
A visual of the Goethe CHEM cypher, from Libb Thims' 2015 "Zerotheism for Kids" lecture, according to which each of the four main characters: "Charlotte" [C], the feminine variant of the French name "Charles + Otto", Captain, a term called Hauptmann [H] in German, who in youth was called Otto, Eduard [E], who in youth was also called Otto, and Mittler [M], the so-called marriage and or dispute mediator, the human catalyst of the novel, yield the combined term "CHEM", the root of the word chemistry, from the Egyptian -keme, a reference to the fertile black soil of the Nile River; the overlapping root term "Ott", a reference both the character "Ottilie", derived from the term "lily", the youthful flower-like child of the novel who brings "new life" so to say to the "dead marriage", of Charlotte and Eduard, and to Saint Ottilia, the patron saint of "vision' restoration, meaning that until we start "seeing" the social interaction world "chemically', we will remain blind to reality. [2]

A visual of the Goethe CHEM cypher, from Libb Thims' 2015 "Zerotheism for Kids" lecture, according to which each of the four main characters: "Charlotte" [C], the feminine variant of the French name "Charles + Otto", Captain, a term called Hauptmann [H] in German, who in youth was called Otto, Eduard [E], who in youth was also called Otto, and Mittler [M], the so-called marriage and or dispute mediator, the human catalyst of the novel, yield the combined term "CHEM", the root of the word chemistry, from the Egyptian -keme, a reference to the fertile black soil of the Nile River; the overlapping root term "Ott", a reference both the character "Ottilie", derived from the term "lily", the youthful flower-like child of the novel who brings "new life" so to say to the "dead marriage", of Charlotte and Eduard, and to Saint Ottilia, the patron saint of "vision' restoration, meaning that until we start "seeing" the social interaction world "chemically', we will remain blind to reality. [2]

In hmolscience, CHEM cypher, as compared to the OTTO cypher and ECHO cypher, refers to the coded acronym that people (or humans), as seen through the reality vision restoration eyes (aka Saint Ottilia), are different types of evolved or metamorphized CHEM things or "chemicals".

Overview
In 1998, John Williams, a Scottish biographer and German literature lecturer, in his The Life of Goethe, gave one of the best summarizes of Goethe's intricate use of this CHEM anagram; which is basically the following:

Charlotte [C] + Hauptmann [H] + Eduard [E] + Mittler [M] = CHEM

Al-CHEM-Y → CHEM-istry → Chemistry

Williams surmises that Eduard, Charlotte, Otto form ECHO—which in turn relates to allusions to the myth of Narcissus and Echo and various points.

Charlotte, Hauptmann (Captain), Eduard, Mittler, form CHEM (see: chemistry etymology)—a significant acronym for the main theme of the novella (chemistry), even if, according to Williams, “Mittler (the mediator) fails to catalyze or restore the relationship between Charlotte and Eduard." Ott is the stem of the names of Eduard (his name youth was Otto), Charlotte, the Captain, Ottilie, and the child. [1]

As an anagram, OTT becomes TOT (dead); as a palindrome, OTTO represents an ironically harmonious mirror-image. Ottilie is near enough to OTT-LILIE: lilies are “symbols of purity, attributes of the Virgin Mary”, according to Williams.

The initials E and O, such as are engraved on the glass that gets symbolically destroyed, according to Williams, are not only the initials of Eduard and Ottilie, or Eduard and Otto, but also of Eurydice and Orpheus—which, according to Williams, relates to the symbolism of Mittler as Hermes, the ubiquitous messenger and Psychopomp, the conductor of souls to the underworld.

The following diagram captures the gist of all four cyphers: CHEM, Echo, and OTT:
-

In 2015, Libb Thims, in his “Zerotheism for Kids” lecture, explained to the children that Goethe employed the Ott cypher as a means to explain that when we one comes to see people each as different but unique types of “chemicals” that a new “vision”, previously blinded, of meaning and morality would be restored; a visual of this (lecture #6 (0:00-1:35); slide #15) is shown above. [2] Thims then summarized this to the children as follows:

“When you start to see the world though 'chemical eyes' or Gibbsian eyes then you’ll have a new morality.”
— Libb Thims (2015), “Zerotheism for Kids”, Monday Lecture, Chicago, Sep 7 [2]

In short, in modern term, each person as being OTT-based, in the novella is prototype to the late 19th century model of each person being carbon-based or C-based, which is equivalent to, in the early 20th century, of each person being a CHNOPS-based chemical; such as stated by German physical chemist Wilhelm Ostwald, a modern Goethean human chemical theory philosopher, about himself, in 1926, as follows: [13]

“I am made from the C-H-N-O-S-P combination from which a Bunsen, Helmholtz, Kirchhoff came.”

Goethe, in short, was trying to say, in code, speaking in modern terms, that each of his four main protagonists, with the name root "OTT", was a "CHNOPS combination", as Ostwald would say, or, in modern terms, a "powered CHNOPS+20 chemical" (or molecule), whose affinities and combinations are determined by the elective affinities (or free energies in modern speak).

References
1. Williams, John R. (1998). The Life of Goethe (anagram, pg. 137; Otto anagram, pgs. 233-34). Blackwell.
2. Thims, Libb. (2015). “Zerotheism for Kids” (co-host: Thor) (main), 14-part [4:41-hr] lecture playlist (Ѻ), 5-intro sides (Ѻ), 56-main sides (Ѻ), 11AM-3PM, Chicago, Sep 7.