Pharmacists in German Cultural History
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Provisor’) are of importance. In other pictures ‘Stork Pharmacies’ (‘Storchen-‐
Apotheken’) occur. Spitzweg was capable of establishing the pharmacist as a
prominent motif in the Biedermeier period (21).
PHARMACISTS AS MUSICIANS
There is no direct link between pharmacy and music: Being a pharmacist
does not require particular musical skills. However, we know several pharmacists
making music. One of the pharmacists, scientifically recognized in the early 18
th
century already, was Caspar Neumann (1683–1737) from Berlin, the son of a
musician and interested in music since early childhood. He was said to have made
music together with King Frederic I of Prussia when Neumann was working as an
assistant in the ‘Court Pharmacy’ (‘Hof-‐Apotheke’) in Berlin. It was reported that
Neumann played the harpsichord while the king sang chorals. It was also because
of his musical talent that the king promoted Neumann. He approved of Neumann’s
educational journeys to various court pharmacies in 1711 and to Hermann
Boerhaave (1668–1738) in Leiden as well as to Utrecht, Amsterdam and London,
where he could extend his chemical-‐pharmaceutical knowledge considerably. In
1719, Neumann took over the ‘Court Pharmacy’. Since 1725, first-‐class pharmacists
received a chemical training and lectures by Neumann there, so that they count as
the first scientifically skilled pharmacists in Prussia, alongside second-‐class
pharmacists who just received a practical manual training. Neumann was the
author of some chemical-‐pharmaceutical writings, dealing with botanic analyses in
particular. He examined thymol, ambergris, benzoic acid, cinnamic acid as well as
tea, wine, coffee and beer (22).
Some pharmacists made music as a hobby, for instance Hermann Schelenz
(1848–1922), the ‘father of the history of pharmacy’ who played the cello. Others
dedicated themselves to musical compositions beside their pharmaceutical
activities, for instance Eduard Lucerna (1869–1944), who was born in Klagenfurt,
studied pharmacy in Graz and managed the pharmacy in Gries since 1900. He
composed the opera ‘Zlatorog’, ten symphonies, chamber music and songs. In the
last years of his life he was committed to compositions exclusively (22).
A song which became extremely popular in Germany was ‘Hoch auf
demgelben Wagen’ (‘High on the Yellow Carriage’) which was composed by the
pharmacist Heinz Höhne (1892–1968) from Berlin. He was born in Pasewalk,
started his apprenticeship in Graudenz in 1912 and continued in Putbus on the
island of Rügen and in Magdeburg. He had to interrupt his training during World
War I. and finished it in 1920. Afterwards, he studied pharmacy in Berlin and
worked in the ‘Eagle Pharmacy’ (‘Adler-‐Apotheke’) in Berlin-‐Pankow from 1923
on, which he bought in 1936. After its socialisation in 1946 Höhne was an
employee in a pharmacy in Zepernick. He retired in 1965. He composed his first
