Hermann Alois Mayer

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Hermann Alois Mayer in 1910
Mayer in 1924

Hermann Alois Mayer (born February 6, 1871 in Biberach an der Riss ; † 1927) was a German businessman, health researcher, naturopath , inventor, philosopher and writer involved in the life reform movement.

Life

Private life

He was the illegitimate child of Adelheide Mayer (* 1847), who married the carpenter Johann Baptist Luz (* 1846) on August 28, 1876 , and had an older brother in Josef August Mayer (* 1869; † 1951). He later ran the Mayer Brothers wood goods factory in Biberach - verifiably between 1910 and 1919 . Nothing is known about his own training these days.

On February 25, 1892, Hermann Alois Mayer married Bertha Helene Fürhoff (* 1872) in Hamburg . The couple had children together, Herbert, Heinrich Adolf and Olga. Around 1893/1894 he lived at Grindelallee 78 in the Rotherbaum district and later moved to Krayenkamp 4 in the Neustadt district . Between 1905 and 1921 he lived in Othmarscher Kirchenweg 105 in the Othmarschen district of the then still independent town of Altona , before moving to Flottbeker Chaussee 195 in the same district . He was registered there until 1925.

Hermann Alois Mayer died in the first half of 1927 at the age of 56.

Working life

Entrepreneurial activity

Around 1893 and 1894, Mayer was employed in Hamburg as a bath and health attendant. His experience there in patient care and treatment of diseases would shape his later professional life.

From 1900 he was listed in the telephone books as a "naturopath" and in 1901 there was the first mention of a place and mail order business for special herbal tea , which he ran at Krayenkamp 4 and in Altona. In the following year, he expanded his business to Reeperbahn 144 and ran the liqueur and medicinal herb factory there . In 1903 the business was split up and W. Fürhoff - a related by marriage of Mayer - continued to run the branch on the Reeperbahn independently.

Logo of HA Mayer & Co. (1910).

On September 25, 1907, Mayer and Ernst Carl Rudolf Meyer from Hamburg founded HA Mayer & Co. as an open trading company , located at Krayenkamp 4. This company produced and sold herbal medicines and tinctures , nutrients and food supplements - also by mail order , Oxygen preparations, meat substitutes , teas and other cosmetic and pharmaceutical articles. With effect from April 6, 1909, Mayer took over the sole management. He subsequently also offered naturopathic advice during office hours and was known by the nickname “Kräuter-Mayer”. In the production process of the fruit flour, the fruits were prepared for grinding by means of the so-called “Mayer process” in “machines and apparatuses specially designed for this purpose” - exactly what kind of technology is involved is unknown. With regard to his nutritional beliefs, Mayer referred to Ilja Metschnikow's research on probiotics, among others . Before 1910, both the Ricon food industry and the Oponeo fruit flour plants were incorporated into the business. On September 24, 1912, the company was converted into a limited liability company. The partnership agreement was signed by Mayer and Carl Heinrich Fritz Wilhelm Riepe , with the former being credited with 25,000 marks and the latter 15,000 marks as fully paid-in capital contributions . At the beginning of April 1914, Mayer withdrew from the management and handed it over to Riepe and Carl Emil Conrad Wilhelm Ohlendorf.

But he remained connected to the industry even after his withdrawal. For example, around 1919 he was a partner in the PEC Pharmaceutical Export Company HA Mayer & Just in Dresden . In 1921 he headed the vegetable wholesaler at Altonaer Bergstrasse 228 and the following year he owned a shop for medicinal herbs at Flottbeker Chaussee 14, also in Altona.

Herbakalaja GmbH logo (around 1924). The monogram contains the first letters of the surnames of the founders Mayer, Bauer and Brosterhues.

From 1924 he sold preparations for the "Herbakalaja healing method" he had developed. The made-up word has two linguistic origins: Latin herba : 'herb' / 'plant' and Arabic القلية, DMG al-qalya : ' potash ' / ' alkalies '. Mayer advertised his new cure as a "union of ancient herbal medicine with modern biochemistry". To this end, he and the two Hamburgers Johann Bernard Brosterhues and Wilhelm Bauer - all of whom contributed in equal parts - signed a partnership agreement on November 10th of that year to found Herbakalaja GmbH. Its entry in the commercial register with 6000 RM share capital took place on December 16, 1924 and its registered office was at Hufnerstrasse 120 ( Barmbek-Nord district ). Around the same time was in Berlin, in the Link Road 11 ( the district of Tiergarten ), with the Herbakalaja cure-Vertriebs-GmbH (later Herbakalaja Vertriebs-GmbH ) a branch which is the sole general distributor of products for " Greater Berlin " and the province of Brandenburg took over . On June 12, 1925, the corresponding articles of association were concluded and on July 9, 1925 this branch was officially entered in the commercial register; it had a share capital of 5000 RM and the managing director was Johann Buthmann . Mayer's daughter Olga is proven to have worked at the Herbekalaja Institute in Berlin in November 1926, and in the same year the Hamburg-based Gupa-Film GmbH produced a 41-minute documentary film about the new healing concept. On January 19, 1927, the radio in Berlin broadcast a twenty-minute program from Mayer with the title “Medicinal plants in the service of the healing arts” over the frequencies 483.9 m and 566 m.

Theatrical writer

Announcement for the world premiere of Die Macht des Schicksals , which appeared in the Neue Hamburger Zeitung on July 2, 1902 .

He wrote some minor dramas and lyric texts. His “romantic drama in 7 pictures” The Power of Fate was premiered on July 5, 1902 in the St. George's Tivoli Theater in Hamburg's Besenbinderhof . The General-Anzeiger for Hamburg-Altona and the Neue Hamburger Zeitung printed a verbatim review in the following days . It was judged that the piece betrayed "a good deal of honest willingness and ability" and achieved "a nice success". Furthermore, the critic stated that Mayer loves to work with “strong effects” - nevertheless the “drawing of the characters was characteristic and convincingly successful.” In particular, he praised the role of the main character and mentioned that it was “with great delicacy, the one actually is out of proportion to the effects, drawn. ”The Berlin magazine Der Mensch (Die Lebensreform) , the official organ of the German Association for Life Reform , came to a similarly positive assessment:

“The description of the entire education and history of the individual is connected with a wealth of thought which is highly stimulating and often dramatically moving through the portrayal, which testifies to keen observation and is animated by the pulsation of the personal experience. The poet vividly depicts the psychic life and inner change of the powerful and uplifting wisdom of the main characters under the influence of the great and powerful life processes and with the compelling impression of logical development and natural law necessity. The carefully smoothed, evenly developed language testifies to a great wealth of epic development and connects in the happiest way with the content of the poem. "

Mayer's 1907 play The Demons - a "dramatic poem in four acts" - was advertised using the words of an alleged review of unknown origin:

“A work that stands out from the flood of average poetry and which unmistakably expresses a strong talent. […] In contrast to the noble language and the sublime, profound content, the unevenness in the meter that occurs here and there is irrelevant. The work is recommended to thoughtful beauties to read with the family. "

Excerpts from the work were published in the same year in the anthology Moderner Musentempel edited by Martin Müller . Three years after its publication, the authors of the satirical weekly Kladderadatsch reviewed the piece in a derisive and derogatory manner.

Work as a subject author

Mayer turned primarily to the field of alternative healing methods in his writing. His main work is the book Hygiene and Herbal Medicine , published in 1910 , which he subtitled as "Guide to health - to happiness in life". In 26 chapters, he gives countless tips and advice for a healthy, body-friendly and invigorating lifestyle - from the right diet to sporting activities, dental care and weather-appropriate clothing to hygienic bedrooms -, explains growth, use and dosage of the most varied of medicinal herbs, characterizes various Illnesses, represents the human body structure, deals with so-called mental disorders as well as the teaching of phrenology and finally deals with study heads of disease diagnosis, making use of physiognomic theories.

In his book The Redemption through the World Revolution , published in 1919 , he deals with the causes of the First World War , which has just ended , and theorizes about a new financial system. In his opinion, the war was not a conflict between peoples, but rather “the work of around 300 money princes who hoped to expand their economic influence and profit even more.” The peoples were blinded by “beautiful phrases and cheap press.” In A book presentation by the General-Anzeiger für Hamburg-Altona stated that Mayer also sharply criticized the behavior of the United States :

"Just at the moment z. For example, when the billions in assets of the American plutocrats seemed to be lost in the European theater of war, the Americans discovered their profession as pioneers for democracy and freedom to move across the ocean. The elimination of the power of these plutocrats from all peoples is therefore the first precondition for lasting peace and understanding among them. "

In this work, Mayer also takes the opinion that from now on no private assets should exceed one million marks , because only up to this limit could not cause harm. In its book presentation, the General-Anzeiger für Hamburg-Altona certified the author that his presentations were based on the “spirit of genuine humanity”.

At the end of his creative period, roughly at the same time as the crisis of the Weimar Republic and the increasingly prominent nationalism in the German Reich, Mayer expressed himself increasingly folk-nationalist in his writings. Appeared in the late 1920s staple Discrete suffering - in which he deals with sexually transmitted diseases , gynecological disorders , erectile dysfunction , anejaculation and infertility busy - he mentally and physically disabled people referred to as "load to the community". He also explains in the final chapter:

“It is therefore of great interest for the state to keep its most valuable, earning property - that is, all healthy, fit for work and useful members of the people - healthy, and to let weakened individuals gradually become stronger and healthy so that they too can produce healthy offspring who can successfully fight for existence and in competition with other nations. "

Expert

In August 1915, Mayer appeared in Altona as a defense expert in a court case against a quack . He should confirm that the iridology used by the defendant is an effective diagnostic method. He swore under oath that he had been familiar with this method since 1897. He has always been able to establish that “the eye is the most faithful X-ray image of the body imaginable. It is possible through the eye diagnosis to determine which diseases, injuries and hereditary dispositions are present in the patient without prior discussion with the patient. Injuries that occurred 20 or 30 years ago are also quite visible in many cases. [...] Major injuries can still be determined with certainty after years, as well as diseases of the internal organs, heart, kidney and lung ailments. "

Mayer pleaded in the process for more attention to be paid to iridology by science and for it to be included in the medical curricula of universities. Then, however, the judge pointed him out to one of the jury present . He had once consulted Mayer for medical advice and Mayer applied iridology to him - not realizing that the man was wearing an eye prosthesis . The lay judge had subsequently advised his acquaintances against using Mayer's services on the grounds that it was “all fraud.” Accordingly, the lay judge was surprised that “such a man would have the boldness to appear as an expert in court.” Mayer was initially "fatally embarrassed", but then protested violently against these statements. The jury, however, upheld his allegations.

The case attracted national attention, not least because of Mayer's reputation - "valued by thousands as a 'miracle doctor'" - so that newspapers even reported on it in Berlin and Vienna .

Others

The Hausbrucher Kurhaus Heideburg in 1924.

In addition, Mayer was a member (presumably a founding member) of the Altona- based German Association for Herbal Medicine, where he was responsible for the association's own magazine, Hygienischer Wegweiser, from the first issue in the spring of 1910 until at least 1920 . Journal of botany and lifestyle as editor-in-chief, in which, for example, Magnus Schwantje , Marta Fraenkel , Fritz de Quervain , Hellmut Eckhardt , Luise Lampert , Paul Lauener and Alfred Grotjahn published. A few years later, around 1924, he was the owner of the Kurhaus Heideburg in Hausbruch , south of Hamburg. It was advertised as a “first rate rest home” with “summer and winter cures” and, among other things, “dietetic cuisine”. Before that, the building, erected around 1900, served as a holiday home for the North German Men's and Youth Union and from 1929 as a youth home for the Evangelical-Lutheran church district of Alt-Hamburg .

With regard to his inventions, too, he initially had health-promoting and hygienic aspects in mind. On March 31, 1909, the Hamburg patent office Kipp & Büttner published the approval of the utility model № 370048. It was a “bed with laterally pull-out panels, drawers and compartments” designed by Mayer. It was characterized by an easily removable spring frame , integrated drawers and pull-out table tops. The product was also patented in Switzerland on July 1 of the same year under the patent number CH44067 (A) and finally under AT46044 (B) in Austria on January 25, 1911 . Mayer penetrated into a completely different area with his second invention, which was approved by the same office: On August 24, 1914 - a little more than three weeks after the outbreak of World War I - he received the utility model for an "aircraft with arson drop bombs" № 615946.

Further company history and afterlife

Riepe and Ohlendorf were responsible for HA Mayer & Co. GmbH until 1926. At times the company had branches at Billhorner Röhrendamm 47 ( Rothenburgsort district ), Bergstrasse 228 ( Altstadt district ) and Grindelberg 28 ( Harvestehude district ); In Altona, the factory and office were located at Donnerstrasse 5 ( Ottensen district ) and a warehouse at Grosse Elbstraße 40/42 ( Altstadt district ). In April 1921, a branch was established in Berlin under the management of the authorized signatories Richard Köchel and Franz Hannig . After the founder's death in July 1927, Riepes and Ohlendorf's successor, Oskar Winderlich, announced that they would move the naturopathic practice from Krayenkamp 4 to his private apartment at Moltkestrasse 46 in Hamburg (district of Hoheluft-West ). With the permission of Herbakalaja GmbH , he was still entitled to practice Mayer's healing method. On June 18, 1930, it was announced that the expiry of HA Mayer & Co. GmbH had been officially entered in the commercial register in accordance with Section 31, Paragraph 2 of the Commercial Code .

In the mid-1920s, Mayer's sons also started trading in medicinal herbs - for example, with herbal cures and a wholesale of raw products . Starting in 1927, the main business operations relocated to Georgsplatz 1 A (Old Town district). At Georgsplatz the company existed under different names, some with reference to the founder, until 1973 and was run by Mayer's descendants for a long time. Then there was a move to the Lange Reihe and in 2012 finally to the neighboring paddock (both in the St. Georg district ), where the business now operates under the name of Kräuterhaus .

The Hamburg head office of Herbakalaja GmbH was relocated to Michaelisstraße 10 (district Neustadt ) in 1930 and kept its location there until at least 1937. The branch in Berlin moved to Potsdamer Straße ( district Tiergarten ) in 1928 and remained there until 1943, since February 1936 under the management of Johann Buthmann.

Works (selection)

  • The power of destiny. Romantic show in 7 pictures . Neukultur-Verlag, Altona , 1902.
  • The demons. Dramatic poetry in 4 acts . Neukultur-Verlag, Altona, 1907.
  • Hygiene and Herbal Medicine . Neukultur-Verlag, Altona, 1910.
  • The redemption through the world revolution . Henry Hesse Publishing House, Hamburg , 1919.
  • Herbakalaja. A new direction in the healing arts . Hygienic Guide Publishers, Hamburg, 1924.
  • Discreet ailments . Hygienischer Wegweiser publishing house, Hamburg, [date unknown, between 1924 and 1927].
  • Chemistry of the Medicinal Plants of the Earth [date unknown, before 1924].
  • Illustrated manual for diagnostics [date unknown, before 1924].

The book Discrete Sorrows does not contain a publication date. However, it does contain advertisements for the Herbakalaja healing art, which was developed in 1924 - therefore it must have appeared between that year and Mayer's death in 1927. The works Chemistry of Medicinal Plants of the Earth and Illustrated Manual for Diagnostics are out of print. However, they will be in Herbakalaja. A new direction in healing art mentioned in 1924 must have been published before this.

Remarks

  1. ↑ a b By shareholders' resolution of January 29, 1927, the power of representation of the previous founding managing directors of Herbakalaja GmbH - Mayer among them - was terminated. (“Entries in the commercial register”. In: Hamburger Nachrichten , 136th year, № 113, March 9, 1927, page 7.) In a newspaper advertisement from July 4, 1927 (“To the knowledge of the patient!”. In: Altonaer Nachrichten , 75th year, № 153, July 4, 1927, page 3.) Hermann Alois Mayer is described as “recently deceased”. It can therefore be assumed that he died between these two dates.
  2. ↑ The connections between Fürhoff's company and Mayer's company are unclear. The former traded under numerous different names over the years, for example 1) medicinal herbs factory , 2) medicinal and liqueur herbs. Import, export , 3) warehouse of medicinal herbs, essential oils and cosmetic articles, vegetables .

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Altona address book 1925 , second section: Directory of residents and companies in the city of Altona. HW Köbner & Co. GmbH, Altona, volume 124, page II / 108.
  2. ↑ Hamburg address book for 1893 , third section: Alphabetical index of the inhabitants of the city of Hamburg, the suburbs and the suburbs, with details of their status and their apartments. Hermann's Erben , Hamburg, page III / 338.
  3. ↑ "Entries in the commercial register". In: Hamburger Nachrichten , 116th year, № 685, September 29, 1907, page 12.
  4. ^ Price list from HA Mayer & Co. Unknown date [probably 1910s], JL Romen, Emmerich am Rhein , page 27.
  5. ↑ "Entries in the commercial register". In: Hamburgischer Correspondent and Neue Hamburgische Börsen-Halle , Volume 179, № 181, April 9, 1909, 1st supplement, page 4.
  6. ^ Price list of HA Mayer & Co. Unknown date [probably 1910s], JL Romen, Emmerich am Rhein , page 6.
  7. ^ Price list from HA Mayer & Co. Unknown date [probably 1910s], JL Romen, Emmerich am Rhein , page 2.
  8. ↑ "Entries in the commercial register". In: Hamburgischer Correspondent and Neue Hamburgische Börsen-Halle , 182nd year, № 532, October 18, 1912, 3rd supplement, page 2.
  9. ↑ "The commodity market". In: Chemiker-Zeitung , Volume 43, 1919, page 623.
  10. ^ Altona address book 1922 , second section: Directory of residents and companies of the city of Altona. HW Köbner & Co. GmbH, Altona, volume 121, page II / 110.
  11. ↑ Hermann Alois Mayer: Discrete suffering . Hygienic Guide Publishers, Hamburg, 1930, page 33.
  12. ↑ "Entries in the commercial register". In: Hamburger Nachrichten , 133rd year, № 593, December 19, 1924, page 6.
  13. ↑ "Indicator". In: Berliner Börsen-Zeitung , Volume 71, № 322, July 13, 1925, page 9.
  14. ↑ Delia Arndt-Steinitz: "The 'Weltfrauenloge'". In: Berliner Tageblatt , 55th volume, № 527, November 7, 1926, page 49.
  15. ↑ Profile of the documentary Herbakalaja . Retrieved from filmportal.de on September 21, 2018.
  16. ↑ "Today's radio programs". In: Berliner Tageblatt , 56th volume, № 30, January 19, 1927, page 11.
  17. ^ Review of the world premiere of Die Macht des Schicksals in St. Georg-Tivoli-Theater. In: General-Anzeiger für Hamburg-Altona , 15th year, № 158, July 9th 1902, 2nd supplement, page 1.
  18. ^ Hermann Alois Mayer: Hygiene and herbal medicine . Neukultur-Verlag, Altona, 1910, page 239.
  19. ↑ a b "Mailbox - Leipzig". In: Kladderadatsch , 63rd year, № 12, March 20, 1910, supplement, page 3. Retrieved from digi.ub.uni-heidelberg.de (digitized, historical holdings of the Heidelberg University Library ) on October 10, 2016.
  20. ↑ a b c d "Book table". In: General-Anzeiger für Hamburg-Altona , 32nd year, № 292, December 15, 1919, 3rd supplement, page 5.
  21. ↑ Hermann Alois Mayer: Discrete suffering . Hygienic Guide Publishers, Hamburg, 1930, page 30.
  22. ↑ a b c "The miracle doctor's eye diagnosis". In: Neues Wiener Tagblatt , № 242, September 1, 1915, page 15.
  23. ↑ "Courtroom". In: Altonaer Nachrichten , 66th year, № 402, August 29, 1915, page 6.
  24. ^ "'Kräuter-Mayers' eye diagnosis. An embarrassing scene in court ”. In: Berliner Volks-Zeitung , 63rd volume, № 440, August 29, 1915, page 7.
  25. ^ Altona address book 1920 , second section: Directory of residents and companies of the city of Altona. HW Köbner & Co. GmbH, Altona, Volume 119, page II / 98.
  26. ↑ a b c Postcard from 1924. Retrieved from akpool.fr on October 10, 2016.
  27. ↑ "New Inventions". In: Neue Hamburger Zeitung , 14th volume, № 152, March 31, 1909, page 18.
  28. ↑ "Latest Inventions". In: Altonaer Nachrichten , 65th year, № 454, September 28, 1914, page 4.
  29. ↑ "Patent System". In: Flugsport , issue 20/1914, September 30, 1914, page 802.
  30. ^ Journal for the entire shooting and explosives industry , JF Lehmanns Verlag , Munich , Volume 9, 1914, page 416.
  31. ↑ "Indicator". In: Berliner Börsen-Zeitung , 66th year, № 188, April 23, 1921, page 8.
  32. ↑ "Entries in the commercial register". In: Hamburger Anzeiger , Volume 43, № 139, June 18, 1930, 2nd supplement, page 9.
  33. ^ Hamburg address book 1936 , Section II: Directory of residents and companies of the city of Hamburg. Hamburger Adreßbuch-Verlag, Hamburg, 149th edition, page II / 736.
  34. ↑ Gehes Codex of pharmaceutical and organotherapeutic special preparations . Schwarzeck-Verlag, Dresden, 7th edition, 1937, page 764.

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Mayer, Hermann Alois
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German businessman, health researcher, inventor, philosopher and writer involved in the life reform movement
DATE OF BIRTH February 6, 1871
PLACE OF BIRTH Biberach an der Riss
DATE OF DEATH 1927