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 Hanna Kroeger: The Grandmother of Health
http://wellnessnetworker.ca/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id
=32&Itemid=27
Written by Gisela Kroeger Hoffman
Thursday, 20 April 2006

Hanna Kroeger was one of the foremost authorities on herbs, homeopathic
remedies and natural healing techniques in the United States

In 1999, she was designated by New Life Magazine, one of the six
outstanding holistic pioneers of the 20th century along with Dr. Edward
Bach, Edgar Cayce, Dr. John Christopher, Linus Pauling and Ann Wigmore. She
spent her entire life developing natural herbal and homeopathic remedies at
her educational center, Peaceful Meadow Retreat, in Boulder, Colorado.
During her lifetime, Hanna trained, healed and inspired thousands of people
and wrote twenty books which contain information about and uses for her
unique herbal combinations and Vibropathic™ remedies, the "gadgets" that
she developed, the "hands on" procedures that she taught and the simple,
yet powerful, "home remedies" that she shared

Hanna Ursula was born in Attabey, Turkey on October 5, 1913, the sixth and
last child of Max and Hannah Zimmer, who were German missionaries in charge
of a home for Armenian orphans. Hanna watched as her mother healed the
natives with herbs, poultices, baths and soups. Her father’s interest lay
primarily in helping the villagers help themselves. He organized the
building of irrigation ditches and dikes and showed them that certain crops
where more productive than others.

Hanna was educated primarily at home by her mother and father. At the age
of sixteen, she traveled around the North Turkish region as an interpreter
for an American missionary doctor, Dr. Clark. A donkey was used to carry
the tent, blankets and clothing as well as the few medical supplies that
were available to them.



Dr. Clark encouraged Hanna to become a nurse. When Clark departed from
Turkey, Hanna went to the American School of Nursing in Istanbul. After one
year, she left Istanbul for Germany to finish her nursing education at the
University of Freiburg. She later worked at a naturopathic hospital in
Dresden where she met and studied with natural medicine pioneer, Dr. Alfred
Brauchele. (1850-19240) Dr. Brauchele’s methods were the basis for many
of Hanna’s remedies in her later years. It was during this time in
Dresden that she began to discover many of the curative ways to restore
health using herbs, special diets, baths and massages.



In 1938, Hanna married Rudolf Otto Erich Kroeger, a newly graduated
mechanical engineer. Just prior to World War II, they settled in a little
village, Schoenboecken, outside of the city of Luebeck in northern Germany.
Four children were born before and during the war. Rudolf was captured in
Berlin by the Russians and spent five years in a Russian concentration camp
while Hanna raised their four children.



Rudolf was released in late 1949 and their fifth child, Lisa, was born in
1950. Hanna, Rudolf and all five children relocated to America in 1953,
first living in Milwaukee, then later in Michigan, before settling in
Boulder in 1956. In 1957, Hanna took over a small store on Broadway in
Boulder called the "Imperial Tea and Coffee Company." She very quickly
filled the coffee and tea bins with herbal teas and added whole grains,
nuts, unsulfured dried apricots and raisins as well as sunflower seeds and
natural oils. Hanna’s store was one of the first health food stores in
Colorado if not in the entire United States. She baked whole wheat bread
every night and carried the four loaves to her store in her bicycle basket.



After one year, Hanna moved the store to a larger building on Pearl Street
and renamed it "New Age Foods." She began holding meetings in the back of
the store. Speakers of all persuasions and intentions came through her
store as well as through her home. Hanna subsequently bought her own
building at 1122 Pearl Street and started carrying vitamins. Except for a
few canisters, little traces of the Imperial Tea and Coffee shop remained.
It was here that she began to counsel people on individual problems using
vitamins, natural foods, spices and then herbs. Gradually she added
homeopathics. She also started writing books and pamphlets to educate
people.



In 1961 she bought the property at 7075 Valmont Road and Peaceful Meadow
Retreat was born. At first Hanna viewed the property as a potential place
for the Hospital for Leukemic Children she had always dreamed of. She
instead began nursing MS and severely arthritic patients. She quickly
realized that she could not reach enough people through a health retreat
modeled after European spas and thus, started holding classes there.



In 1972, Hanna was tried and convicted of practicing medicine without a
license. Her primary problem seemed to be that she had touched the hands of
detectives who were sent to the store to entrap her. Soon after the trial,
the charges were dropped on her promise to "not do this again." She was not
quite certain what she was allowed to do and went right back to the store
to heal "her people." The trial served primarily to publicize her store and
huge lines of up to 100 people started forming to see her every day. The
trial outcome also served to open up Boulder to alternative healing. Soon
many shingles of healers who had been working behind the scenes graced the
streets and the newspapers. The trial also incited Hanna to create her own
church, the Chapel of Miracles, as she realized that her work was getting
more spiritual and that ordination would help insulate her work from the
increasing powers of governmental agencies such as the FDA and AMA.



Instead of baking bread, the family now spent its evenings mixing and
encapsulating herbs one capsule at a time. Soon the demand for Hanna’s
herbs outpaced the family production line and the Kroeger Herb Company was
formed in the basement of 1122 Pearl Street. After one year, the company
outgrew its space and Hanna bought the present building on 805 Walnut
Street as the headquarters, packaging, and shipping department of the
company.



Whenever people came to her with a problem that she could not immediately
solve, Hanna studied as much as she could about the problem, using
scientific books as well as conferring with doctors and other consultants
throughout the country. Many of Hanna’s herbal combinations were divinely
inspired. The herbs in the combinations work synergistically in the
tradition of old herbal philosophies of Europe, each enhancing the
qualities of the others. Since herbs, like homeopathics, heal primarily
through vibration, Hanna was very insistent that only the purest,
non-chemically altered or packaged herbs were used.



In 1988, the Colorado District Attorney threatened legal action if Hanna
did not quit "prescribing" her remedies. Hanna, now 74 years old, decided
that she was getting too old for the 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. job anyway. She
asked the Lord how to continue and the answer was "telephone." Seemingly
overnight, she was able to discern people’s vibrations over the phone and
soon she was fielding calls from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. most every day of the
week. During that time, Hanna also traveled throughout the country giving
weekend seminars, hurrying back before Sunday morning to bake cakes for the
increasingly large audiences at her church services.



The classes at the retreat became more and more popular in the 90’s.
Sometimes as many as 100 people showed up for a class. Since the retreat
could only comfortably accommodate forty, many people ended up sleeping on
church pews, in hallways, in tents and at the homes of volunteers. From May
through October, Hanna taught the classes practically every weekend, even
to the last weekend of her transition. Her plea to her students became
increasingly strident. "I cannot do it alone. You must help one another.
You, you, and you must and can do it."



Upon arriving in America in 1952, Hanna was disappointed by the lack of
nutritious foods available and started buying bulk whole grains for her
family and friends. This grew into one of the first health food stores in
the country. Hanna would bake delicious breads, which brought many people
to her store. The more adventurous folks would try some fresh carrot juice,
which in 1958 was unheard of. By the 1960’s Hanna’s store was bustling.



    *

      People would come to see her for their health questions and Hanna’s
reputation as a healer flourished. She became popular with both natural
healers as well as medical professionals. Hanna was an important pioneer in
the development and awareness of alternative health and natural foods and
opened the door for many practitioners and health businesses...
    *

      Her coming to Colorado sparked an interest in the indigenous herbs of
North America and lead her to study with Native American herbalists,
discovering more insights into the complexities these herbs have to offer
as important healing tools...
    *

      During the early years Hanna made her own herbal combinations a few
at a time. She gave her formulas away to anyone who needed help. She soon
became known as a master of using subtle and unique combinations of two or
more herbs to improve the whole system of the body...
    *

      Author of twenty books, Hanna combined her intuitive sense with the
health and medical information she researched. She also studied many
healing methods from around the world, including massage, energy work,
homeopathy and nutrition. Hanna used a well-rounded palette of healing
techniques not limited by convention and looked at physical, emotional and
spiritual motives for ailments. She used diet, herbs, homeopathics,
vitamins, minerals, physical alignment, massage, acupressure, aura
balancing and other practices of natural healing.


Articles and information courtesy of Gisela Kroeger Hoffman, daughter of
Hanna Kroeger and owner of The Peaceful Meadow Retreat-spiritual home and
educational center founded by Hanna and Rudolf Kroeger in 1962. To learn
more about Hanna Kroeger and her life's work, visit
www.peacefulmeadowretreat.com or contact Gisela Kroeger Hoffman at
1-303-442-2490. You can also write to This email address is being protected
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