Alfons Rosenberg

Alfons Rosenberg (1902–1985) was a German-Jewish writer from Munich who wrote Die Welt im Feuer (1983, The World in Fire).

He had moved to an island on Lake Wörth, near Munich, to evade the National socialists, but in 1935 he had to flee abroad and found a safe haven in Switzerland, where he earned his living through his art and handicrafts.

He was a part of the intellectual discussion group Eranos, through which he became acquainted with C. G. Jung, Olga Fröbe-Kapteyn, Hugo Rahner and other renowned people.

He spent his life lecturing about symbolism, love and meditation throughout the German-speaking world.

In his little book Die Zauberflöte und die Geheimwissenshaften (1972, The Magic Flute and the Secret Sciences), immediately after quoting the telling words of Ludwig Börne, "Mozart's music reflects back everyone's own and present feelings like a mirror, but somewhat ennobled; we recognise in it the poetry of existence", Rosenberg adds his own comment: "In other words, ever since Mozart's time men have in his music recognised their true condition and state cleared of everything that can tarnish it from without; the sensual man recognises himself as the godlike man he has been called to be by nature.