Sebastian Kneipp and the Natural Cure Movement of Germany: Between Naturalism and Modern Medicine

This study discusses the historical significance of the Natural Cure Movement of Germany, centering on the Kneipp Cure, a form of hydrotherapy practiced by Father Sebastian Kneipp (1821-1897). The Kneipp Cure rested on five main tenets: hydrotherapy, exercise, nutrition, herbalism, and the balance of mind and body. This study illuminates the reception of the Kneipp Cure in the context of the trilateral relationship among the Kneipp Cure, the Natural Cure Movement in general, and modern medicine. The Natural Cure Movement was ideologically based on naturalism, criticizing industrialization and urbanization. There existed various theories and methods in it, yet they shared holism and vitalism as common factors. The Natural Cure Movement of Germany began in the early 19th century. During the late 19th century and the early 20th century, it became merged in the Lebensreformbewegung (life reform movement) which campaigned for temperance, anti-tobacco, and anti-vaccination. The core of the Natural Cure Movement was to advocate the world view that nature should be respected and to recognize the natural healing powers of sunlight, air, water, etc. Among varied natural therapies, hydrotherapy spread out through the activities of some medical doctors and amateur healers such as Johann Siegmund Hahn and Vincenz Prie βnitz. Later, the supporters of hydrotherapy gathered together under the German Society of Naturopathy. Sebastian Kneipp, one of the forefathers of hydrotherapy, is distinguished from other proponents of natural therapies in two aspects. First, he did not refuse to employ vaccination and medication. Second, he sought to be recognized by the medical world through cooperating with medical doctors who supported his treatment. As a result, the Kneipp cure was able to be gradually accepted into the medical world despite the "quackery" controversy between modern medicine and the Natural Cure Movement. Nowadays, the name of Sebastian Kneipp remains deeply engraved on the memories of German people through various Kneipp spa products, as well as his books such as My water Cure and Thus Shalt Thou Live! Wörishofen, where Kneipp had served as catholic priest as well as hydrotherapist for 42 years from 1855, changed its name to "Bad Wörishofen" ("Wörishofen Spa" in German). The Kneipp Cure and the Natural Cure Movement became a source of ecologica l thought which is currently gaining more and more sympathy from German people. It is regarded as a lieu de mémoire (site of memory) reflecting the collective identity of German people.

[Reference relationships between human and animal in Hildegard von Bingen]

In "De animalibus", the 7th book in the "Liber simplicis medicinae", Hildegard von Bingen describes the characteristics of four-footed land animals. Some of these have a special relationship with humans in that they embody moral qualities. An explanation for this is already given in the preface, which states that human intelligence recognizes these qualities, declaring that "You are this or that sort of creature". Since the relationship that animals have with nature shares a degree of similarity with that of man's, they can be regarded as symbolic representatives for particular human traits and characteristics. The article at hand presents Hildegard von Bingen's descriptions of the monkey, the lion, the bear, the rabbit, the dog, the cat, the wolf, the lynx, and the donkey. While the monkey just mimics man's behaviour and is imperfect in both settings, the lion embodies will power. The bear on the other hand stands for unbridled sexual desire, while in the rabbit the gentleness of a sheep is united with the bounce of a deer. The lynx is regarded as hedonistic, the donkey as stupid, and the wolf as surrounded by dangerous sylphs. In Hildegard's depictions, exotic and native animal species display rather extraordinary behavioural traits, and the medieval Christian world view of the author conveys unexpected relationships between humans and animals. In addition to empirical observation and experience, Hildegard also relies on folkloristic beliefs and magical practices related to explanatory models of her time. She allows largely unknown sources into her animal lore but never strays from her ultimate goal of having it serve to instruct people. In doing so, Hildegard removed herself far from the common tradition of medieval animal portraits.

[The admirable effects of panaceas: ideas between antiquity and early modern times]

Panaceas, i. e. medicines that can cure many or almost all diseases, were used throughout the history from antiquity until modern times. The paper focuses on ideas developed to explain the admirable actions of these medicines. In antiquity such actions seem to be related to the large number of ingredients as well as to the presence of materials connected to potent poisons (e. g. viper flesh). Later, with the advent of alchemy, the alchemical preparation is regarded to produce medicines with such properties, the most pregnant example being lapis philosophorum. Such explanations are underpinned by the correspondences with higher astral influences as espoused by Paracelsus, as well as by van Helmont's idea that both disease and cure depend exclusively on the state of the 'spirit of life'. At the same time Galenic-like ideas survive, in the sense that panaceas are something like universal purifiers. Besides curing diseases panaceas were used to ensure long living, permanent health as well as for achieving rejuvenation. In this respect, they show an affinity to the so-called 'healing power of nature'.

[Position hopeless lost--Heinrich Dreuw's lonely struggle against syphilis and Salvarsan]

The invention of Salvarsan (Triaminotrihydroxy-arsenobenzol) in 1910 meant a revolution in the medical treatment. Chemotherapy was born and its founder Paul Ehrlich is still famous for his experimental work. In medical history mostly successes, not widespread discussions about misuse or failing of the new drug were. The Berlin doctor Heinrich Dreuw was a key figure in these debates. He and his colleagues presented evidence that Salvarsan was not an effective drug and just an expensive placebo, which helped pharmaceutical trusts earning more money. Dreuw even attacked state medical branches for infringement against patients. At last doubts about Salvarsan never disappeared.

[Sanatoria for tourists, drugs at home, healers on demand: healing cultures in the Duchy of Gotha (1850-1950)]

Up to 1920 Thuringia was separated into many territories some of which were known for their unorthodox pharmaceutical industries. Gotha was the only famous duchy because one of its princes had married the Queen of England in 1840. The country was backward and the state administration was incapable of solving health issues. It was due to the interest of some physicians that the fragile balance between homeopathy, naturopathy, physicians and pharmacists broke down after 1900. But the state bureaucracy was unable to convince the people of its new healthcare approaches that were just based on scientific medicine.

[Images of gender and gender-specific therapies in German homoeopathic and naturopathic guidebooks (c. 1870-1930)]

In the second half of the nineteenth and early twentieth century sex and gender became crucial categories not only in the medical discourse of German speaking countries. At the very centre of this discourse was the idea of women as the weaker sex. Because of the paradigm shift in the history of medicine (due to the discovery of the cytopathology) the principle of a weaker sex seemed to be corroborated by scientific research, a fact which impacted on medical practice in many ways. "Nervous" disease evolved as the major threat "of our times," with urban girls, young women and "weak" young men being most at risk. At the same time homoeopaths and naturopaths challenged modern medicine, offering alternative health practices, cures and drugs for people who could not afford the help of physicians or distrusted them. An analysis of several alternative medical guidebooks printed between c. 1870 and 1930 showed that homoeopaths and naturopaths shared the "sexualization" of medical discourse and practice only to an extent. On the one hand they believed that disorders such as hysteria, masturbation, chorea Sydenham and anaemia were nervous in nature and that the chances of curing them were poor. With the exception of masturbation these "deadly" threats were considered to be typically female. The general approach of alternative physicians, on the other hand, was unisex. The cures they offered to the public used unisex scales of constitutional characters. They even ignored the gender specificity of sick headaches. Gender-specific problems such as difficult deliveries and childbed fever were treated as "natural" and mild cures were favoured. The conclusion is that the influences of upper and middle class discourse on common health practices should not be overestimated.

[Discovering truth. Garcia da Orta and 'discussions of simple healing remedies' (Goa 1563)]

The 'Colloquies on the simples and drugs of India' by Garcia da Orta, published in Goa in 1563, are an inquiry into South Asian materia medica and an important Portuguese contribution to Renaissance herbal literature. The dialogue indicates a fundamental interest in the quest for truth, emphasizing the separation of true from false or vague statements in the description of various plants and vegetable, animal and mineral products of the East Indies. As lectures on the writings of Aristotle and his commentators formed the bases of education at Spanish universities in the 16th century, the current scholar concept of truth at that time derived from Aristotelian philosophy in which scientific truth is taken to arise mainly from syllogistic proof, definition and noetic intuition. Simultaneously another notion of truth emerged, referring to itself in terms of 'discovery' and 'experience'. The abundance of unknown phenomena and the strangeness of the exotic flora and fauna had demonstrated that the ability to make true statements in the field of natural history depended largely on sense perception and the collection of information. Both of these two ways to knowledge are required to characterize, compare and classify new objects or processes by differentiating them into their accidental, specific and diagnostic properties. This kind of truth gains its validity from authentic and documentated observation of individual beings; it has to be detected by research on nature's morphological diversity and by application of heuristic methods. After giving an outline of Orta's life, the structure of the 'Colloquies' and their reception in Europe, the article tries to identify the plants and drugs discussed and finally concentrates on an exposition of the Aristotelian and the discovery-oriented concept of scientfic truth.

[Fresh fruit and occultism as ways to salvation: conversions in Leipzig's alternative culture at around 1900]

During the time of the Wilhelmine Empire, there were multiple interdependencies between adherents of the life reform movement (vegetarians, naturopathists, nudists, etc.) and new religious movements such as esoteric groups like the theosophists in the alternative cultural milieu around 1900. These networks became visible in the form of double memberships in associations. However, there were also ambiguous affiliations, migration between groups and syncretistic beliefs without institutional belonging. The similarity between patterns of argumentation for this specific lifestyle and the congruence of chosen goals, ways and goods of salvation become particularly clear in this context. These forms of "methodical lifestyle" may lead to the development of a specific ethos or habitus (Max Weber). To illustrate these processes, this article analyses the report of a Leipzig lady who ate raw fruits and vegetables only, and examines her broader social context. Thereby the analysis will employ sociological theories of conversion to explain the case of Hedwig Bresch.

A bug's life: change and transformation in early modern China

Chanting wasps and shape-shifting worms were all in a day's work for sixteenth-century Chinese naturalists such as Li Shizhen (1518-1593). In an effort to understand the metamorphoses of both nature and the human body, he and other early modern Chinese scholars looked towards tiny creatures like roundworms, lice and demon bugs. For them, such animals could reveal the most intimate secrets of the universe.

Requirement of scientific documentation for the development of Naturopathy

Past few decades have witnessed explosion of knowledge in almost every field. This has resulted not only in the advancement of the subjects in particular but also have influenced the growth of various allied subjects. The present paper explains about the advancement of science through efforts made in specific areas and also through discoveries in different allied fields having an indirect influence upon the subject in proper. In Naturopathy this seems that though nothing particular is added to the basic thoughts or fundamental principles of the subject yet the entire treatment understanding is revolutionised under the influence of scientific discoveries of past few decades. Advent of information technology has further added to the boom of knowledge and many times this seems impossible to utilize these informations for the good of human being because these are not logically arranged in our minds. In the above background, the author tries to define documentation stating that we have today ocean of information and knowledge about various things- living or dead, plants, animals or human beings; the geographical conditions or changing weather and environment. What required to be done is to extract the relevant knowledge and information required to enrich the subject. The author compares documentation with churning of milk to extract butter. Documentation, in fact, is churning of ocean of information to extract the specific, most appropriate, relevant and defined information and knowledge related to the particular subject . The paper besides discussing the definition of documentation, highlights the areas of Naturopathy requiring an urgent necessity to make proper documentations. Paper also discusses the present status of Naturopathy in India, proposes short-term and long-term goals to be achieved and plans the strategies for achieving them. The most important aspect of the paper is due understanding of the limitations of Naturopathy but a constant effort to improve the same with the growth made in various discipline of science so far.

The medical content of English almanacs 1640-1700

There has been a great deal of recent interest in popular health care in early modern England, resulting in studies on a range of topics from practitioners through remedial treatment. Over the past decade, the history of books has also attracted growing interest. This is particularly true for the seventeenth century, a period marked by a dramatic rise in all types of printed works. The 1640s are especially significant in the evolution of printed vernacular medical publications, which continued to flourish during the rest of the century. While recent studies on popular medical books have contributed greatly to our understanding of contemporary medical beliefs and practices, they have failed to properly recognize the effect that almanacs had on early modern medicine. Although their primary function was not to disseminate medical information, most provided a great deal of medical information. Furthermore, these cheap, annual publications targeted and were read by a wide cross-section of the public, making them the first true form of British mass media. This article is based on the content of 1,392 almanacs printed between 1640 and 1700, which may make it the largest comparative study of the medical content of any early modern printed works. The project has resulted in two major findings. First of all, almanacs played a major part in the dissemination, continuing popularity, and longevity of traditional astrological and Galenic beliefs and practices. Secondly, at the same time, almanacs played an important early role in the growth of medical materialism in Britain.

Naturopathic medicine--a 10-year perspective (from a 35-year view)

The decade of Alternative Therapies in Health and Medicine's existence has seen dramatic advancement of the naturopathic profession in all areas: research, quality of practice, quality of education, licensure, inclusion in the political process, and public acceptance. Naturopathic doctors are now valued in the marketplace and in policy as a legitimate part of an overall system of healthcare. Momentum, infrastructure, acceptance, and conceptualization are all foundational to the future. Alternative Therapies in Health and Medicine was one of the first journals to invite naturopathic doctors onto its Editorial Board (i.e., Pizzorno, Standish). Our profession thanks and applauds you for inviting us.

[Development of 'Ordnungstherapie' by Bircher-Benner in naturopathy of the 20th century]

BACKGROUND

The German term 'Ordnungstherapie' is one of the five therapeutics which defines naturopathy in German-speaking countries.

OBJECTIVE

Who formed the term Ordnungstherapie in naturopathy and what does it mean?

MATERIAL AND METHODS

Heuristics and criticism of literature of the 20th century as well as database research.

RESULTS

Nowadays in German-language medical books Ordnungstherpie belongs to the five therapeutics which define European naturopathy. Yet, the interpretation ranges from health education to body-orientated forms of psychotherapy. The term Ordnungstherapie is often related with the German priest and hydropath Sebastian Kneipp, however, term and definition have been founded by the Swiss physician Maximillian Bircher-Benner. In 1937 he defined Ordnungstherapie as a complex concept of natural healing. It is based upon the rather nosological idea that health is order/harmony in the human body (physically, psychologically), the environment and the daily course. Illness occurs if disorder appears in one of these fields. The therapeutic setting of Ordnungstherapy is defined by 9 rules of conduct to maintain order, which include nutrition, the skin as an organ (exposure to light, air, water), breathing, movement, rhythm of life, and psyche. For all these aspects Bircher-Benner himself uses the terms somatotherapy (dietotherapy, sun and light therapy, hydrotherapy, exercise therapy, breathing technique, order of the rhythm of live) and psychotherapy. He chose these complementary methods subjectively after learning them from 1897 onwards in an eclectic manner and after gaining therapeutic empiricism. Nevertheless his ideas of the Ordnungstherapie correlate with the socio-political context of the 1940ies.

CONCLUSIONS

The term Ordnungstherapie was introduced by Bircher-Benner as an umbrella term in 1937 to describe a complex concept of naturopathic therapies. It comprises, with certain limitations for phytotherapy, the therapies which nowadays define European naturopathy. Yet, in European naturopathy today Ordnungstherapie is mostly considered as one out of 5 constituents of naturopathy (dietotherapy, hydrotherapy, exercise therapy, phytotherapy, Ordnungstherapie). The classification of Ordnungstherapie as one of the 5 pillars of the Kneipp therapy was only done by Kneipp physicians in the middle of the 20th century and needs to be thought over.

[Schelling and experiential science]

Schelling's philosophy of nature is shown to be part of the scientific discussions of his day, not set apart from it. His terminology describing the potentialities and polarities of nature was formed during Schelling's collaboration with the physicist Johann Wilhelm Ritter. This scientist adopted the schema Schelling had developed for the categorization of natural phenomena to describe the peculiar facts that interested him in his area of research. Thus Ritter was able to develop a classification of the various phenomena of animal galvanism. Thus it can be shown that the idealistic "Naturphilosophie" was part of the scientific culture of about 1800. It is to be interpreted as philosophy of science and has to be evaluated not only in a philosophically systematic way but in particular in its influence on the way scientific categories were ordered at the time. Thereby it can be shown that the idealistic vocabulary had close correspondence to French morphology and English Natural Theology.

[From Swiss herbs to the global plant system and individual use--a biographic approach to Alfred Vogel]

BACKGROUND

Even 100 years after the birth of Alfred Vogel there is a lack of reliable data about his life as a non-doctoral therapist in the fields of naturopathy and phytotherapy.

OBJECTIVE

Which documents about A. Vogel do exist, which facts do they prove about his career and which interpretations of his point of view of phytotherapy do they allow.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

With the methods in medical history (heuristic, critic, interpretation) video, audio and written documents from the A. Vogel Museum and A. Vogel publisher in Teufen, the A. Vogel collection in the Museum in Aesch and the Bioforce AG in Roggwil have been examined.

RESULTS

From 1923 to 1932 A. Vogel runs a grocer's shop or a herb and health-food store in Basel and later Bern, Zürich and Solothurn. The economic success of his health-food stores and his interest in the field of naturopathy enable him to take part in a training to become a 'natural doctor' and in 1933 he is registered by the 'Natural Doctors Association of Switzerland'. From 1935 on he is working as a nutritionalist in his own spa pension in Trogen and produces plant extracts in his 'Laboratory Bioforce'. From 1937 to 1957 he has a spa hotel in Teufen and is producer of extracts from fresh plants. He is able to travel all continents of the world from 1958 on, in order to observe customs and medical habits of different tribes. He writes about his findings in his own magazine and books. His knowledge about the usage of herbs in different cultures inspires his production of herbal extracts in his company. In 1963, to meet the increasing sales of his products, he founds the <<Bioforce AG>> where he, until the early 1990s, takes part in the adjustment of the recipes to the new pharmaceutic-medical standards.

CONCLUSION

Because of his work as a 'natural doctor' A. Vogel becomes one of Switzerland's best known non-doctoral therapists in the 20th century. The publication of his collected wisdom in a lay-like language is a contribution to the tradition and popularity in this field through which, as well as through the development of extracts from fresh plants, he becomes a promoter of phytotherapy.

[Not Available]

The article describes the social and medical profile of the lay healer Eugen Wenz (1856-1945) during his first period of medical activity as owner of the naturopathic and homoeopathic establishment "Marienbad" in Mühringen in the years 1895-1899. Wenz was severely restricted in his activities: the health insurance schemes did not reimburse him, the medical authorities of Württemberg attempted at first to prevent the foundation of the 'Marienbad' and the doctors of the surrounding area interfered several times in his medical treatment. Finally Eugen Wenz appears not to have been accepted by the population of the district (Oberamt), since the Marienbad was very poorly frequented and so unable to provide Wenz with a secure income. A statistic comparison shows that many other lay healers seem to have been confronted with similar problems. The social profile of Eugen Wenz disproves partially the general picture of the profession of German lay healers depicted by research in medical history hitherto.

Food and the purification of society: Dr. Paul Carton and vegetarianism in interwar France

This article examines the life and work of Dr Paul Carton (1875-1947), a French physician who promoted 'naturist vegetarianism". His career and the evolution of his ideas were influenced by his own experience as a young man of treatment for tuberculosis, and by an anti-materialist philosophy. He developed a diet for his patients that became influential through his writings and through the activities of the French Naturist Society. Although by no means the only advocate of such ideas, Carton's influence has survived and can still be discerned in a close reading of the present-day French popular press.

Self-healing forces and concepts of health and disease. A historical discourse

The phenomenon of self-healing forces has again and again challenged doctors in the different historical periods of medical science. They relied on effects of self-healing forces in diagnosis and therapy. They also tried to explain these effects based on the current model of organism. The understanding of this phenomenon has always influenced the understanding of therapy and played a role in defining the concept of health and disease. In the 17th and 18th century the idea of self-healing force was interpreted as a phenomenon related to the organic forces, whereas in the 19th century the explanation was reduced to a materialistic mechanism. Nowadays the knowledge of heath-shock-proteins open the way of a new understanding of the organic defense mechanisms.

The story of naturopathic education in Australia

Early naturopaths in Australia learned their skills via a loose combination of self-education and an apprenticeship-style system. Naturopathic education developed gradually and outside mainstream education until the last decade. Now it has formalized to include university training. These changes in education are paralleled by dramatic increases in popularity in the practice of natural medicine. Legislative changes regarding the provision of higher education by private institutions, plus the popular acceptance of natural medicine in the last decade, have led to the current situation where degrees are available to naturopath via a number of different pathways.

Naturopathy, Nightingale, and nature cure: a convergence of interests

Naturopathy is making a strong resurgence in many Western countries, and its philosophical and theoretical basis has much in common with nursing theories of health. This article will give an overview of naturopathy, its origins in Hippocratic medicine and nature cure, and its re-emergence during the Victorian era in the context of a renewal of interest in health. The question is posed, 'To what extent did the nature cure movement of last century influence the thinking of Florence Nightingale?' An examination of her writings supports the hypothesis that nature cure was a significant influence on Nightingale's understanding of health and healing. Contemporary nursing theory is also congruent with naturopathic principles in significant ways, and a convergence between the two disciplines is emerging.