Peter Staudenmaier: Nazi supporters of Waldorf
Waldorf schools had a number of enemies within the Nazi state and party apparatus, from local and regional educational officials to high-profile figures like Martin Bormann and Reinhard Heydrich. Waldorf also had quite a few supporters within the ranks of the Nazi hierarchy.
Ohlendorf*
Anthroposophical sources generally credit a small number of figures in the party apparatus with long-term efforts on behalf of Waldorf education, most prominently Rudolf Hess, Otto Ohlendorf, and Alfred Baeumler. Each of these men did indeed play an important role in promoting and sustaining Waldorf initiatives during the Third Reich, and they are recalled fondly in the memoirs of Waldorf representatives. (I've discussed each of them before, and will set them aside for now in favor of lesser-known figures.) Waldorf advocates additionally viewed two high officials within the Nazi Ministry of Edcuation as allies of the Waldorf cause: Helmut Bojunga and Albert Holfelder. Bojunga was head of the Education Office in the Ministry of Education from 1934 to 1937, and Holfelder held the same position from 1937 onward; the position was known as the Minister of Education's right-hand man.
Other powerful Nazi officials also intervened occasionally in support of Waldorf and its advocates. Hess’s counterpart at the Führer Chancellery, Philipp Bouhler, provided early assistance to the leadership of the League of Waldorf Schools and arranged crucial contacts within the party hierarchy. Hans Schemm, the founding leader of the National Socialist Teachers League, was for a time viewed as a potential protector by Waldorf adherents. Even the Interior Minister, Wilhelm Frick, acted to impede the attempts by anti-anthroposophical Nazis to dismantle the Waldorf schools. After WWII, Nazi-era Waldorf leaders Elisabeth Klein and René Maikowski identified a number of further less prominent Nazi officials who were supportive of Waldorf education.
In practical terms, however, perhaps the most influential party and governmental figures working in favor of the Waldorf movement, generally behind the scenes, were Lotar Eickhoff, Alfred Leitgen, and Ernst Schulte-Strathaus. Leitgen and Schulte-Strathaus repeatedly used their positions on Hess’s staff to promote the interests of Waldorf schools and defend them from adversaries in other corners of the far-flung constellation of Nazi agencies. From his post in the Interior Ministry, Eickhoff launched a determined campaign to establish Waldorf education as an integral part of the institutional landscape of National Socialist Germany. The work of this group was moreover made possible by the continued support of both Hess and Goering.
The Waldorf movement also enjoyed at times a notably positive reception in the National Socialist press. The August 1935 issue of the Waldorf journal Erziehungskunst, 134-36, carried three pages of excerpts from the local, regional, and national press on various Waldorf events, including reports from the local Nazi newspaper, the Stuttgarter NS-Kurier, as well as the Völkischer Beobachter, all extremely positive. Three excerpts were included from the Völkischer Beobachter alone, the flagship Nazi newspaper. Even in 1939, a lengthy article in the Völkischer Beobachter explicitly embraced the “healthy” aspects of Waldorf education as an example of what is positive and worthy of adoption from anthroposophy into National Socialism; see “Wissenschaftliche Arbeit am nationalsozialistischen Gedankengut” Völkischer Beobachter January 29, 1939, 5-6.
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Zu Ohlendorf: "During the first nine months of Ohlendorf's year in command of Einsatzgruppe D, this force destroyed more than 90,000 human beings. These thousands, killed at an average rate of 340 per day, were variously denominated Jews, gypsies, Asiatics, and "undesirables". Between 16 November and 15 December 1941, this Einsatzgruppe killed an average of 700 human beings per day for the whole 30-day period. The intensity of the labors of Einsatzgruppe D is suggested by an April 1942 report upon its work in the Crimea, which states- "The Crimea is freed of Jews..."" Link als Ergänzung. Elisabeth Kleins Verteidigungsschrift zu Ohlendorf findet man in ihren "Begegnungen. Mitteilenswertes aus meinem Leben" " 112 ff, Freiburg 1978. M.E.
Ohlendorf*
Anthroposophical sources generally credit a small number of figures in the party apparatus with long-term efforts on behalf of Waldorf education, most prominently Rudolf Hess, Otto Ohlendorf, and Alfred Baeumler. Each of these men did indeed play an important role in promoting and sustaining Waldorf initiatives during the Third Reich, and they are recalled fondly in the memoirs of Waldorf representatives. (I've discussed each of them before, and will set them aside for now in favor of lesser-known figures.) Waldorf advocates additionally viewed two high officials within the Nazi Ministry of Edcuation as allies of the Waldorf cause: Helmut Bojunga and Albert Holfelder. Bojunga was head of the Education Office in the Ministry of Education from 1934 to 1937, and Holfelder held the same position from 1937 onward; the position was known as the Minister of Education's right-hand man.
Other powerful Nazi officials also intervened occasionally in support of Waldorf and its advocates. Hess’s counterpart at the Führer Chancellery, Philipp Bouhler, provided early assistance to the leadership of the League of Waldorf Schools and arranged crucial contacts within the party hierarchy. Hans Schemm, the founding leader of the National Socialist Teachers League, was for a time viewed as a potential protector by Waldorf adherents. Even the Interior Minister, Wilhelm Frick, acted to impede the attempts by anti-anthroposophical Nazis to dismantle the Waldorf schools. After WWII, Nazi-era Waldorf leaders Elisabeth Klein and René Maikowski identified a number of further less prominent Nazi officials who were supportive of Waldorf education.
In practical terms, however, perhaps the most influential party and governmental figures working in favor of the Waldorf movement, generally behind the scenes, were Lotar Eickhoff, Alfred Leitgen, and Ernst Schulte-Strathaus. Leitgen and Schulte-Strathaus repeatedly used their positions on Hess’s staff to promote the interests of Waldorf schools and defend them from adversaries in other corners of the far-flung constellation of Nazi agencies. From his post in the Interior Ministry, Eickhoff launched a determined campaign to establish Waldorf education as an integral part of the institutional landscape of National Socialist Germany. The work of this group was moreover made possible by the continued support of both Hess and Goering.
The Waldorf movement also enjoyed at times a notably positive reception in the National Socialist press. The August 1935 issue of the Waldorf journal Erziehungskunst, 134-36, carried three pages of excerpts from the local, regional, and national press on various Waldorf events, including reports from the local Nazi newspaper, the Stuttgarter NS-Kurier, as well as the Völkischer Beobachter, all extremely positive. Three excerpts were included from the Völkischer Beobachter alone, the flagship Nazi newspaper. Even in 1939, a lengthy article in the Völkischer Beobachter explicitly embraced the “healthy” aspects of Waldorf education as an example of what is positive and worthy of adoption from anthroposophy into National Socialism; see “Wissenschaftliche Arbeit am nationalsozialistischen Gedankengut” Völkischer Beobachter January 29, 1939, 5-6.
_________
Zu Ohlendorf: "During the first nine months of Ohlendorf's year in command of Einsatzgruppe D, this force destroyed more than 90,000 human beings. These thousands, killed at an average rate of 340 per day, were variously denominated Jews, gypsies, Asiatics, and "undesirables". Between 16 November and 15 December 1941, this Einsatzgruppe killed an average of 700 human beings per day for the whole 30-day period. The intensity of the labors of Einsatzgruppe D is suggested by an April 1942 report upon its work in the Crimea, which states- "The Crimea is freed of Jews..."" Link als Ergänzung. Elisabeth Kleins Verteidigungsschrift zu Ohlendorf findet man in ihren "Begegnungen. Mitteilenswertes aus meinem Leben" " 112 ff, Freiburg 1978. M.E.
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