Founding of the First Waldorf School - Waldorf Research Institute

May I give you the example of the German Waldorfschool movement? In the first phase, eight or nine schoolscame into being. Between 1945 and 1951, twenty-five schoolswere founded, five old ones and twenty new ones. Between1951 and 1969, three schools were added, so that by 1969we had twenty-eight schools. From 1969, the year when theStuttgart Waldorf school celebrated its 50th anniversary, untilthe year 1980 — Ernst Weissert died on January 2, 1981 —the German Waldorf school movement grew to two and ahalf times its number, from twenty-eight to seventy. That wasan eruption. How can something that has grown so much bepermeated so that development can continue in accordancewith the initial anthroposophical impulse? This becomes aquestion of life or death in the face of the growing difficultiesat the end of this century.We must become conscious of this in full earnestness atthe present moment, and this is why I am deeply gratefulto the destiny that has brought us together here for suchan exchange of ideas. I wanted to add this before I beginto describe the historical situation from which the schoolmovement originated, and then try to make visible thespiritual aspect — I shall describe it in detail — the ethericevent of the founding of the school — a historical-ethericevent.In a notebook for a lecture to parents in 1919, RudolfSteiner wrote down the following words: “Waldorf schoolhas come about in accordance with the demands of presenthumanity.” The Waldorf school movement is linked with thedevelopment of mankind. We must make clear to ourselveshow we are connected and integrated into the world-historicalprocess. This is why mention must be made of how RudolfSteiner intervened in history during a dramatic moment.13