Gerda Walther

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Gerda Walther (born March 18, 1897 in Nordrach ; † January 6, 1977 in Dießen am Ammersee ) was a German philosopher and parapsychologist . She is considered a representative of phenomenology .

Life

Gerda Walther was born in Nordrach in 1897 , where her father Otto Walther ran a lung sanatorium. Her mother was his former patient Ragnhild Bajer, daughter of the politician Fredrik Bajer . She died of tuberculosis when Gerda Walther was six years old. Otto then married Walther Ragnhild Bajer's sister Sigrun, who thus became a stepmother. Otto Walther was a staunch social democrat . He did not have his daughter baptized and raised her without religion. In her childhood she came into contact with the social democratic friends of her parents, who included August Bebel ("Uncle August"), Klara Zetkin , Rosa Luxemburg , Wilhelm Liebknecht and Adolf Geck .

In 1908 Walter gave up the clinic and moved with the family into a villa with a farm on Lake Starnberg . In 1917 the company moved to Baden-Baden . Gerda Walther grew up in the care of a nanny and suffered from the character of her stepmother. She was taught by private tutors. While she initially followed the political ideas of her father, in later adolescence the issues of truth, helpfulness and love for people came to the fore.

After graduating from high school, she began studying philosophy, psychology and sociology at the University of Munich in the winter semester of 1915/16 . She came into contact with the teachings of Alexander Pfander , who viewed Marxism as a detour and a wrong path. At the age of twenty she wanted to continue her studies at the University of Freiburg with Edmund Husserl . When he found out that Gerda Walther was “an educated and scientifically trained Marxist”, he initially refused to allow her to study. His amazement at her understanding of his books changed his mind.

Gerda Walther got to know Husserl's student Edith Stein . Her father died in 1919. Stein, a devout Jew, recommended that she study the Bible to relieve her pain. Walther's doctorate was not accepted by Edmund Husserl because he was of the opinion that women do not belong on the chair of a university, that the home with husband and children was the right place for them. Deeply disappointed by Husserl, Walther completed his doctorate with Alexander Pfänder in Munich and was awarded the doctoral degree summa cum laude in 1921 . She had meanwhile completely broken away from Marxism and turned to the study of psychology and parapsychology . She began to publish her own writings.

The failure of a relationship plunged Gerda Walther into a deep life crisis. Their deepening religiosity gave them strength. Her interest in researching parapsychological and mystical phenomena grew. She claimed to have "medial gifts" and "supernatural knowledge" which, as "golden threads", connect people to the Spirit of God.

After completing her studies, she worked from 1927 to 1929 as a scientific secretary for the Munich doctor Albert von Schrenck-Notzing , and from 1931 as a freelance scientific writer. During the Second World War , she was employed by the post office censorship because of her language skills - in addition to Latin and Greek, she spoke nine other languages .

A vocation event during a church service moved Walther, after a long conflict with Christianity , to join the Catholic Church and be baptized. She was baptized on January 29, 1944 in Pullach near Munich. Cardinal Faulhaber firmte it on May 29, 1944. Walther depth at this time their understanding of Catholicism and dealt in particular with the writings of Romano Guardini .

Gerda Walther's final resting place in the Nordrach cemetery

At the age of 50, she returned to the places of her childhood in 1947, but felt alienated. One last visit took place in 1967. Gerda Walther died in 1977. She found her final resting place in her place of birth, Nordrach.

Works

  • On the ontology of social communities In: Yearbook for Philosophy and Phenomenological Research VI, 1923.
  • Phenomenology of mysticism. Olten and Freiburg im Breisgau: Walter Verlag 1923.
  • Parapsychology and mysticism. In: Journal of Parapsychology , 1928.
  • Anticipating and seeing our Germanic ancestors in the light of parapsychology. Leipzig: Hummel 1938.
  • The significance of Edmund Husserl's phenomenological method for parapsychology. In: Psychophysical Journal 1/2 & 3, 1955.
  • To the other bank: From Marxism and Atheism to Christianity. Remagen: Otto Reichl 1960.

literature

  • Andreas Resch, Eberhard Avé-Lallemant: Gerda Walther - your life and work. Resch Verlag, Innsbruck, 1983; ISBN 3-85382-024-7 .
  • Linda Lopez McAlister: Gerda Walther (1897–1977). In: Mary Ellen Waithe (Ed.): A History of Women Philosophers , Volume 4_ Contemporary Women Philosophers 1900 — today. Springer Netherlands, Dordrecht, 1994; ISBN 978-94-011-1114-0 ; Pp. 189-206

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Sepp Schülj: Dr. Otto Walther, the founder of the Nordrach Colony Sanatorium: 1.8.1855 - 6.4.1919. In: The Ortenau: Journal of the Historical Association for Central Baden. 49th annual volume. Verlag des Historisches Verein für Mittelbaden, Offenburg 1969, pp. 191–194.
personal data
SURNAME Walther, Gerda
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German philosopher and parapsychologist
DATE OF BIRTH March 18, 1897
PLACE OF BIRTH Nordrach
DATE OF DEATH January 6, 1977
Place of death Dießen am Ammersee