Testimonial letter from Christoph Riemer
This letter is one of a remarkable series of over 2650 letters amassed in 1983 to support Osho's attempt to get permanent resident status in the US at the time of the Oregon ranch. The image is reproduced here with the kind permission of The Oregon Historical Society. Information about their collection of these letters and other supporting material -- the "Jeffrey Noles Rajneesh Collection", named for Osho's immigration lawyer Jeffrey Noles, who compiled them in 1983 and donated them to the OHS -- can be found at this page. The wiki is grateful to the OHS for making access available for these documents. For more information and links to all the letters, see Testimonial letters.
This letter is from Christoph Riemer. It is "Exhibit A-695" in the Noles collection.
The text version below has been created by optical character recognition (OCR), from the images supplied by OHS. It has not been checked for errors but this process usually results in over 99% correct transcription. Most apparent "errors" are correct transcriptions of typos already in the original.
The original letter, written in German, appears first, followed by its English translation. The image on the right in the text box links to a pdf file with the whole original letter, the translation and a notary statement attesting to the validity of the translation. It has 3 pages.
 NORDDEUTSCHER RUNDFUNK To whom it may concern! Sehr geehrte Damen und Herren! Zu meiner großen Verwunderung höre ich von den Problemen um die Aufenthaltsgenehmigung vön BHAGWAN SHREE RAJNEESH. Dazu würde ich Ihnen gerne mitteilen, daß ich BHAGWAN Shree RAJNEESH zu einer der größten Persönlichkeiten unserer Zeit zähle. Er ist nicht nur ein bedeutender Denker und Philosoph, sondern auch der entscheidende spirituelle Lehrer, der östliche und westliche Traditionen zusammenführt. Gerade auch für meine Arbeit in einem der öffentlichen Mediensind seine Impulse und Konfrontationen sehr fruchtbar und wegweisend. Aus diesem Grunde fordere ich Sie auf, BHAGWAN SHREE RAJNEESH die Anerkennung als religiösen Lehrer zuzusprechen und damit die Aufenthalsgenehmigung zu erteilen. Hochachtungsvoll! translationChristoph Riemer TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN! Ladies and Gentlemen, I am astonished to hear about the problems regarding the residence permit for BHAGWAN SHREE RAJNEESH. I would like to inform you that I count BHAGWAN Shree RAJNEESH to one of the outstanding personalities of our time. He is not only an eminent thinker and philospher but also the decisive spiritual teacher who brings together eastern and western traditions. Especially for my work in one of the public media, his impulses and confrontations are very fruitful and a guidepost. Out of these reasons I call on you to adjudge BHAGWAN SHREE RAJNEESH the recognition as a religious teacher and grant him residence permit. Sincerely, |
(Please note: We assume that the above letter is still copyrighted, but we regard its historical interest to constitute a Fair Use exception for publication in this wiki.)
