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August Engelhardt

August Engelhardt
August Engelhardt 1911.jpg
Engelhardt in 1911
Born (1875-11-27)27 November 1875
Nuremberg, German Empire
Died 6 May 1919(1919-05-06) (aged 43)
Kabakon, German New Guinea
Nationality German
Fields Cocoivorism, Sun Worship

August Engelhardt (27 November 1875 – 6 May 1919) was a German author and founder of a sect of sun worshipers.

Engelhardt wrote a book called A Carefree Future in 1898, which described a colony of fruit and vegetable eaters, specifically cocoivores (coconut eaters) he was founding in the then Bismarck Archipelago (now Papua New Guinea) in the South Pacific a place known for its headhunters. After graduating from Erlangen University in physics and chemistry, he conducted an 18-year experiment on Kabakon island, living a natural life on coconuts. However, in the writings of Engelhardt's contemporary Arnold Ehret, a pioneer of Vitalism, the lack of transition diet contributed to his weakened vitality.

Engelhardt was born on 27 November 1875 in Nuremberg, the son of a factory owner manufacturing paints and varnish. He left the gymnasium, to study physics and chemistry at Erlangen University, before working as a pharmacy assistant. From this he developed an interest in health, issues that were being promoted by the lifestyle reform movement, which included writers such as Gustav Schlickeysen, author of Obst und Brod: eine wissenschaftliche Diätetik (Fruit And Bread: A Scientific Diet) in 1877. The book proposed that a frugivorous diet was the rational and natural diet for man. In particular, he heard of a new philosophy developing in the United States called cocoivorism.

In the fall of 1899, Engelhardt joined the Jungborn ("Fountain of Youth") in the Harz mountains, Eckental, an association for wild living, which was founded by brothers Adolf Just and Rudolf Just and whose basic principles were vegetarianism and nudism. There he preached his idea that humans might live best in a "natural state" eating only coconuts, and gave public lectures in Leipzig and Nuremberg, where he was ridiculed. The Jungborn later experienced legal complications that led to its dissolution, as the practice of nudism was considered illegal and immoral. Adolf Just was convicted of improper activities as a naturopath and sent to jail. It is likely that these events led Engelhardt to a place away from the constraints and conventions of Europe where he could realize his ideas of natural living. Engelhardt was also part of the Monte Verità movement.


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