C O M M U N I T Y + S O C I E T Y f ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■

fragments from

Karl Konig’s Life Journeyy o u th fu l s o c ia lis tic id e a ls , A n th ro p o s o p h y ,

a n d b u i ld in g th e C a m p h ill m o v e m e n t

B Y A N N E W E I S E

At Easter this year it was 50 years since the death of Karl Konig, M D , who is known to many as the jounder o f the international Camphill Movement, by some as a researcher in many areas, particularly in medicine. Despite his untiring work forming inclusive communities and as a much sought physician and councilor, he was also a prolife writer and lecturer. Since 2008 the Karl Konig Archive has been preparing a systematic New Edition of his works, today offering 16 volumes both in the English and German languages. Anne Weise, PhD, has been involved in research and archiving for this initiative since 2011 and has become one o f the carrying people o f this work. She is a co founder of the Karl Konig Institute for Art, Science and Social Life. —Richard Steel

One o f the most beautiful ways in which human beings can live together is when one person develops toward the other; when in the realm o f the soul one human being is becoming through the other. This is precisely the way in which human community can be most wonderfully established. (Rudolf Steiner, Vienna, September 29, 1923)

These words were spoken by Rudolf Steiner in Vienna only a few days after Karl Konig’s twenty-first birth­day, the time in the life of a human being when the ego forces start to awaken. Karl Konig always regretted not taking the opportunity to meet Steiner. Konig was not

present at this lecture, but these words seem to be a guiding star for his entire life; he was always striving for a real community with a mutual appreciation and a brotherly recognition of each other.

Like many others of Jewish background, Karl Konig’s parents moved to Vienna at the end of the nineteenth centuiy. The city was a unique melting pot of manifold cultures, where artists, musicians, philosophers, scientists, poets, painters, and students met in the city’s many cafes to discuss the com in g

of a new age. At the time of Karl Konig’s birth on September 25 in 1902, his parents were the owners of a shoe store in Leopoldstadt, a poor district where

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Karl Ktinig on the right in front, behind him hisparents, otherwise relatives (1912 ca.) Karl Ktinig (1929-1936)

Karl grew up. He was born with club feet, which caused lifelong struggles, and also meant often be­ing excluded from playing with other children. His parents were loving and accepting, but very often busy in their shoe store, leaving young Karl under the guidance of others such as a nanny, who was a Christian. She took him to church with her on Easter Sunday when he was five years old, and this made a lasting impression on him. From an early age he seemed to be carrying the hardships of the world on his shoulders, often giving away his own belongings, like a warm winter coat to freezing children in the streets. He could not look away when others suffered.

Many stories from his early years tell of a child who was deeply moved by the sorrows of his fellow humans. As a boy he went to the poorer neighbor­hoods to tell stories to the children there, dressed in a traditional kaftan. These early impulses of compas­sion and a growing sense of conscience were also nurtured by an inscription at a house for the poor. They were words from the Gospel of St. Matthew: “Whatever you have done for one of the least of these my brethren, you have done for me.” That was one of the impressions that led him at an early age from

the devout Jewish background toward Christianity. When he was around eleven years old, he not only had a hidden picture of Christ in his cupboard, but also read the New Testament and celebrated Christmas in his room. During World War I, he was only twelve to sixteen years old.

When he became best friends with Alfred Bergel, he was able to overcome the loneliness he felt at home. His parents had not been able to address his deep questions about science, spirituality, phi­losophy, and social injustice. In contrast, the Bergel family, and especially the father Arnold Bergel, was culturally very involved, giving Karl Konig the soul nutrition he had longed for. Konig, already having a foundation in music and literature, now started to write poems and plays. Arnold Bergel was an educa­tor to whom Karl always could turn for advice and discussion. Bergel listened to his questions about life, recognized his honest and vehement striving and willpower; and was able to give him the structure and direction he needed. Karl Konig wrote in his diary: “Mister Bergel is a great teacher for all around him. I have a lot to be thankful to him for.”

Arnold Bergel took Karl along with his sons for[ continued on page 63 ]

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C O M M U N I T Y + S O C I E T Y

K O N I G [ continued from page 61 ]

many hiking trips in the Alps, and the boys spent most of their time together, being in the same class in school. But they were together also in their free time, in nature, visiting art galleries, discussing literature, philosophy, religion, and more worldly matters. Alfred was a gifted artist with a particular talent for drawing portraits. One of his teachers was the exceptional gifted portrait­ist Gustinus Ambrosi, whose early musical talent could not thrive because of a childhood illness that had left him com­pletely deaf. Karl Konig was immensely impressed by his art work:

Ambrosi is the greatest artist phenomenon o f our time. My friend was with him and was al­lowed to draw him. And always when he told me about him, this phenom­enon captured me with an irresistible power. For me his art work and life come together with Michelangelo and Beethoven. Ambrosi is the true grand artist. The fighter for God, the al­ways seeking and strid­ing......He is a unique,grand human being. He passed his sacredness over to my friend. My friend becomes an art­ist more and more. He

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K 0 NIG [c o n tin u c d from page 63 ]

creates paintings which take hold o f you and make you happy. (Diaiy, March 10, 1920)

Even though he was rather lonely, Karl Konig’s search­ing young soul was guided and supported by various friends and mentors who inspired and contributed to his path in life. In this way his life-changing meet­ing with anthroposophy was prepared, step by step, starting around 1921. Even though none of these first

Aberdeen, he and co-workers of the embiyological institute of the University of Vienna, where Konig worked as an assistant from 1924 to 1927, read and discussed Steiner’s ideas about embryology:

When I was a young assistant I studied all these forms and stages o f the early human embryo and I was very astonished about it because it was against everything one ordinarily knew

occurrences were reported in his diary, later he spoke about these first meetings. After finishing school Konig started studying medicine at the University of Vienna, where he encountered teachers like the professor for speech therapy E. Froeschel, who was not only open to anthroposophy’s worldview, but also encouraged the students to read Steiner’s books about philosophy. Konig later wrote: “Time and again he mentioned Rudolf Steiner's Views o f the World and of Life as the best history of philosophy known to him and he encouraged us to study it.” (G. M. Husemann. Der Heilpadagoge Karl Konig. Stuttgart, 1971.)

According to a lecture given by Konig in 1941 in

about the human being. It was one o f the biggestblows to all theories...... IVe worked together,some assistants and the Professor and some other men, and we were very interested in the few facts which were discovered in all parts of the world, and let me say, by chance or destiny,I got a lecture that Rudolf Steiner had given in 1906. (Aberdeen, March 4, 1941)

Visiting an art exhibition, Konig had discovered a text by Rudolf Steiner next to a picture of a working man. These words made a deep impression on the young Konig:

64 LILIPOH Fall 2016

\Around 1921 was my first encounter with the name of Rudolf Steiner. In an exhibition of mod­em art I found a triptych of the painter Richard Teschner, who at that time was quite well known in Vienna. On the left was Confucius, on the right the meditating Buddha, and in the middle the figure of a modem proletarian. A verse from the Dhammapadam was below the buddha image; a word from the Lun-yu below

it!... The shock was deep and tremendous.... My path in anthroposophy now lay before me. I started read­ing the fundamental works of Rudolf Steiner.” (ibid)

On September 25, 1923, Konig’s twenty-first birthday, Rudolf Steiner had taken the train from Basel to Vienna for the last time, and spent ten days there. In addition to other lectures, Rudolf Steiner spoke in the Great Hall of the Vienna Konzerthaus about “Supersensible Knowledge: Anthroposophy

that of Confucius. ...Who was Rudolf Steiner, that he could appear next to the Buddha und Confucius? In the university library I got one of his books: Goethe’s World View. Reading it was deeply satisfying. But I was looking for more. (Autobiographic Fragment)

All these early encounters seemed to be in prepara­tion for Karl Konig’s actual life-changing encounter with anthroposophy in 1924, when he was 21 years old. “After a lecture at the university given by Eugen Kolisko (who later became my friend) about the metamorphosis of the bones, I got the book Ph ilosophy of Freedom by Rudolf Steiner. That was

as a Demand of the Age.” Even though Karl Konig did not meet Steiner in person, it was later discov­ered that in 1912 he and Steiner had both attended the same concert in Vienna, Bruckner’s Eighth Symphony.

Konig became a member of the Anthroposophical Society on March 23,1925, a few days before Rudolf Steiner’s death. In spite of being dismissed later with many others during the painful conflict in the Society, and being readmitted only in 1948, Konig continued to be connected with the impulses of the Christmas Foundation of 1923, as his source for inspiration and strength.

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KONIG [ continued from page 65 ]

Out of his compassion for other human beings, in his earlier life Konig had become a member of the association of Socialist middle school students, and later on of the Social Democratic Party, which was directly dedicated to real and immediate improve­ment of the living conditions of the poor. The main motif of Konig’s twenty-first year in particular, seems to be between his socialistic approach and anthroposophy, in the search for a remedy for social distress and disorder. In 1923 Konig visited Germany extensively for the first time, and while there at­tended a meeting of the Young Socialist Workers and also the congress of the Socialist Young Student International, who were demonstrating against the rising forces of nationalism. He was actually thinking about switching to the Social Science Department in university, but then he encountered anthroposophy. Looking back later, he wrote in his diary:

A much bigger experience, more important, deeper and determining for my entire life happened alongside: the first and personal acquaintance with the anthroposophical movement. I was prepared with my tools such as exact psychology, natural science, and foremost my social feeling and socialism.... There was the conflict with the socialism.To comprehend anthroposophy, and for its continued work a whole life was necessary; but at that time I destined my life to help others, right now! However, there was an unbelievable power which pulled me away from these things and drew me to this wisdom. ...I had to decide for anthroposophy.... But the conflicts were massive. A t the same time I was a Socialist and an anthroposophist and sought to unite the two. Both were ways out of the current chaos, but which should be taken? I could not deny either of them and had to take both. (Diary, Autumn 1923)

After Konig finished his medical studies in April 1927, he met Ita Wegman in Vienna at the funeral

of Rudolf Steiner’s sister Leopoldine. A discussion followed later, in which Ita Wegman invited him to work at her clinic in Arlesheim. They became friends, and Konig often turned to her for advice. He was soon working at Sonnenhof, a curative (therapeutic) education home where for the first time he met children with disabilities and learned to love them. While there Konig had a deep experience observing the children in the Advent garden. Watching the children gracefully carrying their candles, he realized he had found the purpose of his life. He later recalled: “And suddenly I knew, Yes, that is my future task! To awaken in each of these children its own spirit light so that it will lead it to it’s own humanity, that’s what I want to do!” (Autobiographic Fragment)

In Arlesheim, Konig also met his future wife, Mathilde Maasberg. She invited him to her curative home in Silesia where destiny suddenly called him. Konig was asked to join their work as a doctor, but he felt he had to decline because the institution was not big enough. On that very day, the Maasbergs were visited by friends, the von Jeetze family, who offered their castle for the curative work! Konig realized that fate had spoken, and supported by his growing connection to Tilla (Mathilde) Maasberg, he immediately said yes. For the next seven years, Konig worked as the medical doctor of this new curative home in Pilgramshain in Silesia. The wedding took place there in 1929, and three of their four children were born there. Konig undertook extensive lecture tours, especially on the social needs of the time, and together with Emil Bock he founded the Free School of Social Work in Eisenach in 1932.

Konig immersed himself in the traditions of the Moravian Brotherhood in which the Maasberg family was rooted. (This brotherhood dates back to Christian impulses of the Hussites, later carried forward by Count von Zinzendorf and Comenius.) This tradition became one of the pillars of Camphill, and is still helping to shape the daily life in Camphill to this day. Konig built up an extremely successful medical practice, but it became too dangerous to continue

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living in Nazi Germany, and he and his family left Pilgramshain in 1936 for Vienna, where they started anew. A group of young people had gathered around him during his many visits to Vienna and were now joined by others wanting to study anthroposophic themes with him. Many of these young people later formed the founding group of Camphill. They did not have much time, however, for after the annexation of Austria by Nazi Germany in 1938, they had to leave

their home country hastily and often under danger­ous conditions, because most of them were Jewish.

They had often discussed the question of whether community life was a solution to the social needs of the time and a way in which modern humans could live together. Thus, in 1937 the group had made the decision to jointly take up the task of working with disabled children and living together in community. Facing the emerging catastrophe in Europe, they were looking for a country where they could start their work. Konig wrote a detailed plan for the development of a curative institute, which already contained the essence of what later became

reality in Camphill. He sent the application to both the Irish and Cyprian Governments in 1938, with no success. Soon, however, Konig was invited to northern Scotland, where friends of Ita Wegman had offered Kirkton House near Insch for their work. Here the Konig family and members of the youth group moved in Spring of 1939. The Haughton family, who owned the estate, provided potatoes and milk for everyone, and soon a child and a young adult with special needs were given into their care. Now the young group could put into practice what they had dreamed about and discussed. But this period also did not go on for long. On Whit Sunday (Pentecost), 1940, Karl Konig and all the other men of the group were interned by the British government as enemy aliens. Soon thereafter, the women and children who were left behind moved to Camphill estate near Aberdeen on the banks of the river Dee, on old Templar grounds. Therefore June 1, 1940, is considered to be the beginning of the worldwide Camphill Movement. Konig was the first to be released in October, 1940; the other men followed later. They had used their time of imprisonment on the Isle of Man for deep anthroposophic work, and Konig brought back from there his idea of the Bible Evening, which is still held in many Camphill com­munities on Saturday evenings to prepare for the upcoming week in a spiritual way.

Despite many difficulties, conflicts, and hindrances Camphill grew, and many children were taken in. This approach of a family-like home for children with special needs was very new and aroused atten­tion. The students were taught according to Waldorf methods, were taken care of medically, and were nourished in their souls. The curative education impulse of Rudolf Steiner had found a new home, impregnated with Konig’s social impulses. In the midst of the catastrophes of World War II, Konig wanted to establish cultural islands to save the disappearing middle European cultural and spiritual impulses, and at the same time meet the British people and their needs. Konig and his friends worked on founding

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K 0 NIG [ con tinucd from page 67 ]

and developing their newly evolving community with children with special needs at the center. New endeavors like this can be demanding and challenging for those involved. They had many setbacks, but also joy, laughter, and inner fulfillment. Konig wrote in his diary in 1944: “And yet everything is depending on the activity of the individuality, that each ignites the inner flame for the other to be part of the Holy Spirit’s activity.” (August 31, 1944)

Karl Konig with Peter Hansmann on the right, St. John in Murtle (1961)

The path of Camphill from its beginning impulse to an actual realization has been full of thorns. The implementation of the Christ impulse of love into the social life is an immense undertaking. Over the years, Camphill in Scotland and the ensuing Camphill initiatives in other parts of Britain and in other countries were again and again newly adjusted according to the actual demands and circumstances. Soon Camphill became a movement all over the world. Konig experienced that children with special needs, and also adults, bring a higher task with them. For instance, to bring together human beings

in community, awakening love and compassion, not only in their parents and members of the family, but in the whole community. The socialism which Konig met and with which he already had wrestled with as a young man, became a “revolution out of the evolution of the human spirit.”

Camphill was and is today a good school for learning about oneself and the world around us, for applying social ideals in everyday life; it is obvious that this is no easy task. In an essay in 1961, Konig described Rudolf Steiner simply as a “worker,” as Konig had discovered him in 1921 at Teschner’s triptych, endeavoring to cany the spiritual impulses of anthroposophy into practical social life. Throughout his life, Konig saw Steiner’s task as a new foundation of Christian Socialism, in the sense of the Gospel words he had seen as a young boy above the entrance of the house for the poor in Vienna; and in the way that Rudolf Steiner had expressed it himself, at Michaelmas, shortly after Konig’s twenty-first birthday in Vienna:

One o f the most beautiful ways in which human beings can live together is when one person develops toward the other; when in the realm o f the soul one human being is becoming through the other. This is precisely the way in which human community can be most wonderfully established. (Rudolf Steiner, Vienna, September 29, 1923)

See www.florisbooks.co.uk/or a list o f books by and about Karl Konig.

There are currently more than 100 Camphill communities worldwide, in Europe, North America, South Africa, and Asia. LSan n e we i s e was born in Schwerin/Germany. She studied art history and cultural sciences at the Humboldt University o f Berlin, where she received a PhD in 1995. Since then, she has done free lance work in various areas. For the past years she has been working as an archivist and researcher for the Karl Konig Institute in Aberdeen, Scotland. Recently she published a book in Germany about the Holocaust victim Alfred Bergel who was a close friend o f Karl Konig.

For more information about the Karl Konig Institute and publications visit:w w w .karl-koenig-institute.net and w w w .karl-koenig-archive.net

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WEISE, ANNE. "Karl König's Life Journey." Lilipoh 21.85 (2016): 60-68. Consumer Health Complete - EBSCOhost. Web. 20 Dec. 2016.