Arnold Rikli

Arnold Rikli ( born February 13, 1823 in Wangen an der Aare, Canton Bern, † April 30, 1906 in St. Thomas, Carinthia, Austria - Hungary) was a Swiss naturopath. He is the founder of the " atmospheric cure", play an essential role in the light and air baths. Rikli was a supporter of the so-called reform of life.

Life

Rikli was born as the son of a prominent politician and owner of a dyeing. As a boy he was a very strict upbringing angediehen which should serve primarily to employees in the factory at the request of parents. At 20, he joined his father's dyeing to 1845 with his brothers Karl and Rudolf to form a yarn dyeing in Seebach Seeboden (Carinthia ). His main interest was however already in these years of natural healing, is not bestowed therefore came to be operating in financial problems. During these years he constructed a steam - bed apparatus and gained a reputation as a water doctor.

1854, after he himself had successfully cured of a disease, he moved with his family in the climatically favorable location Velde in Upper Carniola in Slovenia, to found a hospital. He treated during the summer months - probably with some success - mainly lighter cases, which he could choose themselves, and gathered a considerable number of followers. In the winter months he treated first in Ljubljana, Trieste and then in Gries near Bozen heavier disease and failed partly including with his own children. Conflicts with doctors often ended in court, but Rikli remained until his death confident his theories true and was convinced that we have made ​​an important contribution to medical science.

Since 1989, the Arnold Rikli Prize is awarded by the Light Foundation in Atlanta (USA) annually. The award recognizes works that deal with the biological effects of light on humans. The Jörg Wolff Foundation grants also a - € 10,000 - Arnold Rikli Prize for photo - biological research on the human organism.

Riklis medical cures

Rikli, who was also called "Sun Doctor," treating his patients with water-air light therapies, employment in the fresh air, intense sun baths ( heliotherapy ) and a vegetarian diet. Its spa guests spent the nights in the open huts in the area there were " air park " as the " Riklikum " or the " Arnold height", so to speak Fitness places where his patients walked barefoot dressed and minimal. In the spa buildings, the guest bathed in pools and went with showers and steam rooms, on the roofs themselves were spacious sun terraces. The essential principle of the treatment consisted in the " atmospheric change stimulus" of water, air and light, which should restore the physical and mental balance.

Since Rikli scientific knowledge of his time did not believe he resisted conventional medical treatments such as vaccinations or surgery and was a bitter opponent of the medical profession. The naturopath the other hand, lift up today out his merits and contributions (including light therapy ).

Not least thanks Rikli Velde became a major resort and experienced in the years leading up to the First World War a considerable upswing; today modified forms of Riklis cures in today Bled offered. One of his " students " belonged to the painter and social reformer Karl Wilhelm Diefenbach (1851-1913), of a rural commune founded in Vienna by the principles of Rikli. In Riklis sanatorium in Velde's also the son of an industrialist Henri Oedenkoven, the pianist Ida Hofmann and the brothers Karl and Gusto Graser, who settled in the vineyard over Ascona together in the autumn of 1900, met. They named their company, which included a natural sanatorium, " Mountain of Truth - Monte Verità ". Also this institution followed the ways of healing from Rikli, but beyond that it was a meeting place of cultural revolutionary spirits, the " cradle of alternative culture ."