The Inventor of Physical Therapy? The Rise and Fall of Dr. Johan Mezger

Revered and reviled, the now largely forgotten Dr. Johan Mezger (1838–1909) was one of the most famous physicians of the nineteenth century. He owed his reputation to a seemingly new and revolutionary treatment for injuries and musculoskeletal disorders: friction, manipulation, and massage. After the “miraculous” cure of the Swedish Crown Prince, Mezger achieved international fame, and tens of thousands of patients travelled to his practice in Amsterdam. Among them were empresses and queens, virtually the entire European nobility, and numerous well-known musicians. He also admitted a small number of pupils to learn his method, including an Icelandic physician. Over time, advances in medical science undermined Mezger’s seemingly unassailable position. His later pursuit of a groundbreaking new cure for all ills, together with his arrogance and ambition, helped bring about his fall from celebrity to oblivion. This lecture discusses the reasons for Mezger’s extraordinary success and eventual decline, and considers his significance for the history of medicine, massage, rehabilitation, and physical therapy.

Peter Jan Margry is Professor emeritus of European Ethnology at the University of Amsterdam and senior fellow at the Meertens Institute, a research center of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences in Amsterdam; he has a research focus on religious cultures, pilgrimage, rituals, alternative healing, traditions and heritage.