Pharmacy and Colonialism. Preliminary study
Project Supervisor: Prof Andreas Eckert
Staff in Project: Tristan Oestermann
Project Partners: Prof. Dr. Jürgen Zimmerer, Kim Sebastian Todzi (University Hamburg)
Funding: Familie Engelhorn
Funding Periode: 09/2022 - 08/2023
This project aims at showing the history of the global entanglement of a big pharmaceutical company. Using the example of Boehringer Mannheim, we search for answers to various questions: Which role did companies of the pharmaceutical industry play in the colonial and postcolonial world? Which role did this environment play in the emergence of pharmaceutical companies? Which ways did companies use to acquire resources and know how? What local partners, workers, and networks were pharmaceutical companies able to rely on? How did these relationships change through political processes like decolonization?
A special focus of the project lies on the history of alkaloid production and marketing, in which Boehringer Mannheim (earlier: C.F. Boehringer & Soehne) was a leading player since the 19th century and which connected the company to the colonial and postcolonial world. The firm invested in Latin America, Equatorial Africa and Southeast Asia. It was a truly global actor.