Ility

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As Olität (Plur. Olitäten ) designated to a fragrant oil , a pleasant-smelling essence or ointment and the like.

origin

The term refers to an oil distillate or a mixture of substances with an oily consistency . It comes from the late medieval pharmacy system and is derived from the Latin oleitas or oliditas . For word formation from the stem oleum = oil and the suffix -itas cf. Proud. At that time, everything that the common people used as natural remedies was called oleicity because they could not afford medical assistance or because doctors did not want to prescribe such remedies (e.g. aloe or opium ). Popular word creations with “balm” and “burnt water” are synonymous.

Olities trade

Bottle labels

The trade in olities had its origins in the royal Schwarzburg office of Königsee . The area in the vicinity of Oberweißbach and the Thuringian glassmaking region around Lauscha was in the 17th century at the intersection of different national borders on the Rennsteig and in the Schwarzatal . Only the use of miniature bottles made it possible to trade and safely transport the liquids over long distances. In addition, these containers were modeled on the “pharmacist's bottles” that were already in use. For this purpose, showed a dark, sand from a quarry on the Sandberg at Steinheid obtained forest glass to be particularly suitable, because the volatile essential ingredients were longer in these vials as this glass absorbs UV radiation. The containers for the oil traders were manufactured in the Lauscha, Schmalenbuche glassworks and, from 1707, in Ernstthal , and, when the same property was found in a sandstone near Schmiedefeld , in the Sophienthal glassworks founded in 1768 in the Schlagetal near Reichmannsdorf.

According to tradition, the “black monk” - a Franciscan who lived in the region in the middle of the 16th century - was responsible for the basic recipe for various herbal and ointment preparations. The knowledge of the preparations made from juniper berries, forest honey and natural resins was then preserved by charcoal burners and resin scrapers, who were able to use it to supplement their low income. The production was mostly done for personal use. The Oberweißbacher "pharmacist" Johann Georg Mylius (actually Möller, † around 1680) is considered to be the founder of the oil trade. With the support of his assistants Anders and Hans Walther, he initially built up a state-authorized trade in the sparsely populated Schwarzburger Oberland. A close relative of Mylius was a pastor in Oberweißbach at this time and was able to stimulate church life through charitable foundations with the donations.

After the death of Johann Georg Mylius, the olities, which were already mass-produced , were brought to the big cities of the empire by wandering traders, who were also known as humpback pharmacists because of their transport containers . A saddler from Oberweißbach replaced the unwieldy wooden reef with a leather satchel that was easier to carry, from which the regionally slang term “(the) Raanz” for the area around Oberweißbach was derived. In the middle of the 18th century the Koenigsee office had more than 350 registered oil dealers. Every olive grocer had to carry a legitimation letter sealed by the clerk in Königsee with them as identification in order to prevent copycats and fraud. The balsam makers and laboratory technicians from Oberweißbach, Königsee and other places in this area, known as the Königseer , wandered with their humpback pharmacies to Switzerland, Holland and Poland. The sales areas expanded steadily, the highest profit was to be achieved in the Dutch trading cities of Amsterdam and Haarlem , where sailors and travelers vied for the miracle cures. With the quickly earned money, the social structure in the Oberweißbach region, from 1832 Amt Oberweißbach , got out of hand. The pastors and doctors noticed an enormous increase in drunkenness and syphilis among their parishioners and pilloryed the previously laudably promoted trade in olities. In addition, the pharmacists and doctors were outraged by the unexpected success of the "botchers".

The oil trade, which continued into the 19th century, is typical for Thuringia and unique in Germany . A strict ban on entry and transit into various northern German territories led to the decline in the oil trade. In addition to the sale of glassware and porcelain from the Thuringian Forest , the olive grocery trade also went on clandestinely despite official bans. The health insurance law of 1884 put an end to the business.

Museums and miscellaneous

  • The Museum of Thuringian Folklore in Erfurt has several original humpback pharmacies in its collection
  • There is a herb and oil museum in Schmiedefeld .
  • A selection of oil bottles can be found in the exhibition of the European Flacon Glass Museum in Kleinttau on the Rennsteig
  • In the 1960s, the term Olitäten was deleted from the Duden , it had to give way as a less common term to a number of newly added words
  • Since January 18, 2000, the term Olitäten has been registered with the DPMA as a word mark for soaps and other drugstore goods as well as for various pharmaceutical and veterinary products , the rights holder is the former mayor of Königsee Jens A. Sprenger

literature

  • August Elsäßer: The parish of Oberweißbach through the ages. A review of the 150th anniversary of the dedication of the church in Oberweißbach with a short chronicle of the parish towns of Oberweißbach, Cursdorf, Deesbach, Lichtenhain and Leibis . Oberweißbach 1929, OCLC 572997183 .
  • Berthold Rein: The olive grocer in the Thuringian Forest. In: The German Bell. Special supplement to the Wernigeroder newspaper. 1927. No. 6, pp. [5] - [6]

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Hermann Kopp: History of Chemistry. (Digitized from books.google.com), 1845, p. 175 , accessed on March 8, 2009 .
  2. ↑ Olity. In: Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm: Dictionary of the German language. Volume 13, 1889.
  3. ↑ Peter Stolz: Handbook on the Latin language of the Middle Ages. Volume II: Change of meaning and word formation. 2000, ISBN 3-406-45836-X , § 50.
  4. ^ A b Karl Emil Franzos: Something about the laboratory assistants . In: Herbert Weißhuhn (Ed.): From Anhalt and Thuringia . Rütten and Loening, Berlin 1991, ISBN 3-352-00400-5 .
  5. ^ A b c August Elsäßer: Oberweißbach and the Olitätenhandel . In: Monthly pages for neighbors who are happy to walk . tape 2 , no. 4 , November 1925, p. 106-114 .
  6. ^ A b c August Elsäßer: The parish Oberweißbach through the ages . Oberweißbach 1929.
  7. ↑ Olities trade. religio.de, accessed on March 8, 2009 .
  8. ^ Günther Hoppe, Jürgen John : Historischer Führer - Sites and monuments of history in the districts of Erfurt , Gera , Suhl , Urania-Verlag, Leipzig 1978, p. 167.
  9. ↑ Eckart Roloff , Karin Henke-Wendt: Samples of herbs and a puzzling term (herb and oil museum 'Beim Giftmischer') In: Visit your doctor or pharmacist. A tour through Germany's museums for medicine and pharmacy. Volume 2, Southern Germany, pp. 232-233, Verlag S. Hirzel, Stuttgart 2015, ISBN 978-3-7776-2511-9 .
  10. ↑ Why are "Olitäten" no longer in the Duden since 1960? MDR 1 Radio Thuringia online, May 12, 2005, archived from the original on March 11, 2009 ; accessed on October 6, 2016 .

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