Carl you Prel

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Carl Freiherr du Prel

Carl Freiherr du Prel , also Karl Freiherr du Prel or Baron Carl du Prel (born April 3, 1839 in Landshut , † August 5, 1899 in Hall in Tirol ) was a German philosopher , writer and occultist .

life and work

Carl du Prel was the fifth of eight children of the royal lawyer Maximilian Freiherr von du Prel (1800-1882) and Anna Sandrezcky (1804-1884), who came from the Polish aristocracy. Shortly after his birth, the family moved to Munich , where Carl grew up as a student at the royal pagerie and, following family tradition, began studying law in 1858 . However, he broke off this course after two semesters because of the Sardinian War in order to sign up for the Bavarian Army. There he worked as a trainer and in the administration of a prison camp until 1872. His friends during this time, with whom he formed a kind of secret society, included the writers Martin Greif and Heinrich Noë , the art historians Adolf Bayersdorfer and Robert Vischer, and the painters Wilhelm Trübner and Hans Thoma . He maintained a long-term, intensive pen friendship to which he owed a lot with the philosopher Eduard von Hartmann .

Du Prel doctorate in 1868 in absentia at the University of Tuebingen in philosophy. His dissertation was entitled Oneirokritikon: The Dream from the Point of View of Transcendental Idealism . In 1872 he left the military for health reasons and from then on worked as a freelance author. He has written many essays and books on topics in philosophy, aesthetics , literature, astronomy and psychology.

With a review of Hartmann's Philosophy of the Unconscious (1869) and with his first book, The common sense before the problems of science (1872), in which he defended Hartmann against a critic, du Prel appeared as a committed supporter of this philosopher. In The Struggle for Existence in the Sky - Darwin's Formula Proven in the Mechanics of the Starry World (1874), he transferred the theory of descent to astronomy. This book has been reprinted twice; the last edition was entitled History of the Development of the Universe (1882). In addition, he contributed with many articles to spread the theory of descent.

In 1880 du Prel married the widow Albertine Schmid, b. Baur (1853–1915), with whom he had two children, Gerhard (1882–1939) and Hildegard (1883–1968). Thanks to the fortune she brought with her from her first marriage and his small invalids pension, he was able to devote himself entirely to his studies.

Hartmann had made du Prel aware of the astronomer Karl Friedrich Zöllner and the philosopher Lazar von Hellenbach , both of whom had great influence on du Prel's further development after they turned to spiritualism in 1877/78 . Following on from his dissertation, Du Prel devoted himself to the states of consciousness in dreams, hypnosis , somnambulism and spiritualistic séances , which he often referred to in an otherwise unusual way as " mysticism " or " occultism ".

In August 1884 du Prel joined the recently founded theosophical lodge Germania and was appointed second vice-president of the lodge. His book Philosophy of Mysticism (predated to 1885), which was published at the same time, made him a spokesman in occult and spiritualist circles. However , he left the Theosophical Society again in February 1886 after allegations of fraud had been voiced against its founder Helena Petrovna Blavatsky (see Hodgson Report ) and Blavatsky was unable to refute them.

After the publication of the Philosophy of Mysticism and Hartmann's Der Spiritismus (1885), there was a break with the long-time pen friend and sponsor. The central point of conflict was the different views on the afterlife assumed by the two thinkers . While du Prel postulated the persistence of individuality, Hartmann only accepted an abstract persistence as part of a monistic “world substance”.

In the autumn of 1886, du Prel founded the Psychological Society with Wilhelm Hübbe-Schleiden and others , which was primarily intended as a platform for du Prel's research and subsequent philosophical discussions. Among other things, Du Prel wanted to establish a "transcendental experimental psychology" through experiments with hypnosis and to counteract scientific recognition for "facts from the transcendental field". He regularly wrote articles for the theosophical journal Sphinx , also founded by Hübbe-Schleiden in 1886 . In the same year he met the influential Russian spiritualist Alexander Aksakow , with whom he worked until his death, whereby Aksakow was important for du Prel mainly because of his possibilities to organize and finance experiments.

In 1888 the book Die Monist Seelenlehre was published , with which du Prel wanted to overcome the dualism of body and soul by trying to show that the organizing principle of the body is identical with the thinking soul. As evidence for this view, he cited, among other things, the "facts" to be recorded at spiritualistic meetings. That same year, the mysticism of the ancient Greeks and an annotated edition of Immanuel Kant's lectures on psychology followed , in which du Prel argued that the ancient oracles and temple sleep were the same states of consciousness as are called "somnambulism" in modern spiritualism. occurred and were examined, and Kant had already designed a system of "mysticism" (in the sense of Du Prels), which only lacked experimental confirmation.

In the psychological society there were soon fundamental differences of opinion between du Prel and Albert von Schrenck-Notzing , who was skeptical of du Prel's interpretations of the phenomena examined and initially wanted to limit himself to empirical inventories. In 1889 du Prel resigned and founded a Society for Experimental Psychology , which was soon renamed Society for Scientific Psychology .

Carl du Prel died in 1899 at the age of 60 during a spa stay in Heiligkreuz .

Carl Gustav Jung , Wassily Kandinsky and Rainer Maria Rilke were influenced by du Prel .

philosophy

As a philosopher du Prel was strongly influenced by Immanuel Kant, Arthur Schopenhauer and Eduard von Hartmann; in addition, he revealed himself as a supporter of Charles Darwin . He was critical of traditional Christianity and the materialism prevailing in science from the middle of the 19th century . He saw materialism as the cause of increasing crime, the rising suicide rate and the increased incidence of mental illness . Du Prel therefore campaigned for a spiritual renewal, to which he wanted to contribute by establishing a "transcendental psychology". The core of his views was the recognition of the unconscious , which appears in dreams, in trance , clairvoyance and telepathic suggestion , but is usually hidden as the shadow side of consciousness. Against this background he dealt with such "occult" phenomena and was thus one of the forerunners of parapsychology . Through scientific research into such phenomena, he hoped to empirically refute materialism .

Fonts (selection)

  • Common sense before the problems of science. In terms of JC Fischer versus Hartmann . Duncker, Berlin 1872
  • The struggle for existence in the sky . Denicke, Berlin 1874
    • Third edition: History of the evolution of the universe. Draft philosophy of astronomy . Günther, Leipzig 1882
  • Under fir and pine trees. Hikes in the Alps, Italy, Dalmatia and Montenegro . Denicke, Berlin 1875
  • Psychology of Poetry. Contributions to the analysis of poetic imagination . Günther, Leipzig 1880
  • The planet inhabitants and the nebular hypothesis . New studies on the evolutionary history of the universe . Günther, Leipzig 1880; Reeken, Lüneburg 2006, ISBN 3-940679-03-8
  • The philosophy of mysticism . Günther, Leipzig 1885
  • Justinus Kerner and the Seer of Prevorst . Greaves, Leipzig 1886
  • The secular monastery. A vision . Günther, Leipzig 1887
  • The monistic doctrine of the soul. A contribution to solving the human riddle . Günther, Leipzig 1888
  • Studies in the field of secret sciences . 2 volumes. Friedrich, Leipzig 1890/1891
    • New edition, Volume 1 as: Our magical worldview - facts and problems . Bohmeier, Leipzig 2005, ISBN 3-89094-456-6
    • New edition, Volume 2 as: Practical experiments on hypnosis, psychology and metaphysics . Bohmeier, Leipzig 2005, ISBN 3-89094-483-3
  • The cross on the far. A hypnotic-spiritualistic novel . Cotta, Stuttgart 1891
  • The riddle of man. Introduction to the study of the secret sciences . Reclam ( UB 2978), Leipzig 1892; Bohmeier, Leipzig 2005, ISBN 3-89094-450-7
  • Spiritism . Reclam (UB 3116), Leipzig 1893; Bohmeier, Leipzig 2006, ISBN 3-89094-487-6
  • The discovery of the soul by the occult sciences . 2 volumes. Günther, Leipzig 1894/95
    • Volume 1: without subtitles
    • Volume 2: Television and Telecontrol
  • Death, the hereafter, life in the hereafter . Costenoble, Jena 1899; Altmann, Leipzig 1922; Superbia, Leipzig 2005, ISBN 3-937554-10-6
  • Magic as a natural science . Costenoble, Jena 1899
    • Part 1: The Magical Physics
    • Part 2: The Magical Psychology
  • Prenatal education, a means of breeding people. A contribution to solving the social question . Costenoble, Jena 1899
  • The psyche and the eternal. Outline of a transcendental psychology . Fischer, Pforzheim 1971

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Tomas Kaiser: Between Philosophy and Spiritism, (pictorial) sources on the life and work of Carl du Prel , dissertation University of Lüneburg 2006, p. 31
  2. ^ Kaiser, pp. 32 and 38
  3. ↑ Kaiser, pp. 32–36
  4. ↑ Kaiser, pp. 36–38
  5. ^ Kaiser, p. 40
  6. ↑ Andreas Sommer: From Astronomy to Transcendental Darwinism: Carl du Prel (1839–1899) , Journal of Scientific Exploration 23 (1): 59–68 (2009), here p. 59f
  7. ^ Kaiser, pp. 36–39
  8. ^ Kaiser, p. 41
  9. ^ Kaiser, p. 54
  10. ↑ Kaiser, pp. 51–54
  11. ^ Kaiser, p. 54f
  12. ^ Kaiser, p. 59f
  13. ^ Kaiser, p. 61
  14. ↑ Sommer, pp. 60f
  15. ^ Kaiser, p. 62f
  16. ^ Kaiser, p. 67f
  17. ^ Kaiser, p. 65f
  18. ^ Kaiser, p. 66f
  19. ^ Kaiser, p. 65
  20. ↑ Summer, p. 59
  21. ↑ Corinna Treitel: A Science for the Soul: Occultism and the Genesis of the German Modern , Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore and London 2004, pp. 41–43
personal data
SURNAME You Prel, Carl
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Du Prel, Carl Freiherr (full name); Du Prel, Karl Freiherr; Du Prel, Baron Carl; DuPrel, Karl; DuPrel, Carl; Duprel, Karl; Prel, Carl you; Prel, Karl you
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German philosopher, spiritualist and occult writer
DATE OF BIRTH April 3, 1839
PLACE OF BIRTH Landshut
DATE OF DEATH August 5, 1899
Place of death Hall in Tirol