Winter 2011–2012 Karl König Archive Newsletter 6 e Karl König Archive Newsletterr is published by the Karl König Archive www.karl-koenig-archive.netwww.kar Karl König Archive, Camphill House, Milltimber, Aberdeen, AB13 OAN, Scotland [email protected] Editors: Richard Steel and Christoph Hänni 1861 and the Man of the Middle A Study by Karl König of a Special Year ! e year of Rudolf Steiner’s birth is in yoke of serfdom. It is said that Ivan Tur- manifest itself in its tragic greatness. many respects a signifi cant nodal point genev’s stories moved the ruler to tears Whitehead is a physicist, mathemati- in the history of 19th century Europe and gave the moral impulse for the deed cian and philosopher. Steiner is a phi- and the wider world. ! e most diverse of emancipation. Not only the peasants losopher, seer and modern scientist waves of historical events meet there but also the lords of the manor them- of the supersensible. Tagore is a poet, as in a pencil of rays, fl owing together selves were at that time actually at the singer, educator and reformer.’ again and forming a fascinating pano- mercy of an over-preponderant feudal In the perception of the doctor, curative rama in which past and future meet. order. ey were all living in an ossifi ed, educator, universal scholar and founder With these words Karl König intro- patriarchal understanding of the world, of the Camphill communities, it is as duced the essay ‘Vor hundert Jahren— where the feeling for what it is to be a hu- though the three regions of the Earth, Zur Phänomenologie des Jahres 1861’ man being had come to a grinding halt. standing as they do before far-reaching (A Century Ago: A Study of the Year e Civil War in the United States had decisions, would seek to fi nd an ideal- 1861), which fi rst appeared in the jour- come about for similar reasons, although ised expression in these three repre- nal Die Drei. By immersing himself in in completely diff erent circumstances. sentatives: the historical context he sketched the e deeper reasons for this dispute, In Tagore and Whitehead the mighty prevailing mood of that time, which which did not only have to do with the contrasts between East and West be- can also be discerned in the paintings question of slavery, also lie in the battle come clearly manifest. For the one there of Adolph von Menzel, who depicted between the incipient industrialisation exist only objects, as they are encoun- the middle- and upper-middle classes of the North and the feudal landowners tered and discovered through events. together with the working-class as an of the South. What results is not an individuality emerging social group. On the basis of In addition to referring to Stifter’s but a ‘boundary’ , and God can be seen his knowledge of Steiner’s Historical Witiko, Flaubert’s Salambo and Hugo’s as the highest ‘irrational limitation’. Symptomatology, König described the Les Misérables, König singles out Das For Tagore, on the other hand, person- spiritual antecedents of that phase and Mutterrecht by Jacob Julius Bachofen. ality is everything. In it nature comes the failure to reach beyond the liberal Its intuitive analyses of mythologies lead into being and passes away; objects are ideas that arose in the 1840s to new so- beyond Graeco-Roman and Egypto- abstractions of an ill-formed under- cial and political forms. Babylonian times and shed light on the standing, which endeavours to compre- In 1861 Wilhelm I became King of struggle between matriarchal and patri- hend what is incomprehensible but can Prussia, after his brother Friedrich Wil- archal principles. Furthermore, the Hun- nonetheless be experienced. God is the helm IV, who considered himself to be garian doctor Ignaz Philipp Semmelweis all-encompassing reality, with whom one of the last kings to rule by the grace published his work on aetiology and the man can be wedded as a person. of God but who died in a state of men- prophylaxis of childbed fever. At that And fi nally: tal confusion. At the time there was also time approximately a third of mothers ! e only bridge that can establish a the idea that eventually ‘every human giving birth were dying from inadequate connection between these two worlds is being will be included in the status of hygiene in many hospitals. the spirit of Central Europe. ! e form divine right and acknowledged as such’. in which Rudolf Steiner has grasped, With Friedrich Wilhelm IV the heritage Whitehead—Steiner—Tagore recognised and transformed this spirit of classical Romanticism came to end, Finally—and the essential core of the forms the arch bridging the gulf between and with the deaths of Alexander von essay—he writes about three special West and East. ! e concern of Rudolf Humboldt and Schopenhauer ‘the last children who came to the world in the Steiner, the man of the middle, is the bearers of a spirituality for which the springtide of this year. ese were the forming of a conception of one’s own ego. second half of the century seemingly Englishman Alfred North Whitehe- e legacy of the boy born on 27 Febru- no longer had space vanished from the ad (1861–1947), the Austrian Rudolf ary 1861 in Kraljevec, amidst the king- scene’. In the same period as witnessed Steiner and the Indian, and future No- doms of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the unifi cation of Germany, the gradual bel Prize-winner Rabindranath Tagore under the name of Rudolf Joseph Lorenz collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Em- (1861–1941). Steiner, the man of the middle and much pire was beginning. In the West, in Central Europe and else besides, continues after one hundred In March 1861 Tsar Alexander II pro- in the East there appear the repre- and fi fty years to be thought and spoken claimed his manifesto for the emancipa- sentatives of an epoch which only about in many places in the world. tion of the Russian peasants from the now, a hundred years later, begins to Alfons Limbrunner – 1 – Social Work—Social Farming—Working with Biography Introducing a member of the Karl König Institute: Alfons Limbrunner Along with our friends from Aber- says and notes on farming. 2010 saw this volume (Landwirtschaft deen (Robin Jackson et al) Alfons und Gemeinschaft) get published in German with some new ma- was one of the fi rst to take up the terial and re-worked notes from agricultural conferences. After challenge of contributing to the Karl being active for that volume (which we hope to translate into Eng- König Institute, which is still in its lish soon) it became obvious that Alfons is too deeply involved beginnings, promoting research on with Karl König's work to leave it at that. Since then he has set many levels and encouraging projects up his own business, supervising, counselling and coaching on to further the work and intentions of biographical and organisational levels. Due to his interest for bio- Karl König. graphy he has now taken part in re-publishing biographical essays As social worker and lecturer at the König wrote about personalities involved in the time leading up Protestant College for Social Work to Rudolf Steiner's birth year 1861—a "World Historical Date", as in Nuremburg for many years Alfons you could read in the latest Karl König Archive Newsletter! % is Alfons Limbrunner has had contact to anthroposophi- volume we planned for the 150th Rudolf Steiner commemorative cal institutions and has read much year and by the time you read this we hope you already have it! In of Karl König's works. Amongst many publications about social English the title of this new volume is: At the " reshold of the Mo- themes he wrote a very interesting book in 1993 about "Waldorf dern World—Biographies around the Year 1861. Simon Blaxland Social Work" reviewing all areas of social work covered by anthro- de Lange has done a wonderful job of translation! posophical ventures. 2002 he wrote an article for Karl König's 100th But this volume will not be the end of our contact with Alfons! birthday about König and Adalbert Stifter. Since about 2003 he has Already we have started to work on a new edition of Brothers and been interested in developing "green social work" and joined the Sisters, which König originally intended to become a comprehen- European research sive study on the subject with 12 chapters—of which only the fi rst and action group was published! Unfortunately he did not manage to get that far for "Social farming" but the new edition will include his research and fragments for the around Prof.% omas unfi nished book. We will let you know about the progress on this van Elsen of Kassel theme soon. You can also check up on our website; there you can University. Out of fi nd more about and by Alfons Limbrunner, who is at the moment this background we very involved in practical social work at the German Camphill invited him to be Village Hausenhof. Richard Steel part of the work we http://www.karl-koenig-institute.net/heilpaedagogik.htm were doing with Karl http://www.karl-koenig-institute.net/naturwissenschaft.htm König's lectures, es- http://www.karl-koenig-institute.net/newsletter.htm Christmas Shopping — and what to look forward to in the New Year As Christmas comes closer we hope that they developed out of the 19th century. You Camphill, working with König for instance the wooden stands for the Soul Calendar see already that this theme continues both on horoscopes.