The Raths-Apotheke (literally: Council Apothecary) is a listed building on the Market Square ( Marktplatz ) in Bremen, Germany. After suffering war damage, the building was restored with two gables in the Neobaroque style in 1958, re-establishing the square's sequence of gabled buildings dating from the 1820s.
There has been a Raths-Apotheke in Bremen since 1510. The exact location of the original building is not known but it was probably situated in Sögestrasse. It is first mentioned in a document from 1 October 1532 in which the city requires the pharmacist to sell his wares at fair prices. The pharmacist received his income from the city council. From the 17th century, the council leased the pharmacy for 10 years at a time, later for life. The supervision was ensured by the third mayor and by a councillor. [1]
From 1594 to 1820, two beautiful three-storey gabled buildings in the Weser Renaissance style stood of the site of today's Raths-Apotheke. Differing in height and width, they had been designed by Lüder von Bentheim, one with two bays, the other with three. They housed the apothecary and the excise office. The apothecary itself had a tall triangular gable with pyramids on either side. [1] In the 17th century, additional pharmacies were established in Bremen: the "Einhorn-Apotheke" in 1640, and the "Hirsch-Apotheke" and the "Apotheke zur weißen Rose" in 1667.
In August 1815, the city council sold the Raths-Apotheke property to Jacob Henschen, the licensee. In 1824, Henschen demolished the buildings which had fallen into disrepair. Around 1830, a new plain three-storey building was erected in the Neoclassical style practised by Biedermeier. Standing in the northwest corner of the Marktplatz, the rendered building looked strange and out of character. In 1893, it was seriously damaged by a fire but the owner, Friedrich Hauck, could not afford to have it repaired.
A lively public discussion took place, involving the Bürgerschaft of Bremen (city parliament). It became generally accepted that as the market place was close to the hearts of the citizens, its appearance had to be maintained. As a result, the cathedral architect, Max Salzman, submitted plans for a new façade. Built of yellow Silesian marble, the German Renaissance building was completed in 1894. Its central gable and the oriels on the first and second floors drew out its vertical lines. To cover the additional costs of a building designed to enhance the cityscape, the owner received a subsidy of 15,000 marks from the city and a donation of 10,000 marks from Franz Schütte who had been successful in the oil-import business.
On 6 October 1944, the interior of the building was destroyed by incendiary bombs but the ground floor and the façade with the oriels were left intact. After the war, the lower two storeys of the building were repaired but it was only in 1958 that restoration was completed. Planned by Herbert Anker, instead of a single central gable, there were now two Neobaroque gables. The work re-established the ensemble of gabled buildings on the Marktplatz from 1830. As the oriels on the first and second floor had originally been designed as features of a single gable, their removal was contemplated but rejected. The roof cover of the oriel which had originally been cupola-shaped was replaced by a sloping copper-covered roof. There is a sundial on the right gable, one of Bremen's 125 sundials.
The left entrance provides access to a medical centre while the Raths-Apotheke occupies the right half of the building.
In 1973, the Raths-Apotheke was listed under the Monument Act. [2] The ensemble on the north-western side of the Marktplatz consists of the following four buildings (from right to left):
Wetter (Hessen) is a small town in Hesse, Germany. The rather unusual designation Wetter (Hessen-Nassau) stems from a time when the town belonged to the Prussian province of the same name, and nowadays is only used by the railway – even today, the railway station in town bears this name.
Apothecary is an archaic English term for a medical professional who formulates and dispenses materia medica (medicine) to physicians, surgeons and patients. The modern terms 'pharmacist' and 'chemist' have taken over this role.
Heinrich Emanuel Merck was an apothecary whose descendants are the founders of Merck and Company and Merck KGaA.
The Pharmacy Museum of the University of Basel shows in its permanent collection the history of medicinal remedies and their preparation. Designed as a collection of specimens for study purposes, the museum was founded in 1924 by Josef Anton Häfliger (1873–1954) and has been preserved to this day in its original form as a 'scientific cabinet'.
The Raeapteek is a pharmacy in the center of Tallinn, Estonia.
The Adler-Apotheke was a former brass producing factory in the German city of Stolberg. The building was founded in 1575 by Leonard Schleicher. In the 18th century it became the first pharmacy in the district of Aachen. Currently the building is protected as a cultural heritage.
Haus der Stadtsparkasse is a Rococo landmark on the "Marktplatz" in Bremen, Germany. It was completed in the 1950s combining the historic front gable from another site with the more recent architecture of the remainder of the building.
The old Rathscafé, now named Deutsches Haus, is a listed building on the market place (Marktplatz) in Bremen. It is part of the monument ensemble No. 1–21.
The Bremer Marktplatz is a square situated in the centre of the Hanseatic City of Bremen. One of the oldest public squares in the city, it covers an area of 3,484 m2 (37,500 sq ft). It is no longer used as a market place except for the Christmas market and the annual Freimarkt Fair at the end of October.
The Schütting, situated on the Marktplatz in Bremen, initially served the city's merchants and tradesmen as a guild house. In 1849, it became Bremen's chamber of commerce. Since 1973, it has been under monument protection. It lies on the south site of the Bremen marketplaces directly across from the town hall.
The New Town Hall has stood on the Domshof in the centre of Bremen, Germany since 1913. Located behind the Unser-Lieben-Frauen-Kirchhof cemetery, it is adjacent to the older section of the Town Hall with which it forms a harmonious ensemble. Among its sumptuous rooms decorated with local artefacts, the New Town Hall houses the Senate Chamber used by the Senate for its regular meetings and the Great Hall, a venue for official receptions. In 2004, Bremen Town Hall was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, together with the Roland of Bremen, because of its outstanding architecture and testimony to the development of civic autonomy during the Holy Roman Empire.
The Domshof is a town square in Bremen, north of the cathedral and the Marktplatz. The Domshof is used for markets as well as larger outdoor events, particularly May Day demonstrations.
Domsheide is a major square in the city of Bremen, Germany. It is located east of the Marktplatz and south of Bremen Cathedral. Streets leading to it include Ostertorstraße, Dechanatstraße, Balgebrückstraße and Violenstraße. It contains a number of important buildings, including the main post office, the courthouse, the cathedral precinct with the bell, and the annex to the stock market building. It is one of three main hubs of the public transport network, with most tram routes and two important bus lines crossing the square. The design of the Domsheide is relatively uneven, characterized by materials such as sandstone, dark red brick, red and yellow clinkers, render, concrete and marble.
The Kontorhaus am Markt in Bremen is a historical building in the city centre of Bremen. Today, it is used as a shopping mall. It is situated at the Bremer Marktplatz between three streets: Langenstrasse 2/8, Stintbruecke 1 and Bredenstrasse 13.
The Langenstraße is a historical street in the old town of Bremen in the north of Germany. First mentioned in 1234, it is one of Bremen's oldest streets and one of the most important for the city's merchants. It no doubt originated at the time when the first settlements grew up on the north bank of the Balge. It runs west from the Marktplatz parallel to the River Weser over Bürgermeister-Smidt-Straße to Geeren. Many of the street's historic buildings were seriously damaged during aerial bombings in the Second World War but were carefully reconstructed in the postwar period.
The Glockenspiel House is a building in Bremen in the north of Germany. With its 30 bells of Meissen porcelain, the carillon (Glockenspiel) chimes three times a day while wooden panels depicting pioneering seafarers and aviators appear on a rotating mechanism inside the tower.
The Focke Museum is the museum of history and the history of art for the city and state of Bremen. It was formed in 1924 by the merger of a museum of industry and commerce and the previous historical museum, and is named for the founder of the latter, Johann Focke (1848–1922), a Bremen privy councillor and father of Henrich Focke. It is located in 4.5 hectares of grounds in the Riensberg neighbourhood of the city. In addition to a main building which opened in 1964 and was extended in 2002, the museum complex includes buildings dating from the 16th to the 19th centuries.
Friedrich Jacob Merck was a German pharmacist and a member of the Merck family. He was the founder of the world's oldest pharmaceutical company, now known as the Merck Group, which was established in 1668.
The Lower Market Square is the central square in the historic town of Görlitz. The city's town hall and thus most of the administration have been located on this square since 1350. Many of the city's Renaissance-styled buildings were built here.
The Altes Rathaus at Bonner Marktplatz was built between 1737 and 1738 in the Rococo style by the electoral court architect Michael Leveilly; however, it was not completely finished until around 1780. The four-storey building has seven window axes and a gambrel with dormers. It stands as a Baudenkmal under Cultural heritage management.
