(Translated by Sandra Schiller)
When I started research on the history of physiotherapy in Saxony for a talk I had been invited to give following German Reunification in 1990, I asked the state schools for physiotherapy in Leipzig, Zwickau and Dresden for any memorabilia they might have. One of the highlights discovered in this way was a booklet with about 700 addresses of the physiotherapists who had been trained at the State Institute for Physiotherapy and Massage in Dresden between 1919 and 1941. Now, after 1990, from this booklet eight names with valid telephone numbers could be found from the region of Saxony. So these eight were then invited as elderly ladies to the first meeting of former graduates of the state institute in Dresden’s famous Hotel Taschenbergpalais in 2002.
Taschenbergpalais around 1920
From what some of the former students had told in the “Taschenbergpalais Stories”, we already knew that the State Institute for Physiotherapy and Massage had been located there from 1922 to 1941. It was destroyed during the war and only reopened (as a hotel) in 1994. All in all, 35 graduates of the Dresden state institute met in their former school for the first “Tête-à-Tête in the Taschenbergpalais”. A report on this meeting was published in the magazine of the Technical University of Dresden under the title: “When the Taschenberg Palace was still a school”.
In 2004, the grave of Prof. Dr. med. Willem Ernst Smitt, the first director of Dresden’s physiotherapy school from 1919 to 1922, was rediscovered. The participants of the “Tête-à-Tête in the Taschenbergpalais” became increasingly excited about their professional history, but at the same time they realized that not much was known about physiotherapy history. Regrettably, there was no tradition the commemoration of Smitt could find a place in. So the idea of creating an association began to take shape. Intensive research in various archives on important historical figures connected to the State Institute for Physiotherapy and Massage (Staatsanstalt für Krankengymnastik und Massage) as a training centre became the association’s focus of interest.
Invoice from the State Institute to the city administration of Dresden for a course on orthopaedic gymnastics at the city’s schools in 1923 (inflation prices), Source: Dresden City Archives
My initial aim was to re-establish the former activities of physiotherapists in schools according to modern principles. We decided to start our historical research by tracing the history of school health care following the introduction of orthopaedic gymnastics in Dresden‘s schools in 1913 by the Dresden city council and the school doctors. Our aim was to explore the discussion about orthopaedic gymnastics during that time and to look for modern alternatives for today’s school projects.
The association Physio-In e.V.: Physiotherapeuteninitiative zur Gesundheitsförderung in öffentlichen Einrichtungen mit Gemeinschaftsscharakter e.V. (English translation: Physiotherapists’ Initiative for Health Promotion in Community-Oriented Public Institutions) was registered at the Dresden District Court on 28 January 2005. Our new association was fortunate enough to be able to join an existing school project run by the Dresden Health Authority on a temporary basis and take over the primary school physical activity element of the “Gesundes Pausenbrot” (English translation: “Healthy Breaktime Snack“). This project ran from 2005 to 2011 in about 60 schools.
Regarding the history of physiotherapy, we sought contacts with our colleagues in former East and West Germany. A lecture that I gave at the Kiel University of Applied Sciences helped to spread knowledge about the historical experiences of physiotherapists in the German Democractic Republic. At the 2007 meeting of the association Physio-In e.V. in the Taschenbergpalais, many individual contributions were made to gather the wealth of experience of physiotherapists in promoting the health of children and young people. In the same year, we also donated a memorial plaque for the grave of Prof. Dr. med. Willem Ernst Smitt. Together with Antje Hüter-Becker, at the time editor-in-chief of the professional journal Krankengymnastik (English translation: Physiotherapy), and Marianne Schweizer, a physiotherapy teacher from Ettlingen, we unveiled this plaque at the St. Pauli cemetery in Dresden on 22 April 2007. Three former students of Dresden‘s state physiotherapy school became honorary members of our association and enriched our activities with their memories.
Unveiling of the memorial plaque for Prof. Dr. med. Willem Ernst Smitt, first director of the State Institute for Physiotherapy and Massage from 1919 – 1922 on 22 April 2007 at the St. Pauli Cemetery in Dresden by Antje Hüter-Becker from Munich (left) and Brigitte Böttcher from Dresden (right).
In 2009, representatives of the eastern and western schools of physiotherapy met again. Among the attendees of this meeting were Prof. Dr. Heidi Höppner from the University of Applied Sciences in Kiel and Lieselotte Brüne, a retired teacher of respiratory therapy from Munich. A lively correspondence developed between the association Physio-In e.V. and Anna Maria Herberg from Ulm, a former student of the State Institute and one of the initiators of the physiotherapy school which was founded at University Hospital Dresden around 1953/1955 (the exact date is unknown).
In 2017, Physio-In e.V. organized an exhibition on the history of physiotherapy in Saxony in cooperation with the Freital Municipal Collections in Castle Burgk. This led to the creation of ten exhibition panels.
In preparation for the 100th anniversary of Dresden‘s state physiotherapy school, the association Physio-In e.V. closely worked together with the Carus Academy at University Hospital Dresden. The centenary took place on 25 May 2019 under the direction of Dr Andrea Conrad at the School of Physiotherapy. On 2 June 1919, the association Physio-In e.V. and its president, Brigitte Böttcher, commemorated the centenary with a ceremony at Taschenbergpalais.
In 2022, the association Physio-In e.V. commemorated the 100th anniversary of Willem Smitt‘s death on 22 April, as well as his 160th birthday on 16 May. An important part of the history of physiotherapy – as well as medicine and naturopathy – in Saxony was thus highlighted and brought to the attention of the public. As the number of members of Physio-In e.V. had decreased over the years due to age and poor health, a dignified and festive farewell ceremony was held at the Taschenbergpalais on 7 October 2022 and the association Physio-In e.V. was dissolved after 17 years of activity. During that period important impulses for the development of physiotherapy in the 21st century could be gained from the association’s research on the historical development of physiotherapy in Saxony and East Germany.
