Gedeon Richter (1872-1944) was a Hungarian pharmacist and the founder of the modern Hungarian pharmaceutical industry. After the death of his parents, he was brought up in Gyöngyös, where he became an apprentice pharmacist in 1890. In 1895, he obtained a degree in pharmacy from the University of Budapest. Two years later, he travelled abroad and studied pharmaceutical production methods in several European pharmacies. In 1901, he bought the Eagle Pharmacy on the corner of Üllői Street and Márton Street in Budapest, establishing his own company and laying the foundations for pharmaceutical production in Hungary. In 1907, he built the first pharmaceutical factory in Hungary at 63 Cserkesz Street in Kőbánya, Budapest, which he ran as the chief executive. The factory’s success is demonstrated by the fact that it had already been granted 24 patents for medicines by the outbreak of the First World War. By the beginning of the Second World War, the factory had a network of representatives on five continents and 10 subsidiaries. In 1942, Richter was stripped of his position as chief executive and banned from the factory under the Jewish laws. From then on, through his trusted associates, Richter illegally managed the company from his home. In the autumn of 1944, the operation of the factory ground almost to a complete halt. At that time Richter had the chance to leave for Switzerland, but he refused to abandon his country and his company. On 30 December 1944, Gedeon Richter became a victim of the Arrow Cross regime, and was executed along with many other of his Jewish compatriots on the banks of the Danube.
The stamp features a portrait and the signature of Gedeon Richter, as well as the former factory building in Cserkesz Street. The Richter Gedeon Chemical Research and Office Building, which won the Budapest Architectural Award (designed by Gábor Zoboki, Éva Oláh and Zoltán Tóth of Zoboki Design and Architecture), appears on the commemorative first day cover. Photos by Gábor Bodó. A detail of the trademark of an organotherapy product which used to be produced by the Richter Gedeon factory is featured in the design of the commemorative postmark.
- Issued on: 1 July 2022
- Face value/selling price:
HUF 630 (On the date of issue, this can be used as a supplementary denomination.) - Printing technique:4 colours
- Number of copies: 50,000
(50 stamps and 5 barcodes per sheet) - Perforated size: 40 x 30 mm
- External imperforated size of souvenir sheet: 160 x 88 mm
- Paper type: White, wood-free, surface-treated, gummed stamp paper with optical whitener
- Printed by ANY Nyrt. (stamp);
Codex Zrt. (FDC) - Source: Richter Gedeon Nyrt.
- Designed by Zsuzsanna Czirják-Nagy