November 12, 2012 • 28 mins
Johann Konrad Dippel was born in 1673 at Frankenstein Castle. Originally a theology student, Dippel began dabbling in chemistry, medicine and alchemy. Today he's remembered for creating a panacea that was used on a variety of ailments. How did he do it?
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to Stuff you missed in History Class from house
works dot com. Hello, and welcome to the podcast. I'm
to blame a truck reporting and I'm fired out and
we're technically past October and that spate of spooky episodes
that comes along with it. But the subject of this episode,
(00:23):
Johann Conrad Dipple, could really fit right in with that batch.
And honestly, I have to confess here he probably would
have been with that batch if this book that I
had ordered for two dollars and fifty nine cents had
come in time. A little peek into our world. I
know we're always um, I don't want to stay complaining.
(00:43):
We're always telling telling people, I guess especially people who
write in about books, that we don't really have a
research budget. Yeah, I'm on the waiting list for this
book at the library, waiting for this cheap book to
come from Amazon whatever it is. Yeah. So we're kind
of at the mercy of what's available of time, just
like every time. Yeah, so if we we take a
(01:05):
while to do your request sometimes this is why we're
just we're just waiting to be moved up on the
waiting list. But back to our story, Dipple story really
straddles a line between spooky and science, and I think
that's why it makes a good non Halloween episode two.
I mean, we've really come to love these science episodes
(01:25):
that we've done, and uh, and this really fits in
with that. Yeah, there are a lot of fun they're
popular with listeners, and I don't know, they're just a
little outside of our our normal repertoire almost But this
guy really combines a lot more than your typical scientific pursuit.
He does in his life's work, we find a mix
(01:45):
of theology, science, alchemy, and medicine. And if that's not
interesting enough, there are also the rumors that are involved
in this tale. Rumors of mysterious experiments involving the reanimation
of of we don't know what something, maybe people, maybe animals,
and also rumors of body snatching. So if you didn't
(02:06):
already guess it from that description, there's a link here,
or maybe just the supposition of a link to Dr Frankenstein,
the character from Mary Shelley's famous novel. And that's probably
the main reason that Dipple is a frequent request from
our listeners. Maybe a lot of them believed that he
was the inspiration for that character. And of course, if
(02:26):
this is starting to sound kind of familiar, we already
did an episode last year called Who Is the Real Frankenstein?
And it was about Giovanni Alfini. But the character of
Frankenstein is kind of like the one of Indiana Jones.
There are several different historical figures that people believe could
have been possible inspirations, and we named a few of
(02:46):
them in that Who Was the Real Frankenstein podcast. Maybe
one reason why we didn't explore that possibility more, though,
is because there are some legit sounding reasons cited as
to why Dipple couldn't have been the Frankenstein inspiration, which
we're of course going to mention later on. But the
potential Frankenstein connection, while it may have been the reason
(03:07):
we heard about Dipple, that's not the only reason that
we became interested in learning more about him. He was
also just this rascally controversial figure, and you know how
we love those. He also created a concoction that seems
fit for some sci fi horror story. But according to
an article in medical history by E. Einslee and W. A.
Campbell was really included in pharmaceutical books as a sort
(03:30):
of universal medicine until the early nineteenth century, and this
concoction was called Dipple's oil, and Dipple thought it to
be the elixir of life. Okay. So one of the
reasons why it's so hard to know whether Dipple truly
could have been the inspiration for Frankenstein is that a
lot of the details of his life are pretty sketchy.
(03:51):
According to Radu Florescu in his book In Search of Frankenstein,
this is partly because a lot of primary sources related
to Dipple's life, including his doctoral dissertation, were destroyed during
the Allied bombings of Darmstadt and Geithen, which is where
he studied, so all these papers about his life are
(04:12):
no longer with us. Unfortunately, Florescu's own biographical sketch of
Dipple is one that we refer to a lot, and
he put it together through studying more than seventy works
which Dipple composed, including one that contained his autobiography, as
well as Dipple biographies by other writers, including Carl Voss.
So one thing that most accounts of Dipple's life really
(04:32):
agree on is how it began. He was born August tenth,
six seventy three, at and this is probably one of
the biggest reasons that people make the Mary Shelley Frankenstein connection.
It's because he was born at a place called Frankenstein
Castle about a mile south of Darmstadt. So I'd say
that's a pretty big connection. So today this castle is
(04:55):
basically a ruin that overlooks the old vauld but it
was once the home of the baron's Frankenstein or Frankenstein
maybe more accurate. Yeah, and they were a German feudal family,
but they had vacated the place by the time Dipple
was born, having sold the place in sixteen sixty two.
By the time Dipple was born in the castle, however,
(05:16):
had become a hospital for people who had been injured
in the war with France, and his parents, Anna eleanoramunch
Meyer and a Lutheran minister named Johann Philip Dipple were
both refugees there. According to that medical history article we mentioned,
Dipple's father wanted him to become a Lutheran minister too.
He would have been the fifth generation and his family
(05:37):
to do so. But Florescue notes that Dipple was always
kind of a strange kid. For one thing, he was
kind of a loner. The other kids gave him the
nickname the Owl for his tendencies to keep to himself
and also to read by candle light in one of
the castle towers at night, which sounds pretty brave for
a young kid. He was also considered kind of odd
for the way he regarded himself. He was really smart,
(06:00):
and that seems pretty evident by pretty much all accounts.
Einsley and Campbell's article says that a Dipple's secondary school,
Darmstadt Gymnauseum, his name was first on the role of
distinguished old Boys. But Floresci says that Dipple considered himself
quote a superior individual animated by a quote higher spirit
who could figure out the mysteries of the universe. So
(06:22):
he basically thought that his brilliance was limitless. Something that
makes sense of his later achievements in life. Yeah, and
something that shows us why maybe he wouldn't have been
content with following his father's footsteps as far as profession
is concerned. Exactly so. Dipple enrolled at the University of
(06:43):
Keithan in six ninety one. He was about seventeen years
old and he was planning on studying theology. Still, he
registered under a different name though from Dipple, he registered
with the name Frankensteina, which was another reason that the
name is kind of stuck with him throughout the years,
and he earned a reputation at school for being extremely intelligent,
(07:04):
but also for being really vocal about debating theological and
scientific points with his professors. He graduated in three years
and apparently really shocked some people with his dissertation, which
was entitled on Nothing and as such was considered to
be a confession of skepticism, like a classic college kid move. Though,
(07:24):
doesn't it you write your dissertation quote on Nothing. It
wasn't too long after that that Dipple adopted the Lutheran
Pietus point of view, and at that time the Lutheran
Church was divided into Orthodox and Piotus contingents, and the
Orthodox camp conformed to the Lutheran Creeds in liturgy, and
(07:45):
the Pietists basically believed that the quote good life was
more important than sticking to a creed. So if that
separation makes sense to you, guys. According to Ainsley and
Campbell's article, the Switcher route not have been that big
of a surprise either, since Dipple quote began to express
doubts about the Catechism at age nine. But Florescue asserts
(08:09):
that Dipple's tendency to change his stance seems to have
had more to do with him wanting to win a
debate than any sort of real desire to find a
fundamental truth, which I think is sort of interesting. It's
like he it was more about the argument itself than
what he was arguated. Regardless of this wayverin stance, though
he wrote extensively on theology, and those works puzzled a
(08:32):
lot of people because he did kind of go back
and forth. Einsley and Campbell cite one professor who was
really confused by Dipple's theological work. He said, quote, a
man must have the gift of divination to be able
to deduce a regular and consistent system of doctrine from
the various productions of this incoherent and unintelligible writer who
(08:53):
was a chemist into the bargain, and whose brain seems
to have been heated to a high degree of fermentation
by the fire of the laboratory. I don't know about you, Deblina,
but this makes the editor in me just squirm, I
imagining having to edit this guy. But if you look
up works about Dipple. Now, a lot of what's out
there focuses on his theological career, but even after earning
(09:16):
a degree in theology, he didn't really stick to what
he seemed to know best to lecturing about just theology.
He was somebody who, for whatever reason, had a lot
of confidence in lecturing about things that he knew very little,
if anything about. After graduating, he didn't get a teaching
position at the University of Geese, and maybe because he
(09:38):
had sort of rubbed folks the wrong way with all
of that switcheru debating, he did so. He moved on
to the Imperial University of Strasbourg in sixteen ninety four, where,
according to Bob Curran's book Man Made Monsters, he started
lecturing for a short time on alchemy and cairomancy, which
(09:58):
is fortune telling, until his license to teach there was revoked.
That already gives you a pretty good sense of this
guy's diversity. If he's not just talking about theology, he's
talking about fortune telling. Yeah, and at this point, I
mean and alchemy too. And at this point he hadn't
really even studied alchemy that much. And you kind of
indicated that when you said that he was always lecturing
(10:18):
about things that he really didn't know that much about.
He just sort of felt confident enough that he could
teach other people even though he didn't have expertise in
these areas himself. But Florescu also notes that Dipple didn't
necessarily need to find an official classroom to teach these things.
While in Strasbourg, he became known for lecturing in all
kinds of spots, salons, taverns, churches, or even just lecturing
(10:42):
out in the street. And he would lecture in all
kinds of things too, though astrology and chiromancy were probably
the most popular. According to Einslee and Campbell's article, a
Dipple also practiced palmistry during this time. I don't know,
to me, an open air lecture on palmistry sounds like
it would be pretty entertained. I would go to that
lunch time, going to get lunch, and you'd see this
(11:05):
guy lecturing and stopped for a little while. But some
students were making him out to sound like kind of
a really weird guy who maybe nobody was paying much
attention to. But some students really looked up to him.
But I mean, remember, he was brilliant. He was and
he captivated people. But Florescu also points out that chronicles
from the time allude to some kind of quote scandalous
(11:28):
behavior on Dipple's part, and after living where he was
for a couple of years, he was forced to flee,
and exactly why he had to do that is a
bit unclear. Florescu says that he was implicated in some
body snatching incidents in a local cemetery. Einsley and Campbell
say that it's because Dipple killed an opponent in a duel,
(11:50):
so very different explanations. They're both good reasons to get
out of town. Regardless of why he had to leave,
Dipple did have to go and lay low for a
little while. According to Florescue, he returned home for this period,
and home at that time was near Frankenstein Castle with
his parents. So this is about the time when Dipple
began to really seriously study and practiced alchemy, and he
(12:14):
got into it when a Lutheran minister from geese And
gave him a couple of books on alchemy, and these
books included Raymond Lily's Experiments and Gillam Pastel's Veil raised
on the mysteries of the beginning of the world He
basically pushed these books on Dipple because he supposedly believed
that Dipple would be able to understand them better than
anyone else, so again kind of a nod to his
(12:36):
supposed intellect brilliant, And after reading them, Dipple apparently decided
that the whole making gold thing that everybody was so
interested in at the time really didn't sound that tough
after all. I mean, you guys should go listen to
our episode from last October on alchemy if you want
to see really how people how much people were into this, right,
(12:59):
he decided he wanted to give it a shot, and
he was so confident that he would succeed that he
bought an estate completely on credit to set up his
lab there. It cost fifty thou guilders, but of course
he didn't anticipate paying the problem would be a problem,
because of course he would be able to make gold
(13:19):
and pay in that. So in about or seventeen oh one,
sometime in there, he claimed that he had succeeded in
finding the secret formula for gold, but the crucible containing
that broke into the fire and was tragically lost, and
according to legend, alchemists weren't supposed to use the goal
(13:40):
that they created for personal gain. So you know this
idea of buying a place on on credit and then
you'd pay it all back with the gold you can
make not a not legit for for real alchemists to
be planning on doing that. So maybe it was a
little bit of bad luss, a little curse like situation
issuan going on there. But there are different accounts of
(14:02):
what happened with Dipple after this. According to that medical
history article that we were talking about, Dipple had to
flee again to escape angry creditors. Flores scou however, says
that he tried unsuccessfully to recreate this gold formula that
he lost for three years after that, and then started wandering.
I have to wonder, okay, if you'd made the gold formula,
(14:24):
didn't he write it down well? And why it would take?
What is it? It's longer, It takes longer to try
to recreate it, doesn't it? Then when he made it
the first time, it sounds like he was just messing
around this stuff the whole time, A pinch of this,
a little of that little philosopher's stone. Either way, Dipple
began to wander through other parts of Germany and through
(14:46):
foreign lands too. For a while. He settled in Berlin,
which was at the time the capital of the Kingdom
of Prussia, and while there he was under the protection
of Count August von Wittgenstein, who I think we've mentioned.
The Wittgenstein family and other episode pop up from time
to time. The count convinced King Frederick the First to
set Dipple up with a mansion and a nice laboratory,
(15:08):
and it's there that he started experiments of a very
different nature. He set out to discover an elixir that
would cure a variety of conditions, kind of like a
universal medicine. So it sounds like something that we would
all kind of want, right, something to cure whatever ails.
You only listen to how he created it. So in
(15:29):
order to create this wonder product of his, he started
experimenting with distilling animal parts, namely blood first and then bones,
which he would boil to extract the fatty matter. And
according to Florescue quote, the product was conducted through iron
(15:50):
condensing tubes and fed into receivers where the crude bone
oil collected. That doesn't sound very good. That product, according
to eins and Campbell's smelled and tasted pretty gross, as
you would imagine, but it was used in medical practice
to cure a number of ailments, and for a while
it had a good reputation as a medicine. Until the
(16:11):
end of the eighteenth century. It was named Dipples oil
or Dipples animal oil, and it was said to stimulate
the nervous system if you took it internally. But I
think people used to rub it on the outside of
their bodies as well to consume it. I don't know
if they didn't want to, but that you didn't necessarily
have to. I guess it depended on what you were
trying to treat. I think I read that you could
(16:33):
use it to treat spasms, maybe rub it on the
miracle product. I mean, I guess it works for just
about anything. Although Dipple's animal oil does not make it
sound appealing either. It doesn't. Maybe just Dipple's oil would
have been a better name. And you know, I've seen
it both ways. I've seen it as Dipples oil and
Dipples animal oil. But I think I would choose to
partake of the Dipple's oil before the animal oil, for sure.
(16:56):
But through this work and boiling animal parts, Fluorescue also
points out the Dipple made a very different kind of
discovery by boiling animal parts and mixing an iron and
some various other ingredients. He apparently ended up with a
chemical called potassium ferricyanide, and when that chemical was mixed
with air, it became brilliant blue color that became known
(17:16):
as Prussian blue or Berlin blue. For some reason, that
discovery wasn't made public until about seventy four, but that
blue dye was widely used by artists. You'll still see
paint colors today. It's a color still, Prussian blue. Right,
And just a side note here, since we've done some
poison podcasts recently, another German chemist took Dipple's chemical and
(17:39):
diluted it with sulfuric acid, which created hydrocyanic or prussic acid,
which Fluorescu calls one of the most potent poisons. So
all of this here, you know, we have this miracle drug.
And you'd think that Dipples oil and and Prussian blue,
the color, the paint, the pigment would have been enough
(17:59):
to earned Dipple some measure of wealth and respect, but
he kept getting implicated in various scandals. Lurscue asserts that
this was a result of other scientists and alchemists being
jealous of him and thus making him the subject of
their intrigue. But regardless of the reason, Dipple had to
stay on the move pretty much most of his life,
(18:21):
according again to Florescue, another similarity to Shelley's Frankenstein, who,
as you remember from the book, is pretty much always
on the move. Um, although that's partly because there's a
there's a monster, and that's true. He had motivation, he
had good reason to keep out, keep going, but um. Finally,
(18:42):
Dipple headed to Holland after Berlin, where he studied medicine
in Leiden and earned his degree by seventeen eleven or so,
and he was said by some to be a pretty
good physician, and according to Einslee and Campbell, he even
attempted to set up a medical practice outside of Amsterdam,
but again had to flee, this time to Denmark in
(19:02):
seventeen fourteen. And again the reason why he had to
get out of town and so fast seems to be unknown,
although Floriscu does point out that after earning his medical degree,
Dipple was doing experiments with animals, taking them apart too,
just trying to find out how it all fits together,
and apparently at least one of Dipple's biographers suggests that
(19:24):
he was trying to understand the process that quote and
Gender's life itself another similarity to Shelley's character if it
is true. Well, and this reminded me a little bit
too of of the blood Work episode, trying to find
trying to find the root of the soul. I mean,
that's pretty similar to to trying to find the process
that in Gender's life itself. These experiments going around are
(19:48):
going on kind of at the same time to find
what seems like unfindable things. So maybe these crazy experiments
that Dipple was doing had something to do with his flight.
But after going to Denmark, Dipple again got caught up
in a series of political intrigues that resulted in him
getting thrown into prison for seven years on the Danish
(20:09):
island of Bornholme. He was sentenced to life, but was
released at the request of the Queen of Denmark in
seventeen twenty six, who wanted him to be her physician.
So that shows that he must have had a pretty
good medical reputation at the time. I'd say, if you're
thinking get this prisoner out of jail, I need him
to be my doctor, and I'm the Queen of Denmark.
(20:29):
A year later, though, he ended up moving to Sweden,
where he worked as a physician in the court of
the Swedish King. So really a dramatic rise in fortunes
for him. He continued to encounter controversy there though as well,
and eventually returned home to Germany in seventeen twenty nine
after being gone for some twenty five years. And what
(20:49):
I've read about him, Fluoresco in his book talks a
lot about how Dipple was sort of drawn to home
his whole life. He he sort of kept in touch
with his family, his siblings there, and he he wanted
to come home. So it makes you question even more
of these things that made him move from place to
place what it was and drawn to one place in particular. Yeah,
(21:10):
he returned to his family home near Castle Frankenstein, the
place where he was born, and Florescu says that it's
there at home that Dipple started working on some kind
of quote grand design, and citing a document that most
scholars ignore, this author says that Dipple did claim to
finally have achieved something of this sort, some sort of
(21:31):
chemical secret and then he apparently offered it to the
local landowner near his family home in exchange for ownership
of Castle Frankenstein and its domain. So he's sort of
focused on this place where he was born in He
wanted it in exchange for a grand design. The deal
didn't work though, no it fell through, and it's still
not clear what the secret he was offering for the
(21:54):
castle was, but Florescu thinks it has something to do
with the mysterious pamphlet that Dipple had printed and se
inteen thirty three, a year after the deal fell through.
In it, he claimed that he discovered a formula for
prolonging his own life until eighteen o one, at which
point he would have been one hundred and thirty five
years old. Apparently this came at a time when his
(22:16):
enemies were spreading rumors that he was going to die,
so maybe he sort of came up with us to
counter that. Unfortunately, though for Dipple, he ended up dying
just a year after making that prophecy. On April seventeen
thirty four, he was found in the palace of his
old friend, the Count von Wittgenstein, where he had a laboratory,
(22:37):
and Dipple's body was cold and rigid when it was found,
but he was also foaming at the mouth and the
entire right side of his face was blue. And the
medical history article that we've mentioned earlier says that the
cause of death was probably a stroke, but of course,
especially for a guy like this, people suggested that it
could have also been poison still other people, and this
(23:01):
has got to be the best option on the table.
I think that he had been killed by the devil
for not keeping some sort of contract. That last theory
is definitely fitting for a spooky tale like Shelley's. But
there are several reasons why people think that Dipple probably
wasn't actually the inspiration for Frankenstein. For one thing, many
of the traits that people attribute to him may actually
(23:25):
post date Mary Shelley's novel, so these are things that
were retroactively put onto Dipple, maybe even after the movies
were made. Uh. There's also some doubt about how much
Shelley could have known about Dipple's life. She definitely traveled
in the area where Castle Frankenstein is, but who knows
(23:46):
if she actually heard about his story. And finally, of course,
we just don't really know that much about Dipple's life.
Of course, Shelley might not have necessarily been at the
same disadvantage that modern scholars are, since she you would
have been long before the World War Two bombings in
the places where all his records were. That's true. But
(24:07):
another thing I think of here is that even if
she had been interested in the things he was doing
and wanted to find out more about him, as you
mentioned earlier, I think there were a lot of people
who were doing these sorts of experiments at the time
popular right, So she could have just been inspired by
that fact rather than Dipple's specific story. But it's interesting
(24:30):
to speculate about, and I'm glad to know a little
bit more about him. So, you know, good request from
listeners here, even though we had to go to some
lengths to find out more about them. Well, I am
guessing from the reception of the Spooky episodes this October
people won't mind too much that this one is coming
out in November. Keep the spooking it's rolling, you know. Yeah,
(24:52):
And uh, I think to that end, we have some
spooky listener mail to share to. So we have a
letter here from listener Kristen, and she says I was
delighted to see your episode on the Salem Which Trials
and listen to it immediately. My interest in the topic
stems from living in Salem for about six years. Because
(25:13):
my husband is a Salem native, we now returned regularly
to visit my in laws. Actually we were just there
over the past weekend, and yes, the Halloween spectacle was
in full swing. Anyway, I want to let you know
that if you or your listeners visit Salem, there are
more historical attractions related to the trials. The Peabody Essex Museum,
a major art and history museum, has within its holdings
(25:34):
documents from the trials and artifacts that were the personal
effects of those involved. These are at the Phillips Library
and we're previously on display, though currently the library is
closed to the public. Renovations, however, currently open and I
know because I was just there is a display an
old town hall that has some historical information regarding to trials.
(25:54):
There are some gems that the Salemites and former Salemites
are proud to show to visitors and ones that's badly
get bypassed by visitors without an insider connection. Oh and
unless you want a spectacle, don't visit in October. It
is way too crazy for a more serious visit, and
there are many additional historic sites to visit relating maritime history, architecture,
(26:14):
and literary history. So thanks for those travel tips, Kristen.
That's what they told me when I visited the Sale
and Visitors Center got our maritime attraction. It's good to know.
And then we have a fun note from listener Tristan,
who says, Tristan here from the Shields Brothers. We are
(26:36):
a rock band and we were on the Voice on
NBC on Team Celo. So a few months back, we
were listening to your Jack the Ripper podcast and you
inspired us to write a song about him. It's called
Saucy Jack So and he sent us a little YouTube
link to it. We should pull that up, and he's
on Team Celo Atlanta represent There you go. So if
(26:56):
you have any podcast inspiration, story is or any travel
tips like listener Kristen that you want to share with us,
we welcome those. Send them our way at History podcast
at house to works dot com. We're also on Twitter
at Myston History, and we're on Facebook or other Frankenstein's.
I mean, we could just we've done two now so
I see a series in the works. You never know
(27:17):
there are some other Frankenstein's that we could do if
we can find the books. The ultimate goal. Do we
have a good article on Frankenstein. We do well. We
have one on Frankenstein's Monster. I think Robert Lamb wrote
it into article called how Frankenstein's Monster Works. You can
find it by visiting our homepage at www dot how
stuff works dot com for more on this and thousands
(27:43):
of other topics. Is it how stuff works dot com
ind
Welcome to Stuff you missed in History Class from house
works dot com. Hello, and welcome to the podcast. I'm
to blame a truck reporting and I'm fired out and
we're technically past October and that spate of spooky episodes
that comes along with it. But the subject of this episode,
(00:23):
Johann Conrad Dipple, could really fit right in with that batch.
And honestly, I have to confess here he probably would
have been with that batch if this book that I
had ordered for two dollars and fifty nine cents had
come in time. A little peek into our world. I
know we're always um, I don't want to stay complaining.
(00:43):
We're always telling telling people, I guess especially people who
write in about books, that we don't really have a
research budget. Yeah, I'm on the waiting list for this
book at the library, waiting for this cheap book to
come from Amazon whatever it is. Yeah. So we're kind
of at the mercy of what's available of time, just
like every time. Yeah, so if we we take a
(01:05):
while to do your request sometimes this is why we're
just we're just waiting to be moved up on the
waiting list. But back to our story, Dipple story really
straddles a line between spooky and science, and I think
that's why it makes a good non Halloween episode two.
I mean, we've really come to love these science episodes
(01:25):
that we've done, and uh, and this really fits in
with that. Yeah, there are a lot of fun they're
popular with listeners, and I don't know, they're just a
little outside of our our normal repertoire almost But this
guy really combines a lot more than your typical scientific pursuit.
He does in his life's work, we find a mix
(01:45):
of theology, science, alchemy, and medicine. And if that's not
interesting enough, there are also the rumors that are involved
in this tale. Rumors of mysterious experiments involving the reanimation
of of we don't know what something, maybe people, maybe animals,
and also rumors of body snatching. So if you didn't
(02:06):
already guess it from that description, there's a link here,
or maybe just the supposition of a link to Dr Frankenstein,
the character from Mary Shelley's famous novel. And that's probably
the main reason that Dipple is a frequent request from
our listeners. Maybe a lot of them believed that he
was the inspiration for that character. And of course, if
(02:26):
this is starting to sound kind of familiar, we already
did an episode last year called Who Is the Real Frankenstein?
And it was about Giovanni Alfini. But the character of
Frankenstein is kind of like the one of Indiana Jones.
There are several different historical figures that people believe could
have been possible inspirations, and we named a few of
(02:46):
them in that Who Was the Real Frankenstein podcast. Maybe
one reason why we didn't explore that possibility more, though,
is because there are some legit sounding reasons cited as
to why Dipple couldn't have been the Frankenstein inspiration, which
we're of course going to mention later on. But the
potential Frankenstein connection, while it may have been the reason
(03:07):
we heard about Dipple, that's not the only reason that
we became interested in learning more about him. He was
also just this rascally controversial figure, and you know how
we love those. He also created a concoction that seems
fit for some sci fi horror story. But according to
an article in medical history by E. Einslee and W. A.
Campbell was really included in pharmaceutical books as a sort
(03:30):
of universal medicine until the early nineteenth century, and this
concoction was called Dipple's oil, and Dipple thought it to
be the elixir of life. Okay. So one of the
reasons why it's so hard to know whether Dipple truly
could have been the inspiration for Frankenstein is that a
lot of the details of his life are pretty sketchy.
(03:51):
According to Radu Florescu in his book In Search of Frankenstein,
this is partly because a lot of primary sources related
to Dipple's life, including his doctoral dissertation, were destroyed during
the Allied bombings of Darmstadt and Geithen, which is where
he studied, so all these papers about his life are
(04:12):
no longer with us. Unfortunately, Florescu's own biographical sketch of
Dipple is one that we refer to a lot, and
he put it together through studying more than seventy works
which Dipple composed, including one that contained his autobiography, as
well as Dipple biographies by other writers, including Carl Voss.
So one thing that most accounts of Dipple's life really
(04:32):
agree on is how it began. He was born August tenth,
six seventy three, at and this is probably one of
the biggest reasons that people make the Mary Shelley Frankenstein connection.
It's because he was born at a place called Frankenstein
Castle about a mile south of Darmstadt. So I'd say
that's a pretty big connection. So today this castle is
(04:55):
basically a ruin that overlooks the old vauld but it
was once the home of the baron's Frankenstein or Frankenstein
maybe more accurate. Yeah, and they were a German feudal family,
but they had vacated the place by the time Dipple
was born, having sold the place in sixteen sixty two.
By the time Dipple was born in the castle, however,
(05:16):
had become a hospital for people who had been injured
in the war with France, and his parents, Anna eleanoramunch
Meyer and a Lutheran minister named Johann Philip Dipple were
both refugees there. According to that medical history article we mentioned,
Dipple's father wanted him to become a Lutheran minister too.
He would have been the fifth generation and his family
(05:37):
to do so. But Florescue notes that Dipple was always
kind of a strange kid. For one thing, he was
kind of a loner. The other kids gave him the
nickname the Owl for his tendencies to keep to himself
and also to read by candle light in one of
the castle towers at night, which sounds pretty brave for
a young kid. He was also considered kind of odd
for the way he regarded himself. He was really smart,
(06:00):
and that seems pretty evident by pretty much all accounts.
Einsley and Campbell's article says that a Dipple's secondary school,
Darmstadt Gymnauseum, his name was first on the role of
distinguished old Boys. But Floresci says that Dipple considered himself
quote a superior individual animated by a quote higher spirit
who could figure out the mysteries of the universe. So
(06:22):
he basically thought that his brilliance was limitless. Something that
makes sense of his later achievements in life. Yeah, and
something that shows us why maybe he wouldn't have been
content with following his father's footsteps as far as profession
is concerned. Exactly so. Dipple enrolled at the University of
(06:43):
Keithan in six ninety one. He was about seventeen years
old and he was planning on studying theology. Still, he
registered under a different name though from Dipple, he registered
with the name Frankensteina, which was another reason that the
name is kind of stuck with him throughout the years,
and he earned a reputation at school for being extremely intelligent,
(07:04):
but also for being really vocal about debating theological and
scientific points with his professors. He graduated in three years
and apparently really shocked some people with his dissertation, which
was entitled on Nothing and as such was considered to
be a confession of skepticism, like a classic college kid move. Though,
(07:24):
doesn't it you write your dissertation quote on Nothing. It
wasn't too long after that that Dipple adopted the Lutheran
Pietus point of view, and at that time the Lutheran
Church was divided into Orthodox and Piotus contingents, and the
Orthodox camp conformed to the Lutheran Creeds in liturgy, and
(07:45):
the Pietists basically believed that the quote good life was
more important than sticking to a creed. So if that
separation makes sense to you, guys. According to Ainsley and
Campbell's article, the Switcher route not have been that big
of a surprise either, since Dipple quote began to express
doubts about the Catechism at age nine. But Florescue asserts
(08:09):
that Dipple's tendency to change his stance seems to have
had more to do with him wanting to win a
debate than any sort of real desire to find a
fundamental truth, which I think is sort of interesting. It's
like he it was more about the argument itself than
what he was arguated. Regardless of this wayverin stance, though
he wrote extensively on theology, and those works puzzled a
(08:32):
lot of people because he did kind of go back
and forth. Einsley and Campbell cite one professor who was
really confused by Dipple's theological work. He said, quote, a
man must have the gift of divination to be able
to deduce a regular and consistent system of doctrine from
the various productions of this incoherent and unintelligible writer who
(08:53):
was a chemist into the bargain, and whose brain seems
to have been heated to a high degree of fermentation
by the fire of the laboratory. I don't know about you, Deblina,
but this makes the editor in me just squirm, I
imagining having to edit this guy. But if you look
up works about Dipple. Now, a lot of what's out
there focuses on his theological career, but even after earning
(09:16):
a degree in theology, he didn't really stick to what
he seemed to know best to lecturing about just theology.
He was somebody who, for whatever reason, had a lot
of confidence in lecturing about things that he knew very little,
if anything about. After graduating, he didn't get a teaching
position at the University of Geese, and maybe because he
(09:38):
had sort of rubbed folks the wrong way with all
of that switcheru debating, he did so. He moved on
to the Imperial University of Strasbourg in sixteen ninety four, where,
according to Bob Curran's book Man Made Monsters, he started
lecturing for a short time on alchemy and cairomancy, which
(09:58):
is fortune telling, until his license to teach there was revoked.
That already gives you a pretty good sense of this
guy's diversity. If he's not just talking about theology, he's
talking about fortune telling. Yeah, and at this point, I
mean and alchemy too. And at this point he hadn't
really even studied alchemy that much. And you kind of
indicated that when you said that he was always lecturing
(10:18):
about things that he really didn't know that much about.
He just sort of felt confident enough that he could
teach other people even though he didn't have expertise in
these areas himself. But Florescu also notes that Dipple didn't
necessarily need to find an official classroom to teach these things.
While in Strasbourg, he became known for lecturing in all
kinds of spots, salons, taverns, churches, or even just lecturing
(10:42):
out in the street. And he would lecture in all
kinds of things too, though astrology and chiromancy were probably
the most popular. According to Einslee and Campbell's article, a
Dipple also practiced palmistry during this time. I don't know,
to me, an open air lecture on palmistry sounds like
it would be pretty entertained. I would go to that
lunch time, going to get lunch, and you'd see this
(11:05):
guy lecturing and stopped for a little while. But some
students were making him out to sound like kind of
a really weird guy who maybe nobody was paying much
attention to. But some students really looked up to him.
But I mean, remember, he was brilliant. He was and
he captivated people. But Florescu also points out that chronicles
from the time allude to some kind of quote scandalous
(11:28):
behavior on Dipple's part, and after living where he was
for a couple of years, he was forced to flee,
and exactly why he had to do that is a
bit unclear. Florescu says that he was implicated in some
body snatching incidents in a local cemetery. Einsley and Campbell
say that it's because Dipple killed an opponent in a duel,
(11:50):
so very different explanations. They're both good reasons to get
out of town. Regardless of why he had to leave,
Dipple did have to go and lay low for a
little while. According to Florescue, he returned home for this period,
and home at that time was near Frankenstein Castle with
his parents. So this is about the time when Dipple
began to really seriously study and practiced alchemy, and he
(12:14):
got into it when a Lutheran minister from geese And
gave him a couple of books on alchemy, and these
books included Raymond Lily's Experiments and Gillam Pastel's Veil raised
on the mysteries of the beginning of the world He
basically pushed these books on Dipple because he supposedly believed
that Dipple would be able to understand them better than
anyone else, so again kind of a nod to his
(12:36):
supposed intellect brilliant, And after reading them, Dipple apparently decided
that the whole making gold thing that everybody was so
interested in at the time really didn't sound that tough
after all. I mean, you guys should go listen to
our episode from last October on alchemy if you want
to see really how people how much people were into this, right,
(12:59):
he decided he wanted to give it a shot, and
he was so confident that he would succeed that he
bought an estate completely on credit to set up his
lab there. It cost fifty thou guilders, but of course
he didn't anticipate paying the problem would be a problem,
because of course he would be able to make gold
(13:19):
and pay in that. So in about or seventeen oh one,
sometime in there, he claimed that he had succeeded in
finding the secret formula for gold, but the crucible containing
that broke into the fire and was tragically lost, and
according to legend, alchemists weren't supposed to use the goal
(13:40):
that they created for personal gain. So you know this
idea of buying a place on on credit and then
you'd pay it all back with the gold you can
make not a not legit for for real alchemists to
be planning on doing that. So maybe it was a
little bit of bad luss, a little curse like situation
issuan going on there. But there are different accounts of
(14:02):
what happened with Dipple after this. According to that medical
history article that we were talking about, Dipple had to
flee again to escape angry creditors. Flores scou however, says
that he tried unsuccessfully to recreate this gold formula that
he lost for three years after that, and then started wandering.
I have to wonder, okay, if you'd made the gold formula,
(14:24):
didn't he write it down well? And why it would take?
What is it? It's longer, It takes longer to try
to recreate it, doesn't it? Then when he made it
the first time, it sounds like he was just messing
around this stuff the whole time, A pinch of this,
a little of that little philosopher's stone. Either way, Dipple
began to wander through other parts of Germany and through
(14:46):
foreign lands too. For a while. He settled in Berlin,
which was at the time the capital of the Kingdom
of Prussia, and while there he was under the protection
of Count August von Wittgenstein, who I think we've mentioned.
The Wittgenstein family and other episode pop up from time
to time. The count convinced King Frederick the First to
set Dipple up with a mansion and a nice laboratory,
(15:08):
and it's there that he started experiments of a very
different nature. He set out to discover an elixir that
would cure a variety of conditions, kind of like a
universal medicine. So it sounds like something that we would
all kind of want, right, something to cure whatever ails.
You only listen to how he created it. So in
(15:29):
order to create this wonder product of his, he started
experimenting with distilling animal parts, namely blood first and then bones,
which he would boil to extract the fatty matter. And
according to Florescue quote, the product was conducted through iron
(15:50):
condensing tubes and fed into receivers where the crude bone
oil collected. That doesn't sound very good. That product, according
to eins and Campbell's smelled and tasted pretty gross, as
you would imagine, but it was used in medical practice
to cure a number of ailments, and for a while
it had a good reputation as a medicine. Until the
(16:11):
end of the eighteenth century. It was named Dipples oil
or Dipples animal oil, and it was said to stimulate
the nervous system if you took it internally. But I
think people used to rub it on the outside of
their bodies as well to consume it. I don't know
if they didn't want to, but that you didn't necessarily
have to. I guess it depended on what you were
trying to treat. I think I read that you could
(16:33):
use it to treat spasms, maybe rub it on the
miracle product. I mean, I guess it works for just
about anything. Although Dipple's animal oil does not make it
sound appealing either. It doesn't. Maybe just Dipple's oil would
have been a better name. And you know, I've seen
it both ways. I've seen it as Dipples oil and
Dipples animal oil. But I think I would choose to
partake of the Dipple's oil before the animal oil, for sure.
(16:56):
But through this work and boiling animal parts, Fluorescue also
points out the Dipple made a very different kind of
discovery by boiling animal parts and mixing an iron and
some various other ingredients. He apparently ended up with a
chemical called potassium ferricyanide, and when that chemical was mixed
with air, it became brilliant blue color that became known
(17:16):
as Prussian blue or Berlin blue. For some reason, that
discovery wasn't made public until about seventy four, but that
blue dye was widely used by artists. You'll still see
paint colors today. It's a color still, Prussian blue. Right,
And just a side note here, since we've done some
poison podcasts recently, another German chemist took Dipple's chemical and
(17:39):
diluted it with sulfuric acid, which created hydrocyanic or prussic acid,
which Fluorescu calls one of the most potent poisons. So
all of this here, you know, we have this miracle drug.
And you'd think that Dipples oil and and Prussian blue,
the color, the paint, the pigment would have been enough
(17:59):
to earned Dipple some measure of wealth and respect, but
he kept getting implicated in various scandals. Lurscue asserts that
this was a result of other scientists and alchemists being
jealous of him and thus making him the subject of
their intrigue. But regardless of the reason, Dipple had to
stay on the move pretty much most of his life,
(18:21):
according again to Florescue, another similarity to Shelley's Frankenstein, who,
as you remember from the book, is pretty much always
on the move. Um, although that's partly because there's a
there's a monster, and that's true. He had motivation, he
had good reason to keep out, keep going, but um. Finally,
(18:42):
Dipple headed to Holland after Berlin, where he studied medicine
in Leiden and earned his degree by seventeen eleven or so,
and he was said by some to be a pretty
good physician, and according to Einslee and Campbell, he even
attempted to set up a medical practice outside of Amsterdam,
but again had to flee, this time to Denmark in
(19:02):
seventeen fourteen. And again the reason why he had to
get out of town and so fast seems to be unknown,
although Floriscu does point out that after earning his medical degree,
Dipple was doing experiments with animals, taking them apart too,
just trying to find out how it all fits together,
and apparently at least one of Dipple's biographers suggests that
(19:24):
he was trying to understand the process that quote and
Gender's life itself another similarity to Shelley's character if it
is true. Well, and this reminded me a little bit
too of of the blood Work episode, trying to find
trying to find the root of the soul. I mean,
that's pretty similar to to trying to find the process
that in Gender's life itself. These experiments going around are
(19:48):
going on kind of at the same time to find
what seems like unfindable things. So maybe these crazy experiments
that Dipple was doing had something to do with his flight.
But after going to Denmark, Dipple again got caught up
in a series of political intrigues that resulted in him
getting thrown into prison for seven years on the Danish
(20:09):
island of Bornholme. He was sentenced to life, but was
released at the request of the Queen of Denmark in
seventeen twenty six, who wanted him to be her physician.
So that shows that he must have had a pretty
good medical reputation at the time. I'd say, if you're
thinking get this prisoner out of jail, I need him
to be my doctor, and I'm the Queen of Denmark.
(20:29):
A year later, though, he ended up moving to Sweden,
where he worked as a physician in the court of
the Swedish King. So really a dramatic rise in fortunes
for him. He continued to encounter controversy there though as well,
and eventually returned home to Germany in seventeen twenty nine
after being gone for some twenty five years. And what
(20:49):
I've read about him, Fluoresco in his book talks a
lot about how Dipple was sort of drawn to home
his whole life. He he sort of kept in touch
with his family, his siblings there, and he he wanted
to come home. So it makes you question even more
of these things that made him move from place to
place what it was and drawn to one place in particular. Yeah,
(21:10):
he returned to his family home near Castle Frankenstein, the
place where he was born, and Florescu says that it's
there at home that Dipple started working on some kind
of quote grand design, and citing a document that most
scholars ignore, this author says that Dipple did claim to
finally have achieved something of this sort, some sort of
(21:31):
chemical secret and then he apparently offered it to the
local landowner near his family home in exchange for ownership
of Castle Frankenstein and its domain. So he's sort of
focused on this place where he was born in He
wanted it in exchange for a grand design. The deal
didn't work though, no it fell through, and it's still
not clear what the secret he was offering for the
(21:54):
castle was, but Florescu thinks it has something to do
with the mysterious pamphlet that Dipple had printed and se
inteen thirty three, a year after the deal fell through.
In it, he claimed that he discovered a formula for
prolonging his own life until eighteen o one, at which
point he would have been one hundred and thirty five
years old. Apparently this came at a time when his
(22:16):
enemies were spreading rumors that he was going to die,
so maybe he sort of came up with us to
counter that. Unfortunately, though for Dipple, he ended up dying
just a year after making that prophecy. On April seventeen
thirty four, he was found in the palace of his
old friend, the Count von Wittgenstein, where he had a laboratory,
(22:37):
and Dipple's body was cold and rigid when it was found,
but he was also foaming at the mouth and the
entire right side of his face was blue. And the
medical history article that we've mentioned earlier says that the
cause of death was probably a stroke, but of course,
especially for a guy like this, people suggested that it
could have also been poison still other people, and this
(23:01):
has got to be the best option on the table.
I think that he had been killed by the devil
for not keeping some sort of contract. That last theory
is definitely fitting for a spooky tale like Shelley's. But
there are several reasons why people think that Dipple probably
wasn't actually the inspiration for Frankenstein. For one thing, many
of the traits that people attribute to him may actually
(23:25):
post date Mary Shelley's novel, so these are things that
were retroactively put onto Dipple, maybe even after the movies
were made. Uh. There's also some doubt about how much
Shelley could have known about Dipple's life. She definitely traveled
in the area where Castle Frankenstein is, but who knows
(23:46):
if she actually heard about his story. And finally, of course,
we just don't really know that much about Dipple's life.
Of course, Shelley might not have necessarily been at the
same disadvantage that modern scholars are, since she you would
have been long before the World War Two bombings in
the places where all his records were. That's true. But
(24:07):
another thing I think of here is that even if
she had been interested in the things he was doing
and wanted to find out more about him, as you
mentioned earlier, I think there were a lot of people
who were doing these sorts of experiments at the time
popular right, So she could have just been inspired by
that fact rather than Dipple's specific story. But it's interesting
(24:30):
to speculate about, and I'm glad to know a little
bit more about him. So, you know, good request from
listeners here, even though we had to go to some
lengths to find out more about them. Well, I am
guessing from the reception of the Spooky episodes this October
people won't mind too much that this one is coming
out in November. Keep the spooking it's rolling, you know. Yeah,
(24:52):
And uh, I think to that end, we have some
spooky listener mail to share to. So we have a
letter here from listener Kristen, and she says I was
delighted to see your episode on the Salem Which Trials
and listen to it immediately. My interest in the topic
stems from living in Salem for about six years. Because
(25:13):
my husband is a Salem native, we now returned regularly
to visit my in laws. Actually we were just there
over the past weekend, and yes, the Halloween spectacle was
in full swing. Anyway, I want to let you know
that if you or your listeners visit Salem, there are
more historical attractions related to the trials. The Peabody Essex Museum,
a major art and history museum, has within its holdings
(25:34):
documents from the trials and artifacts that were the personal
effects of those involved. These are at the Phillips Library
and we're previously on display, though currently the library is
closed to the public. Renovations, however, currently open and I
know because I was just there is a display an
old town hall that has some historical information regarding to trials.
(25:54):
There are some gems that the Salemites and former Salemites
are proud to show to visitors and ones that's badly
get bypassed by visitors without an insider connection. Oh and
unless you want a spectacle, don't visit in October. It
is way too crazy for a more serious visit, and
there are many additional historic sites to visit relating maritime history, architecture,
(26:14):
and literary history. So thanks for those travel tips, Kristen.
That's what they told me when I visited the Sale
and Visitors Center got our maritime attraction. It's good to know.
And then we have a fun note from listener Tristan,
who says, Tristan here from the Shields Brothers. We are
(26:36):
a rock band and we were on the Voice on
NBC on Team Celo. So a few months back, we
were listening to your Jack the Ripper podcast and you
inspired us to write a song about him. It's called
Saucy Jack So and he sent us a little YouTube
link to it. We should pull that up, and he's
on Team Celo Atlanta represent There you go. So if
(26:56):
you have any podcast inspiration, story is or any travel
tips like listener Kristen that you want to share with us,
we welcome those. Send them our way at History podcast
at house to works dot com. We're also on Twitter
at Myston History, and we're on Facebook or other Frankenstein's.
I mean, we could just we've done two now so
I see a series in the works. You never know
(27:17):
there are some other Frankenstein's that we could do if
we can find the books. The ultimate goal. Do we
have a good article on Frankenstein. We do well. We
have one on Frankenstein's Monster. I think Robert Lamb wrote
it into article called how Frankenstein's Monster Works. You can
find it by visiting our homepage at www dot how
stuff works dot com for more on this and thousands
(27:43):
of other topics. Is it how stuff works dot com
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