Waldorf school

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The Trier Waldorf School, example of the typical style (anthroposophical architecture) of many Waldorf school buildings
Dr. phil. Rudolf Steiner (1861-1925), the first editor of Goethe's scientific writings, founder of the anthroposophical movement, developer of the art of education as applied in Waldorf schools, and head of the first Waldorf school in Stuttgart from 1919 to 1925

Waldorf schools are independent schools where Waldorf teachers teach according to the Waldorf education founded by Rudolf Steiner. Waldorf education is one of the best-known practical applications of anthroposophy, which was also founded by Rudolf Steiner and from whose mother soil it emerged. Many Waldorf schools have a Waldorf kindergarten attached to them. They are also known as Rudolf Steiner Schools, Free Waldorf schools, Steiner schools, École Waldorf in French and Vrijeschools in Dutch. There are currently 1251 Rudolf Steiner schools in 70 countries worldwide and 1915 Waldorf kindergartens in more than 59 countries (as of 2021)[1].

History

The Waldorf School emerged in the social turmoil after World War I from the attempts of Rudolf Steiner and his like-minded comrades to create a spiritual life independent of the state and to return science, art and religion to their assumed primordial unity. It ultimately developed out of general education courses for workers at the Waldorf-Astoria cigarette factory in Stuttgart, who wanted to gain a better understanding of their work processes and to develop Steiner's approaches to industrial science into a school for their children. For them, the first school was founded in 1919 by the owner of the factory, Emil Molt, and ceremoniously opened on 7 September. Men and women from a wide variety of professional backgrounds taught there: an officer, a factory owner, the railway engineer Alexander Strakosch and the self-taught Ernst Uehli. Steiner became the first headmaster, Herbert Hahn was initially the most important teacher for the humanities subjects and later moved more and more into Steiner's position. Before World War II a handful of Waldorf schools were founded in Germany and a few more abroad; all those on territory that had at some point been conquered by Hitler were forced to close. After the war, Waldorf people quickly regrouped and many schools were founded. After the rapid growth of the movement in the aftermath of World War II, the foundings were stopped in 1973; they now came about only on the initiative of parents because it was feared that the young school movement might otherwise be crushed by the overload of its own rapid expansion. Since about the beginning of the 1990s, the movement, which had previously enjoyed only popularity, has come under much attack, among others by the Catholic Church. In the meantime, its spread in Germany has stopped, there is a shortage of teachers, while Waldorf schools abroad are multiplying more rapidly than ever before.

Literature
References to the work of Rudolf Steiner follow Rudolf Steiner's Collected Works (CW or GA), Rudolf Steiner Verlag, Dornach/Switzerland, unless otherwise stated.
Email: verlag@steinerverlag.com URL: www.steinerverlag.com.
Index to the Complete Works of Rudolf Steiner - Aelzina Books
A complete list by Volume Number and a full list of known English translations you may also find at Rudolf Steiner's Collected Works
Rudolf Steiner Archive - The largest online collection of Rudolf Steiner's books, lectures and articles in English.
Rudolf Steiner Audio - Recorded and Read by Dale Brunsvold
steinerbooks.org - Anthroposophic Press Inc. (USA)
Rudolf Steiner Handbook - Christian Karl's proven standard work for orientation in Rudolf Steiner's Collected Works for free download as PDF.

References

  1. ↑ Waldorf_World_List.pdf
This article is partly based on the article Waldorfschule from the free encyclopedia de.wikipedia and is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike. Wikipedia has a list of authors available.
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