Testimonial letter from Pascal Sacher

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 Pascal Sacher. It is "Exhibit A-643" 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.

Pascal Sacher St. Cajetan Str. 9 8000 München 80 München, 19. 7. 83 Sehr geehrte Damen und Herren! Ich, Pascal Sacher möchte zu der Ausweisung des religiösen Lehrers Shree Rajneesh Stellung nehmen. Ich möchte im Namen meiner Familie sprechen, die wie Sie vielleicht wissen durch die Erfindung der Sachertorte bekannt wurde und sich weltweit einen Namen verschaffte durch die Führung des nun schon seit drei Generationen bestehenden ’’Hotel’s Sacher" in Wien. Wir schätzen die geistige Größe dieses Mannes. Ganz besonders dadurch, daß er immer wieder versuchte Ost und West zu vereinen. Mit der Klarheit und Prägnanz wie er die Probleme, zwei voneinander unterschiedlichen Mentalitäten ans Tageslicht legt und damit zu einem tieferen Verständnis beider Seiten beiträgt. Wir stehen vor ähnlichen Problemen. Viele Mitglieder der OPEC und UNO gastieren bei uns im Hotel. Und unter den vielen Nationalitäten, besonders den Saudiarabern un den Israelis gibt es oft Spannungen und Schwierigkeiten im Privaten genauso 'wie in der Politik. Und so holt uns die Sichtweise des indischen Philosoph’s wie ein Leitfaden aus manch schwieriger Situation. Einstweilen schätzen wir seine Aussagen. Er hat uns in vieler Hinsicht zu neuen Denkanstößen inspieriert und unser Leben bereichert. Genauso wie wir die unkonventionelle, freimütige Art unserer Amerikanischen Gäste geniessen. Umso weniger können wir verstehen, daß ein Mann wie Shree Rajneesh keine Aufenthaltserlaubnis für Amerika bekommen soll. - Wir waren immer der Meinung, daß Amerika ein freies Land ist, in welchem sich viele Geisteswissenschaften entwickeln konnten. Wir hoffen auch in Zukunft in der Hinsicht nicht enttäuscht zu werden. Hochachtungsvoll [signed] translation Pascal Sacher St. Cajetan Strasse 9 8000 Munich 80 West-Germany Munich, July 19, 1983 Ladies and Gentlemen, I, Pascal Sacher would like to comment on the deportation of the religious teacher Shree Rajneesh. I want to speak in the name of my family who, as you may be aware of, became famous by inventing the Sachertorte and has gained world-wide reputation by managing the "Hotel Sacher" in Vienna which has been existing for three generations. We appreciate the spiritual greatness of this man. Particularly because he is trying again and again to unite East and West. The clarity and preciseness with which he brings the problems of two contradictory mentalities into daiylight and therefore contributes to a deeper understanding of both sides. We have similar problems. Many members of the OPEC and UNO stay at our hotel. Between the many nationalities there are often many tensions and difficulties, especially between the Saudi Arabians and the Israelis, in private life as well as in politics. And the vision of the Indian philosopher is like a clue that gets us out of some difficult situations. Meanwhile we appreciate his comments. He has inspired us to a new way of thinking in many ways and enriched our life. In the same way as we enjoy the unconventional, frank way of our American guests. That’s why we can’t understand that a man like Shree Rajneesh won’t get a residence permit in America. We were of the opinion that America is a free country in which the humanities could develop. We hope that also in future we won’t be disappointed in this regard. Sincerely, (signed) Pascal Sacher [notary stuff]

(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.)