Karl and Tilla König and the creation of the Camphill Movement

Abstract

AbstractThe Camphill Movement is one of the largest independent providers of social care for people with a learning disability: there are 119 communities located throughout the world. From the start, the principal aim of the Movement—co‐founded by Dr. Karl König and his wife Tilla (née Maasberg) in Aberdeen—was to build communities in which children and adults with a learning disability could live, learn, and work with others in healthy social relationships. Karl König was born in Leopoldstadt, Vienna on the 25 September 1902 and died on the 27 March 1966 in a Camphill community in Brachenreuthe, Germany. Mathilde Maasberg was born in Gnadenfrei, Silesia, on the 9 March 1902 and died on the 17 September 1983 in the Camphill community of Fairways in South Africa. The paper focuses primarily on the lives of Karl and Tilla König and highlights the key points in their respective biographies. Whilst it is usually the name of Dr. Karl König that is associated with the Camphill Movement, a case is presented here that his wife significantly shaped the essential character of the Camphill way of life. She had been born into a Moravian Brethren settlement and latterly wove a strong, discernible and enduring element of Moravian practice into the fabric of Camphill life and work. Since the deaths of Karl and Tilla König Camphill communities have continued to seek the creation of environments where the economic, social and spiritual aspects of the community life complement one another. The paper identifies six key constituents that it is argued are central to the essence of Camphillness: mutuality, rhythmicity, spirituality, tranquillity, ecological sensitivity and economic sustainability. The paper ends with reflections on the 21st Century relevance of Camphill communities.