It is on the passion of peoples of Germanic culture for Hildegardand her pharmacopoeia and, more broadly, for so-called alternative medicine, that we would like to focus here. Was it not in Germany that Samuel Hahnemann first popularized homeopathy, that Vincenz Priessnitz developed hydrotherapy, was it not, once again, in Germany – and in Switzerland – that at the end from the 19th century e century the followers of the Lebensreform advocated a return to nature and that Rudolf Steiner propagated anthroposophic medicine? And what about the official promotion of “natural medicine” under National Socialism? If a number of works or articles devoted to Hildegard of Bingen note the extraordinary popularity which she enjoys today among the Germans, the Swiss and Austrians, few authors wonder about the possible reasons for this craze – a gap that we would like to fill here. - [ Author]

Language: French

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