The Birth of the Worldwide Camphill Movement in the North of Scotland: The Challenging Vision of Dr Karl König

Abstract

This article describes the genesis and development of the Camphill movement, originating in north-east Scotland. Attention is paid to the factors influencing its founder, Dr Karl König. These were strongly international in nature, including central-European trends in anthroposophy and socialist politics, as well as the educational practices of the Moravian Brethren. Influential also was König's background in the Jewish community of Vienna, before he was forced to flee due to the Anschluss of 1938. The founding of the Camphill movement (in 1940) also owed much to Scottish patrons and influences, emanating especially from the north-east and the western isles in the form of the Haughtons of Williamson, Will MacMillan and George MacLeod. Camphill is now a worldwide movement, and its core philosophy of a desire to create and maintain an educational environment where the economic, social and spiritual lives of the community are complementary is outlined. It is argued that König was an influential figure, for instance within social pedagogy. He was able to show, initially in the north-east Scottish location where his vision first developed that, contrary to accepted medical opinion of the time, no child, young person or adult with an intellectual disability was ineducable.