Mrs. Lotte Böhringer (1917–2014) – The "Anima of the Freiburg Institute" A Personal Appreciation

Hans Bender, the dominant figure in German parapsychology after World War II, founded the Institute for Frontier Areas of Psychology and Mental Health (IGPP) in Freiburg in 1950 and directed it until his death in 1991. Lotte Böhringer, a commercial employee who began collaborating with Bender in 1946, was instrumental in establishing the Institute, securing its land and building, and managing its daily operations. She lived in the Institute building for life, and Bender called her the "Anima of the Institute." Böhringer left no formal parapsychological publications but appears in early Institute photographs.

Study at a glance

Abstract

The dominant and most popular figure in German parapsychology after the Second World War was Professor Hans Bender, who founded in 1950 the "Institut für Grenzgebiete der Psychologie und Psychohygiene e.V." (IGPP for short) [Institute for Frontier Areas of Psychology and Mental Health] in his birthplace and hometown of Freiburg im Breisgau, directed it until his death on 7 May 1991 and represented the field of scientific parapsychology in research and teaching at the University of Freiburg for decades between 1954 and 1975 as an internationally renowned professor of frontier areas of psychology. In his attempts to build up the IGPP and to realize a central wish of his scientific life, Bender received decisive help and support by Mrs Lotte Böhringer (1917–1994) who became his close collaborator quite early in 1946, when he developed his first plans to build an Institute devoted to parapsychological research and its social implications under the label "Grenzgebiete der Psychologie" Mrs. Böhringer was educated as a commercial employee and she left no trace in the formal parapsychological literature, except figuring in some pictures documenting the early history of the IGPP, mostly taken by a professional photographer Leif Geiges (1915–1990), who helped to popularize the Institute and its founder. It was decisively thanks to her initiative, her ingenuity and her sense of reality that the Institute could be built during the post war years on a plot of land in the city of Freiburg in a most beautiful location. After the IGPP building was completed in 1950, Mrs. Böhringer moved into a flat inside that building where she stayed all her life. The Institute and its social life became the center of her life, comparable to an &lsquapple of her eye’ (Augapfel). In summary, one could describe her role as "Geschäftsführerin" (manager) responsible for all possible aspects of the daily life of the Institute. So, understandably, Professor Bender used to characterize Lotte Böhringer as "Seele des Instituts" (Anima of the Institute).