Esotera

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Esotera was a monthly esoteric magazine from Hermann Bauer Verlag in Freiburg , which appeared in German-speaking countries from 1970 to 2001. From 1970 to 1985 it was distributed as a subscription magazine, from 1986 onwards in the open. It had a sold circulation of almost 30,000 copies and reached a top circulation of 70,000.

Esotera was one of the most famous German-language esoteric magazines. Part of the concept was also to publish critical articles on esotericism , occultism and the New Age . Another topic was alternative medicine . It was one of the first magazines in Germany to report on the phenomenon of so-called near - death experiences and mortality research (e.g. by the Swiss Elisabeth Kübler-Ross ).

The forerunner was the magazine Die Andere Welt , which was published by Hermann Bauer Verlag from 1958 to 1969 and was based on the magazine and the magazine Die occult Voice (1949-1958). In 1970 Hermann Bauer bought the Johannes Baum Verlag , which had previously published the magazine The White Flag , the organ of the Neugeist movement (1923–1941 and 1950–1970). Esotera was created by merging these two periodicals.

Under the direction of editor-in-chief Gert Geisler, after some staff fluctuation, the magazine remained stable with a five-person editorial team from 1994, with a total of a dozen people working for the magazine. Towards the end of the 1990s, however, the circulation fell to only 16,000. In 1999 the publishing house was sold to the Düsseldorf PR entrepreneur Paul J. Kohtes and esotera was relaunched . The new publisher had to file for bankruptcy in the spring of 2001 . At the end of 2001 the editorial team (with the exception of the new editor-in-chief Christamaria Hehmann, who was hired at the beginning of 2001) was dismissed; esotera was sold to a small Berlin publisher. In 2003 the Hermann Bauer publishing house went bankrupt; the last major labor court lawsuit in connection with the bankruptcy ended in a settlement in late 2006. Esotera is still being produced by the new owners in Berlin - albeit in a much smaller edition and irregularly.

Title:

  • Esotera. The specialist magazine for new thinking and spiritual life. Hermann Bauer Verlag, Freiburg im Breisgau 1970-2001, ISSN  0003-2921 , ZDB -ID 125262-8 .
  • The new Esotera. Health, spirituality, joie de vivre. Hoks-Mediendienst, Berlin 2001-2004, ISSN  1617-8769 , ZDB -ID 2035236-0 .
  • Esotera Essence Almanac. The specialist magazine for new thinking and spiritual life. Health, spirituality, joie de vivre, magic, old and new knowledge. Hoks-Mediendienst, later PMD Print Medien Dienst, Berlin 2006–2007, ZDB -ID 2275121-X .

literature

  • Bernd Kramer: No more business with angels. Badische Zeitung online, January 25, 2003.