HHMOEOPATHY IN SWITZERLAND

Summary

Medical homoeopathy started to become established in different areas of Switzerland between 1827 and 1830, around 30 years after its founding by Samuel Hahnemann. Homoeopathy was first introduced in Basel through Switzerland's earliest homoeopathic physician Franz Josef Siegrist and soon spread to the cantons of St. Gallen, Zurich, Glarus, Bern and Geneva.

The first homoeopathic medical society of Switzerland, “Société homeopathique gallicane”, was founded by Pierre Dufresne in Geneva in 1832. However, it was in existence only for a few years. In 1856, the Swiss Association of Homoeopathic Physicians (SAHOP) – which still exists today - was established by the Swiss-German physicians Samuel Zopfy, Karl Krieger and Theophil Bruckner. It was at times highly influenced by the German Association of Homoeopathic Physicians and above all by South German homoeopaths with whom SAHOP held annual scientific assemblies for some time. However, the association represented only Swiss-German homoeopaths. It was not until 1927 that the ‘new’ SAHOP was founded not at least due to Switzerland’s presumably most significant homoeopath of the 20th century, Pierre Schmidt. The new association united all homoeopathic physicians of Switzerland, and Swiss homoeopathy started to develop in a way that was more independent from developments in homoeopathy in the surrounding countries.

There were several physicians in the history of Swiss homoeopathy who gained international reputation, especially Emil Schädler and Theophil Bruckner in the 19th century, Theophil Mende and Antoine Nebel senior in the turn of the century; Pierre Schmidt and his student Jost Künzli, Adolphe Voegeli and Rudolf Flury in the 20th century played a vital role as homoeopathic teachers in Europe after 1945.

The operation of Swiss homoeopathic hospitals such as the homoeopathic sanatorium in Davos at the beginning of the 20th century or the Merian Iselin hospital in Basel as well as the publication of the various Swiss homoeopathic magazines were abandoned after a short period of time.

Alexander Erlach.

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