About Der Merkurstab

Der Merkurstab

Der Merkurstab — with the English parallel title "Journal of Anthroposophic Medicine" — is the specialist journal for anthroposophic medicine in the German-speaking world: the Fachzeitschrift published for over 70 years (78th volume in 2025), six issues a year, by the Gesellschaft Anthroposophischer Ärztinnen und Ärzte in Deutschland e.V. (GAÄD) in Munich together with the Freie Hochschule für Geisteswissenschaft / Medizinische Sektion in Dornach, Switzerland. Its program — the grundlegende Darstellungen zur Anthroposophischen Medizin, the Krankheitsbilder and Fallberichte, the scientific works, the drug-therapy and non-drug-therapy contributions — offers, in the media data's words, "auf einzigartige Weise eine Gesamtschau auf die Anthroposophische Medizin und ihre Möglichkeiten als Modell einer integrativen Medizin." All submitted manuscripts pass an independent peer review. Note on geography: while the directory row lists Stuttgart, the journal's verifiable publishing base is Munich (GAÄD) with the Dornach co-publisher — the profile reflects the verified facts.

Overview

Der Merkurstab is the scientific journal of anthroposophic medicine. The format: six issues a year (the 78th volume in 2025), print run 2,400 copies, distribution 2,200 — the subscription-distributed specialist journal, additionally sold directly, at specialist conferences and continuing-education events. The readership — the target group — comprises Ärztinnen und Ärzte in Klinik und Praxis, Pharmazeutinnen und Pharmazeuten, Therapeutinnen und Therapeuten, medical professionals, scientists, nurses and students: the anthroposophic-medicine community of the German-speaking world.

The editorial program — per the media data (price list No. 23, valid from 1 January 2026) — publishes: basic presentations on anthroposophic medicine; disease pictures and case reports from medical practice; scientific works — clinical studies, philosophical and medical-historical presentations; basic presentations and case reports from anthroposophic drug therapy — works on medicinal plants, minerals, remedies of animal origin, pharmaceutical compositions and processes; the non-drug therapies — psychotherapy, eurythmy therapy, art therapy, speech therapy — and nursing; plus current reports from science and research, interviews, conference reports and reviews.

The peer review — the quality architecture — deserves its telling. All submitted manuscripts are assessed in an independent peer-review procedure: the journal's scientific claim made procedural — the clinical studies, the case reports, the philosophical presentations all passing the independent review before publication. The review's function — the peer's — positions Der Merkurstab among the scientific journals: the anthroposophic medicine's research held to the scientific standard — the 70-year-old journal as the peer-reviewed organ. The Gesamtschau — the media data's "auf einzigartige Weise eine Gesamtschau auf die Anthroposophische Medizin und ihre Möglichkeiten als Modell einer integrativen Medizin" — is the journal's promise: the unique overall view of anthroposophic medicine as a model of integrative medicine — the substances, the therapies, the nursing, the science in one journal. The publishers — the Freie Hochschule für Geisteswissenschaft / Medizinische Sektion, Dornach/Switzerland, and the GAÄD e.V., Munich — anchor the journal institutionally in the anthroposophic movement's medical section and the German physicians' society.

History

Der Merkurstab has been the specialist journal for anthroposophic medicine in the German-speaking world for over 70 years — the 78th volume in 2025 places the founding in the late 1940s: the post-war generation of anthroposophic medicine, rebuilding after the Third Reich's suppression. The journal's name — the Merkurstab (the caduceus, Mercury's staff) — is the medical symbol: the journal as the staff of the anthroposophic physicians.

The GAÄD — the physicians' society — deserves its telling. The Gesellschaft Anthroposophischer Ärztinnen und Ärzte in Deutschland e.V. — Herzog-Heinrich-Straße 18, 80336 Munich; registered VR 826 at the Amtsgericht Stuttgart; board Philipp Busche, Carmen Eppel, Angelika Maaser — is the journal's publisher and institutional home. The society publishes the medical specialist journal Der Merkurstab, operates the scientific platform Anthromedics, issues the anthroposophic therapy collection Vademecum, and distributes the widely used patient-information leaflets (Merkblätter) on medical questions. The society's program — "Wir fördern Initiativen zur Anthroposophischen Medizin" — frames the journal: the physicians' society promoting its medicine's initiatives — the journal as the society's scientific voice. The co-publisher — the Freie Hochschule für Geisteswissenschaft / Medizinische Sektion in Dornach — anchors the journal in the movement's international medical section: the German society and the Dornach section jointly carrying the German-speaking world's journal.

The 2025 issues — the 78th volume's content — deserve their telling. The March 2025 issue (Heft 3) carries the "Anthroposophische Arzneimittel" focus: Paul Werthmann's editorial, the Vademecum (Andreas Arendt, Jonathan Neisecke's introduction), Thomas Hardtmuth's "Monokulturen: Das Krebsproblem im ökologischen und psychosozialen Kontext," Gudrun Merker's eurythmy-therapy conversation, the consensus-based treatment recommendation for anthroposophically extended therapy in childhood pseudocroup (Schwermer, Längler, Zuzak), Johannes von Gleich's autonomic nervous system, Heusser/Ebersbach/Scheffers/Weinzirl's polar metal effects, Jörg Ruof's "Comedy of Errors" on false positives and negatives. The April issue (Heft 2): Christof Braun's editorial, Matthias Girke's diabetes mellitus, the mistletoe-therapy interview study, Henning Schramm's cancer in Steiner's work, Rentea's moon-transit cell-culture pilot study, Christian Schikarski's phosphorus case reports, Ricardo Torriani's consciousness-soul dispositions. The November/December issue (Heft 6): Jonathan Neisecke's editorial, Martin-Günther Sterner's metabolism mystery, Jörg Ruof's clavicle, Hans Broder von Laue's meteorological organs, Johannes Wilkens' chronic fatigue syndrome, the eurythmy-therapy trauma case report, the Fintelmann nursing interview. The volume's function — the 78th's — shows the journal: the substances, the cases, the science — the anthroposophic medicine in one year.

Coverage and Content

The editorial program follows the anthroposophic-medicine year. The drug-therapy coverage — the anthroposophische Arzneitherapie — addresses the medicinal plants, the minerals, the animal-origin remedies, the pharmaceutical compositions and processes: the Vademecum sections (chrysolith, jaspis, topas, opal, quartz) mapping the substances. The clinical coverage — the Originalia — carries the case reports and studies: the mistletoe therapy interview study, the phosphorus D5 in granulomatous intestinal disease, the eurythmy therapy in trauma, the chronic fatigue syndrome vignettes.

The science coverage — the Wissenschaft und Forschung — carries the clinical studies, the philosophical and medical-historical presentations: the moon transits' effects on cell cultures (pilot study), the polar effects of the metals in the human organism (commentary on Rudolf Steiner's first physicians' course, GA 312), the autonomous nervous system and the day-night dynamics. The interview coverage — the "Im Gespräch" — brings the voices: Christiaan Mol on sales maximization without inner substance, Kathrin Wode on complementary medicine in Sweden, Volker Fintelmann on nursing as the heart of medicine.

The report coverage — the Berichte, Tagungsberichte, Rezensionen, Nachrufe — serves the community: the conference reports (the Dornach 2024 poster abstracts), the reviews, the obituaries, the "Rudolf Steiner zum Thema" and "Rudolf Steiner und Ita Wegman zum Thema" columns. The formats' mix — the six print issues, the peer review, the anthromedics archive — defines Der Merkurstab: the scientific journal of anthroposophic medicine.

Organization and Ownership

Der Merkurstab is published by the Gesellschaft Anthroposophischer Ärztinnen und Ärzte in Deutschland e.V. (GAÄD), Herzog-Heinrich-Straße 18, 80336 München — registered VR 826 at the Amtsgericht Stuttgart; board: Philipp Busche, Carmen Eppel, Angelika Maaser — together with the Freie Hochschule für Geisteswissenschaft / Medizinische Sektion, Dornach/Switzerland, as co-publishers (Herausgeber). The Verlag is the GAÄD e.V.

The business model follows the society-press pattern: the subscription distribution (the journal mainly distributed by subscription), the direct single-copy sales, the conference and continuing-education sales, and the advertising (media data price list No. 23; ads contact Jessica Bozlar, anzeigen@merkurstab.de, Berlin phone). The GAÄD's wider publishing — the Anthromedics scientific platform, the Vademecum therapy collection, the widely distributed patient-information leaflets — frames the journal. Detailed staffing and revenue figures are not publicly confirmed.

Digital Presence

The journal's digital home is gaed.de/merkurstab — the GAÄD portal's Merkurstab section — alongside merkurstab.de: the media data, the subscription information, the advertising. The anthromedics.org platform — the GAÄD's scientific platform — carries the issues' content: the PDFs of the volumes (the 2025 issues with their editorials, Originalia, interviews and reports) — the journal's digital archive.

The digital strategy follows the society-publisher logic: the print journal for the six-issue peer-reviewed deep read — the 2,400-copy circulation, the 78th volume — the platform for the scientific archive — the anthromedics PDFs, the Vademecum. As the anthroposophic-medicine journal — the GAÄD/Dornach-published Fachzeitschrift (the 70-plus years, the peer review, the Munich base) — Der Merkurstab remains the community's paper: the "Zeitschrift für Anthroposophische Medizin," six times a year in print and at gaed.de/merkurstab.