Rafael Schermann

Rafael Schermann (copyright unclear, source: Narodowe Archiwum Cyfrowe)

Rafael Schermann (born March 18, 1874 in Krakow , Austria-Hungary ; died around 1943 in a labor camp in the Soviet Union ) was a graphologist and clairvoyant .

Life

Rafael Schermann attended the commercial school in Kraków and worked as an insurance clerk at the Kraków branch of the Phönix insurance company , from 1910 onwards he worked at its headquarters in Vienna .

Schermann dealt with graphology and posed as a clairvoyant . Oskar Fischer , professor of psychiatry at the Karl Ferdinand University in Prague , carried out a series of experiments with Schermann between 1916 and 1918, some of which impressed him. Fischer published about them in 1924. In 1918 Schermann gave his first public lecture in Vienna. This was followed by lecture tours to Hungary, Poland, Romania, Czechoslovakia and Switzerland. In 1923/24 he went on a lecture tour through the USA . His customers included Karl Kraus , Oskar Kokoschka and Adolf Loos .

Schermann published his book on graphology in 1929, it appeared in 1939 in the French translation by Ivan Goll and with a foreword by Jules Crépieux-Jamin at Gallimard in Paris.

After the transfer of power to the National Socialists in 1933, Schermann fled to Poland, where he published his writings in Polish translation. During the German occupation of Poland in 1939, he fled to Lemberg , which fell to the Soviet Union under the Hitler-Stalin Pact . The Soviets deport him from there. Schermann probably died in 1943 in a forced labor camp near Akmolinsk in Kazakhstan .

Fonts (selection)

• Eduard von Liszt : The robbery murderers Franz and Rosalia Schneider: A criminal psychologist. Nachtr. With a report by Rafael Schermann on the signature of Franz Schneider and an afterword by Oskar Fischer. Company Bookdr. Hollinek brothers, Vienna 1926.
• Children as suicides. In: Frankfurter Zeitung and Handelsblatt. 71, 1927, p. 2.
• Scripture doesn't lie! Adventures. Brücken-Verlag, Berlin 1929.
• Fates of life . 6 volumes. Schaefer, Leipzig 1932:
  • The dead man's suicide . Edited by Jesco H. von Puttkamer.
  • The three wills of Prince X. Edited by Marie-Madeleine von Puttkamer.
  • You are to blame! Edited by Jesco H. von Puttkamer.
  • Help! Killer! Edited by Jesco H. von Puttkamer.
  • His bride, the impostor . Edited by Jesco H. von Puttkamer.
  • By half a minute ... Edited by Jesco H. von Puttkamer.

literature

• Max Hayek : The script interpreter Rafael Schermann. EP Tal, Leipzig 1921.
• Oskar Fischer : Experiments with Raphael Schermann. A contribution to the problems of graphology, telepathy and clairvoyance. Urban & Schwarzenberg, Berlin 1924.
• Eugene S. Bagger: Psycho-graphology: a study of Rafael Schermann. Putnam, London 1924.
• Abraham Aron Roback : Experiments with Raphael Schermann by Oskar Fischer. In: American Journal of Psychology . Vol. 38, Issue 1, 1927, pp. 146-147.
• Salomon Wininger : Great Jewish National Biography . Volume 5, Chernivtsi 1927.
• Paul Tabori : Pioneers of the Unseen. Souvenir Press, London 1972, ISBN 0-285-62042-8 .
• Susanne Blumesberger, Michael Doppelhofer, Gabriele Mauthe: Handbook of Austrian authors of Jewish origin from the 18th to the 20th century . Volume 3: S – Z, Register. Edited by the Austrian National Library. Saur, Munich 2002, ISBN 3-598-11545-8 , p. 1194.
• Rodger Anderson: Psychics, Sensitives and Somnambules: A Biographical Dictionary with Bibliographies. McFarland, Jefferson 2006, ISBN 0-7864-2770-1 , p. 153.

Fiction

• Steffen Mensching : Schermann's eyes. Wallstein, Göttingen 2018, ISBN 978-3-8353-3338-3 .

Web links

• Literature by and about Rafael Schermann in the catalog of the German National Library
• Newspaper article about Rafael Schermann in the 20th century press kit of the ZBW - Leibniz Information Center for Economics .
• multiple unmatched entries on WorldCat

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Incomplete biographical data in the handbook of Austrian authors of Jewish origin: 18th to 20th centuries. 2002.
2. ↑ ^{a b} Hans-Peter Kunisch : Who knew how to read the signs. Review. In: Süddeutsche Zeitung. August 9, 2018, p. 15.