Occultists conquer Kassel University

The German University of Kassel awarded two foundation professorships to apparent proponents of anthroposophical pseudoscience. One of them even claims that natural spirits like elves and kobolds truly exist. Siegfried Bär reports, assisted by Winfried Koeppelle

(Feb 1st 2007) The Agricultural Faculty of the University of Kassel-Witzenhausen, Germany, received two foundation professorships, one in 2001 and another as recently as 2005. This is usually a sign of good science - in Kassel however it is precisely the opposite.

The first professorship was awarded to Angelika Ploeger for the topic "Quality of Organic Foods and Nutritional Culture". About a dozen foundations and companies contributed a total of one million German Marks (about 500 000 €) to Frau Ploeger's professorship. Three of the sponsors have an affinity to esoteric or anthroposophic philosophy, for instance the CEO of the supermarket chain "Alnatura" or the CEO of the "tegut" company, another food supermarket chain. Frau Ploeger's position was tenured from the start; the University has been paying her since October 2006.

Frau Ploeger's publication record at the time of her appointment in Kassel seems strangely modest even by German standards. Although she could show 107 publications only 13 of them were - according to her own notions - published in a "journal with referee system". Closer inspection of these publications showed that three of them were not available in German University libraries and six of them were book chapters. Of the remaining seven journal articles three were reviews or opinion pieces. We are left with four experimental papers in journals. At least one of them, an article in "Brauwelt", was not peer-reviewed and another one was of such a low scientific standard that we regarded it as worthless. All journals have low impact factors - which is typical for the field - but the "Brauwelt" has no impact factor at all. Our impression is that Frau Ploeger obtained her professorship with a publication record, which is scientifically equivalent to that of an average PhD student.

What are the scientific merits of Frau Ploeger's professorship?

Since 2001, in roughly five years of professorship, Frau Ploeger has published 55 articles. Most of these articles are symposium reports or book chapters or deal with science politics or have appeared in journals of non-scientific associations or in anthroposophic journals like "Elemente der Naturwissenschaft" (Elements of Natural Science). Our search brought up only one article, which was published in a clearly non-esoteric scientific journal (The Journal of Dairy Research). However, to be fair, we weren't able to examine the contents of some publications, as they were too difficult to obtain. Thus, Frau Ploeger has two publications in Annals of Agrarian Science, which is published by the Georgian and Armenian Academy of Science. We asked Frau Ploeger which she regards as her scientifically most important paper. The answer was, "At the time the general report of the EU-QLIF project with, amongst others, A. Roeger, M. (2004) Comparison of Consumer Perceptions of Organic Food Quality in Europe etc. in Schmid, O., Beck, A., Kretzschmar, U. (Hg.) Research Institute of Organic Agriculture (FIBL). This publication seems to be a review in a book, which was not peer-reviewed. Furthermore, the Dean of the Kassel Agricultural Faculty, Jürgen Heß, is a member of the FIBL board.

Frau Ploeger promotes an occult anthroposophic technique

Besides the Comparison of Consumer Perceptions Frau Ploeger's co-workers developed a test, which uses the crystallisation of CuCl₂. With this test, they claim to be able to differentiate between organically and conventionally grown foods. The anthroposophic guru Ehrenfried Pfeiffer developed the test in the 1920's on an occult basis. Frau Ploeger claimed a certain Jens Otto Andersen to be an inspiring mind and referenced the publications of a certain Daniel Morris in the years 1938 and 1941. However, Andersen, it transpires, is contact person for the Biodynamic Research Organisation of Denmark and a follower of the anthroposophic prophet Rudolf Steiner. Asked by us about his affiliations he wrote:

The spiritual science introduced by R. Steiner represents an attempt to perform in a fully scientific manner to investigate these levels of reality. Ultimately, these levels cannot be proved by physical methods, however, they are accessible to non-physical observation by trained persons, on the basis of a 'hellseherische Fähigkeit'.

'Hellseherische Fähigkeit' means clairvoyant ability. Interestingly, in his 1938 publication Daniel Morris refers to work published by Sigmund Rascher. Rascher was a disciple of test inventor Ehrenfried Pfeiffer and had used a similar CuCl₂ test in 1936 and 1937 to diagnose pregnancy and cancer. Read more about Rascher below and his truly "spectacular" career.

The focal point of Frau Ploeger's activities

Frau Ploeger's work seems to be focussed mainly on politics. She is a member of more then ten boards, foundations, societies and associations. Amongst others, she is a member of the scientific board for "Consumer and Nutrition Policy" within the German Ministry for Nutrition and Agriculture, she is chairperson of the International Organic Food Quality and Health Research Organisation (which is probably anthroposophically orientated) and she was - at least for a short time - member of the Scientific Board of Anthroposophy.

We asked Frau Ploeger: "Are you an anthroposophist or a member of the Anthropological Society?" The answer, "I am not and never have been a member of the Anthropological Society. In addition, I have no education in anthroposophy. I am a conventional nutrition scientist with a focus on whole food nutrition and organic farming."

What is anthroposophy?

Most of our readers will not be familiar with anthroposophy. Here a short introduction. Anthroposophy is an occult religion, a mixture of Buddhist and Hindu religious dogma. It was founded by the Austrian Rudolf Steiner (1861-1925) and, like most esoteric practises, anthroposophy explains everything: state, school, agriculture and medicine. The basis of anthroposophy is Steiner's alleged clairvoyant ability and the subsequent fact that anthroposophy needs no proof. In fact most anthroposophical statements cannot be proven. Part of anthroposophy is the so-called "biodynamic agriculture". According to Demeter, the organization of biodynamically orientated farmers, Biodynamic farmers follow the ideas of Rudolf Steiner, who developed the Waldorf pedagogic and anthroposophic medicine, and prepare their manure themselves. For this they don't need much, just the manure from their cows and special preparations derived from medicinal herbs and rock crystal. The manure is composted and spiced with fine doses of self-collected preparations of dandelion or oak bark. These preparations do not work by their mass but through "ethereal information" - comparable to homeopathic remedies. Apart from these compost preparations, farmers use spray preparations. In this case the freshly transformed cow manure is filled into a cow's horn and buried for some months. Then the manure is swirled for an hour in water - dynamised - and finally, this water/manure mixture is sprayed onto fields and meadows. Earthly and cosmic forces have gathered in this manure...

The problem with anthroposophy was and is that scientific methods show no consistent differences in vitamins or other contents (sugars, protein etc.) between biodynamically or conventionally grown foods - with the exception, that biodynamic farming results in consistently lower yields and often has somewhat lower pesticide levels. Plant contents depend on weather, soil composition etc. and the variation is so immense that no consistent difference is discernible due to farming methods alone. The dilemma was already obvious in the 1920's.

To solve the dilemma and to determine the claimed "ethereal" and "cosmic" forces, in the 1920's two anthroposophists, the above-mentioned Ehrenfried Pfeiffer and Lili Kolisko developed a test. A CuCl₂ solution is mixed with plant extract and dried on a glass plate. From the form of the resulting crystals an anthroposophically schooled person should be able to distinguish between biodynamically raised plants and conventionally raised plants. In particular, the test was claimed to show that biodynamically raised plants possess "vital power" (whatever this means). And it did! However, to the degree that only anthroposophists are able to interpret the test's results. Scientific proof of their claims does not exist.

The CuCl₂ test by Pfeiffer and Kolisko is also used in anthroposophical medicine. According to Pfeiffer, with its help and a drop of blood one can distinguish the healthy from the sick, cancer from tuberculosis and pregnant women from non-pregnant. Seeking recognition from science, Pfeiffer convinced one of his assistants and a student of medicine, Sigmund Rascher, to prove the CuCl₂ diagnosis at the University of Munich. Indeed Rascher made the test the topic of his doctoral thesis and a following post-doc, paid for by the German Research Foundation (DFG). In three articles in the Münchner Medizinische Wochenschrift Rascher published astonishing confirmatory results. But the acting DFG referee grew suspicious and asked for an independent examination. Such an examination never took place as by this time Rascher had won Himmler's favouritism and Himmler, leader of the SS, Chief of Police and Minister of the Interior, suppressed the examination.

Recently, the geneticist Benno Müller-Hill and one of the authors, Siegfried Bär, independently examined Rascher's work. Both came to the conclusion that Rascher was a fraudster!

Nevertheless, Sigmund Rascher made a career. He joined the SS and the SS organization "Ahnenerbe" and led a research team in the concentration camp Dachau. There he first app-lied the CuCl₂ test to the inmates and later performed the infamous high altitude and intense chilling experiments (immersion in freezing water). A detailed biography of Rascher in the German language recently (2006) appeared in our publishing house: "Der Untergang des Hauses Rascher" ("The Doom of the House of Rascher").

It was no coincidence that Rascher had become one of Himmler's favourites. Steiner's and anthroposophy's romantic terminology like "healthy", "natural", "holistic" and "anti-materialistic" fit in with the NS-ideology. Several prominent anthroposophists like Otto Ohlendorf or Sigmund Rascher's father, Hanns Rascher, were ardent followers of Hitler. On the other hand, biodynamic agriculture had sympathisers amongst the leading National Socialists like Rudolf Hess, the Führer's acting deputy in the Nazi Party, or Walther Darre, Reichsführer of the farmers and Reichsführer SS Heinrich Himmler. Despite the Anthroposophic Society being banned in 1935, biodynamic farming was allowed to continue. In fact, the concentration camp Dachau had a garden where plants were grown biodynamically by the anthroposophist and SS member Franz Lippert.

After the war, anthroposophy, CuCl₂ crystallisation and biodynamic agriculture seemed to die down, however in the 1970's biodynamic farming experienced a "sustainable" revival. The anthroposophists succeeded in selling their agricultural occultism to the Greens as being "progressive" and "organic". Indeed anthroposophy's romantic terminology like "healthy", "natural", "holistic" and "anti-materialistic" embodies the ideology of Green Party members. Anthroposophists played a major role in the founding of the German Green Party, "Die Grünen", and had significant influence during the Party's formation of a coalition German government (1998-2005).

Incidentally, the German Centre for Anthroposophy is situated in Kassel.

The second foundation professorship

Despite the meagre results of the anthroposophically inclined professorship of Frau Ploeger, in 2005 the University of Kassel-Witzenhausen appointed a second and this time openly anthroposophic professor, Ton Baars, a Dutch national. Baars has a long record of anthroposophic activities. In 1980 he participated in a course for biodynamic agriculture, from 1981 to 1983 he taught "Goetheanische Wissenschaft" (another expression for anthroposophic "science") and from 1986 to 2005 Baars performed "research" at the Dutch Louis Bolk Institute, which also supports anthroposophy. Baars' professorship in Kassel was financially supported by four sponsors, three of them were at least in some way associated with anthroposophy. Baars' official homepage, detailing his professorship and integrated in the official homepage of the faculty, displays proverbs from Rudolf Steiner. In research Baars wants to apply biodynamic methods and better understand the "inner quality" of biodynamic foodstuff. In addition, his professorship appears to serve Demeter, the private association of biodynamic farmers, as a form of research and marketing department. Subsequently, the aim of Baars' project "milk quality" is (1) to better understand the quality of Demeter milk and communicate the potential differences in quality, (2) to monitor the improvements of human health and (3) to calculate and sell the thus increased value of the milk.

According to German University law, the marketing of private products is not a university task.

The scientific achievements of the biodynamic professor

Ton Baars lists 131 publications on his homepage. According to Baars, 14 of these publications are peer-reviewed. Only 5 of the peer-reviewed publications are journal articles, the rest are book chapters or conference reports, most of them anthroposophically inclined. The five journal articles appeared in Ganzheitliche Tiermedizin (Holistic Animal Health), Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics, Elemente der Naturwissenschaft (an anthroposophic journal, see above), Journal of Agricultural Science and Tijdschrift voor Diergeneeskunde. Only three of these journals are non-esoteric (for instance the Journal of Agricultural Science).

We do not want to imply that the rest of Mr. Baars publications are uninteresting or lack inspiration. Quite the contrary. Take for instance: Baars, Ton (2003) Bestaan kabouters en elfen toch? Vlugschriften Biologische melkveehoudenij nr. 98, 144 (Gnomes and Elves really do Exist).

We have translated this text and you will find it below.

The people responsible for the influx of occultists at Kassel University

Baars and Ploeger were appointed whilst the Deans Rainer Joergensen (Ploeger) and Jürgen Heß (Baars) were in office. In a phone call to Heß he denied that Frau Ploeger's professorship is connected with anthroposophy. Asked about the achievements of Ton Baars, he mentioned - with awe in his voice - Baars' PhD work (entitled "Philosophy of Research Methods which are suited for Biodynamic Agriculture"). We later sent Dean Heß several emails asking about the procedures applied when appointing Frau Ploeger and Herr Baars, eg. How many competitors were there and who were the competitors? Who were the members of the appointment committee? Dean Heß ignored these questions.

However, we obtained pertinent information from an official within Kassel's university presidential board. According to this person, Ploeger and Baars were appointed with the agreement of the responsible ministry in the state of Hessen. In each case the appointment commissions consisted of five professors (one of them not to be from Kassel), two assistants and two students. The appointment committee for Frau Ploeger was comprised of the following professors: Bernd Wirthgen (marketing of organic food, Kassel), Albert Sundrum (animal care, Kassel), Maria Finckh (phytopathology, Kassel), Jürgen Heß and Claus Leitzmann (Giessen) as the non-local professor. Leitzmann was the mentor for Frau Ploeger's PhD work.

The appointment committee for Ton Baars consisted of professors Jürgen Heß, Maria Finckh (phytopathology, Kassel), Angelika Ploeger, Franz Lieber and Kurt-Jürgen Hülsbergen as non-local professor (TU-München-Weihenstephan).

Appointment commissions usually put up a list of three candidates. The names of these lists were not made available to us due to the German data protection law.

Dean Jürgen Heß was a member of both appointment committees. Since 1997, the year of his appointment in Kassel, Hess has published at least three anthroposophically orientated articles and listed them amongst his scientific publications. All told there are 35 articles over nine years, comprising 18 meeting reports and three book chapters; of the 14 articles left at least five are opinion pieces and/or anthroposophically inclined. When asked for his opinion on Rudolf Steiner and biodynamic agriculture, Dean Heß gave no answer.

The President of Kassel University, Rolf Dieter Postlep, professor of political science, supported the professorships of Ploeger and Baars. In a press release from 2003 he said: The integration of biodynamic agriculture in research and teaching is an important brick to strengthen the primate of the University Witzenhausen (a dependence of Kassel, the authors) and of the course of studies of organic agriculture.

Commentary

A longer version of this article, published in our German sister magazine Laborjournal, elicited a flood of "letters to the editor". These responses were highly polarized: either wholeheartedly supporting or emphatically rejecting. Characteristic of the latter was that most writers felt obliged to tell us that they are not anthroposophists. Are we to assume that no anthroposophist wrote to us or could it be that anthroposophists are ashamed of their belief (something we could well understand)?

Two things should be put straight:

Firstly, there is serious research going on in Kassel University, in particular in the Biological Faculty. As far as we know, members of the Biological Faculty have even warned President Postlep of the ideological nature of anthroposophy.

Secondly, we do not care for the private beliefs of Angelika Ploeger, Ton Baars or others. Sure, anthroposophy is an occult and esoteric system but the same can be said of every religion. Some believe in Jesus, some in Mohammed and some in Steiner. As long as these beliefs do not determine the scientific work of their followers it is alright. However, it is not alright when the believers use their academic position to convince others of their belief.

It is particularly disturbing, that Frau Ploeger denies her connections with anthroposophy despite the fact that she publishes in anthroposophic magazines and uses anthroposophic methods. Is she a covert perpetrator for anthroposophic ideology at Kassel University? We suspect the following: The anthroposophically orientated Jürgen Heß supported Angelika Ploeger's professorship. That achieved, Ploeger and Heß promoted the openly anthroposophic Ton Baars. Meanwhile (2006) another anthroposophist, Gerold Rahmann, received an honorary professorship for the Agricultural Faculty in Kassel. Presumably he enjoyed the sympathies of Heß, Ploeger and Baars. Rahmann is an active member of the German Green Party.

Certain questions, however, remain unanswered. What made the president of a university honour the occult teachings of the obscure prophet Steiner? As far as we know, President Postlep is not a follower of Steiner. What made the appointment committees choose candidates with fewer articles in serious scientific journals than an average PhD student? Not all members of the committees were ardent anthroposophists.

Was it the sponsors' money?

It is difficult to believe that for only 1,5 million euros a president should allow his university to become the ridicule of the scientific world. However, on the grapevine, it is claimed that in his plight to turn Kassel into the best-financed German university, President Postlep solicited and readily received financial support but in doing so, he appears to have given little forethought to the consequences and what lies at stake! Incidentally, the grapevine consisted of several faculty members of Kassel University who related this story under the proviso "don't mention my name!" A wrong financial policy may not have been the only component of the force, which flushed occultist philosophy into the Kassel-Witzenhausen Agricultural Faculty. Another rumour points to political influence.

However, the evidence is weak and indirect. As mentioned above, anthroposophists are strongly represented in the German Green Party and the Party ruled in Hessen, together with the SPD, from 1991 to 1999 and in Germany from 1998 to 2005. Jürgen Heß obtained his chair in Kassel in 1997 but at that time the Science Minister for Hessen was a person from the SPD. Hess' predecessor for "Organic Agriculture" was Hartmut Vogtmann, now President of the "Bundesamt für Naturschutz" (Nature Protection). Vogtmann is an organic fundamentalist and a good acquaintance not only of former Green Party minister Juergen Trittin but also of Prince Charles (according to an article by the distinguished science writer Thomas Deichmann in Novo-Magazin). Angelika Ploeger is, in turn, intimately befriended with Hartmut Vogtmann.

Translation of Baars, Ton (2003) Bestaan kabouters en elfen toch?

Vlugschriften Biologische melkveehoudenij nr. 98, 144. This text was listed on Ton Baars' official publication list on the official homepage of the Agricultural Faculty of the University of Kassel-Witzenhausen.

Gnomes and Elves really do Exist.

When I see how some farmers work with the "pendulum" to get an answer to a question, I cannot help but interpret this in only one way. They assume that behind the perceptible physical world exists an invisible, non-material world. They ask questions themselves or via a middleperson (a medium) about a homeopathic or other remedy and its dose. Whether one should spread sulphur on meadows or not and if yes, in which amount? Whether one should give cobalt to dairy cows or not and if yes, how many grams a day?

What do these farmers really do? When do they use a pendulum? An important point is, the person using the pendulum must pose clear and straight questions. You can ask these questions quietly to yourself or you can say them out loud. A golden rule for asking questions is not to harm or destroy anybody in the process and not to aim at creating your own profit. You can ask questions to gain insight, for instance, in processes of life. To whom are these questions addressed, I hear you thinking? I believe these questions are put to beings which are involved with nature, let's call them gnomes and elves. It is they who move the pendulum; they are the mediators whose response evolves from their insight into nature. A second element with the pendulum is the personal involvement. There has to be a link from the pendulum user to nature. There has to be attention, living in. You possibly don't believe any of this. Perhaps you're an atheist or a convinced follower of a church and distrust such esoteric ideology. Atheists do not believe in a "God's world" but live with the idea of a Darwinist struggle for life and the survival of the fittest. There is only the world of hard matter and physical-chemical forces. From your positivist view you reject "this nonsense"; there is nothing in this world but matter. Nothing new; no New Age and no biodynamic agriculture. So why then are there so many ecologists and biodynamic farmers who use the pendulum successfully? Why is there an increasing interest for the ability to talk with trees and horse whisperers? I regard this as an expression of the fact that through a different connection with nature, humans recognise that nature is directed by beings with which one can become well acquainted. The "Zeitgeist" is distinctly changing with more and more people being born with a direct connection to this "other" world (clairvoyant ability) and who are sensitive and open to such mental insight. People who use the pendulum have (consciously or unconsciously) created a new relationship with small beings which help us and which like to help humans; even though one knows nothing about these beings. There are also farmers who have this perception without a pendulum. They use their intuition, they possess a very enriched picture of life processes in nature and as time goes by, so they develop more of an eye for the fact that "by chance" means to have a chance of finding an answer (but whence comes the answer?). These people trust in these phenomena, upon which they base and build their own wealth of experience. They do this out of respect for nature, their animals and their land. They believe that things will then take another turn, as though they are being guided in their decisions - with or without a pendulum.

(Translated from the Dutch by Hubert Rehm, Laborjournal, with the help of Martijn Kos from the University of Regensburg.)