Dr. Reckeweg^® through the years

The very personal history of our company begins with Heinrich Reckeweg (1877-1944). After training as a teacher, he obtained his first post in 1903 at a primary school in Herford. The next 21 years of his life were marked by teaching at elementary school, by serious illness, by the World War and by his early retirement. In 1912 he was so seriously ill that at the outbreak of the First World War the doctors declared him « fit for garrison duty only ». In 1919 he suffered from chronic nephritis, and in November 1924 the after-effects of tuberculosis and a neck disease led to his early retirement. It is hardly surprising, then, that Heinrich Reckeweg – owing to his serious illness in the early 1920s and the increasingly obvious ineffectiveness of conventional medicine – gradually began to turn towards natural medicine.

Having always been interested in phytotherapy and other natural medicine practices, and being well versed in the teachings of Hahnemann and Prießnitz, Heinrich Reckeweg embarked, self-taught, on training as what we would today call a naturopathic healer. Even in his days as a teacher, he was only too happy to treat many of his pupils when they coughed or had colds, for example. He even developed a cough syrup targeting these ailments. He named this whooping-cough preparation « Jutussin Stickhustenhilfe ». It is still distributed worldwide today under the name « Jutussin R8 » and is extremely well regarded. Besides Hahnemann and Prießnitz, he took a particular interest in Pastor Felke and his methods.

The encounter with Felke was in fact the intellectual starting point for the product range of Dr. Reckeweg & Co GmbH, founded in 1947. Felke had discovered that for illnesses and disorders that always follow the same pattern, the classical homeopathic method always selected the same remedies. He had experimented with mixing these remedies individually for each patient, and had finally come to the conclusion that in certain clinical pictures the same combinations of homeopathic remedies were consistently effective. This was the birth of homeopathic mixtures, also known as homeopathic complexes.

About the concept of indication for homeopathic complexes

The indications of homeopathic complexes are the description of all the symptoms derived from the drug pictures of the components concerned (in relation to a clinical picture defined for homeopathy) with a view to eliminating that clinical picture. Ideally, this clinical picture bears, outside homeopathy, a name based on clinical observations – namely the indication.

The criteria for the relevance of an indication are:

• Each component of the homeopathic complex must be assignable to at least one disorder.
• Each disorder must correspond to the drug picture of at least one component.
• The disorders of the indication must be fully characterised by all the symptoms of the components' drug pictures.
• The components must be mutually compatible, i.e. there must be no antidotes, opposing remedies, etc.

The EuPha laboratory

In order to realise his vision of natural medicine, Heinrich Reckeweg registered his practice with the medical officer and the Trade Register in May 1926, having already begun in his EuPha laboratory in the early 1920s to develop, manufacture and sell homeopathic complexes. His ambition was to produce medicines that were both effective and well tolerated. The company Dr. Reckeweg & Co. GmbH, Bensheim still follows this tradition today.

Heinrich Reckeweg's remarkable therapeutic results earned him great renown far beyond his home town. Although he never held an official title, he was respectfully called « Doctor » Reckeweg. Heinrich Reckeweg died in 1944; it was the end of the EuPha laboratory.

Rebuilding after the war

The knowledge and experience were not lost, however: as early as May 1947, two of his sons – Klaus Günther Reckeweg and the homeopathic physician Dr Alfred Reckeweg – founded the company Dr. A. Reckeweg & Co. GmbH in Herford. Fully in keeping with their father's tradition, they developed a range of sixty homeopathic complexes over the first few years. The basis of the medicine formulations was Heinrich Reckeweg's experience passed on to his sons and Dr Alfred Reckeweg's specialist knowledge of medicine and homeopathy, combined with the two founders' keen interest in the methods of natural medicine. The remedies in the speciality range are designed to provide an alternative based on homeopathic therapy for as many conditions diagnosed in everyday practice as possible.

Their range extends from anti-inflammatories to remedies for treating rheumatoid arthritis, as well as medicines used to treat cardiovascular diseases and disorders of the digestive tract, to name but a few applications.

The growing success of the pharmaceutical company Dr. Reckeweg & Co. GmbH led Klaus Günther Reckeweg, eight years later, to look for new premises, which brought him to Bensheim, the company's current location. This move marked the beginning of a new era for the Reckeweg company. The expansion of the business went hand in hand with a complete modernisation of its technical facilities.

Internationalisation

For Dr. Reckeweg & Co., the 1970s and 1980s were a period of renewal in a great many areas. With Michael Reckeweg joining the company in 1976 and the move into the new company building erected in 1981 – with an operating area of well over 2,000 m² and a growing workforce – the family business definitively attained the status of a pharmaceutical company. From that period onwards, its main focus was on conquering foreign markets. Business relationships were established with importers from Europe and the rest of the world, and international expansion was successfully achieved. Today, Dr. Reckeweg maintains intensive contacts with importers in more than 40 countries in Europe and worldwide, and the export share – now over 90% – impressively reflects the high level of acceptance and appreciation of Reckeweg homeopathic medicines throughout the world. The regional and global expansion of the business was, however, also accompanied by an internal extension of the product range. The speciality range first reached 75 and later as many as 95 preparations. Some of the specialities are offered in various pharmaceutical forms, such as dilutions, injectables, globules, tablets, ointments and syrups. In addition to the specialities, the company began to manufacture and distribute mother tinctures, single remedies in high and very high dilution levels, Dr. Schüßler biochemical tissue salts and veterinary homeopathic preparations. Likewise, a number of food supplements broadened the range in the 1980s and 1990s. The company also played an active role in the development and distribution of an electro-acupuncture device.

All this coincided with the handover between generations, from the company's founders to the current managing director Michael Reckeweg. It was also the period in which responsibilities were reorganised in line with the legal requirements to which a pharmaceutical company is subject. Since then, production in compliance with GMP (Good Manufacturing Practice), according to internationally applicable guidelines, has been imperative.

The company is a founding and active member of ECHAMP (European Coalition on Homeopathic and Anthroposophic Medicinal Products), created in 1999. It is also worth noting that in Germany it is a member of the Federal Association of the Pharmaceutical Industry (BPI) and of the Federal Association of Medicines Manufacturers (BAH), where the interests of homeopathy are defended through committed and active cooperation in various bodies and committees.