Translation from German by Robert Hutwohl[1]
Dr Franz Hartmann’s manly approach to theosophy is all the more winning and confidence-inspiring because his life in European science has given him the intellectual training that protected him from uncritical overestimation of theories and facts. As a doctor, he is familiar with the methods of scientific research, which he does not neglect even today and which enabled him to make a medical-therapeutic discovery of great significance.
Just a glance at the facial features shows a distinctly masculine nature of firm strength, always ready to fight and unwaveringly determined to stand up against the materialism of our time with strength of will and sharpness of mind.
Dr. Franz Hartmann has had a rich and eventful life, although he is only 56 years old. Readers of the “Sphinx” will find it of great interest to learn more about it. I am using the “Reports of the Society for Salzburg Regional Studies” (Volume 34) as a source, as well as personal reports from him. Another opportunity to share some facts about his life arose on December 14, 1893, the anniversary of the birth of the once highly famous doctor, chemist and philosopher Theophrastus Paracelsus, who worked and died in Salzburg, four hundred years ago. Dr. Franz Hartmann was commissioned by the committee of the Society for Salzburg Regional Studies to write a commemorative volume about the once famous doctor. He carried out this task in such a unique way that this commemorative volume has become a book with outstanding theosophical content and shows Paracelsus in conscious agreement with the teachings of theosophy. Also in this work “Theophrastus Paracelsus als Mystiker” (Leipzig, Wilhelm Friedrich, 1894) we find information about Hartmann’s life.
Franz Hartmann was born on November 22, 1838 in Donauwörth in Bavaria. His father was the general practitioner Dr. med. Karl Hartmann.
Note:
[1] Dr. Franz Hartmann, a Pioneer of Theosophy [Dr. Franz Hartmann, ein Vorkämpfer der Theosophie. Von Dr. Hugo Göring. Sphinx XX, no. 107 (January 1895), 1-10.] Translation from German by Robert Hutwohl ©2025