Greet Hofmans

Greet Hofmans (actually Margaretha Hofmans , born June 23, 1894 , † November 16, 1968 ) was a Dutch faith healer . For nine years she was a friend and advisor to Queen Juliana of the Netherlands and often stayed in the palace in Soestdijk .

Life

Hofmans was introduced to the court in 1948 on the initiative of Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands to treat an eye disease of Princess Maria Christina . The disease was characterized by a rubella - infection caused Juliana during pregnancy. Hofmans made a great impact on the Queen and inspired her to her pacifist ideas. During the Cold War , this caused a crisis in the royal family. Allegedly, in the end, the marriage between Juliana and Bernhard was even in danger.

Outside the Netherlands , the Hofmans affair received a lot of media coverage. On June 13, 1956, an article appeared in the magazine Der Spiegel with the title Die Gesundbeterin . Allegedly it was Prince Bernhard himself who had provided the information for the article in order to drive Hofmans away from the court.

Willem Drees' cabinet forbade the import of this Spiegel edition and set up a commission of inquiry consisting of the two former ministers Louis Beel and Gerbrandy as well as the former governor-general of the Dutch East Indies, A. WL Tjarda van Starkenborgh Stachouwer , the so-called Beel Commission . The result was the termination of Hofman's activity at the royal court and a reorganization of the royal house.

Due to official secrecy and the self-censorship of the Dutch press, the Hofmans affair took on a life of its own. It was speculated that the affair was just a facade for an impending divorce between the royal couple.

Grave in Amsterdam

Greet Hofmans died in 1968 and is buried in the Zorgvlied cemetery in Amsterdam.

meaning

Until her death, Hofmans had followers from the upper class of society who saw in her the personification of the ideal life: level-headed, peace-loving, unselfish and full of humanity. Others, however, saw in her a charlatan , a schemer or even a wicked witch, at best a naive person.

On February 7, 2004, Bernhard wrote in an open letter to the newspaper de Volkskrant : “As far as the so-called Hofmans affair is concerned, I remember that in 1956 the Beel Commission carried out an extensive investigation. For formal reasons, the report of this commission is not public, so I would like to express my confidence that the publication will put everyone involved in this complicated affair in the right light. ”On November 12th, 2008 the report of the Beel -Commission published in a book on the marriage of Queen Juliana and Prince Bernhard.

The Vereniging tegen de Kwakzalverij (Association against Quackery) placed Hofmans 14th among the 20 greatest charlatans of the 20th century.

literature

• Lambert J. Giebels: De Greet Hofmans affaire: hoe de Nederlandse monarchie bijna ten onder went. Bakker, Amsterdam 2007, ISBN 978-90-351-3167-5 .
• Cees Fasseur: Juliana en Bernhard. Het Verhaal van een huwelijk 1936–1956. Balans, Amsterdam 2008, ISBN 978-90-5018-955-2 .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ The health worker . In: Der Spiegel . No. 24 , 1956 ( online ).
2. ↑ : Article on the publication of the book "Juliana en Bernhard" ( Memento of the original from April 28, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.