Details
[ALCHEMY] A correspondence and notes on alchemical matters, consisting of a series of seventeen letters signed, nine autograph letters signed and a postcard signed by Demeter Georgievitz-Weitzer to Dr John Dietzel, Salzburg, Graz and elsewhere, 26 October 1943 - 24 March 1945, together with a letter signed by Dietzel to Weitzer, Marbach, 7 February 1944, together 78 pages, various sizes (occasional splits along folds), and two notebooks, entitled 'Acta pers. II' and 'Acta pers. III', in Dietzel's hand, Marbach, 1934 - 1945, containing diaries of alchemical experiments, approximately 150 pages, 4to, boards.
A curious record of alchemical studies under the Nazi regime. Weitzer writes as master to student, advising and prompting Dietzel in his alchemical studies in pursuit of the lapis philosophorum and the means to aurum potabile. The letters include not only extensive practical suggestions on experiments, illustrated with sketches of equipment, but also discussions of alchemical literature and history, particularly with reference to Paracelsus, and of questions of the occult generally, as well as of homeopathic medecine, of which Weitzer is a practitioner.
The correspondence documents in rare detail the survival into the 20th Century of alchemical studies. It is intriguingly placed in its times by a carbon copy, also included in the lot, of a letter from Dr Dietzel to the Landratsamt at Melk, complaining at the requisitioning of his laboratory, and explaining that his research is carried out with the support of Reichsmarschall Hermann Goering.
The lot also includes Denis Duveen and Emil Offenbacher. An Alchemical Correspondence in Germany Under the Nazi Regime (1951), which summarises the correspondence.
A curious record of alchemical studies under the Nazi regime. Weitzer writes as master to student, advising and prompting Dietzel in his alchemical studies in pursuit of the lapis philosophorum and the means to aurum potabile. The letters include not only extensive practical suggestions on experiments, illustrated with sketches of equipment, but also discussions of alchemical literature and history, particularly with reference to Paracelsus, and of questions of the occult generally, as well as of homeopathic medecine, of which Weitzer is a practitioner.
The correspondence documents in rare detail the survival into the 20th Century of alchemical studies. It is intriguingly placed in its times by a carbon copy, also included in the lot, of a letter from Dr Dietzel to the Landratsamt at Melk, complaining at the requisitioning of his laboratory, and explaining that his research is carried out with the support of Reichsmarschall Hermann Goering.
The lot also includes Denis Duveen and Emil Offenbacher. An Alchemical Correspondence in Germany Under the Nazi Regime (1951), which summarises the correspondence.