Ernst Christian Ludwig von Bunsen or Ernest de Bunsen (1819 in

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

– 1903 in

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

) was an Anglo-German writer whose speculative works proposing common origins of

Buddhism Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and gra ...

, Essene Judaism and

Christianity Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. It is the world's largest and most widespread religion with roughly 2.38 billion followers representing one-third of the global pop ...

were later taken up as part of racist

Aryan Aryan or Arya (, Indo-Iranian *''arya'') is a term originally used as an ethnocultural self-designation by Indo-Iranians in ancient times, in contrast to the nearby outsiders known as 'non-Aryan' (*''an-arya''). In Ancient India, the term ' ...

mythology. He was father of

Maurice de Bunsen Sir Maurice William Ernest de Bunsen, 1st Baronet, (8 January 1852 – 21 February 1932),de BUNSEN, Rt Hon. Sir Maurice (William Ernest)’, Who Was Who, A & C Black, Oxford University Press, Dec 2007 was a British diplomat. Background and earl ...

and grandfather of

Mary de Bunsen Mary de Bunsen (29 May 1910 – 13 April 1982) was a British Air Transport Auxiliary pilot and author. Early life Mary Berta de Bunsen was born in Madrid on 29 May 1910 to Sir Maurice William Ernest (1st Bt) de Bunsen and Bertha Mary Lowry-Co ...

World War Two World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

Air Transport Auxiliary The Air Transport Auxiliary (ATA) was a British civilian organisation set up at the start of the Second World War with headquarters at White Waltham Airfield in Berkshire. The ATA ferried new, repaired and damaged military aircraft between factori ...

pilot and author.

Life

Bunsen was born in Rome where his father Christian von Bunsen was serving as a Prussian diplomat to the Vatican. His mother was Frances Waddington (1791-1876), sister of

Lady Llanover Augusta Hall, Baroness Llanover (21 March 1802 – 17 January 1896), born Augusta Waddington, was a Welsh heiress, best known as a patron of the Welsh arts. Early life She was born on 21 March 1802, near Abergavenny, the youngest daughter of ...

. His father was the patron both of the mainstream orientalist

Max Müller Friedrich Max Müller (; 6 December 1823 – 28 October 1900) was a German-born philologist and Orientalist, who lived and studied in Britain for most of his life. He was one of the founders of the western academic disciplines of Indian ...

and of the strongly antisemitic orientalist

Paul de Lagarde Paul Anton de Lagarde (2 November 1827 – 22 December 1891) was a German biblical scholar and orientalist, sometimes regarded as one of the greatest orientalists of the 19th century. Lagarde's strong support of anti-Semitism, vocal opposition t ...

. Ernest was educated at Berlin in a school for cadets and served in the Prussian Guards. He married Elizabeth Gurney, daughter of Samuel Gurney, the banker in 1845 and moved to London. Bunsen's writings identified

Brahman In Hinduism, ''Brahman'' ( sa, ब्रह्मन्) connotes the highest universal principle, the ultimate reality in the universe.P. T. Raju (2006), ''Idealistic Thought of India'', Routledge, , page 426 and Conclusion chapter part X ...

s as "pure Aryans." According to Bunsen the account of Genesis was to be read that Adam was the first Aryan, and the serpent in Eden the first Semite. Bunsen's theory that the "doctrine of the Angel-Messiah in Buddhism," as he called it, was transmitted first to the

Essenes The Essenes (; Hebrew: , ''Isiyim''; Greek: Ἐσσηνοί, Ἐσσαῖοι, or Ὀσσαῖοι, ''Essenoi, Essaioi, Ossaioi'') were a mystic Jewish sect during the Second Temple period that flourished from the 2nd century BCE to the 1st c ...

and then to

fared little better in Britain than the theories of the British officer in India,

Arthur Lillie Arthur Lillie (24 February 1831 – 28 November 1911), was a Buddhist, soldier in the British Indian Army, and a writer. Biography Lillie, christened as George Arthur Howard, was the youngest son of Sir John Scott Lillie and his wife Louisa, ...

, who converted to Buddhism and became the author of a number of texts on religion (and

croquet Croquet ( or ; french: croquet) is a sport that involves hitting wooden or plastic balls with a mallet through hoops (often called "wickets" in the United States) embedded in a grass playing court. Its international governing body is the Wor ...

).Philip C. Almond ''The British Discovery of Buddhism''; p. 127 1988 “5 Ernest de Bunsen's The Angel-Messiah of Buddhists, Essenes, and Christians was less historically quixotic. But his argument that the doctrine of the Angel-Messiah in Buddhism was transmitted to the Essenes and then to Christianity fared little better." On 13 May 1903, he died at Abbey Lodge, and was buried at

Leytonstone Leytonstone () is an area in east London, England, north-east of Charing Cross. Part of the London Borough of Waltham Forest, a local authority district of Greater London. It adjoins Wanstead to the north-east, Forest Gate to the south-east, S ...

churchyard.

Family

On 5 August 1845, he married Elizabeth (died January 1903), daughter of Samuel Gurney and niece of

Elizabeth Fry Elizabeth Fry (née Gurney; 21 May 1780 – 12 October 1845), sometimes referred to as Betsy Fry, was an English prison reformer, social reformer, philanthropist and Quaker. Fry was a major driving force behind new legislation to improve the tr ...

. Their eldest son, Fritz, died in 1870; they had a second son, Sir

Selected works

* ''Die Einheit der Religionen im Zusammenhange mit den Völkerwanderungen der Urzeit und der Geheimlehre'' (Berlin, 1870). * ''Plejaden und der Thierkreis'' (Berlin, 1879). * ''The Angel-Messiah of Buddhists, Essenes and Christians'' (London, 1880). * ''Islam, Or True Christianity'' (London, 1889).

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bunsen, Ernst von 1819 births 1903 deaths German male writers