Lorenzo Ravagli

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Lorenzo Ravagli (* 1957 in Basel ) is a controversial Swiss anthroposophical author , publisher and editor.

Life

Ravagli has been working as an online editor for the magazine Erziehungskunst at the Association of Independent Waldorf Schools since 2010 .

He was publisher and editor-in-chief of the yearbook for anthroposophical criticism (1993–2005) and editor of the bimonthly forum: magazine for education, environment and health (1995–1998).

reception

In the course of the debates about racist statements in Rudolf Steiner's work, Ravagli examined in his book Unter Hammer und Hakenkreuz . The völkisch-National Socialist struggle against anthroposophy the criticism of völkischer groups of anthroposophy . The German religious scholar Helmut Zander reviewed Ravagli's publication and found that Ravagli turned the attacks on Steiner into the opposite and attested Ravagli's work with technical defects, apologetics and a lack of ambivalence. Ravagli explains in a differentiated way that anthroposophy does not simply belong to the “right” esoteric because of Steiner's racism , but marginalizes the intersections in Steiner's thinking with ethnic esotericists, almost ignores his racial theories and does not subject them to any criticism, because he criticizes critics who do do, consider themselves to be “unfortunate strayers” of science with a “cross-eyed look” (p. 343). Steiner is transfigured into a figure of light, while Ravagli degrades the folkish to “pseudotheosophen” and “pseudo-esoteric” and ascribes anti-Judaism to the esoteric Helena Petrovna Blavatsky , while he ignores Steiner's anti-Judaism, his ethnic stereotypes or his criticism of democracy.

When the family ministry of the CDU politician Ursula von der Leyen tried to index the Rudolf Steiner Complete Editions No. 107 and No. 121 in 2007 because they contained numerous quotations that suggest the author's racist tendencies, Ravagli became known for his attempts, to defend the founder of anthroposophy, Rudolf Steiner, against accusations of racism and anti-Semitism and to defame Steiner's critic. The cultural scientist Jana Husmann-Kastein accused Lorenzo Ravagli in her report on an indexing procedure of the Federal Inspectorate for Media Harmful to Young People, in which she had to deal with two books by Steiner, that he had published one as a co-author in 2001 and 2002 Buch denied the racist standpoints of Rudolf Steiner to an unreasonable extent and reinterpreted them as humanism . In addition, Steiner's critics were massively defamed by Ravagli . The fact that Ravagli and his colleague legitimize everything that Steiner said and wrote about “human races” cannot be excused with a lack of knowledge of the text, since Steiner's relevant racism is cited. During the same period, Ravagli was involved with the co-author and top NPD functionary from Lower Saxony, Andreas Molau , a former Waldorf teacher, in a book project entitled False Prophets , in which the two authors dealt with the relationship between nationalist ideas and Steiner's teachings .

Controversy

According to the cultural scientist Jana Husmann-Kastein , Ravagli defamed critics of anthroposophy as racist anti-racists and fascist anti-fascists. Ravagli got out of the book project "Falsche Propheten" planned with the Lower Saxon NPD top functionary Andreas Molau shortly before the presentation at the Frankfurt Book Fair , because "a book project with an avowed right wing winger could currently be evaluated by the public in the wrong context". Ravagli said of his motivation for this manuscript: “It was and is important to me not to reject right-wing ideologues across the board. I consider a substantive dispute with them necessary. ”In order to prevent Molau from quoting from the jointly written manuscript, Ravagli was represented by the lawyer Michael Hubertus von Sprenger .

Fonts (selection)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Review by Helmut Zander on: Lorenzo Ravagli: Under Hammer and Swastika. The Volkisch-National Socialist struggle against anthroposophy. Stuttgart 2004. In: H-Soz-Kult, May 12, 2005 hsozkult.de.
  2. ^ A b Sebastian Christ and Manuela Pfohl: Waldorf pedagogy. In close contact with the right edge. Stern.de , November 16, 2007 .; Reference to: Hans-Jürgen Bader, Manfred Leist and Lorenzo Ravagli: Lorenzo: Racial ideals are the decline of mankind. Anthroposophy and the accusation of anti-Semitism. Free Spiritual Life Publishing House . Second, revised edition. 2005; Hans-Jürgen Bader and Lorenzo Ravagli: Racial ideals are the decline of humanity. Anthroposophy and the accusation of racism. Free Spiritual Life Publishing House. Second, revised edition. 2005.
  3. ↑ Hendrik Werner: How anti-Semitic was Rudolf Steiner? A volume of his works is withdrawn. Die Welt , November 29, 2007.
  4. ↑ Jana Husmann: Black and White Symbolism: Dualistic Thinking Traditions and the Imagination of »Race«. . Religion-science-anthroposophy. transcript, Bielefeld 2015, ISBN 978-3-8376-1349-0 . P. 342.
personal data
SURNAME Ravagli, Lorenzo
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss anthroposophist and author
DATE OF BIRTH 1957
PLACE OF BIRTH Basel