"When people hear the name Retterspitz for the first time, they think it's a plant," says Markus Valet, one of the owners of the traditional company of the same name.

He is now the fourth generation to run it, together with his brother Florian.

Namely where the history of the German medium-sized company began in 1902, 120 years ago: in Nuremberg.

Maria Wiesner

Editor in the society department at FAZ.NET.

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Great-grandfather Hans Scheck was a pharmacist and had cured a stomach ailment with the tincture of a woman named Margarete Retterspitz, who knew herbs.

When she moved to Switzerland, the pharmacist bought her prescription and kept the name in her honour.

The tincture became a classic in his range, which was soon to be followed by other medicinal products.

Retterspitz found a permanent place in many medicine chests in southern Germany.

“Treated with home remedies since we were born”

Markus and Florian Valet have grown into the pharmacy company.

"We have been treated with the in-house remedies since we were born," says Markus Valet.

For cut injuries or for brushing teeth, there was a rescuer's tip.

After their studies, they joined the family business and at the same time set about reorganizing it.

Markus and Florian Valet kept the prescriptions, only adjustments to new medical guidelines were sometimes necessary.

The cosmetics, which have been part of the range for several decades, are also subject to the same strict requirements as the production of medicinal products: "We manufacture the face creams in the same rooms here on site, under the same hygienic conditions as pharmaceuticals." Nuremberg is therefore in line with the trend.

Beauty products have been flooding the market for a number of years, which - packaged in brown bottles - promise particular purity and sustainability with a classic pharmacy look.

"This is our DNA"

With a view to the competition, Markus Valet refers to the company's own history.

For them, the pharmacy is more than optics.

"It's our DNA."

It's not just about getting healthy, it's also about feeling good.

For a number of years, the focus has therefore also been on the wellness sector.

The concept is also followed by the brand's new – and first – flagship store in Nuremberg.

The medium-sized company had white limestone brought from the region in order to display the products on it.

In addition, wooden showcases in warm brown tones are reminiscent of the company's roots in the pharmacy tradition.

The former pharmacist brand now offers sauna infusions and massage oils, a scented candle and, as of recently, a perfume.

For this, the Nuremberg-based company worked together with the "German nose", the master perfumer Geza Schön, who has already designed perfumes for Diesel and MDC Cosmetics and created fragrance works of art around one molecule with his own "Escentric Molecules".

He created the perfume “Juniper”, i.e. juniper, for Retterspitz.

Behind the simple title is a fragrance that contrasts the tart herbal notes of the eponymous shrub with the soft freshness of freesia and jasmine and plays with green notes of basil.

"It was important to us that the ingredients, as with all our products, are of European origin," says Markus Valet.

The brothers, two critical perfume wearers, tested it on themselves.

"There are fragrances that are great at first, but then get on your nerves after three days," says Florian Valet.

They could still smell Juniper every day after a year.