Uriella

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Uriella , actually Erika Hedwig Bertschinger-Eicke (born February 20, 1929 as Erika Hedwig Gessler in Zurich ; †  February 24, 2019 in Ibach in the Black Forest ), was the founder and head of the new religious movement Fiat Lux . She saw herself as the mouthpiece of Jesus ; her followers see her as a faith healer and claim that she had magical powers .

Life

Erika Gessler had early contacts with the Spiritual Lodge Zurich and with new religious communities in the United Kingdom and the United States . She claimed to be clairvoyant after a riding accident in 1973 in which she sustained severe head injuries . On Christmas Day 1975, she is said to have received a first revelation in a deep trance in the «Light Center Bethanien» in Switzerland .

Fiat Lux

After her first husband died, she founded the “Order” Fiat Lux and a “ sanctuary ” on January 12, 1980 in Egg ( Canton Zurich ) as a central meeting place for her followers. Here she appeared for the first time as «Uriella» in church services. She saw herself as a direct mouthpiece for Jesus Christ and passed on her revelations. The archangel Uriel looks after Jesus Christ as well as herself and has appeared to her many times in her living room. In the meantime, the “sanctuary” has been relocated to Ibach / Lindau in the Black Forest as the starting point and central point of the movement .

At the beginning of the 1990s, Fiat Lux and with it Uriella reached the peak of their popularity. At that time the "order" had a membership of around 1000 people. In addition, her appearance, which was perceived as bizarre by outsiders, earned Uriella great public interest, also outside of her followers: Like all members of Fiat Lux, she always wore white clothes, but exaggeratedly decorated with embroidery, lace and glittering stones, with a black wig on top a diadem and other jewelry. Official photos often showed them with a rapt smile in front of figures of saints or arrangements made of artificial flowers. Uriella and her husband Icordo were very present in the media at this time and often appeared on talk shows where they were presented as strange, not really serious characters, but still expressed their thoughts with great steadfastness. The television presenter Roger Schawinski , on whose programs the couple was a guest several times, said of Uriella's ambivalent role: “She was a unique figure, with her regalia , her remote appearance - and she brought insane audience ratings. [...] For 99 percent she was a figure of joke. She herself hoped to be able to gain new followers in the remaining one percent. "

The teaching of Fiat Lux is based on the revelations of Uriella, which she claims to have received from Jesus or Mary and which she presented in the first person. These announcements are intended to provide a deeper insight into God's plans and guide people to repent before the end of the world . The teaching consists of a mixture of reincarnation doctrine , Karma thinking , color theory , spiritualistic sources, alternative medicine , ecological ideas, the realm flight disc myth and much more. “Fiat-Lux” wearers dress in white, as this color repels Lucifer's ray (“Shamanah”).

Uriella believed that the end of the world was near, but the fans of “Fiat Lux” would be rescued by unmanned spacecraft . The end of the world was predicted for August 1998. These and other statements that were picked up in the media, as well as appearances on talk shows, made her one of the most well-known faces for sects in German-speaking countries.

Uriella forbade her clients to see the doctor, so two clients died. Uriella had to answer to court several times in the 1990s because of the use of unregistered medicinal products, prohibited mail order sales and tax evasion.

Sickness and death

On March 8, 2007, Uriella's fourth husband Eberhard Bertschinger Eicke (born August 29, 1940), called "Icordo", denied suspicions on Radio Top (Winterthur) that Uriella had been seriously ill in recent years. She is recovering from an inflammation of the maxillary sinus , will soon appear again in public and " experience the new aeon while she is still alive ." On April 23, 2009, internal faxes surfaced stating that Uriella was seriously ill. As a result, many supporters are said to have left the movement, so that at that time it only had fewer than a hundred members. One of her last signs of life is a written statement with her signature and that of her husband, dated summer 2011.

In August 2012, Uriella's husband confirmed that she was seriously ill; two years later he mentioned paralysis and bedridden in an interview.

In August 2015, there was another sign of life on her part: In the tabloid Blick , she defended an alleged child molester in a letter.

At the beginning of 2016, the media reported that Uriella was almost completely paralyzed and suffered from severe pain as a result of the nerve disease amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Nevertheless, according to her few remaining followers, she is said to have been spiritually clear and to have continued to shape the thoughts of the group.

She died on February 24, 2019, four days after her 90th birthday, in Ibach. There she was also buried, the funeral was rated by connoisseurs as probably the last major event of the sect, which was in decline.

Publications

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Uriella died relinfo.ch , February 25, 2019.
  2. ↑ Michèle Binswanger , Christian Zürcher: The Bachelorette of God desktop.12app.ch
  3. ↑ Erika Bertschinger Eicke, Eberhard Bertschinger Eicke: Prophecies about the end times and the 3rd World War. Press release of August 8, 1988. Reproduced on the website of the Evangelical Information Center: Churches - Sects - Religions , April 3, 2007, accessed on January 26, 2017.
  4. ↑ Fight against the strongest . In: Spiegel Online . tape 32 , August 7, 1995, p. 154–162 ( spiegel.de [PDF; accessed November 23, 2019]).
  5. ↑ Sect leader Uriella is dead . In: Tages-Anzeiger . ISSN  1422-9994 ( tagesanzeiger.ch [accessed on February 28, 2019]).
  6. ↑ Andy Fischer: Uriella's life is on a knife edge. In: 20 minutes . April 23, 2009, archived from the original on July 23, 2012 ; accessed on January 26, 2017 .
  7. ↑ Lilian Spörri: Uriella is on the last legs. In: look . April 24, 2009. Retrieved January 26, 2017.
  8. ↑ Andy Fischer: What does ... Uriella actually do. Doomsday prophet? In: Tagblatt der Stadt Zürich . September 8, 2014, archived from the original on September 24, 2014 ; accessed on January 26, 2017 .
  9. ↑ Hugo Stamm : «Uriella suffers without end». In: Tages-Anzeiger . August 24, 2012, archived from the original on January 15, 2013 ; accessed on January 26, 2017 .
  10. ↑ Lea Gnos: Icordo, the husband of the sect founder: «Uriella is paralyzed». In: Blick.ch . August 31, 2014, accessed January 26, 2017.
  11. ↑ Viktor Dammann: The latest message from the sect leader: Now Uriella is defending a boy molester. In: Blick.ch. August 20, 2015, accessed January 26, 2017.
    Viktor Dammann: Post from the sect leader: "Uriella is physically very unfortunate". In: Blick.ch. August 20, 2015, accessed January 26, 2017.
  12. ↑ «She's still a long way from the window»: sect member reveals details about Uriella's illness. In: Schweizer Illustrierte . February 11, 2016, accessed October 3, 2017.
  13. ↑ Sira Huwiler: Uriella is dead: sect leader from Ibach dies at the age of 90 Südkurier , February 25, 2019.
  14. ↑ Video interview: https://www.nau.ch/news/videos/uriella-wird-in-unteribach-beerdigt-65488938
personal data
SURNAME Uriella
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Gessler, Erika Hedwig (maiden name); Bertschinger-Eicke, Erika Hedwig (married name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss founder and head of the new religious movement Fiat Lux
DATE OF BIRTH February 20, 1929
PLACE OF BIRTH Zurich
DATE OF DEATH February 24, 2019
Place of death Ibach (Black Forest)