Maria Silbert

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Maria Silbert , also called Seererin von Waltendorf (* December 24, 1866 , † August 29, 1936 ), was a Styrian spiritualist .

Life

Maria Silbert was the child of the Koralt family of teachers in Friesach . Her grandmother was already known as a clairvoyant . Maria Silbert attended the teacher training college in Klagenfurt and taught at the elementary school in Krakaudorf , where she also met her husband, the tax officer Gustav Silbert. From 1916 she lived with her family in Waltendorf near Graz . Her husband died in 1918 and they had ten children with him, four of whom died early.

activity

In January 1915 Maria Silbert began to hold spiritualistic sessions, so-called " séances ": Several people sat around a round table in a darkened room, placing their hands so that thumbs and little fingers collided. The table began to move, and during the session there was a knocking noise from the table legs on the floor. At the meetings there were ghostly apparitions, such as a figure called "Nell" (for Vincentius Coronelli): This was supposedly a man born in Nuremberg in 1656 , later an officer, scholar and general of the Franciscans, died in 1713 (in the list of these officials as " Vincenzo Maria Coronelli ”, documented as 78th General Minister of the Minorites from 1701 to 1707 ?). The knocking of the table was interpreted as its answers (knock twice “no”, once “yes” etc.): You wrote the alphabet on a piece of paper and ran a pencil along the letters until it knocked. In this way messages could be conveyed.

During meetings, the participants' legs were said to have touched under the table and material from the spirit realm appeared. Another figure is said to have appeared as an Egyptian named "Memelik", an assistant to Nell.

It is said that Maria Silbert was brought to the front in the south during the First World War in 1917 to predict military developments. Several trips abroad, including three to London , contributed to Ms. Silbert's fame. In England a large stag is said to have bowed to her three times and kissed her mouth. As part of a stay of several days in a vineyard house in Trebian near Kitzeck in southern Styria, there are said to have been repeated ghosts of a French soldier who is said to have shot a pair of lovers. This story was taken up by Claudia Rossbacher in her detective novel "Steirerrausch" from 2019. Another literary exploitation of this topic can be found in a volume on Spuk in der Steiermark.

Through her activities she achieved great popularity and won many followers and opponents. One of the best-known opponents was the professor for experimental physics at the University of Graz , Hans Benndorf , who also published a brochure with the testimony of witnesses who proved the unbelievability of the alleged ghostly events. One supporter of Ms. Silbert was the Graz theology professor Johannes Ude , another the astronomer Alois Gatterer.

Over the years, a number of phenomena turned out to be real, not ghostly processes: There are statements according to which a table with springs in the legs was found in Ms. Silbert's house, which was triggered by pressing a button on the underside of the table top - let the table jump and dance. A material represented as teleplasma had shown itself to be a knitted white stocking when illuminated. Touching could be exposed as movements of the foot slipped out of the shoe of Ms. Silbert.

In October 1925 one participant in the meetings of Ms. Silbert hanged himself, another shot himself. Maria Silbert was reproached for this and blamed for it.

At the celebrations for the tenth anniversary of her activity, Ms. Silbert is said to have fallen into a trance and her figure started to shine. Her last breath is said to have been a gaseous, bluish band of light from her mouth that began to hover over a car on the opposite side of the street.

Maria Silbert is buried in the St. Peter cemetery in Graz.

Web links

literature

  • Rudolf Sekanek: Mother Silbert. A sacrifice. Facts, reports, documents. Der Leuchter Verlag, Reichl 1959.
  • Mother Silbert and her ghosts ... From the table back and the supernatural, from ardent admirers and opponents. Weststeirische Rundschau No. 42, year 2012 (October 19, 2012), 85th year, ZDB -ID 2303595-X . Simadruck Aigner u. Weisi, Deutschlandsberg 2012, p. 3.
  • Werner Schiebeler: Maria Silbert and the ghost of Trebian. "Wegbegleiter" magazine. Independent magazine to reflect on the essentials. No. 1/2005, ZDB -ID 1335615-x . Pp. 2-18.
  • Hans Benndorf: Prof. Dr. Hans Benndorf against Mrs. Silbert. In: Neues Grazer Tagblatt, March 23, 1924. ZDB -ID 1160241-7 . P. 3.
  • Hans Benndorf: The mysterious powers of the woman Maria Silbert.
  • Hans Benndorf: Are there any occult physical phenomena? Lecture given on April 2, 1927 in the “Urania” in Graz. Publishing house Leuschner and Lubensky. Graz 1927.
  • Peter Hohenwarter: The experiments of the astrophysicist P. Dr. Alois Gatterer SJ with Maria Silbert. Frontier Areas of Science (GW). Born in 1957, volume 3. Resch Verlag Innsbruck. ZDB ID 534631-9 . Pp. 11-15

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g h Weststeirische Rundschau October 19, 2012, p. 3.
  2. ↑ a b Schiebeler: Spook of Trebian.
  3. ^ Claudia Rossbacher: Steirerrausch. Sandra Mohr's ninth case . Gmeiner-Verlag, Meßkirch 2019. ISBN 978-3-8392-2414-4 or ISBN 978-3-8392-5883-5 or ISBN 978-3-8392-5882-8 .
  4. ↑ Gabriele Hasmann: Trebian: Weingarthaus in Gauitsch: The medium Maria Silbert and his house spirit Nell. In: Spuk in der Steiermark: mysterious places and encounters. Ueberreuter, Vienna 2014. ISBN 978-3-8000-7590-4 pp. 22-41.
  5. ^ Seherin von Waltendorf, Austria-Forum. (queried October 23, 2012).
  6. ↑ Little newspaper. April 17, 1924.


personal data
SURNAME Silbert, Maria
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian occultist
DATE OF BIRTH December 24, 1866
DATE OF DEATH August 29, 1936