Cay Lorenz von Brockdorff (Theosophist)

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Cay Lorenz Graf von Brockdorff (born September 24, 1844 in Neumünster ; † May 23, 1921 in Meran , South Tyrol , Italy ) was a German cavalry master , theosophist and anthroposophist .

life and work

Profession, marriages, children

He was the son of District Administrator Hans Adolf von Brockdorff (1805–1870) and his first wife Luise Caroline Christiane, nee. von Buchwald († 1850, from the House of Fresenburg).

Brockdorff was a Royal Prussian Rittmeister and married Sophie von Ahlefeldt in Potsdam in 1870 . The daughter Hedda (* 1871) and the son Cay Lorenz (1873–1918) resulted from the marriage, in 1879 the marriage was divorced. In 1880 he married Anna Rosenhagen; the son Ludwig (1881–1938) emerged from this connection. After Anna shortly after the birth of her son on 17 August 1881 in childbed died, he married in 1885 his first wife Sophie again; this time the marriage remained childless. After Sophie's death in 1906, he married Alexandrine Freiin von Buddenbrock († 1955) in 1910.

Theosophist and anthroposophist

In November 1893 he joined the Theosophical Society and was co-founder of the German Theosophical Society (DTG) on June 29, 1894 in Berlin . Later (before 1900) he became secretary of the DTG lodge in Berlin under Wilhelm Hübbe Schleiden , President of the DTG. In the Brockdorff library, lectures and discussions on theosophical and philosophical topics took place regularly in front of a small audience. But the soul of the little branch was Sophie von Brockdorff.

Together with his wife Sophie Brockdorff invited Rudolf Steiner to give a lecture on Nietzsche in his library in September 1900 . Those present were very taken with the young philosopher and requested a second lecture for the coming week. This lecture on Goethe's fairy tale of the snake and the lily was extremely important for Steiner because, as he later said, he was able to “speak esoterically for the first time”. Now he was asked to give further lectures and then gave the series that were later published under the title The Mysticism in the Rise of Modern Spiritual Life . They were followed by another series in the next winter of 1901/02, which he worked out for the book Christianity as a Mystical Fact and the Mysteries of Antiquity . In November 1900 Marie von Sivers , who later became Steiner's wife, became a member of Brockdorff's DTG lodge and met Steiner at one of his lectures that same month.

When Brockdorff gave up his secretary post for reasons of age in January 1902, Steiner took over this function and at the same time became a member of the Theosophical Society Adyar (Adyar-TG). Brockdorff moved to Algund near Meran in 1902 , largely withdrew from active theosophy, but remained a member of the Theosophical Society. In Algund he maintained contacts with the theosophist Franz Hartmann, who was also resident there . After the death of his wife Sophie, he tried to keep in contact with her for a long time through a medium.

Around 1909/10 he moved to Wiesbaden, where he lived with his last wife, Alexandrine. Most of the time he took part in theosophical affairs from afar, although there was also a theosophical lodge in Wiesbaden. A small number of letters have survived from this period.

On April 7, 1913, he became a member of the Anthroposophical Society that Steiner had founded shortly before, and thus turned his back on the Adyar-TG. In a letter to Hübbe Schleiden, however, he clearly stated that he was continuing to read the works of the English theosophists, especially Annie Besants , but that he could not go with the establishment of the Order of the Star in the East , which was supposed to prepare the return of a world teacher like Christ . He had been wrestling with himself for months; now that Annie Besant had excluded him with the whole section, relieved of this decision.

Web links

  • Biographical entry in the online documentation of the anthroposophical research center Kulturimpuls