Editorial
Change of place
Dear Reader, Four-year-old Vanessa tells me precisely what it’s like when one has died. “Grandma looks down from heaven and waves to us. And then she returns as a baby. And then Daddy goes to heaven and then Mummy.” And so it goes on in sequence with her older siblings. Finally: “And then I go and also wave.” Everyone returns, life is not interrupted: “And everyone comes back!” Death only takes all of them to another place, like going on an excursion. “Don’t we fall down from there?” I listen curiously and while I am still thinking about an answer Vanessa laughs: “The clouds are soft, and so is Mummy’s tummy.” Vanessa has cancer and is a survivor. The musician Viktor Ullmann was deported to Theresienstadt in 1942. There he wrote his opera The Emperor... [more]
Fear of death? Not at all – I’ve had my life
People’s view of birth and death in the course of history clearly reflects their basic attitude to life. Throughout their development, human beings have increasingly lost their connection with the hereafter – to the extent of completely losing the spiritual dimension. [more]
About “dying and becoming” in learning
Birth and death are not only located as facts at the beginning and end of our life. They are the result of processes which continuously take place and, properly understood, bear great developmental opportunities within themselves. Claus-Peter Röh, head of the Pedagogical Section in Dornach and a class teacher in Flensburg for many years, shows how in teachers themselves passing away and coming into existence are associated with dying and being born, something which the pupils also experience daily. [more]
Publisher's View
Setting a light to powder kegs or ideas
In September, sixteen people died in Pakistan because a fanatic in the USA had insulted the Prophet Mohammed in a film. That led to angry protests in the Muslim world which escalated into bloody violence in several countries and which also claimed the life of the US ambassador in Libya. How things will continue is hard to say today; but one thing is certain, this is not the last “intercultural” powder keg which was made to explode by a single spark. Our children are growing up in a world in which the differences between cultures, religions and a sense of justice are becoming increasingly pronounced. This is a world which is subject to a never-ending wave of emotional kitsch produced by gigantic media machines, in which financial speculators can... [more]
Waldorf worldwide
Who doesn’t need eurythmy? A help for delinquents, crises and businesses
An interview with Olaf Koob (doctor), Noemi Böken (eurythmist) and Beatrix Hachtel (eurythmy therapist). [more]
Waldorf worldwide
Top of the Pisa class – but at a cost. Waldorf education is flourishing in Korea
People have an idea and act on it. Such proactive people include the Korean Cheong Hie Lee. In the 1990s, she studied German, linguistics and art history in Marburg where she became acquainted with Rudolf Steiner’s writings which took her to the Waldorf teacher training seminar in Stuttgart. [more]
Young writers
My brief life with death
“I will probably never knot a tie with such a peculiar feeling again,” I reflect and pull the wide end of the tie through the loop. Done. He looks good the way he is lying there, in his best suit and the wreath of roses around the pale, folded hands. Diego died a few hours ago at the age of 62. Diego was not related to me, we weren’t friends either. Nevertheless, my contact with him recently was very close – I nursed him until he died. The reason for that is my four-week work placement in a hospice in Zurich. I can’t say exactly why I particularly wanted to spend these four weeks with terminally ill people. I think I was interested above all in gaining an insight into life situations which were alien to me. Whereas I am young and have a thousand... [more]
Bund der Freien Waldorfschulen e.V.