In one of his 1953 books, Farwerck thanked E.J.F. Thierens for his help. Thierens was Farwerck’s successor as Grand Commander of Le Droit Humain when Farwerck left to join the National Socialist Movement. Apparently, over two decades along the line, the two were still in contact. So who was this E.J.F. Thierens?
Thierens’ full names are Elie Johannes François, Jan in short. He was born in 1882, so he was a little older than Farwerck. Thierens died in 1967.
Read More »Jan ThierensVan Meerwijk is a name that I often run into when I am looking for information about Farwerck. There was a couple Van Meerwijk. He was Joseph Leonard Corneille van Meerwijk (1873-1948), she Anna Petronella Verdonck (1886-1984). They married on September 11th 1918.
Joseph is mostly known as director of one of the biggest insurance companies in the Netherlands, Centraal Beheer (until 1937).
Read More »Van MeerwijkIn 1924 Farwerck was involved in yet another activity, a foundation to spread the ideas of Emile Coué (1857-1926). “King of the subconciousness” Coué himself came to Hilversum to speak. Farwerck, chairman of the new foundation, also spoke at that gathering.
I’m not yet 100% sure about the events that led to this foundation. A respondent (see below this text) mentions the name of Josephina Simonis, but I haven’t ran into that name anywhere in the information that I gathered. Then again, looking for her specific name, she does appear to have advertised for having a Coué method practice. In one of them, she names herself a student of Coué.
Read More »Coué foundationAfter having had a look at the ‘Nehalennia crew‘ to see what kind of people Farwerck worked with for his periodical, I thought to jump back in time. An under-lighted aspect of Farwerck is his interest in archaeology and local history, but he has been very active in these fields for many years. Some light can possibly be shed when we have a look at the foundation of the Museum Het Gooi en Omstreken, since Farwerck did not live in a vacuum. “Het Gooi” is the area where Farwerck lived. The museum was named after that area and its surroundings (“omstreken”). The short name of the museum was “Goois Museum”. The museum still exists, but is nowadays called Museum Hilversum.
Read More »Stichting Museum Het Gooi en OmstrekenFranz’ brother, Carl Wilhelm, or Willy, is frustrating to investigate. He followed his brother on several adventures, but remained so much in Franz’ shadow that he is hardly ever mentioned.
Read More »Carl Wilhelm Farwerck (1892-1964)I ran into several references to a “Mevr. Farwerck”. Also I ran into references using the feminine version of the Dutch word for “publisher” to obtain Farwerck’s books. Plus, Farwerck’s own publishing house “Thule” sometimes used another address, an address of a “Mrs. Farwerck”. Five years after I wrote the first version of this little text, I had to revise my conclusions a little.
Sometimes it is mentioned that works of Farwerck can be obtained from the publisher, using the word “Uitgeefster”, a feminine version of the Dutch word “uitgever”, ‘publisher’. I thought I knew such a reference to “uitgeefster” Thule, but I can’t find that one anymore. I did find a few things that now makes me conclude that Farwerck may not have meant to say that his publisher was a woman.
Read More »Who was Mrs. Farwerck?On the hunt for new images I found a few interesting things. I found the first photo of Farwerck not in his function at the NSB known to me. On that photo Franz is sided by his father and I happened to also run into a good photo of his father.
What I also found, was a newspaper advertorial for gramophone records with recordings of speeches from the 1934 gathering of the NSB.
Read More »Hunting for imagesThe first issue of Nehalennia (April 1956) names the following editors:
Mr. L. Boer, Dr. F.C. Bursch, Ir. F. de Fremery, Dr. F.S. Sixma Baron van Heemstra and Dr. F. Wiersma-Verschaffelt. From the second issue, another name was added: Jkvr. Henriette van Lennep.
This group remains the same for all six years of publication.
Since Farwerck was probably the main editor (his address is the initial editors address) and the publishing house used his address, let us call them ‘his team’. What can we find out about them?
Read More »The Nehalennia editorsFrom his two 1953 books (see bibliography) Farwerck started to refer to “Sammlung Thule”. When I first encountered these references I tried to look up what this “Thule Collection” may be, but I couldn’t find much. This became much easier.
Read More »Sammlung ThuleI am always on the hunt for new leads on Farwerck and so I once again bumped into the name “Jos. Raemaekers”. I connect the name to a writer with similar subjects as Farwerck (from folklore to esotericism), but never really looked into the man. Then I was rereading Bouwsteenen a Masonic periodical that also published texts by Farwerck and my eye fell on two texts of Raemaekers in a volume from 1928. One is called “Kinderspelen” (‘children’s games’), the other “Citroen” (‘lemon’). Especially the first is quite Farwerck-like. Many, many details, going from folklore to mythology and he even mentions guilds. Could Raemaekers be a/the inspiration for Farwerck?
Read More »Jos. Raemaekers