| |
|
| |
Veronica Carstens
|
Veronica Carstens passed away peacefully on 25 January 2012 at the age of 88.
The wife of the former President of the Federal Republic was a passionate advocate of naturopathy and in particular homeopathy. As an internist herself, she had extensive medical experience in this field gained through many years of clinical practice.
Together with her husband she founded the Carstens Foundation, which did incredible work for the research and recognition of homeopathy. |
Connection to the publisher
At the end of the 1970s, when Karl Carstens became President of the Federal Republic, Veronica Carstens nevertheless kept up her medical practice. She regularly invited attendees to homeopathic further training at her home in Meckenheim. Among those who attended were the founders of Narayana Verlag Herbert Sigwart and Ulrich Welte. Lectures were also given there by Hugbald Müller, the founder of the colour method in homeopathy. Veronica Carstens also expressly welcomed the beautiful and at the same time affordable reissue of Hahnemann's foundational work, the Organon, which first appeared with Narayana Verlag in 1983. Thus there was even then a personal connection to this pioneer.
From that time there is also a letter from Mrs Carstens in which she wishes Ulrich Welte and the publisher all the best: |
 
|
Dear Mr Welte, ................................... 26.09.1984
Many thanks for your letter of 14 September, to which you attached two copies of your dissertation, Hahnemann's "Organon of the Healing Art" from your publishing house and your publishing catalogues.
I am very impressed by everything you report. What an activity you have developed and you still run a practice, which certainly demands a great deal of commitment. How do you manage it all?
You cannot imagine how happy I am that so much dedication to this form of healing has awakened in the younger generation.
Our cohorts were still regarded as outsiders and had great difficulty persuading others of the correctness of their views. Now we no longer have to worry that the precious old treasure will gradually be lost. I will gladly point out your publishing house in our working group (for 10 years we have held further training events for students, doctors and pharmacists in our house). In addition, I repeatedly receive enquiries from students and doctors from all over the Federal Republic asking which books they should acquire in order to familiarise themselves as quickly as possible with a subject that is foreign to them. Could I give the person concerned your publishing house and your personal address? My correspondence on this topic has become so large that I can no longer manage it alone and would gladly delegate it.
Attached I am sending you 50 copies of NATUR und MEDIZIN e.V. for your waiting room. If you need further copies, I will gladly send them to you on request.
With kind regards, also to your friend and colleague Mr Herbert Sigwart.
Yours Veronica Carstens |
|
|
| |
Karl and Veronica Carstens |
About her life
Veronica Carstens, born Prior (1923-2012), began her medical studies at the University of Freiburg in 1942, completed her medical preliminary examination and worked from 1944 to 1945 as a hospital nurse for the German Red Cross. In 1944 she married the future President of the Federal Republic, Karl Carstens.
In 1956 she continued her medical studies at the University of Bonn. In 1960 she completed her studies with the state examination and a doctorate. This was followed by specialist training in internal medicine in Bonn. |
| In the early 1960s she was a co-founder of the Women's and Family Service in the Foreign Office. From 1960 to 1968 she worked as an assistant physician; in 1968 she founded an internal medicine practice in Meckenheim with a focus on homeopathy and naturopathy.
In her role as the wife of the President she became patron of the German Multiple Sclerosis Society and UNICEF Germany, of the Mothers' Convalescence Organisation and chairwoman of the German Elderly Care Association.
Karl Carstens loved hiking. From the coast to the Alps. Through the Harz or the Teutoburg Forest. Carstens preferred to explore Germany on foot. While her husband was President, he led many walks throughout Germany to establish a special connection with the population. Nothing of this kind had previously been realised by a German president. Thus his term of office began with German brass band music on a hiking trail in Schleswig-Holstein. Thousands of citizens listened when Carstens invited them to accompany him on foot. "Indeed, this morning we want to begin the hike that we are undertaking to walk right across Germany to the Alps. However, in stages. Only ever for three days. So don't think that I will give up my official duties for the next two months and only go hiking. Unfortunately that's not possible."
In 1984 Karl Carstens declined a second term of office for reasons of age. He died in 1992 after a stroke.
|
Karl and Veronica Carstens |
Already during his presidential term the Carstens couple founded the Karl and Veronica Carstens Foundation in 1982, and in 1983 the supporting association of the foundation Natur und Medizin. The Karl and Veronica Carstens Foundation promotes science and research into naturopathy and homeopathy, in particular the scientific and medical junior generation. The long-term goal is the integration of complementary medicine into research and teaching at university medical centres.
The funding of research projects on homeopathy is one of the central tasks of the Karl and Veronica Carstens Foundation. Therefore most projects in this field have been supported. |
The decision to establish a foundation was made during Karl Carstens' presidential term. "As we had no children, we repeatedly considered what our will should look like. For there was of course the possibility that we could both die together on one of the many round-the-world official trips. So a provision had to be made." It was Karl Carstens who came up with the idea of laying the foundation stone for a foundation to promote the scientific examination of naturopathy.
The first research project funded by the Carstens Foundation dealt with the "phagocytosis-enhancing effects of homeopathic remedies" and was based with Prof. Dr H. Wagner at the Institute of Pharmaceutical Biology at LMU Munich.
The vast majority of the Carstens Foundation's funds flowed into projects of clinical and experimental homeopathy research. In total, around seven million euros have now gone into projects on homeopathy and into the support of the scientific and medical junior generation. Since 1994 this amounts annually to between €500,000 and €700,000 and thus one third to half of the respective funding volume.
Since its foundation the Carstens Foundation has provided more than €25 million for research funding for more than 550 individual projects (as of 2009). More than 700 scientific publications have resulted from this, and a total of 73 books have been published by the foundation.
Veronica Carstens achieved much in her life. In 2009 she withdrew from public life and most recently lived in a sanatorium in Bonn. She died peacefully in the company of her closest companions on 25 January 2012. |
| |
Dr Veronica Carstens 2009 |
|
************************************************************************** |
Image sources:
Veronica Carstens: NATUR UND MEDIZIN/Carstens Foundation
Karl and Veronica Carstens: Federal Archive, image 146-2008-0320 / CC-BY-SA
Dr Veronica Carstens 2009: Bernardo Friese/Carstens Foundation
Karl and Veronica Carstens: Carstens Foundation
Sources and further links:
Carstens Foundation
Natur und Medizin
|
