Exhibition - Flipbook - Seite 13
Camphill Phase One
Foundations
The Camphill Movement grew out of the darkest of modern
times, was always focused on present needs and always looking
to prepare the future.
In 1938, Dr König was waiting for destiny to determine the place where
his ideas were to take on shape; born as they were in Central Europe,
it was clear that they would not materialise there. World events decreed
differently. In March 1938, Austria was overrun by Germany, not only
swelling the tides of refugee population in Europe but sending art,
humanity and charity finally into the great diaspora. It was in the end
to Britain that Dr König and some of his young friends came, various
possibilities of building up a new life in other countries having flared
up and died down again. Looking back one recognises the wise
guidance that caused the seed of the Camphill Movement to grow
on the soil of Britain where a peculiar sense of social responsibility is
coupled with an inherent respect for the person. It may well be that
without these two contributory elements characteristic of Britain, the
impulse of Camphill might not have assumed the nature of a movement.
Kind hosts put a little manse on their estate in the north east of Scotland
at the disposal of Dr König and his friends, and on 30 March 1939 in
the shadow of the oncoming second World War, the work began.
Kirkton House, near Insch
The pioneer group, 1940
For the 25th Anniversary of Camphill, Michaelmas 1965, Anke
Weihs wrote these words in an essay in The Cresset, then the
journal of the Camphill Movement: