Adler pharmacy (Stolberg)

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Adler pharmacy

The Adler pharmacy building in Stolberg was built in the 16th century as a mansion for a copper yard . Later it housed the first of a total of seven country pharmacies in what was then the district of Aachen . The two-storey building is the oldest stone house in Stolberg. Because of its urban historical significance, the building is a listed building.

Established as a copper yard

The Aachen- born copper master Leonhard Schleicher acquired a plot of land in 1571 at what is now Burgstrasse 21, just a few meters from the rock of Stolberg Castle . There he built a copper court in 1575 , which became known under the name "Schleichers Hof". At that time it was the only stone building besides the castle. The dating wall anchors of this building still exist.

Schleicher's yard was the first copper yard in Stolberg. His success prompted the Stolberg lords of the castle to allow other copper masters to settle. This formed the basis for the emergence of an independent municipality of Stolberg and for its development into one of the world's leading cities in the brass industry.

Even after the death of Leonhard Schleicher († 1606) the building remained in the family for many years. However, its importance as a copper yard was lost over time.

Use as a country pharmacy

In 1750 the Schleicher family sold the house. In the same year, Stolberg's first country pharmacy was set up there.

Stefan Hausmann and Johanna Mechtildis

The Hausmann family bought the building and ran a pharmacy there , which they named Adler-Apotheke. Stefan Hausmann and his mother Johanna Mechtildis had a license to operate this facility, but they had no training as a pharmacist.

The Prussian pharmacy law introduced in the Rhineland in 1815 meant that the widow Hausmann was requested in writing on April 24, 1815 either to close her pharmacy within fourteen days or to present a temporary agent who could take it over. On September 16, 1815, she was finally ordered by the Governor General's Commission to close her pharmacy. The then mayor Michels mediated by pointing out that the doctor Kortum was overseeing the sale of medicines. After an intensive search, a pharmacist from Maastricht was supposed to take over the Adler pharmacy. A corresponding contract was signed on December 18, 1815.

It is not clear whether this change took place. Perhaps this was short-lived, because on April 16, 1816, Mayor Michels wrote that he supported the closure of the Hausmann pharmacy due to the bad nature of the Hausmann pharmacy. He suggested a successor, but he was not accepted. The decision to replace the previous owner was sealed.

Welter family

On May 20, 1816, pharmacist Gerhard Jakob Welter acquired the license to operate the pharmacy. For this he paid twenty Cologne Reichstaler per year. Presumably he had previously run Isaac Schombart's pharmacy in Eschweiler , whose daughter he married in 1816.

After a short time, business flourished. In 1821 it even received a commendation after a tour of the royal government. In 1827 the situation seemed to change because a pharmacist from Nideggen had submitted an application to set up a pharmacy in Kornelimünster . This competition would have offered an alternative to the approximately 6200 residents belonging to Welter's catchment area. Instead, he aggressively applied to be allowed to build a branch pharmacy himself in Kornelimünster.

Welter succeeded in preventing the competitor from Nideggen from setting up a branch, but in 1835 Joseph Pauls was allowed to open his own pharmacy in Kornelimünster. Welter was now in financial problems, because the loss of numerous sales areas of the Stolberg brass industry had an effect. He was forced to fire his assistant for financial reasons, he could continue to employ the lower paid apprentice.

On February 11, 1857, Gerhard Jakob Welter sold the Adler pharmacy to his son Ludwig Adolf, who had already worked in his father's pharmacy for several years. He paid his father 14,000 thalers transfer fee, later, after his father's death, he had to pay 9,500 thalers for the house and furnishings and to give his siblings board and lodging. After twenty years of active pharmacy service, Ludwig Adolf Welter died unexpectedly on November 5, 1878 of a heart attack. His assistant Anton Jungboldt temporarily took over the pharmacy, but left on April 1, 1880. Mathias Hubert Sieberichs took over the branch pharmacy in Kornelimünster. Heir and successor in Stolberg was to be Johann Gerhard Eduard Welter.

Johann Gerhard Eduard Welter was the nephew of the late Ludwig Adolf. At the time of his uncle's death, he could not yet take over as a direct successor, as he was only a pharmacist's assistant and had not yet completed a pharmacy degree. However, the law at the time allowed Johann Gerhard Eduard to acquire the pharmacy and it was run by Jungboldt and Sieberichs. The purchase price was 106,500 marks. After Eduard officially took over the pharmacy, he made some structural changes. There are documents from 1897 that the pharmacy, which had become too small, had been relocated for some time, so it had not always stayed in the existing building. On August 3, 1898, the renovation work was finished and the pharmacy moved back into the original building of the Adler pharmacy.

Josef Hollmeyer and Karl Schwarz

Due to a lack of heirs, Johann Gerhard Eduard Welter sold the Adler pharmacy for 260,000 marks to Joseph Hollmeyer, who made further structural changes in the living area of ​​the building. The division remained unchanged. On October 1, 1928, pharmacist Karl Schwarz acquired the Adler pharmacy. He had already worked for it between 1919 and 1922 and had become its administrator in 1926. Karl Schwarz retired in 1961. It was not until September 1, 1971, before the Adler pharmacy was completely closed.

description

The listed building is now used as a residential building. It is a two-story building with a floor area of ​​approximately 10 × 17 m. The street facade has five window axes, the entrance door is in the central axis. The window frames are made of stone. In the upper area of ​​the lintel there is a wrought iron grille with an eagle emblem, above the door on the facade a gilded figure of an eagle with spread wings.

The gable roof is eaves and also has two floors. In the line of the window axes, the roof has two rows of dormers . It is closed on both sides with stepped gables .

literature

  • Karl Schleicher: History of the Stolberg brass industry . (= Contributions to Stolberg's history and local history, issue 6, 1956, published by the Stolberg city library (Rhld.))
  • Health care and medicine in Stolberg from the 17th century to 1950, issue 20, 1992 Hans Otto Brans

Web links

Coordinates: 50 ° 45 ′ 59.1 ″  N , 6 ° 13 ′ 59.3 ″  E