Wilhemsplatz

Here on Wilhemsplatz lived a little boy who was crippled. Dieter Hülsmann was suffering from muscle atrophy. Untreatable, the doctors said. Until Bruno Gröning appeared at Dieter's bed. Wonder Doctor. An hour later Dieter had sensation in his legs again, the next day he could walk again. That happened in 1949. The Hülsmann family invited miracle doctor Bruno Gröning to live with them here in a house on Wilhemsplatz. This place became a pilgrimage . Thousands of people flocked to this small town in North Rhine-Westphalia. From time to time Gröning showed up on the balcony. In the crowd below, the paralyzed could walk again, stutterers could speak again, the deaf could hear and the blind could see again. The miracle of Herford gripped the nation. Bruno Gröning became world news. Bruno Gröning is one of the central figures in The possessed land , a book by the American historian Monica Black about the belief in witches and miracle doctors in Germany, shortly after the fall of the Third Reich.

Pascal Brackman