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iv: Anthroposophical Views
The Heilpflanzengarten of the Anthroposophical Community Hospital in Herdecke Dora Wagner 2020 marks the centenary of Anthroposophical Medicine. Over Easter 1920, in a series of lectures to young doctors, Rudolf Steiner presented his ideas for a new, modern, integrative medicine for the first time. Later, Steiner worked with the Dutch physician Ita Wegman and the Austrian pharmacist Oskar Schmiedel to develop these impulses into an overarching medical-therapeutic concept based on a holistic view of the human being. Ita Wegman (1876-1943) was a very special woman, far ahead of her time; she was one of the first women to study medicine, becoming a courageous and cosmopolitan doctor. In 1921 she founded the first anthroposophical clinic, in Arlesheim in Switzerland, in order to implement these new approaches to holistic medicine.
Oskar Schmiedel had begun developing the first anthroposophical medicines as early as 1912. In the following years, new formulations and manufacturing processes for holistically-oriented remedies were developed. By 1921 the results of these early endeavours had found their way into pharmaceutical practice, and the first commercial anthroposophical medicines were produced. At that time, 46 preparations were already comprising an ‘official’ list to be produced in an experimental laboratory in Arlesheim. From 1928 this laboratory was named WELEDA, and it remains the world's leading manufacturer of holistic and anthroposophical medicines to this day. In 1935 another company was founded to produce anthroposophical medicines, this time in Germany. WALA was established by Rudolf Hauschka, and took its name from the initials of its manufacturing processes; Warmth—Ashes, and Light—Ashes. The company still produces around 900 medicines that address the human being holistically, and both WELEDA and WALA maintain huge medicinal plant gardens to cultivate the herbs that are harvested and processed into remedies. 1969 saw the inauguration of the first anthroposophically oriented hospital in Germany: the Herdecke Community Hospital (GKH). The founding members considered it important that medicinal plants be studied on-site and that medicines be produced from home-grown herbs, and so a medicinal plant garden was also created. During and outwith her working hours, the hospital pharmacist was also engaged in gardening, and was responsible for the production of anthroposophical medicines from the herbs.
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