Walther Cloos (born in

Darmstadt Darmstadt () is a city in the States of Germany, state of Hesse in Germany, located in the southern part of the Frankfurt Rhine Main Area, Rhine-Main-Area (Frankfurt Metropolitan Region). Darmstadt has around 160,000 inhabitants, making it th ...

, Germany 22 June 1900 and died in

Ulm Ulm () is a city in the German state of Baden-Württemberg, situated on the river Danube on the border with Bavaria. The city, which has an estimated population of more than 126,000 (2018), forms an urban district of its own (german: link=no, ...

, Germany, 30 June 1985) was a

pharmacist A pharmacist, also known as a chemist (Commonwealth English) or a druggist (North American and, archaically, Commonwealth English), is a healthcare professional who prepares, controls and distributes medicines and provides advice and instructi ...

alchemist Alchemy (from Arabic: ''al-kīmiyā''; from Ancient Greek: χυμεία, ''khumeía'') is an ancient branch of natural philosophy, a philosophical and protoscience, protoscientific tradition that was historically practiced in Chinese alchemy, C ...

Anthroposophist Anthroposophy is a spiritualist movement founded in the early 20th century by the esotericist Rudolf Steiner that postulates the existence of an objective, intellectually comprehensible spiritual world, accessible to human experience. Followers ...

lecturer Lecturer is an List of academic ranks, academic rank within many universities, though the meaning of the term varies somewhat from country to country. It generally denotes an academic expert who is hired to teach on a full- or part-time basis. T ...

, researcher, inventor, author and pioneer in anthroposophical pharmacy.

Life

Walther Cloos grew up in

, and studied

pharmacy Pharmacy is the science and practice of discovering, producing, preparing, dispensing, reviewing and monitoring medications, aiming to ensure the safe, effective, and affordable use of medicines. It is a miscellaneous science as it links heal ...

at the

Stuttgart Stuttgart (; Swabian: ; ) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Baden-Württemberg. It is located on the Neckar river in a fertile valley known as the ''Stuttgarter Kessel'' (Stuttgart Cauldron) and lies an hour from the ...

Technical University. He attended lectures on

mineralogy Mineralogy is a subject of geology specializing in the scientific study of the chemistry, crystal structure, and physical (including optical) properties of minerals and mineralized artifacts. Specific studies within mineralogy include the proces ...

and

geology Geology () is a branch of natural science concerned with Earth and other astronomical objects, the features or rocks of which it is composed, and the processes by which they change over time. Modern geology significantly overlaps all other Ear ...

and did practical training in pharmacy in the

Spessart Spessart is a ''Mittelgebirge'', a range of low wooded mountains, in the States of Bavaria and Hesse in Germany. It is bordered by the Vogelsberg, Rhön and Odenwald. The highest elevation is the Geiersberg at 586 metres above sea level. Etymo ...

region, near

Hamburg (male), (female) en, Hamburger(s), Hamburgian(s) , timezone1 = Central (CET) , utc_offset1 = +1 , timezone1_DST = Central (CEST) , utc_offset1_DST = +2 , postal ...

and in the southern

Black Forest The Black Forest (german: Schwarzwald ) is a large forested mountain range in the state of Baden-Württemberg in southwest Germany, bounded by the Rhine Valley to the west and south and close to the borders with France and Switzerland. It is t ...

. Joanna Thylmann's reading group introduced him to

Rudolf Steiner Rudolf Joseph Lorenz Steiner (27 or 25 February 1861 – 30 March 1925) was an Austrian occultist, social reformer, architect, esotericist, and claimed clairvoyant. Steiner gained initial recognition at the end of the nineteenth century as a ...

and

Anthroposophy Anthroposophy is a spiritualist movement founded in the early 20th century by the esotericist Rudolf Steiner that postulates the existence of an objective, intellectually comprehensible spiritual world, accessible to human experience. Followers ...

through her reading group. He had already heard Steiner speak at the independent academic course held in

in March 1921. He also attended a second course in

in July of that year. After having completed his assistantship in pharmacy, he went to work in a chemical factory in Darmstadt. In April 1925 Cloos joined the laboratory staff of the Institute of Clinical Medicine in Stuttgart. The center of this group would later become the German

Weleda Weleda is a multinational company that produces both beauty products and naturopathic medicines. Both branches design their products based on anthroposophic principles, an alternative medicine. The company takes its name from the German form of ...

Company. There he started to develop the method of metal

distillation Distillation, or classical distillation, is the process of separation process, separating the components or substances from a liquid mixture by using selective boiling and condensation, usually inside an apparatus known as a still. Dry distilla ...

that Rudolf Steiner suggested would increase the medical action of metals. Metallic mirror preparations called 'metallicum preparatum' came to play an important role in the medicinal use of metals.http://www.iaap.org.uk/downloads/pioneers-in-anthroposophic-pharmacy-june-2006.pdf Pioneers in Anthroposophic Pharmacy Accessed on: 2009-13-4 He took interest as well in medicinal plants grown in the Weleda Schwaebisch Gmuend. With the botanist Gerbert Grohmann and many farmers he studied the ideal conditions and best habitats for different medicinal plants and their biodynamic cultivation. The main focus of his work at

would be the manufacture of medicines made from minerals and metals. Cloos worked out 200 monographs for these medicaments. In the 1960s and 1970s collaboration developed in Schwabisch Gmuend with

Pelikan Pelikan Holding AG is a German manufacturing company of writing, office and art equipment. Credited with the invention of the differential-piston filling method, the original company was founded in Hanover in 1838 before it went bankrupt and r ...

, Schmiedel,

Krueger Krüger, Krueger or Kruger (without the umlaut Ü) are German surnames originating from ''Krüger'', meaning tavern-keeper in Low German and potter in Central German and Upper German. The last name Krüger with umlaut dots is widespread in Germa ...

and

Theodor Schwenk Theodor Schwenk (8 October 1910, in Schwäbisch Gmünd – 29 September 1986, in Filderstadt) was an anthroposophist, engineer and a pioneering water researcher who founded the Institute for Flow. He is most well known for his book ''Sensitive Chao ...

. This would be the foundation for Weleda medicines later on. Cloos also kept in close contact with the medical profession which provided opportunities for further collaboration. He was also in contact with the Science Section of the School of Spiritual Science at the

Goetheanum The Goetheanum, located in Dornach, in the canton of Solothurn, Switzerland, is the world center for the anthroposophical movement. The building was designed by Rudolf Steiner and named after Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. It includes two performa ...

. He offered lecture and courses for he workers, farmers, gardeners and students at the Goetheanum. Cloos was continually invited to give talks to physicians at Lake Hallstatt in Upper

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

. Dr. Franz Bengesser built a house there for small-scale medical meetings in a large room there.

Works

*Die Erde — ein Lebewesen. Beiträge zur Physiologie der Erde (The Earth as a Living Entity — Aspects of Its Physiology) published by Freies Geistesleben in Stuttgart in 1952. * The Living Earth. The Organic Origin of Rocks and Minerals. * Kleine Edelsteinkunde. In Hinblick auf die Geschichte der Erde (A Brief Gemology in the Light of Earth History) published by Freies Geistesleben in Stuttgart in 1956. 4 editions. * Werdende Natur (Evolving Nature) Goetheanum-Bücher Nr. 8. Phil.-Anthr. Verlag, Dornach 1966. * Vom Arbeiten mit der Werdenden Natur (Working with Evolving Nature) Verlag Die Kommenden, Freiburg 1966.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cloos, Walther 1900 births 1985 deaths Scientists from Darmstadt People from the Grand Duchy of Hesse Anthroposophic medicine practitioners German pharmacists