Laudation by Dr. Renate Schukies

Dr. Horst Friedrich – outstanding thinker in a global network

Whenever I have the honor and pleasure to talk to Dr. Horst Friedrich, I keep wondering about how much he knows in so many different scientific fields. When did he find the time to study up on all these topics? During my professional life as a cultural anthropologist and artist I was lucky enough to meet many gifted and bright people, doing interesting research all over the world. But what is so special about Dr. Friedrich, he seems to encompass it all. Whereas most scientist cling stubbornly to their own ideas and opinions, Dr. Friedrich is able to see the whole picture. His free, gentle and elegant thinking does not accept any borders, indeed a brave and true Freigeist. Long time ago, when I had asked a professor:” What do I learn in Philosophy?”, he had answered: ”thinking!” So this truly makes Dr. Friedrich one of Germanys greatest Philosophers.

About the time Barry Fell presented his new ideas on early contact between the Old and the New World, I arrived as a student from the Old World to the New World to start my fieldwork with the Cheyenne. Living with them for two years I learned many astonishing facts: their culture as we know it today, dating back to 500 or even 1000 BC.. And playing a very special role in their religious system: planet Venus. I started wondering. When I was confronted with the ideas of Immanuel Velikovsky concerning planet Venus, I felt intellectually enlightened. And I really started thinking. The interdisciplinary work of Immanuel Velikovsky became my personal red thread to understanding. To evaluate his ideas I started my own research on global signs and symbols, with many surprising results. I personally felt awarded when I was invited to present my work 1995 on the Velikovsky Centennial Celebration in New York. This meeting, which took place in an hotel and not at a University as it should have, was attended by several hundred people.

Since I was captivated with Velikovsky`s ideas in 1978 I have experienced it all. These ideas seemingly being so outrageous, that even my artist friends questioned my mental condition. But being a Freigeist myself I trusted my own thinking and continued. In the realm of mainstream science I somehow succeeded to finish my oral examination in Ethnology and Philosophy with the theme of neo-catastrophism, and gave several lectures among my colleagues in the field. During the following years I got in contact with a network of scientists, who were working about Velikovsky and catastrophism in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. The yearly meetings being highlights. In the prophecy of the Cheyenne it says: ”There will be a time among the people in which jealousy and quarreling will prevail…. and this will be the end.“ And indeed, even here, overspecialisation, vehemently criticized by Dr. Friedrich in mainstream science, started to take over, quarreling prevailed. Considering the additional problems a female researcher faces in a male dominated setting, this was kind of really the end.

About that time I was lucky again. The telephone rang: there was Dr. Horst Friedrich, finding friendly words about a paper I had written on creativity, being the basis and combining element of science and art. Of course he knew everything about Velikovsky, but I did not know anything about his studies. Funny enough, it took me a while to get aquainted with all these new facts and ideas. Seafaring ships going criss and cross the oceans in times B.C.? During the following years Dr. Friedrich introduced me, like so many others, to a whole new realm of knowledge, labeled here under the term of neo-diffusionism. Certainly a highlight being our personal meeting at the international symposium on Unsolved Mysteries in Vienna in 2001. Here I could observe how well known and respected Dr. Friedrich is all over the world. But it makes no difference, if New York or Vienna. Admidst all prevailing human idleness, shortsightedness and ambition, Dr. Horst Friedrich, in his fine modesty, especially with his integrative and generalistic way of thinking, sticks out like a beam of light in darkness as well in the New as in the Old World.

May I be allowed to analyse the situation from my point of view. If a neo-catastrophist is denied access to publication in a neo-diffusionistic publication, unless the true core of research is hidden, then there is still much left to be learned from Dr. Friedrich. If we don`t try to think it together, who else should or could? - certainly Dr. Friedrich, who does it already! Or it is up to future generations! There are altogether so many fascinating, amazing new facts around, which need to be brought into some kind of “new order”, into a new Weltbild, that it is certainly not helpful to deny each other the seriousness in trying to find the approximation of truth. Having been confronted with the ignorance of mainstream science etc. for so long, still Dr. Friedrich never seems to lose his intellectual patience. His relaxed intellectual and emotional attitude might be due to his oriental studies. This certainly being a reflection of his adventurist state of mind. Expressed also in his close relation to the Karl-May Society in Germany. Karl May having influenced generations of children with his adventure books, especially the stories of the Native American Winnetou and his white brother Old Shatterhand.

This showing that Dr. Horst Friedrich is even brave enough to cross the line from the world of science to the world of the spiritual. And this indeed is a general study in the true sense of the word. A shining light, matter and energy! But above all, Dr. Friedrich did not lose his human touch. He still takes time to discuss life on a personal level. He gives good advice, based also on his astrological knowledge, connects people and their research. Often just at the right time. Once I read a very nice definition: “Science is the open and friendly discourse of a circle of friends about the matters of life.” In this sense it is always great fun to talk to Dr. Horst Friedrich, who is a real master in the Study of Life.


Dr. phil. Renate Schukies, Hamburg


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