Abd-ru-shin

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Oskar Ernst Bernhardt (April 18, 1875, Bischofswerda, Saxony, Germany - December 6, 1941, Kipsdorf, Ore Mountains, Germany) is best known as the author of the Grail Message. A version was last published by the author in 1931 under the pen name Abdruschin^[1]. A modified posthumous edition in three volumes was first published in 1949 under the pen name Abd-ru-shin^[2].

A variety of organisations seem to have been inspired by Abdruschin's ideas: philosophy clubs and associations (most prominently the Grail Movement) have been formed by readers of the Grail Message.

Neither did Abdruschin himself form or formally support any religious or spiritualist organisations nor is he known ever to have been a member of one. On the contrary his work seems to place a high value on individual responsibility and self-discovery.

After a brief commercial training Oskar Ernst Bernhardt began his literary activity while still a young man. This often led him to foreign countries. In 1915 he was interned in England. Released in 1919, he first went to Dresden, later to Bavaria and in 1923 began to write the first lectures of the Grail Message. In 1928, he settled on Vomperberg in the Tyrol.

There he wrote "In the Light of Truth: The Grail Message". Perhaps due to the book's focus on individualism and human free will he was labelled a "dangerous" element by the Nazi authorities and exiled from Austria in 1938. He was kept under surveillance until his death in 1941.

The Grail Message is his best-known work and continues to be read widely. It has been translated into over 20 languages.