Death of Conny Dietzschold

It's been reported today that Conny Dietzschold has died. She and her Sister Ellen were German travellers in Australia who came across Brahma Kumaris in Melbourne, Australia in 1977.

The Sisters returned to Germany where they started and grew a BK centre in Köln (Cologne) which had a focus on the Arts, mainly drama, dance, painting and music which suited the culture of the city, many young artists were attracted to become BKs.

The two later returned to Australia. Ellen went to Bali for "service' . She met and eventually married a local. She died a few years later from cancer.

Conny opened a commercial Art Gallery business in East Sydney and lived upstairs where she and her life partner Florian Schaeffer (they'd met in the Köln centre) set up what the BKs call a sub-center. A similar emphasis as used in Koln on art and talks from non-BKs were used as a means to attract people.

She had a talent for what was both "good art' and "commercially viable". Conny had developed a good reputation in the Sydney art scene, and had cultivated a regular clientele among the art-buying bourgeoisie. Her business and reputation grew and they moved gallery and home to new premises.

She developed cancer herself in the last couple of years. She decided to not take up what medical science had to offer and to trust in the "natural therapies" approach. As her condition declined, she returned to Germany to attend a clinic that seemed to offer an innovative approach to treatment using "natural" therapies. She had her family and Florian there as support.

As most of us know, the more a cancer progresses, the more difficult it is to reverse. She went into palliative care after the 6th August. News of her death was announced this morning, 20th August.

Condolences to her friends and family

Conny Dietzschold (photo from Linked In Profile)

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(Footnote: ~this author feels compelled to say that orthodox medical science oncology has evolved considerably in the last 20 years to be more precise, wholistic and integrative, with more successful in outcomes for most cancers. Do not delay in applying [i]all available knowledge and resources against any cancer. Delay only makes it a more difficult condition to overcome. Chemotherapy, radiotherapy etc do not preclude you doing meditation, fasting, going raw food whatever, in fact medical research shopws combining best practice in medical, surgical and "natural" approaches is highly effective. See Dr Valter Longo's fasting protocols for when undergoing chemo or radio-therapy [/i]

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Thanks.

Were they the two really tall Rhinemaidens? I think I remember them from from really quite good by worldly standards dramatic productions.

How did she and/or the BKs negotiate being married and running a BK centre?

There's a podcast featuring Florian, talking about Meditation Space, here. Conny's personal website is still up for just now, here and Youtube channel, here.

No mention on the BKs official death list, I wonder if that is because she "went lokik", but I see quite a few other deaths listed there, including Chandru of San Francisco. Another one of the few remaining with ties going all the way back to Lekhraj Kirpalani when he was alive. (She became a BK circa 1961 at 13, they claim).

Yes, that is them. Tall, lean, when they were young & wore their pale blond hair in long platted ponytail.

Regarding relationships:- I remember hearing 2nd, 3rd and 4th hand gossip about Ellen copping flack for getting involved with someone in Bali, a normal person, not a BK, with some BKs saying the man used "magic" to cast a spell on her and attract her. She may have found abandoning BKs for human love suited what she needed at the time rather than being "enchanted" by some formula.

Of course, BKs themeselves superstitiously speculated about "karma" involved in her later getting cancer, the usual BK cop-out for anyone who wants to be able to explain what they don't understand, don't want to understand or who wants to blame the victim to big up themselves.

With Connie and Florian, it was different. From the BK point of view, well, firstly they were both BKs. He was a man of means, they both put time energy and money into BK 'service' programs for BK PR, hence were officially respectable.

[Wasn't there a page or topic here that listed BK deaths? I couldn't find it. Maybe an obituary page in the News section would be good?

I have also heard in the last few days that Robin Ramsey has had a haemorrhagic stroke and his prognosis is not good.]

So, to add to the story ... This was related to me by someone who watched this on a video link online.

A BK memorial program was held recently and Florian, long time companion to Connie stood up to share at length some memories. One thing that came out was that he and Connie had actually married many years ago. Apparently this was news to the person who was telling me, a person who had known Connie since the 1970s.

I asked whether others knew about it, and it was just that this person themselves did not know, or if it had been deliberately kept secret. Apparently it had been kept secret, or at least deliberately not mentioned in any conversations. Whether or not key BK Admin figures knew or not is also unknown. Maybe someone reading this knows?

Now, what comes to my mind is how absurd this is, this need for facade, denial, pretence of what everyone knew was a close relationship. After all they'd been living together for years. Then again, this is a cult we are talking about, albeit a relatively benign one, and cults are not known for being open either internally with their members, or members with each other, or with the outside world.

I also wonder how come Florian made a point of mentioning it at this time (I do not know the context or tone of voice, how he told everyone) ? Why change the practice of a lifetime? I sit because the experience of dealing with death first hand, especially of one you are close to, often makes people gain perspective and drop the bullshiit they usually carry around with them?

I apologise if this post sounds a bit gossipy and has more questions in it than it has substance, but it is curious.