Rosicrucian Beacon Magazine - 2010-09 - AMORC

Heidelberg & the
Early Rosicrucians
Part 1
by Bill Anderson, FRC
“I saw Heidelberg on a perfectly clear morning, with a
pleasant air both cool and invigorating.
The city, just so, with the totality of its ambiance is, one
might say, something ideal.”
-- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, 1749-1832
remember one of my FRienDS
asking me if I had heard of the Rosicrucian
University in Heidelberg, Germany. I hadn’t,
but, driven on by an overwhelming curiosity,
I decided to go there to see what I could
discover. So, some weeks later, I took a flight to Frankfurt
and made my way by train to Heidelberg. One of the
first things I did when I arrived there was to go for a
stroll along the Philosophenweg (Philosopher’s Way)
with its impressive views of the Residenz, the castle of
the Prince-Electors on the hill across the other side of
the river Neckar.
It was a lovely summer day, so I decided to stop and
sit in the shade of the trees watching the scene across the
river, with the ruins of the castle and the green silences
of the Odenwald (Odin’s forest) in the background.
Below me one of the boats of the “White Fleet” was
sailing slowly along the river taking new tourists on a
2
The Rosicrucian Beacon -- September 2010