Dr. Franz Hartmann. A Fighter for Intellectual Freedom. Biographical notes.
By Alex Weber[1]
Translation from German by Robert Hutwohl
The name “Dr. Franz Hartmann” is closely associated in Europe and America with the movement which, for lack of a more generally understandable name, is called “theosophical,” and which is in fact nothing other than a movement for enlightenment and that spiritual freedom which can only arise from inner self-knowledge of truth. F. Hartmann is not only a born mystic of great talent, but also a man of high scientific education, no enthusiast or fantasist, but rather a friend of the practical application of what has been recognized as correct. The world owes him not only a multitude of books and writings, which he wrote in German and English and which have largely been translated into other languages, but also much that is useful for material life, for example, For example, his invention of “lignosulfite,” a compound of sulfurous acid with the aromatic components of spruce wood, which, when inhaled, has a highly healing effect on diseased respiratory organs and is gaining increasing recognition in medical circles every day as the best remedy for tuberculosis, whooping cough, etc.
- Hartmann entered the world on November 22, 1838, in Donauwörth, to the ringing of all the church bells. Immediately after his birth, mystical apparitions appeared at his cradle. His father was Dr. Karl Hartmann, the royal district court physician who later practiced in Kempten, and his mother was his wife, née Elise von Stack, whose family descended from an old Irish nobility. His thirst for knowledge of the hidden forces of nature became apparent to him from an early age. He immersed himself in the study of chemistry and pharmacology, passed his state examination in Munich in 1862, and went to Paris to further his medical knowledge. In 1865, during a trip to Le Havre, he was offered the position of ship’s doctor on the American packet boat “Mercury,” which he accepted. In this way, without having intended to, he came to America, settled in St. Louis, Missouri, where cholera was raging, and later founded an ophthalmology clinic. Although his medical practice there was successful, the urge to get to know other countries and peoples drove him on. He went to Mexico, but soon returned to New Orleans. From there he went to Texas, where he practiced for five years. He then settled for another five years in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado. He then visited California, Japan, China, and India, where he spent two years with H. P. Blavatsky, before finally traveling with her to Italy in 1885, and from there back to Germany.
Dr. Hartmann’s experiences in the field of occultism and spiritualism are extremely numerous and interesting. During his travels, he became acquainted with some very remarkable personalities, some of whom could be considered adepts. One of these is known to our readers under the name of H. P. Blavatsky.
In his youth, Dr. Hartmann was greatly attracted by the mystery surrounding the customs of the Catholic Church. However, whether because he did not fully grasp its spirit or because his teachers themselves lacked the key to understanding it, the formalities and mindless adherence to prescribed ceremonies he encountered could not satisfy his thirst for knowledge. Nor could he acquire a taste for Protestantism, whose faith is largely based on an irrational acceptance of religious fables and allegories, drawing the most perverse conclusions from them. In both systems, however, egoism prevailed. Everyone seemed concerned only with their own personal advantage in the “afterlife” or even in this world, and with trying in some way to persuade God to do man’s will. Disturbed by egoism, clergy, bigotry and hypocrisy, he turned his back on the church and sought salvation in natural science and philosophy.
At that time, materialism was at its finest. What people couldn’t understand because they weren’t ready for it was rejected and condemned for no other reason than that they didn’t understand it. Even the professors evidently thought themselves greater than God; for they appointed themselves his judges and passed judgment on him. Everything spiritual was rejected, and inert matter and blind chance were declared gods. It’s understandable today that common sense couldn’t find any taste for such follies. Dr. Hartmann had no choice but to familiarize himself with the idea that one knows nothing and can know nothing.
Then came his stay in America, and it was there that Dr. Hartmann became acquainted with Spiritism. A single session, during which undeniable phenomena occurred, was enough to overturn all materialistic scholarly nonsense and replace inert matter with spirit, consciousness, will, and intelligence. For fifteen years, Dr. Hartmann occupied himself with the phenomena of Spiritism and the study of its philosophy. He became friends with the most eminent mediums in America, and there would hardly be anyone who experienced and saw more in this regard than he did, from simple table-turning to the most tangible and visible materializations of the astral body, levitation, etc.
Spiritualism has rendered the world great service by helping materialistic nonsense to a place in the junk room where the remnants of human stupidity are preserved as historical relics, but whether it has advanced humanity further on the path to progress is another question. For with the new light it brought came a host of errors and superstitions, and instead of the lofty and heavenly spirits expected, there came an army of specters and masks, lying spirits and devils of various kinds. The most high-sounding communications were mostly mindless chatter, meaningless phrases, and usually contained barely a grain of truth in a bushel of lies. Disappointments followed disappointments. Where commonplace or worthless matters were at hand, the “spirits” were always at hand, but when a matter of importance needed to be discussed, they were not available. It soon became apparent that most phenomena originated from something entirely different than the “spirits” of deceased people, and that these “spirits” were often the ones who had the least spirit. To make the study of spiritualism fruitful, it was primarily a matter of learning about one’s own spirit and the forces hidden in human nature (will, imagination, belief, etc., whose scope is evidently much greater than modern science realizes).
Around this time (in 1882), he came across writings by H. P. Blavatsky, which contained precisely the explanations he was seeking. They opened a new world to him and awakened in him the desire to penetrate even more deeply into these mysteries and to establish contact with those people, the adepts, who revealed such profound knowledge. H. P. Blavatsky was then in Adyar (Madras), India; Dr. Hartmann wrote to her and soon received a letter from H. S. Olcott, President of the Theosophical Society, informing him that, on behalf of the Masters, he invited him to come to India and participate in the management of the Society’s affairs.
On December 4, 1883, Dr. Hartmann arrived in Madras, but egoism prevailed in the systems. Everyone seemed to be concerned only with their own personal advantage in the “afterlife” or even in this world, and was trying in some way to persuade God to do man’s will. Disturbed by egoism, priesthood, bigotry, and hypocrisy, he turned his back on the church system and sought salvation in natural science and philosophy.
At that time, materialism was at its finest. What people couldn’t understand because they weren’t ready for it was rejected and condemned for no other reason than that they didn’t understand it. Even the professors evidently thought themselves greater than God; for they appointed themselves his judges and passed judgment on him. Everything spiritual was rejected, and inert matter and blind chance were declared gods. It’s understandable today that common sense couldn’t find any taste for such follies. Dr. Hartmann had no choice but to familiarize himself with the idea that one knows nothing and can know nothing.
Then came his stay in America, and it was there that Dr. Hartmann became acquainted with Spiritism. A single session, during which undeniable phenomena occurred, was enough to overturn all materialistic scholarly nonsense and replace inert matter with spirit, consciousness, will, and intelligence. For fifteen years, Dr. Hartmann occupied himself with the phenomena of Spiritism and the study of its philosophy. He became friends with the most eminent mediums in America, and there would hardly be anyone who experienced and saw more in this regard than he did, from simple table-turning to the most tangible and visible materializations of the astral body, levitation, etc.
Spiritualism has rendered the world great service by helping materialistic nonsense to a place in the junk room where the remnants of human stupidity are preserved as historical relics, but whether it has advanced humanity further on the path to progress is another question. For with the new light it brought came a host of errors and superstitions, and instead of the lofty and heavenly spirits expected, there came an army of specters and masks, lying spirits and devils of various kinds. The most high-sounding communications were mostly mindless chatter, meaningless phrases, and usually contained barely a grain of truth in a bushel of lies. Disappointments followed disappointments. Where commonplace or worthless matters were at hand, the “spirits” were always at hand, but when a matter of importance needed to be discussed, they were not available. It soon became apparent that most phenomena originated from something entirely different than the “spirits” of deceased people, and that these “spirits” were often the ones who had the least spirit. To make the study of spiritualism fruitful, it was primarily a matter of learning about one’s own spirit and the forces hidden in human nature (will, imagination, belief, etc., whose scope is evidently much greater than modern science realizes).
Around this time (in 1882), he came across writings by H. P. Blavatsky, which contained precisely the explanations he was seeking. They opened a new world to him and awakened in him the desire to penetrate even more deeply into these mysteries and to establish contact with those people, the adepts, who revealed such profound knowledge. H. P. Blavatsky was then in Adyar (Madras), India; Dr. Hartmann wrote to her and soon received a letter from H. S. Olcott, President of the Theosophical Society, informing him that, on behalf of the Masters, he invited him to come to India and participate in the management of the Society’s affairs.
On December 4, 1883, Dr. Hartmann arrived in Madras, and since then, without his ever having desired or intended it, his name has been linked with the history of the “Theosophical Society.” We will omit the experiences he had in India in the field of occult sciences, as their description is beyond the scope of this sketch, and turn to external events.
Anyone who has ever lived among the so-called “heathens” and can judge impartially must admit that “Christian” missionaries, even if they have the best intentions in their proselytizing, are a plague for all “non-Christian” peoples. No reasonable Buddhist, Brahmin, or follower of any oriental cult has any objection to discussing religious matters with Christian missionaries and allowing themselves to be persuaded by them if they can put forward a reasonable point. When the missionaries came to Ceylon, for example, the Buddhists made their temples available for preaching, whereupon the missionaries then showed their gratitude by insulting the Buddhist religion and defiling the temples with filth.
In India, the missionaries could do anything and had nothing to fear; however, the enlightenment spread by the “Theosophical Society” and especially by H. P. Blavatsky, who was its soul, was a thorn in their side. They therefore sought to corrupt Blavatsky, and when she traveled to Europe with Col. Olcott shortly after Dr. Hartmann’s arrival, they considered the time opportune to carry out their plans and published a diatribe against Blavatsky, which was soon circulated throughout the world by the sensation-seeking press and aroused a general storm. Shortly before Blavatsky’s departure, Dr. Hartmann had been commissioned by a letter from the “Master” to assume the leadership of the “Theosophical Ship” during the President’s absence, and therefore it was he who was particularly responsible for defending Blavatsky during this storm, which lasted almost two years. The result was that the name “Blavatsky” became known throughout the world and the “Theosophical Society” gained many members and the theosophical movement in general gained a lot of followers.
In April 1885, Dr. Hartmann returned to Europe accompanied by H. P. Blavatsky, lived with her for a long time in Torre del Greco near Naples and then took up residence in Kempten and later in Vienna and Hallein, while Blavatsky moved to Würzburg, then to Ostend and finally to London, where she died on May 8, 1891.
After H. P. Blavatsky’s death, the spirit of the Society she had founded soon evaporated among those who had joined Blavatsky for personal reasons but were not mature enough to absorb her spirit. Power-seeking and proselytizing took its place. Well-meaning leaders who had not yet outgrown sectarianism, overly concerned with “respectability” and a desire to shine in the eyes of the world, initiated a persecution as unjust as it was ridiculous against W. Q. Judge, the Society’s vice-president in America. The result was that, after many fruitless negotiations, the American members separated—note this—not from the “Theosophical Society,” but from the very party within the “Theosophical Society” that had acted so un-theosophically and against the principle of freedom and toleration, and which, because it had the upper hand in England, was also joined by Col. H. S. Olcott. Of the American clubs, however, all, with few notable exceptions, aligned themselves with W. Q. Judge and elected him president. This separation, which occurred at that time, still exists today.
Dr. Hartmann had many friends in both societies, perhaps more in England than in America; but accustomed to disregarding himself and his personal advantages when it came to supporting a just cause, he sided with those who had the law on their side and who resisted the intrusion of sectarianism.
- Q. Judge died soon afterward, the insults inflicted upon him by the “Theosophists” having done much to hasten his death, and the “Theosophical Society in America” fell into the hands of a woman who, although a spiritualist medium endowed with excellent psychic gifts, was later seduced by the incense burned before her altar, overturned the Constitution of the “Theosophical Society” and transformed the “Theosophical Society in America” into a sect in which it now plays the role of autocrat, for the benefit of those who are incapable of standing on their own feet and have thus not yet attained the maturity necessary to be members of a true and free “Theosophical Society”; for “Theosophy” means self-knowledge, and this is not attained by suppressing freedom of thought, but in the opposite way. A few members remained faithful to the Society’s constitution, and these, along with the new members, now form the “Theosophical Society in America” and, together with all associations based on the same foundation, the free, international “Theosophical Society” in all parts of the world.
Before this upheaval occurred, Dr. Hartmann was elected President of the “Theosophical Society in Germany” and soon undertook a tour of America, where he delivered lectures in many of the larger cities, which were received with great acclaim. He then returned to Europe and also gave lectures in various cities in Germany and Austria-Hungary. Tired of the association’s disputes, he suspended his presidential duties and left the management of the association’s affairs in Germany to an Executive Committee of the “Theosophical Society” (headquarters: Leipzig), which forms a central office or meeting place for the associations of the free and independent international “Theosophical Society.”
Although the part he was forced to take in such external affairs occupied him more than he would have liked, he nevertheless found time over the last fifteen years not only to write a considerable number of books and articles in English and German, but also to produce nearly one hundred issues of his “Lotusblüthen” without any significant help from collaborators. Due to the bankruptcy of his publisher, “Lotusblüthen” will cease publication, and this circumstance offers the author a welcome opportunity to, if not entirely abandon his literary activity, at least to moderate it and to grant himself for the rest of his life that inner peace absolutely necessary to achieve the goal sought by every true theosophist.
In his “Memorable Memoirs,” Dr. Hartmann gives us a picture of his inner life and his outer activity, insofar as his participation in the theosophical movement, which now pervades the entire world, is considered. If we consider it closely, we cannot fail to be convinced that within him is a spiritual individuality who came into the world for a predetermined purpose and who, in all his remarkable fortunes, was guided and supported by a higher power. This higher power always leads to the best if man submits to it, and as a rule, everything turns out badly if one acts out of self-will and opposes it. But in this, and not in club disputes, proselytizing, and theorizing, but in man’s conduct so that the will of God[2] can be carried out in him and through him, lies true theosophy.
- W.
Notes:
[1] Dr. Franz Hartmann. A fighter for intellectual freedom. Biographical notes. By Alex Weber Theosophischer Wegweiser 3, no. 1 (October 1900), 24-31 [Dr. med. Franz Hartmann. Ein Kämpfer für die Freiheit der Geistes. Biographische Notizen.] [Translation from the German by Robert Hutwohl, ©2025]
[2] [R.H.—It is debatable as to what Mr. Weber is referring to. Dr. Hartmann would never use “God” in such a way as Mr. Weber does, unless Mr. Weber is referring to the Planetary or Solar Logos, as Dr. Hartmann was not a theist in the sense which Christians, Muslims and Jews are. He believed in the Absolute or One Life as taught by The Secret Doctrine.]