Open AccessConceptualising magic in 1950s Germany
Author(s) -
Tilman Hannemann
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
scripta instituti donneriani aboensis
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2343-4937
pISSN - 0582-3226
DOI - 10.30674/scripta.84864
Subject(s) - magic (telescope) , superstition , folklore , parapsychology , epistemology , rationality , paranormal , sociology , history , philosophy , anthropology , archaeology , physics , medicine , alternative medicine , pathology , quantum mechanics
In an effort to explore the gap between pre-war occultism and the New Age movement, this article examines the public areas of stage magic, folklore magic, and handbook magic between 1947 and 1960. It firstly investigates possible connections between stage performance and the implicit character of religious beliefs and combines these observations with the notion of magic in the field of parapsychology. Then the latter approach is put into the context of mental health discourse, scientific culture, and the metaphysics of nature. The field of handbook magic, finally, relates to public debates about rationality and superstition as an attempt to popularise and legitimise knowledge and techniques of twentieth-century ‘high magic’.