Kapronczay Károly szerk.: Orvostörténeti Közlemények 186-187. (Budapest, 2004)

KÖZLEMÉNYEK — COMMUNICATIONS - JUTTE, Robert: The historiography of homoeopathy in Germany. — A homeopátiatörténetírás Németországban

THE HISTORIOGRAPHY OF HOMOEOPATHY IN GERMANY ROBERT JÜTTE Homoeopathy originated in Germany. The same applies, by the way, to many other branches of alternative medicine, e.g. mesmerism, homoeopathy, hydropathy, anthroposophical medicine. This historical fact provides more than just an excuse to start with a survey of the historiography of homeopathy in German-speaking countries. The first part of the paper focuses on 19th-century attempts at a history of homoeopathy, reflecting the wish to establish a corporate identity among the adherents of the new art of healing. Early examples are books by prominent homoeopathic doctors on the origins and recent history of homoeopathy in German lands. A look a their motives will give us a notion of the response of fringe medicine to a wide range of attacks of orthodox physicians and medical historians who saw progress in the field of the new "scientific" medicine only and who shared the values and ideologies of the medical establishment. The second part of the paper - which covers the period from the turn of the century to the end of World War II - examines the first attempts by professional medical historians as well as amateurs to write about the rise and fall of homeopathy in Germany. The third part is then centred on recent medical historiography on this subject. Partisan and apologetic medical history Until the beginning of the 20th century, medical historiography was by and large in the hands of professors of medicine and practitioners.

1 The same applies to a certain extent to the historiography of medical sects, not only in Germany but also elsewhere. This partly explains why the approach was often doxographical rather than historical. Like the adherents of regular medicine those physicians who practiced homoeopathy, hydropathy or other forms of unorthodox medicine were very well aware of the fact that medical knowledge in their particular case is almost exclusively transmitted through the opinions, experiences, and writings of the elders. From the very beginnings followers of medical sects grew accustomed to learn about the works of their great masters and predecessors so that they elucidated their own position by agreement or by refutation. One of the purposes of pragmatic history is according to Friedrich Nietzsche to "monumentalize" history.

2 Especially those medical practitioners to whom life meant 1 Cf., for instance, Charles Webster: The historiography of medicine, in Pietro Corsi, Paul Weindling (eds): Information Sources in the History of Science and Medicine. London, Butterworth Scientific, 1983, 29-43. 2 Friedrich Nietzsche, Vom Nutzen und Nachtheil der Historie für das Leben. Unzeitgemäiie Betrachtungen, Zweites Stück (1873). In: Karl Schlechta (ed): Friedrich Nietzsche, Werke, vol.1, 6th ed., Munich, Ullstein,