In 1918, he met Rudolf Steiner. Shortly after 1920 he settled in Hamburg. After studying anthroposophy as autodidact for seven years, he tried to bring Rudolf Steiner into the discussions of the scientific world. In 1928, he published the Rudolf Steiner-Blätter for those who wanted to comprehend the so-called Rudolf Steiner Event.
In 1938, together with his friend, Edith van Cleef, he leaves Hamburg, Germany and moves back to Switzerland. In Lamone near Lugano he lives painting and writing for the remaining 20 years in almost total solitude. He writes about physics, philosophy, and theology – as anthroposophy. In his writings he targets fundamentals without compromises; he possesses huge natural scientific and spiritual scientific knowledge, thus the level of his publications was mostly very high.
In studying his works readers can experience sensitive self-encounters, (sadly) often without further consequences (in their own development). Ballmer, similar to Steiner, could be himself seen as an "Event" in development of mankind – as confrontation with the world process, of which he takes part.
Karl Ballmer's research in cognitive science and the evolution of the human self-awareness was influenced mainly by two books, 1) Rudolf Steiner's "Occult Science" (1909) and 2) Louis-Claude de Saint-Martin's "Irrthümer und Wahrheit, oder Rückweiß für die Menschen auf das allgemeine Principium aller Erkenntniß" (1782). (See quote from Karl Ballmer's "Deutsche Physik — von einem Schweizer" in the latter.)
Works
Rudolf Steiner und die jüngste Philosophie, Hamburg 1928
