Valentin Tomberg

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Valentin Tomberg (born February 27, 1900 in Saint Petersburg , Russian Empire , † February 24, 1973 in Mallorca ) was a legal scholar , anthroposophist and mystic .

Life

Valentin Tomberg was a Baltic German Protestant denomination. His father, Arnold Tomberg, was of Swedish descent and an interior minister, and his mother was Russian. He attended the Petri School , a renowned St. Petersburg educational institution with a humanistic orientation, learned Greek and Latin at an early age, and also German , English and French at home . From 1919/20 he was engaged in the Tarot in St. Petersburg, but at an early age he was also enthusiastic about Rudolf Steiner's writings . After the October Revolution he fled to Tallinn in Estonia . He worked as a civil servant, teacher, farm worker, pharmacist and artist and thus financed an evening course in comparative religion, philosophy and several languages. He also worked for the Tallinn branch of the Anthroposophical Society .

Since the early 1930s he has published numerous articles in anthroposophical journals. In 1931 he had a profound spiritual experience. According to his own statements, his "spiritual eyes and ears" opened and he began to perceive the world of angels and spiritual individualities surrounding him directly and to enter into spiritual intercourse with them. In the following years he tried with his essays and lectures in the anthroposophical sense to orient his listeners and readers more towards Christ and also to place the Bible more and more at the center of his lectures. In his early writings Tomberg borrowed from Steiner's anthroposophical teachings, especially christological aspects, and supplemented these with his own research results. Later he regretted building on anthroposophical literature and thus overwhelmed the reader.

Exclusion from the Anthroposophical Society

In 1932 he became general secretary of the Estonian Anthroposophical Society . With his work Tomberg represented a spiritual authority who dared to question Steiner's quasi monocratic claim to validity as a clairvoyant . As a result, in December 1933 in the Goetheanum he was denied the competence to be an authentic Steiner interpreter. Steiner's widow, Marie Steiner , called for the “inevitable fight” against the “delusional” and “occult teacher” Tomberg and set the course for his exclusion from the Anthroposophical Society . According to his future administrator Martin Kriele , after the Second World War there was a ban on keeping Tomberg's books in the student rooms of the seminary of the anthroposophical Christian community. As recently as 1995, the person who had died in 1973 was insulted in anthroposophical circles as a spiritual traitor who had switched to “the camp of [the] relentless arch enemies ” of anthroposophy (meaning the Catholic Church), and he was allegedly accused of “flattery and dagger with Jesuitism Sophistication ”.

Stay in the Netherlands

In 1938 Tomberg moved to Rotterdam and lived with his wife and child in the Netherlands during the Second World War . From 1939 to 1940 he worked as a secretary in the Estonian Vice Consulate in Amsterdam under the Estonian Vice Consul, the Dutchman Jan Rot. Due to the German occupation of the Netherlands and the Soviet occupation of Estonia, the Vice Consulate in Amsterdam was closed and Tomberg lost his Job.

Conversion to the Catholic Church

In 1943 Tomberg converted to the Orthodox and in 1945 to the Roman Catholic Church . Tomberg's conversion started a significant conversion movement from anthroposophists to the Catholic Church. He was followed, among others, by the Cologne constitutional lawyer Ernst von Hippel and his current estate administrator Martin Kriele . This was followed by stays in Mülheim an der Ruhr , where he directed the reconstruction of the adult education center, and Cologne, where Ernst von Hippel offered him a position at the University of Cologne . Tomberg obtained his doctorate there. jur. and presented writings on legal philosophy and international law.

Moved to England

After a short time in London (around 1948) he moved to Reading on the Thames, worked for the BBC until his retirement in 1960 and then intensively on his manuscripts, especially on his major work The Great Arcana of the Tarot (1967). Tomberg died during a stay in Mallorca on February 24, 1973.

With his later writings, which are no longer shaped by anthroposophy but by a deeply felt Christology, Tomberg stands in the great tradition of the Christian church fathers and mystics , French and Russian hermetics , Jewish Kabbalah and those contemporary thinkers who push the limits of the scientific - tried to break through the materialistic worldview, such as Henri Bergson , CG Jung or Teilhard de Chardin . Tomberg, however, did not limit himself to simply summarizing traditions in recapitulation, but enriched them with new insights.

In the 1960s, Tomberg wrote his main work The Great Arcana of the Tarot , which - according to his will - should only appear after his death and under a pseudonym . The great Arcana are a meditative introduction or a summa of Christian hermetics .

Works

  • Anonymus d'Outre Tombe: The great arcana of the Tarot. Meditations. Edited by Martin Kriele and Robert Spaemann . Introduction by Hans Urs von Balthasar . Herder, Basel 1983; 3rd expanded edition 1993, ISBN 3-906371-05-0 .
    • Original title: Méditations sur les 22 Arcanes Majeurs du Tarot. Aubier-Montaigne, Paris 1980.
  • Anonymus d'Outre Tombe: Meditations on the Great Arcana of Taro. 22 letters to the unknown friend. Translated by Gertrud von Hippel, edited by Ernst von Hippel. (Out of print edition, but corrected by V. Tomberg). Verlag Anton Hain, 1972, ISBN 3-445-10904-4 .
  • Anthroposophical reflections on the Old Testament. Achamoth, Schönach 1989, ISBN 3-923302-02-9 .
  • Anthroposophical reflections on the New Testament. Achamoth, Schönach 1991, ISBN 3-923302-03-7 .
  • Essays from the period from 1930 to 1938 (On Eastern and Western Spirituality. The Spiritual Science of Rudolf Steiner. The Tragedy of Russia - Movements Against the Christ Impulse). Ed. V. Willi Seiss. Achamoth, Schönach 1999, ISBN 3-923302-09-6
  • Records. Lecture transcripts, ed. v. Willi Seiss. Achamoth, Schönach 2001, ISBN 3-923302-15-0 .
  • Degeneration and regeneration of jurisprudence. Schwippert ( writings on legal theory and politics, volume 66, ed. By Ernst von Hippel). Bonn 1946; 2nd edition Bouvier, Bonn 1974.
  • The foundations of international law as a human right.
  • Rudolf Steiner's Foundation Stone Meditation. Achamoth, Schönach 2. A. 1992, ISBN 3-923302-04-5 .
  • Karmic connections in characters from the Old Testament. Communications from the Arcane Discipline, ed. v. Willi Seiss. Achamoth, Schönach 2003, ISBN 3-923302-20-7 .
  • Lazarus come out. Four fonts. Ed. V. Martin Kriele. Foreword by Robert Spaemann . Herder, Basel 1985; New edition 2003, ISBN 3-906371-12-3 .
  • Seven lectures on the inner development of humans. Achamoth, Schönach; 2. A. 1993, ISBN 3-923302-05-3 .
  • The four Christ offerings and the appearance of Christ in the etheric. Achamoth, Schönach; 3rd A. 1994, ISBN 3-923302-07-X .
  • The Wandering Fool - Love and Its Symbols - A Christian Tarot Meditation. Original French text with German translation by Wilhelm Maas. Ed. V. Friederike Migneco and Volker Zotz . Kairos Edition , Luxembourg 2007, ISBN 2-9599829-5-9 .
  • Inspirations for the Great Arcana of Taro XIV - XXII by Valentin Tomberg (French - German) and other hermetic contributions. Original French text with German translation by Sebastian Niklaus. Edited by Willi Seiss and Catharina Barker. Achamoth, Schönach 2007, ISBN 978-3-923302-26-0 .
  • The Lord's Prayer Course - Part I. Edited by Willi Seiß , Achamoth, Taisersdorf 2008, ISBN 978-3-923302-27-7 .
  • The Our Father Course - Part II. Edited by Willi Seiß, Achamoth, Taisersdorf 2009, ISBN 978-3-923302-27-7 .
  • Inner certainty. About the way, the truth and life. Edited by Friederike Migneco and Volker Zotz . With a study Tomberg and the Buddhism by Volker Zotz. Kairos Edition, Luxembourg 2012, ISBN 978-2-919771-00-4 .

literature

  • Elisabeth Heckmann: Valentin Tomberg. Life - work - effect. Biography 1900–1944. Volume I / 1. Novalis, Schaffhausen 2001, ISBN 3-907160-77-0 .
  • Elisabeth Heckmann and Michael Frensch : Valentin Tomberg. Life - work - effect. Biography 1944–1973. Volume I / 2. Novalis, Schaffhausen 2005, ISBN 3-907160-82-7 .
  • Martin Kriele: Anthroposophy and the Church. Experience of a cross-border commuter. Herder, Freiburg 1996, pp. 148-229, ISBN 3-451-23967-1 .
  • Sergej O. Prokofieff and Christian Lazaridès: The Tomberg Case. Anthroposophy or jesuitism. Verlag am Goetheanum, Dornach 1995; greatly expanded new edition self-published in 1996, ISBN 3-00-000843-8 .
  • Ramsteiner Kreis (Ed.) Valentin Tomberg. Life - work - effect. Sources and contributions to the work. Volume II. Novalis, Schaffhausen 2000, ISBN 3-907160-72-X .
  • Ramsteiner Kreis (Ed.) Valentin Tomberg. Life - work - effect. Contributions to the history of impact. Volume III. Novalis, Schaffhausen 2005, ISBN 3-907160-78-9 .
  • Jens Roepstorff: Valentin Tomberg - A portrait of the re-founder of the Mülheim Adult Education Center after 1945. Mülheim Yearbook 2007, pp. 241–246.
  • Günter Röschert: Hermetic Philosophy. On Valentin Tomberg's late work on the tarot. In: Die Drei, 4/2004, pp. 69–76.
  • Willi Seiss : Fight and resistance against a spiritually researched Christology and Christosophy and against its author Valentin Tomberg. Part A. Achamoth, Schönach 1996, ISBN 3-923302-10-X .
  • Willi Seiss: The fight against Valentin Tomberg and his spiritually researched Christosophy. Documented on the basis of the correspondence between Valentin Tomberg and Marie Steiner. Part B - Correspondence. Achamoth, Schönach 1999, ISBN 3-923302-11-8 .
  • Arnold Suckau: The Riddle Valentin Tomberg. In: Die Drei, 4/2004, pp. 66–69.
  • Gerhard Wehr : Spiritual Masters of the West. Life and teaching. Diederichs, Munich 1998, p. 239ff, ISBN 3-424-01216-5 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Helmut Zander : Anthroposophy in Germany. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2007. P. 727.
  2. ↑ This wish is also expressed by the chosen pseudonym Anonymus d'Outre Tombe , whose translation means “nameless person from beyond the grave”.
personal data
SURNAME Tomberg, Valentin
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Anonymus d'Outre Tombe (pseudonym)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Jurist and mystic
DATE OF BIRTH February 27, 1900
PLACE OF BIRTH Saint Petersburg , Russian Empire
DATE OF DEATH February 24, 1973
Place of death Mallorca