July/August 2010 God was a king and a father… Since God was a father, all men are children. But God is not a king, he is a spirit. He does not wish us to be children, but to be men and women. And as there are no more kings, it is now our duty not to be subjects, but to be co-rulers. God is not above he is within and over and under and around. Thornton Wilder, in: Wilder, Thornton and Donald Gallup (ed.), ‘Culture and Democracy’ American Characteristics and Other Essays, Authors Guild, 2000 pp. 70–71 Yellow Hill and Deep River, Ken Kiff Keeping in touch For Friedwart Bock ’m sitting looking out over a front garden bursting with from the Correspondence editorial group Ipoppies, surely one of the nicest times of year to be editing the Correspondence from my desk with a win- n Whit Sunday I was telephoned and told dow view. I hope that most of you have had a chance Oof the death of Friedwart Bock. Ever since to enjoy the good weather that has blessed us in the UK Maria and I have cared for the Correspondence and that as you open this July issue many of you can do or been involved with those who care for it now, so bathed in the warmth of sunshine. Friedwart was involved. When I first started editing I must admit to having kept a little secret, but in the the magazine, Friedwart would send me a card past months it has grown and grown and is hardly really after every issue thanking me for my efforts. His a secret any more: I am expecting a baby girl in mid- concern for the magazine has made an impor- September which we are very much looking forward to. tant contribution. When I lived in Botton I was As a result, Maria Mountain has kindly offered to take up involved with many villagers who were my age the reins of the Correspondence once again whilst I am and who had been pupils of Friedwart when they otherwise occupied with deciphering the complexity of were at school. They all had one amazing charac- reusable nappies, baby communication, wakeful nights teristic. Namely that they were never bored and and other such wonders of the universe. had a rich inner life. His ability as a teacher was I will still work on the September issue but Maria will second to none. Many people will no doubt write be on hold should I need to rush off before all the articles to us in order to remember Friedwart but may I are in. Thank you Maria! on behalf of the whole editorial group mention With warmest greetings, Odilia him and honour him for his serious concern for the world. That he should die so near the day that Kaspar Hauser appeared in Nuremberg is com- pletely congruent with his love for the protection of the image of man. Celebratory Birthdays July–August 2010 Deborah Ravetz for the editorial group Becoming 90 (Ed.) We are including articles and contributions on Friedwart’s life in this issue and also in the Lenie Seyfert-Landgraff, Clanabogan......... 8 July next where we plan to feature some of his work Becoming 85 from the Correspondence archive in tribute to Muriel Valentien, Winterbach .............30 August the support he so faithfully gave to the magazine. Werner Greuter, Basel ..................13 September Becoming 80 Ella v. der Stok, Thornbury ...................... 24 July From Kitty Henderson: (Ella will be in Wederburn, o doubt plenty of people will have identified the Camphill Estate, for her 80th) Nquote on the front of the latest Camphill Corre- spondence but I will tell you where you can find it, Becoming 75 nevertheless. It is to be found in: Awakening to Com- Harald Rissmann, Karl König Schule....... 14 July munity, Lecture IX Dornach 3.3.1923. In my edition on Alexander Kraft, page 155. (With thanks also West Coast Village South Africa .......... 21 July to Michael Reinardy for pointing this out. Ed.) Ilse Jackson, Hapstead, Devon................ 23 July Becoming 70 Artist’s note: Ken Kiff is a British artist influenced by Paul Sigrid Fulgosi, St-Prex.........................12 August Klee and Miro. He died in 2001 at the age of sixty-six. Gillian Brand, The Mount ...................12 August His work is about his inner life and displays an amazing mastery of colour. The death of his father in 1941 and Please contact Sandra Stoddard at the trauma he experienced then left him with what he [email protected] described as an inability to be ambitious and recurring for any changes or additions. depression. Many of his images are expressions of his own soul journey and contain images of great power describing archetypal human experiences. Deborah Contents Reflection Johannes M Surkamp .....................................................................................................................1 A special ACESTA event on ‘Legal Literacy’ with Frances Zammit Edeline LeFevre ..........................................2 Letter to members and friends of Eurasia Robin Collins ...................................................................................4 Alex Baum at the centenary of his birth John Baum ........................................................................................5 Alex Baum and the Ringwood Waldorf School Christine Polyblank.................................................................7 Letter ............................................................................................................................................................. 8 Obituaries: Friedwart Bock 9 / Susanne Müller-Wiedemann 11 Reflection Johannes M Surkamp, Ochil Tower, Scotland amphill, as part of the socially structured world, faces Neither were there any statutes determining inter-human Cchallenges on every level, spiritually, socially and conduct based on rank or qualifications. The karmic economically. Great changes have taken place and will aspect was important from the question ‘what has led do so in future. Yet in all these changes and transitions you here?’. Anke Weihs again pointed out that social we should not leave out of sight that Camphill carried interaction, often like trials by water and fire, brought an impulse, which on a deeper level was identical with about creative tensions which sometimes involved Karl the Christ impulse. König as a moderator. Social forms were introduced Historians might try to reduce the beginnings of which became the essential expressions of a common Camphill in 1940, in the Royal Deeside of Scotland, as commitment: The celebration of the Christian festivals purely driven by the outer necessities which the group of the year, the Bible Evenings and Offering Service, and of refugees from Middle Europe were facing. Some as- also the birthdays of all members of the community. sume that these refugees relied to a great extent on their With growing distance from the founder-years and in entrepreneur König taking on emergency powers and tune with the great changes of the nation since the war, dictating what had to be done for the group’s survival. new perspectives opened up. New governments, new While this aspect cannot be completely denied, it does policies and agendas initiated an integration process. great injustice to the intelligent and motivated individu- Several ideas pioneered by Camphill became main- als that made up the group. Every help extended to them stream politics such as the education of children with from outside was gratefully received, yet never without learning difficulties as practiced in the St John’s School of evaluation. Another basic issue must be considered: in Camphill. Partnership became the motto of co-operation. the anthroposophical concept of karma there is no ‘ei- This became particularly successful with the original ther–or’. Outer, as well as inner aspects are seen working in-house seminar linking up with Aberdeen University into one another. as a BA Training Course in Curative Education. This Before the group of young people around Karl König in academically recognised degree course attracted and Vienna 1938 dispersed for their own security, they read a retained voluntary student co-workers. passage from a lecture of Rudolf Steiner’s ‘Youth Course’ of While celebrating the success of the official recognition 1922 where Steiner appealed to the students to prepare a and stability which this partnership has brought about, chariot for Michael, the good spirit of our age, so that he it is the integration of the much smaller, younger entity may gain entrance into this, our time. This had become into the larger, older entity. From a wider perspective this to the members of this group a kind of manifesto, not in process can be seen and experienced as the smaller being any detail, but strongly as a concern of their hearts. swallowed up by the larger. Let us remember that Karl When members of this group found themselves togeth- König and our founder friends were looking to Camphill er again at Kirkton House, north of Aberdeen, they had and anthroposophy not as a survival strategy but as a kind to share the most primitive war-time living conditions. of yeast for the larger body social. They were convinced In spite of this, Karl König expected (beyond attending that anthroposophy and Camphill had a spiritual potency to all the practical necessities) that the group engage in and mission, even a responsibility, for a common future. spiritual–cultural endeavours during the evenings. The The disadvantaged, ‘handicapped’ were seen as allies in content was taken mainly from Rudolf Steiner’s work. It the much needed social changes in which the spirit of was Karl König’s selection which, years later was called community should present an important answer. the Breviary, a kind of vade-mecum, a steady compan- It is generally recognised that Mrs Thatcher in cahoots ion. To it belonged How to Attain Knowledge of Higher with President Reagan favoured individualism at the ex- Worlds, Christianity as a Mystical Fact, The Etherisation pense of community. In both their countries an awaken- of the Blood, Spiritual Science and The Social Question ing towards local communities is taking place and also and several other titles.