Karl-Heinz Gottmann

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Karl-Heinz Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Gottmann (born September 13, 1919 in Berlin ; † July 15, 2007 in Überlingen on Lake Constance ) was a German doctor , an exposed European Buddhist and since 1982 the worldwide superior of the Arya Maitreya Mandala .

Life

Karl-Heinz Gottmann became a Buddhist and student of Martin Steinke in 1937 at the age of 18 . After military service and returning home from Soviet captivity , he completed his medical studies in 1954 . He received his doctorate in medicine from the Humboldt University in Berlin . In the 1960s he worked as a doctor in India. There he became a personal student of Lama Anagarika Govinda , whose order Arya Maitreya Mandala, founded in 1933, he had already joined during his student days in Berlin. After his time in India he lived in Bad Sobernheim until 1971 . Since 1965 he has held courses in the Kurhaus Dhonau together with his son, the neurologist and yoga teacher Armin Gottmann, “in hatha yoga and meditation techniques as a path to physical health and mental harmonization.” He then worked as a doctor at Lake Constance. Intellectuals from Asia and Europe frequented his home in Meersburg , including Lama Anagarika Govinda and Nyanaponika as well as the philosophers Jean Gebser and Volker Zotz . From 1970 Karl-Heinz Gottmann published the magazine Der Kreis , founded in 1952 .

Buddhist religious career

At the beginning of the sixties, Karl-Heinz Gottmann found a teacher in Lama Anagarika Govinda who became for him a “great mediator between East and West”. Back in Europe, Karl-Heinz Gottmann took over the management of the Western European branch of the Arya Maitreya Mandala in 1965 at the request of Lama Govinda as the successor to Hans-Ulrich Rieker . The Protestant theologian Michael Mildenberger stated in 1974 that under the leadership of Karl-Heinz Gottmann the religious life of the Arya Maitreya Mandala "seems to freeze", while individual members took personal initiatives and sometimes unfold astonishing activities. This would have "admittedly more and more distanced themselves from the official leadership and line of the order." In the order itself, his work in the Western European branch was considered exemplary, which is why he became the direct successor of Lama Anagarika Govindas as Acharya in 1982 , that is, worldwide master of the order. The historian of religion Andrew Rawlinson saw the handover of the office from Lama Govinda to Karl-Heinz Gottmann as an experimental departure from the mainstream of the Tibetan Buddhist tradition. Karl-Heinz Gottmann passed the office of Acharya on to his son Armin Gottmann in 1999.

Karl-Heinz Gottmann was valued for his expertise in the iconography of Tantric Buddhism. The cultural scientist Günther Däss is one of Karl-Heinz Gottmann's students.

On behalf of Li Gotami Govinda , Gottmann founded the Lama and Li Gotami Govinda Foundation in 1989 , which he headed as Chairman of the Board of Trustees until 1999.

Works

  • Investigations on the circulatory dynamics effect of breathing therapy. Berlin 1958.
  • Introduction to Buddhism. In: Edith Zundel, Bernd Fittkau (eds.): Spiritual paths and transpersonal psychotherapy . Junfermannsche Verlagsbuchhandlung, Paderborn 1989, ISBN 3-87387-008-8 , pp. 81-98.
  • Meditation in Vajrayâna. In: Marianne Wachs (Ed.): Form is emptiness - emptiness form 3. Buddhist Studienverlag. Berlin 2005, ISBN 3-937059-04-0 .

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Hilarion Petzold (Ed.): Innovative Psychotherapy and Human Sciences. Volume 47, 1989, p. 546.
  2. ^ Scientific journal of the Humboldt University Berlin: Mathematical-Natural Science Series. Volume 8, 1958, p. 321.
  3. ↑ Hellmuth Hecker: Buddhism in Germany. A chronicle. German Buddhist Union, Hamburg 1978, p. 51.
  4. ^ Walter Schmidt: The "foreign religions" in Germany. Hinduism - Buddhism - Islam. Evangelical Central Office for Weltanschauung questions. Information No. 46, Stuttgart IV / 1971 (PDF; 111 kB), p. 11.
  5. ↑ Steffen Rink: Celebrating Religions. Festivals and holidays of religious communities in Germany. Diagonal Verlag, 1997, ISBN 3-927165-34-4 , p. 181.
  6. ^ Gerhard Wehr : Jean Gebser. Individual transformation before the horizon of a new consciousness. Peterberg 1996, ISBN 3-928632-26-4 , p. 286.
  7. ↑ Volker Zotz: The search for a social Buddhism. Luxembourg 2007, ISBN 978-2-9599829-6-5 , p. 11.
  8. ^ International Asia Forum: International Quarterly for Asian Studies. Volume 28, Weltform Verlag, 1997, p. 377.
  9. ↑ Martin Baumann: German Buddhists: History and Communities. (= Religionswissenschaftliche Reihe Vol. 5) Diagonal Verlag, 1993, ISBN 3-927165-14-X , p. 162.
  10. ↑ Michael Mildenberger: Heil aus Asia? Hindu and Buddhist movements in the west. Quell Verlag, 1974, ISBN 3-7918-6001-1 , p. 75.
  11. ↑ Arya Maitreya Mandala: The Mandalacarya
  12. ^ Andrew Rawlinson: The Book of Enlightened Masters. Western Teachers in Eastern Traditions. Open Court, 1997, ISBN 0-8126-9310-8 , p. 277.
  13. ↑ Hans Wolfgang Schumann : Buddhist world of images. Eugen Diederichs Verlag, 1986, ISBN 3-424-00897-4 , p. 10.
  14. ↑ Der Kreis No. 131 September / October 1977 ( ISSN  2197-6007 ), pp. 21-22
personal data
SURNAME Gottmann, Karl-Heinz
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Gottmann, Karl-Heinz Georg Wilhelm Friedrich (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German doctor and Buddhist order leader
DATE OF BIRTH September 13, 1919
PLACE OF BIRTH Berlin
DATE OF DEATH July 15, 2007
Place of death Überlingen on Lake Constance