Daniel Nicol Dunlop

Daniel Nicol Dunlop , mostly just DN Dunlop (born December 28, 1868 in Kilmarnock , Scotland , † May 30, 1935 in London , England ), was a Scottish theosophist , anthroposophist and founder of business associations.

life and work

Childhood, education, marriage and children

Dunlop was born on December 28, 1868 in Kilmarnock, the only child of Alexander Dunlop and Catherine Nicol (1847–1873). The father was an architect and preacher to the Quakers . After the early death of his mother, he was taken into the care of his grandfather Daniel Nicol on the Isle of Arran , where he learned to fish. After his death in 1882 he moved back to his father Alexander in Kilmarnock. Here he attended elementary school and then completed an apprenticeship in Ardrossan ( North Ayrshire ) in a machine factory.

In 1891 he married Eleanor Fitzpatrick (approx. 1867–1932); the marriage resulted in three children, including Ronald Ossory Dunlop, a well-known painter. With Eleanor Charlotte Merry (1873–1956) he became a close friend from 1922.

In business

After differences with his father, Dunlop left home around 1886 and worked for a bicycle dealer in Glasgow . In 1889 he went to Dublin , where he took a job as a tea and wine dealer. After Dunlop and his family moved to New York in 1897 , he worked again in a machine factory. In 1899 he received the post of European sales manager for Westinghouse Electric Corporation and then returned to Great Britain in the same year, where he lived in London.

From 1911 he was the organizer and first director of the newly initiated British Electrical and Allied Manufacturer's Association (BEAMA) (Association of British Electrical Manufacturers ), which still exists today. In 1924 he organized the World Power Conference (WPC) (World Energy Conference), the forerunner of today's World Energy Council (WEC). At the first meeting of the WPC on July 11, 1924, Dunlop was named chairman .

As a theosophist

After Dunlop left home and started working in Glasgow around 1886, he became interested in occult and philosophical works. In 1887 he met George William Russell , from which a lifelong friendship developed. After moving to Dublin in 1891, he became a member of the local lodge of the Theosophical Society (TG), which from then on became known under the name The Household . He also associated with Russell and William Butler Yeats in the Hermetic Society . In October 1892 he founded the magazine The Irish Theosophist , for which he also acted as editor. The last edition of this paper appeared in September 1897, then he had to discontinue the magazine because of his move to the USA.

When the TG split in 1895, Dunlop became a member of the Theosophical Society in America (TGinA). During his stay in the USA from 1897 to 1899, he temporarily acted as private secretary to Katherine Tingley , the president of the TGinA. At the end of 1899 he resigned from the TGinA (possibly he was expelled, the sources are unclear) and became a member of the Theosophical Society Adyar (Adyar-TG) in London (presumably in the Blavatsky Lodge ). His publications have appeared in The Theosophical Review and The Vahan . In 1909 he set up summer schools, regular international meetings with theosophical lecture cycles and to get to know one another. In 1910 he initiated the Blavatsky Institute near Manchester and in the same year, together with Charles Lazenby, the magazine The Path (not to be confused with the magazine of the same name by William Quan Judge ). During this time he founded his own theosophical lodge under the umbrella of the Adyar-TG called Light on the Path , of which he became president.

He was opposed to the cult of Jiddu Krishnamurti that began in 1911 and the Order of the Star in the East , which led to an increasing alienation from theosophy. On May 8, 1922 he resigned from the Adyar-TG.

As an anthroposophist

Dunlop first met Rudolf Steiner around 1905 , when Steiner was still Secretary General of the German Section of the Theosophical Society (DSdTG). The person of Steiner deeply impressed Dunlop, and he later invited him to lectures in England. In December 1920 he joined the Anthroposophical Society (AG) and founded the Human Freedom Group under its umbrella , which he led as President. Here, too, he introduced the idea of ​​the now anthroposophical summer schools, which were implemented in 1923. In 1928 Dunlop organized the first and only anthroposophical world conference in London and in 1930 achieved the post of General Secretary of the AG in Great Britain.

Disputes and power struggles within the AG led to the fragmentation of the organization in April 1935 and the exclusion of Dunlop from the AG.

Dunlop died in London on May 30, 1935, of complications from appendicitis .

Works (selection)

• Protean Man , London 1912
• Symbols of Magic , London 1915
• Studies in the Philosophy of Lorenz Oken . London 1916
• Duty , London 1919
• The Path of Knowledge , London 1920
• Nature-Spirits and the Spirits of the Elements , London 1920

literature

• Thomas Meyer: DN Dunlop, a picture of time and life . Verlag am Goetheanum, Dornach 1987
  • New edition, with a foreword by Owen Barfield : Perseus, Basel 1996, ISBN 3-907564-22-7
• Eleanor C. Merry: Memories of Rudolf Steiner and DN Dunlop . Perseus, Basel 1992, ISBN 3-907564-11-1

Web links

• Literature by and about Daniel Nicol Dunlop in the catalog of the German National Library
• Biographical entry in the online documentation of the anthroposophical research center Kulturimpuls
• Third Power, Second Dams Article from Time Magazine, September 21, 1936
• The Path of Attainment

Individual evidence

1. ↑ History of BEAMA 1911: Archive link ( Memento of the original from September 28, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
2. ↑ WEC's History: Archive link ( Memento of the original from April 28, 2006 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
3. ↑ Index to The Irish Theosophist 1892-1897: http://www.austheos.org.au/indices/IRISHT.HTM
4. ^ Index to The Lamp 1894–1900: http://www.austheos.org.au/indices/LAMP__.HTM
5. ^ Index to The Path 1910–1914: http://www.austheos.org.au/indices/PATHUK.HTM