Norbert Galatzer 1900 - 1980

Norbert Galatzer **1900 - 1980 was a homeopath who fled the Nazis and took refuge in **Nanking in China for almost nine years before finally returning to Europe.

Letter from J. A. Alexander, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Rome, Italy, offering to collaborate with sections of ‘Science and Civilisation in China’, and copy of Joseph Needham’s letter of reply.

Alexander exaplins that he ‘left China at about the time you arrived, having spent eight months as a prisoner of war in Japanese hands and being exchanged in August 1942’.

The letter specifically offers the help of Dr. Norbert Galatzer, a friend of Alexander, who learnt acupuncture during many years in China. (Joseph Needham did a seminal work on acupuncture with Lu Gwei djen, his second wife).

With thanks to Chris Galatzer (Norbert’s daughter):

Just by chance I came across this review on my father, Dr. Norbert Galatzer.

Unfortunately there are many errors in your text that I would like to correct and question marks that I would like to remove.

Here the correct information: Dr. Norbert Galatzer was born in Galizia (what today is Ukraine) in July 1900 and died in May 1980 in Rome, Italy.

At the end of 1938 he fled from Nazi struck Vienna in AUSTRIA, not Germany. He did not take refuge in Shanghai, but in Nanking. In fact he stayed in China for eight full years, almost nine in fact.

In 1948 he did not return to his homeland Austria but after a one-year stay in Switzerland, in 1950 he moved to Rome. He lived and worked there till the end of his life.

In Rome he was one of the very first homeopaths and contributed to pave the way for this medicine. He was a good friend of the famous Swiss homeopath Pierre Schmidt…

During his years in China my father did in fact achieve as well a Chinese doctor’s “degree”, which then meant he was able to read the old Books of Wisdom. To be able to do so he learnt Mandarin Chinese and worked with local Chinese doctors who acknowledged him his skills in acupuncture, pulse diagnosis and traditional Chinese medicine.

Back in Europe he continued using TCM as well, mainly the pulse diagnosis.

Galatzer was involved with the Homeopathic Congress to Salzburg in 1958.

Galatzer wrote Eight Years in China for the Journal of the American Institute of Homeopathy 1948 Aug;41(8):172-7, __Personality as the Key Idea in Homeopathy in The British Homeopathic Journal Vol. 49, No. 2 - April 1960. Most of Galatzer’s publications are in German books and journals.