The secret capital of vampire theory

Ohne daß ein einziger Vampirtraktat dasselbst veröffentlicht würde - sieht man von W.S.G.E. ab, hinter dem Ranfft spontan einen »Hallischen Medicus« vermutet - wird Halle die heimliche Haupstadt der Vampirtheorie, und drei der unterschiedlichsten Lehrmeinungen zum Vampirismus verpflichten sich Hallenser Professoren. (s. 26)

Thus from the point of view of Klaus Hamberger in Mortuus non mordet: Although not one single vampire treatise was published there - disregarding W.S.G.E., who Ranft spontaneously assumes to be a »Medicus from Halle« - Halle became the secret capital of vampire theory, and Professors from Halle engaged themselves in three very different views on vampirism.

These three views were, again according to Hamberger:

1) The "cartesian" view represented by Friedrich Hoffmann (1660-1742) and Christian Wolff (1679-1754)

2) The "neoaristotelian" view represented by Georg Ernst Stahl (1659-1734)

3) The "neoplatonic" view represented by Christian Thomasius (1655-1728)
Arriving at the main railway station in Halle, just a little over half an hour by train from Leipzig, on the way to the center one is greeted by the names of all the above mentioned prominent scholars of the University at Halle, founded by Thomasius in 1694. Other names and faces include the famous August Hermann Francke (1663-1727) who was a pietist founder, and various other famous people related to Halle like Johann Friedrich Struensee (1737-1772), who became a powerful minister in Denmark carrying out enlightened and progressive reforms before his downfall and execution by beheading.

Halle certainly is very different from the apparently more affluent Leipzig with its building sites and many shopping arcades. According to a television programme on the German mdr station that was shown while I stayed in Leipzig, Leipzig is the second most popular city for tourists in middle Germany (Dresden being the one visited by most tourists). Halle probably doesn't get the number of tourists it deserves, but of course that may change. It seems more quiet and provincial than Leipzig, but still it's the home of a university, and here you can see the actual death mask of Martin Luther himself along with a pulpit he used.

Halle also is the home of a remarkable cemetery, the Stadtsgottesacker. Most graves are from the 19th century, but you can also find older graves like those of the above mentioned Francke, Thomasius and Hoffmann.

I may have overlooked older buildings, but the university buildings I saw were from the 19th century, so I didn't get to see any buildings that were used by the scholars of the 'secret capital of vampire theory'. But Halle is definitely worth a visit, if you happen to be in the area.

More about some of the above mentioned scholars will follow in future posts.

Update on meeting in 2009

Just a quick note to say that I have received some very positive feedback from a few people. It's too early to say anything definite, but it looks like there really is an interest in attending a meeting, seminar or whatever it could be called on the subject of vampires and magia posthuma.

Cheeky

Perhaps a bit cheeky, but while it looks like I've been writing a few posts over the last couple of days, I actually wrote them in advance so they would pop up on the blog while I was on a short visit to Leipzig and Halle. Visiting as a tourist, I got to see some of the sights and looked for whatever I could find reminiscent of what I've been reading about the role the two cities played in the 18th century vampire debate. As I have just returned home, I will just post a photo of a detail from the old cemetery in Halle, the Stadtsgottesacker, but more will follow...

More on eBooks on demand

I mentioned the concept of eBooks on demand in a previous post, and I would like to point the web site of that excellent and promising initiative. The list of libraries that are part of the initiative includes major libraries in Germany, Austria, Slovakia, Hungary, the Czech Republic and other countries on the European continent. In short, we can hopefully look forward to being able to borrow more books related to the subject of vampires and magia posthuma of a better quality than some of those available on Google books.

Exlibris

It's not very often, but occasionally second hand books contain an exlibris. Sometimes these miniature pieces of art indicate that the book has been the property of a collector of books that are related to the topic of magia posthuma. One case is the exlibris shown, which is located in a 1937 edition of A Popular History of Witchcraft by Montague Summers. "I H" was a Danish lawyer called Ivar Heiberg (1930-1980). He is said to have owned the finest collection of ghost stories in Denmark. I had the luck of buying a few of his books when they were up for sale in a rather obscure second hand book shop in Copenhagen, including this book by Summers.

Über Vampirismus

The writings on vampires and werewolves by two 19th century folklorists, Wilhelm Mannhardt and Jan Ignáz Hanus were published in a leaflet by Superbia Verlag in Leipzig in 2004. The 52 page book reprints four papers originally published in Zeitschrift für deutsche Mythologie und Sittenkunde in 1859: Über Vampirismus by Mannhardt, and three papers by Hanus: Die Vampire, Die Vampire oder Vlkodlaci, and Der Werwolf (Vlkodlak). Ein slowakisches Märchen fast wörtlich aus einer Handschrift übersetzt. A lot of the material in Mannhardt's paper on vampires will be familiar, but the booklet offers a nice and cheap (€ 4.50) reprint of the original papers (in German, of course). The publisher has added an afterword, a few illustrations, and the texts have been changed in accordance with the orthography and grammatics of modern German.

Gruseliges Wien

Speaking of places in Europe, if this web site is still up to date it's possible to be guided around Vienna in search of ghosts and vampires! And if that isn't enough to scare you, then there is another guided tour for 'raising the spirits'.

A proposal to meet in 2009

In my new year post, I wrote that

it is my sincere wish that we can build some kind of network of people interested in this strange and morbid, yet somehow very giving subject.

Although I do get some communication via this blog and by private e-mail, it's really much too early to call it a network. But I would like to propose that a meeting is arranged somewhere in Europe sometime next year, either in the spring or autumn of 2009. It could be in some city that is related to the history of vampirism and magia posthuma: Vienna, Belgrade, Leipzig, Olomouc or some other place, and it would be best to keep it simple and cheap. The important thing would be to meet, discuss whatever aspects of this topic we find relevant, and see a couple of sights that are related to the history of vampires and revenants. So I'm not proposing a big seminar here, but a very low key meeting where every participant takes care of his or her travelling, hotel, food etc.

So here is my plan: Now that I have proposed the basic idea, I'll put a box on the right hand side of the blog so the proposal should be noticed by new readers. If I get some positive feedback on the idea, I will settle on some appropriate time and place. Those who are interested can then say yes, no or maybe to the time and location, and if enough people say yes before, say, the end of the year, I will commence with the planning.

So, if this sounds like something for you, send me an e-mail, and I will get back to you. Of course, if you think this is a dumb idea or if you doubt that you will be able to attend a meeting, and if you have any other thoughts on my proposal, feel free to tell me what you think! :-)

Old and new

Spending a few hours at the reading rooms of the Royal Library in Copenhagen perusing a huge stack of books from the eighteenth century, I took a few photos of the 'old' and 'new' library, a synthesis of old and new, the new part being the so-called Black Diamond lopcated by the Copenhagen harbour.

As you can see, a road kind of intersects the library, and you can pass from one part of the 'diamond' to another above the road. Actually, you collect books on the part connecting the two buildings just above the road.

Inside, in the reading room, you forget about being in a modern building, as you are transported into the world of the books you are reading or browsing :-)

German activities

On a lighter note, someone calling himself Thespilian has made a few videos available on youtube on the topic of the (currently closed) German Dracula Museum and various 'vampire congresses'. I notice in one of his other videos that fans of Sherlock Holmes dress up for their meetings, so perhaps even I should accept that some fans of Stoker's Dracula want to dress up and do the dance of the vampires?