Hahnemann buried at Pere Lachaise Cemetery, among “The immortals of France.”

Hahnemann’s body was embalmed and laid in an exceedingly plain wooden coffin, lined with zinc. A monumental stone, with the inscription: ‘Chretian Frederic Samuel Hahnemann’, on the left side of Section 16 of Montmartre Cemetery, marks the spot where the deceased was laid in his eternal resting place. The grave he was placed in belonged to Melanie Hahnemann. When his widow died 35 years later in 1878, she was buried in a plot next to this at Montmartre Cemetery.Melanie kept the funeral private, and his biographer Haehl implies that she forgot him as soon as he was buried; but this seems at variance with the fact that when Hahnemann’s body was disinterred in 1896 a lock of Melanie’s hair was found round his neck.By the year 1896, upkeep for the grave of Hahnemann owed 110 francs ($22) was owed to the city of Paris for care of the grave-site of Hahnemann. Without payment, the grave was to be exhumed. The French authorities could not find the persons responsible for this debt.Thirty francs a year is the cost of annual upkeep and it was suggested by Dr. Platt, a lecturer at Hahnemann College visiting Paris, to write to his colleagues in Philadelphia and suggest their assistance. The faculty of Hahnemann College commissioned Platt to pay the debts, and to restore the grave, and insure that it was in fact the grave of Samuel Hahnemann. After payment of the debt, Hahnemann’s grave was then registered as the property of Hahnemann College in Philadelphia.

At the meeting of the International Congress of Homeopathic physicians in London in 1896, the proposition was presented by Dr. Brazol of Russia about providing a monument at the newly restored grave. But the plot at Montmartre was not suitable, so it was suggested that his remains be moved to Pere Lachaise, the most beautiful cemetery in Paris. It took 2 years for the arrangements to be complete.

On May 24, 1898, Samuel Hahnemann was exhumed and transferred to Pere Lachaise Cemetery, among “The immortals of France”, along with the remains of his second wife, Marie Melanie d’Hervilly Gohier Hahnemann. Also buried at Pere Lachaise are Jim Morrison, Collete, Edith Piaf, Oscar Wilde, Moliere, Chopin, Nijinski, Hector Berlioz, Edgar Degas, Francois Truffaut, Emile Zola and many others.

The pictures were sent by Dr. Michael Riccioli