Karl König

Infobox_Scientist
name = Karl König

|150px
image_width = 150px
caption = Karl König in 1930
birth_date = 1902
birth_place = Vienna, Austria
death_date = 1966
death_place = Brachenreuthe, Germany
residence =
nationality = n
field = Paediatrics/Learning disability
work_institution = Camphill communities
alma_mater = University of Vienna
doctoral_advisor =
doctoral_students =
known_for = Founder of the Camphill Movement
prizes =
religion = Jewish

Karl König was an Austrian paediatrician who founded in the Camphill Movement, an international movement of therapeutic intentional communities for those with special needs or disabilities.

Biography

König was born in Vienna, Austria on 25 September 1902, the only son of a Jewish shoemaker. He studied Medicine at the University of Vienna and graduated in 1927 with a special interest in Embryology. After graduating, he met Ita Wegman, an anthroposophical physician who invited him to work in her institute for people with special needs in Arlesheim, Switzerland. He married Mathilde Maasberg in 1929.

Following his work in Arlesheim, König was appointed paediatrician at the Rudolf Steiner-inspired "Schloß Pilgrimshain" institute in Strzegom, where he worked until 1936 when he returned to Vienna and set up a successful medical practice. He was forced to flee Vienna to Aberdeen, Scotland in 1938 due to Hitler's invasion of Austria.

He was briefly interned due to the outbreak of World War II, but on his release in 1940, he set up the first "Camphill Community for Children in Need of Special Care" at Camphill, by Milltimber, on the outskirts of Aberdeen. From the mid-1950s, König set up more communities, including the first to care for those with special needs beyond school age in North Yorkshire.

In 1964, König moved to Brachenreuthe, near Überlingen on Lake Constance, Germany, where he set up a community. He died there in 1966.

Bibliography

* Berger, Manfred: Karl König - Sein Leben und Wirken, In: heilpaedagogik.de, 18 2003/H. 3, S. 21-24
* Jackson, Robin: Holistic Special Education: Camphill Principles and Practice. Edinburgh : Floris Books. 2006. ISBN 0-8631-5547-2.
* Jackson, Robin: The Camphill Movement: the vision of Karl Konig. "Encounter: Education for Meaning and Social Justice", 19(3), 45-48. 2006
* Müller-Wiedemann, Hans: Karl König: e. mitteleuropäische Biographie im 20. Jahrhundert. Stuttgart : Verl. Freies Geistesleben, 1992. ISBN 3-7725-1153-8
* Schmalenbach, Bernhard: König, Karl. In: Plato, Bodo von (Hrsg.): Anthroposophie im 20. Jahrhundert : ein Kulturimpuls in biografischen Porträts. Dornach : Verlag am Goetheanum, 2003. ISBN 3-7235-1199-6
* Selg, Peter: Anfänge anthroposophischer Heilkunst. Ita Wegman, Friedrich Husemann, Eugen Kolisko, Frederik Willem Zeylmans van Emmichoven, Karl König, Gerhard Kienle. (Pioniere der Anthroposophie; Band 18). Dornach: Philosophisch-Anthroposophischer Verlag am Goetheanum, 2000. ISBN 3-7235-1088-4