Düsseldorf (dpa / lnw) - The planned House of History in North Rhine-Westphalia will take over a large private collection relating to the drug scandal Contergan. The collection documents the devastating effects of the drug, the history museum said on Friday. It is scheduled to open in Düsseldorf in about five years.
Catia Monser, born in 1961, herself a thalidomide victim, has collected around 100 objects over five decades - including original packaging, package inserts, promotional items and prostheses. "The thalidomide scandal had worldwide effects, but originated in North Rhine-Westphalia," explained Gabriele Uelsberg, member of the presidium of the NRW House of History Foundation. The variety of topics and objects makes it possible to present the Contergan scandal in all its complexity, "with all its medical, legal, moral and human facets".
The pharmaceutical company Grünenthal from Stolberg near Aachen had been selling the over-the-counter sleeping pill and tranquilizer Contergan since 1957. In the early 1960s, the compound was found to be severely harmful to fetuses if taken early in pregnancy. According to the information, around 5,000 children with severe physical disabilities were born in Germany alone.
