Field Post Letter from Walter Bock dated 29 December 1939

Field post letter dated 29 December 1939: „homöopathische Bücher … heben mich für Stunden aus dem Fronterlebnis Feldpostbrief heraus in eine sonnige Welt“/‘Homeopathic books ... lift me out of the frontline experience of field post letters for hours and transport me to a sunny world.’ The Institute for the History of Medicine preserves and maintains the archives of the German Central Association of Homeopathic Physicians. While cataloguing files from the 1930s, archivists discovered Walter Bock's field post letter dated 29 December 1939 among conference minutes and programmes. In it, the homeopathic physician Walter Bock (25 February 1899–19 January 1970), who established a practice in Oberhausen in 1922, writes to Hans Triebel (1896–1960) in Essen and reports on his experiences on the Western Front. He was drafted as a military hospital doctor in 1939: „Vier Monate schon liegen wir eingesetzt hier wir haben genügend zu tun. Ärztlich ist die Arbeit ganz bescheiden, auch unbefriedigend. Meine Arbeit ist zu andersartig, mehr taktischer Truppendienst“./‘We have been deployed here for four months now and have plenty to do. Medically speaking, the work is quite modest, even unsatisfactory. My work is too different, more like tactical troop service.’ The letter proves to be an interesting find in several respects. On the one hand, only a few documents from the Central Association from the Second World War period have been preserved, and on the other hand, the author refers explicitly to homeopathy („nicht zu versauern, habe ich mir einige hom. Bücher kommen lassen…heben mich für Stunden aus dem Fronterlebnis heraus in eine sonnige Welt.“/ ‘in order not to become sour, I have had some homeopathic books sent to me... they lift me out of the frontline experience for hours into a sunny world’). He also discusses homeopathy with colleagues and finds them to be quite receptive („mit dem Divisionsarzt habe ich mich mal lange über Homöopathie unterhalten. Er war sehr aufgeschlossen dafür.“ / ‘I once had a long conversation about homeopathy with the divisional doctor. He was very Open-minded about it.’).
Further research within the collection and in various city archives revealed that Walter Bock was very committed to homeopathy. He gave several lectures on homeopathic treatment methods and later became a member of the examination board for homeopathic doctors in North Rhine-Westphalia. His name also appears in the records of lecturers' fees. This commitment became a tradition in the family: his son Walter Bock Jr. was a candidate for membership in the Association of Homeopathic Doctors of North Rhine-Westphalia in 1954. Both are still listed as contributors in 1963. The digitised versions of the field post letter can be viewed here. The complete transcription of the letter and a brief report on the work with this letter will be covered in a separate article.