Press reviews of former times, Germany:
"Revue", dated 14.8.1949

"Revue' fights for the clarification of a fateful question"

"REVOLUTION IN MEDICINE?"

The further activity of the Herford miracle man Bruno Groening, who, according to their own statements, healed thousands of the hopelessly ill in May and June, 1949, was made impossible through the intolerance of physicians and officials in northern Germany. On May 3, 1949, Groening was forbidden to further pursue his healing activity. Since June 29, Groening has withdrawn from the public view. But Bruno Groening has neither disappeared, nor is the question of his wonderful healing power unsettled. For the "Revue" has opened the way for Groening to a large medical clinic, in which he can submit his healing power to proof before critical, but unprejudiced physicians. Thus, the "Revue" gave Groening the possibility to prove before modern scientists: "I cure the incurable." The "Revue" begins today with the publication of the findings of 150 unassailable experiments. Read what our correspondents Bongartz and Laux report in the 'Revue', under the scientific direction of the psychologist and physician, Dr. Fischer.

Bruno Groening: the phenomenon of a psychic doctor

by Helmut Laux and Heinz Bongartz under the scientific direction of the psychologist Professor Fischer

On the track of Bruno Groening
The attitude of the physicians

We left Frankfurt on June 29, the very same day that Groening disappeared from Hamburg without a trace. We journalists were naturally curious, and, although he was reserved, Professor Fischer couldn't completely hide his curiosity. But he was determined to approach the Groening case systematically and to form a judgement slowly and conscientiously. Our collaboration with Professor Fischer was excellent from the very first day. He had gone through the usual medical education. As a traditional physician, he was in a position to assess cases of illness and to judge whether they had deteriorated or been healed. On the other hand, he was a psychologist and practised with the help of psychoanalysis (analysis of the mind). and psychotherapy (therapy of the mind). If it actually proved to be effective, however, Groening's method would have to be categorized as therapy of the mind - unless Groening had other powers at his disposal that are still unknown to psychotherapy today.

We arrived in Bielefeld on the evening of June 29, and since Professor Fischer coincidentally already knew the director of the healing institutions in Bethel, Professor Schorsch, we went to him first. Professor Schorsch had played an essential role in the medical commission whose decision had contributed to the prohibition against healing for Groening. At first he didn't want to see us journalists and received only Professor Fischer and told him of the impression he had of Groening, He is a totally primitive person; above all, he has no "charisma". For those who don't know the word, we should add that the scientists define that as "a sense of mission". Schorsch said that the 'sense of mission' that Groening often spoke of in Herford and elsewhere is "pure theatre". It is much more a matter of egoism and conceit. As proof of what he said, Schorsch showed us a graphological expert opinion that stated the same. Professor Fischer took his judgement into consideration. By the way, Professor Schorsch did not give the impression of conscious prejudice. He seemed somewhat uninterested. He was plump and pleasant, and it seemed as though he would prefer to hear nothing more of the Groening case. He probably did not like to plunge into emotional excitement and wanted to have no further inconvenience. He said we shouldn't depend on his judgement, but should dig into the case for ourselves.

Dr. Wolf, the senior physician of the state healing institutions in Bielefeld, was more open. He definitely appeared to share our opinion that the Groening case had to be checked out without reservation. He pointed out, however, that it was well known that they had offered Groening the opportunity to prove his ability in clinics. What should he think of the fact that Groening rejected this offer. Could one blame the physicians if they observed a man with extraordinary scepticism who had refused to show his abilities to them?

We ourselves naturally wondered also why Groening had avoided such a clinical observation and appraisal of his treatment methods. Did Groening have reason to doubt Professor Wolf's objectivity? When Professor Fischer a few weeks later arranged for Groening to practise before the physicians of the Bielefeld city healing institutions, he had to experience that there also there was only one intention, namely to destroy Groening while giving the appearance of being obliging - in that they brought him only cases that were beyond help, also for Groening. Professor Fischer therefore had to abstain from allowing Groening's methods to be appraised by the Bielefeld physicians.

Further, it was said that the Detmolder public health officer, Dr. Dyes, had told Groening that it didn't matter how much proof of his healing ability he furnished, they would prevent his work anyway! Therefore, Professor Fischer called Dr. Dyes by telephone from Herford and asked him about this, and Dr. Dyes made no bones about his statement. Groening had given him a bad impression. Dr. Dyes was full of medical arrogance and extraordinarily satisfied with his own position.

In this way, Groening was to lose all trust in an objective attitude on the part of the physicians, so that one cannot blame him for not accepting the offer of hospital experiments. The alert instinct of the originally simple man had sensed the unfair intentions that lay in wait for him.

The flood of mentally-determined chronic illnesses

On June 30, we first started in Nordrhein-Westfalen, but thereafter went up as far as the Hamburg area, examining patients that Groening had treated and apparently healed. This was easier said than done.

The sick treated by Groening had returned to their home areas. No one had recorded their exact names and addresses. Groening, like a wandering healer in the true sense of the word, went around really wildly healing, and except for stories, press notices, allegations and rumours, there was no exact material about his activity available, even from his followers. We would probably have had to overcome considerable difficulty if pure coincidence had not brought us together with a man in Bielefeld who had already attempted before us to get a certain overview of Groening's actual successes.

This man was the district director of a health insurance fund by the name of Lanzenrath -smart, down-to-earth and farsighted. He had been able to penetrate into the group or "following" that had formed itself around Groening - at that time we couldn't yet judge whether they were believers or profiteers - and after his departure for Hamburg had in part remained in the Hülsmann home, where Groening had been active. He was just as convinced of Groening's ability to influence and heal numerous illnesses as he was of his personal modesty.

But he was afraid that the "following" would steer Groening's good attributes in the wrong direction. Lanzenrath was himself at first mistrustful toward us. But here also it was Professor Fischer who opened the doors for our group and moved Lanzenrath to help us further and to cite cases he knew of, the investigation of which could lead to conclusions on

the seriousness of the Groening phenomenon. The motives that had led Lanzenrath to Groening's entourage, by the way, were extraordinarily interesting. An illness, a painful kidney ailment, had also led him to Groening. Since then - two months had meanwhile gone by - he had been free of pain. At the same time, the fortunes of the health insurance funds had caused him to seek a connection with Groening. He told us that the German health insurance funds were threatened with financial breakdown because they were confronted with a sea of chronic illnesses that simply would not heal. He thus naturally confirmed something that is well known to the psychotherapists who pay attention to what has been happening in our time. The Second World War, with all of its psychic trauma, left behind a real flood of illness that for the most part have psychic causes that express themselves organically, from the countless stomach and rheumatic ailments to marked neurosis or paralysis. The psychologists have created for these illnesses the concept of the so-called 'psychosomatic' illnesses. After the currency reform, they were able to statistically determine a new rise in the number of illnesses that had never before appeared to this extent and which could hardly be attributed to organic causes. Lanzenrath had actually hoped to find with Groening a method of healing that could perhaps serve to relieve the overburdened insurance funds. Lanzenrath had carefully observed a large number of treatments and healings. He first introduced to us to 20 cases through which we sought to clarify the question that was decisive for us, "can Groening heal?" In the period of a week we carefully analysed and investigated these cases and, in so far as possible, interviewed the respective family doctors.

On July 8, we surveyed the results of the 20 investigations. Among the 20 there were seven that were perhaps interesting and here and there even somewhat mysterious, but they gave no clear picture for or against Groening. Since we first struggled with, of all cases, these very seven, were inclined on the third day of investigation to doubt. At least that was true of we laypersons.

The housing office

There was, for instance, the Klüglich case in Bielefeld. Klüglich, an ordinary white-collar worker, had been shot through the kidney during the war. The injured kidney functioned only in a limited manner. After the war, the second kidney became so inflamed that the doctors treating him considered an operation. We saw the x-rays and other findings. Before Pentecost, Klüglich had approached Groening by way of a letter to Lanzenrath. At first, he "distance-healed", and asked Klüglich to carefully observe what happened in his body in the next days. Klüglich noticed an increased activity of the kidneys, much dark-coloured urine and after that a growing relief from his complaints.

The treating doctor, also, confirmed an improvement. Afterward, Groening visited Klüglich personally, and the improvement continued. Klüglich had left his bed and gone on walks.

However, at the moment when we visited him and Professor Fischer examined him, his condition has worsened again. The Professor soon learned that Klüglich had been granted an additional room from the housing office. Since word had quickly gotten around about his "healing", the housing office had informed him that, under these circumstances, they had to take back the room. On the same day, the worsening of his condition set in again. It was obviously not a simulation, but a genuine worsening, which, however, was doubtlessly to be attributed to a psychic cause, namely the fear of the loss of the room and the association between the ideas of illness and possession of the room. It was naturally nonsense to speak of a healing. Traditional medicine could in this case point out that Groening had merely succeeded in bringing the sick person out of his lethargy and thereby temporarily raised his power of resistance. They admitted the immediate relationship between psychic treatment and the power of the body to resist illness, but rightfully rejected the idea of a healing. The question naturally remained open as to what Groening could have achieved, had he been able to continue to influence the patient.

She sat on her cash-box

The second case was that of Mrs. W., also from Bielefeld. She was a widow and owner of a bicycle shop. She held sway over the shop and the family from an armchair in the kitchen behind her shop. For 15 years she had suffered demonstrably from problems in walking and dropsical swelling of her legs. Her heart and kidney activity were, however, normal. On the other hand, there were signs of rheumatoid arthritis. Groening had sat with her for half an hour and predicted a quick recovery. After that she was able to walk around the yard and felt quite well. The professor determined that the oedema was only negligible. An examination by the physician who had treated her also resulted in the determination of a considerable decline in the swelling since Groening had visited Mrs. W. Recently, however, the complaints appeared to slightly increase again. Did the psychic uplift and stimulation bring here, also, a temporary improvement that, while it pointed again toward the close relationship between emotional condition and illness, was not sufficiently conclusive for us? Unless one also expected here a continuing and conclusive success through regular treatment by Groening. An interesting thing here was the discovery that Mrs. W. had for many years sat on her cash-box, and that the difficulty in walking, which bordered on paralysis, could have received decisive encouragement from the compulsion complex, to have to continually guard the cash-box. Groening had probably also temporarily eliminated this compulsion complex, which is in itself a remarkable achievement for which a normal psychotherapist would have required days or even weeks instead of half an hour. But this achievement, too, did not suggest anything unusual enough in Groening's work to justify our support of major clinical experiments.

Groening gave her a silver ball...

Then there was the Schwerdt case in Bielefeld. Here it was a matter of two patients - a girl, daughter of a minor official or white-collar worker, whose mother exerted an oppressive influence on the daughter; and, secondly, a man who owned a factory and to all appearances was monitored by his inheritance-seeking relatives. The man and the girl had started a relationship with one another, as a result of which the man came into violent conflict with his family. The girl was faced with continual reproach from her mother, who wanted nothing to do with the matter of the rich man because "nothing could come of it". Both of them, the man and the girl, finally lost courage. They separated. The girl became ill with an unusually severe cardiac neurosis, which forced her to lie continually. The man had an accident at the same time and stayed in bed, even after the injury was long healed. He felt drawn to his beloved. To avoid following this urge, he increased his feeling of being ill and entrenched himself in his bed. Groening treated the case. On his first visit with the girl, he effected a considerable improvement, so that Miss Schwerdt could leave her bed. She then visited Groening, and gave him the name of the factory owner, among other names of persons he should help, without saying anything further about him. But Groening obviously suspected the true circumstances. He took from his pocket the silver paper of a cigarette package, and gave the ball he made from it to the girl with the command to hold it in her hand until she could personally put it in the hand of the man named. He would then regain his health. Miss Schwerdt carried the ball in her hand for 36 hours.

Meanwhile, the man heard, through the rumours that were circulating around, about Groening's successes and his instructions to Miss Schwerdt. Curiosity drove him from the bed to the girl. The severed relationship was thereby restored and both felt healthy again. On Professor Fischer's question as to whether they both saw one another regularly, the girl said, "Yes, unfortunately". The actual conflict that had brought on all the havoc, the strained relations with the mother and with the relatives respectively, had not been removed - for she had said "unfortunately" - and could sooner or later give rise to the old situation again.

The impression of this case, too, was uncertain. Nevertheless here, too, Groening had removed an ailment brought about through psychic complexes in an astonishingly short time, had correctly recognized the relationships with remarkable powers of empathy, and with the little ball method had applied a trick of which the best psychotherapist could be proud. He had, however, failed to see that the causal complex had remained. The Schwerdt case was the first case that Professor Fischer took on for Groening. If there was nothing else of an unusual nature to find out about Groening, it couldn't be denied that he possessed a surprising natural talent for psychotherapy.

The recalcitrant motorcycle

The so-called "Wehmeyer case" was very strange. Wehmeyer was a haulage contractor in Herford. Active, powerful and with healthy nerves, certainly not the kind of man who would deceive himself. He had also gone to Groening to get help for his wife, who lay in a clinic in Münster with a chronic illness of indeterminable nature. Groening had explained to him, "Your wife will after a certain time express the wish to come home. But you may not go ahead of time and prompt her to come home." Wehmeyer was, as mentioned, a man who neither believed in clairvoyance nor liked to take orders. So he saddled his motorcycle against Groening's instructions and went off to Münster and his wife. It was then that the strange event took place that he simply couldn't get over: Along the way, the motorcycle stopped running. He then went to a repair shop in Bielefeld. They examined the cycle from top to bottom - the cycle was in good condition. It should run. The mechanic changed the plugs, did everything possible, but couldn't understand why the motorcycle hadn't functioned. At a loss, he told Herr Wehmeyer he had better drive home again. Wehmeyer started back. And the moment he turned again toward Herford the motorcycle ran as if nothing had been wrong. He happily turned it around. It immediately stood still. It wouldn't run in the direction of Münster.

Still completely shaken by this really ghostly event, Wehmeyer then went a short time later by train to Münster. There his wife indeed spontaneously said she would like to go home at once. She felt considerably better and the departmental physician also said that he was finished with his treatment.

The hot stream
An unusual initial success

On the fifth day of our investigation, we experienced our first great surprise. And from that day on, there was one surprise after the other, which finally led to an incident that one must, without exaggeration, call a sensation.

We had all driven to Hamburg because Lanzenrath knew of a case there that seemed to him to be especially impressive. Moreover, the case had been closely observed by physicians. It was a matter of the little daughter of Mr. Mendt, who ran an auto repair shop in Hamburg. The child had survived a spinal poliomyelitis, but was left with paralytic symptoms in her legs.

Here there was an exact, carefully compiled case history with clear diagnosis. Groening had treated the child in his usual way through calmly sitting opposite her, slowly asking her about her bodily feelings, perhaps lightly stroking her with his hand. Then he left after instructing that they should carefully write down the further sensations of the child during the days.to come. This had been carefully done, and Prof. Fischer now read that the child had felt tugging pains in her legs going toward the lower back. They increased and gave way to an increasing warmth and strong flow of blood in the paralysed legs. The child began to make movements again which she previously had not been able to make. Professor Fischer carefully examined the limbs of the child and found that the circulation of blood was astonishingly good. The entire process reminded him of the principle of "autogenic training", although it had not as yet been successfully applied to spinal poliomyelitis. "Autogenic trainig" was developed and taught by Prof. I. H. Schulz, formerly lecturer in psychotherapy at the University of Jena. Schulz's methods were basically nothing other than the application of the old, well-known and - for every European - mysterious practice of Indian yoga in modern European medicine. It put all physicians trained by him in a position to steer the blood circulation of their patients into particular parts of the body through an emotional influence that should not be confused with hypnosis. They didn't succeed in all cases. Above all, it demanded weeks, sometimes months of effort, which really deserved the name "training". Here in the Mendt case, Groening had notched up an initial success that was completely unusual. Even if a medically trained psychotherapist had tackled the case, he would at best have required many weeks to achieve the result that Groening brought about in half an hour. Fischer had another long talk with the Hamburg Professor Burckhard, and both were so excited that Professor Fischer said for the first time that he was now of the opinion that Groening had unusual psychotherapeutic powers at his disposal, had perhaps his own radiation field or something else at his disposal which had to be investigated in a large clinical test. In the same way, the possibility of influencing spinal poliomyelitis and its consequences should be observed over a long period through a continuing treatment.

No physician could help him

The very next day brought a new, impressive surprise. Lanzenrath had brought us to another patient of Groening, a Mr. Kargesmeyer in Bad Oeynhausen. Kaargesmeyer was 47 years old and had suffered since he was two years old from headaches that developed in time to a severe trigeminal neuralgia. This involves pain in the facial nerves that is one of the most terrible forms of suffering there is. The severity of this pain can drive people to suicide. The ailment can scarcely be influenced by a normal physician. Medication offers only partial relief of the pain. In totally desperate cases, they try to obliterate the nerves through alcohol injections or simply through severance. In both cases it is a matter of a difficult operation with an uncertain result. Kargesmeyer had undergone various operations. Finally they removed his tonsils and sinuses through a radical operation in a clinic in Münster, since it was suspected that a focus of inflammation located there was the cause of the facial pain. The operation had no influence on the neuralgia. Naturally it was possible that the inflammation mentioned had originally provoked the neuralgia. But after the removal, the pain remained "fixed" in the facial nerves, similar to the terrible pain that amputees often feel in the nerves of the amputation-stump and thus have the impression that the pain runs through the whole arm or amputated leg which is no longer present. Groening had treated Kargesmeyer. He had asked him to hold his head firmly between his hands.

After that, Kargesmeyer felt a hot stream in his face. The pain continued for a few days, but then disappeared more and more, day by day. He had already been free of pain for four weeks.

Here also, an unusual ability to steer the circulation of blood had obviously led to success. Perhaps other factors were also involved. But at this moment they could not play a role for us. Up to then, only a miniscule number of cases were known of the treatment of trigeminal neuralgia through psychotherapy. And in those cases it had taken weeks and months before success was achieved. Groening had done it in a short sitting - an achievement that is until today without compare.

The famous case of Dieter Hülsmann

The next day we were in Herford again, and Lanzenrath suggested to Fischer that he take a look at the case of Dieter Hülsmann. It involves the nine-year-old son of the engineer Hülsmann, whose alleged healing had brought Groening out of seclusion. We entered for the first time the house from which Groening's fame had gone out and in which he had stayed until just a short time before. Dieter Hülsmann had never learned to walk properly. But they had not recognized the true character of his ailment. For a long time he was forced into plaster casts. Finally, they determined at the university clinic in Münster that he had progressive muscular dysthropy, that is, advanced muscular atrophy. After the almost one-year stay in Bethel that followed, one of the physicians there declared, "You can leave the boy here. You can also take the boy home. No one can help him." After all, the child could no longer sit, and his legs were ice-cold. Heated blankets, hot-water bottles and electric pads could not get rid of the incessant coldness and numbness. Groening had carried out a one-time treatment while he was in this condition. Shortly thereafter, the boy felt an intense burning in his back and a sudden warming of his legs. It persisted, and thus the boy was able to walk again, although in a wobbly fashion.

The case of Dieter Hülsmann was drawn with vehemence into the controversy of opinion, and both sides indulged in untenable exaggeration. It could surely not be called a "healing". But in the same way, the assertion that nothing had changed through Groening's treatment was a malicious distortion. After a careful examination, Professor Fischer was of the opinion that it was indeed a neurotic, progressive muscular atrophy, that is, a degeneration of the nerve that runs from the spinal cord to the muscles and obviously influences their nourishment and development. The point of departure of the degeneration is probably formed by the cells of the anterior horn. The nerve fibres coming from the cerebrum come together here. A transfer or commutation of the impulses coming from the brain takes place here, without these fibres coming into immediate contact with the nerves leading to the muscles. It could not be denied that the degenerated nerves had experienced an unusual stimulation, which was then passed on to the leg muscles. What astonished us the most, however, was the fact that Groening had made a diagnosis whose closeness to the anatomic reality was nothing short of uncanny.

Kargesmeyer had already maintained that Groening had told him unasked that he suffered from facial pain, and that this had tormented him since his second year of life. We had regarded this as the exaggeration of a grateful patient. With Dieter Hülsmann, however, there was a definite report on Groening's diagnosis, confirmed by witnesses. Groening had spoken of a neuragmia in the spinal cord, defining the place in which the diseased cells of the anterior horn are located. Then the boy had experienced the previously-mentioned burning and thereafter a strange fluttering that Groening compared with the flickering of a light bulb into which electricity slowly "flows". This explanation sounded primitive. But it came so close to reality that this experience moved us profoundly.

On the threshold of the uncanny

The last decision in favour of Groening came about, however, through an experience that we had shortly after Professor Fischer's examination of Dieter Hülsmann. We were led into a living room, without suspecting that Groening had worked here. Professor Fischer sat down tiredly on one of the easy chairs standing around. At almost the same moment, his face became deathly pale. He gasped for breath, but quickly got control of himself. Then he looked at us through narrowed eyes, as if a mysterious power had just touched him whose origin he could not explain. He told us that at the moment he sat down, he had felt a violent pain in the area of his right kidney and at the same time palpitation of the heart and shortness of breath. His right kidney had earlier been struck several times by inflammation. It was the least resistant organ of his body. As we further puzzled over the strange phenomenon, Lanzenrath came into the room and said that the professor was sitting in the very chair in which Groening had treated his sick.

Groening had always maintained that he could leave special power behind in a chair. Hadn't the professor perhaps perceived some of that? "Certainly," said Fischer into the somewhat oppressive stillness we had engendered. But he was already busy with some kind of plan. He suddenly asked Lanzenrath to come with him and went into the garden, in which, just as on the day of our arrival in Herford, the sick waited patiently and desperately. He looked for a paralysed person and found a young girl, who lay helpless with immobile legs in an arbour.

He carried her with Lanzenrath's help into the living room, where she was put onto the mysterious chair. Then he began to treat her in his usual way as psychotherapist. He quickly determined the cause of here paralysis.

The girl, Anni Schwedler, 21 years old, came from Darmstadt and had experienced a heavy air-strike on the city in the autumn of 1944. Anni was buried with her mother and around 20 other people in the air-raid shelter of a brewery. All of the others, including her mother, were able to escape through an emergency exit that they had been able to open wide enough for a person to get through. Somehow, however, the body of the girl got stuck in the opening in the wall. The house was ablaze. The girl's hair had already caught fire. At the very last moment, the air-raid warden was able to pull Anni out and extinguish her burning clothing with a jet of water. Even as she was describing it, her horrified facial expression showed the inner process that must have taken place in her back then. Shortly after her rescue, she already had felt insecure in walking. A few days later, she began to stumble. Her gait became more and more unsteady until her legs were completely paralysed. All medical treatment proved to be unsuccessful. And now the girl sat in the strange chair that had given Professor Fischer such a severe shock.

As the girl finished her description, the professor reached the following conclusions: If Groening had left mysterious healing powers in his chair, then these powers could still have an effect on the sick in his absence. He briefly told the girl about Groening and that he had already helped many paralysed people in this room. And he did something more - he showed the girl a picture of Groening. Then, charged with inner tension, he very abruptly commanded, "Stand up!" He thought that Groening would act in a similar manner. The girl's face all of a sudden shone, and Anni got up from the easy chair almost boldly, and was so astonished and overcome from the ability to stand up that she at first didn't dare to take a step. The professor commanded again, "Now walk!" Lanzenrath, who stood nearby, had to take the girl lightly by the hand, then she walked with still insecure steps and with tears of joy across the whole room to the chair where Anni's mother sat, completely overcome. But here, Anni Schwedler collapsed. The experiment had to be carried out a second time. In this second attempt, also, Fischer showed the patient Groening's picture, and in doing this noticed signs of a stronger circulation of blood in the previously paralysed legs, redness and a developing warmth. The girl got up again. The professor commanded her to stand up and sit down again a few times. The standing up got better and better. Finally, the girl was able to go out of the room and all the way over the courtyard to a nearby street. From there she was then taken in a car to a relative in Herford.

We had all watched the experiment in breathless suspense. On that same evening, we notified the "Revue" that we had to extend out stay in northern Germany. There was no longer any doubt that Groening was a phenomenon that had to be clarified through the planned clinical experiments. We wanted to try to make contact with Groening the next day in order to pave the way for him to the physicians of the Heidelberg University Clinic, so that he could prove his abilities in their presence.