Pennsylvania German Braucherei Items in the Alan Keyser Collection

In a recent installment in our Facebook series on Alan Keyer’s recently donated manuscripts, archivist Hunt Schenkel introduced some of Keyser’s small but very interesting collection of items relating to Pennsylvania German braucherei.  

Braucherei or brauche, also known as powwow, is a Pennsylvania German folk practice that grew out of Christian and European pagan traditions and literature in the 18th and 19th centuries. It consists of a variety of charms and recipes used to protect people and animals against all forms of physical and spiritual maladies and evil spirits or curses (hexe). Braucherei was popular among Pennsylvania Germans until the early 20th century when the introduction of modern medicine and science mostly superceded it.

The term braucherei is German in origin and has a variety of possible meanings such as “trying,” “using” or “in need of.” Powwow, as  braucherei is sometimes called, has Native American roots and was a similar shamanistic practice that was probably conflated with braucherei by the mainstream English-speaking population.

Braucherei rituals consist of spells, which were either spoken or read as well as recipes that are applied to a sick person or animal, as a doctor or veterinarian would do today. Among the wonderful manuscripts in Alan Keyser’s collection are a small number of braucherei spells, charms and recipes, found mostly within account books or notebooks.

As this topic is new to me, providing context for these mansucripts is difficult without further study, but I would simply like to present what I have found so far and, perhaps in the future, present a more complete interpretation of this subject matter.

1. Abracadabra charm; Lancaster County, PA; anonymous owner; 18th century.

The word Abracadabra can be traced as far back as ancient Rome but is thought to be much older. It was used as a magic word by Pennsylvania Germans to ward of disease or sickness.

 2. Sator square; unknown location; Sammuel Weber; ca. 1829.

A sator square is a five-word palindrome (a word or number read the same forwards and backwards). The earliest example of a palindrome was discovered in the Roman city of Pompeii, but the original use or meaning of the square is not known. During the Medieval period, they were used as charms to cure sickness. Weber’s square was pinned into the end of a tunebook that also includes seamstress accounts. Note: the spellings of “areto,” “teset,” and “otera” in Weber’s square are different than the Latin words in traditional squares which are “arepo,” “tenet,” and “opera.”

 3. Account book; Jacob Schmeier; unknown location; 1830-1842. This account book includes Schmeier’s farming accounts along with braucherei treatments for people and  horses. Entries on this page show various treatments for horses including a “blutreinig” (blood cleaning) and prescriptions for doses of “geils bulver” (horse pulver) and for “schmir” (a kind of salve or ointment).

4. Arznei Buch (medical book); J.G. Rothenshausen; unknown location; ca. 1770s. Rothenhausen’s medical book provided some very interesting remedies for ailing horses on this page of his book:

“To cure a horse that is overheated: If a horse fall[s] down from being over heated give him half a pint flaxseed oil and half a pint hogs lard, mix together and wash him with fresh water.”

 “One of the best cures ever invented for a horse w[h]ich is in danger of becoming blind: Put a peace[sic] of new linen of the size of a quarter dollar through which pass a needle with a strong thread in such a manner that you can draw it shut, then put in three live spiders taken from three corners in the house, draw it shut and make three knots on it, after which tie it on the horses forehead so that it hangs just above the eyes and leave it there till it falls off of itself. If the eye is not internally dead, this will prove a cure in every case.”