A search for the term Lebenswecker within Google Books revealed a number of sources mentioning the device, some from the nineteenth century, others more recent. But before we jump ahead too far in the story, let us begin with Jacob Epp. He introduces the Lebenswecker as follows:
12 November 1860: ‘Brauchscheidtism’ is a method of treatment recently discovered by … Karl Brauchscheidt from the Prussian Rhineland. [The overseer] v Kampen had sent away for one of these ‘life awakeners’ and had successfully used it a number of times. The apparatus was fastened twice on our infant son for infected eyes, and with good results. Today we tried it on my wife, who has a fungal ulcer. May God bless the treatment.
16 November 1860: I accompanied Peter v Kampen to Loshkarovka to see Peter Zöger the gardener who is, according to his doctor, going blind with cataracts and can see only poorly with glasses. v Kampen attached the life awakener behind each of his ears once and repeatedly on his back (for rheumatism). He then rubbed these places with oil. I am very curious to see what happens since the life awakener has certainly had positive results with my wife.
The Lebenswecker continued to be a trusted treatment over the years:16 November 1860: I accompanied Peter v Kampen to Loshkarovka to see Peter Zöger the gardener who is, according to his doctor, going blind with cataracts and can see only poorly with glasses. v Kampen attached the life awakener behind each of his ears once and repeatedly on his back (for rheumatism). He then rubbed these places with oil. I am very curious to see what happens since the life awakener has certainly had positive results with my wife.
26 November 1863: My wife’s eyes are sore and painful, especially the right one. Mrs Peter v Kampen applied the life awakener to her neck and behind her ears and placed some cold fresh earth in a cloth on her eye. She also has a splitting headache from constipation, for which she took tablespoon doses of Glauber’s salts. This began to work towards evening, and she soon felt a little better. When I awoke this morning, she was already up and about and doing as much housework as she could manage with her bandaged eyes.
7 March 1865: The life awakener was applied for a painful toothache I have had for several days, and although it caused only slight inflammation, the pain let up a bit.
21 June 1866: At 2:30 this morning, my cousin [David] Klassen asked me to visit v Kampen, who had come down with the cholera. 29 As I hurried over, I met v Kampen’s son Johann running to see me with the same urgent plea. I found v Kampen gravely ill in bed, no longer vomiting but still with diarrhea and cramps. Each time we buckled on the life awakener the cramps let up a little. Brother Diedrich was here at daybreak. The attacks resumed around 7 a.m. The Feldsher Israelsohn, who arrived around 10 a.m., tried various treatments including rubbing the body with alcohol, warming it with bottles, and bleeding the patient. At first the blood ran freely and then slowed to a drip. As v Kampen slowly grew weaker, the cramps subsided somewhat. His death struggle started at 10:30 and ended at 12:05 noon.
7 March 1865: The life awakener was applied for a painful toothache I have had for several days, and although it caused only slight inflammation, the pain let up a bit.
21 June 1866: At 2:30 this morning, my cousin [David] Klassen asked me to visit v Kampen, who had come down with the cholera. 29 As I hurried over, I met v Kampen’s son Johann running to see me with the same urgent plea. I found v Kampen gravely ill in bed, no longer vomiting but still with diarrhea and cramps. Each time we buckled on the life awakener the cramps let up a little. Brother Diedrich was here at daybreak. The attacks resumed around 7 a.m. The Feldsher Israelsohn, who arrived around 10 a.m., tried various treatments including rubbing the body with alcohol, warming it with bottles, and bleeding the patient. At first the blood ran freely and then slowed to a drip. As v Kampen slowly grew weaker, the cramps subsided somewhat. His death struggle started at 10:30 and ended at 12:05 noon.
Now, the rest of the story. James C. Whorton writes:
For her lesson to be made practicable, nature would have to be imitated, a mechanical gnat would have to be devised. The Lebenswecker (life awakener) that Baunscheidt promptly fashioned was in fact a veritable mechanical swarm of gnats. The instrument consisted of a hollow cylinder of ebony or horn, about two inches deep and three across, attached to a hollow wooden handle. In the cylinder’s top side rested a steel plate in which there were imbedded some twenty “very keenly-pointed” needles, each two inches long and sharp. A string running from the base of the needles through the handle and out its end allowed the operator to pull the needles down into the cylinder. The retracted, poised needles might then be placed over the affected area of the patient’s body. When the string was released, the needles would spring forward, perforate the patient, and open him up for the release of his pathogenetic substances. (Whorton 2004, 261–62)
Whorton goes on to describe how, after the Lebenswecker punctured the skin, one was to rub oil on the area; of course, oleum Baunscheidti, which was available for purchase, was recommended for the best results.
Although the Lebenswecker presumably was developed to treat rheumatism, it was advertised as an effective remedy for whatever ailed a body: “According to an advertisement in a Cologne newspaper, Baunscheidt’s ‘universal remedy’ was ‘beyond all price … the diamond among the jewels of life; for what Baunscheidtism cannot cure … is uncurable’” (Whorton 2004, 263). Practitioner John Linden listed 115 different ailments (including toothaches and flatulence) that could be treated successfuly with a Lebenswecker (1882, 30–69). The treatment was applied to “the lower back of the jaundice victim, the abdomen of the diarrhea sufferer, … between the shoulder blades of the malaria case, behind the ears of the bald man, and so forth” (Whorton 2004, 263).
We should admit that we are not certain precisely how the Lebenswecker mentioned by Epp was used. His reference to “attaching” and “buckling on” the Lebenswecker do not make perfect sense with what we see in the drawing or photo of the device; that disconnect leads Toews to conclude that the device used in Epp’s day was different from one pictured above (Toews 1986, 464 n. 125).
However, Baunscheidt developed only one kind of Lebenswecker, and in light of the fact that Epp records it being used a mere twelve years after its invention, it seems most reasonable to conclude that the Lebenswecker pictured above was the same as that used in Chortitza colony in the latter half of the nineteenth century. Welcome to the world of health care in days gone by, a world filled with home remedies, a little bloodletting, and, when all else failed, German acupuncture.
* For additional photographs and commentary, see here.
Works Cited
Dyck, Harvey L., ed. and trans. 1991. A Mennonite in Russia: The Diaries of Jacob D. Epp, 1851–1880. Tsarist and Soviet Mennonite Studies. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
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