Ebertine, Reinhold (1901-1988)

German astrologer, born on February 16, 1901, in Görlitz, Saxony, Germany. Ebertine became interested in astrology during World War I and in the early 1920s became a professional astrologer. He became a student of Alfred Witte's (1878-1943) and cofounder of the Uranian (Hamburg) School of Astrology. Ebertine appreciated the scientific rigor of the Uranian system but came to reject various elements of it, especially the postulation of hypothetical planets that Witte and his colleague Friedrich Sirggrün had developed. In 1928 Ebertine began the periodical Mensch in All.

Through the 1930s Ebertine developed "cosmobiology," an approach to astrology based on, but distinct from, the Uranian system. Its distinguishing trait was its use of a simplified form of the midpoint combinations originally utilized by Witte (mid-point theories suggest that halfway between two planets a mutual influence converges that can then form a significant relationship with another planet in the horoscope chart).

Ebertine's work was suppressed by the Nazis, but he survived the war and began anew with a new periodical, Cosmobiologie. He died on March 14, 1988. Over the years he wrote more than sixty books, most of which have yet to be translated into English.

Sources:

Ebertine, Reinhold. Applied Cosmobiology. Aalen, Germany: Ebertin Verlag, 1972.

——. Combination of Solar Influences. Aalen, Germany: Ebertin Verlag, 1972.

Holden, James H., and Robert A. Hughes. Astrological Pioneers of America. Tempe, Ariz.: American Federation of Astrologers, 1988.