Johann Trommsdorff

Who was Johann Trommsdorff?

Johann Bartholomew Trommsdorff, was a German chemist and pharmacist noted for his 1805 Systematisches Handbuch der Gesammten Chemie; a work that was published in eight volumes.

He was the son of pharmacist Wilhelm Bernhard Trommsdorff, and in 1784 began work as an apprentice-pharmacist at the Hofapotheke in Weimar. From 1788 he furthered his education in Stettin and Stargard, returning to Erfurt in 1790, where he took charge of his late father's pharmacy, the Schwanen-Ring-Apotheke.

In 1795 he became an associate professor at the University of Erfurt, where he gave lectures in chemistry, mineralogy and pharmacy-dispensary. Shortly afterwards he founded the Chemisch-physikalisch-pharmaceutische Pensionsanstalt für Jünglinge, an establishment that is considered to be the first pharmaceutical institute in Germany. At the institute, prospective pharmacists were trained in physics, chemistry and pharmacy, and also given instruction in the fields of botany, zoology, mineralogy, mathematics and natural philosophy.