Schiller Institute

The Schiller Institute was founded at a conference in Wiesbaden, Germany, in 1984, and a second conference in Washington, D.C., in 1985, by Helga Zepp LaRouche, her husband, the controversial American figure Lyndon LaRouche, and American Civil Rights movement leader Amelia Boynton Robinson. Among the other attendees were founding member and former Foreign Affairs Minister of Guyana, the Honorable Dr. Frederick Wills, and a leader of the French anti-fascist Resistance during World War II, Mme. Marie-Madeleine Fourcade.

The Institute's published aim is to seek to apply the ideas of poet, dramatist and philosopher Friedrich Schiller to what it calls the "contemporary world crisis," emphasizing Schiller's concept of the interdependence of classical artistic beauty and republican political freedom, as elaborated in his series of essays entitled Letters on the Aesthetical Education of Man.

History

(Source: Schiller Institute International Conferences. These are highlights from the 20 years of Schiller Institute history.)

Nov. 1-3, 1985: "Saint Augustine, Father of European and African Civilization" --Rome, Italy

Labor Day conference, 1986, featuring a performance of Mozart's Requiem at C=256HZ, with Schiller Chorus and Orchestra -- Reston, Virginia, U.S.A.

Nov. 22-23, 1990: "The Productive Triangle: Centerpiece of an All-Eurasian Infrastructure Program, Locomotive for a New, Just World Economic Order"--International conference in Berlin, Germany

April 26-30, 1993: Schiller Institute representatives participate in International Conference on Religions sponsored by the government of Sudan in Khartoum

Aug. 7-14, 1994: Educational-Cultural seminar for young musicians and artists, featuring Norbert Brainin, Lyndon LaRouche, and Helga Zepp-Larouche-- Smolenice Castle, Slovakia

July 17, 1997: Presentation by Dr. Jozef Miklosko, president of the Slovakian branch of the Schiller Institute and former Vice Premier of post-communist Czechoslovakia-- Manila, Phillipines

Dec. 13, 2000: Memorial Seminar for Russian Schiller Institute leader Taras V. Muranivsky -- Moscow, Russia

Political Activity

The website of the Schiller Institute includes transcripts[1] of conferences that the Institute has sponsored, throughout North and South American, Europe, Asia, Africa and Australia, to promote the idea of "Peace through Development." The discussion at these conferences has generally centered around LaRouche's proposals for infrastructure projects such the "Eurasian Land-Bridge," the "Oasis Plan" (for a Middle East peace agreement based on Arab-Israeli collaboration on major water projects), and others. The conferences also typically discuss proposals for debt relief and the "New Bretton Woods," a proposal for a sweeping reorganization of the world monetary system (see Political views of Lyndon LaRouche.) The Institute strongly opposes the "Clash of Civilizations" thesis of Samuel Huntington, counterposing what it calls a "Dialogue of Cultures."

Cultural Activity

Music

In 1988 the Schiller Institute initiated a campaign to return to the so-called "Verdi tuning" in the world of classical music, so called because it was Italian composer Giuseppe Verdi who originally waged a battle to stop the arbitrary rising of the pitch to which orchestras are tuned.

The "Verdi tuning" is one where C=256HZ, or A=432HZ, as opposed to the common practice today of tuning to anywhere from A=440 to A in the 450+ range. Many prominent singers and instrumentalists actively campaigned for the Schiller Institute's proposal, including several who performed recitals for the Institute to demonstrate the different quality of the Verdi tuning, compared with contemporary tuning.

These included Norbert Brainin, former First Violinist of the Amadeus Quartet, and the following vocalists: William Warfield (baritone), Carlo Bergonzi (tenor), and Piero Cappuccilli (baritone). Other well known vocalists who endorsed the initiative include Shirley Verrett (soprano), Joan Sutherland (soprano), George Shirley (tenor), Luciano Pavarotti (tenor), Sherrill Milne (baritone), Fedora Barbier (mezzosoprano), Grace Bumbry (soprano), Elly Ameling (soprano), Peter Schreier (tenor), Birgit Nilsson (soprano), Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau (baritone), Kurt Moll (basso), Marilyn Horne (mezzosoprano), and Ruggero Raimondi (basso).

In 1992, the Institute published A Manual on the Rudiments of Tuning and Registration: Book I: Introduction and Human Singing Voice. This book discusses the tuning issue from both the artistic, and the scientific point of view.

Drama and Poetry

The Schiller Institute has published a four volume series of English translations of the works of Friedrich Schiller, entitled Poet of Freedom, as well as some translations into other languages as well. In Germany, Institute members have organized public performances of Schiller's plays, including Wilhelm Tell.

Death of Jeremiah Duggan

The Schiller Institute is part of a network of organzations which promote the ideas of Lyndon LaRouche, and this network is characterized by its critics as a dangerous, extremist cult (see Political views of Lyndon LaRouche).In November 6, 2003, a British inquest [2] heard allegations that the Schiller Institute is an anti-Semitic cult that may have used mind-control techniques on a student who died after running onto a busy road in Wiesbaden, Germany, in what the German police initially deemed a suicide. The British coroner rejected a suicide verdict and ruled that the student died while in a "state of terror." [3]

In March 2003, Jeremiah Duggan, a 22-year-old Jewish student from London, England, attended a Schiller Institute conference [4] in Wiesbaden [5] with members of the Schiller Institute and the LaRouche Youth Movement. He learned about the conference after being handed a LaRouche newspaper outside the Sorbonne in Paris, where he was studying. After six days in Wiesbaden, Duggan telephoned his mother to say he "wanted out," was "frightened" and "in deep trouble," before the line went dead. His mother told the inquest that her son sounded terrified. Forty-five minutes later, he ran for one kilometer down the middle of a busy road and was killed after being hit by three cars. *[6]

Duggan's mother believes the Schiller Institute used mind-control techniques on her son in an effort to have him join the organization. [7] The family has hired a Berlin lawyer to have the German police investigation re-opened. A spokesperson for the Lyndon LaRouche organization has strongly denied the Institute played a role in Duggan's death. *[8]

For additional information on the Duggan case, see Jeremiah Duggan.

External links

• Schiller Institute Website
• Schiller Institute Board of Directors