• 06/11/2022
• By wizewebsite
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Founder of Czech Kneipp - Without shoes and sometimes without clothes<

Founder of Český Kneipp - Without shoes and sometimes without clothes

The lady remained unknown, but the master was retired sub-marshal Emanuel Salomon from Friedberg-Mírohorský, a patriot, writer, painter, a man who acquired in the army indeed an extraordinary position. And also the founder of Český Kneipp in 1893, an association governed by the principles of pastor Sebastian Kneipp. He was a convinced vegetarian, non-smoker and abstinent. He didn't even drink coffee. He has been under strict supervision since childhood.

I spit out the beer immediately

Emanuel was born on January 18, 1829 in Prague in the family of a minor nobleman, Augustin Ignác Salomon from Friedberg, who professed to speak the Czech language, although he was apparently of Bavarian origin. Emanuel's father worked as a manager of various noble estates. Teresia's mother died after giving birth to her son, and her father remarried to Františka Baroness Staël-Hollstein. She tried to raise Emanuel in German and taught him French. In the future, the boy will speak English, Hungarian, Italian, Polish and Serbo-Croatian.

He had an aversion to alcohol and tobacco from an early age. His uncle Neumann once forced him at eleven to at least taste beer and wine because "it is unreasonable to condemn something we have not tasted". Even years later, Emanuel recalled it with disgust: "Beer was against me with its smell and disgusting stickiness. I took them in my mouth, but it felt as if someone was brushing my tongue or running a horse with a horse, and it was bitter like bile, so that I had to spit it out and swallow it with a large piece of sugar, like a disgusting medicine.

It wasn't even better with the wine, which "was too sour for him". He has not taken alcohol in his mouth since then. And it didn't just stop at alcohol.

There was not much sense in his head

Little Emanuel hated smoking cigarettes and even more than snuffing tobacco. He spoke quite mercilessly about Uncle Neumann, who loved sniffing. He stated that “there was not much sense in his head, and still less knowledge. He often drank excessively, so he always smelled of liquor, he snuffed avidly - he had a large collection of snuff boxes - and he very rarely changed his blue handkerchiefs, which he carefully searched before every need to find a clean spot that was not soaked with tobacco".

He later wrote about cigarettes: "I just wonder how someone can put something in their mouth that stinks at one end and burns at the other!"

He had the same dislike for doctors. It was introduced to him by the family doctor Dr. Čermák, who treated all diseases by "relieving" in bed, without ventilation, without changing the bed linen, but with drinking warm water. As an adult, Emanuel became a passionate believer in hydrotherapy and was almost never sick. He bathed daily. He used the water for all ailments - it is said that with its help he also treated his servant with venereal disease.

Scoundrels and beggars

Emanuel's life was full of movement. He was educated at home until the age of eight, then in the years 1837-1840 he attended the Academic Gymnasium in Klementin, whose prefect was Josef Jungmann. His classmate was Vojta Náprstek. When he was ten, his father asked him about his future profession. The boy said he wanted to be a painter. The head of the family did not like this, he exclaimed that "all artists are scoundrels and beggars".

Emanuel finally decided on a military career - he spent 43 years in uniform. After studying at the military academy in Vienna's New Town in 1847, he became a member of the 28th Infantry Regiment in Terezín. And a colorful military life began for him with transfers from place to place.

In 1848, he took part in the fighting in northern Italy, where the anti-Austrian uprising broke out. There he suffered an injury, "a piece of skull bone was taken out, and in its place he had a silver plate, covered with curled hair." He served, among others, in Timișoara, Budapest, Ljubljana, and Verona. He spent the war of 1866 on the Italian battlefield.

Female favor of a purely physical character

He was very popular, but he was not happy in his personal life. Officers who wanted to get married had to post a high bond, and the exact number of people they could be married was also fixed. That is why many remained single. Even Friedberg did not count on marriage and did not look for women. In 1849, however, his colleagues dragged him into a public house under the pretext of seeing a rare collection of paintings.

He praised the experience: "My comrades taught me to know a new side of human life, they showed me that somewhere in the world they sell, and therefore can be bought for money immediately like a bun in a store, female favor of at least a purely physical nature and the most extreme without any preliminary circumstances, without wooing her, without courting, spice and flattery and backbiting in advance, without difficult plots and embarrassments afterwards, can be bought in every way immensely cheaper than what morally chastising society demands - for the slavery of marriage until death!'

It lasted him until he was thirty - then he fell in love with the daughter of engineer colonel Marie Rudolph and married her. At first, coexistence was idyllic. Friedberg wrote about it: "I have been married for five weeks and I barely have enough time to give my lovely wife lessons in Czech, which she enthusiastically learns and is making gratifying progress, even though she was born to Viennese parents." changed - Marie suffered from mood swings, fiercely jealous, regretful and nervous. Emanuel even wrote a memorandum on the abolition of marriage and war in 1886. In the end, Maria's mental illness fully broke out - she died in 1878.

Nevertheless, Friedberg had respect for women and loved children.

A woman by nature in many respects

Emanuel had seven children with his wife, three daughters died at an early age "from a mischievous person", two adult sons Zdeněk and Ludvík committed suicide, one of the daughters, Helena, fell into depression and ended up "in a mental institution".

Only two daughters lived to see their father's old age. Emanuel was desperate and devastated. He devoted himself entirely to children. He welcomed everyone with joy, whether they were sons or daughters. He treated them when they were sick, forcing his wife to breastfeed the children because she refused, saying that she "feels a burning pain at every first twitch of the strong mouth." Which was something exceptional at the time.

He wrote about himself that perhaps nature wanted him to be "originally a girl. I became a man in body, but a woman in nature in more than one respect.'

In 1883, Friedberg called Excellency retired, a year later he was awarded the Order of the Iron Crown II. class and promoted to free lord. He spent his old age in Prague and continued his most varied activities. Over time, another surname, Mírohorský, was also added to his name, which was a pseudonym for literary activity.

However, his love was "kneipp".

Bald and toothless

Despite his advanced age, Friedberg often ran in Stromovka and Petřín and "kneippled bosky". He wore thong sandals without toes even in winter, slept on an iron military bed, condemned bald men who wore wigs, railed against false teeth, and also did not wear them in his old age. He walked and worked naked at home, putting on a bathrobe before visits. Everyone went barefoot in his place. On trips, he encouraged other members of Český Kneipp to walk barefoot even outside, "whoever decided to walk first received a silver sandal and a hanger as a gift".

The trips took place "in the grass, in the water, in the road dust". As a vegetarian, Friedberg ate herbal soups, fruit, bread, "the only meat he probably still recognized as healthy was game, because it lives in the wild".

He liked to be surrounded by young people. He once fired a cook who had cooked for him for many years. Antonín Krofta, also a member of České Kneipp, interceded for her with Emanuel, but he replied "that he must only have young people around him in his advanced age". He railed against high heels, long skirts and skirts, which "sweep away the worst of the worst".

He didn't like chewing gum either, because "they remove bad breath, but then you smell something else."

Both Tyrš and Mírohorský seemed eccentric to me

It probably won't surprise anyone that people had conflicting opinions about him. In the qualification list from his superiors in 1862, Major General John wrote about him that "he is cheerful, lively, sometimes overexcited, easily excited - irritable. Honest, independent, versatile mental aptitudes, very good memory".

However, although Emanuel was hardworking, gifted, versatile, willing to help anyone, his unusual opinions irritated those around him. "I can't help it, Tyrš and Mírohorský seemed so eccentric to me! Kind of crazy!” said a former accountant at Otto's Trousil publishing house. He was also overly self-confident and convinced of his own infallibility.

He took old age hard and said about it that "it is sacramental". In 1907, he was hit by a carriage near the National Theatre, but recovered from his injuries. Nevertheless, he died tragically - on December 10, 1908, he was hit by a car - ironically, he "hated cars and never sat in one".

He also painted for the imperial court

Salomon from Friedberg-Mírohorský was active in the Czech retirement movement.

He painted pictures and caricatures throughout his life, and some were even intended for the royal family. He estimated the total number of his oil paintings at 450. Among other things, he illustrated Karolína Světlá's Village Novel.

As an artist, he contributed to Šíp, Květ, Světozor, Zlatá Prague.

He published Memories from my life.

He developed keywords (equestrian, military, naturopathic) for Rieger's academic dictionary and later for Otto's. He wrote feuilletons, e.g. for Pražské noviny and Národní listy. He also translated.

Despite his eccentricities, he was undoubtedly an exceptional and extraordinary person.