Ernst Pagenstecher (agricultural scientist)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Ernst Arnold Pagenstecher (born May 12, 1913 in Wiesbaden ; † April 29, 1984 in Wiesbaden) was a German agricultural scientist and at the same time a pioneer of the Christian-Buddhist dialogue .

Live and act

Ernst Pagenstecher came from the traditional Wiesbaden Pagenstecher family . After attending the humanistic grammar school in Wiesbaden and Neubeuert am Inn, he passed the Abitur in 1933. After his military service and labor service, he studied from 1936 to 1939 at the Agricultural University in Hohenheim , where he passed the diploma examination. After six years of military service until 1945 he practically worked on farms in Hesse and the Palatinate.

In 1948 he became a consultant in the Ministry of Agriculture, Viticulture and Forests of the state government of the then French-occupied state of Rhineland-Palatinate . At the same time he carried out doctoral studies at the University of Bonn , where he received his PhD in 1954. rer, nat. PhD. In his authority he rose as a ministerial conductor to the leading official.

Around 1960 he came into contact with Lama Anagarika Govinda , carried out an intensive examination of Buddhism as his student and became a member of the Arya Maitreya Mandala . At the same time he dealt deeply with Christian spirituality. Since 1965 he has been spending his vacation and leisure time in the Niederaltaich monastery every year , where he was in intensive dialogue with the abbot. The Benedictine monastery is dedicated to ecumenism with the Eastern Church.

In 1969 he married the pedagogue Traude Pagenstecher-Harder (1919–1986), who worked for years as a development worker in India . In 1971 he founded a working group in Wiesbaden that dealt with Buddhist spirituality. In this context he developed an extensive lecture and publication activity that attempted to integrate Buddhist spirituality into the European tradition. One member of the group was the later philosopher and religious scholar Volker Zotz , who also became the spiritual heir to Pagenstechers with regard to the Christian-Buddhist dialogue. Zotz dedicated his book " Mastering Life with Buddha " to him and his wife Traude .

From 1969 to 1971 Pagenstecher traveled extensively through Nepal and India, where he underwent training from Lama Anagarika Govinda and Lama Thuksay Rinpoche.

From 1976 Ernst Pagenstecher and his wife Traude hosted a group in their house on Wiesbaden's Neroberg , called the Dharma Study Group and close to Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche. The group also took part actively in social events and gave occasional receptions. Among other things, the author and poet Allen Ginsberg was a guest at the Pagenstechers while he was at a reading in the gully in Frankfurt am Main .

When Pagenstecher fell ill with cancer in 1983, he designed the course of his own funeral ceremony, which demonstrated his vision of a spiritual life encompassing cultural circles with texts by St. Francis , Laozis , the Bhagavad Gita , Shantidevas and Hakuin Ekaku . The celebration was held in Wiesbaden after his death on May 1, 1984.

His widow was murdered in her Wiesbaden apartment in November 1986; the perpetrator could only be identified and convicted 22 years later.

Fonts

  • Cultivation and harvest statistics after the Second World War . Mainz 1953.
  • Metta-Maitri-Eros. Supplement to The Circle. No. 80, March / April 1969 ISSN  2197-6007
  • Tashi Ling . Wiesbaden 1971.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Murder of a Wiesbaden pensioner: Life imprisonment 22 years after the crime. on: faz.net , December 18, 2008. The murder was also dealt with in detail in the episode of the television program Aktenzeichen XY ... broadcast on April 3, 1987, unsolved .

literature

  • Hellmuth Hecker : Life pictures of German Buddhists. A bio-bibliographical handbook . University Press, Konstanz
  1. The founders . 1996, ISBN 3-930959-09-7 .
  2. The successors . 1997, ISBN 3-930959-10-0 .
  • Volker Zotz: On the blissful islands. Buddhism in German culture . Theseus-Verlag, Berlin 2000, ISBN 3-89620-151-4 .
  • Volker Zotz: Freedom and Happiness. Buddha's teachings for daily life . Verlag Peter Erd , Munich 1987, ISBN 3-8138-0090-3 .
  • Volker Zotz: Mastering life with Buddha. Buddhism for Practitioners . Rowohlt Verlag, Reinbek 1999, ISBN 3-499-60586-4 .
personal data
SURNAME Pagenstecher, Ernst
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Pagenstecher, Ernst Arnold (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German agronomist and pioneer of the Christian-Buddhist dialogue
DATE OF BIRTH May 12, 1913
PLACE OF BIRTH Wiesbaden
DATE OF DEATH April 29, 1984
Place of death Wiesbaden