Town hall pharmacy (Groß-Gerau)
The Rathaus-Apotheke in Groß-Gerau is the oldest pharmacy in the Upper County of the Landgraviate of Hessen-Darmstadt outside the capital Darmstadt .
In 1701 Landgrave Ernst Ludwig granted the pharmacist Heinrich Block, a monk from Wesel , the privilege of running a pharmacy in Groß-Gerau. However, as a "foreigner" he found no acceptance among the population and soon had to give up his business. Even a pharmacist Grandhomme was soon unable to establish himself in Groß-Gerau. By 1723 at the latest, however, there was a permanent pharmacy in the city. This is documented by the certification of the marriage of the pharmacist Johann Vietor to Margaretha Magdalene Körner, the daughter of a council member.
After Vietor's death on December 9, 1732, the widow married the pharmacist Johann Michael Dreyspring on October 6, 1733, who took over the pharmacy. His successor Friedrich Wilhelm Bader died on November 19, 1747 at the age of 35. On June 4, 1748, his widow married Johann Christoph Kempf, the pharmacy's provisional agent. After his death on August 9, 1760, his son Philipp Heinrich Kempf took over the pharmacy and ran it until his death on May 16, 1800.
His brother Friedrich Jacob Kempf inherited the pharmacy and bequeathed it in turn to his daughter Johanna Henriette, who married the pharmacist Friedrich Joseph Christoph Lauer from Oppenheim on July 31, 1803. After the death of Friedrich Jacob Kempf in 1828 he became a pharmacist himself in Groß-Gerau until his death in 1845. His son Georg Philipp Lauer (born January 8, 1830) was still a minor in 1845, so the pharmacy was initially managed by a provisional. He remained the owner of the pharmacy from the age of majority until his death in 1864. His widow sold the pharmacy in 1864 for 96,000 marks to the pharmacist Karl Hermann Rübsamen from Grünberg. In 1879 this sold the pharmacy to Theodor Kühn (1838-1897), who had previously operated the Bear Pharmacy in Battenberg. The purchase price was now 126,000 marks. The background to this was that there were only a small number of freely tradable pharmacy licenses that were usually traded for prices of 6 to 7 gross annual sales.
In 1901 Theodor Kühn's son of the same name took over the pharmacy, but transferred it to his brother Ernst, who in 1902 sold it to the pharmacist Gustav Reiz for 300,000 gold marks . This fell in 1915 in the First World War . The widow had the pharmacy managed by Max Pfrang, who himself was the tenant in 1936 until his death in 1946. His successor for two years was pharmacist Ernst Scriba and then Ruldof Klopp, who bought the pharmacy in 1950 from the Reitz community of heirs. After his death on April 16, 1974, his son Thomas took over the pharmacy.
literature
- Ute Rausch: The medical and pharmacy system of the Landgraviate of Hesse-Darmstadt and the Grand Duchy of Hesse with special consideration of the Province of Starkenburg , Diss., 1978, pp. 287–289
Coordinates: 49 ° 55 ′ 15.2 " N , 8 ° 28 ′ 55.5" E