How a sick child, a brave mother and a trip to Japan became MAUNAWAI
MAUNAWAI didn’t start in 1996 with a business plan, but with a mother who was looking for an alternative when the doctors could see no other option than to prescribe cortisone for her four-year-old son.
- Mathias suffered from severe atopic dermatitis. Maria Knoch questioned everything and came across the crucial question: “What water are we actually drinking?”
- A trip to Japan led Maria to Pi technology: natural water regeneration modelled on rock strata and mountain springs
- In 1996, Maria and her son Daniel founded the family business. Mathias recovered. Today, he runs MAUNAWAI Germany as managing director
- MAUNAWAI means “water from the mountain” (Hawaiian). In-house production in Germany since 2015, in-house cartridge manufacturing since 2020
- Mission: Good water is not a luxury. It is a basic necessity. Recycled natural cardboard, carbon-neutral shipping, production in the EU
The Beginning
When everything changed
Some stories begin with a grand plan. Ours began with despair.
Our Mathias, then four years old, suffered from a severe form of atopic dermatitis. His skin reacted to everything. The paediatrician said to our mother Maria: “Mrs Knoch, the only thing that will help now is cortisone.”
At that moment, Maria made a decision that would change all our lives: she would find another way. Even if the doctors couldn’t see one.
Maria began to question every aspect of our lives. Our diet, our clothes, our washing-up liquid. She attended seminars, spoke to alternative practitioners, read everything she could find. And no matter where she looked, one question always remained central:
What water are we actually drinking?
After all, our bodies are made up of over 55% water. What we drink is the foundation of our health. That was the moment when it all began.
The search
From the question to the water
Our German tap water is considered one of the most rigorously tested in the world. And yet: on its journey through kilometres of pipes, it loses its vitality. In older buildings, it absorbs traces of copper, lead or rust. Added to this are substances that our waterworks can only filter with great effort, e.g. nitrate, medication residues, chlorine.
Maria was looking for a solution that could do more than just filter. She explored many water filtration systems. Sometimes they seemed too artificial, other times too esoteric. Reverse osmosis systems removed pollutants, but also all the minerals. That couldn’t be the answer.
What Maria wanted was something more fundamental: to restore the water to its original state. Water as vibrant as that from a mountain spring. Water just as nature intended.
The discovery
A trip to Japan
In 1996, Maria first heard about Japanese Pi technology. Japanese researchers had studied naturally occurring spring waters and discovered something special: the way water is purified and mineralised as it passes through various layers of rock gives it unique properties. Triple-charged iron ions and certain mineral compounds play a central role in this process.
Maria could vividly imagine how the best water could be obtained simply through a filtration process modelled on nature. Her interest was piqued. She flew to Japan to find out more.
What I found convinced me so much that I returned with a device and an agreement to introduce Pi technology to Europe.
On the spur of the moment, Maria opened her first natural health shop and offered every customer a taste of Pi water. She travelled all over Germany, visiting trade fairs and exhibitions. Naturally, she was laughed at. The device was far too expensive, and the response was always the same: “German tap water is perfectly fine!”
But Maria did not let herself be deterred. Her dream was clear: to make this wonderful technology accessible to everyone, both in terms of understanding and affordability.
The courage
A family business is born
In the same year, 1996, we founded our family business together. Daniel, Maria’s eldest son, was just 20 years old, fresh back from the German Armed Forces and about to start university. What began as a solution to a family problem became his life’s work.
The early years were not easy. We had to convince, explain, and lead by example. But we knew what good water could do – because we had seen it with our own eyes. Mathias was getting better. And eventually, he made a full recovery.
That gave us the strength to carry on. Not just for our family, but for everyone who wants to drink good, natural water without having to spend a fortune on it.
MAUNAWAI
A promise
MAUNAWAI comes from Hawaiian. Mauna means mountain, Wai means water. Water from the mountain. Spring water.
This also directly describes what we want to achieve: good spring water, just like from the mountains. Because we humans are part of nature, just like our food. But our drinking water comes first. Nature provides us with spring water to drink. So what could be more obvious than the idea that spring water is the best thing for our bodies?
The journey
From the jug to a complete water world
With the development of MAUNAWAI, Maria turned her dream into reality. But this development never ended. We are constantly examining and testing how we can make our filters even more effective, integrate new findings and be even closer to our customers.
Step by step, we applied the principle of natural water regeneration to a growing product family — from the Kini filter jug to solutions for entire buildings, offices and even for on the go.
In 2015, we began manufacturing our own Kini water filter jugs in Germany. We wanted to take control of the quality ourselves. In 2020, we set up our own cartridge production facility. This allows us to implement the exact MAUNAWAI formula — and even tailor water filters specifically to individual customer needs.
The family today
The circle is complete
Today, Mathias — yes, the very same Mathias whose eczema once set everything in motion — runs MAUNAWAI Germany as managing director. We’ve come full circle. What began as a personal crisis became a calling for an entire family.
Daniel leads international expansion and MAUNAWAI International AG. Maria — the woman who once said, “I will heal my child, even if the doctors cannot” — is the heart and soul of our brand. Her tireless curiosity, her knowledge and her passion for good water continue to drive us to this day.
At MAUNAWAI, we make no compromises. Our Kini is the only water filter jug on the market that is entirely Made in Germany. In an independent comparison test by the Italian consumer organisation Altroconsumo, it was named the test winner — with the highest overall rating of all products tested.
The Mission
Why we get up every morning
For us, freedom is the greatest good. As a family business, we live self-determined lives. But freedom without purpose is empty.
With MAUNAWAI, we help people live a better life. By turning tap water back into spring water, we help not only people but also our planet. Every glass of MAUNAWAI water is one less glass from a plastic bottle. Every filter is one less crate being transported around.
We strive for the very highest water quality – not for marketing reasons, but because we know what poor-quality water can do to a child. And what good water can achieve.
Our packaging is made from recycled natural cardboard. Our felt sleeves are made from PET bottles fished out of the sea. We deliver in a climate-neutral way and manufacture in Germany and the EU. For us, sustainability is not a marketing strategy. It is a way of life.
Good water is not a luxury.
It is a basic need.