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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 she 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 her 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 Theatre).
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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