The Beauty of Teufen

by Remo Vetter, General Manager, A.Vogel Teufen

HEALTHY WAY MAGAZINE ISSUE 36 ARTICLE 6

Teufen is a beautiful village, not far from St Gallen in the Appenzell region of eastern Switzerland where, in 1937, Alfred Vogel decided to set up his Naturopathic Clinic. Vogel had moved to the Appenzell in around 1932, because of the positive attitude that this area took to practising naturopaths. Initially he lived and worked in Trogen, also close to St Gallen, but in 1937 he bought the charming Hätchen, located high on the edge of the village, with wonderful views of the surrounding countryside and the mountains beyond, dominated by the Sentis.

The site proved ideal, offering a garden in which to cultivate his herbs, a building to house his equipment for manufacturing his remedies, facilities to accommodate patients and a home for himself and his family.

He worked holistically with his patients, believing that Good health is about more than taking remedies. He ensured that they benefited from wholesome food, much of it grown in his gardens, and from the fresh air of his Alpine setting, encouraging those who could walk with him into the mountains to learn more about the herbs which Nature provides.

When remedies were required, his many years experience with his patients clearly showed him that herbal preparations made from fresh plant material had a better and more immediate effect on those he treated than medicines prepared using dried herbs.

Alfred Vogel was also convinced that his remedies could only be prepared to his own high standards of quality if he himself could guarantee the origin and growth conditions of the plants. This prompted him to begin carefully planting and harvesting the medicinal plants he needed in his own surgery garden at Teufen. By allowing a certain amount of the plants to go to seed each year, he could produce his own seeds for the following year and so guarantee their quality.

After he had hand harvested his plants at a time he considered would provide the optimal active substances for his medicines, often just as dawn broke, he would then create a fresh herbal tincture. While the herbs used in the range of tinctures that bears his name are now grown elsewhere, his original herb garden still flourishes as a ‘Show Garden’.

This natural haven, where bees, butterflies and ladybirds also thrive, forms part of the Vogel Museum and Visitor Centre, which was created after his death. It is visited by people from all corners of the globe who believe, as did Alfred Vogel, that everything we need to protect and preserve health we can get from Nature.