Wilhelm Pelikan
Encyclopedia
Wilhelm Pelikan was a chemist
, anthroposophist, pharmacist
, gardener and anthroposophical medicine
practitioner.
-Austrian
government surveyor and his mother came from Dalmatia
and preferred to speak Italian rather than German.
His early childhood was in Galicia. He studied chemistry in Vienna
and Graz
. He was called for military service in 1916, but a serious disease of the lung and heart put an end to his service. During his illness someone gave him Rudolf Steiner
's Knowledge of the Higher Worlds. In 1918 he heard Steiner give a lecture in Vienna and later became his personal pupil and devoted his life to Anthroposophy
.
He worked in Vienna's gold and silver refinery. 1919 Dr. Eugen Kolisko
asked him to come and work at the Der Kommende Tag research institute in Stuttgart
. He was involved in the anthroposophical association for academics, and gave lectures in Darmstadt
and at the East-West Congress in Vienna
. In 1922 Wilhelm Pelikan went to new opened laboratories of the Institute of Clinical Medicine in Stuttgart where he worked on the metal mirror preparation process.
When Der Kommende Tag was dissolved in 1924 he became head of the Weleda
then established in Schwäbisch Gmünd
on the advice of Rudolf Steiner
and in collaboration with Mr. Oskar Schmiedel
and Fritz Goette. He held this position for 40 years. Mr. Goette was business manager was able to prevent Weleda
from closing down under the Nazi regime. Extremely fruitful collaboration with pharmacists Wilhelm Spiess, Walther Cloos
and Hans Krueger with flow scientist Theodor Schwenk
and many physicians among them Eugen Kolisko
, Gottfried and Gisbert Husemann, Walther Buehler, Otto Wolff, Rudolf Treichler, Eberhard Schickler, Kurt Magerstaedt, Paul Paede, Norbert Glas, made it possible to bring Rudolf Steiner's suggestions to realization and so develop a range of anthroposophical medicine
s. These included typical medicines, metal mirror preparations, vegetabilized metals, mineral compositions based on the model for a medicinal plant and Rh preparations. The German Weleda soon became the most important branch of the Swiss company.
Biodynamic
gardener Franz Lippert, Wilhelm Pelikan started to develop a medicinal herb garden on the firm's grounds and later in Wetzgau a plateau above Schwäbisch Gmünd
. In time they were able to harvest 200 different species of plants.
Wilhelm also took a special interest in staff rehearsing and performing the Oberufer Christmas plays. He made it possible for the Schwäbisch Gmünd branch of the Anthroposophical Society
to meet on the firm's premises from 1935 onward. This was later named the Raphael Branch to reflect the connection between the work Weleda
and the healing powers of the archangel Raphael
-Mercury
.
1948 Wilhelm joined the editors of Weleda Korrespondenzblätter fuer Ärzte. Many conferences were held at the Weleda Schwäbisch Gmünd centre for students, pharmacists, chemists, staff of health food and organic produce stores, NMQPs (non-medically qualified practitioners), masseurs, and physiotherapists. Pelikan produced a Goethean study of metals and medicinal plants.
Walter Roggenkamp joined Pelikan in showing the biosphere of plants, their connection with the cosmos and the creative powers working on plants from outside in illustrations done with sensitivity. The work of Wilhelm Pelikan was based on valuable work done earlier by the anthroposophical botanist Gerbert Grohmann, PhD, whose two volumes The Plant were an attempt to introduce the readers to the anthroposophical view of plant nature.
Pelikan also studied astronomy and published a small volume on Halley's comet in which he considered the spiritual nature of the comets. Mrs L. Kolisko's had worked with germinating wheat based on suggestion made by Rudolf Steiner. Pelikan took this further by excluding sources of error. Statistics of plant growth were improved in collaboration with Georg Unger, PhD from the Section for Mathematics and Astronomy at the Goetheanum. 1965 a scientific paper was published on the subject.
In 1963, at the age of 70, he retired from the firm and devoted his time to research with the assistance of Christa Krueger-Woernle who helped him after the death of Mechthild Wener. In 1965, Pelikan and his wife moved to Arlesheim to continue his researches with the Science Section of the Goetheanum. He was also active in the Anthroposophical Society at the Goetheanum.
In german
Chemist
A chemist is a scientist trained in the study of chemistry. Chemists study the composition of matter and its properties such as density and acidity. Chemists carefully describe the properties they study in terms of quantities, with detail on the level of molecules and their component atoms...
, anthroposophist, pharmacist
Pharmacist
Pharmacists are allied health professionals who practice in pharmacy, the field of health sciences focusing on safe and effective medication use...
, gardener and anthroposophical medicine
Anthroposophical Medicine
Anthroposophical medicine is a complementary approach to medicine that integrates the theories and practices of modern medicine with homeopathic medicines, physical and artistic therapies and biographical counseling...
practitioner.
Life
His father was a GermanGermans
The Germans are a Germanic ethnic group native to Central Europe. The English term Germans has referred to the German-speaking population of the Holy Roman Empire since the Late Middle Ages....
-Austrian
Austrians
Austrians are a nation and ethnic group, consisting of the population of the Republic of Austria and its historical predecessor states who share a common Austrian culture and Austrian descent....
government surveyor and his mother came from Dalmatia
Dalmatia
Dalmatia is a historical region on the eastern coast of the Adriatic Sea. It stretches from the island of Rab in the northwest to the Bay of Kotor in the southeast. The hinterland, the Dalmatian Zagora, ranges from fifty kilometers in width in the north to just a few kilometers in the south....
and preferred to speak Italian rather than German.
His early childhood was in Galicia. He studied chemistry in Vienna
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
and Graz
Graz
The more recent population figures do not give the whole picture as only people with principal residence status are counted and people with secondary residence status are not. Most of the people with secondary residence status in Graz are students...
. He was called for military service in 1916, but a serious disease of the lung and heart put an end to his service. During his illness someone gave him Rudolf Steiner
Rudolf Steiner
Rudolf Joseph Lorenz Steiner was an Austrian philosopher, social reformer, architect, and esotericist. He gained initial recognition as a literary critic and cultural philosopher...
's Knowledge of the Higher Worlds. In 1918 he heard Steiner give a lecture in Vienna and later became his personal pupil and devoted his life to Anthroposophy
Anthroposophy
Anthroposophy, a philosophy founded by Rudolf Steiner, postulates the existence of an objective, intellectually comprehensible spiritual world accessible to direct experience through inner development...
.
He worked in Vienna's gold and silver refinery. 1919 Dr. Eugen Kolisko
Eugen Kolisko
Eugen Kolisko was an Austrian-German physician and educator who was born in Vienna. He studied medicine at the University of Vienna, and in 1917 became a lecturer of medical chemistry. He was the son of pathologist Alexander Kolisko .Eugen Kolisko is remembered for his pioneer work in anthroposophy...
asked him to come and work at the Der Kommende Tag research institute in Stuttgart
Stuttgart
Stuttgart is the capital of the state of Baden-Württemberg in southern Germany. The sixth-largest city in Germany, Stuttgart has a population of 600,038 while the metropolitan area has a population of 5.3 million ....
. He was involved in the anthroposophical association for academics, and gave lectures in Darmstadt
Darmstadt
Darmstadt is a city in the Bundesland of Hesse in Germany, located in the southern part of the Rhine Main Area.The sandy soils in the Darmstadt area, ill-suited for agriculture in times before industrial fertilisation, prevented any larger settlement from developing, until the city became the seat...
and at the East-West Congress in Vienna
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
. In 1922 Wilhelm Pelikan went to new opened laboratories of the Institute of Clinical Medicine in Stuttgart where he worked on the metal mirror preparation process.
When Der Kommende Tag was dissolved in 1924 he became head of the Weleda
Weleda
Weleda is a multinational company that produces both natural beauty products and natural medicines. Both branches design their products based on anthroposophic principles. The company takes its name from the German form of the name of the 1st century Bructeri völva Veleda. They use plants grown...
then established in Schwäbisch Gmünd
Schwäbisch Gmünd
Schwäbisch Gmünd is a town in the eastern part of the German state of Baden-Württemberg. With a population of around 62,000, the town is the second largest in the Ostalbkreis and the whole region of East Württemberg after Aalen...
on the advice of Rudolf Steiner
Rudolf Steiner
Rudolf Joseph Lorenz Steiner was an Austrian philosopher, social reformer, architect, and esotericist. He gained initial recognition as a literary critic and cultural philosopher...
and in collaboration with Mr. Oskar Schmiedel
Oskar Schmiedel
Oskar Schmiedel was a pharmacist, Anthroposophist, therapist, Goethean scientist and Theosophist.-Life:...
and Fritz Goette. He held this position for 40 years. Mr. Goette was business manager was able to prevent Weleda
Weleda
Weleda is a multinational company that produces both natural beauty products and natural medicines. Both branches design their products based on anthroposophic principles. The company takes its name from the German form of the name of the 1st century Bructeri völva Veleda. They use plants grown...
from closing down under the Nazi regime. Extremely fruitful collaboration with pharmacists Wilhelm Spiess, Walther Cloos
Walther Cloos
Walther Cloos was a pharmacist, alchemist, Anthroposophist, lecturer, researcher, inventor, author and pioneer in anthroposophical pharmacy.-Life:...
and Hans Krueger with flow scientist Theodor Schwenk
Theodor Schwenk
Theodor Schwenk was an anthroposophist, an engineer and a pioneering water researcher. He founded the Institute for Flow. Science. Link: http://www.stroemungsinstitut.de/prospect.htm...
and many physicians among them Eugen Kolisko
Eugen Kolisko
Eugen Kolisko was an Austrian-German physician and educator who was born in Vienna. He studied medicine at the University of Vienna, and in 1917 became a lecturer of medical chemistry. He was the son of pathologist Alexander Kolisko .Eugen Kolisko is remembered for his pioneer work in anthroposophy...
, Gottfried and Gisbert Husemann, Walther Buehler, Otto Wolff, Rudolf Treichler, Eberhard Schickler, Kurt Magerstaedt, Paul Paede, Norbert Glas, made it possible to bring Rudolf Steiner's suggestions to realization and so develop a range of anthroposophical medicine
Anthroposophical Medicine
Anthroposophical medicine is a complementary approach to medicine that integrates the theories and practices of modern medicine with homeopathic medicines, physical and artistic therapies and biographical counseling...
s. These included typical medicines, metal mirror preparations, vegetabilized metals, mineral compositions based on the model for a medicinal plant and Rh preparations. The German Weleda soon became the most important branch of the Swiss company.
Biodynamic
Biodynamic
Biodynamic may refer to:*Biodynamic agriculture, a method of farming based on the teachings of Rudolf Steiner*Biodynamic craniosacral therapy, based on the teachings of William Sutherland...
gardener Franz Lippert, Wilhelm Pelikan started to develop a medicinal herb garden on the firm's grounds and later in Wetzgau a plateau above Schwäbisch Gmünd
Schwäbisch Gmünd
Schwäbisch Gmünd is a town in the eastern part of the German state of Baden-Württemberg. With a population of around 62,000, the town is the second largest in the Ostalbkreis and the whole region of East Württemberg after Aalen...
. In time they were able to harvest 200 different species of plants.
Wilhelm also took a special interest in staff rehearsing and performing the Oberufer Christmas plays. He made it possible for the Schwäbisch Gmünd branch of the Anthroposophical Society
Anthroposophical Society
The General Anthroposophical Society is an organization dedicated to supporting the community of those interested in the form of spiritual philosophy known as anthroposophy. The society was initiated during 1913 by members of the Theosophical Society in Germany, including Rudolf Steiner who was at...
to meet on the firm's premises from 1935 onward. This was later named the Raphael Branch to reflect the connection between the work Weleda
Weleda
Weleda is a multinational company that produces both natural beauty products and natural medicines. Both branches design their products based on anthroposophic principles. The company takes its name from the German form of the name of the 1st century Bructeri völva Veleda. They use plants grown...
and the healing powers of the archangel Raphael
Raphael
Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino , better known simply as Raphael, was an Italian painter and architect of the High Renaissance. His work is admired for its clarity of form and ease of composition and for its visual achievement of the Neoplatonic ideal of human grandeur...
-Mercury
Mercury (mythology)
Mercury was a messenger who wore winged sandals, and a god of trade, the son of Maia Maiestas and Jupiter in Roman mythology. His name is related to the Latin word merx , mercari , and merces...
.
1948 Wilhelm joined the editors of Weleda Korrespondenzblätter fuer Ärzte. Many conferences were held at the Weleda Schwäbisch Gmünd centre for students, pharmacists, chemists, staff of health food and organic produce stores, NMQPs (non-medically qualified practitioners), masseurs, and physiotherapists. Pelikan produced a Goethean study of metals and medicinal plants.
Walter Roggenkamp joined Pelikan in showing the biosphere of plants, their connection with the cosmos and the creative powers working on plants from outside in illustrations done with sensitivity. The work of Wilhelm Pelikan was based on valuable work done earlier by the anthroposophical botanist Gerbert Grohmann, PhD, whose two volumes The Plant were an attempt to introduce the readers to the anthroposophical view of plant nature.
Pelikan also studied astronomy and published a small volume on Halley's comet in which he considered the spiritual nature of the comets. Mrs L. Kolisko's had worked with germinating wheat based on suggestion made by Rudolf Steiner. Pelikan took this further by excluding sources of error. Statistics of plant growth were improved in collaboration with Georg Unger, PhD from the Section for Mathematics and Astronomy at the Goetheanum. 1965 a scientific paper was published on the subject.
In 1963, at the age of 70, he retired from the firm and devoted his time to research with the assistance of Christa Krueger-Woernle who helped him after the death of Mechthild Wener. In 1965, Pelikan and his wife moved to Arlesheim to continue his researches with the Science Section of the Goetheanum. He was also active in the Anthroposophical Society at the Goetheanum.
Works
- The Secrets of Metals, New York: Anthroposophic Press 1973. 2 editions of this work.
- Healing Plants
In german
- Der Halley'sche Komet: Vom Geistig-Wesenhaften der Kometen-Natur, Philosophisch-Anthroposophischer Verlag am Goetheanum, (1985).