Kingdom of Soap Bubbles

The rise and fall of the Schicht family, founders of the deer soap brand. Over the course of three generations of the Schicht family, their soap empire flourished, its fame spreading beyond the borders of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and later independent Czechoslovakia. They started out in the basement of their family home and ended up as co-founders of the multinational corporation Unilever, which still exists today. In interwar Czechoslovakia, the name Schicht had the same resonance as Škoda, Baťa, Kolben, and Daněk. In addition to the famous deer soap, they also produced Elida cosmetics and Ceres fat. In the end, they were crushed by major historical events.