Herb collector
Herbalists , Wurzler, root man, Krüder or laboratory technician are old job titles for people who are in the nature of medicinal herbs and roots collected. These were processed into medicine or herbal liqueurs and were used in folk medicine .
history
The main sphere of activity for German herbalists has been in the Giant Mountains since the 17th century . Arnsdorf in Lower Silesia was the center of collectors and laboratory technicians. There the herbs growing in the mountains were processed into tea, stomach drops and other medicines and traded on. The town of Arnsdorf thus achieved relative prosperity.
A description by a laboratory technician has come down to us from 1690:
“He was a strange figure - tall, dressed all in green, with a mighty wreath of all kinds of herbs on his head and an equally powerful beard. Live snakes hung around his neck; he let them bite him until he showed the healing properties of the snake fat with which he coated the fresh bite wounds. He had various herbs with him. It was said that he even had remedies for spells. "
Not far from Arnsdorf is Stonsdorf , which gave the herbal liqueur Echt Stonsdorfer Bitter its name. It was made from the herbs of the Giant Mountains from 1810. After the Second World War , the manufacturing company settled in Norderstedt .
From 1843 the number of practicing laboratory technicians continued to decline. The reason was a new trade regulation at the time of Friedrich Wilhelm III. , which only allowed officially approved medical preparations. Only the herb collectors living at the time were allowed to process ad dies vitae .
The last laboratory assistant, Ernst August Zölfel, died in Krummhübel in 1884 . Theodor Fontane set him a literary monument in 1891 with the story The Last Laboratory Assistant . Epitaph stones from the 18th century on a wall of St. Hedwig's Church in Arnsdorf also remind of the laboratory assistants .
See also
Web links
- Memories of Johannes Dittrich of the last laboratory technicians in Arnsdorf
Individual evidence
- ↑ Giant Mountains - laboratory assistants. Retrieved July 28, 2017 .
- ↑ Poznaj swój kraj, No. 12/2202, p. 27. Accessed on July 28, 2017 .
- ↑ Hans Reitzig: The Krummhübler laboratory assistants. About the rise and fall of a Silesian guild of healers . Munster 1952.
- ^ Theodor Fontane: Works, Writings and Letters , Section 1, Volume 7, pp. 94-102 (text) and 626-631 (commentary). Fontane calls him Joseph Hieronymus Hampel , but in Krummhübl he compiled and used the local oral tradition on Zölfel in detail.