Martha Küntzel

Born: 1857.

Died: 8 December 1942 in Bad Blakenburg in Thurungia, Germany.

Martha Küntzel was a German author of theosophical writings and translator of Thelemic writings, especially of Aleister Crowley's works .

Early years:

Martha Küntzel was a trained pianist and a piano teacher by profession.  They set to music including a poem by Hermann Hesse  and wrote several piano pieces that in the United States appeared in print.

She was taught by Annette Essipoff , held the diploma of a "freelance artist" from the Petersburg Imperial Conservatory and received two years of instruction from Teresa Carreño after she moved from Russia to Berlin in 1902 .

Theosophy and Thelema:

In advanced years she turned increasingly to occultism and was initially a member of the Theosophical Society in Germany founded by Franz Hartmann and known with Helena Petrovna Blavatsky .  At that time Küntzel was the telegraph secretary and Pansophen dating Otto Gebhardi. Gebhardi and Küntzel acted as representatives of Blavatsky's ideas and jointly wrote articles for the journal Theosophische Kultur published by Theosophisches Kultur-Verlag , the successor to Heinrich Tränker's Theosophischer Zentralbuchhandlung .

Later Küntzel and Gebhardi joined the Ordo Templi Orientis (O.T.O.), headed by Theodor Reuss, Gebhardi under the religious name Ich Will (abbreviated IW ) and Küntzel under the name Ich Will Es (abbreviated IWE ).

In June 1925, Gebhardi and Küntzel met the British occultist Aleister Crowley at the so-called Weida conference in Tränker's house near Hohenleuben near Weida and recognized him as the "world savior". After this encounter, Küntzel developed into a fanatical supporter of Crowley and his Thelemic philosophy. Crowley was with the pregnant Leah Hirsig traveled under the name Alostrael the seventh in the series of Crowley's Scarlet Women .

During her pregnancy, Hirsig, who was rejected by Crowley, lived with Küntzel in Leipzig. Norman Mudd, another companion of Crowley's, stayed with Küntzel for a while. Crowley had left Hirsig and Mudd penniless in Germany and had traveled on. As Mudd, who in 1934 was to end by suicide, however began to explain itself to the "World Teacher", he was kicked out of Küntzel.

Thelema publishing company:

The founding of a publisher for Crowley's writings in Germany had already been discussed at the Weida conference in 1925. The publisher's headquarters should be Küntzel's apartment at Tief Strasse 4 in Leipzig, sales should be made through Otto Wilhelm Barth's Asokthebu bookstore in Munich and Eugen Grosche's bookshop Inveha in Berlin. There were previously some of Karl Germer translated writings Crowley in Tränker Pansophia-Verlaghad appeared, but this had come to an end due to the gap that followed the Weida conference between Crowley's supporters and Tränker's. Küntzel loathed Tränker, who had tried to expel Crowley from Germany.

On March 15, 1927, the Thelema Publishing Company Leipzig was founded. In addition to Küntzel with a 10% share of the net profit and Crowley with a 35% share, the partners included Otto Gebhardi (Leipzig), Karl Germer (Boston), the illustrator Oskar Hopferr (Weißendorf ) and Bernhard Sporn (responsible for printing) Zeulenroda ). Originally, Otto Wilhelm Barth was supposed to take over the printing, but he was on Tränker's side. In the 12 parts of the vote, Crowley, Küntzel and Sporn each had 3 votes, the others only one vote. As a result of the power struggle between Crowley's supporters of Thelema and Tränker's Pansophen, Küntzel and Gebhardi were informed in January 1927 that they were no longer members of the International theosophical fraternization should have been considered and gave them house ban in the ITV's Leipzig headquarters.

In July 1930, Küntzel, as a representative of Thelema Verlag, signed a contract with Henri Birven, which published the magazine Hain der Isis, and which allowed Birven to publish Crowley texts, which Crowley forbade him again in 1932. The finished Küntzel of 1925 translation of Crowley's Book of the Law was rejected by Karl Germer and Henry Birven. Germer reported to Crowley that Birven considered Küntzel's translation "childish and silly". Crowley considered Birven a "cute old idiot" and as a result Küntzel continued to translate numerous works by Crowley into German, which were then published in the Thelema publishing company appeared. Some of these translations also have current new editions. And Küntzel remained loyal to Crowley, also through extensive correspondence. On August 16, 1929, she hosted the bride when Crowley married Nicaragua-born Maria de Miramar in Leipzig.

Crowley and Hitler:

Küntzel was not only a fervent admirer of Crowley, but also of Adolf Hitler. By 1926 she had come to the conclusion that Hitler was her "magical son". She writes to Crowley:

"You are perfectly right when you say I can't think politically. I never cared for politics except during the War and then since the time of Hitler's rising [. . . ]. And then it began to dawn on me how much of Hitler's thoughts were as if they had been taken from the Law of Thelema. I became his fervent admirer and am so now, and will be to my end. I have ever so often owned to this firm conviction that the close identity of Hitler's ideas with what the Book teaches endowed me with the strength necessary for my work.

 

"You are absolutely right. I can't think politically. I never cared about politics, except during the war and since the rise of Hitler [...]. That's when I started to see that Hitler's thoughts, like the law of Thelema, seem to come from. I became his enthusiastic follower, I am now and will remain so until my end. The firm belief that Hitler's ideas correspond to the teachings of the book has repeatedly strengthened my work. ”

Here she expressly speaks of a (perceived) similarity of ideologies, not of a direct transfer or influence. In contrast, legends circulated regarding the thelemic influence on Hitler's ideology, according to which Martha Küntzel somehow should have somehow handed over the Book of the Law to Hitler in order to familiarize him with the thelemic principles as the philosophical basis of National Socialism. Gerald Yorke (1901–1983), for example, thought he remembered that a copy of Hitler had been brought in when he was “in Nuremberg”. Hitler was not in Nuremberg, but in fortress custody in Landsberg and was released in 1924 before a first version of the book appeared in 1925. There is no evidence for these stories. It is not known whether Küntzel had ever tried to contact Hitler.

In 1925, Küntzel was informed by Crowley that the country that would initially adopt his Book of the Law as official text would gain world domination in the foreseeable future, and between 1942 and 1944 Crowley made various comments in his copy of Hitler Speaks by Hermann Rauschning from which it can be seen that Crowley saw Hitler's amorality as parallels and similarities to his own creeds: Crowley sided with Hitler on many sides and expressed his enthusiasm for the Führer. After reading, Crowley spread the legend that the parallels he discovered between his and Hitler's views could only have been inspired by Martha Küntzel and his Book of the Law. Rauschning's book subsequently turned out to be largely fake, but had already served as a source for some of the legends of right-wing esotericism.

In any case, their positive attitude towards National Socialism found no equivalent on the part of the Nazis. The Gestapo invited her to be interrogated and O.T.O. papers in her possession were confiscated. The Gestapo showed surprise that a convinced National Socialist could also be a supporter of such a dubious foreigner as Crowley. Küntzel tried unsuccessfully to convey the complete compatibility of Thelema and the Nazi ideology, also by sending Crowley's writings to the Gestapo. But also on Crowley's side, the opposites proved not to be bridged. On May 10, 1939, Crowley wrote to her in a replica of the anti-Semitic statements in Küntzel's letters:

“[ . . . ] Practically everything that goes beyond brutality, stupidity, cruelty, servitude and bloodthirst in Germany was Jewish. The Germans [ . . . ] stand as far among the Jews as monkeys stand among the people. ”

That was provocative and had the effect that a reply from Küntzel to Crowley has not survived.

Death:

In September 1950, Eugen Grosche spread the rumor that Martha Küntzel's traces were allegedly lost in a concentration camp , which is unbelievable. According to her pupil Friedrich Lekve, Küntzel died on 8 December 1942 in a retirement home for former teachers in Bad Blankenburg, where she had lived since 1937. Lekve wrote on January 11, 1955 in a letter to Crowley: "Until the load moment of her life I was with her." Various sources spread that she had after the end of World War II been still alive and died in December 1942.

Works:

Writings:

Ordered chronologically in ascending order

The thoughts as creators of our destiny. Theosophischer Kultur-Verlag, Leipzig 1923. New edition: Ed. Secret Knowledge, Graz 2013, ISBN 978-3-902881-44-1 .

Raising the child. Theosophical culture publishing house, Leipzig 1925.

Translations:

Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, Aleister Crowley: Liber LXXI. The Voice of the Silence. The Two Paths. The Seven Gates. With a comment from Master Therion. Thelema Publishing Company, Leipzig 1928.

Aleister Crowley: Book 4. Thelema-Verlag-Gesellschaft, Leipzig 1927. 2 vols. Part 1: Mysticism. Part 2: Magick. Psychological Society, Zurich 1964.

Aleister Crowley: Short introductory essays. Thelema Publishing Company, Leipzig 1927.

Aleister Crowley: Berashith = Berašit. Thelema Publishing Company, Leipzig 1928.

Aleister Crowley: Master Therion's Message. Translated by Karl Germer and Martha Küntzel. Thelema-Verlag-Gesellschaft, Leipzig 1928. Contains: Liber 837: The Law of Freedom. Liber 150: De lege libellum. The method of Thelema by Gerard Aumont.

Aleister Crowley: The Wake World. A story for young children and infants. With explanatory marginal comments in Hebrew and Latin, on the use of the wise and understanding. Thelema Publishing Company, Leipzig 1928.

Aleister Crowley: Science and Buddhism. Thelema Publishing Company, Leipzig 1928.

Aleister Crowley, Helena Petrovna Blavatsky: Liber LXXI: The Voice of Silence: The Two Paths: The Seven Gates. Thelema Publishing Company, Leipzig 1928.

Gérard Aumont: The three schools of magic. Psychosophia Cooperative, Zurich 1956.

Aleister Crowley: Harpocrates - Assumption d. God form. Psychosophical society in d. Switzerland, Stein AR 1956.

Aleister Crowley: Liber Aleph vel CXI. The book of wisdom and folly; in the form of an epistle of 666 the big wild animal to his son 777. Ansata, Munich 2003, ISBN 3-7787-7243-0 .

Compositions:

Setting by Hermann Hesse: Elisabeth.

Piano pieces:

Pierrot's Serenade, published in 1911 by Arthur P. Schmidt, Boston, Mass.

Impatience, published in 1911 by Arthur P. Schmidt, Boston, Mass.