Otten Ferdinand

Otten Ferdinand (1850-1930), German pharmacist. Offspring of German families, who had settled in Georgia earlier. He received pharmaceutical education in Yuriev (present day Tartu). Setting up of a field pharmacy in Kars, marked the beginning of his employment at the pharmacy shops of Georgia. Ever since that time, he served as a pharmacy manager for over 50 years. F. Otten purchased a pharmacy shop in Tbilisi. It was the first pharmacy shop, established in the city by German pharmacist Flor Schoenberg in 1829. On the presentday G. Leonidze street he built a threestory house and allocated the ground floor for the newly acquired pharmacy shop. F. Otten used to run two drugstores: one of them served Tbilisi residents, the other – the guests of the city. He also leased the pharmacy shop serving the city hospitals, however, in 1887, he abandoned it for lack of time. Later, E. Zemel ran the said pharmacy shop.

Long before the first medical examination laboratory was founded in Georgia, F. Otten used to participate in criminal examinations.