(1863 – 1918)
Troplowitz was one of the major entrepreneurial personalities of his time. After training as a pharmacist with his uncle, the subsequent Court Counselor Gustav Mankiewicz, he graduated with a degree in pharmacy in 1886 from the University of Breslau. In 1890, he acquired Paul C. Beiersdorf’s laboratory in Altona and transformed it into a company. He immediately mechanized production and in 1892 set up his own factory on what was then a 1,200m² plot of land in Lokstedter Weg (known today as Unnastrasse). The Company’s headquarters can still be found there to this day. As a customer- and market-oriented entrepreneur who thought and acted internationally from the start, he took care to ensure the further development of his products on a sound scientific footing. He continued the cooperation with Prof. Paul Gerson Unna that had been started by Paul C. Beiersdorf and employed at his recommendation the chemist Dr. Isaac Lifschütz, who invented the emulsifier Eucerit – the basic ingredient of NIVEA Creme – among other things.
