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MD, PhD in General Medicine, MD Homeopathy, MBA

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“I have not lived in vain” - Dr. Hahnemann

In video short story about Dr. Hahnemann’s Parisian period. In October 2025 I had opportunity to visit the places in Paris where Dr. Hahnemann spent the last eight years of his life.

The evening of October 8, 1834, Melanie Hervilly from Paris met Dr. Hahnemann. Three months later on January 18, 1835 they were married at Koethen by a Catholic priest. At the moment of marriage Melanie was 30 years old and Dr. Hahnemann was 80. Six months after their marriage in Koethen, they planned to move to Paris. Residents of Koethen tried to stop Hahnemann but he hinted that his departure was not final; he was only going to Paris to settle some family matters. The night of June 7, 1835 he left Koethen.

They finally reached Paris on June 21, 1835. They lived at the apartment of Melanie, at 26 rue des Saints-Peres, addressing the current Faculty of Medicine, only to move into two more houses in Paris.

First Hahnemann House at 26 Rue des Saints Pères, Paris. The engraved stone reads “ICI HABITA EN 1835 A SON ARRIVEE A PARIS CHRISTIAN FREDERIC SAMUEL HAHNEMANN PONDATUER DE LA MEDECINE HOMEOPATHIOUE” Around 15 July 1835, 3 weeks after their arrival, they moved a little further south, to 7, Rue Madame (now 57, Rue Madame), in the same district. The house is only a few meters west of the Luxemburg Garden. We do not know exactly if it is from October 1836 or July 1837 that they finally moved to the last house where he spent rest of his life at 1, Rue de Milan.

Hahnemann died there at 5am on 2 July 1843. His last words were: “I have not lived in vain”.

He was buried in the Cimetiere de Montmartre to the north of Paris in what is popularly called the ‘artist’s quarter’.

On the insistence of wealthy American homoeopaths, in 1898 it was agreed that his grave should be opened, so his remains could be moved to the more prestigious Cimetière du Pere Lachaise. The bodies were moved to a much grander tomb in the Lachaise cemetery which can still be seen. It is a ‘celebrity’ grave along with many other Paris notables from the last century and also from this.