Johann Künzle

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Johann Künzle (born September 3, 1857 in Hinterespen near St. Gallen , † January 9, 1945 in Zizers ) was a Swiss Catholic pastor and publicist . He is next to Sebastian Kneipp of the most well-known herbs pastor and a promoter of alternative medicine and the herbal medicine .

Life

Johann Künzle's parents owned a farm, the father also worked as a trained gardener. After finishing school in St. Gallen and at Einsiedeln Abbey , Künzle studied theology and philosophy at the University of Leuven ( Belgium ) from 1877 and was ordained a priest at the St. Georgen seminary (St. Gallen) in 1881 . He then worked as a pastor in various parishes in Eastern Switzerland , from 1896 to 1907 in Buchs in the Rhine Valley, until 1909 in Herisau and then until 1920 in Wangs near Sargans . In the times of the Kulturkampf in 1884, Künzle campaigned against the abolition of Catholic schools and institutions in Switzerland and Vorarlberg . In 1913 he promoted spa tourism in Wangs (near Bad Ragaz ) and founded a herb market. Since it was attributed to his efforts that in 1918, when the Spanish flu raged worldwide, not a single person in the community died, he was given honorary citizenship.

Due to his sometimes dubious medical views, e.g. B. in relation to the cure of diabetes , he was forcibly transferred by his bishop to Zizers in Graubünden in 1920 . In 1922 he passed an exam in front of a medical college in order to be allowed to operate a "non-toxic medicinal herb practice". He also started a herbal trade and gave lectures on the application of herbal medicine. In 1939 the herb pastor Künzle AG was founded. This moved to Minusio (near Locarno) in 1954 and was converted into a foundation in 1980.

Künzle was the publisher of popular folk calendars, the monthly magazine Salvia (for "non-toxic herbal medicine"), wrote the Grosse Herbal Medicine (1944, later edited and re-edited by Rudolf Fritz Weiss ) and many other publications. The book Chrut and Uchrut was translated into several languages ​​after it was first published in 1911 and is still published today in an updated version.

In Zizers he worked successfully as an entrepreneur and publicist until the end of his life - but always in the service of the Catholic Church.

In Wangs you can walk the “Pfarrer-Künzle Weg”, which was built and labeled by the Pfarrer-Künzle Association. There is also a grotto on the way, which Künzle built with students and other residents of the community.

Fonts (selection)

  • The young botanist. Wang 1914.
  • Chrut and Uchrut. Verlag J. Künzle, Wangs 1912. Republished many times, for example: AT-Verlag, Baden 2008, ISBN 978-3-03-800384-7 .
  • Pastor Künzle's folk calendar. Olten and Konstanz 1937.
  • The great herbal medicine book. Walter, Olten / Freiburg im Breisgau 1945/1967/1974 , ISBN 3-530-49205-1 .

literature

  • Georges Capol: Herbal Pastor Johann Künzle - from pastor to alternative practitioner. On the 60th anniversary of the death of the great pioneer of herbal medicine. In: Terra plana. ISSN  0257-6686 , 2005, No. 4, pp. 31-37.
  • Peter Eggenberger: 150th birthday of the herb pastor Johann Künzle: a life's work of rare sustainability. In: Appenzeller calendar for the year… 286th year, 2007, pp. 65–68.
  • Peter Egloff: Johann Künzle, pastor, 1857–1945. In: Terra plana. ISSN  0257-6686 , 1979, no. 2, pp. 15-25.
  • Beat Frei: Wangs and his herbal priest. Catholic parish, Wangs 2007, ISBN 978-3-907926-43-7 .
  • Marianne Künzle: Scattered in our way. Herbal priest Johann Künzle (1857–1945). Novel. Zytglogge, Basel 2017, ISBN 978-3-7296-0952-5 .
  • Albert Schöbi: On the 150th birthday of the herb pastor Johann Künzle (1857–1945): from 1896 to 1907 pastor in Buchs. In: Our Rhine Valley. Volume 64, 2007, pp. 161-164.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b c d e Johann Künzle, Peter Opplinger: Chrut and Uchrut. The classic of herbal medicine. AT Verlag, Baden and Munich 2008, ISBN 978-3-03-800384-7 , p. 11ff.
personal data
SURNAME Künzle, Johann
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss Catholic theologian, pioneer of modern phyto-therapy
DATE OF BIRTH September 3, 1857
PLACE OF BIRTH Hinterespen near St. Gallen
DATE OF DEATH January 9, 1945
Place of death Zizers , Graubünden