During the first thirty years of the twentieth century, Germany was one of the great European centers of modern astrology. Between 1900 and 1930, a surprisingly vibrant, organized, and cultivated environment emerged, made up of publishers, magazines, private schools, public lectures, study circles, and authors who sought to present astrology as a serious discipline. In those years, Berlin, Hamburg, Leipzig, and Munich became reference points for anyone in Europe interested in the astrological art. Germany possessed a vast book market, a highly literate population, and a strong curiosity toward psychology, esotericism, natural medicine, Theosophy, and alternative disciplines. After the First World War, the need for new spiritual orientations made interest in astrology and the sciences of destiny even stronger. Berlin became the main publishing center. There worked authors such as Karl Brandler-Pracht, a famous popularizer who published complete astrology courses for self-taught students. His works achieved wide circulation and helped create the model of the modern astrologer as teacher, author, and public lecturer. Hamburg, on the other hand, became the most innovative technical laboratory thanks to Alfred Witte, a decisive figure of twentieth-century astrology. In 1925 the famous Hamburg School was founded, introducing advanced methods based on planetary midpoints, rigorous mathematical research, and new astronomical hypotheses. Important European astrological schools would later descend from that current. Throughout Germany, associations, specialized magazines, and study groups were established. Astrology sought to enter modernity, leaving behind the image of mere popular superstition. Many German astrologers wished to present themselves as serious scholars, capable of statistical observation, character analysis, and method. Even higher cultural circles showed interest. In 1930 the cultural historian Aby Warburg promoted in Hamburg an exhibition on the history of astrology and astronomy, a sign that the subject was being studied even in prestigious intellectual environments. Naturally, internal conflicts existed between traditionalists and innovators, occultists and technicians, commercial popularizers and rigorous researchers. Yet the historical result remains clear. Germany in the first thirty years of the twentieth century contributed decisively to transforming European astrology into a modern, organized, and culturally ambitious movement. Much of contemporary astrology, especially technical and psychological astrology, owes something to that German laboratory. To truly understand the birth of modern astrology, studying Germany in those years is essential.
Roberto Minichini, astrologer and scholar of esotericism
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