P.R. Koenig
Dr. Phil Felix Lazerus Pinkus was born on 13 August 1881 in
Breissgau/Prussia. At the university Breslau he studied economics and
natural science, writing his doctorate on "The Modern Jewish Question".
He was a member of the General Society of Zionists. In 1907 he became a
dramaturg at the Stadttheater Lindau. In 1908, together with his wife
Elsbeth Flatau, he was engaged at the Volkstheater in Zuerich and soon
became a teacher at the private high school Minerva. On 1910 he was made
an editor of the "Swiss Journal of the Education of the Youth", in
1914-18 he was editor of the "Economist" and president of the Zionist
Society in Zuerich. In 1918 he wrote "About the founding of the Jewish
State", but went bankrupt with his business. He fled to Vienna, got
arrested and brought back to Zuerich. He settled down in Albania.
In 1931 the family Pinkus met again in Berlin. Eventually,
Felix Lazerus Pinkus became an expert on economy for the sowjet trade
mission. "Originating from the unusual jewish bourgeoisie of
Prussia, bound to tie together the life style of a banker with a
'liberal socialistic' Weltanschauung" Pinkus lead an extravagant
life style in his villa "Krystall" in Zuerich, not missing one of the
many occasions of a busy social life. He was also active in the lodge
"Bnai Brith" and a part time journalist of the League of Nations.
Pinkus founded the section "Psychische Forschung" of the Swiss Cultural
Society and in 1945 also founded a "Psychosophische
Gesellschaft" in order to "communicate esoteric values and psychological help".
In Pinkus' esoteric group: Karl Brodbeck
(Provincial and Custodian for the Swiss Order of Illuminati),
Hans Rudolf Hilfiker
(the supposed heir of Theodor Reuss himself) and many more (e.g. from
the original Reuss lodge in Zuerich). A 'member' of this group was the
engineer Traugott Egloff who was very much interested in the Abramelin
workings. Egloff corresponded with C.G. Jung about Abramelin and
allegedly died in 1969 in the Brazilian jungle where he wanted to
contact his Holy Guardian Angel. [The Abramelin manuscript allegedly
used by C.G. Jung, keyed in by Egloff, is published as a facsimile in
the paper version of Abramelin &. Co.)
Soon, Pinkus "Psychosophische Gesellschaft" was to become the roof
organisation for Hermann Joseph Metzger's compilation of Orders.
Hermann Joseph Metzger
Hermann Joseph Metzger (1919-1990) a baker and
ex-communist, had grown up in the Tessin canton and in 1943 was
initiated into the Reuss O.T.O. by Genja Jantzen and Alice Sprengel.
Genja Jantzen was described by witnesses as a yes-woman. Pinkus became
Metzger's spiritual father" whereupon he (Metzger) 'received'
the IX°.
Alice Herder (born 1902), a Theosophist since the 1920s, vividly
remembered the time when Pinkus came to Zuerich as a Jewish refugee and
who had visited circa 10 times the Zuerich Theosophical group (there
was no Lodge at this time). Pinkus had never been accepted within the
group, considered being too 'revolutionary' whereupon Pinkus founded
his own group (that is, the "Psychosophische Gesellschaft"). This group
was based upon Eliphas Lévi's magic.
Through Pinkus, Metzger visited two or three times the theosophical
group but as he only was propagandising his horoscopes and was
accompanied by people withouth any "real" interest ("actors,
circus people, hot air, without depth") he rather never appeared in
that Theosophical group again. Frau Herder recalls that she had the
impression that both Pinkus and Metzger had been "characteristically
weak black magicians" and especially Metzger had caused her
goosebumps. It was common knowledge that Pinkus intended Metzger to be
his magical successor and to that effect gave him his crystal ball.
Pinkus died on 12 February 1947. His son, Theo Pinkus (and friend
of H.J. Metzger), couldn't remember that his father had any function in
the O.T.O. but saw in the theosophical ideas a similarity to the
communistic ideals which have been followed both by Pinkus and
Metzger.
Although Metzger set his face against the Abramelin workings, he could
use Pinkus' relationship with the many occultists in the German
speaking area. Alice Sprengel also died in 1947, thus making way for Metzger to found his own O.T.O. lodge in
Zuerich. A witness to Metzger's initiation in 1943, Gundula
Bader (daughter of Genja Jantzen's superior and instrumental in
forwarding the Alice Sprengel/Rudolf Steiner documents to the Steiner
archive in Dornach/Switzerland, under the supervision of Oscar R. Schlag)
considered it "improbable" that any of the original O.T.O.
documents went over to Metzger's O.T.O. lodge. Metzger himself saw it
like this: "The only surviving leftovers of the O.T.O. have been in
the hands of Dr. P. and this Frau Sprengel ... Nevertheless, P. had
laid everything into my hands and the documents of Sprengel and her
younger friends had been destroyed. It is noteworthy, that the friend
of Sprengel [Jantzen?] did not know about the office of either
P. or myself" ... and other gossip in order to discriminate against Gundula
Bader and other remaining members of that O.T.O. group who didn't
accept Metzger's lodge.
© by P.R. Koenig
Thelema in Appenzell ? -- The Protagonists -- Translation and
adaption from a chapter on the Swiss O.T.O. Protagonists in
"Das O.T.O.-Phänomen" (containing an interview with Hansruedi Giger) --
German original
online
To the main page of Photographs and Documents
More about all this in: Andreas Huettl and Peter-R. Koenig: Satan - Jünger, Jäger und Justiz
Das Milieu des Templer Reichs - Die Sklaven Sollen Dienen. Hanns Heinz Ewers - Lanz von Liebenfels - Karl Germer, Arnoldo Krumm-Heller - Martha Kuentzel - Friedrich Lekve - Hermann Joseph Metzger - Christian Bouchet - Paolo Fogagnolo - James Wasserman. Unbequeme Aspekte in der Geschichte von O.T.O. und Thelema
English Version The Templar's Reich
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