Georg Friedrich Walz

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Georg Friedrich Walz 1813–1862

Georg Friedrich Walz (born July 24, 1813 in Heppenheim , † March 20, 1862 in Zwingenberg ) was a German pharmacologist .

Life

Georg Friedrich Walz was born as the son of a tax collector from the Grand Duchy of Hesse in Heppenheim an der Bergstrasse. After attending primary school in Heppenheim and, from 1827, the Latin school in Waldmichelbach , he began an apprenticeship with the pharmacist Ruprecht in Fürth in 1828 . On July 28, 1830, he passed the assistant test in Darmstadt . Easter 1831 he moved to the city of Pharmacy of Johann Philipp Bronner in Wiesloch , where he remained for two years. Walz remained on friendly terms with Bronner, an expert on all aspects of viticulture. From Wiesloch he went on a hike (“conditioning”). From Easter 1833 to August 1834 he “conditioned” in Heidelberg in the court pharmacy with Heinrich Schweinsberg, from August 1834 to April 1837 in Mannheim in the Pelikan pharmacy with Aloys Hansen. During his stay with Aloys Hansen, he passed the Hessian state examination on July 20, 1835 without studying at university , with Heinrich Emanuel Merck acting as examiner.

The Bavarian Rhine Palatinate

Heidelberg - Schwanen Pharmacy / Study of Pharmacy

In 1837 Georg Friedrich Walz became a partner in the Schwanen pharmacy in Heidelberg together with Johann Philipp Odenwald . He did not have Baden citizenship, nor did he have a Baden pharmacy exam. By participating in the pharmacy, however, he secured a livelihood. From May 1837 to October 1838 he studied pharmacy at the University of Heidelberg and graduated with a dissertation on the chemical composition of poison lettuce milk juice . His pharmaceutical knowledge in Heidelberg was mainly shaped by Leopold Gmelin and Johann Maximilian Alexander Probst . It can be assumed that Walz gradually took on the position of a scientific assistant to Probst when he took over the development of the Baden Pharmacopoeia in 1837 and also the office of Baden pharmacy inspector.

Speyer

Schwanen Pharmacy / Private Pharmaceutical Training Institute

On August 22, 1840, Walz passed the Bavarian state examination in Bamberg . On July 12, 1840, he bought the Schwanen pharmacy in Speyer and took it over on October 26, 1840. Following the pharmacy, he founded a private pharmaceutical institute, in which around 70 pharmacists were trained by 1856, including Georg Franz Merck .

Trade association

Together with Georg Friedrich Kolb , 30 citizens of Speyr, including Walz, tried to found a "trade association" on January 29, 1843 with the aim of "raising and promoting industry and disseminating theoretical and practical knowledge in the arts and trade." At the beginning of 1844 the association was finally able to move into a reading room and a mechanical workshop in the vocational school after the authorities insisted that "no other books and magazines than mathematical, scientific, technical and mercantile" were to be displayed in the reading room. " Kolb was elected chairman of the association, Walz secretary. In March 1846, the “trade association” set up a “trade hall” in which Speyr craftsmen could offer their products for sale in a kind of commission business. From 1848/1849 Walz took over the tasks of Kolb in the "trade association" and in the "trade hall". In March 1857 both institutions were dissolved.

Palatine uprising

Walz enthusiastically participated in the movement of 1848/49 in Speyer , but without fanaticism or radicalization. During the Palatinate uprising of 1849 , he distanced himself from the ruling provisional government in Kaiserslautern .

At the beginning of May 1849, a so-called "National Defense Committee" was established in Kaiserslautern, which subordinated the numerous "  People's Armed Forces " to its command and tried to force the Bavarian-Palatinate administration to accept the Imperial Constitution . This was the beginning of the Palatinate uprising, because the "National Defense Committee" acted without the consent of the National Assembly . The National Assembly then sent the MP Bernhard Eisenstuck to the Palatinate as Reich Commissioner. In Speyer, Eisenstuck met Franz Alwens , the regional president of the Bavarian Rhine District , who expressed his wish for the imperial constitution to be adopted. Eisenstuck traveled on to Kaiserslautern and confirmed the revolutionary movement as the "State Committee for Defense and Implementation of the German Imperial Constitution". Instead of appeasing the uprising, Eisenstuck gave it a reputation of formal legitimacy. The National Assembly then recalled him. Eisenstuck, however, stayed in Kaiserslautern for a few days.

Palatine Ludwig Railway 1870

On May 7, 1849, irregulars damaged the railway line at Mutterstadt and at Haßloch . To prevent the line from being repaired quickly, they tore out the rails and transported them to Neustadt . This punctual destruction was intended to prevent the transport or passage of Prussian soldiers to Landau Fortress .

On May 11th, the Bavarian Brigadier General in command in Speyer moved his seat to the Germersheim Fortress . A considerable part of his troops deserted and joined the "People's Army". A local «Cantonal Defense Committee» was established in Speyer on May 12th, and Georg Friedrich Walz took over as chairman. Walz tried in Neustadt in talks with the local «Cantonal Defense Committee» to have the destroyed railway line restored.

On his return from Neustadt, it was decided at a meeting of the Speyer «Cantonal Defense Committee» that powder stocks that the withdrawing Bavarian military had left behind in a depot in Speyer should be brought to a safe place. In the confusing situation, Walz's signature finally reached a document on May 15, which instructed the powder kegs to be brought to Neustadt by train.

Spurred on by the revolution in Baden , the Palatinate «National Defense Committee» demanded the election of cantonal representatives who were called to a meeting in Karlsruhe. Walz was entrusted with this task in Speyer. On May 17, 1849, 28 of the 31 Palatine canton representatives met in Kaiserslautern. Georg Friedrich Walz was elected chairman of this meeting. The «National Defense Committee» demanded the establishment of a provisional government . Walz, however, tried to delay the decision on this question. There was a roll-call vote, which was decided with 15 to 14 votes for a provisional government. Walz voted against the establishment of a provisional government.

On the very next day the provisional government announced the union with the revolutionary Baden and it called on the Bavarian royal government, which was still in Speyer, to take the oath on the imperial constitution. The President of the Palatinate, Franz Alwens, withdrew from this demand by retiring to the Germersheim Fortress . Walz then tried in vain to win the Palatinate National Assembly members for a soothing effect on the revolutionaries.

Lithograph by Friedrich Kaiser . Palatinate revolutionary soldiers in 1849, including Mathilde Franziska Anneke and Fritz Anneke on the right

On the night of May 19-20, the Landau fortress fended off an attack carried out by the revolutionaries under the direction of Ludwig Blenker . On May 22nd and 23rd the provisional government stayed in Speyer and took possession of the almost empty city coffers. Walz was described as a "traitor to the cause".

reaction

When Prussian troops conquered the Palatinate on June 12, 1849, a group, including Walz, received the order at a city council meeting to face the approaching Prussians and to hand over the city of Speyer to their protection. While doing this job, their hats were knocked off their heads by soldiers riding past and they were rumored to have been recorded for arrest. Walz fled to Baden, which was still in the hands of insurgents. In Weißenburg he learned that as a member of the Speyr Cantonal Defense Committee he would not have to fear arrest. He then went to Speyer via Geinsheim , was discovered by Bavarian troops on June 25, captured as a militant and imprisoned in Speyer. The subsequent investigation only uncovered Walz's participation in the democratically oriented “Neue Speyrer Zeitung”. His role as chairman of the Speyr Cantonal Defense Committee created the image of a moderate citizen striving to maintain order at a time when the legitimate government had failed. There was no evidence of any crime committed during the uprising or any attempt to deceive the investigative authorities.

The year 1849 passed without any action being taken against Walz and he initially retained his public offices unmolested.

In February 1850, a representative of the Appeal Court from Zweibrücken appeared in Speyer to interrogate Walz. It was about the supply of powder that the Bavarian soldiers stationed in Speyer had left behind on May 11, 1849 when they fled to the fortress Germersheim in Speyer, and which had been brought to Neustadt to the vigilantes. In February 1850, Walz could not be found to have had any knowledge of or participation in criminal processes in connection with this transport of powder.

Gustav von Hohe , government president of the Bavarian Palatinate from 1850 to 1866, commissioned an investigation on May 13, 1850, when he heard that Speyr town councilors, including Walz, had met with political refugees in Weißenburg. On May 16, he ordered the dismissal of the affected city councilors. Since the allegations against Walz did not contain any concrete indications for judicial punishment, von Hohe constructed an offense without further ado and accused Walz of having an assistant in his pharmacy handed in Phosphorlatwerge to fight mice without an entry in a poison book. His children were endangered by these Latwerge. Although Walz was able to prove that, according to the regulations in force in Speyer, it was not necessary to record the Phosphorlatwerge in a poison book, he was still charged. On September 14, 1850, the trial took place in Frankenthal and Walz was fined 3,000 guilders. He appealed. The appeal hearing on November 8th before the Appeal Court in Zweibrücken ended with an acquittal, but the General State Procurator at the Appeal Court in Zweibrücken appealed, which was only rejected in February 1851 by the Ober-Appellationshof in Munich. Despite the acquittal, Walz suffered serious damage to his reputation as a result of the process.

Heidelberg

After completing his habilitation at the university there in May 1853, Walz tried in vain to take over the Hof pharmacy in Heidelberg from July of the same year. Among other things, he did not succeed in obtaining the Baden citizenship required to run a pharmacy in Heidelberg. Rumors and denunciations were circulating in Heidelberg concerning Walz's political past.

Offices

  • 1842 to September 19, 1850. Member of the District Medical Committee for the Palatinate
  • 1843 to September 14, 1850. Teacher of natural sciences at the trade school in Speyer
  • 1844 to 1857. Secretary, later chairman of the Speyrer Gewerbeverein
  • From 1846 board member of the pharmacists' committee for the Palatinate
  • May 1848 to October 23, 1850. Elected city councilor in Speyer
  • In September 1848, Walz traveled with Heinrich Albin Ricker as a representative of the "Palatinate Society for Pharmacy and Technology" to Leipzig for the "Teutsche Allgemeine Apotheker-Congress", where pharmacy reforms were discussed
  • May 1849 Chairman of the local «Cantonal Defense Committee» in Speyer

Honors

Georg Friedrich Walz was elected member (matriculation no. 1713) of the Leopoldina on May 1, 1854 with the academic surname Hildebrand II .

family

In 1841 his father, the tax collector Ludwig Friedrich Walz, died in Waldmichelbach . His mother Margarethe Walz then received a small 7th grade pension of 160 guilders a year. She moved to her son's household in Speyer, where she died in 1855 at the age of 77.

In 1845 Walz married Wally Martin, the daughter of Karl Ludwig Martin, the Speyr District Forestry Council. The couple had two children, Luise Friederika Margaretha (born December 17, 1846) and Carolina Josephina Wallburga (born May 16, 1848). Wally Walz died in May 1848 in the second childbed.

On July 14, 1849, Walz married Fanny Martin, the younger sister of his late wife. He had seven other children with her, including his son Ernst , who became mayor of Heidelberg.

Works (selection)

Detailed catalog raisonné in Eberhard 1990, pp. 174–186.

literature

  • Legal proceedings in matters of the Royal Bavarian State Authority against pharmacist Dr. Walz von Speyer, because of the delivery of Phosphorlatwerge to devour mice. In: Yearbook for practical pharmacy and related subjects, 22 (1851), 229–250 (digitized version )
  • Heinrich Hanstein. Nekrolog on Georg Friedrich Walz. In: New Yearbook for Pharmacy, 18 (1862), 237–241 (digitized version )
  • Nekrolog on Georg Friedrich Walz. In: New Repertory for Pharmacy, 18 (1862), 239 (digitized version)
  • Franz Xaver Remling . Nikolaus von Weis, Bishop of Speyer, in life and work . Volume 2, Ferdinand Kleeberger, Speyer 1871, pp. 28-103 Palatinate Uprising (digitized version )
  • Gunter Eberhardt. GF Walz (1813–1862) pharmacist, researcher, revolutionary . Wissenschaftliche Verlagsanstalt, Stuttgart 1990, ISBN 3-8047-1141-3
  • Erich Schneider and Jürgen Keddigkeit (eds.): The Palatinate Revolution 1848/49 . Published on behalf of the City of Kaiserslautern and the District Association of the Palatinate. Cultural Office of the City of Kaiserslautern 1999 ISBN 3-9805946-3-7

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ 1809-1877. Run the Schwanen pharmacy in Heidelberg from 1838 to 1867 (Eberhardt 1990, p. 27)
  2. ^ Georg Friedrich Walz. Nekrolog on Johann Maximilian Alexander Probst . In: Yearbook for practical pharmacy and related subjects, 5 (1842), 190–195 (digitized version )
  3. ↑ Pharmacopoeia Badensis. Chr. Fr. Winter - Heidelberg 1841 (digitized version)
  4. ^ Georg Friedrich Walz. Leopold Gmelin. Biographical sketch, as a foreword to the seventh volume of the yearbook . In: Yearbook for practical pharmacy and related subjects, 7 (1843), V – XII (digitized version)
  5. ↑ Gunter Eberhardt. GF Walz (1813–1862) pharmacist, researcher, revolutionary . Wissenschaftliche Verlagsanstalt, Stuttgart 1990, pp. 22-26
  6. ↑ Gunter Eberhardt. GF Walz (1813–1862) pharmacist, researcher, revolutionary . Wissenschaftliche Verlagsanstalt, Stuttgart 1990 pp. 72–79
  7. ↑ Erich Schneider. The Palatinate Ludwig Railway in the year of the revolution. In: Erich Schneider and Jürgen Kreddigkeit (eds.): The Palatinate Revolution 1848/49 . Kaiserslautern 1999, pp. 85-91
  8. ^ Regina – Margarete Schneider. State Committee and Provisional Government in Kaiserslautern 1849 . In: Yearbook on the history of the city and district of Kaiserslautern 22/23 (1984/85), pp. 91–117. Unchanged reprint in: Erich Schneider and Jürgen Kreddigkeit (eds.): The Palatinate Revolution 1848/49 . Kaiserslautern 1999, pp. 29-60
  9. ↑ Marlene Jochem. Bourgeois women and the revolution of 1848/49 . In: Yearbook on the history of the city and district of Kaiserslautern 22/23 (1984/85), pp. 91–117. Unchanged reprint in: Erich Schneider and Jürgen Kreddigkeit (eds.): The Palatinate Revolution 1848/49 . Kaiserslautern 1999, pp. 73-84
  10. ↑ Gunter Eberhardt. GF Walz (1813–1862) pharmacist, researcher, revolutionary . Wissenschaftliche Verlagsanstalt, Stuttgart 1990, p. 61, p. 85-98
  11. ↑ Legal proceedings in matters of the Royal Bavarian State Authority against pharmacist Dr. Walz von Speyer, because of the delivery of Phosphorlatwerge to devour mice. In: Yearbook for practical pharmacy and related subjects, 22 (1851), 229–250 (digitized version )
  12. ↑ Gunter Eberhardt. GF Walz (1813–1862) pharmacist, researcher, revolutionary . Scientific publishing house, Stuttgart 1990
  13. ^ Johann Daniel Ferdinand Neigebaur : History of the Imperial Leopoldino-Carolinian German Academy of Natural Scientists during the second century of its existence . Friedrich Frommann, Jena 1860, directory of the members of the academy, according to the chronological order, p. 280 ( archive.org ).
personal data
SURNAME Walz, Georg Friedrich
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German pharmacologist
DATE OF BIRTH July 24, 1813
PLACE OF BIRTH Heppenheim
DATE OF DEATH March 20, 1862
Place of death Zwingenberg