Club des Hachichins

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The Club des Hachichins ("Club of the Hashish Eaters ") was a group of French artists who dealt with the psychological effects of the drug hashish in the form of self- experiments under the guidance of the doctor Jacques-Joseph Moreau de Tours . Frequent visitors to these gentlemen's evenings included Charles Baudelaire , Théophile Gautier , Alexandre Dumas the Elder and Gérard de Nerval .

story

Théophile Gautier: "I approached the lighted room of the hall, where several figures moved around a table, and as soon as the light hit me and indicated me, a powerful hurray penetrated the sonorous depths of the building." The dining room in a photo from the 19th century.
The Hôtel Pimodan on the Île Saint-Louis river island in Paris in April 1898.

The doctor Jacques-Joseph Moreau founded the “Club” in 1844 to study the effects of the drug hashish on the psyche. The members of the Club des Hachichins , which existed until 1849, included the contemporary artistic and intellectual elite of Paris. Under Moreau's guidance, members of the club conducted self-tests with the new drug. The participants included the writers Théophile Gautier, Charles Baudelaire, Alexandre Dumas, Honoré de Balzac , Victor Hugo and Gérard de Nerval, the painter Eugène Delacroix and the sculptor James Pradier as well as other friends and acquaintances. The illustrator Honoré Daumier , who became famous for his caricatures , only came by once, but tried everything and as a result drew his Les fumeurs de hadchids (“hashish smokers”).

The writer Gustave Flaubert held back in the club of hashish eaters and limited himself to the role of an observer. Years later, in October 1860, he wrote in a letter to Baudelaire: “I even have excellent hashish made by the pharmacist Gastinel. But it scares me what I blame about myself. "

The monthly meetings ( séances ) took place in the spacious apartment of the painter Fernand Boissard in the Hôtel de Pimodan . Boissard had inherited a considerable fortune and was therefore able to use these premises on Quai d'Anjou No. 17 rent. The Hôtel Pimodan was a magnificent, but shabby city palace on the Seine island Île Saint-Louis in the middle of Paris . The poets Gautier and Baudelaire, who were friends with Boissard, also lived in the palace. The club's time ended when the palace was renovated in 1849 and the landlord, a baron, gave notice to the residents. The listed building is now called the Hôtel de Lauzun , has belonged to the city of Paris since 1928 and is used for official receptions.

The hashish was given as a type of jam or confection known as dawamesk . Dawamesk is a mixture of cannabis-infused butter , cinnamon , cloves , nutmeg , pistachios , sugar, orange juice, and cardamom .

reception

In his literarily exaggerated essay Le Club des Hachichins , Théophile Gautier describes the course of an evening with Dawamesk: “He took a paste or greenish jam from a crystal vase and put a thumb-sized dab on each saucer next to the spoon. (...) 'That will one day be deducted from your share of paradise,' said the doctor when he gave me the dose that I deserved we were served coffee in the Arabic style, that is, with custard and without sugar. Then we took a seat at the table ... "

The poet Charles Baudelaire, who was also present, described the composition of the intoxicating paste in the poem about hashish : “The fat extract of hashish, as the Arabs prepare it, is made by boiling the tips of the fresh leaves in butter with a little water (...) because of it The Arabs process the fat extract in jams because of the foul smell that increases over time. The most common type of these jams, the Dawamesk, is a mixture of extract, sugar and various spices such as vanilla, cinnamon, pistachio and nutmeg. "

Baudelaire, who had experience with laudanum and already developed an addiction to alcohol and opium , expressed himself skeptical to critical about the drug hashish: “Let's assume for a moment that hashish gives genius or at least increases it, then we may Do not forget that the nature of hashish weakens the will and thus on the one hand takes away what it grants on the other; that is, the imagination [increases] without the possibility of using it. "

Gérard de Nerval processed his intoxication experience in the story of the caliph Hakem : “The stranger stretched out his hand, took the cup and slowly began to taste the green paste. 'Well, companion,' said Yusuf when he saw this interruption in the intoxication of the unknown, 'what do you think of this honorable pistachio jam? Condemn you still these good people here who mingle peacefully together in a room to be happy in their own way? ' "Nerval, who was plagued by delusions since 1841, worked at that time at its begun prose Aurélia on, a A tightrope walk between dream and reality, was only published posthumously and especially fascinated the surrealists .

Alexandre Dumas, who was working on his serial novel The Count of Monte Christo at the same time , built a hashish experience into the middle of his story: “'So that's hashish,' exclaimed Franz. ...) Take hashish, my guest, take it! ' Instead of answering, Franz took a spoonful of this wonderful dough and brought it to his mouth. After swallowing this divine candy, he exclaimed, 'Devil! I don't know yet whether the result will be as pleasant as you say, it tastes awful on its own. '"

The writer Honoré de Balzac also visited the hashish eaters' club, but initially only as a silent observer. Baudelaire said: “Balzac believed that there was no greater shame or greater suffering for people than to forego willpower. I met him once in a company where people were talking about the wonderful effects of hashish. He listened and asked with amusing attention and animation. The people who know him guess he must have been interested. But the idea of ​​thinking against his will repelled him violently. He was offered Dawamesk; he looked at it, smelled it, and handed it back without touching it. The struggle between his almost childish curiosity and his reluctance to renounce his will was revealed in an astonishing way in his expressive face. ”However, Balzac later tried the hashish on offer once or twice.

The supervising doctor Jacques-Joseph Moreau published in 1845 the 400-page work De Hachish et de l'Alienation Mentale - Études Psychologiques ("Hashish and mental illnesses - Psychological studies").

participant

The club's visitors belonged to a generation of artists that Figaro mockingly referred to as Jeunes-France ("Young France") in 1831 and 1832 . Accordingly, it is about young romantics who wanted to be painter and poet at the same time, rejected classical art, often appeared intoxicated and maintained a dandy-like demeanor: “Jeune-France likes music and drinks a lot of punch and gets intoxicated.” Almost all of the participants were born shortly after the turn of the century (1800), the writers Baudelaire and Flaubert (both * 1821) being the youngest and the classicist sculptor James Pradier (* 1790) the oldest participants known by name.

literature

Primary literature

Secondary literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Levinthal, CF (2012). Drugs, behavior, and modern society . (6th ed.). Boston: Pearson College Div.
  2. ↑ Ulf Müller / Michael Zöllner (eds.): The hashish club. Cologne 2002, p. 23.
  3. ↑ Hans-Georg Behr : We are talking about hemp. Culture and Politics of a Plant , pp. 148–155.
  4. ↑ Ulf Müller / Michael Zöllner (eds.): The hashish club. Cologne 2002, p. 59.
  5. ↑ Hans-Georg Behr: We are talking about hemp. Pp. 154-155.
  6. ^ A b Jonathon Green: Baudelaire, Dumas and cannabis | Books | The Guardian . In: The Guardian , GMG , October 12, 2002. Retrieved May 15, 2011. "hashish, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, pistachio, sugar, orange juice, butter and cantharides" 
  7. ↑ Charles Baudelaire: The Artificial Paradises, Chapter II: What is the hashish? on: Project Gutenberg-DE .
  8. ↑ Rudolf Walter Leonhardt : Hashish, Heaven and Hell. in: The time of January 17, 1969.
  9. ↑ Charles Baudelaire: The artificial paradises, Chapter V: Morals on: Project Gutenberg-DE .
  10. ^ Gérard de Nerval: Journey to the Orient , Munich 1986.
  11. ↑ Alexandre Dumas the Elder: The Count of Monte Cristo (greatly shortened version) on Project Gutenberg-DE.
  12. ↑ Charles Baudelaire: The artificial paradises, Chapter V: Morals , on: Project Gutenberg-DE.
  13. ↑ Hans Bangen: History of the drug therapy of schizophrenia. Berlin 1992, p. 22.
  14. ↑ Die Jeunes-France in Le Figaro from August 30, 1831. In: Theophile Gautier: Die Jeunes-France: Spöttischegeschichte, Berlin 2011, p. 250ff.