Herbs and Weeds

Inspiration from an herbalist-priest

This booklet derives its inspiration from the work of Johann Künzle, born in 1857 in the German-speaking part of Switzerland. His youth and much of his adult life was during a time of relative quiet and stability in this somewhat isolated alpine region of Europe, though there were the beginnings of tremendous change: rapid industrialization, contentious politics, and changing economies. Nearly all aspects of human endeavors were amidst massive transition that seeped slowly into the remote villages. His busy and fruitful life lasted until 1945, just as the civilization on the European continent was crashing down in the final throes of all out war. This was the second major war to wrack the heart of Europe in a generation (though Switzerland was largely immune to both of them due to its isolation and neutrality). Each of the wars greatly accelerated the transition from life as it had been lived for centuries to that of the modern world. When Künzle's life ended at the ripe age of 87, what was left of the old ways of European culture were about to finally give way to the new. The European medical practices were not immune to these sweeping changes, yielding rapidly to modern technologies that were accelerated by wartime necessity and the expansion during post-war recovery.

Künzle wrote a small book, Chrut und Uchrut (Herbs and Weeds), no bigger than this one, that was published in 1911. It captured the essence of the culture of natural living and natural healing that was still alive, but struggling, before these great wars began. His motto was "Back to Nature," and this shows that even a century ago the world was deviating from what was deemed natural towards an industrialized, more technological society, less concerned with nature. To a large extent, Künzle's book became an important mirror of the old world that one could view from the new world. Eventually, more than a million copies of the book were printed in the German language, distributed mainly in Switzerland, Germany, and Austria, and followed up with translations that were distributed to several other countries in Europe. The last edition of the work was published in 1975, at which point its original content was still considered up to date, though brief information about 30 additional herbs had to be inserted to give some background for the Künzle formulas that had become famous. The current work, Major European Herbs, is intended as an updated and revised rendition of Künzle's basic approach to natural health care and herbal medicine, taking into account the considerable changes that have occurred both in our surroundings and in the field of natural cures since that time.

http://www.itmonline.org/kunzle/index.htm