Yoga in Germany

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File:Yoga beim SMS 2018.jpg
Outdoor yoga at the summer SonneMondSterne festival at Saalburg-Ebersdorf, 2018

Yoga in Germany is the practice of yoga, whether for exercise, therapy, or other reasons, in Germany.

History[edit]

Third Reich[edit]

The German historian and yoga teacher Mathias Tietke (de) wrote that Nazi leaders including the SS commander Heinrich Himmler were interested in yoga. Himmler studied the Bhagavad Gita and believed it justified genocidal violence such as the holocaust. Jakob Wilhelm Hauer stated that "yoga can internally arm us to prepare us for the forthcoming battles."[1][2]

Postwar[edit]

The Romanian scholar Mircea Eliade's 1954 book Le Yoga: Immortalité et Liberté[3] appeared in a "popular"[4] German translation in 1960. Based on the Hatha Yoga Pradipika, it presented yoga asanas as a way of preparing for pranayama (yoga breathing) and meditation.[4]

Sivananda Yoga, founded by Swami Vishnudevananda, has centres in Berlin and Munich.[5] In 1992, a student of Vishnudevananda, Sukadev Volker Bretz, began to teach his own style of yoga, and in 1995 launched "Yoga Vidya". By 2017, it had 100 yoga schools and four seminar centres in Germany, and had trained over 10,000 yoga teachers.[6]

In 1994, Iyengar Yoga Deutschland was founded, beginning informally with 50 members who taught each other. Teachers from the central institute in Pune were then invited to come and teach, leading to the creation of an annual convention, to which B.K.S. Iyengar came in 1996, and his daughter Geeta Iyengar in 2002 and 2009.[7]

By 2016, according to a market survey by the Gesellschaft für Konsumforschung, around 3 million people in Germany practiced yoga regularly, and some 10 million had tried it. Among the major cities, Berlin had some 300 yoga studios, while Munich had about 200.[8]

Professionalisation[edit]

Yoga teacher training standards[edit]

In Germany, standards are set by the (German) Yoga Teachers' Union, the BDY; these require 720 hours of class instruction over a period of four years, assessed by an oral examination, a written examination, and a practical teaching demonstration.[9]

Yoga therapy[edit]

Yoga is entering the German healthcare system as a form of therapy. Yoga teachers in Germany must obtain qualifications in psychotherapy or medicine as well as in yoga teaching to use the description "yoga therapy".[10]

Research[edit]

The University of Hamburg has established a Center for Yoga Studies to conduct research into the history and practice of yoga and meditation.[11]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

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  1. YJ Editors (12 April 2017). "Nazi Leaders Fascinated By Yoga" [archive]. Yoga Journal.CS1 maint: extra text: authors list (link)<templatestyles src="Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css"></templatestyles>
  2. Tietke, Mathias (2011). Yoga im Nationalsozialismus: Konzepte, Kontraste, Konsequenzen [Yoga in National Socialism: Concepts, Contrasts, Consequences]. Ludwig. ISBN 978-3869350134.<templatestyles src="Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css"></templatestyles>
  3. Eliade, Mircea (2009) [1954]. Yoga: Immortality and Freedom. Translated by Willard R. Trask. Princeton University Press.<templatestyles src="Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css"></templatestyles>
  4. 4.0 4.1 Misiak, Anna (2019). "Why We Practice: A Short History of Yoga in the West" [archive]. Yoga International.<templatestyles src="Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css"></templatestyles>
  5. "Sivananda Yoga Centres in Europe" [archive]. Sivananda Yoga Europe. Retrieved 4 September 2019.<templatestyles src="Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css"></templatestyles>
  6. "Germany's Yoga Vidya a success story in Europe" [archive]. Religion Watch. 33 (2). 2017.<templatestyles src="Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css"></templatestyles> Yoga Vidya's own website is at "Yoga Vidya – Europe’s biggest Yoga Institution" [archive].
  7. "Geschichte" [archive]. Iyengar Yoga Deutschland (in Deutsch). 2019.<templatestyles src="Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css"></templatestyles>
  8. "Yoga boom in Germany" [archive]. Deutschland.de. 20 June 2016.<templatestyles src="Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css"></templatestyles>
  9. Mullins, Daya. "Yoga and Yoga Therapy in Germany Today" [archive] (PDF). Weg Der Mitte. Retrieved 4 September 2019.<templatestyles src="Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css"></templatestyles>
  10. Cramer, Holger (2018). "Yoga Therapy in the German Healthcare System". International Journal of Yoga Therapy. 28 (1): 133–135. doi:10.17761/2018-00006 [archive]. ISSN 1531-2054 [archive].<templatestyles src="Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css"></templatestyles>
  11. "Center for Yoga Studies" [archive]. Universitat Hamburg. 14 November 2018.<templatestyles src="Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css"></templatestyles>