Max Heindel

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Max Heindel founded the Rosicrucian Rosicrucian Fellowship

Max Heindel (pseudonym, actually Carl Louis Fredrik Grasshoff ) (born July 23, 1865 in Aarhus , Denmark ; † January 6, 1919 in Oceanside , California , USA ) was a Danish / American author , theosophist and Rosicrucian . He was the founder of the Rosicrucian School Rosicrucian Fellowship .

life and work

Childhood, marriages, children, professions

Heindel was born on July 23, 1865 in Aarhus as the first of two sons of Francois L. von Grasshoff (1838–1872) and Anna Sorine Withen († 1916). After the early accidental death of her father, a master baker, the widow moved to Frederiksberg near Copenhagen at the end of 1873 . In early 1874, Heindel sustained a leg injury on the way to school in Copenhagen, which tormented him for years. What remained was a handicap, he hobbled from then on. In 1886 the mother remarried , and Heindel had a half-sister from this connection with Fritz Nicolaj Povelsen . In 1884 he left home and went to Glasgow , where he worked as a tobacco dealer. Here he met Catherine Dorothy Luetjens Wallace (* 1869), whom he married on December 15, 1885 in Glasgow. The marriage had four children. The couple moved to Liverpool in 1885/1886 , where Heindel, like his father-in-law, learned the profession of marine engineer and made frequent ship trips in the course of this activity. Another move back to Frederiksberg followed in 1888/1889. Between 1892 and 1896 the marriage was divorced and the children were taken care of by Heindel's mother Anna.

Around 1896 broke Heindel alone to the United States and called himself, assuming his mother's maiden name, instead of Max von Grasshoff henceforth Max Heindel . He found work as an engineer in a brewery in Somerville . Here he married again, this time a much older Danish widow with four children named Petersen . At the end of 1898 his four children from Frederiksberg's first marriage moved to him in the USA. The second marriage was also divorced in 1899 and Heindel moved to Roxbury with his four children in the same year . He temporarily joined the Quakers and after a difficult job search he found a livelihood as a machinist on a steamer on the Great Lakes . However, the ship sank and Heindel was only able to save himself with difficulty. After this experience, he turned his back on shipping and worked as a heating engineer. Always short of money, he went to the "promised land of California " in Los Angeles in 1903 in search of better working conditions. Here, too, he worked as an engineer in the following years, but continued to suffer from a chronic lack of money.

On August 10, 1910, he married a third time in Los Angeles. He met Augusta Foss (1865–1949) in 1903 in the Theosophical Society . The marriage remained childless.

In the Theosophical Society

After spending several years in Sommerville , Heindel came to Los Angeles in 1903 , where his interest in metaphysics led to an encounter with Charles Leadbeater . He then joined the Theosophical Society Adyar (Adyar-TG), whose Californian branch he headed from 1904–1905 as Vice President.

He dealt intensively with theosophy , spiritualism , occultism and astrology and became a vegetarian for ideological reasons . After he became seriously ill in the summer of 1905, he left the Adyar-TG. He then traveled across large parts of the United States to give lectures on Christian mysticism and astrology.

In the Adyar-TG he met Alma von Brandis , who was an esoteric “secret student” of Rudolf Steiner. In 1907 she invited him to go to Rudolf Steiner in Germany at her own expense . At that time Steiner was Secretary General of the German Section of the Theosophical Society . On Brandi's recommendation and because of his former vice-presidential post with the Theosophists in Los Angeles, Steiner accepted him as a "secret student" in his Rosicrucian esoteric section , of which he was the founder and autocratic leader. Heindel took part there for five months, from November 1907 to March 1908, in his secret training courses and esoteric lectures. He was also accepted into the even more secret Steiner “Freemasonry” of the so-called Misraim service. During this time, Steiner spoke about the Rosicrucians, among other things; the presentations were exclusively shaped by Steiner's own thoughts using theosophical ideas. Heindel was very disappointed with Steiner's statements. In April 1908 this led to a cooling of the relationship with Brandis. Since this also meant that his source of money was lost, he had to return to the USA in the summer of 1908.

The Rosicrucian

According to Heindel himself, an older brother of the Rosicrucians visited him in April / May 1908 in Germany and, after passing an examination, subjected him to an initiation . This first Rosicrucian initiation is said to have been followed by others later in the USA. According to other information, Franz Hartmann is said to have introduced him to Rosicrucianism during this time. In any case, Heindel wrote a work in the USA in 1909 entitled The Rosicrucian Weltanschauung or Mystical Christianity . This represents a mixture of original theosophical teachings and ideas from Steiner's publications. The first English edition of the work also contained a dedication in which Rudolf Steiner was clearly referred to. After Steiner's public vilification of Max Heindel as the alleged plagiarist of his ideas and as a secret school student who broke his oath to Steiner's Esoteric Section, he removed the dedication from the next edition. Heindel's concept of Christ differs significantly from Steiner's. It therefore remains unclear what Steiner was referring to his allegations against Heindel, since he only formulated them in a very simplistic and general manner.

On August 8, 1909, Max Heindel founded the Rosicrucian Fellowship in Seattle . On a lecture tour through the USA, he founded several centers for his new order. On August 10, 1910, Heindel married Augusta Foss in Los Angeles , and together with her he expanded the order. A suitable site for the future headquarters was purchased on May 3, 1911 in Oceanside . In the following years a number of buildings were built around the so-called Mount Ecclesia , the center of the Rosicrucian Fellowship.

Heindel suffered a stroke on January 6, 1919 in his office on Mount Ecclesia, Oceanside, and died shortly afterwards at the age of 53. His wife Augusta Foss continued the Rosicrucian Fellowship.

Works (selection)

  • Astrology, its purpose and its limitation . Heindel, Sils-Maria 1999.
  • The mystical interpretation of Easter . Heindel, Sils-Maria 2000, ISBN 3-906414-19-1 .
  • The mystical interpretation of Christmas . Heindel, Sils-Maria 2000, ISBN 3-906414-18-3 .
  • The Rosicrucian worldview or mystical Christianity . Rosicrucian Association, Darmstadt 1997, ISBN 3-88956-005-9 .
  • Teachings of an Initiate . Heindel, Sils-Maria 1999, ISBN 3-906414-13-2 .

literature

  • Augusta Foss-Heindel: Max Heindel - biography of a great Christian mystic . Heindel, Sils-Maria 2005, ISBN 3-906414-46-9 .
  • Rosicrucian community (ed.): Max Heindel, a biography of his life, and the chronicle of the Rosicrucian community . Rosicrucian Association, Darmstadt 1988, ISBN 3-88956-310-4 .
  • Georg Vollmer: The encounter between Max Heindel and Rudolf Steiner . Rosicrucian Community, Darmstadt 1965.
  • Harald Lamprecht : New Rosicrucians. A manual (Church, Denomination, Religion; Vol. 45). Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2004, ISBN 3-525-56549-6 (also dissertation Halle-Wittenberg 2001).
  • Norbert Klatt: Theosophy and Anthroposophy. New aspects to their history; from the estate of Hübbe-Schleiden (1846–1916) . Norbert-Klatt-Verlag, Göttingen 1993, ISBN 3-928312-02-2 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Harald Lamprecht : New Rosicrucians. A manual. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2004, ISBN 3-525-56549-6 , pp. 205-207ff.
  2. ↑ Norbert Klatt: Theosophy and Anthroposophy. New aspects to their history. From the estate of Wilhelm Hübbe-Schleiden (1846–1916) , 1993.
personal data
SURNAME Heindel, Max
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Grasshoff, Carl Louis Fredrik
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Danish-American author, theosophist and Rosicrucian
DATE OF BIRTH July 23, 1865
PLACE OF BIRTH Aarhus , Denmark
DATE OF DEATH January 6, 1919
Place of death Oceanside (California) , USA