Gustav Lohse
Two centuries of German cologne tradition from Berlin.
Gustav Lohse is one of Germany's oldest fragrance and grooming product houses, founded in Berlin in 1831. The house built its reputation over the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries producing classic German cologne, shaving preparations, and gentlemen's grooming products in the tradition of Eau de Cologne — that distinctly German contribution to European perfumery culture originating in Cologne itself. Gustav Lohse products occupied a proud position in German pharmacies and grooming establishments for well over a century, their clean citrus-herbal accords and classic masculine structures reflecting the restrained, functional elegance that defined bourgeois German grooming culture. Though the brand's visibility has diminished significantly over the twentieth century as large conglomerates restructured the German fragrance market, vintage Gustav Lohse products remain collected as examples of early German commercial perfumery. Current production, if any, would occupy the accessible tier. The brand's primary legacy is its remarkable longevity and its place in the documentary history of German fragrance manufacturing.
DNA over time
Each column is an era. Each colored band shows that family’s share of accord weight across every perfume the house released in that window. Bigger band = the house leaned harder on that family.
