1949 - In the glare of public attention

The "Miracle Doctor" of Herford

The nine year old Dieter Hulsmann had been bedridden for some while. He suffered from progressive Muscular Dystrophy, and none of the doctors or professors who had been consulted had been able to help. After Bruno Groening had involved himself with the boy, he could suddenly walk again. The engineer Mr Hulsmann, astounded by the sudden healing of his son, asked Bruno to remain as his guest. He wanted to invite other sick people, in order that this miracle man could help them also.

Bruno Groening accepted the offer, and from day to day the numbers of people arriving seeking help grew. Increasing numbers of people learnt of the miraculous events surrounding Groening. It wasn't long before everyone was talking about him. The newspapers reported about the "Miracle Doctor", and in the british zone he became the subject of daily conversation. Thousands poured to Wilhelmsplatz, and throngs of people besieged the house.

Manfred Lütgenhorst of "Münchner Merkur" wrote on 24th June 1949:

"As I arrived in Herford at about 10.30 am, around a thousand people were standing in front of the two story house in the "Wilhelmsplatz". It was an indescribable picture of suffering. Countless numbers of people in wheelchairs, others carried by their relatives, blind, deaf and dumb, mothers with mentally and physically disabled children, old women and young men, pushing and groaning. Around a hundred cars, trucks and busses were parked around the square, and all had come from far away.

"Do you believe you'll be healed ?" I asked one of the sick people. She nodded. One of the people said to me, "You should have been here yesterday. Bruno Groening was not here but in Viersen in the Rhineland, and here, in the square, five lamed people stood up and went home healed. Remote healing - the square had healed them." The other sick people confirmed what had been said.

II went further through the throng and recorded their amazing stories. Alone these are sufficient material to fill a book. As I lit myself a cigarette, a young man near me said, " Please, sell me one!" He was wearing a uniform coat, and looked like a returnee from Russia. I gave him a cigarette. He lit it and said high spiritedly, "See, I can do everything for myself" He moved his right arm, together with his fingers, and his right leg. " Did Bruno Groening heal you too?" I asked him. " Yes, I was lamed in Russia on my right side. Bruno Groening looked at me and now I am entirely healthy. I still can't fully grasp it." Happy, he swung his limbs.

I aimed for a group, who were surrounding a white haired woman of about 40 years. "Of course" I heard the woman say, "I have been healed by Bruno Groening. I had huge stomach ulcers, was getting continually thinner and couldn't sleep any more because of the pain. There were twelve of us with Groening. (…) He looked at me, and it seemed to me as if the ulcers fell like a stone to the ground. Since then I don't have any pain, I'm putting on weight, and the X-Rays, which I asked for, show indisputably that the ulcers have vanished. I've made myself available to the Medical Review Commission. I can tell you., they were astonished!" The woman continued, "But that's not all. Last week there was a blind man here in the square. He waited several days and nights without a break. Because I'm often here, I noticed him. I felt sorry for him, and I invited him for a meal. "No" he declined, "I mustn't miss the moment when Bruno Groening comes out." I brought him some rolls and said to him that I would ensure that someone bring him to the Railway Station. " I don't need anyone, because I will be able to walk to the station alone." And then I saw it with my own eyes. Bruno Groening came, and the young man cried out,"I can see again!" In truth, the film was wiped from his eyes. He described for me the handbag I was carrying. He said, "There goes a car, and there is the numberplate", and he found the way to the station alone. Everyone who was standing nearby was weeping for joy."

It wasn't long before the authorities also concerned themselves with the events. 

A Review Commission was formed, and Bruno Groening was banned from healing.

A few influential Doctors were his declared foes. They used everything at their disposal to prevent his work, and required that he should allow his healing ability to be scientifically tested.

The real reason for the healing ban, however, is clear from the following statement of influential medical people who were involved. "Groening can prove what he will, he will not be given the permission to heal." "It offends against the professional honour of Doctors, to associate with Groening. "

At the end of June he had to leave Herford permanently. All efforts to obtain permission to carry out healing had failed.

The "phenomen Groening" and science

Around the same time the technical medical employees of the magazine "Revue" started to study Groening's healing success. Professor Dr. H.G.Fischer, a psychologist from Marburg, travelled with a special staff of correspondents to Herford. There he held interviews with healed people, and had to confirm, much to his own astonishment, that Groenings "method" was truly a success. As a result, the "Revue" decided to assist in obtaining a scientific explanation for the "Groening Phenomenon". The "Healing method" of the "Miracle Doctor" was to be researched at the university clinic of Heidelberg.

Bruno Groening agreed to Fischer's proposals, because he promised him a positive expert report, should things go well. Groening hoped that he had found a way to work in freedom.

The tests began on 27th July. The people on whom he should prove his skills were selected from the over 80,000 sick who had written to him for help. In addition there were several patients from the Ludolf-Krehl-Klinik in Heidelberg. They were all thoroughly examined, and exact diagnoses were produced. They then came to Groening who used his "method" on them. Doctors were present the whole time. They were witnesses to the fact that diseases partially spontaneously disappeared. The reexaminations in the clinic confirmed the healings. Complaints, including incurable diseases, such as Bechterewsche disease, were healed.

In a report, reproduced in the "Revue", Dr. Fischer states specifically that Bruno Groening is no charlatan, rather a naturally gifted doctor of the soul. Thereby he tried to explain the "Groening Phenomenon from his point of view, without really doing him justice.

The final report was to be produced after evaluation of all the results. Bruno Groening was assured that the way would be made free for once and for all for him to continue with his work. In the meantime Dr. Professor Fischer and Professor Weizäcker (who was responsible for the whole exercise) made Bruno Groening the following proposal: They wanted to build Healing Centers, in which he would work side by side with doctors. Management and the selection of patients, however, were to be their responsibility. Bruno Groening responded,

"The financial matters that were put to me in relation to this proposal, were such that they were unacceptable for me. Naturally there were several discussions about this, including with the people who wanted to finance this work. I was not able to declare agreement with the proposal from Dr. Professor F, and turned them down because I

1. Do not have a penny to my name, and so cannot accept any financial commitment which I am unable to fulfill.
2. Have never considered making a business out of the entire enterprise.

It was for me an impossible request. Besides, I wanted to do only that which belongs to my calling: to help the help seekers and therefore make myself available for doctors such as psychotherapists, but on no account to make a business out of the whole thing."

The disapproving attitude of Bruno Groening led to the professors losing interest in in him. The promised report was never produced. Instead of enabling him the freedom to continue his work, new problems were placed in his way. As a result of the research being carried out, his "healing method" was referred to with words such as "treatment", "patient" etc., and evaluated as medical practice. A conflict with the law relating to Non Medical Practitioners was thereby predestined.

The "Traberhof"

After the ending of the researches in Heidelberg, Bruno Groening turned to south Germany in August 1949. He wanted to get away from the tumult surrounding his name, and withdrew to a private estate near Rosenheim. At first he was able to keep his whereabouts a secret. However once the first newspaper reports about his arrival in Bavaria appeared, the masses started arriving in droves.

Up to 30,000 people a day streamed to the "Traberhof" in Rosenheim. Press, Radio and the weekly news program reported on events. A film was made for the cinema, with the title "Groening" and which dokumented the events occuring around him.

The newspaper "Zeitungsblitz" reported in the second week of September, in a special issue:

Meanwhile more than 10,000 people had gathered together, all waiting in the blistering heat for hours for the moment when Groening would appear on the balcony, speak to the masses and radiate his healing energy. The crowd stood pressed tightly together, in order to get the full benefit of his "Healing Rays". Even now, there began to be effects upon the most seriously ill in their wheelchairs and seats, or those standing alone at the periphory.

Once again, halfblind people began to see again, once again previously disabled people stood up, once again paralysed people began to move their stiffened limbs. Hundreds reported increased pain at the location of the illness, of a pulling, a stabbing sensation and tingling, of a feeling of an indescribable "lightness of being" or of headaches suddenly disappearing."

Not only at the "Traberhof" were there biblical scenes. Everywhere that Groening appeared he was immediately encircled by innumerable sick people. Anita Höhne described the situation surrounding Groening in her book "Spiritual Healers Today" :

'When Groening merely announced his impending arrival, pilgrimages started. Typical were the scenes that the journalist Rudolf Spitz observed at a visit of Groening to Munich in September 1949:

'At 19.00, thousands were standing in Sonnenstrasse. At 22.30 they were still there. In five years of war I have experienced a great deal, but nothing as shattering as in those four hours in which I sat across from Bruno Groening and experienced a gruesome parade of misery and suffering. Epileptics, blind people and lame people on crutches pressed towards him. Mothers held their lamed children out to him. There were unconscious people, cries rang out, desperate cries for help, pleading, wishes, deep sighing.'

The sick on stretchers, the lame, a huge mass of humanity was observed by another journalist from Munich, Dr Kurt Trampler, also at the "Traberhof" in Rosenheim, where Groening was living. Trampler came there as a reporter for the "Münchner Allgemeinen" - a cool headed journalist, who only recorded what he personally saw and heard:

"We hear a voice from the balcony, but not Groenings, and hurry towards the window. The president of the Munich Police Force, Pitzer, speaks to the assembled. He reports, that an Ischias problem that has plagued him for years has improved in Groenings presence. Pitzer is quite definitely not the sort of man given to hypersensitive imaginings, but can give witness to that which he observed as happening to himself. Here he was giving recognition to Groening openly, and the CSU Parliamentarian Hagen followed with a similar statement.'"

The bavarian authorities were also positive in their attitude to Bruno Groening. The newspaper "Münchner Merkur" reported on the 7th September 1949, under the title "Goodwill toward Groening":

Minister President Dr. Ehard stated at a press conference on Monday, that the work of an exceptional occurrence, such as that of Bruno Groening, must not be allowed to founder because of legal technicalities. In his opinion, no serious obstacles stood in the way of granting Groening permission to work in Bavaria.

The bavarian ministry of state for internal affairs, had, by the time of going to press, announced: The initial examination of the healing activities of Groening has led to the conclusion that they can be observed as a free act of love, and as such require no permit under the Non Medical Practitioner Law."

At the "Traberhof" a great deal of activity occured around Groening. There were many business people who wanted to make money out of his abilities. They damaged his reputation and standing which resulted in the authorities distancing themselves.

As the circumstances became intolerable, Groening retreated to the mountains of Bavaria. He wanted to look into some of the offers to build healing centers. His goal was to create institutions where help seekers could be healed in an organised way. Doctors would carry out pre- and post-healing examinations along the lines of the "Heidelberg" model, and document the healings that occurred.