Adler Apotheke

The Adler-Apotheke on Dortmund's Alter Markt is the oldest pharmacy continuously operating at its original site in North Rhine-Westphalia, first documented in 1322 when Dortmund was a flourishing Hanseatic trading hub. What sets it apart even by European standards is an unbroken written record of successive owners spanning more than five centuries — a chain of stewardship that survived wars, plague, and the near-total destruction of Dortmund's city center in World War II. The listed building is still run by the Ausbüttel family as a working pharmacy, making it one of the rare medieval institutions in Germany that has never changed its function — no heritage plaque, just a shop you can walk into today.