Hans Büchenbacher

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Hans Büchenbacher (born September 12, 1887 in Fürth ; † June 28, 1977 in Arlesheim ) was a German philosopher and anthroposophist .

Live and act

Hans Büchenbacher-Hamilton (1887–1977) philosopher and anthroposophist, grave in the Bromhübel cemetery in Arlesheim, Basel-Land
Grave in the Bromhübel cemetery in Arlesheim, Basel-Land

Büchenbacher was born in 1887 as the son of the defense attorney and judicial advisor Sigmund Büchenbacher (1861–1932) and by Katharina Büchenbacher , b. Haubrich (1863–1941), born in Fürth. He had two sisters, one of whom was the pianist and singing teacher Anna Büchenbacher (1890–1968). After attending a humanistic grammar school, he studied law , philosophy and psychology at the Universities of Erlangen and Munich . During his studies he heard lectures by Rudolf Steiner , the founder of anthroposophy, from whom he first heard in 1910 in the Munich vegetarian restaurant "Fruchtkorb". In 1911 Büchenbacher received his doctorate in Erlangen with a work “On Objective Claims in Music”. Until 1914 he was briefly active in the freelance environment of Karl Korsch and Philipp Berlin . During World War I he served as an officer on the Western Front. After the war he became involved in the anthroposophical social utopia of social threefolding in Munich. In 1920 he became a personal student of Rudolf Steiner, who appointed him the official speaker for propaganda of threefolding. In contrast to many other anthroposophists, the studied philosopher appeared right from the start with the claim to represent a strictly philosophical interpretation of anthroposophical esotericism . In 1922 right-wing groups tried to violently interrupt a lecture by Steiner in Munich. Büchenbacher, who lived in Munich until 1923, organized the successful anthroposophical resistance. In 1922 Büchenbacher also campaigned for the anthroposophical youth movement. He was instrumental in founding a "Free Anthroposophical Society" that emerged from the conflict between older and younger anthroposophists. When Steiner founded the General Anthroposophical Society (AAG) in 1923 , Büchenbacher took part as a delegate. From 1931 to 1934 he was chairman of the German national anthroposophical society and editor of the journal “Anthroposophy”.

Although brought up as a Catholic, he was classified by the National Socialists as a " half-Jew " because of his father's descent . In his “Recollections 1933-1949”, which was written down around 1970 and published posthumously, Büchenbacher reported with great disappointment the “failure” of anthroposophy “against anti-Christian National Socialism”. He noted that about “2/3 of the members” of the Anthroposophical Society “oriented themselves more or less positively towards National Socialism.” Even within the Anthroposophical Society, he was soon advised to resign. In 1934 Büchenbacher therefore resigned as chairman of the board and resigned from the board in 1935. In the same year in 1935 the Anthroposophical Society was banned in Germany and Büchenbacher emigrated to Switzerland in 1936. In his “Memoirs” he reported that he had received anti-Semitic hostility there as well as by German anthroposophists. He also called leading anthroposophists such as Marie Steiner and Guenther Wachsmuth "pro-Nazi". The memoirs are classified as "reliable" by the anthroposophical historian Uwe Werner. He obtained Swiss citizenship and lived in Arlesheim until his death . Büchenbacher continued to be involved in anthroposophy after 1945, but never again in the official management level. Instead, he gave lectures, as he had done since 1921, founded a working group for philosophy and psychology at the Goetheanum , was involved in anthroposophical student work and published "Treatises on Philosophy and Psychology", to which he also contributed an essay.

Büchenbacher was married twice - in his second marriage to the Swedish countess and painter Lilian Hamilton (1883–1980). Each marriage had a son.

Publications

  • About subject claims of music. R. Müller & Steinicke, Munich 1911.
  • The Christ Impulse and the I. An epistemological consideration. Manuscript publishing house, Breslau 1935.
  • Nature and spirit. Principles of a Christian Philosophy. P. Haupt, Bern 1946.
  • as editor: Treatises on philosophy and psychology. 10 booklets, Philosophisch-Anthroposophischer Verlag am Goetheanum, Dornach 1951–70.
  • The "philosophy of freedom" and the present. Philosophical-anthroposophical publishing house at the Goetheanum, Dornach 1962.
  • Experience and thinking in the four layers of reality. Essays, ed. from the philosophical-anthroposophical working group Basel, Basel 1978.

literature

  • Hans Buser: Address at the funeral service by Hans Büchenbacher , in: Hans Büchenbacher: Experience and thinking in the four layers of reality , ed. vd philosophical-anthroposophical working group Basel, 1978, pp. 51–54.
  • Ansgar Martins: Hans Büchenbacher as a philosopher and anthroposophist. A short intellectual biography, in: ders. (Ed.): Hans Büchenbacher: Memories 1933-1949. At the same time, a study on the history of anthroposophy under National Socialism , Info3, Frankfurt am Main 2014, pp. 101–177.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Anna Büchenbacher Lexicon of Persecuted Musicians during the Nazi Era, accessed on May 20, 2014
  2. ^ Ansgar Martins: Hans Büchenbacher as a philosopher and anthroposophist. A short intellectual biography , in: ders. (Ed.): Hans Büchenbacher: Memories 1933-1949. At the same time, a study on the history of anthroposophy under National Socialism , Info3, Frankfurt am Main 2014, p. 106
  3. ↑ Hans Büchenbacher: Munich 1922 , in: Erika Beltle / Kurt Vierl (ed.): Memories of Rudolf Steiner. Collected contributions from the “Communications from Anthroposophical Work in Germany” 1947-1978 , Stuttgart 2001, pp. 324–326. Ansgar Martins: "Left-Right Crossover": Some political debates in early anthroposophy , in: ders. (Ed.): Hans Büchenbacher: Memories 1933-1949. At the same time, a study on the history of anthroposophy under National Socialism , Info3, Frankfurt am Main 2014, p. 214ff.
  4. ^ Christoph Lindenberg: Rudolf Steiner. Eine Chronik , Free Spiritual Life, Stuttgart 1988, p. 517.
  5. ^ Peter Staudenmaier: Between Occultism and Nazism: Anthroposophy and the Politics of Race in the Fascist Era. Brill, 2014, p. 108.
  6. ^ Hans Büchenbacher: Memories 1933-1949 , in: Ansgar Martins (Hrsg.): Hans Büchenbacher: Memories 1933-1949. At the same time, a study on the history of anthroposophy under National Socialism , Info3, Frankfurt am Main 2014, p. 77, p. 40.
  7. ^ Hans Büchenbacher: Memories 1933-1949 , in: Ansgar Martins (Hrsg.): Hans Büchenbacher: Memories 1933-1949. At the same time a study on the history of anthroposophy under National Socialism , Info3, Frankfurt am Main 2014, p. 24.
  8. ↑ Uwe Werner: Anthroposophists in the time of National Socialism (1933-1945) , Oldenbourg, Munich 1999, p. 27.
  9. ↑ Hans Büchenbacher biographien.kulturimpuls.org, accessed on May 19, 2014.
personal data
SURNAME Büchenbacher, Hans
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German philosopher and anthroposophist
DATE OF BIRTH September 12, 1887
PLACE OF BIRTH Fuerth
DATE OF DEATH June 28, 1977
Place of death Arlesheim