Period as Family Practitioner at the Weteringschans in the Center of Amsterdam, the Netherlands(1974-1982) and the vegetarian restaurant Baldur

Robert Gorter opened his private practice office as a family practitioner in February of 1974 at a very nice 19^th century building at the Weteringschans 72 in the very center of Amsterdam. He had just finished his training in Anthroposophically-Extended Medicine at the University of Basel and at the Lukas Klinik and the Ita Wegman Klinik in Arlesheim in Swizerland. 

In the previous months, Robert had looked at numerous buildings to establish a doctor’s office and a day care clinic (“Gezondheidscentrum”, or Health Center) and finally he found an appropriate building at Weteringschans 72, very close to the Heineken brewery and the Rijksmuseum (National Gallery). Without any down payment, Robert was able to get a 100% mortgage from a Dutch bank. Quickly, he renovated the building mostly himself and built the doctor’s office downstairs on the main floor, his living quarters on the first floor, a large meeting room and a bathroom with a huge bath for hydrotherapy on the second floor. On the third floor were his bedroom and for the rest several guest rooms and a second kitchen for the guests. There was a very nice back yard with lot of sun exposure. Here, he built a chicken house but usually, the chicken would sleep high up in the trees. 

The pictures down show the renovation of the building where restaurant Baldur would be operating. At Weteringschans 76, a large building with 5 floors was obtained by Robert Gorter and, to save money, Robert and a team of volunteers changed the main floor ("belle etage") "into a cosy retaurant and the "sous-terrain" into a modern and professional kitchen through thorough renovation. The kitchen was conceived in such a way that it was large enough (approximately 140 M2) to harbor a complete class with students from the Amsterdam Waldorf School (Geert Groote School) and other schools for cooking classes and education on healthy nutrition.

 

On March 4^th, 1974, one month after he opened his practice, Robert Gorter was diagnosed with metastatic Germ Cell Carcinoma stage IIIb (called “Teratocarcinoma” at that time). The prognosis was grim and his colleagues tried to convince him to take chemotherapy and radiation. His surgeon, Dr. Bosma, urologist at the hospital “Onze Lieve Vrouwe Gasthuis” (OLVG) in Amsterdam was furious with him when he told Dr. Bosma he would not follow the conventional therapy protocol of chemotherapy and radiation.

Robert Gorter refused and decided to go his own way, accepting the fact that his cancer diagnosis was his karma, a test, a challenge to stand for what he believed in. After being taught about the concepts of Rudolf Steiner about the cause and subsequent therapy of cancer, Robert saw it as a personal test to follow what he would have recommended to his patients. Thus, he initiated for himself therapies with mistletoe (Viscum album), hyperthermia and curative eurythmy. Having taken up a huge mortgage and other loans to build his office at Weteringschans No. 72 and acquire the adjacent two building as well (Weteringschans No. 74 and No. 76), he was very afraid that if the banks would find out that he was terminally ill with a life expectancy of about six months, they would pull the plug and not grant any new loans or support any new initiative.

Thus, Robert Gorter decided to keep his diagnosis as a secret to himself and told people he had undergone an appendectomy. Everybody believed that and thus, for many years, Robert was able to keep his cancer diagnosis to himself.

Since there were huge bills to be paid and the mortgage was a tremendous burden, Robert had decided to work 7 days a week, 12 hours a day without a break, to be able to pay off as much of the bills he could in the six months or so he would still have to live so that the non-profit, tax-exempt patient association “Wending”, who would take over the buildings one day, would not have too many financial difficulties. (When Robert left for the USA in December of 1982, the patient organization “Wending” had deteriorated into a non-functioning heap of frustrated Anthroposophists and thus, with the support of the Triodos Bank, of which Robert had been a co-founder, another non-profit, tax-exempt patient organization named “Odin” was formed. To Odin, Robert transferred all buildings with the numbers 72, 74 and 76, and all the equipment in these buildings).

From the beginning, it was clear to Robert Gorter that nutrition plays an important role in health and disease. He offered consultation to his patients (especially the chronically ill and cancer patients) but he often met resistance as patients were saying things like: “healthy food does not taste good!” or “how can I cook vegetarian?” or “it takes hours to prepare a healthy meal” or “organic food is too expensive!” Thus, he offered patients to come to his apartment upstairs on a Saturday evening and cook together. In this way, he could show them that cooking vegetarian is easy and tasty and does not take more time than to preparing a steak. But, there were Saturday evenings that more than 20 patients would ring his door bell, requesting to be taught vegetarian cooking.

Baldur's team cultivated its own herbs like Rosemary, Sage, Lavender or Garlic, for the kitchen according to the bio-dynamic principles and here, with Tineke van Oranje (she was also Robert Gorter's secretary at the Jellinek Kliniek, a state clinic for heroin addicts and alcoholics) on her knees, careful selecting the herbs for that night dinner (approximately 1978).

It become then clear to Robert Gorter that there was a need to receive information on healthy nutrition but also how to get practical instructions how to prepare a healthy dinner. So the idea to start a restaurant next door with a large kitchen to kill several birds with one stone:

1)      To provide space and tools to give cooking classes to adults and children of the Waldorf School in Amsterdam.

2)      To show that one can eat delicious vegetarian food like any other good restaurant

3)      To prove that organic (bio-dynamic) produce do not necessarily make a dinner more expensive

4)      To support the arts like music and painting and sculpturing by offering artist to exhibit or play in the restaurant.

And so, the idea to build restaurant “Baldur” was at Weteringschans 76 was born.

One of the 18 co-workers at Baldur, preparing the dinner for that evening in the kitchen. She was pretty short and needed objects like buckets to stand on

One of the 18 co-workers at Baldur, preparing one of the extremely popular items of Baldur, the so-called "Banana Dream Pie"!

It took several months to renovate the building and have the space (which harbored first a well-known Beauty School for visagists) adapted to being a restaurant with special colors on the walls etc.  Pictures here show how, on free weekends and late at night, Robert and volunteers worked on walls, concrete floors, and ceilings. And nobody ever knew that Robert, covered by cement and paint, had been given a life expectancy of six months by his surgeon and colleagues.

On Sundays, from 11.00 till 12.30, free coffee concerts were organized and quickly these coffee concerts became popular and even announced in all local news papers as a place to go on Sundays. Only live classical music was performed and coffee with the famous “Bananen Droomtaart” was served without charge.

Here are Robert Gorter and his three receptionists and doctors' assistances (Ria Bos and her sister Elly van de Noort, and Herma, the elderly lady standing) at that time, at the house of Rob, the best bakery of Amsterdam in the Kalverstraat next to the 15th century Orphanage (which is now a museum). It was obviously just before Eastern (1981) and the team acted like Eastern Eggs and tried to blend in with a true Eastern Egg which were as a "Thank You" donated by Rob the baker, for the team of Robert Gorter had done for his wife who died pretty suddenly from an aneurysm in the brain.

In front of the blooming lilac tree in the back yard of Robert's doctor's office the team at that time (1980) with Ria Bos (far left), Robert Gorter, Herma and Elly van de Noort (far right). They formed a very reliable and committed team and many of the patients gave them the nick name "the Cookies of Dynamite"

Several people worked at Baldur and all according to the Three-Fold Social Order Principle (see elsewhere). Here are some more collborators working in the kitchen or taking a little break in the early spring sun. This must have been in the spring of 1976.

Here, Dr. Arie Bos, the family practitioner who would later receive the praxis and doctor's office from Dr. Robert Gorter as a donation when Robert left for San Francisco, USA, playing duets on their violines in the Leides straat in Amsterdam, collecting money for the non-profit, tax-exempt patient-based organization "Odin". It would rain guilders (1981).