Alexander Spengler & the healing climate

The healing Davos air
Alexander Spengler

Cures made Davos famous

Around 150 years ago, the German doctor Alexander Spengler came to Davos. What he didn't know at the time: a few years later, he would initiate Davos' rise to become the leading international health, holiday and conference resort - thanks to the discovery of the healing Davos mountain air.

The young Alexander Spengler initially came to Switzerland against his will - as a political refugee. In 1848, the law student took part in the March Revolution in his hometown of Mannheim. When this failed, he fled to Switzerland and enrolled in medicine at the University of Zurich. After completing his studies, he took up a position as a rural doctor in the small farming village of Davos.

  • Alexander Spengler
  • Alexander Spengler
  • Alexander Spengler

The discovery of the healing high altitude climate

Spengler quickly noticed that no villager suffered from the then-feared tuberculosis. In many places in Europe, the disease killed tens of thousands of people every year. Spengler blamed the special high mountain climate for the lack of tuberculosis in Davos. He shared this insight with many colleagues in his profession at home and abroad. He spread the word about the healthy Davos mountain climate throughout Europe - and as early as 1860, the first Davos guest house opened to accommodate spa guests. Spengler created a bed-and-breakfast treatment for tuberculosis sufferers, which mainly involved lots of sleep - on terraces or in the cowshed - and Veltliner wine. This method promised a cure and made Davos world-famous. Tuberculosis sufferers from all over the world visited the former farming village and laid the foundation for what is now the highest city in Europe with an international reputation.

The world meets in Davos

Among the spa guests was Katia Mann, the wife of the world-famous author Thomas Mann. Her stay in the sanatorium and the time that Thomas Mann spent with her in Davos inspired the writer for his masterpiece «The Magic Mountain». Other sanatorium guests and visitors did not write about Davos, but brought their culture with them - for example ice hockey from England. And here too the Spengler family was to create a monument: Like Alexander Spengler, his son Karl was also a doctor and a great sports lover. In 1922 he founded the world-famous Spengler Cup, today the oldest ice hockey tournament in existence.

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