Scheele’s father obtained a brewer license in 1733, the same year as he married
Margaretha Eleonora. The couple settled at Fährstraße 23
4 (Fig. 2.7) in Stralsund,
with the brewery located in the adjacent building (Fig. 2.8). It was the family of
Mrs. Scheele who provided the house. The house was built in the fourteenth century
and has survived to the present day; the facade was altered in the nineteenth century
but restored in the 1980s.
In the 1740s, Stralsund’s brewing industry faced serious problems due to
increased competition [25], and in 1744 the Scheele brewery went bankrupt and the
family was forced to sell the house at Fährstraße. Their next address, where Scheele
spent most of his childhood, is not known. With assistance from friends, Scheele’s
father could continue his business until 1746, when he was forced to leave the
brewer guild to become a broker. One can suspect that he was dealing with barley
or other brewing-related products.
Fig. 2.5 Map of northern Germany, with some of the places related to the Scheele family. Image
Anders Lennartson
4
23 is the modern address, in Scheele’s days the number was 65.
18
2 Bergman and Scheele: Childhoods