ABD-RU-SHIN

(Oskar Ernst Bernhardt, 1875-1941)

The author, Abd-ru-shin, was born in 1875 in Bischofswerda, Germany. His given name was Oskar Ernst Bernhardt. After being educated and trained in business, he established himself in Dresden and became financially successful. In the years that followed, he made many journeys abr oad, and wrote successful travel books, stories, and plays.

After residing for some time in New York, Mr. Bernhardt journeyed to England, and in 1913, moved to London. There, the outbreak of World War I took him unawares, and in 1914 he was interned on the Isle of Man.

The seclusion of internment br ought with it an inner deepening. He reflected continuously over questions connected with the meaning of life, birth and death, responsibility and free will, and with God and Creation. More and more the desire awakened within him to help humanity. He was released in the Spring of 1919 and returned to Germany.

In the 1920s, Abd-ru-shin gave public lectures. His explanation of the Knowledge of Creation resounded among his hearers. He began to write the first lectures for In the Light of Truth: The Grail Message in 1923.

In 1928, Abd-ru-shin settled in Austria on a mountain plateau called Vomperberg, where he continued writing The Grail Message. The seizure of power in Austria by the Nazis in 1938 ended his work there. On March 12 of that year he was arrested, and his land and proper ty were appropriated without compensation. In September, he was placed under house arrest, first in Schlauroth near Gorlitz, and later in Kipsdorf in the Erzgebirge, where he was constantly under surveillance by the Gestapo. He was forbidden any further work for making the Message known publicly.

On December 6, 1941, Abd-ru-shin died from the effects of these measures.