Shifting Paths 2025

Arthur Abelmann was driven by a passion for helping people feel better. In the early 1920s, he founded the Chemiewerk, a pharmaceutical company in Frankfurt, Germany. By 1932, the company employed over 200 people and was renowned for products like Kamillosan and other chamomile-based remedies, including Spirobismol, Transpulmin, and Treupel'sche Tabletten. Shortly after Hitler was appointed Chancellor of Germany, he enacted an economic boycott against all Jewish businesses and products. As a result, the Nazi Doctors' Association banned all of Abelmann's products in March of 1933. On the eve of Boycott Saturday, April 1, 1933, Abelmann sent his wife and children on a sleeper train to Zurich and resigned from the Chemiewerk. The company was soon acquired by Degussa and IG Farben, dominant forces in Germany's chemical industry. Abelmann passed away in 1934, and his wife and children immigrated to the U.S. in 1939. The film captures Frankfurt's transformation between 1932 and 1934, highlighting Abelmann's efforts to protect both his company and his family amid rising danger. Through Arthur's prolific writings, the film reveals his deep devotion to his work and family and his struggle to ensure their safety. His son Walter's reflections provide a poignant perspective on those tumultuous years, as he witnessed his father's resilience. The story also follows the family's decision to leave Europe in 1939, chronicling their early years rebuilding their lives in New York while grappling with news of the horrors unfolding in Germany. Remarkably, some of Chemiewerk's products, including Kamillosan, have endured for over a century-though few users today know their origins or the story of the family behind them.