Johannes Hohlenberg (1881–1960) was a Danish author, artist and

Anthroposophist Anthroposophy is a spiritualist movement founded in the early 20th century by the esotericist Rudolf Steiner that postulates the existence of an objective, intellectually comprehensible spiritual world, accessible to human experience. Followers ...

Early life and work

Hohlenberg was born in

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan ar ...

, the son of assistant pastor at

Holmens Church Holmen or Holmens (in genitive) means the small island or islet in Danish, Norwegian and Swedish and may refer to: Places Denmark * Holmen, Copenhagen, a district in central Copenhagen ** Holmen Church, church in central Copenhagen ** Holmen Ce ...

Ove Hohlenberg (1835–98) and Emilie Dahlerup (1852–1923). His paternal great-grandfathers were Chief Ship Builder at the Royal Danish Dockyard

Frantz Hohlenberg Frantz Christopher Henrik HohlenbergDansk Militærhistorie �Eric Nielsen/ref>Dansk Biografisk Lexico/ref> (17 February 1764 9 January 1804) was a Danish naval officer who specialised in ship design and had little seagoing experience. He succeede ...

and historian and former Danish prime minister

Ove Malling Ove or OVE may refer to *Ove (given name) *Ové, a surname *Ove Peak in Antarctica *''A Man Called Ove (novel)'', a novel by Fredrik Backman *''A Man Called Ove'', a 2015 Swedish film based on the novel *Danish Organisation for Renewable Energy (Or ...

. His maternal grandfather was royal physician to

Frederik VII Frederick VII (Frederik Carl Christian; 6 October 1808 – 15 November 1863) was King of Denmark from 1848 to 1863. He was the last Danish monarch of the older Royal branch of the House of Oldenburg and the last king of Denmark to rule as an ...

(1812-1882). His maternal grandmother was the daughter of librarian at the

Classen Library The Classen Library, (Danish language, Danish: Det Classenske Bibliotek) was a public library in Copenhagen, Denmark. It was created from the private book collection of Johan Frederik Classen, at the time of his death in 1792. It was the third larg ...

and former planter in the

Danish West Indies The Danish West Indies ( da, Dansk Vestindien) or Danish Antilles or Danish Virgin Islands were a Danish colony in the Caribbean, consisting of the islands of Saint Thomas with ; Saint John ( da, St. Jan) with ; and Saint Croix with . The ...

Georg Gordon Mac Dougall. Hohlenberg studied painting under

Kristian Zahrtmann Peder Henrik Kristian Zahrtmann, known as Kristian Zahrtmann, (31 March 1843 – 22 June 1917) was a Danish painter. He was a part of the Danish artistic generation in the late 19th century, along with Peder Severin Krøyer and Theodor Esbern Phi ...

from 1896 and lived as a painter in

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. ...

from 1906 until1911. He was a member of Le Salon de la Société Nationale and later of the

Salon d'Automne The Salon d'Automne (; en, Autumn Salon), or Société du Salon d'automne, is an art exhibition held annually in Paris, France. Since 2011, it is held on the Champs-Élysées, between the Grand Palais and the Petit Palais, in mid-October. The f ...

Anthroposophy

In Paris, Hohlenberg became acquainted with

Mirra Alfassa Mirra Alfassa (21 February 1878 – 17 November 1973), known to her followers as The Mother, was a spiritual guru, occultist and yoga teacher, and a collaborator of Sri Aurobindo, who considered her to be of equal yogic stature to him and c ...

and met her nearly every evening for studying the teachings of occultism. When Paul and Mirra Richard had travelled to

Pondicherry Pondicherry (), now known as Puducherry ( French: Pondichéry ʊdʊˈtʃɛɹi(listen), on-dicherry, is the capital and the most populous city of the Union Territory of Puducherry in India. The city is in the Puducherry district on the sout ...

in 1914 to meet

Sri Aurobindo Sri Aurobindo (born Aurobindo Ghose; 15 August 1872 – 5 December 1950) was an Indian philosopher, yogi, maharishi, poet, and Indian nationalist. He was also a journalist, editing newspapers such as ''Vande Mataram''. He joined t ...

, they invited Hohlenberg to join them and help publishing a journal. But due to the war and other circumstances he could come only in 1915, staying for a month. During this brief stay he took one of the few photos of Sri Aurobindo and prepared some sketches on whose basis he created an oil painting later on. Through his participation in talks of Sri Aurobindo with his disciples, Hohlenberg had acquired some basic knowledge which he used in 1916 for publishing his book titled ''Yoga i dens betydning for Europa'' (Yoga and its significance for Europe). In 1954 the title was also published in a German translation in whose Preface Hohlenberg referred to his stay with Sri Aurobindo and the talks with him as a source. At a later stage he started taking an interest in

Anthroposophy Anthroposophy is a spiritualist movement founded in the early 20th century by the esotericist Rudolf Steiner that postulates the existence of an objective, intellectually comprehensible spiritual world, accessible to human experience. Followers ...

and became a disciple of

Rudolf Steiner Rudolf Joseph Lorenz Steiner (27 or 25 February 1861 – 30 March 1925) was an Austrian occultist, social reformer, architect, esotericist, and claimed clairvoyant. Steiner gained initial recognition at the end of the nineteenth century as ...

, playing an important role as the general secretary of a newly founded anthroposophical society in Denmark and helping to spread Steiner's thought there.

Publications

Among Hohlenberg's works are ''Goethes Faust i det 20. Aarhundrede'' from 1928, a biography of Søren Kierkegaard from 1940, and further treatments of Kierkegaard's works. He published the cultural magazine ''Øjeblikket'' between 1947 and 1954, and contributed to the Norwegian magazines ''

Samtiden ''Samtiden'' is a Norwegian political and literary magazine. History and profile ''Samtiden'' was founded by Jørgen Brunchorst and Gerhard Gran in 1890. The magazine's first publisher was ''John Griegs forlag'' (Bergen), and from 1900 Aschehoug ( ...

'' and ''Janus''. He also brought out the whole text of the Bhagavad Gita as well as two essays of Sri Aurobindo and an extract from his work "The Life Divine" in Danish translation.Bracker (2018), p. 231

Literature

* ''Johannes Hohlenberg.'' In: Klaus J. Bracker: ''Veda and Living Logos. Anthroposophy and Integral Yoga.'' Lindisfarne Books 2018, p. 227-232.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Hohlenberg, Johannes 1881 births 1960 deaths Danish essayists 20th-century Danish biographers Male biographers Male essayists Burials at Holmen Cemetery 20th-century essayists