Becoming Human

Becoming Human: A Social Task – The Threefold Social Order

Karl König, the founder of the Camphill movement, was very aware of the need 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 practice themselves in the midst of everyday life.

C O N T E N T S:

Editorial Note
Introduction by Richard Steel
Motifs of the Social Mission in Karl König’s Life by Richard Steel

The Threefold Social Order

The Historical Context of the Threefold Social Order
The Failure of New Social Endeavors
The Spiritual Dimension of Human Development
Wonder, Compassion, and Conscience
Developing Responsibility in the Social Realm

Michaelmas and the Threefold Social Order

The Spiritual History of Central Europe and the Threefold Structure of Karlstejn Castle
The Michael Festival as a New Festival of Community
Temple Building and Community Building: Goetheanism and the Goetheanum

Appendix:
The Social Organism is Threefold
Report on the Journey to Bohemia

Notes
Bibliography
Index

About the Author

Karl König (1902–1966) was born in Vienna, in Austria-Hungary, the only son of a Jewish shoemaker. He studied medicine at the University of Vienna and graduated in 1927, with a special interest in embryology. After graduating, he was invited by Ita Wegman to work in her Klinisch-Therapeutisches Institut, a clinic in Arlesheim, Switzerland for people with special needs. He married Mathilde Maasberg in 1929. Dr. König was appointed paediatrician at the Rudolf Steiner-inspired Schloß Pilgrimshain institute in Strzegom, where he worked until 1936, when he returned to Vienna and established a successful medical practice. Owing to Hitler’s invasion of Austria, he was forced to flee Vienna to Aberdeen, Scotland, in 1938. Dr. König was interned briefly at the beginning of World War II, but on his release in 1940 he set up the first Camphill Community for Children in Need of Special Care at Camphill on the outskirts of Aberdeen. From the mid-1950s, König began more communities, including one in North Yorkshire, the first to care for those beyond school age with special needs. In 1964, König moved to Brachenreuthe near Überlingen on Lake Constance, Germany, where he set up another community, where he died in 1966.