Stephen Shapiro Profile picture
May 3, 2022 13 tweets 5 min read Read on X
This is a thread about #heidelberg history, which typically combines the commemorative of progressive politics against the city's spießig (petit bourgeois meanness) history.
Trattoria Toscana stands at Marktplatz 1.
@CAPASHeidelberg folks often eat here after our lectures.
1/ Image
In the 19th century, this was the location of the Schwanen-Apotheke (not to be confused with the contemporary Schwan Apotheke on Hauptstr).

More than just a drug store, it was a pharmaceutical institute, an independent site of scientific discovery.
2/
The Schwan-Apotheke was created by Georg Friedrich Walz (1813-62).

Walz was an ardent socialist and had participated in the failed Revolution of 1848.
de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georg_Fri…
3/ Image
In the aftermath, his career and scientific work was frequently blocked by the conservative Baden government.

But he did establish the Schwanen-Apotheke, habilitated at the uni, and sought a Professorship in science.
4/
His promotion was frequently blocked by politicians and Bunsen (of the Bunsen burner) on the grounds that it was inappropriate for a private scientist to be offered the Professorship.
pharmazeutische-zeitung.de/inhalt-30-1999…
5/
Walz was finally made Professor in 1859 after 3 attempts, making him the second oldest Professor on his inauguration. The tensions in the city perhaps led to his suicide 3 years later.
6/
While there is no marker for Walz or the Schwanen-Apotheke, Heidelberg honors his son, Ernst Walz, who was mayor from 1913-28, with the Walz bridge.
This is the bridge that connects the train station to the medical campus, where @CAPASHeidelberg reside.
7/ Image
Walz's pharmacy is significant for those he employed, including a young assistant,
Carl Schorlemmer (1834-92)
Schorlemmer later moved to England to later become the UK's first Professor of Organic Chemistry, at Owens College, today called Manchester uni, @OfficialUoM
8/ Image
Schorlemmer was a close personal friend to Marx and Engels, staying with Marx on visits to London and travelling with Engels on a trip to the US.
Carl was one of only 8 at #marx's funeral.
9/
Engels' funeral oration to Schorlemmer, called him "a {complete} communist before Lassalle appeared in Germany" and praised Schorlemmer as one of the founders of organic chemistry as a science, rather than a "mess of confused statements."
10/
So next time @CAPASHeidelberg has a pizza at Toscana, give a thought to it as space of the intertwining of new science and socialism/communism.
Bread and Roses, indeed!
11/
Engel's funeral oration to Carl:
mlwerke.de/me/me22/me22_3…
12/

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More from @shapirostephen

Oct 31, 2023
#Halloween marks the anniversary of Europe's first act of ethnic cleansing.

With the 1290 Edict of Expulsion, Edward I banished all Jews (roughly 3000) from England in return for Parliament's permission to raise a tax of £116,000 – the largest single tax of the Middle Ages.
1/
Not until Cromwell in 1656 were Jews allowed to return to England.

The Edict only had force in England. Scotland being free from English State repression.
2/
The Archbishop of Canterbury issued a formal "act of repentance", on the 800th anniversary of the Synod of Oxford in 1222, which passed a set of laws that restricted Jews' rights to engage with Christians in England.

3/theguardian.com/world/2022/may…
Read 4 tweets
Nov 9, 2022
In memory of #kristalnacht, a short thread on #heidelberg's nazi-era history, tourist charm, and the righteous need for academic boycotts.

Remember folks, "every document of culture is a document of barbarism."
@CAPASHeidelberg @DanielABarber @anitchang
1/
Every tourist to #Heidelberg sees the New University Building in University Square.
2/ Image
I gave my @CAPASHeidelberg lecture here last year, as does every other fellow, in a lecture hall named for American alumni.
But few know it’s dark #nazi history.
3/ Image
Read 28 tweets
Mar 27, 2022
In my last days in #Heidelberg, seeing what needs to be seen.

Holocaust center for Sinti and Roma. Image
The Nazis made no Dustin ction between Jews and Roma.
2. Image
# Berlin made #Marzahn a ghetto before sending the incarcerated to their death.
3. Image
Read 6 tweets
Mar 25, 2022
shortly before I leave Heidelberg, I made it up into the Honor Cemetery, a Nazi project in 1934 where WWI soldiers were exhumed and moved into a new ceremonial space.
1/ Image
2/
The photos don't adequately convey the monumental landscaping, where the eye is drawn to a stone plinth and then beyond. Image
3/
reverse shot Image
Read 10 tweets
Apr 15, 2021
I want to commemorate Kenneth Jacobson, who recently passed at 92.
Like many I knew Ken from @actupny, where he calmly chaired the tempestuous Treatment & Data committee during my time.
Ken's in the black jacket here;
1/
ACT UP was one of the rare American organisations where people didn't ask immediately what your "profession" was, so many were unaware that Ken was an accomplished composer, including a song that Sinatra choose for his standard book: "Golden Moment"

2/
There's been no obituary for Ken, but here's an oral interview from his undergrad @ColbyCollege
mainejews.org/docs/Colby/Ken…
It's painful, though to me that even as late as 2010, Ken was asked (and graciously let pass by) questions like this:
3/
Read 5 tweets
Apr 15, 2021
Since we're getting another round of the pointless #marx v. #Foucault debate, once more for those in the back,
1/6
Read 6 tweets

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