Adolf Just (born 8 August 1859, Lüthorst near

Dassel Dassel is a town in southern Lower Saxony, Germany, located in the district Northeim. It is located near the hills of the Solling mountains. Geography The city covers an area of . Buildings and streets make up about 10% of this area while 26% a ...

Kingdom of Hanover The Kingdom of Hanover (german: Königreich Hannover) was established in October 1814 by the Congress of Vienna, with the restoration of George III to his Hanoverian territories after the Napoleonic era. It succeeded the former Electorate of Han ...

; died 20 January 1936,

Blankenburg (Harz) Blankenburg (Harz) is a town and health resort in the district of Harz, in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany, at the north foot of the Harz Mountains, southwest of Halberstadt. It has been in large part rebuilt since a fire in 1836, and possesses a castle ...

) was a German naturopath. He was the founder of the sanatorium

Jungborn Heilerde-Gesellschaft Luvos Just GmbH & Co. KG is a German manufacturer of medicinal clay (''Heilerde'', "healing earth")-based products for both internal and external application. Four different fineness grades of loess in both capsule and powder ...

Eckertal Eckertal is a hamlet of about 160 inhabitants in Bad Harzburg in Lower Saxony, Germany. Location The settlement is situated just north of the Harz mountain range at the entrance of the densely forested Ecker valley, about downstream of the Ecke ...

(resin).

Life

He began an apprenticeship as a bookseller, but fell ill and turned in the self-study on various natural remedies, through which he became a lay practitioner. For a philosophy of medicine he most strongly advocated a "Return to Nature", utilizing natural food, clean water, fresh air, earthen

clay Clay is a type of fine-grained natural soil material containing clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g. kaolin, Al2 Si2 O5( OH)4). Clays develop plasticity when wet, due to a molecular film of water surrounding the clay par ...

, as well as time spent in nature itself. Eckertal in 1895 he founded the Naturopathic Institute

. The most prominent patient was

Franz Kafka Franz Kafka (3 July 1883 – 3 June 1924) was a German-speaking Bohemian novelist and short-story writer, widely regarded as one of the major figures of 20th-century literature. His work fuses elements of realism and the fantastic. It ...

. In 1918 Just founded the

healing clay The use of medicinal clay in folk medicine goes back to prehistoric times. Indigenous peoples around the world still use clay widely, which is related to geophagy. The first recorded use of medicinal clay goes back to ancient Mesopotamia. A wid ...

Society in

, and started the company,

Luvos Heilerde-Gesellschaft Luvos Just GmbH & Co. KG is a German manufacturer of medicinal clay (''Heilerde'', "healing earth")-based products for both internal and external application. Four different fineness grades of loess in both capsule and powder ...

. His main work attracted interest in India and led there to set up a still existing natural medicine hospital in

Pune Pune (; ; also known as Poona, (List of renamed Indian cities and states#Maharashtra, the official name from 1818 until 1978) is one of the most important industrial and educational hubs of India, with an estimated population of 7.4 million ...

. Just held a Christianized religious ideology based on the idea that

salvation Salvation (from Latin: ''salvatio'', from ''salva'', 'safe, saved') is the state of being saved or protected from harm or a dire situation. In religion and theology, ''salvation'' generally refers to the deliverance of the soul from sin and its c ...

could be regained by understanding how primordial man used to live.Leavitt, June O. (2012). ''The Mystical Life of Franz Kafka: Theosophy, Cabala, and the Modern Spiritual Revival''. Oxford University Press. pp. 158-159. He held the belief that in the beginning, "all creatures, frog and mouse, hedgehog and hare, deer, and elk, fox and badger" all lived in harmony with the Creator. Animals remained in their pristine state of grace, whilst man

fell A fell (from Old Norse ''fell'', ''fjall'', "mountain"Falk and Torp (2006:161).) is a high and barren landscape feature, such as a mountain or Moorland, moor-covered hill. The term is most often employed in Fennoscandia, Iceland, the Isle o ...

. He believed that by studying the behaviour of animals, people could experience salvation of the soul. Just believed that Jesus came to redeem humanity by teaching how to live in harmony with nature. His best known work ''Kehrt zur Natur zurück!'' (''Back to Nature!''), was translated by

Benedict Lust Benedict Lust (February 3, 1872 – September 5, 1945) was a German-born American who was one of the founders of naturopathic medicine in the first decades of the twentieth century. Biography Lust was born in Michelbach, Baden, Germany.Anonymou ...

in 1903. Just opposed everything that was not in accordance with nature. He opposed automobiles, modern housing and chemical agriculture.Kirchfeld, Friedhelm; Boyle, Wade. (1994). ''Nature Doctors: Pioneers in Naturopathic Medicine''. Medicina Biológica. pp. 117-118. He rejected medical science and criticized

vaccination Vaccination is the administration of a vaccine to help the immune system develop immunity from a disease. Vaccines contain a microorganism or virus in a weakened, live or killed state, or proteins or toxins from the organism. In stimulating ...

and

vivisection Vivisection () is surgery conducted for experimental purposes on a living organism, typically animals with a central nervous system, to view living internal structure. The word is, more broadly, used as a pejorative catch-all term for experiment ...

. He believed that vaccines were poisons that inflict misery upon people. Just advocated morning fasts and a

raw food Raw foodism, also known as rawism or a raw food diet, is the dietary practice of eating only or mostly food that is uncooked and unprocessed. Depending on the philosophy, or type of lifestyle and results desired, raw food diets may include ...

vegetarian diet of unprocessed foods.Kirchfeld, Friedhelm; Boyle, Wade. (1994). ''Nature Doctors: Pioneers in Naturopathic Medicine''. Medicina Biológica. pp. 123-124. Alter, Joseph S. (2000). ''Gandhi's Body: Sex, Diet, and the Politics of Nationalism''. University of Pennsylvania Press. p. 63. He considered a diet of fruit and nuts to be the best natural foods for man. He rejected the use of any drugs but was also critical of

homeopathy Homeopathy or homoeopathy is a pseudoscientific system of alternative medicine. It was conceived in 1796 by the German physician Samuel Hahnemann. Its practitioners, called homeopaths, believe that a substance that causes symptoms of a dis ...

and

gymnastics Gymnastics is a type of sport that includes physical exercises requiring balance, strength, flexibility, agility, coordination, dedication and endurance. The movements involved in gymnastics contribute to the development of the arms, legs, shou ...

which he considered artificial. He commented that "to the physical culturists, therefore, I would say 'Return to Nature!' Come forth from your musty, dusty rooms and halls, out into free nature." Science writer

Martin Gardner Martin Gardner (October 21, 1914May 22, 2010) was an American popular mathematics and popular science writer with interests also encompassing scientific skepticism, micromagic, philosophy, religion, and literatureespecially the writings of Lewis ...

has noted that "Just's ''Return to Nature'' recommended sleeping on bare ground, walking barefooted on wet lawns and sand, and using clay compresses."Gardner, Martin. (1957)
"Medical Cults: Naturopathy"
In ''

Fads and Fallacies in the Name of Science ''Fads and Fallacies in the Name of Science'' (1957)—originally published in 1952 as ''In the Name of Science: An Entertaining Survey of the High Priests and Cultists of Science, Past and Present''—was Martin Gardner's second book. A survey o ...

''. Dover Publications.

Publications

''Return to Nature!''
(translated into English in 1903 by

) * ''Jungborn echo. Brief History of Jungborn especially interesting judgments, reports, articles and important Kurberichte'' (1904) * ''The Jungborn - table. A new, simple, vegetarian cookbook'', 1905 * ''The Help on the way! Mental and emotional life'' (1907) * ''The battle for the truth. The contemporary nature of life (earth and clay) court'' (1907) * ''The contemporary nature of healing, in a condensed form. Human salvation for body, mind and soul'' (1913) * ''The healing earth, nature and the old folk remedy and its wonderful healing of internal and external application. All true modern natural healing method on a Christian foundation'' (1919) * ''The Earth as a remedy. The old natural and folk remedies, and its wonderful healing of internal and external application. The true nature of healing, contemporary Christian basis'' (1921)

References

External links

* * http://www.jungborn-harz.eu * https://web.archive.org/web/20120710062818/http://www.naturheilanstalt-jungborn.de/4.html * https://web.archive.org/web/20120606020521/http://www.bullrichs-heilerde.de/historieDamals_adolfJust.php {{DEFAULTSORT:Just, Adolf 1859 births 1936 deaths German anti-vaccination activists German vegetarianism activists Anti-vivisectionists Fasting advocates People from Northeim (district) category:People from the Kingdom of Hanover Naturopaths Pseudoscientific diet advocates Raw foodists

Life

Publications

See also

References

Further reading

External links