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Biographies
of Victor
Trimondi & Victoria Trimondi
Victor Trimondi
Victor Trimondi is a writer, a researcher in mythology and religion and
a former publisher. In 2004 he replaced his original name Herbert Röttgen
by his previously-used pen name Victor Trimondi.
Graduated in law from Cologne
University.
Subsequent studies in France
and Munich
(philosophy,
art and history). In 1967 he founded the Trikont
publishing house in Munich.
The Trikont Verlag cultivated a
social activist program and was very closely linked to the 1968 protest
movement. In the 1960s and 70s it was often described as the most prominent
and original sub-cultural publisher in Germany. The best known title
from this period was Che Guevara’s Bolivian Diary (1968). Other authors
have been Régis Debray, Rudi Dutschke, Jerry Rubin, Daniel Cohn Bendit,
Joschka Fischer, Toni Negri. Trikont published German-language books
on feminism, gay rights and men’s movements, on various alternative
lifestyles, green politics, anti-nuclear movement, regionalism, grey
panther, the new American Native Movement, etc.
In the late 1970s Herbert Röttgen wrote a critique of the radical
left: Vulkantänze — linke und alternative Ausgänge [Powder-kegs —
Leftwing and Alternative Outcomes]. He saw a new and promising possibility
in a "radical transformation of consciousness". Consequently he
turned to the topic of applied spirituality and developed the contents of a
new program that was supposed to pro-mote a discourse between religion and
science, tradition and modernity, myth and history, mysticism and
sensuality, as well as between various cultures and religions. To
demonstrate the shift in publication policy he renamed the publishing house
Dianus — Trikont. Some of the known authors from this period
included: Theodore Rozsak, Morris Berman, David Bohm, Hazel Hendersen,
David Steindl Rast, Dalai Lama XIV., Joseph Campbell, Rolling Thunder …. Trikont
Dianus published books on shamanism, alternate states of consciousness,
Tibetan Buddhism, Celtic renaissance, alternative economics.
Alongside its publishing activity, Dianus
— Trikont also organized several congresses and symposia, either alone
or in cooperation with other institutions with the XIV. Dalai Lama, David Bohm, Fritjof
Capra, Francisco Varela, David Steindl Rast, Rupert Sheldrake. Morris
Berman, Robert Muller, Hazel Hendersen, William I. Thompson, Carl Friedrich
von Weizsäcker, Raimundo Panikkar, Marie Louise von Franz, Joseph Needham.
In 1986 the Dianus Trikont publishing house closed. Its role in the protest
movements and subcultures of the mid-sixties to mid-eighties of last
century is subject of a number of academic studies.
In 1989 Victor Trimondi married his current wife, Victoria.
Victoria Trimondi
Victoria Trimondi is a writer, a researcher in mythology and religion and
a former artist. In 2004 he replaced her original name Mariana Röttgen by
her previously-used pen name Victoria Trimondi.
Born into a family of artists. Graduated from the Lycée Francais
de Vienne. Speaks several languages. Trained as a violinist at the
Vienna College of Music and at the Conservatory of the City of Vienna. Studied
history and art history. Performance recitations in French with the
Austrian composer Friedrich Cerha and the music ensemble "Die
Reihe" in the Vienna Concert Hall. Artistic presenter of the Wiener
Straussorchester [Viennese Strauss Orchestra]. Collaboration with the
Russian Music Festivals in Tours,
France.
Freelancer for the ORF (state broadcaster).
1988 she staged the Intercultural Art Days (Kunsttage)
festival ("Das Sakrale und die Kunst" [The Sacred and
Art]). The festival was focused on an ecumenical meeting between nine
religions, each represented by a delegate and an artist. The goal of the
meeting was the search for a mutual inter-religious and intercultural
communication despite divergent styles of ritual and differing metaphysical
standpoints. The "language of art" was supposed to serve as a
bridge-builder between the apparently unbridgeable religious fronts. Since
1986 intensive study of theology, mythology, history, the history of
religion, depth psychology and related areas.
In 1989 Victoria Trimondi married his current husband, Victor.
Victor und Victoria
Trimondi
Soon after their marriage the Trimondis intensified together their
previous studies in theology, mythology, history, the history of religion,
anthropology, art, depth psychology and related disciplines. Above all,
they were interested in three mayor topics:
- The gender roles in
religion and myth
- The cultic mysteries’ and
myths’ influence upon history and politics (eschatological and
apocalyptic world views / unilateral claims to power and the
"world throne" / ritual as politics — politics as ritual)
- The significance of the
sacrificial rite in religion and its socio-political function
In 1990 they founded the Interkulturelle Gesellschaft für
kreative Symbolforschung [Intercultural Society for the Creative
Symbolic of Research]. Under their management this institution staged
several meetings about comparative studies of myth and religion. Alongside
this the couple co-authored a study of the mythological and symbolic
background in history of modern science, from Copernicus to the
construction of the hydrogen bomb (Die Kernspaltung Gottes — Alchemie
als Welttheater - God’s Nuclear
Fission — Alchemy as World Theater).
At the end of 1994 the Trimondis began a
research project spanning several years on the topic of "Die
Bedeutung der traditionellen Religionen für die Weltebildung und
Kreativität in einer Kultur der Zukunft" [The Significance of
Traditional Religions for the Formation of Values and Creativity in a
Future Culture]. Within the framework of this project three books have been
published which did have much attention in the German and international
media and have been vehemently discussed because of their critical
approach.
1999
The
Shadow of the Dalai Lama – Sexuality, Magic and Politics in Tibetan
Buddhism
(Der Schatten des Dalai Lama – Sexualität, Magie und
Politik im tibetischen Buddhismus. Patmos Verlag) An English version
of the book is published in the internet under: The Shadow of the Dalai Lama
2002
Hitler-Buddha-Krishna
– An Unholy Alliance from the Third Reich until now
(Hitler-Buddha-Krishna – Eine unheilige Allianz vom
Dritten Reich bis heute. Ueberreuter Verlag)
2006
War of Religions – Politics, Faith and Terror in the
sign of the Apocalypse (Krieg der Religionen – Politik, Glaube und Terror
im Zeichen der Apokalypse Wilhelm Fink Verlag)
Since
2000 the Trimondis run the Trimondi Online Magazine with an English
section:
www.trimondi.de/EN/front.html
Press/publicity
photographs of Victor and Victoria Trimondi are available from: Armin
Brosch, Jutastrasse 26, 80636 Munich,
Phone: (089) 123 34 15, Fax: (089) 123 34 16
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