Tartu ülikooli farmaatsia instituudi asukoha otsingud 19. ja 20. sajandil. Searching for the location of the Institute of Pharmacy of the University of Tartu in the 19th and 20th century
Creators: name: Ird, Ken
Publisher: name: Tartu Ülikooli ajaloo küsimusi
Year: 2019

description: There has been an Institute of Pharmacy at the University of Tartu since 1843 and its more than 175-year-long history has been studied relatively well. Regrettably, the authors of several recent prominent historical studies have propagated an incorrect understanding about the very first location of the institute in Tartu. Thus, this article aims to fix that error on the basis of primary sources and to give an overview of the unrealized plans for finding suitable lodgings for the institute in the 19th and 20th century. An independent pharmaceutical institute was founded in the University of Tartu owing to a supplementary budget approved by the Russian emperor Nicolas I in 1842. The first attempts to find an appropriate location for the institute were already made in November and December 1842 (Stiernhielm house, figure 1, No. 1), but the project was hindered by the completely opposite opinions of Carl Christian Traugott Friedemann Goebel, Professor of Chemistry, and Carl Friedrich Eduard Siller, Professor of Pharmacy. Professor Goebel energetically advocated for a new building. In February 1843 he proposed a sketch for the building of the Institute of Pharmacy by the university architect Christoph Conrad Stremme (figure 2). The building was to be erected next to the slopes of Toome Hill (figure 1, No. 2). Stremme’s monumental plan got tangled in centralized Russian bureaucracy. Instead, the Ministry of National Education declared that it had been decided to buy the Essen house (figure 1, No. 3). Until the conclusion of the transaction, the institute was instructed to lease rooms in some townhouse. Professor Siller rapidly found suitable lodgings right at the centre of Tartu in a building owned by Hermann Köhler. Although this was initially considered a temporary solution, it later turned out that the institute had to remain in that location for many decades to come. Köhler’s house was situated on what is now Kompanii Street (Kompanii 3/5, figure 1, No. A), which Dr Hermann Köhler and his heirs owned from 1829 to 1876. However, already since the 1930s a misconception about the location of Köhler’s house started to spread in prominent writings about the history of the Institute of Pharmacy. Different authors spread the incorrect statement that the institute was at a building on the town hall square called “the tilted house” (Raekoja plats 18). Such confusion apparently originates from the fact that both of these houses belonged to different non-related persons bearing the family name Köhler. Yet, Raekoja plats 18 was acquired by Mr Theodor Köhler only in 1878, at a time when the neighbouring building at Kompanii 3/5 had already been sold off by the heirs of Hermann Köhler and the Institute of Pharmacy had moved out from Kompanii Street. Therefore, the first location of the Institute of Pharmacy in Tartu was at Kompanii 3/5. The university continued to work on a completely new institute building, and a new and more modest building was proposed by the architect of the university, Karl Winkler (figure 3). In the following years, preparations were made to start with the construction at Näituse 2 (figure 1, No. 2). However, the whole plan was brought to a standstill in 1848 by the minister of national education “until further notice”. Only in 1857 new hope arose for the institute, when merchant Carl Gustav Reinhold informed that he was willing to sell his townhouse to the university (figure 1, No. 4). This proposal found no favour with Carl Ernst Claus, Professor of Pharmacy, and Carl Rathaus, university architect. Already the following year a new proposition was made for the university to buy the townhouse of Carl Eduard von Liphart (figure 1, No. 5). The plan wasn’t realised, mostly due to ongoing inflation and state budget deficit. In 1864 Professor Johann Georg Noël Dragendorff became the new director of the Institute of Pharmacy. Together with Georg Philipp von Oettingen, Professor of Ophthalmology, he found that the new townhouse of Gustav Frommhold von Nolcken (figure 1, No. 7) would be a suitable location for both the pharmaceutical institute and the ophthalmological clinic. However, Baron von Nolcken was not satisfied with the proposed purchase price. The university tried to renovate the former dwellings of the university equerry. The reconstruction plan was prepared by university architect Carl Rathaus (figure 4), but the university council was opposed to the plan. In 1870 the administration of the state school district was moved from Tartu to Riga. Its former location in the so-called “old university building” at the town hall square (figure 1, No. B) was offered to the Institute of Pharmacy and in autumn 1870 the institute finally moved out from its original location in Köhler’s house at Kompanii Street to Raekoja plats 6. Soon it became evident that more space was needed for the growing institute. A new building was planned for the institutes of the university already since the 1920s but the idea only started to be realized in 1937. The university sold the old university building to Tartu municipal bank and the profits were used to start planning a new building for pharmacists right next to the main building of the university (figure 1, No. C). The university proposed an alternative location (figure 1, No. 8) to gather the whole Faculty of Medicine in a single location. Eventually the proposal was abandoned and in autumn 1939 the pharmacists finally moved to a new building specially designed to meet their academic and scientific needs. The Institute of Pharmacy got its very own building only after a hundred years of discussions. An undying hope dating back to the 19th century imperial university was realised when the Estonian-language university celebrated its 20th anniversary. This building was meant to be the first phase in the urban reconstruction of the whole academic campus around the university’s main building. The Second World War and the following years of Soviet occupation brought this grandiose idea to an end, but curiously enough, allow everyone to marvel at the district around the main building in its historic beauty today.
description: Tartu Ülikooli ajaloo küsimusi, No 47 (2019): Kas me sellist rahvusülikooli tahtsime?