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C.
Friedrich

meant
no
satisfaction
to
him.
That
is
why
he
started
writing
poems.
After
he

finished
his
apprenticeship
in
1822,
he
still
remained
in
the
Arnstadt
pharmacy
for

two
additional
years.
In
1824,
he
moved
to
Meiningen
and
two
years
later
to

Salzungen.
Here
again,
he
did
not
enjoy
his
profession.
He
improved
his
low

income
by
means
of
an
extra
salary
as
a
writer.
In
1828
he
released
his
volume
of

poetry
titled
‘Sonnet
Chaplets’
(‘Sonettenkränze’)
and
attracted
the
attention
of
the

young
Duke
Bernhard
Erich
Freud
of
Saxony-­-Meiningen
(1800–1882).
He

sponsored
him
three
years
of
academic
studies
of
philosophy,
history,
literature

and
arts
in
Leipzig
and
Munich.
Bechstein
was
now
able
to
abandon
his
unloved

job
as
pharmacist.
In
1831
he
returned
to
Meiningen
and
became
the
ducal

librarian.
His
work
as
a
poet
contains
a
collection
of
popular
fairy
tales
and
legends

as
well
as
historical
novels,
poems
and
travelogues
in
which
he
proves
himself
to

be
a
careful
observer
of
nature.
His
detailed
descriptions
of
plants,
animals,

minerals
and
stars
echo
the
scientifically
skilled
eye
of
a
botanizing
pharmacist.

Likewise,
his
“tendency
towards
the
mystical
and
mysterious”
does
not
appear
to

be
untypical
of
a
pharmacist
(6).

Figure
2.-­-
Bechstein
pharmacy
in
Arnstadt.

The
pharmacist
and
poet
Theodor
Fontane
(1819–1898)
(Figure
4)
had
a

profound
impact
on
the
German
historical
and
social
novels.
As
the
son
of
a

pharmacist
he
gained
an
early
insight
into
this
profession
and
does
not
seem
to

have
started
his
apprenticeship
reluctantly.
In
his
autobiography
‘From
Twenty
to

Thirty’
(‘Von
Zwanzigbis
Dreißig’),
he
fondly
illustrates
his
time
as
an
apprentice.
It

was
with
Wilhelm
Rose
(1792–1867),
the
son
of
a
famous
pharmacist
from
Berlin

and
owner
of
the
pharmacy
‘To
the
White
Swan’
(‘Zumweißen
Schwan’),
who
was

604