More About the Mysterious Dr. Krumm-Heller and His Book, Für Freiheit und Recht (For Freedom and Justice)

My book, Metaphysical Odyssey into the Mexican Revolution: Francisco I. Madero and His Secret Book, Spiritist Manual is available in Kindle and days from being available in paperback. One of the main characters in this novelesque tome of nonfiction is Francisco I. Madero's personal doctor and fellow Spiritist-- and German spy-- Dr. Arnoldo Krumm-Heller. I have blogged about him previously here and here, and just the other day, historian Heribert von Feilitzsch posted a long piece about Krumm-Heller's  Für Freiheit und Recht. (For Freedom and Justice: My Adventures in the Mexican Civil War). 

Von Feilitzsch also recently blogged about Krumm-Heller's escapades in stirring up trouble along the US-Mexico border. 

(Take home point: Apart from playing an important role in the German and Latin American esoteric scene, Krumm-Heller was a far more important figure in the history of the Mexican Revolution than most historians recognize. He also had a lot to do with Pancho's Villa's defeat at Celaya.) 

If you're at all interested in Mexican history, von Feilitzsch's blog is well worth reading-- as is his riveting sleuthwork, In Plain Sight: Felix Sommerfeld, Spymaster in Mexico. 

(For those a little foggy on Mexican history: Francisco I. Madero, Mexico's "Apostle of Democracy," led the Revolution of 1910, took office as President of Mexico 1911, and was murdered in a coup d'etat led by General Victoriano Huerta in early 1913. Civil war then erupted, a Chinese puzzle of shifting alliances... in Krumm-Heller's view, Venustiano Carranza was the rightful heir to Madero's democratic government. Complicating matters was the outbreak of WWI in 1914; the German government, using agents such as Krumm-Heller, tried to foment trouble on the US-Mexico border in an attempt to keep the United States distracted. Important aside: the German strategy regarding Mexico was more than a little byzantine, and not all agreed on whatever it was.)

It took some hunting, but I did manage to find a pristine first edition of Krumm-Heller's Für Freiheit und Recht from an antiquarian bookdealer in Germany, but you, dear reader, can read the whole enchilada for free on archive.org. 

BIG FAT CAVEAT: it's chock full of full of swatistkas, alas, and this, of course, leads most readers to jump to end of the usual equation, Swatiska + German = Nazi. But the book was published back in 1916, before Hitler's Nationalist Social Party came to prominence, a time when the swastika-- an ancient symbol out of India-- did not carry the sinister connotations it does today. Krumm-Heller meant it to suggest German patriotism-- the book was aimed at getting the German government to recognize Carranza's in Mexico-- and auspiciousness. It is a symbol you can find in many Buddhist temples, by the way. 

Over on my webpage for my book, where I offer some resources for researchers, there's a link to the chapter about Francisco I. Madero by Krumm-Heller in the book Trilogía heróica, also published in 1916. As with Fur Freiheit und Recht, it is a work of propaganda in support of Carranza, whom Krumm-Heller considered the true heir to Madero. This is a very rare little book--more a pamphlet actually; as it does not have a spine. I aim to translate this chapter as soon as possible. In the meantime a quote (my translation from the Spanish):

"It is generally believed that Madero was a fanatical Spiritist whose wife was a medium who evoked the spirits to help him solve the difficult problems of governing. Nothing could be further from the truth. Madero was an illustrious Hermeticist, a distinguished Orientalist, a high initiate in esotericism, a highly respected Mason who, in the many moral trials to which he was subjected, demonstrated profound knowledge of the great philosophers, such as Kant, Spencer, and Shopenhauer, and he was the author of an unpublished book about that sacred book of the Buddhists, the Bhagavad-Gita."

More anon.

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Del Incienso a la Osmoterapia (From Incense to Osmotherapy) by Dr Arnoldo Krumm-Heller (President Madero's Personal Doctor)

The book by President Madero's
personal doctor,
Dr Arnoldo Krumm-Heller

So my Marfa Mondays Podcasting Project got temporarily hijacked. Resuming ASAP! There are 11 podcasts so far, and there will be 24. I have been off reading about the Mexican Revolution (well, that is relevant to Marfa, after all... as we shall see...) for the revised and expanded introduction to my translation of Francisco I. Madero's secret book of 1911, Spiritist Manual, which has turned into a book itself. And it will be out this fall in both English and Spanish. And ayyy I am still revising... Hope to have it done and off to the editor this week.

(Yes, that Madero, leader of the 1910 Revolution and President of Mexico 1911-1913.)

One of my revisions is incorporating the role of Dr Arnoldo Krumm-Heller,  aka Maestro Huiracocha, President Madero's personal doctor, German spy, artillery expert, homeopathist, and (...drum roll...) osmotherapist. I blogged about Dr Krumm-Heller last week here... (Hat tip to the recent and magnificently researched book by Heribert von Feilitzsch, In Plain Sight: Felix A Sommerfeld, German Spymaster in Mexico 1908-1914.)

Today, a little more about Dr. Krumm-Heller's osmotherapy, a kind of protoaromatherapy.

Dr Krumm-Heller

Fun factoid: Dr Krumm-Heller was practicing osmotherapy on the battlefields of the Mexican Revolution-- carrying around his vials of perfume to aid fallen soldiers. So though he did not publish his book, Del incienso a la osmoterapia (From Incense to Osmotherapy) until the 1930s, we do know he was practicing it while in Mexico with Madero, and in fact wrote the first draft of the book in Mexico at that time.

Herewith a few excerpts to give you a flavor of this most extraordinary work.

My translation:

God wish it that this book may come to the hands of an impartial scientific researcher, one free from all official dry and dogmatic ideas, but capable of appreciating the value of the sentiment and approach of progressive thinking. 

May the reader not overlook that, moreover, I have had access to the old archives of Mexico and all the historical documents on the now historic primitive peoples' science of the correlations. 

The Jewish synagogues of Spain had valuable libraries that ended up in the monasteries after the expulsion of the Jews from Spain. There I had access to notable literary works on Mexico and Peru, and from which I extracted priceless material.

My translation:

The ancient uses in the Mayan mysteries prescribed as oblations not only butterflies but especially roses. We find identical uses in the gnostic church, where they burn roses on the altar and bring sick people there, to cure with them with their perfume.

In Latin America, sorcerers employ all possible substances as carriers of poisons; most frequently, ashes, other times salt and even soap. The victim receives a gift of a little bar of soap and not long afterwards, he falls ill from its use.

Meanwhile, the Indians also say that on the higher levels there are not only evil beings but also good ones. The bad ones show low and Satanic things, they incubate fetid emanations; as for the superior, divine and angelic beings, they love perfumes. When we adopt this way of seeing, we understand how much we have in our hands to draw close to these geniuses, both divine and diabolical, by giving one or another them their vital element, whether that is a agreeable smell or a foul odor. But it is necessary to utilize for each one only what is adequate.

More anon.

To be alerted when my book (revised and expanded edition of Madero's Spiritist Manual) is available, click here.

***UPDATE Dec 2013 My book, Metaphysical Odyssey Into the Mexican Revolution, is now available***

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