Ernst Christian Ludwig von Bunsen

Ernst Christian Ludwig von Bunsen or Ernest de Bunsen was an Anglo-German writer whose speculative works proposing common origins of Buddhism, Essene Judaism and Christianity were later taken up as part of racist Aryan mythology. He was father of Maurice de Bunsen.

Bunsen was born in Rome where his father Christian von Bunsen was serving as a Prussian diplomat to the Vatican. His mother was Frances Waddington (1791-1876). His father was the patron both of the mainstream orientalist Max Müller and of the strongly antisemitic orientalist Paul de Lagarde.

Ernest was educated at Berlin in a school for cadets and served in the Prussian Guards. He married Elizabeth Gurney, daughter of Samuel Gurney, the banker in 1845 and moved to London.

Bunsen's writings identified Brahmans as "pure Aryans." According to Bunsen the account of Genesis was to be read that Adam was the first Aryan, and the serpent in Eden the first Semite. Bunsen's theory that the "doctrine of the Angel-Messiah in Buddhism," as he called it, was transmitted first to the Essenes and then to Christianity fared little better in Britain than the theories of the British officer in India, Arthur Lillie, who converted to Buddhism and became the author of a number of texts on religion (and croquet).

On 13 May 1903, he died at Abbey Lodge, and was buried at Leytonstone churchyard.

On 5 August 1845, he married Elizabeth (died January 1903), daughter of Samuel Gurney and niece of Elizabeth Fry. Their eldest son, Fritz, died in 1870; they had a second son, Sir Maurice de Bunsen.

Works