Maximilian Bircher-Benner

Maximilian Oskar Bircher -Benner ( born August 22, 1867 in Aarau, † January 24, 1939 in Zurich ) was a Swiss physician and nutritionist. He developed the muesli and is considered a pioneer of whole foods.

Life

Maximilian Bircher was born the son of a notary Heinrich Bircher and his wife Berta, born Krüsi in Aarau. Even as a child he was interested in medicine and studied after taking his Matura at the Old Canton Aarau this subject in Vienna, Dresden, Berlin and Zurich, where he received his doctorate in 1891. During his studies he focused on naturopathy, hydrotherapy and dietetics. In 1891 he opened a practice in Zurich as a general practitioner. In 1893 he married Elisabeth Benner, daughter of a pharmacist from Alsace, which brought a considerable dowry. By treating a dyspeptic woman came Bircher- Benner on the idea to develop a raw food diet, which he also tested in the experiment on himself when he fell ill with jaundice. The most famous part of his diet, which can be described as whole foods, was the Bircher muesli. 1897 was in practice even a small private clinic become.

In 1903 he published the font outlines of nutritional therapy on the basis of energetics. His theory is not their content of nutrients is crucial for the quality of food, but the solar energy stored in them at a unspecified way. When doctors and scientists came Bircher- Benner nutrition ( " sunlight food " ) already in the time of their creation with skepticism and rejection because they disagreed with biochemical knowledge. His theory is that raw foods are more valuable than cooked plant food and more valuable than meat, contrary to the prevailing views on diet, developed among others by Justus Liebig. Canned leaned Bircher -Benner as well as from treated foods ( white flour, white sugar). The muesli ( Swiss muesli ) he referred to as " apple diet food ", or " d' Spys ". He stressed that this raw food court was related to the food of the Swiss Alpine herdsmen, whose life he considered particularly healthy. This " Alpine fare" was the model for him.

As a physician he dealt not only with the food, but also developed an order therapy for his patients. In 1904 he opened a sanatorium on the mountain Zurich in Zurich, which he called living force and in 1913 an extension was told. His patients he prescribed outdoor exercise, gymnastics, air baths and hydrotherapy. Shortly before his death, he opened in the city in addition a " People's Sanatorium" for the less affluent. Bircher -Benner described his sanatorium as a " school of life " and as " an effective tool against the degeneration " of the population by "unnatural" way of life.

The daily routine at the sanatorium on the Zurich mountain was strictly regulated and allowed some patients to think of a barracks. Even before breakfast walk was provided, there was also a program for " physical training " with exercise and hydrotherapy, gymnastics and gardening as well as rest cures. At 21 clock night's rest began. A prominent spa guest was Thomas Mann, who in a letter as " hygienic prison " referred to the sanatorium and was inspired here for his famous novel The Magic Mountain. Other celebrities who came here were Rainer Maria Rilke, Hermann Hesse and Wilhelm Furtwängler.

The First World War was the number of patients in the sanatorium fall sharply. However, in the 1920s, it came back to an upswing. In 1923, Bircher- Benner magazine The turning point in life and in suffering. Even more successful were the numerous turning point cookbooks that have been applied far beyond vegetarian circles.

Bircher- Benner's theory learned in the late 1920s as part of a wider stored medical and public debate on the health value of raw foods and vitamins for greater recognition. His criticism of the alleged degenerative effects of civilization diet corresponded to the attitude of many right-wing conservative and Nazi doctors, about Erwin Liek, Werner Zabel and Charles Kötschau. Bircher -Benner supported the Nazi health policy, but also stressed his independence from political parties. Since 1933, tried the German Reich Physician Leader Gerhard Wagner to bring Bircher- Benner to Dresden, there to accept a professorship and the management of Rudolf Hess hospital. Bircher -Benner accepted the offers made ​​to him, but failed to appeal to the problems of financing and resistors leading medical professionals who clearly turned against the alternative - New German naturopathic medicine. However, the Zurich mountain remained in the 1930s, a meeting place for Nazi doctors and hygienists, about Werner Kollath.

Bircher -Benner died in 1939 at the age of 71 years from heart disease. After his death, led two of his sons continued the clinic. In 1973, she finally went into the possession of the Canton of Zurich. Due to lack of capacity, the Bircher -Benner clinic was finally closed in 1994 and the building sold to the Zurich Insurance Company in 1998.

Bircher -Benner was a member of pennalen connection Argovia Aarau.

Criticism

The level of knowledge Bircher- Benner corresponds to that of the early 20th century, his relevant works published before 1938. Theory of the trapped solar radiation has not been established to date, and is contrary to the present findings. The claim that the diet of the Alpine mountain regions ( "Alpine fare" ) be the healthiest, has not been established.

Raw food leads compared to cooked food to a unvollständigeren digestion, which deteriorates the absorption of vitamins and trace elements and deficiency diseases and flatulence favors. Some herbal stomach poisons such as lectins are only inactivated by heating, for example, potatoes and legumes. The cell membranes are disrupted completely by heating, making more nutrients available. Long-term raw food diet leads to a decrease in bone density, vitamin B12 deficiency, elevated homocysteine ​​blood levels and decreased LDL, HDL, and triglyceride blood concentrations.

Publications (selection)

• Broad nutritional therapy due to the power voltage of food, Berlin 1903
• The basics of our diet, Berlin 1921
• Dietary medical treatment: experiences and perspectives, Stuttgart 1935
• On the nature and organization of food energy, Stuttgart 1936
• Becoming the new physician: findings and confessions, Dresden 1938
• Max Bircher -Benner: planning laws of life. Three lectures for the "Food Education Society ". Bircher -Benner, Bad Homburg (formerly Zurich ) 1992, ISBN 3-87053-048-0 ( Reprint of turning point, Zurich / Leipzig / Wien 1938).