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Biography
"Der Wiederentdecker Uralter Arischer Weisheit" by Johannes Balzli, a biography
on Guido von list.Guido von List was born in Vienna in the Austrian Empire to
Karl Anton List, a prosperous middle class leather goods dealer, and Maria List
(née Killian). He grew up in the Leopoldstadt district of Vienna. Like the
majority of his fellow Austrians at that time, his family was Roman Catholic,
and he was christened "Guido Anton List" as an infant in St Peter's Church in
Vienna on October 8 1848.
In 1862 a visit to the catacombs beneath the Stephansdom (St. Stephen's
Cathedral in Vienna) made a deep impression, and List regarded the catacombs as
a pagan shrine. As an adult he claimed he had then sworn to build a temple to
Wotan when he grew up. This he recounted in volume 2 (page 592-593) of his book
Deutsch-Mythologische Landschaftsbilder:
“ It was in the year 1862 - I was then in my fourteenth year of life - when I,
after much asking, received permission from my father to accompany him and his
party who were planning to visit the catacombs under St. Stephen's Cathedral in
Vienna which were at that time still in their original condition. We climbed
down, and everything I saw and felt excited me with a kind of power that today I
am no longer able to experience. Then we came - it was, if I remember correctly,
in the third or fourth level - to a ruined altar. The guide said that we were
now situated beneath the old post office (today the Wohlzeile House No. 8). At
that point my excitement was raised to fever pitch, and before this altar I
proclaimed out loud this ceremonial vow: "Whenever I get big, I will build a
Temple to Wotan!" I was, of course, laughed at, as a few members of the party
said that a child did not belong in such a place… I knew nothing more about
Wuotan than that which I had read about him in Vollmer's Wörterbuch der
Mythologie. ”
"Runic Circle of the Armanen Futharkh.Despite these artistic and mystical
leanings, Guido was expected, as the eldest child, to follow in his father's
footsteps as a businessman. He appears to have fulfilled his responsibilities in
a dutiful manner, but he took any and all opportunities to develop his more
intense mystical and naturesque interests. These trips that List had to make for
business purposes gave him the opportunity to indulge himself in his passion for
hiking and mountaineering. This activity seems to have provided a matrix for his
early mysticism.
His father died in 1877 when List was 29 years old. It appears that neither he
nor his mother appear to have had his fathers keen sense of business, and as
economic times became difficult List quit the family business to devout himself
fulltime to his writing. At this time his writing continued to be of a
journalistic kind. Because he had to take over his fathers business as its head,
he was deprived of his ability to travel and wander as he had before.
During this time List wrote articles for newspapers, such as the Neue Welt (New
World), Neue deutsche Alpenzeitung (New German Alpine Newspaper), Heimat
(Homeland), and the Deutsche Zeitung (German Newspaper), which dealt with his
earlier travels and mystical reflections on the Loci (land spirits). Many of
these written newspaper articles were anthologised in 1891 in his famous
Deutsch-Mythologische Landschaftsbilder. He also had articles appear in the
Leipziger Illustrierte Zeitung and on a regular basis in the newspaper
Ostdeutsche Rundschau (East German Review), owned by the powerful publicist and
parliamentary deputy Karl Heinrich Wolf. At this time he also came to know well
Georg von Schonerer, a leading political figure and Pan-German member of the
Imperial Parliament.
He also had many articles appear in periodicals such as Laufers Allgemeine
Kunst-Chronik, Der Sammler, Das Zwanzigste Jahrhundert, Die Gnosis, Der
Deutsche, Neue Metaphysische Rundschau, Die Nornen, Österreichische Illustrierte
Rundschau and Johannes Balzli's occult magazine Prana.
In 1878 List married his first wife, Helene Föster-Peters. However, the marriage
was not to last through the difficult years of this period.
Various Armanenschaft jewellery/ritual items distributed throughout England,
including the Armanen runes and ring and stick, Fyrfos pin, Schwarze Sonne
earings and pin (and Zierscheiben ‘Schwarze Sonne necklace), Mjollnir earings
and necklace, Wolfsangel pin, Unicursal Hexagram necklace and Sidereal
Pendulum.Through the years 1877-1887 List was also working on his first
book-length (two-volume) effort, Carnuntum, an historical novel based on his
vision of the Kulturkampf between the Germanic and Roman worlds centred at the
location of Carnuntum around the year 375 CE that was publised in 1888 by the
Wannieck family's organisation and publishing house Verein "Deutsche Haus"
("German House" Association) in Brno, where List made the acquaintance of the
industrialist Friedrich Wannieck. This association was to prove essential to
List's future development.
Throughout this period in Lists life he devoted himself to writing more
neo-romanticism prose, such as Jung Diethers Heimkehr ("Young Diether's
Homecoming") in 1894 and Pipara in 1895. The anthology of earlier journalism
Deutsch-Mythologische Landschaftsbilder was published in 1891, and List
developed his writing skills in poetic and dramatic genres as well.
In 1892 he delivered a lecture on the ancient Germanic cult of Wuotan to the
Verein Deutsche Geschichte (German History Association), and it is said that
numerous other associations that allied with this one proliferated in Austria at
this time. Another group, the Bund der Germanen (Germanic League), sponsored a
performance of List's mythological dramatic poem, Der Wala Erweckung ("The
Wala's Awakening") in 1894. In another performance of this drama in 1895, which
was attended by over three thousand people, the part of Wala was read by Anna
Wittek von Stecky, a young actress who in August of 1899 became List's second
wife.
During the years 1888-1899 List was involved with two important literary
associations. In May of 1891 Iduna, which had the descriptive subtitle of "Free
German Society for Literature", was founded by a circle of writers around Fritz
Lemmermayer. Lemmermayer acted as a sort of "middle man" between an older
generation of authors (which included Fercher von Steinwand, Joseph Tandler,
Auguste Hyrtl, Ludwig von Mertens, and Josephone von Knorr) and a group of
younger writers and thinkers (which included Rudolf Steiner, Marie Eugenie delle
Grazie, and Karl Maria Heidt). The name Iduna was provided by List himself and
is that of a North Germanic goddess of eternal youth and renewal. Richard von
Kralik and Joseph Kalasanz Poestion, authors with specifically neo-Germanic
leanings, where also involved in the circle. The other organisation List was
involved with was the Literarische Donaugesellschaft (Danubian Literary
Society), which was founded by List and Fanny Wschiansky the year the Iduna was
dissolved in 1893. In this time List met Rudolf Steiner and Lanz von Liebenfels
but in regard to Liebenfels their interaction was not until Lanz had left the
Heiligenkreuz monastery in 1899.
In August 1899, List married Anna Wittek von Stecky.
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