Although we generally take for granted that the various translations of Bardon’s work – in English, German, Czech, Hungarian, Italian, Spanish, Korean, Portuguese and Russian, to name those that I am aware of – convey generally the same information and have directly the same content, it is easy to overlook that most overlooked part of any book – the preface.
Out of those that I do know of, Otti Votavova’s preface is fairly well known in the English and German editions, and Alexandre Moryason, the French publisher, I believe, wrote the preface to the French edition.
I recently came across the Czech preface, written very fittingly everyone would agreed, by Bardon’s son, Dr Lumir Bardon. With the help of Google translate and a bit of massage from myself, I have drawn up a translation, and added some extra snippets of information in the footnotes.
In the preface, Lumir, discusses his father’s vast library of occult and esoteric books, some 2000 in number. He gives a sense of the oppression in the former Czechoslovakia where occult practices and publications were strictly banned and we hear how his father’s books could not be published in his native country and language, until this first Czech edition, some 35 years since his father dictated the original, which Otti Votavova translated to German for publication in the west. I also detect a hint of frustration that despite the universal nature and many editions of the publications, his feeling that the works should be more widely appreciated.
A few other questions spring up in my mind. Whatever happened to Hermann Bauer Verlag, the original German publisher, and how did Dieter Ruggeburg come to assume that role? I think I recall hearing elsewhere that Dieter Ruggeburg had not a personal relationship with Bardon, coming to knowledge of the works after Bardon’s death. For that matter, how come the original US publishers, the Brotherhood of Life are no longer publishing these titles? If anyone has any views, or can share any information on the prefaces and preface writers from the other languages, I’d love to hear from you.
I wish you peace and progress on your path to perfection,
luxfortis
The Hermetic Nexus 
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March 9, 2010 at 4:42 pm
Bill Cranstoun
Brotherhood of life never published Bardon. They had a list of books that they did publish but they were distributors of of the Rggeberg editions.
I think that the original publisher Bauer Verlag didn’t feel a personal connection to the Bardon works and in later years let them go in and out of print. Ruggeberg as a student of hermetics dedicated himself to keeping them in print and available.
Bill
March 10, 2010 at 12:22 am
luxfortis
Ah, thanks Bill, that explains the similarity of the Brotherhood of Life books to other editions. Thats interesting about Bauer Verlag, as I have barely heard the name mentioned before. Peter
August 18, 2010 at 1:36 am
Richard Tschudi
Hi Luxfortis
Hermann Baurer Verlag was chosen by Bardon and Otti Votova to publish the Bardon Books in the German language i.e IIH,PME,KTK and Frabato.
Mr. Rueggeberg aquired the English Language rights(and French language rights) for the Bardon books.
Hermann Bauer sold many Bardon books, especially IIH. Later interest in the Bardon books vaned a little and Bauer Verlag let KTK go out of print. There is a law in Germany that stipulates if you let a book to go out of print for a certain time perion you loose the copyright (if you don’t use it you loose it). So Bauer lost the copyright for KTK and Rueggeberg got the copyright because he re-published it. Apparently Bauer was very angry that that happenend to him Later Bauer reliquished the copyrights for the other Bardon books as well and Rueggeberg took over. (These events were told to me by Dieter Rueggeberg when I visited him in Germany). Bauer Verlag went bankrupt later.
August 19, 2010 at 10:31 pm
luxfortis
Hi Richard, very interesting, its always good to hear from someone with firsthand knowledge of these events. To me that explains a missing chapter in the history of Bardon’s books.
By the way, thanks for your past work with Stejnar translations and the Moryason footnotes, much appreciated.
Also, do you have the German version of Frabato? Does it contain the picture of Shambala?
August 21, 2014 at 5:15 am
Andre
Luxfortis. Im not sure how I missed this comment of yours and your translation of Lumir’s words in the last 4 plus years i have been reading about Bardon online. Thank you for your work in making Lumir’s preface intelligible for English speakers.