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Paperback
June 2013
9780863159664
More details
- Publisher
Floris Books - Published
17th June 2013 - ISBN 9780863159664
- Language English
- Pages 256 pp.
- Size 5.5" x 8.5"
$26.95
Karl König, founder of the Camphill movement, had great compassion and empathy for people on the margins of society. Equally, he felt the same brotherly feelings towards the animal world. This remarkable book offers a closer understanding of some specific mammals, fish and birds and, along the way, great insight into human nature as well.
A combination of three previous editions, König considers the mythological and historical background, and unique characteristics, of elephants, bears, horses, cats and dogs; penguins, seals, dolphins, salmon and eels; and swans and stork, sparrows and doves. Together, the lively sketches form a visionary zoology.
“I'm sure you will realize how important this book is.... It really is an example of how we can begin to overcome the chains of Darwinism by forming our heart to be a new ‘Noah's Ark’!”
Camphill Correspondence
“For anyone who wearies of the ever-present and wholly inadequate Darwinian explanations, these essays will come as a breath of fresh air.”
New View
C O N T E N T S:
Elephants
The Bear Tribe and Its Myth
Cats and Dogs -- Companions of Man
Brother Horse
The Origin of Seals
The Life of Penguins
The Migrations of Salmon and Eels
Dolphins -- Children of the Sea
Swans and Storks
The Dove as a Sacred Bird
The Sparrows of the Earth
Karl König
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.
