Overview: Hildegard von Bingen (1098-1179) is the most popular German of the Middle Ages - on a par with the powerful of her time. She was a visionary, a natural scientist, a politician and composer, a theologian, and even the manager of two monasteries she founded. Many of her writings, especially her knowledge of natural medicine, have lost none of their relevance to this day. Others still raise questions. While some suspect in Hildegard's visions a kind of drug intoxication of the herbalists, others see in it a prophetic gift, even a proof of her holiness.