Hermione Raths

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Hermine Raths (born June 29, 1906 in Wetzikon ; † 1984 ) was a Swiss entrepreneur . Together with Marguerite Steiger , she created one of the most important Swiss companies in the field of drug distribution.

Life

Hermine Raths was a daughter of the drugstore owner Ernst Raths in Wetzikon. She first obtained a commercial diploma from the Höhere Töchterschule in Zurich and then worked for a year at the Swiss Traffic Center. But then she went on to study. She had known Marguerite Steiger since 1926. The two friends moved in together and enrolled at ETH Zurich . Hermine Raths studied pharmacy , her friend chemistry . Raths passed the state examination in 1933 and received her doctorate in 1937 with a thesis on experimental investigations with lichen gonidia from the Caliciaceen family , while Steiger dealt with vitamin C in her doctoral thesis .

Ernst Raths set up a pharmacy for his daughter in Wetzikon, today's train station pharmacy, but this then had to be taken over by Hermine Rath's brother Ernst junior because Hermine Raths had other plans: Hermine Raths and Marguerite Steiger bought the old Elefanten while they were still studying - Pharmacy in Zurich, which was probably the most famous pharmacy in Zurich at the time. This pharmacy was initially also the headquarters of Opopharma, founded by Raths and Steiger in 1937, which later moved to Kirchgasse 42. Opopharma took on a pioneering role in the distribution of pharmaceutical products in Switzerland. In the 1930s mainly hormone preparations from the Dutch Organon NV were introduced and distributed; Raths and Steiger were the sole agents for Organon products in Switzerland. After the end of World War II , Opopharma worked with numerous companies in Europe, the USA and Australia. In the early 1980s, Opopharma AG had sales of more than 80 million francs and at times around 190 employees.

In addition to Opopharma, Raths and Steiger founded or took over the Wyberg Apotheke and Galimedica AG, among others. Next to the Elefanten pharmacy in Marktgasse 6 was the Rathaus drugstore at Marktgasse 4, which Raths and Steiger acquired in 1973. After the death of the two women in 1994, both the elephant pharmacy and the town hall drugstore were closed. All subsidiaries were sold by 2007.

Opo Foundation

The legal successor to Hermine Raths and Marguerite Steiger was the Opo Foundation, which was set up in 1985 and supports scientific projects. Its first president was the lawyer Martin Usteri . This foundation also published the biography of Hermine Raths and Marguerite Steiger in 2005, which the historian Martin Schmid published under the title You just have to make something out of it. The life's work of Marguerite Steiger and Hermine Raths published. The Hermine-Raths-Garten in Höngg was named after Hermine Raths . Every year there is also a Raths-Steiger lecture in the old Semper observatory . The house at the Red Eagle at Kirchgasse 42 was restored by the Opo Foundation.

This house is a three-story city palace from 1830, which was built over an older vaulted cellar for Friedrich Ludwig Keller according to plans by Hans Conrad Stadler . It has a square floor plan and a classical facade with arched windows on the ground floor and cornices and consoles that structure the fronts. An arch in the gable triangle of the main facade holds the risalite sides together. During the restoration, Heinz Oeschger designed a two-storey arched hall from the utility buildings in the backyard.

literature

  • Bettina Vincenz: honest women or champions? The Swiss Association of Women Academics (SVA) in the interwar period . 1st edition. Lehmanns Media AG, Baden 2011, ISBN 978-3-03919-198-7 , pp. 246 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Hermine Raths: "Experimental investigations with lichen gonidia from the Caliciaceen family". doi : 10.3929 / ethz-a-000091212
  2. ↑ "Staying loyal to the Unterwetzikon location" (PDF; 75 kB), Zürcher Oberländer , January 27, 2005
  3. ↑ Entry of the "Opo-Stiftung" in the commercial register of the Canton of Zurich  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / zh.powernet.ch  
  4. ^ A city palace renovation and a book , Neue Zürcher Zeitung , September 13, 2005
  5. ^ Opo Foundation - female donors
  6. ↑ The Hermine-Raths-Garten on the Gang dur Züri website
  7. ^ A city palace renovation and a book , Neue Zürcher Zeitung , September 13, 2005
personal data
SURNAME Raths, Hermione
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss entrepreneur
DATE OF BIRTH June 29, 1906
PLACE OF BIRTH Wetzikon
DATE OF DEATH 1984