Bruno Gröning

Bruno Bernhard Gröning (1906 in Danzig – January 26, 1959 in Paris ) was a German mystic who rose to fame in the late 1940s for performing faith healings. Prior to this, he was a member of the Nazi Party, serving in World War II and spending several months in a prisoner of war camp. He died of cancer at the age of 52.

Life
Gröning was born into a Catholic family in Danzig in 1906. He was the fourth of seven and grew up living in an urban housing block in the suburb of Oliva. He never completed his education. He trained as a carpenter for a time, but also worked variously as a waiter, an electrician, a furniture marker, a paint seller, and as a repairman of bicycles, sewing machines, and watches. In 1928 he married a woman named Gertrud with whom he would have two sons, both of whom later died, with the elder boy dying in 1939 due to a heart defect and the younger boy dying in 1949 due to pleurisy. The marriage between Bruno and Gertrud was described as unhappy and the two would ultimately divorce.

In the aftermath of World War I, the Nazi Party established a significant presence in Danzig. Gröning, his father, and his brother joined the Nazi Party sometime before 1936. The family also changed its surname from Grönkowski, Grenkowski, or Grzenkowski - records are unclear - to the more German sounding Gröning in 1936. In March 1943 he was conscripted into the Wehrmacht as a Panzerjäger and underwent training in Kolberg, but was later captured by the Soviets in Köslin and spent a period from March to late October of 1945 in a prisoner of war camp in Frankfurt an der Oder.

In May 1949, the state of North Rhine-Westphalia (where Herford is located) prohibited Gröning from acting as a healer, and he relocated to the city of Rosenheim in Bavaria, where authorities were more supportive, with the state's minister president Hans Ehard opining that legalities shouldn't impede the activities of such an "extraordinary phenomenon". With intense media coverage in magazines, radio and Wochenschau newsreels, soon tens of thousands of people were filling the horse paddocks near the inn where Gröning was lodging at the outskirts of Rosenheim, hoping that his "healing rays" (Heilstrahlen) would cure them of war injuries, blindness, and other handicaps and ailments. Gröning spoke to them from a balcony and had small tin foil balls (allegedly charged with his healing powers) distribute to those that he was not able to touch in person. While he did not demand money, he is assumed to have received a substantial amount of donations. After half a year Gröning was forced to leave Rosenheim amid charges of negligent homicide of a 17-year-old girl with lung disease; he later received several suspended prison sentences and fines.

Gröning died at the age of 52 of stomach cancer; his ashes were buried in Dillenburg next to his younger son.

Reception
Media coverage of Bruno Gröning tended to be negative. While some called Gröning a "miracle doctor", the popular press of the time tended to call him a "charlatan" or "crazy."

In many towns Gröning was forbidden from making public appearances. Reasons for this varied. One charge brought against him was that he was practicing medicine without a license. At other times officials were concerned about the large crowds that gathered.

Following
Various groups continue to promulgate Gröning's teaching, including the Circle of Information, the Bruno Groening Trust, the Bruno Groening Friends, the Association for the Advancement in Germany of Spiritual and Natural - Psychological Foundations for Living, the Association for Natural Spiritual Living, the Bruno Gröning Circle of Friends, and Help and Healing Sessions.

Gröning founded the Association for the Advancement in 1958 to replace the Gröning Association. The Circle of Friends was founded in 1979 by Grete Hausler, an Austrian school teacher who worked closely with Gröning. The Circle of Information was created by Thomas Busse, who has written a number of books about Gröning and directed the documentary film The Gröning Phenomena. Help and Healing Sessions is an association of independent Groening groups and hosts online meetings.

The Bruno Gröning Circle of Friends was listed as a commercial sect in an official 1997 report by the Berlin Senate Committee. On May 23, 2013, the World Peace Prayer Society (WPPS) awarded the Bruno Gröning Circle of Friends with the Peace Pole Award.

Personal life
He was a chain-smoker and a heavy coffee drinker. While in Hertford, it was reported that he "he liked to take a drink; he caroused.". He was known to sexually harass women at times; some members of his inner circle found it necessary to control his access to them to prevent scandal, though other supporters denied accusations of sexual misconduct. In the 1940s he wore his hair unusually long and kept only one set of clothing, which he washed every evening.