Franz Leopold Koch

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Franz Leopold Koch, pharmacist

Franz Leopold Koch (born July 21, 1782 in Erfurt ; † November 24, 1850 in Orb ) was a German pharmacist , benefactor , founder and operator of the first bathing establishment in Orb.

Life, family

Franz Leopold Koch was born as the third of six children of the Electoral Mainz Chamber Council in Erfurt, Anton Karl Koch (* around 1740; † September 4, 1792) and his wife Sabine Franziska Weikard (* June 4, 1751; † March 18, 1793). His mother was a sister of the doctor and philosopher Melchior Adam Weikard as well as the magistrate and first deep well drill Georg Ignaz Weikard .

At the age of 10, Koch lost his father and his mother six months later. The Schuch couple took over the guardianship of the orphan Franz Leopold and his siblings. Mrs. Schuch, née Merz, was a cousin of the orphans . In 1794 Koch came into the household of his uncle, the pharmacist Balthasar Merz, who was married to his mother's sister. There in the unicorn pharmacy in Hammelburg he got to know the everyday life of a pharmacist household and attended grammar school . After finishing high school in 1797, he began an apprenticeship as a pharmacist with his uncle Balthasar Merz. In 1799, already as a pharmacist's assistant, he went to Mergentheim to continue his training in the pharmacy of his cousin Heinrich Merz. In 1804 he moved to the Mohren pharmacy in Mainz, then France. In 1806 he was back in Mergentheim and in the same year he settled in Frankfurt / Main. In 1807 he received the provisional in Orb, in the Praetor branch pharmacy in Aschaffenburg . In 1809 he acquired the privilege for this pharmacy with borrowed money from his cousin for 2,800 thalers and settled in Orb. On August 17, 1813, at the age of 31, Franz Leopold Koch married Anna Maria Blummer, ten years his junior , in Höchst am Main . With her he had seven children, six of whom reached adulthood. His wife Anna Maria died in 1833. Franz Leopold Koch died in Orb on November 24, 1850.

Professional and public work

Shortly after Orb acquired the pharmacy privilege, Koch built a new, prestigious pharmacy in the Stadtgraben in 1811/12. A building that is still considered an extraordinary and admirable monument of the time. This pharmacy was the focus of all his activities throughout his life. The apprentices trained by Koch with great care and commitment in his pharmacy enjoyed great recognition because of the knowledge and competence they acquired there . One of them even became the personal pharmacist of Muhammad Ali Pasha , the Ottoman governor of Egypt. A severe gout disease that befell him as a young man had a major impact on his later life . At that time he was able to cure it within 14 days through a cure in Wiesbaden . Later, after a relapse, he was able to cure the disease completely through self-medication. He later used the remedies that had been successfully tested on himself, free of charge, on those in need who visited his pharmacy. Time and again, Koch committed himself personally, but also with his own funds, to finance treatment for poor, sick contemporaries. “Without studies of the art of medicine, without knowledge, but through very limited reading, without experience, and yet so happy! ...” he fulfilled, with great success, a childhood dream of helping and healing sick people; because of the early death of his father, the path to the medical profession was blocked for financial reasons. During this time, the years of the Napoleonic occupation until around 1813, Koch's knowledge of the French language was indispensable for the city of Orb, with the billeting of foreign soldiers who were passing through. In order to use the brine springs in Orb for healing purposes, as happened in Brückenau and Kissingen, in 1827 he applied to the saltworks administration in Munich for a permit to build a brine bath. Nine years of persistent struggle with the authorities were necessary to finally get a positive decision. On his own plot of land next to his pharmacy, he built a "Soolebadeanstalt" - with eight guest rooms and eight bathing cabins, the bathing establishment opened in 1837. The baths developed very slowly during Koch's lifetime. It was still the beginning of the health resort in Orb, although still a good 70 years were to pass before under the spa director Franz Josef Scherf , in 1909, the spa town Orb the predicate Bad was awarded.

aftermath

Monument to Franz Leopold Koch in front of the Kreissparkasse in Bad Orb

Almost 50 years after Franz Leopold Koch, the doctor Franz Josef Scherf continued the initiative for bathing in Orb with great success. The city of Bad Orb has put a beautiful memorial in memory of its famous citizen Franz Leopold Koch : it is "Leopold-Koch-Straße". It leads past the Toskana Therme (formerly Leopold-Koch-Bad), the city's brine bath. On the other hand, there is a very lively looking monument by Franz Leopold Koch (by Christian Paschold ) on the stairs of the Kreissparkasse .

The Kochsche Apotheke passed to the son and finally to the grandson Hugo Koch. The latter sold it to the pharmacist Siegmund Siebert in 1872. It then stayed with this family for four generations until 2005.

literature

  • Franz Leopold Koch: "I have encountered such unusual events in my life ..." , memoirs of Franz Leopold Koch; Orbensien Publishing House, 2011
  • Heinrich Hardt: “Pharmacist Franz Leopold Koch, the founder of Bad Orb. A picture of life ” . In: Bad Orber Badezeitung, No. 8, July 1937.
  • Jürgen Ackermann: “The king and the pharmacist. From the beginnings of the Orb bath ” . In: Bad Orber Anzeiger, No. 26, 1987.
  • Robert Eckert: “A picture of life. Franz Leopold Koch. To the founder of the Orb spa. ” Brochure in the booklet accompanying the minting of a commemorative medal for the 200th birthday of the spa founder. 1982, published by Volksbank Bad Orb.
  • Werner Schulz-Seeger: "Orb, 1300 years of brine and salt" , Orbensien publishing house, 1994

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Franz Leopold Koch: "I have encountered such unusual events in my life ..." , Memoirs of Franz Leopold Koch, pp. 29–34
  2. ↑ Franz Leopold Koch: “I have encountered such unusual events in my life ...” , Memoirs of Franz Leopold Koch, p. 36
  3. ↑ Franz Leopold Koch: “I have encountered such unusual events in my life ...” , Memoirs of Franz Leopold Koch, pp. 37 to 38
  4. ↑ Franz Leopold Koch: "I have encountered such unusual events in my life ..." , Memoirs of Franz Leopold Koch, pp. 47 to 49
  5. ↑ -Schulze-Seeger: "Orb, 1,300 years brine and salt" , publishing orbs Sien, 1994, p 210
  6. ↑ Franz Leopold Koch: "I have encountered such unusual events in my life ..." , Memoirs of Franz Leopold Koch p. 91
personal data
SURNAME Koch, Franz Leopold
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German pharmacist, benefactor, founder and operator of the first bathing establishment in Orb
DATE OF BIRTH July 21, 1782
PLACE OF BIRTH Erfurt
DATE OF DEATH November 24, 1850
Place of death Orb