Joseph Ennemoser was a South Tyrolean physician and stubborn late proponent of Franz Mesmer's theories of animal magnetism. He became known to English readers through Mary Howitt's translation of his History of Magic.
Biography
Ennemoser, the child of poor parents, was born in Egghof bei Rabenstein and raised by his grandfather. He attended high school in Merano and Trento, and from 1806 studied medicine in Innsbruck. On the outbreak of war in 1809 he became a secretary to Andreas Hofer, and later continued his studies in Erlangen and Vienna. In 1812 he moved to Berlin, where he met Christian Friedrich von Petersdorff and Ludwig Adolf Wilhelm von Lützow. In the summer of 1812, he went to London together with several Tyroleans to appeal for support in the fight against Napoleon. From 1813 he was in the Lützow Free Corps as an active leader of a group of Tyrolean marksmen which gained fame at Lauenburg and Jülich. In September 1813 he was promoted to second lieutenant. After the First Treaty of Paris in 1814, he completed his studies in Berlin and became a supporter of Franz Anton Mesmer and his theory of animal magnetism. In 1819, he became a professor of medicine in Bonn, leaving in 1837 for Innsbruck and then, in 1841, settling in Munich, where he earned a great reputation as a "magnetic physician." He died in Egern by Lake Tegernsee in southern Germany. A Viennese street, the Ennemosergasse, was named after him in 1955.
Selected works
De Montium Influxu in Valetudinem Hominum, Vitae Genus et Morbos. Dissertatio Inauguralis Medica. Berlin 1816.
Der Magnetismus nach der allseitigen Beziehung seines Wesens, seiner Erscheinungen, Anwendung und Enträthselung in einer geschichtlichen Entwickelung von allen Zeiten und bei allen Völkern. Leipzig 1819.
Ueber die nähere Wechselwirkung des Leibes und der Seele, mit anthropologischen Untersuchungen über den Mörder Adolph Moll. Habicht, Bonn 1825.
Der Magnetismus in seiner geschichtlichen Entwickelung, from the 2ndedition with the title Geschichte des thierischen Magnetismus. Bd.: 1 Geschichte der Magie. Leipzig 1844. Facsimile edition, Sändig, Wiesbaden 1966.
Historisch-psychologische Untersuchungen über den Ursprung und das Wesen der menschlichen Seele überhaupt, und über die Beseelung des Kindes insbesondere. Bonn 1824, 2. Aufl., Stuttgart 1851.
Anthropologische Ansichten zur bessern Kenntnis des Menschen. Bonn 1828.
Der Magnetismus im Verhältnis zur Natur und Religion. Stuttgart 1842, 2. Aufl. 1853.
Was ist die Cholera und wie kann man sich vor ihr am sichersten verwahren? Nebst Angabe der bewährtesten Heilung derselben. 2. Auflg. Stuttgart 1848.
Der Geist des Menschen in der Natur oder die Psychologie in Uebereinstimmung mit der Naturkunde. Cotta, Stuttgart 1849.
Anleitung zur Mesmerschen Praxis. Stuttgart 1852. Neudruck der Ausg. 1852, Kuballe, Osnabrück 1984.
Das Horoskop in der Weltgeschichte. München 1860. Reprinted with an autobiographical fragment: Mein Leben and extra material and commentary by Hermann Haase. Pflüger Verlag, München 1924.
Untersuchungen über den Ursprung und das Wesen der menschlichen Seele. Including Mein Leben. Verlag Die Pforte, Basel 1980..
