[Sanatoria for tourists, drugs at home, healers on demand: healing cultures in the Duchy of Gotha (1850-1950)].

Up to 1920 Thuringia was separated into many territories some of which were known for their unorthodox pharmaceutical industries. Gotha was the only famous duchy because one of its princes had married the Queen of England in 1840. The country was backward and the state administration was incapable of solving health issues. It was due to the interest of some physicians that the fragile balance between homeopathy, naturopathy, physicians and pharmacists broke down after 1900. But the state bureaucracy was unable to convince the people of its new healthcare approaches that were just based on scientific medicine.