Kapronczay Károly szerk.: Orvostörténeti Közlemények 188-189. (Budapest, 2004)

KÖZLEMÉNYEK - COMMUNICATIONS - Kóczián, Mária - Kölnei, Lívia: The struggle of Gustav Schimert for the revival of homeopathy in Hungary(1908-1944).-Schimert Gusztáv küzdelme a magyar homeopátia újjáélesztéséért (1908-1944)

Schimert and his family lived in Stuttgart between 1912-1914, where due to Richard HaeVs illness Schimert was asked to take over his practice. 2. War, activity as a medical officer 1914-1918 Schimert participated in World War I. as a physician. First he served in Nagyszeben (now Sibiu, Rumania) 1914-1915. He was the head of the neurological ward of a hospital because he was a general practicioner and a nerve specialist too. Nagyszeben's German name is Hermannstadt. Hahnemann lived and worked here from autumn 1777 to spring 1779. Here he met patients suffering from swamp-fever and witnessed Cinchona used regularly. Interestingly, the pharmacy, where one and a half century later a chemist produced homeopathic drugs for Schimert was in the palace of baron Brukhental who had been the employer of Hahnemann during the Hermannstadt period. In 1916 Schimert moved to Skutari, Albania, where he worked in a hospital for swampfever patients. He published a study in 1917 on therapy for malaria using patients' own serum. There he cured patients with malaria, and others suffering from cholera or typhus. He himself also got infected by typhus. At this time he returned to Budapest, where he had to take over the direction of Elisabethinum which was going to be transformed it into a military hospital. 3. Budapest — the improving period 1918-1935 Elisabethinum was the second homeopathic hospital in Budapest founded in 1870 by countess Melanie Zichy who was a granddaughter of Metternich (1773-1859). Although the head of the hospital was always a homeopath by the end of the 19

th century the homeopathic importance of this establishment had declined,. Schimert as the chief medical officer in the hospital with the help of his colleges and the financial support of Melanie Zichy'

s descendants managed to provide suitable conditions for curing. The medical treatment of the ones returning from the front proved to be an enormous challenge. Despite of this Schimert cured successfuly with homeopathic methods in a ward of the hospital. The successes inspired his assistants as well. But during the time of the Hungarian Soviet Republic in 1919 the new, communist leadership changed the structure of the hospital. Afterwards it was impossible to run the institution privately, and Elisabethinum became a rented property of the Hangya Szövetség which was a co-operative supporting especially country farmers and the National Central Credit Co-operative in 1922. From this year on till 1954 the name of the institution was Elisabeth Hospital of Cooperatives. Now it is the Schöpf-Merei Ágost Hospital and Crisis Center for Mothers. Interestingly, the president of the Hangya Szövetség of the time was the economist Dr. Elemér Balogh, a descendant of a famous Hungarian homeopath family. It was not a coincidence that one of the head physicians of the hospital, Béla Fialovszky wrote a monography about Pál Almási Balogh, the great homeopath of the 19

th century. The book was published by the Hangya Szövetség in 1933. In 1922 László Thaly was promoted to be the director-physician in Elisabeth Hospital. As Thaly had worked in Bethesda Hospital before he was familiar with homeopathy. According to the document of the foundation of the Elisabethinum a 10-12 bed homeopathic ward had to be kept in the hospital. It was run by Schimert. Besides the ward