = live
His life was the subject of a 2007 documentary film, Dr. Bronner's Magic Soapbox, which premiered on the Sundance TV channel, on 3 July 2007.{{Cite news | issue = November/December | last = McClelland | first = Mac | title = Dr. Bronner's Magic Soapbox | work = Mother Jones | access-date = 2014-10-24 | date = 2007 | url = https://www.motherjones.com/media/2007/10/dr-bronners-magic-soapbox | archive-date = January 18, 2018 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20180118154922/http://www.motherjones.com/media/2007/10/dr-bronners-magic-soapbox/ | url-status = live
The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society has a ship, the , donated by the soap company.{{Cite web | title = Introducing the latest addition to the Sea Shepherd fleet, the M/V Emanuel Bronner | work = Sea Shepherd | access-date = 2017-11-13 | date = June 2, 2017 | url = https://www.seashepherdglobal.org/latest-news/newest-addition-to-the-sea-shepherd-fleet-generous/ | archive-date = November 13, 2017 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20171113221657/https://www.seashepherdglobal.org/latest-news/newest-addition-to-the-sea-shepherd-fleet-generous/ | url-status = live
References
| url = http://www.drbronner.com/ | title = Dr. Bronner's Soap | access-date = July 6, 2003 | archive-date = July 18, 2003 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20030718181132/http://www.drbronner.com/ | url-status = live | url = https://www.straightdope.com/21342071/why-the-weird-religious-ravings-on-dr-bronner-s-soap | title = Why the weird religious ravings on Dr. Bronner's soap? | publisher = The Straight Dope | date = 1988-04-22 | access-date = 2007-10-23 | archive-date = October 22, 2020 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20201022094430/https://www.straightdope.com/21342071/why-the-weird-religious-ravings-on-dr-bronner-s-soap | url-status = live | url = http://www.thesunmagazine.org/bronner.html | title = "Next To Godliness: The Story Behind Dr. Bronner's Soap," an interview with Ralph Bronner | work = The Sun | author = Gail Grenier Sweet | quote = 2 million bottles are packed by hand ... Four to five people, not working fast, pack them with no machines |date=January 2001 | access-date = 2007-10-23 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20010508090128/http://www.thesunmagazine.org/bronner.html |archive-date = 2001-05-08}} | last = Catsoulis | first = Jeannette | title = Movie Review - Dr. Bronner's Magic Soapbox: Beneath the Bubbles | url = https://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/29/movies/29bron.html | newspaper = The New York Times | date = 2007-06-29 | access-date = July 26, 2019 | archive-date = July 26, 2019 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20190726065045/https://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/29/movies/29bron.html | url-status = live
References
- Green, David B.. (March 7, 2013). "This Day in Jewish History 1997: Creator of Dr. Bronner's "Magic" Moral Soaps Dies". [[Haaretz]].
- Bryony Gomez Palacio, Armin Vit. (2011). "Graphic Design Referenced: A Visual Guide to the Language, Applications, and History of Graphic Design". Rockport Publishers.
- (October 25, 2013). "Emanuel Bronner". German Historical Institute.
- Ben Ehrlich, ''Dr. Bronner's Soapy History'', The [Jewish] Forward, June 29, 2007, page 2.
- "Archived copy".
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