Theodor Harmsen, Der magische Schriftsteller Gustav Meyrink, seine Freunde und sein Werk beleuchtet anhand eines Rundgangs durch die Meyrink-Sammlung der Bibliotheca Philosophica Hermetica, Amsterdam, unter Verwendung weiterer Sammlungen, Amsterdam: In de Pelikaan 2009 (Pimander. Texts and Studies published by the Bibliotheca Philosophica Hermetica 17). (In German; 320 pp., index, heavily illustrated). ISBN 978-90-71608-25-4.

Price: € 39,50

A new book written by Theodor Harmsen has recently been published together with an elaborate introduction by J.R. Ritman. This book (in German), published by the library’s publishing house In de Pelikaan, makes available an important area of research and aims to make the Meyrink collection and archive accessible to researchers as well as the general public.
The book is divided in two parts. The first part analyzes the Gustav Meyrink collection in the Bibliotheca Philosophica Hermetica, the second part consists of a bibliographical description of the materials. Some of the subjects being dealt with are: the life and work of the author Gustav Meyrink, Meyrink’s literary and esoteric worlds, the cities of Prague, Vienna and Munich, Meyrink’s interest in India, yoga, magic, Rosicrucians and theosophy, Meyrink and World War I, the novels Der Golem and Der Engel vom Westlichen Fenster, Meyrink’s plays and later stories influenced by the Wiener Werkstätten, Meyrink and art, theatre and the new medium of the silent film, the Rosicrucian novel Der weisse Dominikaner, alchemy and hermetica, the cooperation with the mystical writer Friedrich Alfred Schmid Noerr, Meyrink’s legacy, Meyrink’s first editor, Eduard Frank, and Meyrink in the Netherlands.

House ‘Swammerdam’ drawn by Fritz Schimbeck for Meyrink’s Das Grüne Gesicht, Munich 1918

Destruction of St. Nicolas Church in Amsterdam by Fritz Schimbeck for Meyrink’s Das Grüne Gesicht, Munich 1918

A history of the Meyrink collection in the BPH

Already in 1985 J.R. Ritman was able to purchase an autograph manuscript in pencil by Gustav Meyrink. The manuscript, Der weiße Dominikaner, which was long thought to be lost, is one of the novels of Meyrink, the esoteric writer much admired by Ritman. Twenty years later, in October 2005, the founder of the BPH succeeded in securing an extensive and special addition to his collection of Meyrinkiana.

Meyrink’s first novel, Der Golem (The Golem), 1915, became an uncommonly successful bestseller immediately after its first appearance and is still widely read today. Meyrink is known also as the author of many fantastic, magical and occult short stories which came out in various series and in several languages. He started his colourful career as an independent banker in Prague; at the turn of the century, ca. 1900, he decided to become a writer. His first stories appeared in the renowned and critical periodical Simplicissimus. Meyrink’s stories are part of the tradition of German fantastic literature, a genre that was popular in European cultural centres such as Prague, Vienna and Munich in the years 1900-1930. The writers and artists belonging to this genre were inspired by storytellers such as Edgar Allen Poe and E.T.A. Hoffmann and many were also influenced by ideas from esoteric, theosophical, magical, kabbalist and Rosicrucian traditions.

Titlepage Der Liebe Augustin, nr. 12 (1904) devoted to oriental stories

Meyrink’s  Der Untergang illustrated by Alfred Kubin in the same Augustin fascicle

In 1904 Meyrink moved from Prague to Vienna, where he became chief editor of the periodical Der liebe Augustin and where he came in touch with many artists from the Viennese art scene. Subsequently, he lived in Munich for some time. For the last twenty years of his life he worked on his books in the “Haus zur letzten Latern” (the house at the last lantern) in nearby Starnberg am See. After Der Golem new stories followed as well as the esoteric novels Das grüne Gesicht, Walpurgisnacht, Der weiße Dominikaner, and his last large novel Der Engel vom westlichen Fenster, which was inspired by the life and work of the famous English Hermetist and magus John Dee. All of Meyrink’s novels were published in English translations (The Green Face, Walpurgisnacht, The White Dominican, The Angel of the West Window) and are still in print today.

Das grüne Gesicht, first edition Leipzig 1916

Der weiße Dominikaner, first edition Leipzig 1921

Walpurgisnacht, first edition Leipzig 1917

Ritman’s acquisition of 2005 consists of a number of private collections which from the 1940s (but especially after World War II) were brought together by Meyrink experts and collectors such as Lambert Binder, Eduard Frank, Alfred Müller-Edler, and Willy Schrödter. Their materials and correspondence were merged together in the late 1970s when Meyrink admirer Robert Karle was able to join them to his own very impressive collection, made up of primary and secondary Meyrink works, a photo archive, paintings and art objects, engravings and drawings, periodicals and an elaborate archive of Meyrink documentation. All these objects are now to be found in the Bibliotheca Philosophica Hermetica.