Page 132 - 80_03

Pharmacists
in
German
Cultural
History

Fontane’s
instructor.
He
did
a
good
exam
and
became
a
first-­-class
pharmacist

attending
a
scientific
training
in
the
‘Court
Pharmacy’
(‘Hof-­-Apotheke’)
in
Berlin

and
at
the
Collegium
medicum.
The
city
physicus
of
Berlin,
Dr.
Natorp,
attested
him

“good
knowledge
of
chemistry,
pharmacy,
botany
and
Latin”
(8).

Figure
3.-­-
Bechstein
pharmacy
in
Arnstadt.

In
1840,
Fontane
started
to
work
as
an
assistant
in
the
pharmacy
of
Burg

with
a
very
mean
chief
named
Kannenberg.
Fontane
was
lucky
to
move
to
Leipzig

in
1841
already
where
he
worked
in
the
pharmacy
‘To
the
White
Eagle’

(‘Zumweißen
Adler’)
of
Mr.
A.
Neubert.
In
1842,
he
moved
to
Dr.
Gustav
Adolf

Struwe
(1781–1840),
the
owner
of
the
‘Salomonis
Pharmacy’
in
Dresden.
In
his

autobiography
Fontane
characterizes
him
as
the
“absolute
number
one
in

Germany,
I
would
even
say
worldwide,
and
he
really
deserved
this
reputation”
(8).

He
returned
to
Berlin
in
1845
to
Julius
Edmund
Schacht
(1804–1871),
a
committed

political
pharmacist
representative
who
received
an
honorary
doctorate
of
the

University
of
Greifswald
in
1858.
In
Berlin,
Fontane
was
friend
with
Friedrich

Witte
(1829–1893),
an
apprentice
from
Rostock,
who
later
opened
up
a

pharmaceutical
firm;
they
kept
in
contact
(9).
After
Fontane’s
first-­-class
degree

with
the
botanist
Heinrich
Link
(1767–1851)
and
other
auditors,
Fontane
was

assigned
the
first-­-class
licence
to
practice
pharmacy
in
1847.

Meanwhile,
Fontane
was
engaged
to
Emilie
Rouanet-­-Kummer
(1824–1902)

and
was
looking
for
a
pharmacy
he
could
buy,
but
each
attempt
failed.
Then
he

witnessed
the
revolution
of
1848
which
Fontane
illustrates
in
his
autobiography
as

a
promising
event
for
himself
and
his
friends.
Arranged
by
pastor
Ferdinand
Schulz

605