Forgotten greatness: Dr Andreas Hoenes (1860–1952)

When we bring the history of Friedensau to life in the anniversary year, we are amazed at the founding personalities to whom we owe so much. In addition to Ludwig Conradi, the spiritual father and namesake, and Otto Lüpke, the multi-talented first teacher and headmaster, two other names should definitely be mentioned: Wilhelm Krumm, the estate manager, and Dr Andreas Hoenes, the director of the sanatorium. We have these four personalities, with their great enthusiasm, creativity, dedication and expertise, to thank for the rapid growth of the town in the first decade.

The last two people mentioned have long been forgotten. It is worth remembering them. Dr Andreas Hoenes' parents came from the Rhineland Palatinate and moved to the USA in 1852. At that time, many people from the Palatinate moved to the USA due to the difficult economic conditions. His father worked as a tailor and later ran a photography studio in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Andreas (Andrew) was the third son to be born in Milwaukee on 6 August 1869. After high school, he taught for a few years before studying medicine at the State University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, graduating with honours on 27 June 1889. He then spent six years on the medical staff of the Battle Creek Sanitarium in Michigan, where he learnt about the treatment methods and thinking of the physician John Harvey Kellogg. Here he married Julia Bucher, a qualified nurse, also of German origin, who had received her training in Battle Creek.

Together they moved to Hot Springs in South Dakota, where Andreas Hoenes worked as a doctor for the Hot Springs Company for four years. From there he was called to Europe. Similar to Heinrich Franz Schuberth, Ludwig Richard Conradi had already met Dr Hoenes in Battle Creek and now needed his help in setting up a medical department in Germany. In 1899, Dr Hoenes arrived in Hamburg with his family and travelled from there to various cities in Central Europe, where he gave lectures on healthy living and introduced the communities to the planned sanatorium.

The family arrived in Friedensau in January 1900, just two months after school started. Here he spent the next seven years training future nurses. He built up the nursing course from scratch and planned the naturopathic sanatorium according to the most modern criteria of the time. When the sanatorium was completed in the summer of 1902, he also took over the management and founded the Friedensau Sisterhood together with head nurse Creeper. His wife assisted him as a nurse and counsellor. It is thanks to the efforts of the Hoenes family that the Friedensau Sanatorium developed so rapidly in such a short time and became a renowned naturopathic centre in Germany. Dr Hoenes' personality had a decisive influence on the early years of Friedensau. He was an unmistakable person. In old pictures, the doctor's sporty, wiry figure in his white suit with dark side stripes is clearly recognisable. A twirled moustache adorned his face. His eyes shone with energy. Dr Hoenes used electricity as one of the latest treatment methods in Friedensau and experimented with corresponding treatment devices and equipment.

The number of patients increased so that a ward block soon had to be built, which later became the villa, today's Sophie-Hoyer-Haus. The two buildings were connected by a conservatory, the roof of which was designed as an expansive reclining area. Together with the park, the air bath and air huts on the edge of the forest, a natural healing sanatorium had been established within a good five years, which became known, recognised and made friends far beyond the boundaries of its own church. After seven successful years and an orderly handover to his successor Dr Erich Meyer, the Hoenes family left Friedensau.

Other interests were now on the agenda. The family visited the Holy Land, where the first nurses from Friedensau had already worked. The trip took them to other biblical places in Egypt, Greece, Italy, the Ottoman Empire and other historically interesting places in Europe and Asia. Finally, the family of eight returned to the USA after a short trip around the world. It seems that Dr Hoenes was looking for a new challenge. After brief stays in Wisconsin and Iowa, the Hoenes family finally settled in Murray, Utah, in 1910.

In 1916, Dr Hoenes opened a small sanatorium, the Utah Sanitarium, in Salt Lake City, Utah, where his wife worked as head nurse. He ran this hospital according to the same principles as in Friedensau and improved the treatment methods with electric current. He invented an improved medical current regulator, called Electrotone, which he patented in 1913 and with which previously unrivalled treatment successes could be achieved in his practice and in his own sanatorium. As a member of many medical and charitable organisations, Dr Hoenes was highly respected among experts in the USA. He practised until the age of 85 and died at the ripe old age of 91 on 29 May 1952 in Salt Lake City, Utah.

The fact that he had not forgotten Friedensau even in his old age is documented by a letter on the occasion of his 50th anniversary in 1949, to which he added a photo of his diamond wedding anniversary and signed it with the long-forgotten German words: ‘Herzliche Grüsse u[nd] Glückwünsche [von] Ihr Doctor u[nd] Frau Hoenes’ (Text: Dr Johannes Hartlapp).