Exhibition - Flipbook - Seite 5
The Pioneers /2
Marie Blitz, later Korach, (1915 Vienna–2002
Camphill) got to know Karl König as his patient.
She studied medicine in Vienna. Although she
already had accomplished four years, she was
unable to complete her studies. She fled to London, where she worked as an auxiliary nurse in
a hospital and moved to Kirkton House when it
was officially opened on May 28, 1939, on Whitsunday. Marie carried the curative work but after
the initial phase, in 1951 she attempted to begin
similar work in the USA which did not succeed
for too long, then she spent many years teaching
in the early days of Camphill in southern England, in Ringwood, then in Waldorf
schools in Germany, studying and obtaining State recognition there, then in the
new Camphill schools in Germany, in Föhrenbühl and Nuremburg, before finally
returning to Camphill where she spent her later life, very active in the schools
communities and travelling to younger Camphill communities in England and
Wales to support teaching, therapeutic speech work and cultural life.
Barbara Lipsker (1912 Vienna–2002 Glencraig,
Northern Ireland), looked after the König children in the last years in Vienna when Karl könig
was re-building his practice after fleeing from
Silesia. At that time her name was Sali Gerstler,
and she was the one of the youth group who had
to endure Nazi Vienna the longest. She wrote:
The last months in Vienna were a very dark time.
The persecution of Jews began from the moment
when Hitler marched into Vienna. Sali could emigrate with a work permit as a nanny and arrived
in London on December 30, 1938. She visited the
friends during the pioneeer phase in Kirkton
House but was obliged to stay with her employer until December 1940 when she
moved to Camphill House. She moved to Kirkton House on January 30, 1940.
Her parents and her youngest brother perished in the Holocaust.
Her husband, Bernhard (1913 Hamburg–1979 Glencraig, N. Ireland) was not a part
of the youth group. Because of his Jewish background he had to interrupt his
studies of mathematics and physics and then moved to Britain in 1938, working
in the curative home that already existed in England, in Clent. There he met Karl
König who visited frequently for talks and conferences. It was also the center for
bio-dynamic farming in Britain. He re-met König in 1940 in the internment camp
on the Isle of Man and on release in 1941 moved to Camphill. He was a keen
gardener. Barbara and Bernhard were instrumental in the development of Camphill England (Thornbury and Botton), then in Glencraig in Northern Ireland.
Carlo Pietzner (1915 Vienna–1986 Copake, USA)
was, as Anke Weihs, one of the few in the youth group
who were not of Jewish origin. Like his grandfather
who had established a famous photography studio
in Vienna and was court photographer for the Emperor, Carlo also learned and loved photography. His
life was always dedicated to the arts, particularly
painting and he graduated summa cum laude from
the Viennese Art Academy. After he refused military
service for the German army, he also had to flee. In
the summer of 1938 he first went to Prague, where
he met Oskar Kokoschka and had long conversations
with him, staying in the same hotel with him and
painting there. From there he traveled via Switzerland to London, arriving in
January 1939, then moving to the Lake District, painting and writing a novel, from
where he was interned in May 1940. After his internment on the Isle of Man and
in Canada he again spent a short time in the Lake District before moving to Camphill in late 1941. Until the end of his life he was artistically active within the growing
Camphill Movement and beyond, creating many stained glass windows, painting,
writing plays, essays and poetry, giving many courses in all arts, including music
and eurythmy together with specialists in these fields, and was a prolific speaker.
Carlo was very instrumental in the development of Camphill in England, Ireland
and particularly in North America. The move with his wife Ursel to Glencraig
near Belfast in 1954 constituted the first major expansion of the Camphill Movement and 1960 they followed the call to the USA, where they helped develop the
school work in Pennsylvania, and the first American Village Community 1962 in
upstate New York. Carlo‘s deep commitment to furthering social questions
through Anthroposophy and art connected him to many, particularly young,
people the world over and inspired many for innovative social development.