Albert Hofmann

Albert Hofmann was born in Baden, Switzerland, on 11 January 1906.[4][2] He was the first of four children to factory toolmaker Adolf Hofmann and Elisabeth (née Schenk) and was baptized Protestant.[5] When his father became ill, Hofmann obtained a position as a commercial apprentice in concurrence with his studies. At age 20, Hofmann began his chemistry degree at the University of Zürich, finishing three years later, in 1929. Owing to his father's low income, Albert's godfather paid for his education. Hofmann's main interest was the chemistry of plants and animals, and he later conducted important research on the chemical structure of the common animal substance chitin, for which he received his doctorate with distinction in 1929.[6]

Of his decision to pursue a career as a chemist, Hofmann provided insight during a speech he delivered to the 1996 Worlds of Consciousness Conference in Heidelberg, Germany:

One often asks oneself what roles planning and chance play in the realization of the most important events in our lives. [...] This [career] decision was not easy for me. I had already taken a Latin matricular exam, and therefore a career in the humanities stood out most prominently in the foreground. Moreover, an artistic career was tempting. In the end, however, it was a problem of theoretical knowledge which induced me to study chemistry, which was a great surprise to all who knew me. Mystical experiences in childhood, in which Nature was altered in magical ways, had provoked questions concerning the essence of the external, material world, and chemistry was the scientific field which might afford insights into this.[7]

Albert Hofmann in 2006

Interviewed shortly before his 100th birthday, Hofmann called LSD "medicine for the soul" and was frustrated by its worldwide prohibition. "It was used very successfully for ten years in psychoanalysis," he said, adding that the drug was misused by the counterculture of the 1960s, and then criticized unfairly by the political establishment of the day. He conceded that it could be dangerous if misused, because a relatively high dose of 500 micrograms has an extremely powerful psychoactive effect, especially if administered to a first-time user without adequate supervision.[17]

In December 2007, Swiss medical authorities allowed psychotherapist Peter Gasser to perform psychotherapeutic experiments on patients with terminal-stage cancer and other terminal diseases. Completed in 2011, these represent the first study of the therapeutic effects of LSD on humans in 35 years; other studies had examined the drug's effects on consciousness and body.[18] Hofmann acclaimed the study and reiterated his belief in LSD's therapeutic benefits.[19] In 2008, he wrote to Steve Jobs, asking him to support this research; it is not known whether Jobs responded.[20] The Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS) has supported psychoanalytic research using LSD, carrying on Hofmann's legacy and setting the groundwork for future studies.[21]

Hofmann was a longtime friend and correspondent of German author and entomologist Ernst Jünger, whom he met in 1949. Jünger experimented with LSD with Hofmann; in 1970, Jünger published a book of his experiences taking several types of drugs, Approaches: Drugs and Intoxication (German: Annäherungen. Drogen und Rausch).[22]

After retiring from Sandoz in 1971, Hofmann was allowed to take his papers and research home. He gave his archives to the Albert Hofmann Foundation, a Los Angeles-based nonprofit, but the documents mostly sat in storage for years. The archives were sent to the San Francisco area in 2002 to be digitized, but that process was never completed. In 2013, the archives were sent to the Institute of Medical History in Bern, Switzerland, where they are being organized. Hofmann felt that everyone should try his drug.[23][24]

Hofmann died at the age of 102 from a heart attack on 29 April 2008 in Switzerland.[25]

The Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH Zurich) honored him with the title DSc (honoris causa) in 1969 together with Gustav Guanella, his brother-in-law. In 1971 the Swedish Pharmaceutical Association granted him the Scheele Award, which commemorates the skills and achievements of the Swedish Pomerania chemist and pharmacist Carl Wilhelm Scheele.[26]

• History of lysergic acid diethylamide
• Drug design
• Psychedelic therapy
• James Fadiman
• David E. Nichols
• Alexander Shulgin
• Owsley Stanley

• Horowitz, Michael. "Interview with Albert Hofmann", High Times (1976)
• Nathaniel S. Finney, Jay S. Siegel: In Memoriam – Albert Hofmann (1906–2008). Chimia 62 (2008), 444–447, doi:10.2533/chimia.2008.444
• Roberts, Andy. Albion Dreaming: A Popular History of LSD in Britain (2008), Marshall Cavendish, U.K, 978-1905736270/1905736274
• Hagenbach, Dieter and Lucius Werthmüller. Mystic Chemist: The Life of Albert Hofmann and His Discovery of LSD (Synergetic Press, 2013). ISBN 978-090779146-1

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Albert Hofmann.

Wikiquote has quotations related to Albert Hofmann.

• Albert Hofmann Foundation
• LSD: My Problem Child Career Autobiography
• Insight Outlook A book by Albert Hofmann
• Erowid: Albert Hofmann Vault
• Maps.org ("Stanislav Grof interviews Dr. Albert Hofmann")
• Albert Hofmann – Daily Telegraph obituary
• Watch Hofmann's Potion, a documentary on the origins of LSD
• Albert Hofmann's life and articles (in Spanish)
• LSD Returns—For Psychotherapeutics (Scientific American Magazine article)
• Albert Hofmann and Visionary Mushrooms – includes hand-written molecular structures of LSD and psilocybin by Dr. Hofmann