Testimonial letter from Joachim-Ernst Berendt
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 Joachim-Ernst Berendt. It is "Exhibit A-785" 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 image on the right in the text box links to a pdf file of the original letter, it has 2 pages.
 JOACHIM-ERNST BERENDT TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN Rasjneesh Hotel 1.) I am writing this letter as co-founder of Südwestfunk (South Western German Radio and TV Network - one of the biggest German Networks) - as author of 21 books, translated in 17 languages, many of them dealing with music and contemporary art. I am producer of almost 300 records and of hundreds of TV shows and films, I have my own daily network radio program, I got many awards the world over (among them Award of German TV Critics, Cultural Award of the People’s Republic of Poland, German Film Award etc.) 2.) I have read and studied dozens of Bhagwans books, quoted many of them in my own writings (in articles and books). Feeling the overwhelming influence of Bhagwans thinking and writing in contemporary spirituality and consciousness I became sanyassin myself (being, possibly, one of Germany's most wellknown sanyassins). 3.) I admire Bhagwans influence not only in spirituality, but also in my own fields which are science and arts. Bhag— wands thoughts about music, f.i., are among the deepest and most inspiring in contemporary musical thinking. They have influenced hundreds of modern musicians all over the worlds. From my own writings, again and again, I have experienced the authority Bhagwan enjoys in dozens of fields - from philosophy and religion to art and music and modern life styles. It is hardly possible any more to write about many of these subjects without quoting Bhagwan. 4.) America has been host to some of the World’s leading personalities in arts and in science - people from Russia, Germany, Poland, the Iran, France, Israel and dozens of other countries: this is part of Americas cultural and political tradition. So, for anyone who has only a little understanding of the culture of the 2oth century, it is beyond understanding that America does not grant Bhagwan his right to live in the USA. When America will turn down Bhagwans applications, this will become known all over the world and it will be a dis-service to Americas reputation as a tolerant and democratic country. Since so many of the World's loading personalities decided to live in America, it seems only logical to me - and to millions of people all over the World - that Bhagwan should be given the rights America has given to all these other important people, from which country ever they might have come from. [signed] P.S. I am writing this letter in vacation without access to a decent type writer and to a dictionary, so whoever will read the letter, should, please, forgive my mistakes. |
(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.)
