Frederick Matthias Alexander was born in 1869 on the Australian island of Tasmania and died at the age of 86 years in London. He was a famous Shakespearian raconteur and actor. Because of the loss of his voice, he found himself more and more with a health and existential problem. Conservation of his voice, different treatments and medications were unsuccessful. After that he tried to help himself and decided to observe his actions systematically. Proceeding that way, he discovered a fundamental relationship with the coordination of the human body which reached further than the actual cause of his voice problem.
Based on empirical scientific experience, in a period of about ten years he developed his working method, holistic training and reorientation for thought- movement and activity pattern. He wrote four books about the positive influence of the Alexander Technique in relation to the health and well-being of human beings.

The obvious effectiveness of his method evoked the interest of his contemporaries and forced him to pass on his insight. He taught his technique and manifested it in the first teachers. Since then, the method has continually been refined and adapted to modern life circumstances.
The universal valid principles are still relevant and endure. They are based on the conviction of F.M. Alexander, that the human is functioning as a coherent organism which means that all processes from body, mind and soul are indivisibly bound together. This assumption has been confirmed through the results of recent neurobiological research findings.

Numerous theatrical people and patients who were referred to him by sympathetic doctors took lessons with F.M. Alexander. Included in his big clientele and society for the promotion of the technique were people like the famous writer Bernhard Shaw, Aldous Huxley and the American philosopher and educationalist Prof. John Dewey. During his long life, Alexander taught numerous musicians politicians and statesmen.

The results of his empirical research have been confirmed by academics like R. Magnus, Ch.H. Sherrington und Raimond Dart. In 1973, Prof. N. Tinberg, in celebration of his Nobel Prize in medicine and physiology, devoted half of his speech of thanks to the Alexander Technique and he pointed out the importance of this technique.
N. Tinbergen: 'Ethology and Stress Diseases', (1974); Science #1855; 20 - 7
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