Schiller Institute

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The Schiller Institute is an international political and economic thinktank, one of the primary organizations in the LaRouche movement, with headquarters in Germany and the United States. It was founded at a conference in Wiesbaden, Germany, in 1984 by Helga Zepp LaRouche, the German-born wife of American political activist Lyndon LaRouche. Following the second conference, in Washington, D.C. in 1985, it has held conferences in a variety of international locations. Since 1992, it has published a quarterly magazine Fidelio, which it describes as a "Journal of Poetry, Science, and Statecraft."

The Institute's stated aim is to seek to apply the ideas of poet, dramatist and philosopher Friedrich Schiller to what it calls the "contemporary world crisis," emphasizing Schiller's concept of the interdependence of classical artistic beauty and republican political freedom, as elaborated in his series of essays entitled Letters on the Aesthetical Education of Man. On November 26, 1984, the Institute released a "Declaration of the Inalienable Rights of Man," [1] which it describes as "the basis of the Institute's work and efforts worldwide." It is modeled on the United States Declaration of Independence, but extends it to include all nations, especially those of the Third World. It further asserts "...[t]hat all human beings on this planet have inalienable rights, which guarantee them life, freedom, material conditions worthy of man, and the right to develop fully all potentialities of their intellect and their souls. That, therefore, a change in the present economic and monetary order is necessary and urgent to establish justice among the peoples of the world."

Its critics, such as the Washington Post, charge that the Schiller Institute, like other groups in the Lyndon LaRouche movement, is a political cult. [2]

Zepp LaRouche explained the need for the Schiller Institute as follows:

We need a movement that can finally free Germany from the control of the Versailles and Yalta treaties, which have already tossed us from one catastrophe to another for a whole century." ("Wir brauchen eine Bewegung, die Deutschland endlich aus der Kontrolle der Kräfte von Versailles und Jalta befreit, die uns schon ein ganzes Jahrhundert lang von einer Kastastrophe in die andere stürzt.") [3]

Contents

[edit] Connection with LaRouche

The Institute is closely tied to Lyndon LaRouche, describing the relationship as follows: "It is his work and his ideas, that inspired the creation of the international Schiller Institute, as well as his intellectual and moral leadership that continue to set the standard for the policies and activity of the movement." [4] LaRouche's writings are featured prominently in Schiller Institute communications, and he is the keynote speaker at most Schiller Institute conferences. In addition, he or the political and economic ideas he promotes, are the featured subjects of much of the Schiller Institute's communications.

[edit] Political activity

The website of the Schiller Institute includes transcripts[5] of conferences that the Institute has sponsored, throughout North and South America, Europe, Asia, Africa and Australia, to promote the idea of what it calls "peace through development". The discussion at these conferences has generally centered around Lyndon LaRouche's proposals for infrastructure projects such the "Eurasian Land-Bridge", and the "Oasis Plan", a Middle East peace agreement based on Arab-Israeli collaboration on major water projects. The conferences also typically discuss proposals for debt relief and the "New Bretton Woods", a proposal for a sweeping reorganization of the world monetary system (see Political views of Lyndon LaRouche). The Institute strongly opposes the "Clash of Civilizations" thesis of Samuel Huntington, counterposing what it calls a "Dialogue of Cultures".

The March 18, 2007 internet edition of the Danish Paper Jyllands-Posten covers the Schiller Institute proposal for a national Maglev train system in that country. [6]

[edit] Cultural activity

[edit] Music

In 1988 the Schiller Institute initiated a campaign to return to the so-called "Verdi tuning" in the world of classical music, so-called because it was Italian composer Giuseppe Verdi who originally waged a battle to stop the arbitrary rising of the pitch to which orchestras are tuned. The "Verdi tuning" is one where C=256HZ, or A=432HZ, as opposed to the common practice today of tuning to anywhere from A=440 to A in the 450+ range.

Many prominent singers and instrumentalists actively campaigned for the Schiller Institute's proposal, including several who performed recitals for the Institute to demonstrate the different quality of the Verdi tuning, compared with contemporary tuning. Beginning in 1988 the Institute starting circulating petitions calling for a change in pitch. [7] In 1999 the Institute circulated a petition calling for the establishment of a permanent orchestra in Verdi's childhood home, Busseto, Italy, employing the special tuning in order to mark the composer's centennial.[8] Signers of the petitions have included Norbert Brainin, former First Violinist of the Amadeus Quartet, and the following vocalists: William Warfield (baritone), Carlo Bergonzi (tenor), and Piero Cappuccilli (baritone). Other well known vocalists who endorsed the initiative include Shirley Verrett (soprano), Joan Sutherland (soprano), George Shirley (tenor), Luciano Pavarotti (tenor), Sherrill Milne (baritone), Fedora Barbier (mezzosoprano), Grace Bumbry (soprano), Elly Ameling (soprano), Peter Schreier (tenor), Birgit Nilsson (soprano), Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau (baritone), Kurt Moll (basso), Marilyn Horne (mezzosoprano), and Ruggero Raimondi (basso).

The tuning initiative is vigorously opposed by Stefan Zucker, billed as "the world's highest tenor" and creator of Opera Fanatic magazine in New York City. According to Zucker, the Schiller Institute offered a bill in Italy to impose the Verdi tuning on state-sponsored musicians that included provisions for fines and confiscation of non-Verdi tuning forks. Zucker has written that he believes the claims about the Verdi tuning are historically inaccurate. Institute followers are reported by Tim Page of Newsday to have stood outside concert halls with petitions to ban the music of Vivaldi and even to have disrupted a concert conducted by Leonard Slatkin in order to pass out pamphlets titled "Leonard Slatkin Serves Satan". [9]

In 1992, the Institute published A Manual on the Rudiments of Tuning and Registration: Book I: Introduction and Human Singing Voice. This book discusses the tuning issue from both the artistic and the scientific point of view.

[edit] Drama and poetry

The Schiller Institute has published a four volume series of English translations of the works of Friedrich Schiller, entitled Poet of Freedom, as well as some translations into other languages. In Germany, Institute members have organized public performances of Schiller's plays, including Wilhelm Tell.

The Schiller institute has also published a quarterly magazine Fidelio since 1992, described as a "Journal of Poetry, Science, and Statecraft." The Institute's published aim is to seek to apply the ideas of poet, dramatist and philosopher Friedrich Schiller to what it calls the "contemporary world crisis," emphasizing Schiller's concept of the interdependence of classical artistic beauty and republican political freedom, as elaborated in his series of essays entitled Letters on the Aesthetical Education of Man. Its issues include articles dealing with a range of topics, including Homer, Henry VII, Benjamin Franklin, Leibniz, the “Four Serious Songs” of Johannes Brahms, Vice President Richard Cheney, Paul Kreingold’s “I.L. Peretz, Father of the Yiddish Renaissance”, and reviews of books, art exhibits, and musical, and dramatic performances.[10]

[edit] Death of Jeremiah Duggan

For main article, see: Jeremiah Duggan

On November 6, 2003, a British inquest heard allegations that the Schiller Institute is an anti-Semitic cult that may have used mind-control techniques on a student who died in March 2003 after running onto a busy road in Wiesbaden, Germany. [11] Jeremiah Duggan, a 22-year-old Jewish student from London, England, attended a Schiller Institute conference in Wiesbaden with members of the Schiller Institute and the LaRouche Youth Movement. [12] [13] He learned about the conference after being handed a LaRouche newspaper outside the Sorbonne in Paris, where he was studying. After six days in Wiesbaden, Duggan telephoned his mother to say he "wanted out," was "frightened" and "in deep trouble," before the line went dead. His mother told the inquest that her son sounded terrified. Forty-five minutes later, he ran for one kilometer down the middle of a busy road and was killed.

A British coroner rejected the German police report of suicide and ruled that Duggan died while in a "state of terror." [14] Duggan's mother believes the Schiller Institute used mind-control techniques on her son to persuade him to join the organization. [15] The Simon Wiesenthal Center has asked the German justice minister to reopen the investigation, and to determine whether Duggan's being Jewish played any role in his death, in light of material from the LaRouche organization found in his bag, that "apparently point[ed] to stereotyping and antisemitic conspiracy theories." [1] The Center also asked the minister "to impose the full application of German law to the supervision of the Larouche Youth Movement and its network of affiliates." [1] A spokesperson for the LaRouche movement said that Mrs. Duggan's allegation of a connection between her son's death and the Schiller Institute was part of a "smear campaign" intended to prevent LaRouche from gaining the U.S. Democratic Party's 2004 presidential nomination. [16]

[edit] Conferences

These are highlights of conferences from the Schiller Institute's 20-year history. [17]

  • Nov. 1-3, 1985: "Saint Augustine, Father of European and African Civilization" — Rome, Italy
  • Labor Day conference, 1986, featuring a performance of Mozart's Requiem at C=256HZ, with Schiller chorus and orchestra — Reston, Virginia, U.S.A.
  • Nov. 22-23, 1990: "The Productive Triangle: Centerpiece of an All-Eurasian Infrastructure Program, Locomotive for a New, Just World Economic Order" — Berlin, Germany
  • April 26-30, 1993: International conference on religions sponsored by the government of Sudan — Khartoum
  • Aug. 7-14, 1994: Educational-cultural seminar for young musicians and artists, featuring Norbert Brainin, Lyndon LaRouche, and Helga Zepp LaRouche — Smolenice Castle, Slovakia
  • July 17, 1997: Presentation by Dr. Jozef Miklosko, president of the Slovakian branch of the Schiller Institute and former vice premier of post-communist Czechoslovakia — Manila, Philippines
  • Dec. 13, 2000: Memorial seminar for Russian Schiller Institute leader Taras V. Muranivsky — Moscow, Russia

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ a b "Wiesenthal Centre Appeals to German Justice Minister: "Reopen Investigation into Death of Jewish Student Attending Larouche Movement Seminar on Iraq War", Simon Weisenthal Center, November 10, 2006.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

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