Pennsylvania German Powwow: Braucherei, Hohman and Folk Healing

Powwow, called Braucherei or Brauche in Pennsylvania German, is a tradition of Christian folk healing and protection practised among the Pennsylvania Germans (the "Pennsylvania Dutch") since the eighteenth century. Practitioners known as brauchers treat burns, bleeding, infant ailments and other troubles by speaking short formulas, often silently, while making the sign of the cross, and their best-known handbook is John George Hohman's charm book of 1820, known in English as The Long Lost Friend.

Pennsylvania Germans and the Word "Powwow"§

From the late seventeenth century, and especially in the eighteenth, large numbers of German-speaking Protestants and smaller numbers of Catholics settled in southeastern Pennsylvania. They brought with them the healing and protective customs of rural Central Europe: blessings spoken over wounds, charms against fire and theft, written letters of protection, and the services of local healers who knew the formulas. In the Pennsylvania German dialect this practice is called Brauche or Braucherei, from a verb meaning "to use", and its practitioners are Braucher or Brauchfraa.

In English the practice came to be called "powwow". The word comes from an Algonquian term for a religious specialist or a gathering for healing, and English-speaking observers applied it to Pennsylvania German healing in the nineteenth century, apparently because it too involved ritual cures. The name is misleading: powwow owes little or nothing to Native American religion and is rooted instead in the charm traditions described in Folk Magic, particularly in German Catholic and Lutheran popular devotion.

John George Hohman and The Long Lost Friend§

The central text of the tradition was compiled by Johann Georg Hohman (John George Hohman), a Catholic emigrant who arrived in Pennsylvania in 1802 and lived near Reading in Berks County, where he worked as a printer, bookseller and healer. In 1820 he published Der lange verborgene Freund ("The Long Hidden Friend"), a small collection of remedies, blessings and charms. An English translation appeared in 1846, and later English editions, under the title The Long Lost Friend, circulated throughout the United States.

Hohman's book contains formulas to stop bleeding, cure burns and fevers, treat livestock, protect against fire and thieves, and win lawsuits, alongside practical household recipes. Many charms invoke Christ, Mary and the Trinity, and the book itself was believed to protect anyone who carried it. Daniel Harms's critical edition shows that Hohman drew heavily on earlier German sources, above all the Romanus-Büchlein, a widely printed booklet of German charms catalogued under the Romanus-Büchlein, and on remedies circulating in almanacs and broadsides. Other books later joined it on Pennsylvania German shelves, including the Egyptian Secrets of Albertus Magnus and the Sixth and Seventh Books of Moses.

Through cheap reprints and mail-order catalogues The Long Lost Friend travelled far beyond Pennsylvania. African American practitioners of hoodoo and rootwork adopted it, and it remains one of the most frequently reprinted folk magic books in America.

Healing Practice: Brauchers, Words and Gestures§

Ethnographers who have interviewed brauchers describe a consistent pattern. The practitioner, who might be a farmer, housewife or craftsman rather than a full-time specialist, speaks a short formula over the patient, usually silently or in a whisper, while passing the hand over or around the affected part and making the sign of the cross three times. The formula commonly closes with the names of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Treatments were often repeated on three successive occasions.

Typical complaints included burns, bleeding, warts, erysipelas (called "wildfire"), sprains and especially the ailments of infants, such as Abnemme, a wasting or failure to thrive, and the condition known as "liver-grown". For stopping blood, brauchers widely used a verse from Ezekiel 16:6. Many practitioners would not ask for payment, accepting only a voluntary gift, since a fee was thought to weaken the cure, and many held that the knowledge should be taught across gender lines, from a man to a woman or a woman to a man.

Brauchers understood their work as an expression of Christian faith. They prayed to God and Christ, used biblical verses and saw the power to heal as a gift. Many were active members of Lutheran, Reformed or Catholic congregations, though clergy did not always approve of their practices, a tension familiar from the wider history of folk Christianity.

Protection, Hexerei and the Hex Doctor§

Beside healing, powwow offered protection for people, animals and property. Written charms were kept in houses and barns or carried on the person; among them was the Himmelsbrief or "letter from heaven", a printed text said to protect its owner from fire, lightning and violence, described in the spellbook entry on the Himmelsbrief. Charms were also used against thieves, to make them unable to leave the scene with stolen goods, and against fire, for which Hohman reproduces the ancient Sator square.

Belief in witchcraft (Hexerei) was part of the same world. Misfortune, sick cattle, failing butter or a wasting child might be attributed to a hex, and some practitioners specialised in identifying and removing such spells. These "hex doctors" occupied a more ambiguous position than ordinary brauchers, since the power to remove a hex was sometimes suspected of being the power to cast one. Scholars such as David Kriebel distinguish carefully between powwow healing, which most practitioners regarded as purely beneficent, and the accusations of witchcraft that occasionally surrounded it.

The York Hex Murder of 1928§

The darker side of hex belief became notorious in November 1928, when Nelson Rehmeyer, a farmer and reputed powwow practitioner in York County, was killed in his home by three men. The leader, John Blymire, believed that Rehmeyer had hexed him and had been told that the spell could be broken by taking Rehmeyer's copy of The Long Lost Friend or a lock of his hair and burying it. The attack ended in Rehmeyer's death and the burning of his house.

The trial in 1929 drew reporters from across the United States, who presented the Pennsylvania Germans as a superstitious people ruled by witch doctors. Blymire and one accomplice received life sentences and the third a shorter term. The case led to public calls to suppress powwow and encouraged many practitioners to work more discreetly. Arthur H. Lewis's book Hex (1969) later retold the story for a popular audience. Historians stress that the murder was exceptional and that the great majority of powwow practice consisted of quiet healing within families and communities.

Hex Signs, Tourism and Folk Art§

The painted stars and rosettes on barns in southeastern Pennsylvania are often called "hex signs" and are popularly said to ward off witchcraft. Folklorists Don Yoder and Thomas Graves have shown that the designs belong to a broader tradition of Pennsylvania German decorative art, found also on fraktur documents, furniture and gravestones, and that the term "hex sign" and the stories about protective power became widespread only in the twentieth century, encouraged by travel writers and the tourist trade. Some farmers did regard the signs as protective or lucky, but their link to powwow is looser than popular accounts suggest.

Powwow Today§

Powwow declined during the twentieth century as Pennsylvania German communities became more integrated into mainstream American life and as modern medicine became universally available. Fieldwork by Kriebel in the 1990s and 2000s nevertheless found practitioners still active, often older people who had learned from relatives and who saw their work as prayer rather than magic. Patrick Donmoyer's research at the Pennsylvania German Cultural Heritage Center at Kutztown has documented the material culture of the practice, including charm papers, books and ritual objects.

In recent decades powwow has also attracted new interest from people outside the traditional communities, including modern folk magic practitioners and some Pennsylvania German heritage groups. Practitioners and historians alike generally emphasise that powwow was understood as a supplement to, not a replacement for, medical care.

Frequently asked questions§

What is the difference between powwow and Native American powwows?§

Pennsylvania German powwow is a Christian folk healing tradition of European origin; it only borrowed its English name from an Algonquian word. It has no connection with the Native American gatherings also called powwows.

What is The Long Lost Friend?§

It is the English title of Der lange verborgene Freund, a charm book published in 1820 by John George Hohman in Pennsylvania. It contains blessings, remedies and protective charms drawn largely from earlier German sources and became the most influential American charm book.

Is powwow witchcraft?§

Practitioners regarded it as Christian healing through prayer and the power of God, and most opposed witchcraft. Outsiders and the press, especially after the 1928 York hex murder, sometimes treated powwow and witchcraft as the same thing.

Is powwow still practised?§

Yes, though far less widely than in the past. Folklorists have documented living practitioners in Pennsylvania, and the tradition has also gained new interest among heritage groups and modern folk magic practitioners.

Sources and further reading§

• Powwowing Among the Pennsylvania Dutch: A Traditional Medical Practice in the Modern World — David W. Kriebel, 2007
• Powwowing in Pennsylvania: Braucherei and the Ritual of Everyday Life — Patrick J. Donmoyer, 2017
• The Long-Lost Friend: A 19th Century American Grimoire — Daniel Harms, 2012
• Hex Signs: Pennsylvania Dutch Barn Symbols and Their Meaning — Don Yoder and Thomas E. Graves, 1989
• Hex — Arthur H. Lewis, 1969
• Grimoires: A History of Magic Books — Owen Davies, 2009