Page 134 - 80_03

Pharmacists
in
German
Cultural
History

largely
forgotten,
apart
from
his
‘Lithuanian
Stories’
(‘Litauische
Geschichten’)
or

his
novel
‘Lady
Sorrow’
(‘Frau
Sorge’).Sudermann
was
born
as
the
son
of
a
brewery

tenant
in
the
utmost
East
of
Germany,
in
the
Klaipeda
Region,
the
Memel
Territory,

in
East
Prussia.
Because
of
his
parents’
financial
limits
he
had
to
drop
out
of

secondary
school
in
Elbing
ahead
of
time.
As
he
later
wrote,
he
chose
to
work
as
a

pharmacist
which
he
regarded
as
half
of
a
chemist
(11).
In
his
autobiographical

memories
‘The
Picture
Book
of
my
Youth’
(‘Das
Bilderbuchmeiner
Jugend’)
from

1922,
he
dedicates
an
entire
chapter
to
his
apprenticeship.
The
chief
of
his

pharmacy
is
illustrated
as
a
sympathetic
person
who
never
showed
any
outburst
of

anger,
even
when
the
overzealous
Sudermann
crashed
a
precious
mortar.
As
a

consequence
of
a
knee
injury,
which
he
received
from
a
scuffle
in
his
schooldays,

he
was
eventually
forced
to
break
off
his
unloved
apprenticeship
ahead
of
time.
He

confessed:
“The
evil
brute
having
thrown
me
against
the
hinge
was
my
saviour,

otherwise
I
would
still
stand
in
front
of
the
preparation
table
and
brew

expectorant
influenza
drinks”
(12).

The
poet
and
pharmacist
Georg
Trakl
(1887–1914),
who
became
a
famous

expressionistic
lyricist,
stuck
to
his
profession
until
the
end
of
his
life,
even
though

enforced.
Trakl
was
born
as
the
fourth
of
seven
children
of
the
iron
trader
Tobias

Trakl
in
Salzburg.
As
a
pupil
he
already
showed
great
interest
in
literature
and

lyric.
Because
he
did
not
pass
class
seven,
his
father
determined
him
to
become
a

pharmacist.
In
1905
Trakl
began
his
apprenticeship
in
Carl
Hinterhuber’s

Pharmacy
‘To
the
White
Angel’
(‘Zumweißen
Engel’)
in
the
‘Linzer
Gasse’.

Hinterhuber
was
an
old
man,
a
heavy
drinker
and
in
his
pharmacy
Trakl
made
his

first
experience
with
narcotics,
as
the
poem
‘The
Sleep’
(‘Der
Schlaf’)
of
that
time

demonstrates:
“Not
your
dark
poisons
again
/
White
sleep!
/
This
fantastically

strange
garden
/
Of
trees
in
deepening
twilight
/
Fills
up
with
serpents,

nightmoths,
/
Spiders,
bats”
(13).

In
the
autumn
of
1918,
he
started
studying
pharmacy
at
the
University
of

Vienna
in
the
regular
course
of
four
terms.
Among
others,
his
teachers
were
the

professor
of
chemistry,
Zdenko
Hans
Skraup
(1850–1910),
who
synthesized

quinoline
for
the
first
time,
which
was
temporarily
also
used
as
an
antipyretic.

Another
famous
teacher
of
Trakl’s
was
Joseph
Moeller
(1848–1924),
co-­-author
of

the
important
pharmaceutical
ten-­-volumed
‘Real-­-Encyclopädie
der
gesamten

Pharmazie’
(14).

After
his
examination
as
a
magister,
Trakl
worked
for
a
short
time
in
the

‘White
Ange
Pharmacyl’
again,
but
he
could
not
stand
the
hectic
everyday
life
there.

In
1910,
he
began
a
voluntary
one-­-year
military
service
in
Vienna.
Alongside
he

wrote
poems
and
faced
the
common
dilemma
of
an
artist’s
life.
Working
as
a

pharmacist,
he
could
not
spare
much
time
for
writing,
but
to
be
able
to
write
he

depended
on
earning
money
to
earn
his
living.
In
1912
he
started
to
work
as
a

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