Heinrich Friedrich Georg Mein

Heinrich Friedrich Georg Mein (born August 14, 1799 in Burhave ; † August 28, 1864 in Neustadtgödens ) was a German pharmacist.

Live and act

Heinrich Friedrich Georg Mein was a son of the Budjadinger provincial surgeon Hans Peter Mein. His curriculum vitae is poorly documented in the literature. It is known that he received training from a pharmacist named Hemmie in Atens and then worked as a pharmacist's assistant in Vegesack , Detern , Hooksiel , Carolinensiel and Jever . He passed his exam on April 29th. Then he managed the Krimpingsche pharmacy in Esens . In 1829 he tried unsuccessfully for the license for the new pharmacy in Timmel ; In 1831 he did not receive the lease for the Pewsum pharmacy either. The following year he was able to lease the store in Neustadtgödens , which belonged to Ernst-Friedrich Fischhaupt and which had to close in 1840.

Mine then set up my own shop in the premises of this pharmacy. For financial reasons, the previous owner could only afford assistants who could not find work elsewhere. Mine, on the other hand, managed so well that in 1843 he was able to move his pharmacy from Staustraße to a building he had built on Sielstraße. This pharmacy still exists today. In the same year the Ministry of the Interior in Hanover founded a branch in Friedeburg and offered Mein to take it over. Since he was afraid of financial problems due to the considerable capital invested in Neustadtgödens shortly before, he turned down the offer. The Home Office replied twice to his refusals. Then he took over the pharmacy, although he himself was not convinced that he had made the right decision.

Mine was considered a capable, competent and respected pharmacist. In sources he is referred to as a "very skilled pharmacist and chemist". In 1831 he was the first person from Atropa belladonna L. to demonstrate the pure and crystalline alkaloid atropine in his laboratory . He dealt with several physical and chemical properties of the compound, its solubility, the ability to form salts with acids and reactions when in contact with reagents. He called the active ingredient "organic alkali". Nees van Esenbeck, professor of botany, encouraged Meins to publish his findings. He followed the advice in 1833 with an article in the "Annalen der Pharmacie".

On June 21, 1864 Mein handed over the management of his business to his only son, Christian August. After his death shortly afterwards, he was completely forgotten. Heinz Ramm and Ingeborg Borchers only took up his work again in the 1980s. In 1986 he received an addendum in the German Pharmacist Biography .

literature

• Heinrich Buurman: Mein, Heinrich Friedrich Georg in: Martin Tielke (Hrsg.): Biographisches Lexikon für Ostfriesland. Ostfriesische Landschaftliche Verlags- und Vertriebsgesellschaft, Aurich, Vol. 3 ISBN 3-932206-22-3 (2001).