About Osteopathie

Osteopathie

Osteopathie is the patient magazine of the Verband der Osteopathen Deutschland e.V. (VOD), Germany's first and largest osteopathy association. Born from an idea of VOD member Denis Rother and realised with the editor Michaela Wehr and the IT specialist Andreas Golling, the magazine informs patients in accessible language about the concept and foundations of osteopathy, its broad treatment spectrum, research and professional-politics developments. With twelve issues published by mid-2023, it is the association's public face: the magazine that tells patients, in black and white, that their decision for osteopathy is right — and gives osteopaths a medium that directly represents their interests.

Overview

Osteopathie is the patient-oriented magazine of the Verband der Osteopathen Deutschland e.V. (VOD), the professional association founded in 1994 in Wiesbaden that today counts more than 6,900 members (June 2025). Unlike the association's scientific organ — the DO – Deutsche Zeitschrift für Osteopathie, published four times a year by Thieme — the Osteopathie magazine addresses the patients: it explains the concept and foundations of osteopathy in patient-appropriate language, presents the broad treatment spectrum, reports on research and professional-politics developments, covers the health-insurance reimbursement situation and offers health tips. The idea was born about eight years before mid-2023 — around 2015 — and was implemented on the initiative of VOD member Denis Rother together with osteopaths and association members, the editor Michaela Wehr and the IT specialist Andreas Golling. Twelve issues had appeared by June 2023. The magazine's advantages, as the association describes them: patients learn in black and white in a specialist magazine that their decision for osteopathy is right and that osteopathy is now a firm component of the health system; osteopaths have a medium that directly represents their interests; and at the association's events the magazines are a welcome, informative flagship. Older issues can be reordered through the VOD-Net, the association's member network.

History

The magazine's history is the VOD's public-relations history in miniature. The association itself was founded in 1994 in Wiesbaden by Prof. Marina Fuhrmann — who remains its chair — at a time when osteopathy in Germany was taught only by lecturers from neighbouring France and Belgium at a few private schools. From those beginnings the VOD grew into the leading and largest professional association with more than 6,200 members by its 30th anniversary in 2024 (over 6,900 by June 2025), driving the academisation of osteopathy — the bachelor's curriculum at the Hochschule in Idstein, later bachelor's and master's programmes at various universities — the promotion of research up to the founding of the Deutsche Osteopathie-Stiftung in 2022, and the professional-politics work for a professional law. The patient magazine was born into this growth around 2015: the association needed a medium that spoke to the patients directly, in their language, about what osteopathy is and what it can do. Denis Rother's initiative, Michaela Wehr's editorship and Andreas Golling's IT implementation produced a magazine that, by mid-2023, had reached twelve issues — the steady rhythm of the association's patient communication. The editorial team consists of a fixed core, continuously extended by new interested contributors; anyone interested in contributing editorially to issue 13 or further issues, once or permanently, is welcome (via presse@osteopathie.de). The magazine thus grew as a volunteer-driven association medium: the members writing for the patients.

Coverage and Content

The magazine's programme is the patient-appropriate presentation of osteopathy's world. The concept and foundations: what osteopathy is, how osteopaths work — palpating tensions, gently releasing blockages, treating the musculoskeletal system and the internal organs with only their hands, viewing the body always as an inseparable unity, activating its self-healing powers. The treatment spectrum: from the top athlete to the infant to the migraine patient — the magazine presents the breadth of indications. The research: the association's studies, such as the broadly VOD-supported 2018 study on infant osteopathy showing improvement of 50–80% in the five most common infant problems (infant asymmetry, sleep and feeding disorders, flattened back of the head, excessive crying) across more than 3,200 treatments without serious side effects. The professional politics: the VOD's three goals — the legal recognition of the osteopath as an independent profession, the information and education about osteopathy, the referral of osteopaths to patients — and the campaign for the professional law that chair Prof. Marina Fuhrmann demands. The reimbursement situation: the health-insurance landscape — almost 100 statutory health insurers subsidise osteopathy as an additional benefit, with the magazine tracking changes such as the AOK reimbursement. The health tips: the practical advice for the patients' everyday. The magazine's tone is the association's: osteopathy as the "secret star of the health world," advanced from underdog — in the words of BVO chair Georg Schöner at the VOD's 30th anniversary — to a firm component of the health system. The 30th-anniversary symposium in Wiesbaden's Kurhaus-Kolonnaden in 2024 — the gala dinner, the commemoration of deceased members, the photo retrospective of 30 years, the honouring of the year's DO graduates — shows the community the magazine serves: the association that grew from the 1994 Wiesbaden founding to the 6,900-member organisation, and the magazine that grew with it, from Denis Rother's 2015 idea to the twelve issues.

Organization and Ownership

Osteopathie is published by the Verband der Osteopathen Deutschland e.V. (VOD), Wilhelmstraße 42, 65183 Wiesbaden — the association's seat is Wiesbaden, not Munich; the row's city of Munich does not match the association's verified address and is flagged accordingly. The VOD was founded in 1994 in Wiesbaden as the professional representation for persons working in osteopathy; its chair is Prof. Marina Fuhrmann DO, the association's founder. The magazine's editorial team consists of a fixed core — the editor Michaela Wehr, who is also the association's press contact (presse@osteopathie.de) — continuously extended by interested contributors from the membership. The IT implementation was done by Andreas Golling. The magazine is distributed through the association's channels: the VOD-Net for reordering older issues, the association's events as the informative flagship, and the osteopaths' practices. The association's economics carry the magazine: with more than 6,900 members (June 2025), over 2.5 million visitors a year on osteopathie.de, and the professional-politics budget, the patient magazine is the association's public-relations investment. On the European level the VOD represents German osteopaths at Osteopathy Europe, and since 2009 it has been a full member of the Osteopathic International Alliance (OIA). Detailed circulation figures for the magazine are not publicly confirmed in the sources available.

Digital Presence

The magazine lives within osteopathie.de, the VOD's website — the portal that over 2.5 million visitors consult each year for the therapist list, the association's news and the osteopathy information. The VOD-Net, the association's member network, handles the reordering of older magazine issues. The association's press work — the firmenpresse.de press releases on reimbursement, the Mynewsdesk channel, the press contact Michaela Wehr — frames the magazine's topics: the professional law campaign, the research results, the insurance landscape. The magazine's editorial call — contributors welcome for issue 13 and beyond via presse@osteopathie.de — is the association's open door. In the German osteopathy media landscape the magazine occupies the patient-communication pole: alongside the scientific DO – Deutsche Zeitschrift für Osteopathie (Thieme, four times a year) for the profession, the Osteopathie magazine speaks to the patients — the twelve issues by mid-2023, the black-and-white reassurance that the decision for osteopathy is right, the health tips and the reimbursement guides, from the Wiesbaden association to the patients, in the magazine that carries the therapy's name.