The concerned citizen or the art of pharmacy.

We never really want to see the inside of a pharmacy, and yet we are happy to know that it is nearby!

We drag ourselves in with a thick cold nose and a headache and complain to the pharmacist about our ailments so that he can trust us to recover. Even the ancient Egyptians were aware of the healing powers of plant and animal substances, and pharmaceutical artefacts have even been found in prehistoric graves.

The local history of medicine is not quite so old, but Gottfried Irmler is the first pharmacist to be mentioned by name, who secured a burial place in the Kötzschenbroda churchyard in 1733 with a payment of 1 thaler. In 1744, his pharmacy burned down in the course of a wildfire, forcing him to rebuild it elsewhere. The "Alte Apotheke" pharmacy now located at Altkötzschenbroda 48 is still remembered today by the name of the restaurant located there.

Another, very old health centre was located in today's "Bürgergarten", which goes back to Christian Friedrich Junker, who founded it in 1825, but sold it to Johann Gottlieb Straßer after a few months. As pharmacies in earlier times were privileged to sell spices, sugar and products made from them, they were almost like general stores. However, Straßer sold them to Karl Friedrich Vogel a short time later. The change of ownership was accompanied by a change of location, with his successor Woldemar Vogel moving the pharmacy to Bahnhofsstraße in 1870, where it can still be found today under the name Stadtapotheke, as it has been since 1936. The "Mäusetod" developer Hermann Ilgen and Kötzschenbroda's first honorary citizen Curt Schnabel should also be mentioned here.

Due to the rapid population growth in Lößnitz, the municipal councils of Radebeul and the surrounding area vigorously pushed for the establishment of another pharmacy. However, despite the submission of several applications and lists of signatures from all Lößnitz residents, it was not until 1890, 125 years ago and after more than a decade of tireless commitment, that the operator Karl Gustav Georgi (1852-1910) succeeded in opening a pharmacy at Gellertstraße 18 in what is now Radebeul-Ost. The so-called "Alte Apotheke", which was located there until 2013, was then run by Johannes Varges in 1912.

In the same year, the pharmacy of the same name was also established in Radebeul-Mitte, opposite the "Weißen Roß", under the management of Ernst Richard Matthes. As poisons were also stored or were essential for the production of medicines, the pharmacists had to list all of them. The repertoire ranged from aconitine to tin salts. In addition, for the trade in poisons, pharmacists had to provide meticulous information in a questionnaire about their status and training, the scale of the toxin trade, storage conditions and equipment. After Varge's death in 1917, it was not until 1919 that Johann Kurt Alfred Müller was once again found to run the "Alte Apotheke". However, the general hardship of the post-war years did not stop at a place of medical care. The bitter winter cold and the lack of heating material made it "completely impossible to carry out prescription work with the necessary safety in the completely unheated pharmacy room." Fortunately, these circumstances are now a thing of the past.

Unfortunately, however, there seems to be no cure for current widespread diseases such as morbus praejustitia, ignorantia plebs or furor peregrinus. Education is probably still the best medication!

For everything else, we read the package leaflet

Maren Gündel, City Archive

Published in: Official Gazette Radebeul January 2015