Johann Georg Mezger

Johann Georg Mezger (born August 22, 1838 in Amsterdam , † March 3, 1909 in Paris ) was a Dutch doctor .

Portrait of Johann Georg Mezger, ca.1882

Life

Johann Georg Mezger was the child of German immigrants who came to Amsterdam from Württemberg .

From 1860 he studied medicine and was a student of Adriaan Heynsius . He completed his doctorate in 1868 at the University of Leiden under Reinhart Dozy .

He then worked for several years as an assistant doctor to Professor Jan van Geuns (1808–1880) at the University Clinic in Amsterdam, who was open to massage techniques. Mezger practiced and refined his technique, so that he received more and more encouragement due to the healing success that began.

Due to Mezger's success in the medical application of massage, which was influenced by the Swedish massage of the physician Pehr Henrik Ling , he was invited to Bonn and was allowed to present his system of massage techniques there in 1869/70. But he could not teach a scientific consideration, but taught Karl von Mosengeil in the use of massage techniques. Only this Karl von Mosengeil could experimentally prove the success of the massage.

In 1870 Mezger held a well-attended reception at the Amstel Hotel in Amsterdam, which attracted celebrities from all over the world as patients. In 1874/1875 he built a new health resort in Nieuwendam with the support of the Swedish Princess Louise.

Mezger lived in Wiesbaden from 1889 to 1893, where he had two assistants, Gustaf Berghman and Uno Helleday, who carried out experimental studies for him. From 1894 he lived in his Villa Irma in Domburg in summer and in Paris in winter.

He was married twice (1868 and 1874), had an adopted son and three biological children.

Services

Statue of Mezger in Domburg

As early as during his doctorate, he reported in detail on the use and success of massage techniques . He later introduced massage as a treatment for sprains, also for paralysis , and achieved successes that quickly made him famous.

He categorized his techniques according to the following French terms, which are still used today:

Effleurage
Pétrissage
Frictions
Tapotement
massage

Mezger's system was presented by Mosengeil at the 4th Congress of the German Society for Surgery in 1875 . Mezger is considered the companion of medical massage and the father of Swedish massage.

Patients (selection)

Awards (selection)

1870: Officer of the Order of the Oak Crown
1871: North Star Order
1873: Order of Saint Olav
1875: Knight of the Order of the Dutch Lion
1878: House order of the Wendish Crown

Works (selection)

De treatment der voetverstuikingen met fricties , dissertation, van Helden, 1868
"Aan de moeders in Nederland" en de polemiek hierover met Dr. H. Simons te Krommenie , 1882

Resumes

Hermann Julius Meyer : Meyers Großes Konversations-Lexikon , Bibliographisches Institut, 1905
Johann Georg Mezger of Amsterdam, the founder of scientific massage , Medical Life, Volume 39, 1932
Pieter Jan Kostelijk: Dr. Johann Georg Mezger 1838–1909 en zijn tijd , Leiden University, 1972

Web links

Individual evidence

↑ ^a ^b Carl Hueter: Clinic of joint diseases including orthopedics: On anatomical-physiological bases after clinical observations for doctors and students . Vogel, 1876 ( google.de [accessed January 3, 2018]).
^ ^A ^b Ludwig Darmstaedter, René Du Bois-Reymond, Carl Schaefer: Handbook for the history of natural sciences and technology . Springer-Verlag, 2013, ISBN 978-3-662-43152-8 ( google.de [accessed on January 3, 2018]).
^ ^A ^b Massage Therapy: Integrating Research and Practice . Human Kinetics, ISBN 978-1-4504-3195-8 ( google.de [accessed January 3, 2018]).
↑ Kurre Ostrom: Massage and the Original Swedish Movements . Read Books Ltd, 2013, ISBN 978-1-4474-8125-6 ( google.de [accessed January 3, 2018]).
↑ ^a ^b Emil Kleen: Handbook of Massage . Blakiston, 1892 ( google.de [accessed January 3, 2018]).
^ Hans Peter Bischoff, Jürgen Heisel, Hermann Locher: Practice of conservative orthopedics: 175 tables . Georg Thieme Verlag, 2009, ISBN 978-3-13-153471-2 ( google.de [accessed on January 3, 2018]).
^ Robert Noah Calvert: The History of Massage: An Illustrated Survey from Around the World . Inner Traditions / Bear & Co, 2002, ISBN 978-0-89281-881-5 ( google.de [accessed January 3, 2018]).

personal data
SURNAME	Mezger, Johann Georg
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Dutch doctor
DATE OF BIRTH	August 22, 1838
PLACE OF BIRTH	Amsterdam
DATE OF DEATH	March 3, 1909
Place of death	Paris

[:0-1] Carl Hueter: Clinic of joint diseases including orthopedics: On anatomical-physiological bases after clinical observations for doctors and students . Vogel, 1876 ( google.de [accessed January 3, 2018]).

[:1-2] A ^b Ludwig Darmstaedter, René Du Bois-Reymond, Carl Schaefer: Handbook for the history of natural sciences and technology . Springer-Verlag, 2013, ISBN 978-3-662-43152-8 ( google.de [accessed on January 3, 2018]).

[:2-3] A ^b Massage Therapy: Integrating Research and Practice . Human Kinetics, ISBN 978-1-4504-3195-8 ( google.de [accessed January 3, 2018]).

[4] Kurre Ostrom: Massage and the Original Swedish Movements . Read Books Ltd, 2013, ISBN 978-1-4474-8125-6 ( google.de [accessed January 3, 2018]).

[:3-5] Emil Kleen: Handbook of Massage . Blakiston, 1892 ( google.de [accessed January 3, 2018]).

[6] Hans Peter Bischoff, Jürgen Heisel, Hermann Locher: Practice of conservative orthopedics: 175 tables . Georg Thieme Verlag, 2009, ISBN 978-3-13-153471-2 ( google.de [accessed on January 3, 2018]).

[7] Robert Noah Calvert: The History of Massage: An Illustrated Survey from Around the World . Inner Traditions / Bear & Co, 2002, ISBN 978-0-89281-881-5 ( google.de [accessed January 3, 2018]).