Testimonial letter from Ralf Dantscher
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 Ralf Dantscher. It is "Exhibit A-119" 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.
 Ralf Dantscher Sehr geehrte Damen und Herren! Einen wichtigen Teil meiner Ausbildung verdanke ich grossen Bürgern deib Vereinigten Staaten wie Erich Fromm, Fritz Feris, Alexander Löwen, Sam Keen . Ich bin überzeugt, daß Amerika auf Grund seiner besonderen Stellung und seiner freiheitlichen Verfassung nicht zufällig Heimat und Ausgangspunkt großer geistiger Strömungen für die gegenwärtige Menschheit ist. Ich glaube, daß Amerika eine führende Funktion zukommt, mitzuwirken an der Befreiung und Integration der Menschheit und ihrer großen aufbauenden Werte. Darum befürworte und unterstütze ich den Visumsantrag von Shree Rajneesh. Er integriert in hervorragender Weise wesentliche westliche und östliche Vierte. Er wirkt wie wenige auf eine große Zahl junger Menschen und Erwachsener positiv pädagogisch, indem er ein tief hoffnungsvolles, optimistisches und liebevolles Menschen-und Weltbild vermittelt, das sichtbar, praktische Auswirkungen auf das Leben dieser Menschen und ihre Umwelt hat. Er ist der geistige Mittelpunkt einefCommune, die auf sozialem und ökologischem Gebiet in der nächsten Zeit sehr hilfreiche Impulse weitergeben kann. Amerika zeichnet ¿ich wesentlich mit dadurch aus, daß es großzügig gegenüber neuen Strömungen ist und sich nicht meint in geistigen Auseinandersetzungen abschotten zu müssen, wie der Kommunismus es tut. Es hat gerade seine innere Kraft darin bewiesen, daß es diese Strömungen aufgriff und in neuer und oft verwandelter Weise weitergegeben hat. Shree Rajneesh einen Visumsantrag zu verweigern wäre sicher für viele Menschen in Deutschland unverständlich und enttäuschend, die bereit sind, sich für eine freiheitliche und menschliche Welt zu engagieren. Hochachtungsvoll translationWork group for youth and adult education, Ralf Dantscher Dear Sir or Madam, I owe an important part of my training to great citizens of the United States, like Erich Fromm, Fritz Perls, Alexander Lowen, Sam Keen. I am convinced that due to America's special position and liberal constitution it is no accident that she is home and starting point for great intellectual trends of modern humanity. I believe that America deserves a leading role in contributing towards the liberation and integration of humanity and its great constructive values. I therefore advocate and support the visa application of Shree Rajneesh. He integrates essential western and eastern values in an outstanding way. Like few other men, he influences a great number of young people and adults in a positive, educative way, by conveying a deeply hopeful, optimistic and loving view of man and the world which has a visible practical result on the lives of these people and their surroundings. He is the spiritual center of a commune which will soon be able to pass on very helpful ideas in the social and ecological fields. America distinguishes itself by its generosity towards new trends and by not feeling the need to block out intellectual discussions as communism does. She has often proven her internal strength by taking up these trends and passing them on in a new and often transformed way. To deny Shree Rajneesh a visa application would certainly be incomprehensible and disappointing for many people in Germany who are prepared to commit themselves towards a liberal and humane world. Yours 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.)
