Humpback Pharmacist
The humpback pharmacist expelled from the 16th to the 20th century Olitäten (Natural Remedies) in Central Europe. They belonged to the humpbacks .
The name comes from the fact that they carried a wooden frame on their back (hump), the reef (a kind of higher than a man's height ). At the reef, the remedies were packed in clay jugs, glass bottles and chip boxes and were usually transported on foot, often on trips lasting several weeks, to customers all over Europe, with one family being responsible for a very specific sales area. An Oberweißbacher saddler replaced the unwieldy wooden reef with a leather satchel that was easier to carry, from which the regional slang term "Raanz" for the area around Oberweißbach was derived.
One of the areas in which the olities were collected, processed and sold from there is in the Thuringian Slate Mountains and extends over an area of around 300 km². The main towns of the Buckelapotheker were Oberweißbach , Deesbach , Meuselbach-Schwarzmühle , Großbreitenbach , Schmiedefeld and Königsee .
The humpback pharmacist was an important representative of his trade and is ultimately the pioneer of today's representatives for the pharmaceutical and spirits industry. In the GDR it became impossible to maintain the distribution lines, which led to the decline of this guild. Many representatives of the Buckelapotheker dynasties found employment as employees of the VEB Pharmazeutisch-Chemische Fabrik Meuselbach, which today operates under the name of Krewel Meuselbach GmbH. Today museums in Oberweißbach, Schmiedefeld, Rudolstadt and Kleintettau commemorate the tradition of the oil trade .
literature
- Elvira Grudzielski : My Thuringian herb land. Arfmann, Suhl 1997, ISBN 3-9804573-4-6
- Otto Ludwig: In the Thuringian herb garden. About medicinal herbs, witches and humpback pharmacists. Rudolstadt 1982, ISBN 3-7352-0037-0
- Anja Werlich, Rainer Schlundt (ed.): Buckelapotheker in Thuringia. Contemporary witnesses report. Hain-Verlag, Rudolstadt 1995, ISBN 3-930215-16-0
