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Hamburg School of Astrology

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The Hamburg School of Astrology originated in Hamburg, Germany, and revolved around the research and teachings of the astrologer Alfred Witte. The term Hamburg School of Astrology originated in 1923 at the Second German Astrological Congress in Leipzig, Germany. This tradition is also sometimes known as Uranian astrology, although there are some who believe that the Hamburg School is a completely separate tradition from the breakaway Uranian school which formed in the early 90's.

1 History
2 Techniques
3 See also
4 Notes
5 References

History

Prior to the discovery of Pluto, Witte claimed that he had detected four planets beyond Neptune which kept showing up as sensitive points in charts, and shortly thereafter a student of his named Friedrich Sieggrün claimed that he had found an additional four hypothetical planets. These bodies were said to be in the 'Transneptunian' regions of the solar system, and thus they are often called Transneptunians. Another of Witte's close students named Ludwig Rudolph printed and published Witte's findings, the core of which were published in the Rulebook for Planetary Pictures (Regelwerk für Planetenbilder) in 1932. An increasing amount of the research of the Hamburg School revolved around work with astrological midpoints and use of the 8 hypothetical planets called Transneptunians.

Unfortunately, Witte and Rudolph were pursued by the Gestapo as enemies of the Third Reich. Witte committed suicide before being sent to a concentration camp, and Rudolph was indeed interned, the Rulebook for Planetary Pictures banned and burned by the Nazis.

Reinhold Ebertin, a student of Hamburg School methods, then took the core teachings of the Hamburg School, renamed them "Cosmobiology" (German: Kosmobiologie), and published them in The Combination of Stellar Influences in 1940, last updated in English in 1972. The main difference between the two schools is that Cosmobiology rejects the Transneptunians, and ignores houses and instead places more emphasis on midpoints and "hard" aspects such as the conjunction, opposition, square, semi-square, and sesqui-quadrate, and other multiples of 22.5°.

Meanwhile, after the fall of the Third Reich, the Hamburg School reconvened, and Ludwig Rudolph played the key role in perpetuating the teachings of the Hamburg School. There were some Hamburg School astrologers, such as Hermann Lefeldt, who advocated coalescing with astrological traditions and perpetuating work with astrological houses. However, as Hamburg practitioners tested various astrological techniques, the focus was increasingly on work with astrological midpoints, abandoning traditional western astrological practices.

A new branch of the Hamburg School, called Uranian Astrology (Uranische Astrologie) was formed in Germany in 1993, in a move to break with traditional approaches and move forward with the focus on research on midpoints, and the integration of psychological considerations into astrological interpretation. The leader in this pursuit was Ruth Brummund, who published a new midpoint reference entitled Regelwerk-Neufassung in 1990, being translated into English as the Brummund Rulebook. The book interprets physical and psychological correlations with planetary configurations, primarily midpoints and 16th-harmonic angles, and serves as a current and somewhat comprehensive reference for midpoint interpretation. According to James Holden in his book A History of Horoscopic Astrology, an astrologer named Hans Niggemann, who was a student of Witte's, claimed responsibility for giving Witte's system the name of "Uranian Astrology".¹

Techniques

The distinguishing characteristics of the Hamburg school are their focus on midpoints and planetary pictures, the use of hypothetical planets called Transneptunians, the use of dials, graphical ephemerides, a revised system of rulerships and a focus on "hard" aspects such as the conjunction, opposition, square, semi-square, and sesqui-quadrate. Witte also adopted solar arcs as one of the primary timing techniques, and put much more emphasis on the lunar nodes and the midheaven.

Notes

Note 1: James Holden, A History of Horoscopic Astrology, Temple, AZ, 1996, p. 243.

References

Wikipedia's article on the Hamburg School of Astrology retrieved 8/14/2005 under the GNU Free Documentation License
Brummund: Astropsychologische Charaktermerkmale, Ludwig Rudolph Verlag, Hamburg, 1972.
Brummund: Regelwerk-Neufassung, Brummund Verlag, Hamburg, 1990.
Witte: Der Mensch - eine Empfangsstation kosmischer Suggestionen, Ludwig Rudolph Verlag, Hamburg, 1975.
Witte: Regelwerk für Planetenbilder, Ludwig Rudolph Verlag, Hamburg, 1959.
Witte: Rulebook for Planetary Pictures, Ludwig Rudolph Verlag, Hamburg, 1977.