# Fame.am profile — machine-readable export
# Canonical URL: https://fame.am/person/franz-mesmer
# Generated: 2026-08-31T15:47:43.098Z

schema: https://schema.org/Person
url: "https://fame.am/person/franz-mesmer"
name: "Franz Mesmer"
slug: "franz-mesmer"
description: "He convinced half of Europe that invisible magnetic fluid flowed through bodies and could cure disease by waving magnets near patients. The theory was junk, but the trance states he induced were real — and gave us hypnosis."
tagline: "German physician"
image: "https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:FilePath/Franz_Anton_Mesmer._Oil_painting._Wellcome_V0017975_(cropped).jpg"
gender: "male"
country:
  name: "Germany"
  isoCode: "DE"
category:
  name: "Doctors"
  slug: "doctors"
profileType:
  name: "Doctor"
  slug: "doctor"
  entityType: "https://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q39631"
birthDate: "1734-05-23"
deathDate: "1815-03-05"
livingStatus: "DECEASED"
scores:
  popularity:           55.53
  momentum:             0.03578884580972265
  historical:           24.3247
  currentAttention:     0.1988269211651258
  sourceConfidence:     60
  profileCompleteness:  70
  trendDirection:       "STABLE"
ranks:
  global:   null
  country:  null
  category: 187
tags:
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    slug: "doctors"
  - name: "Doctor"
    slug: "doctor"
  - name: "Medicine"
    slug: "medicine"
  - name: "Astronomy"
    slug: "astronomy"
  - name: "Early Modern Era"
    slug: "early-modern-era"
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    title: "فرانتس مسمر"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
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    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
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    title: "Franz Anton Mesmer"
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    title: "فرانز انطون ميسمر"
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# bio (long form, separated for readability)
bio: |
  Franz Anton Mesmer was a German physician with a side interest in astronomy who, in the late 18th century, theorized that a natural energy he called "animal magnetism" transferred between all objects, living and dead. He built a practice around manipulating this invisible force to treat illness, and between 1780 and 1850 the method found a wide following across Europe. The magnetic fluid didn't exist, but the phenomena he triggered did: in 1843, Scottish doctor James Braid studied Mesmer's technique and renamed the trance state "hypnotism." The word "mesmerism" survives as a synonym. Mesmer also kept company with Haydn and Mozart, supporting music when he wasn't magnetizing the unwell.