Eric Gutkind
Erich Gutkind (Eric; Pseudomym: Volker ) ( born February 9, 1877 in Berlin, † August 1965 in New York City ) was an esoteric mystic.
Life and work
His parents were Hermann Gutkind and Elise (1852-1942), born in the vineyard. The father owned next to his villa in Berlin's Tiergarten district, a factory for trimmings in Annaberg (Ore Mountains) with branches in Hamburg and Wroclaw with connections to Calais. According to letters, there was a generation gap between father and son Erich was excluded from the legendary wealth of the father.
Gutkinds studies at home with a private tutor and at the University of Berlin encompassed art history, religion, philosophy, psychology and science. He was familiar with the modern thought of his time and he had a wide background knowledge in many fields of learning.
After Erich Gutkind 1910 had written his Sidereal birth under a pseudonym, he came into contact with Frederik van Eeden and Wassily Kandinsky, followed the similar thoughts. As a result, the Potsdamer Forte circle developed, eminent persons belonged. New friends he was with Walter Benjamin and Gershom Scholem.
In Germany it was rejected as a philosopher. After he escaped in 1933 with his wife in the U.S., he stayed there also largely unknown. Kandinsky made Dimitrije Mitrinović attention to him, with the Goodchild 1920/21 a series of articles in the magazine The New Age wrote.
At a sent copy of his Choose Life, he received a reply by Albert Einstein on 3 January 1954 that treats Einstein's attitude to religion. Goodchild has offered this letter a year later for public sale. 2008 letter by Bloomsbury was auctioned for 207,600 pounds. On 8 October 2012, he was offered to 3 million U.S. dollars on ebay and sold for a further bid for 3.0001 million U.S. dollars on 18 October 2012.
Publications
- Sidereal Birth: Seraphic hike from the death of the world to be baptized fact; 1910 1914
- World conquest heroes love; 1911
- The Absolute Collective: A Philosophical Attempt to overcome our Broken State; Translated from the original German by Marjorie Gabain, London 1937
- Choose Life: The Biblical Call to Revolt; 1952