The Ohly Family

Adolf Ohly, the owner and operator of the “Neue Apotheke” in Lübbecke’s pedestrian zone, is buried here. Its history dates back to 1852 and ends with the closure of the business in June 2024. The name “Neue Apotheke” was chosen at the time to distinguish it from the pharmacy that already existed on Gänsemarkt.

By the mid-19th century, the city’s population had grown significantly, and a second pharmacy was urgently needed. Pharmacist Ohly was 32 years old—still quite young—when, in 1852, after a lengthy process, he received permission from the Royal Chief President of the Province of Westphalia to operate a pharmacy in Lübbecke. The building was constructed in 1851. A statue of “Hygiea,” the Greek goddess of health, was placed on the front facade of the building as a decorative element. The statue, which depicts a woman holding a bowl from which a snake is drinking, still adorns the building today.

Since Ohly had no male heir, the pharmacist Wilhelm Upmeyer bought Ohly’s pharmacy and then married his eldest daughter, Marie. Ohly’s youngest daughter married the pharmacist Oscar Petry, the owner of the Alte Apotheke. Thus, the two pharmacies were connected by family ties. Adolf Ohly died in 1890 at the age of 73. The Ohly family plot is a designated historic site and is maintained by the association “Friends and Supporters of Cemetery Culture in Lübbecke.”

On the Brunnengalerie, heading uphill toward the south, are the family graves of the Upmeyer/Leue and Petry families.