Folk Healing (Brauche)

This is a German dialect term for a folk-healer.  German-Russian Braucher could be found in nearly all German villages on the Volga and in many settlements in the United States.  Typically the Braucher healed by saying prayers over the sick person, making the sign of the cross in ritually prescribed ways.  The Braucher was folk healer who believed strongly in their religion and were usually members of the local church.   The Braucher is not a witch or a person with "an evil eye".

The prevalence of such people is due to the fact that trained doctors were always very scarce in the German colonies in Russia, each having to serve 10,000 to 15,000 people.  Brauchers typically would heal boils, sores, burns, toothaches, and all natural or supernatural ills that might arise, by the recitation of a simple religious rhyme usually ending with an invocation of the Trinity.  Many of the older German-Russians immigrants believed very strongly in the healing powers of the Braucher and found the habit difficult to break.

Stories were told time after time of how the cows in Russia were milked by hostile spirits, how horses would be found in the morning covered with sweat, as if they had been ridden all night long, and how one particular farmer had to pay the Braucher to write the words, "das Blut Jesu" (the blood of Jesus) backwards on the barn door in order that the livestock within might have some rest from the being that were tormenting them.

Source:  Emma's Thesis, by Emma Schwabenland Haynes, pg. 77.