Himmelsbrief

plural Himmelsbriefs · plural Himmelsbriefe

1. historicaluncommonChristianityA type of early chain letter alleged to have been written by God (and fallen from the sky), typically offering divine protection to its bearer.

   All of the Himmelsbriefs contain biblical commandments and teachings, pointing the way to righteousness.

   1997, Tom Ogden, Wizards and Sorcerers: From Abracadabra to Zoroaster, New York, NY: Facts on File, →ISBN, page 101

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   The idea of the Himmelsbrief, the letter from heaven, cannot have been one of the most primitive religious ideas of men, because it presupposes a community in which writing is already familiar.

   1928, Edwyn Bevan, Sibyls and Seers, George Allen & Unwin Ltd., page 111

   Himmelsbriefe, as such letters are called in German folklore, have been recovered in manuscript from as early as the eleventh century, and in printed form from as early as 1500.

   1947, Wayland D. Hand, edited by Louis C. Jones, New York Folklore Quarterly, volume 3, number 2, Ithaca, New York: New York Folkore Society; Cornell University Press, via Internet Archive, Correspondence, page 165

   The first chain letters, in VanArsdale’s analysis, were what folklorists sometimes call “heavenly letters,” or, more commonly, Himmelsbrief, a German term.

   [2020 January 24, Kaitlyn Tiffany, “The Divine Origins of the Horny Chain Text”, in The Atlantic

   European immigrants eventually brought the letters, known in German as Himmelsbriefs, to the United States, where superstitious soldiers donned them as protective charms in battle and families framed them in hopes of protecting property from fire, flood and other disasters, reported folklorist Don Yoder for Fine Books & Collections in 2009.

   [2020 July 2, Meilan Solly, “Before Chain Letters Swept the Internet, They Raised Funds for Orphans and Sent Messages From God”, in Smithsonian Magazine, archived from the original on 05 Jul 2020

   Chapter 6 explores the range of unorthodox beliefs and practices, that some historians have called ‘diffuse religion’ or ‘folk religion’, and which Crouthamel describes as ‘Aberglaube’. [...] These included an array of ideas and practices that drew upon religious objects and texts, such as the carrying of ‘Himmelsbriefe’ [Heaven Letters], which provoked clerical criticism.

   2024 November 29, Owen Davies, “Trauma, Religion and Spirituality in Germany During the First World War, by Jason Crouthamel. London: Bloomsbury, 2021, 258 pp. + illustrations, ISBN 9781350270480.”, in First World War Studies, volume 15, number 3, Taylor & Francis, →DOI, →ISSN, page 389