Dr. Franz Hartmann

Franz Hartmann was a Bavarian-American physician, occultist, and one of the co-founders of O.T.O., along with Carl Kellner, Theodor Reuss, Henry Klein and Charles Détré. He served in the Bavarian artillery in his youth and then studied Medicine and became a physician. He emigrated to America in 1865, obtained U.S. citizenship and qualified as an M.D. He travelled as a doctor to various cities, and served for a time as a coroner in Georgetown, Colorado. During his travels, he visited a number of Indian tribes and researched their religious beliefs. He developed an interest in Spiritualism, and became active in the Spiritualist circles of New Orleans. He joined the Theosophical Society in 1882, and in 1883, he was invited by Colonel Olcott to come to the T.S. headquarters in Adyar, India. He remained in Adyar until 1885, and was appointed to the eight-member governing board of the T.S. headquarters. During his stay, Hartmann allegedly received up to ten personal letters from the “Mahatmas.”

While Blavatsky and Olcott were away in Europe in 1884, the Society for Psychical Research came to Adyar to investigate the claims of “psychic phenomena.” The report was unfavorable, and Hartmann became enmeshed in the internal politics which resulted. Hartmann left Adyar in 1885 and returned to Bavaria, where he met Carl Kellner. He and Kellner collaborated on the development of the “ligno-sulphite” inhalation therapy for tuberculosis, and Hartmann established a sanitarium near Salzburg to administer this novel treatment technique. While in Austria, he became increasingly involved in the Viennese Theosophical circle centered around Friedrich Eckstein, where he may have had his first contact with Theodor Reuss. Through contacts in the Eckstein group, he was introduced to an elderly Austrian weaver (name unknown) who claimed to be a lineal Rosicrucian initiate, and became this man’s disciple.