Yoga in Germany is the practice ofyoga, whetherfor exercise,therapy, or other reasons, in Germany.
Interest in yoga began in the 1920s with the IndologistJakob Wilhelm Hauer's books on yoga in ancient India and its relevance to theNazi racial ideology.Boris Sacharow [de] founded Germany's first school of yoga in Berlin in 1921; it was reestablished in 1946, teaching theRishikesh Reihe sequence of asanas. Many Germans visited Switzerland to study underSelvarajan Yesudian, author of the 1949 bookSport und Yoga.Rudolf Steiner's writings helped to spread interest in yoga.
More recently, yoga has become widespread in Germany, with schools teachingSivananda Yoga,Iyengar Yoga, and other brands. By 2016, some 3 million people practiced yoga regularly.
The german yoga teacherMathias Tietke [de] wrote thatNazi leaders including theSS commanderHeinrich Himmler were interested in yoga.[1] A captain in the SS,Jakob Wilhelm Hauer, wrote several books on yoga, namely the 1922Die Anfänge der Yogapraxis im alten Indien ("The beginnings of yoga practice in ancient India"), the 1932Der Yoga als Heilweg ("Yoga as a path to healing"), and the 1934Eine indo-arische Metaphysik des Kampfes und der Tat, die Bhagavadgita in neuer Sicht mit Übersetzungen ("An Indo-Aryan metaphysics of struggle and action, the Bhagavadgita in a new perspective with translations"). Hauer seems to have persuaded Himmler that "yoga can internally arm us to prepare us for the forthcoming battles."[2][3][4] The Nazi racial ideology included the belief that the "Nordic race" was distinguished by "courage, bravery, creative ability and desire, loyalty";[5] that this race was one of the "Aryan peoples"; and that the German people was among "the most racially pure of the European peoples".[5]
From the 1940s,Sivananda's teachings attracted the interest ofBoris Sacharow [de], who became a disciple by post, taking up Sivananda's standing offer of that service; he earned the diploma of theDivine Life Society and the title ofyogiraj ("yoga master") in 1947. Sacharow had founded Germany's first school of yoga inBerlin in 1921; it was destroyed by bombing in the Second World War, and reestablished in 1946. It taught theRishikesh Reihe ("Rishikesh sequence") of 12 asanas.[6] The anthropologistSarah Strauss noted that the sequence was still inspiring German students of yoga to travel to Rishikesh in the 1990s. Strauss adds that yoga was introduced to Germany almost entirely through written translations, rather than through the visits by charismatic teachers seen in the English-speaking world. Strauss comments that the absence of personal contact with a guru allowed for a wide variety of interpretations, not least the old search for the "linguistic and biological roots of 'Aryan' northern Europe".[6] Many Germans however travelled to Zurich, Switzerland to study underSelvarajan Yesudian, co-author of one of the first modern books on yoga, the 1949Sport und Yoga.[a][6]
Rudolf Steiner's writings onanthroposophy helped to spread interest in yoga.[6] The BuddhistHans-Ulrich Rieker founded the European branch of theArya Maitreya Mandala in 1952,[7] and translated theHatha Yoga Pradipika into German in 1957.[8]The Romanian scholarMircea Eliade's 1954 bookLe Yoga: Immortalité et Liberté[9] appeared in a "popular"[10] German translation in 1960. Based on theHatha Yoga Pradipika, it presented yogaasanas as a way of preparing forpranayama (yoga breathing) andmeditation.[10]
Sivananda Yoga, founded bySwami Vishnudevananda, has centres in Berlin and Munich.[11]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.[12]
In 1994,Iyengar Yoga Deutschland was founded, beginning informally with 50 members who taught each other. Teachers from the central institute inPune were then invited to come and teach, leading to the creation of an annual convention, to whichB.K.S. Iyengar came in 1996, and his daughterGeeta Iyengar in 2002 and 2009.[13]
By 2016, according to amarket survey by theGesellschaft 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, whileMunich had about 200.[14]
In Germany, standards are set by the (German) Yoga Teachers' Union (BDY [de]), founded in 1967; 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.[15]
Yoga is entering theGerman healthcare system asa form of therapy. Yoga teachers in Germany must obtain qualifications inpsychotherapy ormedicine as well as in yoga teaching to use the description "yoga therapy".[16]
TheUniversity of Hamburg has established a Center for Yoga Studies to conduct research into the history and practice of yoga and meditation.[17]
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