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---
category: "Scientists & Researchers"
tags:
- Parapsychology
- Psi
- Paramechanics
- Poltergeist
- BindelofCircle
- Seances
- TedSerios
- PsychicWarfare
- ColdWar
- NewSchool
- Filmmaking
created: 2026-10-09
updated: 2026-10-09
aliases:
- Gilbert Roller
- Gil Roller
- Roller, Gilbert
summary: "Gilbert Roller, a New York television and film producer, was a founding sitter of the teenage Bindelof séance circle and taught a paramechanics course at the New School in 1975."
location: "New York, New York"
relations:
- type: participant_in
with: "[[Bindelof séance circle]]"
role: "Founding sitter of the teenage séance group, 1929-1933"
start: 1929
end: 1933
fn: 3
- type: employed_by
with: "[[New School for Social Research]]"
role: "Instructor, course 2755-3 Paramechanics: A Study of Paranormal Psychical Phenomena"
start: 1975
end: 1975
fn: 8
- type: head_of
with: "[[Hepworth Films]]"
role: "President"
fn: 8
- type: head_of
with: "[[IFE Corp.]]"
role: "President"
fn: 8
- type: director_of
with: "[[Opti-Sound Corp.]]"
role: "Director"
fn: 8
- type: member_of
with: "[[American Society for Psychical Research]]"
fn: 2
- type: member_of
with: "[[Academy of Parapsychology and Medicine]]"
fn: 2
---
Gilbert Roller (also Gil Roller) was a [[New York City]] television and motion-picture producer, artist and writer who lectured on physical psychic phenomena. As a teenager he was a founding sitter of the [[Bindelof séance circle]], whose sittings from 1929 to 1933 produced table levitations and raps. In 1975 he taught a paramechanics course at the [[New School for Social Research]] and published *A Voice From Beyond* with [[Popular Library]].[^1]
### Early life and the Bindelof séance circle
Roller wrote that when he was twelve the family apartment was the scene of a poltergeist that lasted about six months: objects were tossed about, dishes slid from the kitchen shelves, a toy electric engine was demolished inside a closet, and the word "GO" appeared scrawled in large crayon letters on the walls. The family gave up the apartment, and no manifestations occurred in the new quarters or, on checking, among the new tenants of the old one.[^2] The [[Psi Encyclopedia]] account of the group, drawing on [[Rosemarie Pilkington]], places the disturbances when he was about thirteen, with hairpins and knobs thrown, the destruction of a prized toy and crayon messages five feet high.[^3] His mother, in the theatrical profession, had investigated mediumship among show people, and he wrote that [[Dolly Sisters|Rosie and Jennie Dolly]] "turned out to have remarkable powers," with knocks and table levitation achieved in dim light.[^2] Roller was the son of entertainers, and the family library held books on psychical research.[^3]
The author biography in *A Voice From Beyond* puts the poltergeist, the mother's séances, a teenage group of friends who "held séances regularly for about two years," and the New School course in a single printed text. Pilkington's *The Spirit of Dr. Bindelof* (Anomalist Books, 2006) is described by its publisher as "Gilbert Roller's utterly charming and disarming auto-biographical account of a group of teenagers" who contacted an alleged spirit named Dr. Bindelof.[^4] Pilkington wrote in *[[Fortean Times]]* in 2007 that she "knew Gil Roller for more than 30 years" and described the first part of her book as "a long overdue account, in a very palatable way, of Gil Roller's and the Bindelof group's extraordinary experiences."[^5]
Roller and his friend [[Leonard Lauer]] began mediumistic sittings from techniques described in psychical research books and journals. On their second attempt the table moved, at first erratically and then on command, and they were able to command it to levitate to shoulder height.[^3] A thirteen-year-old friend, [[Larry Levin]], joined them, and by 1933 the group included [[Leo Kaiser]], [[Montague Ullman]], [[Howard Frisch]], [[George Kaiser]], [[Tom Loeb]] and [[Horace Joseph]], meeting on Saturday evenings in Roller's bedroom.[^3] Ullman later became a psychiatrist and parapsychologist and founded the dream laboratory at [[Maimonides Hospital]] in New York.[^3]
Roller described the group in 1975 as eight "dedicated people who achieved full table levitation without contact, telekinetic writing, extranormal photography, invisible tactile forms and other phenomena," under "rigid test conditions that ruled out fraud."[^2] He gave the duration as about two years; the Psi Encyclopedia gives weekly sittings from 1929 to 1933 and a brief reformation in March 1934.[^3] The photographic plates and the pages on which writing had appeared are now held by the [[Parapsychology Foundation]] in New York, and the foundation's collection transferred to the [[University of Maryland, Baltimore County]] in 2022 lists the Bindelof séance phenomena among its archival holdings.[^3][^6]
### Later reunion and career
According to Levin, several members of the group gathered again in 1946 with little result at first. Roller was persuaded to rejoin them, and with George Kaiser the six surviving alumni produced table movement, levitation and a message spelled out by the table, though the message was not intelligible.[^3] The same account states that Roller alone produced the phenomena in sittings with other groups, and that psychokinetic events continued to follow him in daily life.[^3]
Roller's 1975 book says that despite the group's dispersal under the pressures of college and courtship, "throughout the years all the members have maintained contact," and that the members had recently met to review and collate the material from the sittings.[^2] He followed a career as an artist, writer, filmmaker and television producer.[^3]
A Gilbert Roller is named in the September 1935 issue of *Fleischer's Animated News*, the staff newsletter of [[Fleischer Studios]], as the signer of a comic verse about a studio worker's rise from opaquer to animator and in a gossip item pairing him with a woman named Ellen Jensen. The issue gives no age, address or later career, and the records found do not establish whether he is the Gilbert Roller of the séance circle.[^7]
### A Voice From Beyond (1975)
*A Voice From Beyond* was published by Popular Library in New York in 1975, with the copyright held by "Gil Roller" and an edition by [[Michael Hayes]].[^1] The table of contents lists "Think Psychic," a chapter titled "Creditable Men Who Explored the Incredible," a chapter headed "Experimental Investigation of a New Force," a photographic section, "The Unshakable Facts of the Ted Serios Phenomena" at page 145, and "Was the Spassky Defeat a Russian Victory?" at page 152.[^1] That chapter concerns the chess match between [[Bobby Fischer]] and [[Boris Spassky]]. The cover copy advertises "the newly revealed truth about how the famous Fischer-Spassky chess match served as a testing ground for international psychic warfare."[^1]
### New School course, 1975
The book's author biography states that Roller teaches a course in paramechanics at the New School for Social Research in New York City, which "comprises an inquiry into telekinesis, poltergeists, ectoplasm and thought photography." The same biography states that his business career is devoted to television and motion-picture production, and that he is a member of the [[American Society for Psychical Research]] and the [[Academy of Parapsychology and Medicine]].[^2]
The school's *[[New School Bulletin]]* for the spring 1975 semester lists course 2755-3, "Paramechanics: A Study of Paranormal Psychical Phenomena," taught by Gilbert Roller on Tuesdays from February 4.[^8] The bulletin's faculty biography for Roller describes investigations into paranormal phenomena, particularly physical manifestations, and lists him as a faculty member of the [[Fashion Institute of Technology]], president of [[Hepworth Films]] and of [[IFE Corp.]], and a director of [[Opti-Sound Corp.]].[^8]
The 1975 *[[New Psychic Frontiers]]* survey by [[Walter Uphoff]] and [[Mary Jo Uphoff]] lists a New School for Social Research entry naming [[Robert M. Brier]], [[Martin Ebon]] and Gilbert Roller, with the address 66 West 12th Street, New York. The same survey lists Brier under the philosophy department of [[C.W. Post College]] on the preceding page.[^9]
### Soviet long-range telepathy and the Fischer-Spassky matches
The chapter "Was the Spassky Defeat a Russian Victory?" (pp. 152-163) describes the claim as "rumored to have been attempted by the Russians during the Fischer-Spassky chess games." Roller writes that "the information given him concerning these experiments is controversial and, of course, Officially denied, but the alleged facts have been surprisingly confirmed by careful investigation."[^10]
The chapter opens with a 1959 French newspaper report that the [[U.S. Navy|United States Navy]] had run an experiment in which telepathic communication reached a subject in the submerged submarine [[The Nautilus (Telepathy Project)|Nautilus]] from a sender on shore. Roller states that the report was made "despite denials by the U. S. Navy," and cites a February 1960 article in [[Science et Vie]].[^10] He suggests that the report may have started the Soviet long-range experiments.[^10]
Roller names [[Leonid Vasiliev]], [[Edward Naumov]] and [[I. F. Tomashevsky]] as the key figures in Soviet work. He describes a 1966 transmission by [[Karl Nikolaiev]] from [[Moscow]] to [[Siberia]] "over one thousand miles," a March 1967 test at [[Leningrad]] University in which brain-wave and galvanic skin changes were recorded, and a 1968 test from Moscow to [[Tomsk]] over three thousand miles.[^11] He writes that Tomashevsky, confined in a lead isolation chamber, affected similarly shielded subjects to the point of extreme emotional stress and in some cases unconsciousness.[^11] He cites [[Douglas Dean]] of the [[Newark College of Engineering]], whose plethysmograph report on blood-volume changes in a subject receiving a telepathic signal, he writes, was reviewed in a leading Soviet journal and used in Vasiliev's work.[^11] He also cites the [[Apollo 14]] ESP experiment and the later work of [[Edgar Mitchell]] in the field.[^11]
According to Roller, the information "privately given the author" set the schedule of transmissions: adverse telepathic bombardment of Fischer from about July 3 through 17, of Spassky from July 18 through 26, a control period from July 27 through August 5, and renewed transmissions against Fischer from August 6 to the conclusion of the match.[^12] He writes that "the Fischer-Spassky matches presented an ideal testing ground for further confirmation of these techniques," and lists the distance from [[Iceland]] to Leningrad and the two players' temperaments among the factors present.[^12] He sets quotations from [[The New York Times]] accounts of each phase against the schedule, and reports that during the first period Fischer closeted himself in his hotel room, booked flight passage to New York City, and was telephoned by [[Henry Kissinger]] from [[Washington, D.C.]] with a plea to resume the games.[^13]
Roller reports that Spassky's second, [[Efim Geller]], told the Times on August 23 that the Americans were using "non-chess methods" against the champion. He argues that the charge, coming after Spassky's upturn at the start of the final phase, suggests that Geller "was in constant touch with Moscow, and after the initial success of Phase IV, may have been informed of the experiment."[^14]
Roller states that "the information given in confidence more than a month before the matches conforms to the events," and that "official denials must be expected." He quotes an unnamed Soviet investigator as saying, "If we control the mind, we control the man. If we control the man, we control the nation."[^14] He does not name the person who gave him the confidential information. A footnote to the chapter states that he has conducted experiments with volunteers, who were told the nature of the experiments in advance, with only the choice of receiver withheld, and that "the tests were remarkably successful."[^15]
### Strategic arms talks
Roller extends the argument to the [[Strategic Arms Limitation Talks]] in Moscow and to [[Richard Nixon]] and Kissinger. He writes that "we cannot safely conclude that he was not subjected to these transmissions," referring to Nixon, and describes a "recovery quotient" that varies with personality, with Fischer's extroversion permitting faster recovery than Spassky's introversion.[^16] He adds that Fischer, at the time of writing, had engineered his own surrender of the world championship to [[Anatoly Karpov]] and was obsessed with the idea that "the Russians are spying on him."[^16]
### Ted Serios
The book devotes pp. 145-151 to [[Ted Serios]], whom Roller calls "perhaps the greatest medium and producer of enigmatic phenomena." He writes that "the man responsible for the superb documentation of the Serios phenomena is Dr. [[Jule Eisenbud]], a psychiatrist."[^17] The [[Time (magazine)]] cover story "Boom Times on the Psychic Frontier" (March 4, 1974), which covers Serios and the [[Foundation for Research on the Nature of Man]] in [[Durham, North Carolina|Durham]], is held in the [[Central Intelligence Agency]] reading room.[^18]
### Government and defense interest
The government and defense claims in *A Voice From Beyond* are Roller's own, stated in his voice; he does not name his sources. After the March 1967 Leningrad test, Roller writes, the Russian government, which had until then been an interested spectator, was impressed enough that "an appropriation equivalent to $25 million" was allocated to expand the research.[^11] The Navy denial and the expected official denials of the Soviet material appear in the chapter as positions of the Navy and of the governments concerned.[^10][^14]
### Death
The Psi Encyclopedia gives Roller's death as 2004, at age 89.[^3] The [[Parapsychological Association]] administers a Gilbert Roller Fund, established by a donation, which supports field investigation of macroscopic psychokinesis in sitter groups, séances and poltergeist activity; its first listed awards are for 2009, and its 2013 and 2014 grants went to the Felix Experimental Group and a sitter group in Argentina. The association's page does not name the donor, and the records found do not establish whether the fund's Gilbert Roller is the man of this page.[^19]
### Footnotes
[^1]: Gilbert Roller, *A Voice From Beyond* (New York: Popular Library, 1975), cover copy, copyright page and table of contents. Open copy: https://archive.org/details/a-voice-from-beyond
[^2]: Roller, *A Voice From Beyond* (1975), "About the Author," pp. 11-13. Open copy: https://archive.org/details/a-voice-from-beyond
[^3]: K. M. Wehrstein, "Bindelof Phenomena," *Psi Encyclopedia* (Society for Psychical Research, created February 26, 2018, last updated September 3, 2026), drawing on Rosemarie Pilkington, *The Spirit of Dr. Bindelof: The Enigma of Séance Phenomena* (San Antonio: Anomalist Books, 2006), pp. 8-69, as endnoted in sections "First Sittings," "Problems and Dissolution," "Attitudes" and "Later Life." The 1946 reunion is attributed in that article to Larry Levin; the death date and age are stated there without a separate source. https://psi-encyclopedia.spr.ac.uk/articles/bindelof-phenomena/
[^4]: Anomalist Books, catalogue page for Rosemarie Pilkington, *The Spirit of Dr. Bindelof: The Enigma of Séance Phenomena* (trade paperback, 248 pages, ISBN 1933665130). https://www.anomalistbooks.com/book.cfm?id=51
[^5]: Rosemarie Pilkington, letter "Three-legged Physical mediumship," *Fortean Times* 226 (September 2007), pp. 73-74, replying to a review of her book in *Fortean Times* 222. https://archive.org/details/fortean-times-september-2007
[^6]: University of Maryland, Baltimore County, announcement of the Eileen J. Garrett Parapsychology Foundation Collection (October 2022). https://umbc.edu/?p=73101
[^7]: *Fleischer's Animated News*, September 1935 issue (Fleischer Studios staff newsletter): verse "Love Among the Popeyes," signed "Gilbert Roller.," and a gossip item reading "Rumors persist that Gilbert Roller and Ellen Jensen are that way." https://archive.org/details/Fleischers_Animated_News_1935_09
[^8]: New School for Social Research, *New School Bulletin*, spring 1975, vol. 32, no. 5 (December 27, 1974), published as *Announcement of Courses of Study*: course 2755-3 and the Roller biography (pp. 88 and 356). https://books.google.com/books?id=Ez07AAAAMAAJ
[^9]: Walter and Mary Jo Uphoff, *New Psychic Frontiers* (Minneapolis: Bolger Publications, 1975), chapter V, "Research, Investigation and Teaching," p. 228 (C.W. Post College entry) and p. 229 (New School for Social Research entry). CIA CREST, CIA-RDP96-00788R001200230018-6. https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/document/cia-rdp96-00788r001200230018-6
[^10]: Roller, *A Voice From Beyond* (1975), "Was the Spassky Defeat a Russian Victory?", pp. 152-153. Open copy: https://archive.org/details/a-voice-from-beyond
[^11]: Roller, *A Voice From Beyond* (1975), pp. 153-155, including the book's footnotes citing Winn, *Psychotherapy in the Soviet Union* (1961), and *Journal of the American Society for Psychical Research* (July 1971, vol. 65, no. 3). Open copy: https://archive.org/details/a-voice-from-beyond
[^12]: Roller, *A Voice From Beyond* (1975), pp. 155-156. Sole source for the schedule of transmissions. Open copy: https://archive.org/details/a-voice-from-beyond
[^13]: Roller, *A Voice From Beyond* (1975), pp. 157-158 (the book states that the quotations are extracts from New York Times accounts of the matches). Open copy: https://archive.org/details/a-voice-from-beyond
[^14]: Roller, *A Voice From Beyond* (1975), pp. 159-161. Sole source for the "confidential information" passage and the Soviet investigator's quotation. Open copy: https://archive.org/details/a-voice-from-beyond
[^15]: Roller, *A Voice From Beyond* (1975), p. 161, note 6. Sole source for the volunteer experiments. Open copy: https://archive.org/details/a-voice-from-beyond
[^16]: Roller, *A Voice From Beyond* (1975), pp. 162-163, citing *New York Magazine*, February 24, 1975, for Fischer's situation. Sole source for the SALT passages. Open copy: https://archive.org/details/a-voice-from-beyond
[^17]: Roller, *A Voice From Beyond* (1975), "Ted Serios Phenomena," pp. 145-146. Open copy: https://archive.org/details/a-voice-from-beyond
[^18]: CIA CREST, "Boom Times on the Psychic Frontier," *Time* cover story (March 4, 1974), reading-room copy CIA-RDP96-00787R000100030002-8. https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/document/cia-rdp96-00787r000100030002-8
[^19]: Parapsychological Association, "Gilbert Roller Fund" page and award notices for 2009, 2010, 2013 and 2014 (Wayback capture of December 29, 2016). https://web.archive.org/web/20161229195421/http://www.parapsych.org/section/9/gilbert_roller_fund.aspx. Parra et al., "Laboratory Research on a Presumably PK-Gifted Subject," acknowledgments (2014 grant). https://archive.org/details/LaboratoryResearchOnAPresumablyPKG

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---
category: "Scientists & Researchers"
tags:
- Person
- HansSimons
- NewSchoolForSocialResearch
- UniversityInExile
- DeutscheHochschuleFuerPolitik
- WeimarRepublic
- OfficeOfMilitaryGovernment
- BasicLaw
- FordFoundation
- MKUltra
- WalterSimons
aliases:
- Hans Simons
- Simons, Hans
- Hans Simons (1893-1972)
created: 2026-10-09
updated: 2026-10-09
summary: "German jurist and Weimar civil servant who directed the Deutsche Hochschule für Politik, emigrated in 1935, and served as the third president of the New School for Social Research from 1950."
relations:
- type: head_of
with: "[[New School for Social Research]]"
start: 1950
end: 1961
role: "president"
fn: 17
- type: employed_by
with: "[[Deutsche Hochschule für Politik]]"
start: 1920
end: 1930
role: "managing director, then director and professor of law"
fn: 4
- type: employed_by
with: "[[Reich Ministry of the Interior]]"
start: 1922
end: 1924
role: "Regierungsrat, then Oberregierungsrat"
fn: 4
- type: employed_by
with: "[[Abraham Lincoln-Stiftung]]"
start: 1928
end: 1930
role: "managing director"
fn: 4
- type: head_of
with: "[[Regierungsbezirk Liegnitz]]"
start: 1931
end: 1932
role: "Regierungspräsident"
fn: 4
- type: employed_by
with: "[[Office of Military Government, United States]]"
start: 1947
end: 1949
role: "civilian employee"
fn: 3
- type: employed_by
with: "[[Ford Foundation]]"
start: 1960
role: "consultant and director"
fn: 1
- type: relative_of
with: "[[Walter Simons]]"
role: "father"
fn: 2
---
Hans Simons (July 1, 1893 to March 28, 1972) was a German jurist and Weimar civil servant who directed the [[Deutsche Hochschule für Politik]] in [[Berlin]] and held a Prussian provincial presidency. He was dismissed in 1933, emigrated to New York, served as dean of the [[New School for Social Research]] Graduate Faculty, and became the school's third president.[^1]
### Father and family
Simons was born in [[Velbert]] in the [[Rhine Province]], the son of [[Walter Simons]], a jurist who became president of the [[Reichsgericht]] and foreign minister.[^2][^3] Walter Simons served as foreign minister from June 25, 1920 to May 10, 1921 in the cabinet of [[Konstantin Fehrenbach]] and represented the Reich at the conferences at [[Spa, Belgium|Spa]] and [[London]]. In 1919 he was undersecretary and commissioner-general of the German delegation at the [[Treaty of Versailles|Versailles]] negotiations under [[Ulrich von Brockdorff-Rantzau]]. In 1918 he had advised [[Max von Baden]] on international law.[^2] In 1922 he founded the "SeSiSo-Kreis," a salon that met at the [[Hotel Kaiserhof]] in Berlin with [[Hans von Seeckt]] and [[Wilhelm Solf]]. [[Harry Graf von Kessler]] was among its members.[^2] In the 1920s he chaired the board of trustees of the [[Moltke family]] foundation, which held the [[Kreisau]] estate.[^2]
Hans Simons was one of the three sons of Walter Simons and his wife Erna, née Rühle.[^2] He married twice and had three children.[^4] The son of his first marriage later assembled the family papers on which the 2018 biography of Simons drew, since no personal estate survives.[^5]
### Schooling, the dissertation and the League of Nations
Simons studied law and political science in Berlin, [[Munich]], [[Tübingen]] and [[Bonn]] between 1912 and 1914. He served in the [[World War I|First World War]] until 1917 as an Oberleutnant and was gravely wounded, in the head according to the New School's history.[^5] He then worked as an administrator in the eastern territories occupied by the German Empire.[^1][^4] He resumed his studies at the University of [[Königsberg]] in 1920 and completed a dissertation in 1921 titled "Die Präambel zur Pariser Völkerbundssatzung und das Völkerrecht" (the preamble to the Paris Covenant of the [[League of Nations]] and international law).[^1][^4]
### Hochschule für Politik and the Reich Interior Ministry
Simons was managing director of the Deutsche Hochschule für Politik from 1920 to 1922.[^4] The Hochschule drew on American money, notably from the [[Rockefeller Foundation]] and the [[Carnegie Corporation]]. Its American associations built bridges between Hochschule faculty, foundation administrators and American academics.[^6] From 1922 to 1924 Simons was a Regierungsrat and then an Oberregierungsrat in the [[Reich Ministry of the Interior]] in Berlin.[^4][^7] From 1925 to 1930 he was director of the Hochschule and professor of law. His essay "Lehre und Lehrer" in the Hochschule's 1931 volume [[Politik als Wissenschaft]] covers the institution's structure, which combined permanently associated politicians with lecturers hired case by case.[^8] In 1935 and 1936 he published two articles in [[Social Research]] on European international law and collective security.[^9] From 1928 to 1930 he was managing director of the [[Abraham Lincoln-Stiftung]] in Berlin.[^4]
### Prussian provincial posts and the 1933 dismissal
Simons was acting Regierungspräsident in [[Stettin]] in 1930 and 1931, and Regierungspräsident of the [[Regierungsbezirk Liegnitz]] in [[Silesia]] from 1931 to 1932.[^2][^4] He was a member of the [[Social Democratic Party of Germany]].[^2] He ran unsuccessfully for a seat in the parliament as a Social Democrat.[^1] He was dismissed in 1933 and emigrated with his second wife and her two daughters.[^5] The Nazi Party blacklisted him in 1933.[^1] From 1933 to 1934 he worked as a self-employed sales agent (Handelsvertreter).[^4]
### Exile and the Graduate Faculty
Simons reached [[New York City|New York]] in 1935 on a fellowship of the [[University in Exile]] at the New School.[^1][^2] Alvin Johnson's report to the trustees of February 1935 lists him among the members added to the Graduate Faculty in 1934.[^10] He taught political science and international relations in the Graduate Faculty and gave public lectures on democracy and totalitarianism at the school and at other universities.[^1] The [[Emergency Committee in Aid of Displaced Foreign Scholars]] filed him among its "Non-Grantees" in Series I.B of its records at the [[New York Public Library]].[^11] He became an American citizen in 1940.[^1][^2] In 1942 he studied Germany's position in European postwar reconstruction with [[Adolph Lowe]], [[Arnold Brecht]] and [[Hans Staudinger]], in the Research Division of the Graduate Faculty and the [[Institute of World Affairs]].[^12] He was dean of the Graduate Faculty from 1943 to June 1950.[^1][^4]
### Wartime lists
In May 1943 [[Goodwin Watson]] sent [[Robert D. Leigh]] of the [[Foreign Broadcast Intelligence Service]] a list of recruits for the Analysis Division. Nearly all of the names were German exiles. Simons appears on the list with [[Sigmund Neumann]] and [[Arnold Wolfers]].[^13]
### President of the New School
In June 1950 Simons was selected as the third president of the New School, succeeding [[Bryn Hovde]], who had led the school for five years.[^1] He inherited a school with serious financial problems. Enrollment rose from about 5,000 to about 8,000 students during his tenure, and construction began on the buildings that became the [[Eugene Lang College]] complex.[^1] He defended the right of faculty to take part in political activity, however unpopular that was with other members of the school.[^1]
A file in the New School central administration records holds Simons's "Future of the New School," dated September 18, 1958. Its scope note relates it to a Publicity Office record in which Simons responds to the "McGrath Report."[^14] The New School Associates records hold a presidential talk on "Hans Simon's report on India," dated January 28, 1960.[^15]
His resignation is dated to 1960. Correspondence in his Adult Division file is "mainly after 1960, when Hans Simons resigned as president of The New School."[^16] He retired from the presidency in 1960.[^1] The scope note of the John R. Everett records lists his presidency as 1950 to 1961.[^17] Press releases in the school's records announce the appointment of [[Henry David]] as president between January 18 and March 19, 1961, and record his inauguration on October 23, 1961.[^18][^19] David resigned on March 22, 1963.[^20]
### Project MKUltra memoranda, 1961
Two [[Project MKUltra]] subproject files released by the [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] carry 1961 memoranda from the period of Simons's presidency. A draft memorandum for the record dated May 29, 1961 on Subproject 134 states that the subproject supports the research studies of a person whose name is redacted, and the CIA's September 1977 release to the New School reinserted "New School for Social Research" by hand in red at that point. The draft describes the relevance of the study as "its potential contribution to clandestine indirect assessment, i. e., without the subject's awareness," names "relationships between body type and temperament (personality characteristics)" as the earlier work on which the investigator would build, sets the cost at $22,000 for one year, and states that the investigator "is neither cleared nor witting of true Sponsor."[^21] A June 9, 1961 memorandum headed "Recommendation for Funding" in the same file recommends funding "despite the superficiality of the proposal" and says "This work fits into our indirect assessment requirement." The project summary gives actual work as expected to commence in September 1961, with the contractor field blank.[^22]
A memorandum for the record dated August 24, 1961 on Subproject 137 supports the work of a "Dr." whose name is redacted, "of the" a redacted institution, and the CIA's 1977 release again inserted "New School for Social Research, New York City" in red. The memorandum describes completing "a psycholexicon on handwriting," states that she "has an international reputation for her work in graphology and speech," that she is "advanced in years" and her health "failing," and that her manuscript is "eighty percent complete."[^23] The grant was $2,000. A February 1963 accounting memorandum in the file states that the recipient "died in 1962 and did not send in an accounting," and an obligation-file certification records that a manuscript had been published.[^24]
A 1977 CIA folder in the John R. Everett records of the New School describes "a report of two projects conducted at the New School in 1962 that received funding through MKUltra," and says that the first "attempted to discern relationships between body type and personality characteristics."[^25] The investigators' names remain redacted in both subproject files. The graphology teacher [[Klara G. Roman]] taught at the New School from 1948 until shortly before her death in 1962.[^26]
### India and the Ford Foundation
In 1960 Simons retired from the presidency to work as a consultant and director for the [[Ford Foundation]].[^1] He was an adviser and interlocutor for the Ford Foundation and other organizations.[^5]
### Occupation Germany and the Basic Law
Simons served as an American liaison officer in [[Frankfurt]] am Main from 1947 to 1949.[^4] He took part in the making of the Basic Law as an American liaison officer to the [[Parlamentarischer Rat]] in 1947 and 1949.[^2] He was a civilian employee of the [[Office of Military Government, United States]] (OMGUS).[^3] He was called into the deliberations on the Basic Law.[^5] He received the [[Großes Verdienstkreuz]] of the Federal Republic in 1959.[^4] A high order from [[Theodor Heuss]] was conferred on him together with Arnold Brecht and Hans Staudinger.[^5]
### Death
After a long illness, Simons died on March 28, 1972 at his home in [[Yonkers]], New York.[^1][^3][^4][^27]
### Footnotes
[^1]: New School Histories, "Hans Simons," The New School Archives and Special Collections, https://histories.newschool.edu/node/347 (posted June 1, 2018; birth July 1, 1893 in Velbert; dean of the Graduate Faculty 1943 to June 1950; third president from June 1950; retirement in 1960 and consultancy and directorship for the Ford Foundation; death March 28, 1972 at his home in Yonkers). Sole source for the presidency narrative, the enrollment figures, the Ford Foundation post, the 1933 blacklisting, the head injury, the eastern-territories post and the unsuccessful parliamentary candidacy.
[^2]: Martin Otto, "Simons, Walter," Neue Deutsche Biographie 24 (2010), p. 441, https://www.deutsche-biographie.de/sfz74819.html (genealogy: three sons, including Hans Simons (1893-1972), Dr. iur., Regierungsrat in the Reich Interior Ministry (SPD), Regierungspräsident in Liegnitz 1931 to 1932, emigrated 1935 to the United States, political science at the New School for Social Research, American citizen 1940, American liaison officer to the Parliamentary Council 1947/49 involved in the making of the Basic Law; Walter Simons as foreign minister 25 June 1920 to 10 May 1921 under Fehrenbach, Versailles delegation under Brockdorff-Rantzau, 1918 adviser to Max von Baden, SeSiSo circle with Seeckt and Solf, Kessler a member, Moltke family foundation trusteeship with Kreisau). Sole source for the Basic Law participation and the SeSiSo membership.
[^3]: Deutsche Biographie, index entry "Simons, Hans," GND 117397911, https://www.deutsche-biographie.de/gnd117397911.html (lifespan 1893-1972; birthplace Velbert; death place Yonkers, NY; occupations listed as Regierungspräsident in Liegnitz, President of the New School for Social Research, Zivilangestellter der OMGUS, Politologe, Jurist, Beamter).
[^4]: Kieler Gelehrtenverzeichnis, "Hans Simons," https://cau.gelehrtenverzeichnis.de/person/1a828139-7fdf-65ae-69c4-4faa69597c49 (dissertation 1921 at Königsberg; 1920 to 1922 managing director of the Deutsche Hochschule für Politik; 1922 to 1923 Regierungsrat and 1923 to 1924 Oberregierungsrat in the Reich Interior Ministry; 1925 to 1930 director and professor of law at the Hochschule; 1928 to 1930 managing director of the Abraham Lincoln-Stiftung; 1930 to 1931 acting Regierungspräsident in Stettin; 1931 to 1932 Regierungspräsident in Liegnitz; 1933 to 1934 self-employed Handelsvertreter; 1943 to 1950 dean; 1947 to 1949 American liaison officer in Frankfurt am Main; 1959 Großes Verdienstkreuz der Bundesrepublik Deutschland; married twice; three children; died 1972 in Yonkers). Sole source for the Abraham Lincoln-Stiftung post and the 1933 to 1934 sales-agent entry.
[^5]: Thomas Meyer, review of Philipp Heß, "Ein deutscher Amerikaner: Der kosmopolitische Demokrat Hans Simons 1893-1972" (Göttingen: Wallstein, 2018), Archiv für Sozialgeschichte 59 (2019), https://library.fes.de/pdf-files//afs/81895.pdf (dismissal in 1933 and emigration with his second wife and her two daughters; Basic Law deliberations; Ford Foundation adviser and interlocutor; Heuss order with Brecht and Staudinger; death described as ill and tired; family papers assembled by the son of the first marriage, no Nachlass).
[^6]: Daniel Bessner, "The Night Watchman: Hans Speier and the Making of the American National Security State" (PhD dissertation, Duke University, 2013), p. 58 (the Hochschule's association with the Rockefeller Foundation and the Carnegie Corporation and the effect of those associations on contacts between Hochschule faculty, foundation administrators and American academics).
[^7]: GEPRIS Historisch, "Simons, Hans," Personen-ID 5111597, https://gepris-historisch.dfg.de/person/5111597 (born July 1, 1893 in Velbert; died March 28, 1972 in Yonkers; work location Reichsministerium des Innern; 1928 application for a printing subsidy for the series "Das Werdende Zeitalter" refused).
[^8]: Hans Simons, "Lehre und Lehrer," in Politik als Wissenschaft: Zehn Jahre Deutsche Hochschule für Politik, ed. Ernst Jäckh (Berlin: Hermann Reckendorf, 1931), pp. 203-210, as cited in Bessner, "The Night Watchman," footnote 71 (structure of the Hochschule: permanently associated politicians and lecturers hired on a case-by-case basis). Sole source for the description of the Hochschule's structure.
[^9]: Bessner, "The Night Watchman," footnote 33 (Hans Simons, "Some European Aspects of International Law," Social Research 2, no. 4 (November 1935): 469-470; Hans Simons, "Collective Security," Social Research 3, no. 4 (November 1936): 388). Sole source for the two articles.
[^10]: Bessner, "The Night Watchman," footnote 21 (Alvin Johnson, "Report to the Trustees of the Graduate Faculty of Political and Social Science in the New School for Social Research, February 1935," Johnson Papers, Nebraska). Sole source for the 1934 addition.
[^11]: New York Public Library, Emergency Committee in Aid of Displaced Foreign Scholars records, MssCol 922, Series I.B, "Non-Grantees," box 117, folder 3 (Simons, 1933-1943), https://archives.nypl.org/mss/922 (folder dates as given in the New School for Social Research page citation of the same finding aid). Sole source for this filing.
[^12]: New School Archives and Special Collections, Arnold Brecht lecture notes (NS-02-13-01), biographical note, https://findingaids.archives.newschool.edu/repositories/3/resources/232 (Brecht in the Research Division of the Graduate Faculty and the Institute of World Affairs, studying Germany's position in European postwar reconstruction (1942) with colleagues Adolph Lowe, Hans Simons and Hans Staudinger).
[^13]: Bessner, "The Night Watchman," footnote 74 (Goodwin Watson to Robert D. Leigh, May 12, 1943, RG 262, Entry 75, Foreign Broadcast Intelligence Service, Records of the Analysis Division, Records Relating to Personnel). The list also names Kurt Mattusch, Eric Dale, Hans W. Weigert and John H. Herz, and its only non-exile is Bernadotte E. Schmitt. Sole source for the list.
[^14]: New School Archives and Special Collections, New School central administration collection (NS-01-01-05), Series 1, "Simons, Hans. 'Future of the New School,' 1958 September 18," Box 1, Folder 42, https://findingaids.archives.newschool.edu/repositories/3/archival_objects/14272 (scope note on the related Publicity Office record and the "McGrath Report").
[^15]: New School Archives and Special Collections, New School Associates records (NS-03-02-01), Series 3, "President's talk: Hans Simon's report on India (1960 Jan 28), 1960," Box 7, Folder 2, https://findingaids.archives.newschool.edu/repositories/3/archival_objects/19576
[^16]: New School Archives and Special Collections, New School Adult Division Office of the Dean records (NS-02-01-01), Series 2, "Simons, Hans, 1947-1972," Box 2, Folder 25, https://findingaids.archives.newschool.edu/repositories/3/archival_objects/18606 (scope note: "Correspondence mainly after 1960, when Hans Simons resigned as president of The New School"; transcript dated October 9, 1957 of his General Seminar lecture "Higher Adult Education: Its Place and Function").
[^17]: New School Archives and Special Collections, John R. Everett records (NS-01-01-02), scope note, https://findingaids.archives.newschool.edu/repositories/3/resources/289 ("Robert MacIver (1963-1964), Henry David (1961-1963), and Hans Simons (1950-1961)").
[^18]: New School Archives and Special Collections, New School press release collection (NS-03-01-07), Box 1, Folder 17, "Announcements for appointment of Henry David as president, 1961 January 18-March 19," https://findingaids.archives.newschool.edu/repositories/3/archival_objects/38467
[^19]: New School Archives and Special Collections, New School Development and Public Relations Office records (NS-03-02-02), Series 2, "Inauguration of Dr. Henry David, 1961 Oct 23," Box 5, Folder 5, https://findingaids.archives.newschool.edu/repositories/3/archival_objects/21027 (see also Box 1, Folder 19, "Henry David to be inaugurated as New School president Oct 23., 1961 September 29," https://findingaids.archives.newschool.edu/repositories/3/archival_objects/38571)
[^20]: New School Archives and Special Collections, New School press release collection (NS-03-01-07), Box 1, Folder 27, "Henry David resigns as New School president, 1963 March 22," https://findingaids.archives.newschool.edu/repositories/3/archival_objects/38760
[^21]: Central Intelligence Agency, MKUltra Subproject 134, draft memorandum for the record, "MKULTRA, Subproject 134," May 29, 1961 (red handwritten insertion "New School for Social Research" in paragraph 1), in the CIA's September 1977 release to the New School, John R. Everett records, New School Archives and Special Collections, digital object NS010102_000027, PDF p. 27 (103 pages), https://findingaids.archives.newschool.edu/repositories/3/archival_objects/34220 (investigator and consultant names blacked out).
[^22]: Central Intelligence Agency, MKUltra Subproject 134 file, CIA reading room document 00017393, OCR text in Internet Archive item DOC_0000017393, https://archive.org/details/DOC_0000017393 (memorandum of June 9, 1961, "Recommendation for Funding," $22,000; "its funding is recommended, despite the superficiality of the proposal"; "This work fits into our indirect assessment requirement"; initiated July 1961; work expected to commence September 1961; contractor field blank).
[^23]: Central Intelligence Agency, MKUltra Subproject 137, memorandum for the record, August 24, 1961 (red handwritten insertion "New School for Social Research, New York City"), in the New School digital object NS010102_000027, PDF p. 78.
[^24]: Central Intelligence Agency, MKUltra Subproject 137 file, CIA reading room document 00017396, https://archive.org/details/DOC_0000017396 (proposal "TO COMPLETE THE MANUSCRIPT OF A PSYCHOLEXICON ON WRITING AND THE WRITTEN WORD"; certification that the recipient of $2,000 died in 1962 without rendering an accounting and that a manuscript had been published); accounting memorandum of February 1963, New School digital object NS010102_000027, PDF p. 76.
[^25]: New School Archives and Special Collections, John R. Everett records (NS-01-01-02), Series 3, "Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), 1977-1978," File, Box 7, Folder 29, https://findingaids.archives.newschool.edu/repositories/3/archival_objects/34220 (scope note quoted in the body).
[^26]: New School Archives and Special Collections, Maurice Edwards papers (NA-0010-01), biographical note on Klara G. Roman (1881-1962), https://findingaids.archives.newschool.edu/repositories/3/resources/284 (Roman taught at the New School from 1948 until shortly before her death).
[^27]: Deutsche Biographie, index entry "Simons, Hans," GND 117397911, https://www.deutsche-biographie.de/gnd117397911.html, and GEPRIS Historisch, https://gepris-historisch.dfg.de/person/5111597 (death March 28, 1972, Yonkers).