Exhibition - Flipbook - Seite 6
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 moved to Kirkton House on January 30,
1940. Her parents and her youngest brother perished in the Holocaust.
Her husband, Bernhard (1913 in Hamburg–1979 in 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.