Albert Hofmann

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Albert Hofmann, 2006 at the age of 100

Albert Hofmann (born January 11, 1906 in Baden , Aargau ; † April 29, 2008 in Burg im Leimental ) was a Swiss chemist , author and the discoverer of LSD .

Life

Albert Hofmann grew up as the oldest of four siblings. When his father, a toolmaker , became seriously ill, he had to help support the family and therefore completed a commercial apprenticeship. In the meantime, he was preparing for his high school diploma . His godfather financed the studies. Hofmann began in 1925 to study chemistry at the University of Zurich and received his doctorate in 1929 at Paul Karrer with distinction with the topic About the enzymatic degradation of chitin and chitosan I . He then worked for Sandoz in Basel for more than four decades until his retirement in 1971 . In 1935 he married Anita Guanella, the sister of the successful Swiss inventor Gustav Guanella , who, like Hofmann's father, worked for Brown, Boveri & Cie. worked where Albert Hofmann had also completed a commercial apprenticeship. In 1943 he discovered the hallucinogenic effects of LSD. He lived on the Rittimatte, in the municipality of Burg on the edge of the Jura . There was a close friendship with Ernst Jünger (see for example: Visit to Godenholm ). On the occasion of his 100th birthday, the symposium “LSD - Problem Child and Wonder Drug” took place in Basel from January 13-15, 2006. At the end of 2007, the psychotherapist Peter Gasser from Solothurn received permission from the Aargau ethics committee to use LSD for therapeutic purposes on an experimental basis, which Albert Hofmann described in a television interview as the fulfillment of his dream. Albert Hofmann died of a heart attack .

Research work

Ergot and LSD

In the context of drug research with corn fungus ergot and the objective of a circulatory stimulant to develop, synthesized Hofmann 1938 different amide - derivatives of lysergic acid , including - as the 25th substance of this test series - the diethylamide LSD-25 . In animal experiments, the substance caused unrest among the animals, but showed no usable or pharmacologically interesting properties and was therefore not investigated further. In 1943 Hofmann decided to produce LSD again. While working in the laboratory, sudden restlessness and discomfort caused him to stop working and go home. When he got home, he had intense kaleidoscopic , colorful visions for about two hours with his eyes closed . Presumably he had inadvertently picked up a trace of LSD in an unexplained manner. In his book "LSD - My Problem Child", Albert Hofmann states that he may have accidentally ingested LSD with his fingertips.

The conscious LSD self-experiment

In order to get to the bottom of this unusual experience, he decided on April 19, 1943 to test the substance with the smallest possible effective dose in a self-experiment, and recorded the experience three days later:

"16:20 Ingestion of the substance
17:00 Beginning dizziness, feeling of fear, visual disturbances, paralysis, the urge to laugh.
With Velo home. Severe crisis from 6 p.m. to approx. 8 p.m., see special report:
I was only able to write the last words with great difficulty. [...] the changes and sensations were of the same kind [as yesterday], only much more profound. I was only able to speak intelligibly with the greatest effort, and asked my laboratory assistant, who had been informed of the self-experiment, to accompany me home. Already on the way home by bike [...] my condition assumed threatening forms. Everything in my field of vision swayed and was distorted like in a curved mirror. I also had the feeling that I couldn't move my bike. In the meantime my assistant told me later that we had driven very quickly. [When I got home] dizziness and fainting became so severe at times that I could no longer stand upright and had to lie down on a sofa. My surroundings had now changed in a frightening way. [...] the familiar objects took on grotesque, mostly threatening forms. They were in constant motion, as if animated, as if filled with inner restlessness. The neighbor's wife […] was no longer Ms. R., but a vicious, insidious witch with a colorful grimace. etc. etc. "

- Albert Hofmann : Protocol of the LSD self-experiment

Later at the end of the intoxication:

“Now I gradually began to enjoy the incredible play of colors and shapes that went on behind my closed eyes. Colorful, fantastic shapes, changing like kaleidoscopes, penetrated me, opening and closing in circles and spirals, spraying in fountains of color, rearranging and crossing, in constant flow. It was particularly strange how all acoustic perceptions, such as the sound of a door handle or a passing car, turned into visual sensations. Each sound produced a corresponding, lively changing image in form and color. "

- Albert Hofmann : Protocol of the LSD self-experiment

It subsequently turned out that the dose he had chosen (about 250 µg) was three to five times the (from today's perspective) normally effective dose. LSD is one of the most potent and strongest known hallucinogens (see DMT , psilocin ). He himself later summed up the accidental discovery with the words: "The LSD came to me". His bike ride home from the laboratory, accompanied by strong hallucinations , went down in the history of LSD culture under the name “ Bicycle Day ” .

The ergot , the negative effect in the Middle Ages as the " Holy Fire was known," continued to be medically explored since its ingredients one on, among other muscle contains active substances, for example, in pregnant women to initiate labor can be used. The name mother grain is due to this effect on the SIGN LANGUAGE nut ago, known since the Middle Ages.

Away from LSD

Hofmann also explored other psychoactive substances such as psilocybin - and psilocinhaltige hallucinogenic mushrooms , the LSA -containing seeds of the morning glories and the Ololiuqui and the salvinorin of Salvia divinorum . Furthermore, he isolated and synthesized the active ingredients of important medicinal plants in order to study their effects. Hofmann's widely acclaimed dissertation (1929) was about the structure of chitin . As a research chemist at Sandoz, he developed before he turned to the study of ergot, the first exactly metered heart drug from digitalis glycosides, later the geriatric Hydergin, the circulatory means Dihydergot and still used as standard therapy in gynecology Methergin . His publications include over 140 scientific papers and numerous books.

Hofmann's views

Albert Hofmann, 1993

Hofmann worked all his life to ensure that psychedelic substances such as LSD should be legalized for research purposes. He was optimistic that the correct application of LSD in human culture was a matter of time.

After Timothy Leary propagated the mass consumption of LSD in the USA in the 1960s , Hofmann was strongly criticized. The substance must be handled carefully, it is not a pleasure drug. At the same time, when the CIA was administering LSD to uninformed test subjects for research (with one fatal outcome), he called the practice a crime.

“The deeper you look into living nature, the more wonderfully you can see it. I think you feel safe then. You belong to it, you can see it, you can experience it. Consciousness is already the Creator's greatest gift to man; that one has an awareness and that we can become aware of our creation - not just blindly walking through paradise. "

- Albert Hofmann : in a television interview for the 3sat documentary LSD - wonder drug and horror trip - Albert Hofmann, the inventor of LSD turns 100 , 2006

“It is a widespread opinion that the objective, material worldview of the natural sciences and the mystical-religious world experience contradict each other. The opposite is true. They complement each other to provide a comprehensive insight into one and the same spiritual and material reality. "

- Albert Hofmann : in Praise of Looking , 2002

“It's not just the familiar image, a bit more distorted or more colorful, it's a completely different program. And that's because LSD changes our senses, you see better, you hear better, everything is intensified - in this respect Timothy Leary was right when he claims that it is also the greatest aphrodisiac. The mechanism of LSD is very simple: the gates of perception are opened and we suddenly see more - of the truth. "

- Albert Hofmann : in Das LSD came to me , TAZ, 2006

Honors

  • He has been awarded several honorary doctorates for his scientific work . In 1969, ETH Zurich and his brother-in-law Gustav Guanella honored him with the title of Dr. hc from ETHZ.
  • In 2007, a jury made up of ten experts voted him the most important living genius (“world's top 10 living geniuses”) after a survey carried out on behalf of the daily Guardian among 4,000 British people .
  • On the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the first LSD ban in California, the Basel Sinfonietta performs the oratorio Oh Albert! on. The libretto is by the Basel musician Elia Rediger , the music by the composer William Britelle.

Fonts

  • On the enzymatic breakdown of chitin and chitosan (doctoral thesis), University of Zurich, 1929.
  • The ergot alkaloids. Enke, Stuttgart 1964 ( collection of chemical and chemical-technical articles. NF 60, ISSN  0080-5793 ).
  • LSD - my problem child. Klett-Cotta, Stuttgart 1979, ISBN 3-12-923601-5 (3rd edition as: LSD - my problem child. The discovery of a “miracle drug”. Ibid 2010, ISBN 978-3-608-94618-5 ).
  • together with Richard Evans Schultes : Plants of the Gods. The magical powers of the intoxicating and poisonous plants. Hallwag, Bern a. a. 1980, ISBN 3-444-10282-8 (completely revised new edition: AT-Verlag, Aarau 1998, ISBN 3-85502-645-9 ).
  • Insights - Outlooks. Essays. Sphinx, Basel 1986, ISBN 3-85914-633-5 (expanded and revised new edition. Nachtschatten-Verlag, Solothurn 2003, ISBN 3-907080-93-9 ).
  • Science & mystical world experience. A popular sermon. Grüne Kraft, Löhrbach 1992, ISBN 3-925817-50-6 .
  • Praise for looking. With photos by Werner Huber. Nachtschatten-Verlag, Solothurn 2002, ISBN 3-907080-84-X .
  • Do and Don'ts - essays, thoughts and poems. Nightshade, October 2011, ISBN 978-3-03788-242-9 .

literature

Movie

Radio play / CD productions

  • Praise for looking. A portrait for the 95th birthday of LSD discoverer Albert Hofmann . Audio CD. Nightshade, Solothurn 2001, ISBN 3-907080-83-1
  • Memories of a psychonaut. From the discovery of entheogenic drugs . Audio CD (original sound recordings), ed. v. Thomas Knoefel. supposé, Cologne 2003, ISBN 3-932513-38-X
  • The Eleusinian Mysteries and their meaning for the modern world . DVD box, AVR 2004, ISBN 3-938317-06-X
  • Hofmann's Elixir or The World is Perfect . 2005, 43 min., Director: Regine Ahrem, music: Michael Rodach , production: Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg

Music / concerts

Web links

Commons : Albert Hofmann  - Album with pictures, videos and audio files
Wikiquote: Albert Hofmann  - Quotes

Interviews

Videos

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Biographical data, publications and academic family tree of Albert Hofmann at academictree.org, accessed on February 12, 2018.
  2. ↑ P. Karrer, A. Hofmann: Polysaccharide XXXIX. About the enzymatic breakdown of chitin and chitosan I. In: Helvetica Chimica Acta . tape 12 , no. 1 , 1929, ISSN  0018-019X , p. 616–637 , doi : 10.1002 / hlca.19290120167 .
  3. ↑ A. Hofmann LSD - My problem child . 9th edition January 2001 Deutscher Taschenbuch Verlag GmbH & Co. KG ISBN 3-12-923601-5 p. 27.
  4. ↑ Quoted from: Wolfgang Schmidbauer , Jürgen vom Scheidt : Handbuch der Rauschdrogen . Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 2004, ISBN 3-596-16277-7 .
  5. ↑ a b “LSD came to me” , interview on my 100th birthday, taz , January 11, 2006.
  6. ↑ Open drug database: Ergot alkaloids ( Memento from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ).
  7. ^ Video documentation "Hofmann's Potion" by Connie Littlefield, 2002; Hofmann's Potion in the Internet Movie Database (English)
  8. ↑ The case of Dr. Olson
  9. ^ BBC video documentary "LSD, The Beyond Within" by Max Whitby, 1986.
  10. ↑ Rachel Williams: Sheer genius: from the web to Homer Simpson . In: The Guardian . October 29, 2007 ( theguardian.com ).
  11. ↑ Basel Sinfonietta: “Oh Albert” ( memento of October 8, 2016 in the Internet Archive ), premieres on October 6, 7 and 8, 2016.
  12. ↑ Trip to another world. In: Tages-Anzeiger from November 10, 2011
  13. ↑ LSD is a child from Basel - now the drug is getting an oratorio In: SRF Kultur 2 October 5, 2016
personal data
SURNAME Hofmann, Albert
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss chemist and discoverer of LSD
DATE OF BIRTH January 11, 1906
PLACE OF BIRTH Baden AG
DATE OF DEATH April 29, 2008
Place of death Castle in the Leimental