Being Human: Diagnosis in Curative Education - Softcover

König, Karl

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0880102802 ISBN 13: 9780880102803

Publisher: SteinerBooks, 1994

Synopsis

What does it mean to be human? Human development unfolds in a twofold way. On the one hand, there is an ever-more profound incarnation, or “inhabitation,” of the physical body. On the other hand, there is the increasing discrimination of the individual objects of the world.

Difficulties and obstacles along this path can lead to so-called disabilities. König’s approach to curative education allows us to see these disabilities as meaningful ways of coping with or resolving the various problems that arise in living in a physical body. From this point of view, “disabilities” are exaggerated forms of ways we all use to cope with life.

“The point is not only to see the deviations, but to see them against the mighty backdrop of a comprehensive child anthropology.” Being Human presents the outline of just such a comprehensive anthropology.

Being Human is of value not only to those working in special education, but to anyone interested in the dynamics of incarnation and “normal” development.

About this title

About the Authors

Dr. Karl König (1902–1966) born on September 25th 1902 in Vienna, Austria, the only son of a Jewish family who owned a shoe shop. He studied zoology, biology, and medicine at the University of Vienna, graduating in 1927. During his studies on embryology, König encountered the works of Rudolf Steiner through Goethe's scientific writings. He immediately identified with Steiner and was soon acquainted with a number of his followers, including Ita Wegman.

Upon graduation, König was offered several high-profile positions in Vienna, but instead accepted an invitation from Ita Wegman to join her clinic in Arlesheim, Switzerland.

König's time at the Clinic would shape the Camphill movement. It was here that he met his wife and co-founder, Tilla Maasberg, and it was here that he first witnessed the Advent Garden. During this festival, during which children with learning disabilities circle a spiral of moss, lighting a candle from a large central beacon, he promised to dedicate his life “to the care and education of these children.”

Following his time at Arlesheim, König moved to Germany and was involved in founding the Pilgramshain Institute―one of the early curative educational (therapeutic) centers based on anthroposophy. However, due to the political pressure of the Nazi regime, König was forced to leave Germany in 1936. He returned to Vienna, where he operated a successful medical practice and led anthroposophic study groups until 1938.

Fleeing Austria after Nazi annexation in 1938, König became part of a small group of doctors, teachers, and artists to be granted political asylum in the United Kingdom in 1939. König moved to Aberdeenshire, Scotland, where this group founded a home for children with learning disabilities, which became the beginning of the Camphill movement. After World War II, more schools were established, as well as curative education villages for adults with disabilities, based on the ideal of working together as a community.

In the following decades, König's Aberdeenshire community grew and expanded into Britain, Europe, and North America, becoming the Camphill movement we know today. During this period, König worked tirelessly to help children and adults with special needs through publications, talks, and seminars―as well as by establishing communities around the world.

Karl König returned to Germany in 1964 and began yet another community, this one near Überlingen, on Lake Constance (Bodensee), where he died in 1966. 

Dr. Michaela Glöckler has been Leader of the Medical Section at the Goetheanum, the School of Spiritual Science in Dornach, Switzerland since 1988. She attended the Waldorf School in Stuttgart, then studied German language, literature, and history in Freiburg and Heidelberg. She studied medicine in Tübingen and Marburg and trained as a pediatrician at the community hospital in Herdecke and at the Bochum University Pediatric Clinic. Until 1988 she was a colleague in the children’s outpatient clinic at the Community Hospital in Herdecke and served as school doctor for the Rudolf Steiner School in Witten, Germany. Michaela has many publications in German, many of which have been published in English.

Cornelius Pietzner attended a Waldorf school and later helped found Camphill Soltane, serving also as President of the Camphill Association of North America. He was on the Council of the Anthroposophical Society in America and currently serves as Treasurer and Executive Council member of the General Anthroposophical Society in Dornach.

Edition details

• Publisher: SteinerBooks
• Publication date: 1994
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0880102802
• ISBN 13: 9780880102803
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 156