Pharmacists in German Cultural History
605
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
