Arthur Abelmann Collection 1888-1950 Bulk dates: 1920-1934

Abstract

This collection documents the life of pharmacist and entrepreneur Arthur Abelmann. It contains materials about his personal and professional life, including his service in World War I. The bulk of the material concerns Chemiewerk, the pharmaceutical firm he founded in 1920 and cultivated for 13 years. In 1933, Abelmann was forced to resign his leading position and then to sell the company in one of the earliest cases of “Aryanization”. Some documents have English translations prepared by Walter Abelmann, Arthur's son.Employment at Casella (under Arthur v. Weinberg) ; 'Thoughts and comments on life', 1888-1934 ; Degussa (Deutsche Gold und Silberanstalt) ; Brother Nicolai (Colla) Abelmann ; Letters from Albert SchweitzerArthur Abelmann was born in Riga, Latvia, February 10, 1888; he died in Zurich, Switzerland, December 2, 1934. In 1906 he started as pharmacy trainee in Memel, and also trained in pharmacies in Wiesbaden, Geneva, Lyon, Cannes, and Nancy. Abelmann then pursued university-level pharmacy studies in Munich, Strasbourg, and Nancy (there, under the Nobel-prize-winning chemist Victor Grignard). Abelmann returned to Germany from France just before the outbreak of hostilities, and served in the German Army from 1915 to 1917 as a chemist and pharmacist in the military hospital for prisoners-of-war at Limburg an der Lahn (Hesse). He finished his Ph.D. at the University of Frankfurt in 1919. In 1920 he founded the Chemisch-Pharmazeutische AG Bad Hamburg, known as the “Chemiewerk”. He stayed with the company, overseeing its move to Frankfurt/Main. In 1933 he was forced to resign as Director and CEO.Arthur Abelmann, his wife Else Weill Abelmann (born 1893 in Zurich, Switzerland), and their children, Walter Abelmann (born 1921) and Edith Abelmann (born 1923) emigrated to Switzerland in 1933, where he took over the responsibilities for the Treupha AG in Baden, Switzerland, which represented the Chemiewerk in many European and overseas countries.Processeddigitize