Karl König Archives

At the Threshold of the Modern Age
Biographies Around the Year 1861

Karl König; Translated by
Simon Blaxland de Lange

Karl König Workedition |

Format: paperback Extent: 400 pages
Size: 216 x 138 mm
ISBN: 9780863158452
Publisher: Floris Books

£20.00

The late nineteenth-century was an era of contrasts. On the one hand, philosophical materialism was increasing its influence over science. On the other, there was a growing social awareness and quest for spiritual values.

The Threefold Social Order
Karl König
Edited by Richard Steel
Translated from German by Carlotta Dyson

Karl König, the founder of the Camphill Movement, was very aware of then eed for change in the social order he saw around him. In this revealing collection of imaginative thought and ideas, he shows, however, that true social change must begin in individuals. He goes on to say that renewal is something each human being can practise themselves, in the midst of their everyday life.

In the Karl König Archive series, volume 8
216 x 138 mm
192 pp
978-086315-809-4
paperback
£14.99       Review from 'Camphill Correspondence, Jan/Feb 2012'

Edited by Richard Steel

As human beings, we have a great longing for community, to feel part of something. Despite this apparent need, the opposite tendency is evident everywhere: a growing individualism leading to the breakdown of relationships, conflict and war. How can we connect meaningfully with our fellow human beings and build successful communities, whilst also cultivating a healthy individuality? Karl König considered that finding answers to these questions was one of the central tasks of anthroposophy, as well as its greatest potential downfall.
Seventy years ago, he founded the Camphill Movement as a search for social renewal and healing from new sources.As part of a growing dialogue between people within and outside of Camphill, a conference called Community Building in the Light of Michael took place at the Goetheanum in 2009. The contributions in this book originate from there; contributors include:
• Cornelius Pietzner
• Virginia Sease
• Penelope Roberts-Baring
• Sergei Prokofieff
• Peter Selg
• Bodo von Plato.

In the Karl König Archive series, volume 9
216 x 138 mm
144 pp
978-086315-810-0
paperback
£14.99

Edited by Richard Steel
Translated from German by Simon Blaxland de Lange


Karl König meditated intensely on the 52 weekly verses of Rudolf Steiner’s Calendar of the Soul. He often encouraged his colleagues to find inner strength from the verses, and wrote this book as a guide for them, drawing out the patterns through the course of the year.

There are also some lecture notes and additional essays.
This book will be a useful and inspiring guide for anyone who wants to fully understand and experience Steiner’s Calendar.

In these lectures König explores the human being and social life, the individual and community, from an imaginative and often radical perspective. These explorations range majestically from masks and archetypal images, the threefold constitution in man and woman, the karma of vocation, and the fundamental social law, to the place of work, religion and culture within the threefold social organism, and karma and reincarnation.

These lectures arose from Karl König's experiences in building up Camphill Communities with extraordinary people with special needs. They are important both for the work in Camphill, as well as more broadly in the field of social therapy and beyond.

This is a revised and expanded edition of the Village Conference Lectures of Karl König, previously published as In Need of Special Understanding.

Review from the magazine "New View" 3/2010   

Born in 1902 into a Jewish family, Karl König grew up in Vienna in
the lastyears of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
He studied medicine and during thistime came across the work of Rudolf Steiner. Soon after graduating he worked with Ita Wegman
in Switzerland, where he also met his wife, Tilla. He founded a
home for children with special needs, Pilgrimshain, in Silesia,
Germany.

However, in 1935 under political pressure he left Germany for
Austria. Here he had a large medical practice as well as being the
focus ofa group of young people interested in Steiner's work. Following the annexation of Austria by the Nazis, König and many
of the young people around him came to Britain as refugees.
The ideal of working together as a community was put into practice
with the founding of Camphill in 1939. König was the driving force
behind the expansion of the Camphill movement across the British
Isles, into Europe, South Africa and North America. He died in 1966.

Ita Wegman, born in 1876 to a Dutch family living in Indonesia, first
met Rudolf Steiner in Berlin in 1902 when she was 26 years old. She
studied medicine at the University of Zurich and in 1917, following
Steiner's indications, developed a treatment for cancer using
mistletoe. In 1921 she founded the first anthroposophical medical
clinic, in Arlesheim, Switzerland, followed in 1922 by the Sonnenhof
home for children with special needs.

Karl König first met Wegman in 1927, and she quickly recognized his
great potential, as well as his weaknesses. She invited him to work
at the Arlesheim clinic as her assistant, and encouraged and
advised him in his medical work.

This book includes the complete correspondence between König
and Wegman