Old Pharmacy um 1960

In 1559, the town of Calw received the privilege to operate a pharmacy. in 1659, the Calw pharmacy was granted the exclusive right to sell medical and pharmaceutical remedies in the town and the surrounding spas of Teinach, Liebenzell and Wildbad.

The pharmacy was initially housed in different buildings in Calw. It was not until 1699 that the pharmacist Achatius I Gärtner built the present building at Marktplatz 28. This building remained in the possession of the Gärtner family until 1765. Medicines were still produced and sold here until 1965. After that, the pharmacy was moved to Marktstraße. In 1808, a second pharmacy had started its operation, which was called the "New Pharmacy".

One branch of the Gärtner family was devoted to medicine. The famous physicians and botanists Joseph Gärtner (1732 - 1791) and Carl Friedrich Gärtner (1772 - 1850), who became co-founders of modern heredity theory through their research on fruits and seeds of plants, descended from this line. Their findings formed an important basis for Mendel's laws. However, the place of work of this extraordinary family of researchers was not in this building, but a few steps away, in the house at Marktplatz 18, where a plaque commemorates the pioneering botanists.