Waldorf enthusiasts today often believe that the German Waldorf schools were shut down by a decree of the Nazi government. This is untrue. Of the nine Waldorf schools in Germany in 1933, two were shut down by various parts of the Nazi regime: The Stuttgart school by provincial-level authorities in 1938, and the Dresden school by the Gestapo in 1941. The other Waldorf schools closed on their own initiative in 1939 and 1940, for a variety of reasons, sometimes exacerbated by restrictive measures imposed by parts of the government (one of them closed even earlier, in 1936, for reasons that had nothing to do with the Nazis).

Anthroposophical sources sometimes give inaccurate dates for these self-closures. Uwe Werner's book Anthroposophen in der Zeit des Nationalsozialismus, p. 375, claims that the Altona Waldorf school closed in April 1936, the Hannover Waldorf school in July 1937, the Kassel Waldorf school in June 1938, and the Breslau Waldorf school in March 1939. Wenzel Götte's dissertation “Erfahrungen mit Schulautonomie,” p. 544, citing Werner, reports the same dates. Werner’s dates refer to the earliest decision to close, rather than to the actual date of closure, and explicitly disregard the extensive 'Umschulungskurse' implemented by each Waldorf school to prepare their pupils for transferring to public schools. His data thus misrepresent by several years, in some cases, the date at which the schools ceased operation.

Werner’s claims are controverted by a mass of other evidence. One example is Emil Kühn, “Bericht des Vorstandes des Waldorfschulvereins,” Mitteilungen an die Mitglieder des Waldorfschulvereins Stuttgart, October 1937, p. 11, by an official of the League of Waldorf Schools, which refers unambiguously to eight Waldorf schools currently existing in Germany in October 1937; none of them had closed by that point. René Maikowski, leader of the League of Waldorf Schools and head of the Hannover Waldorf school, reports that the Hannover school closed in April 1939, not July 1937 (see Maikowski, Schicksalswege auf der Suche nach dem lebendigen Geist, 159); this is supported by archival sources, e.g. a September 22, 1938 memorandum from the Ministry of Education.

In a March 1938 letter to the Ministry of Education, eight months after Werner claims the Hannover school had closed, Maikowski proposed the Hannover Waldorf school as a candidate for ‘experimental school’ status, which meant official support from the Nazi state. The Hannover school was still a leading candidate for ‘experimental school’ status in October 1938, according to an October 25, 1938 letter from the League of Waldorf Schools to the Ministry of Education. As late as April 1939, League of Waldorf Schools spokesperson Elisabeth Klein noted that the Hannover Waldorf school was not only still operating but still applying for ‘experimental school’ status. (Klein's letter to Alfred Baeumler, April 2, 1939) Achim Leschinsky, “Waldorfschulen im Nationalsozialismus,” 272 indicates that the transitional courses, the 'Umschulungskurse', were not completed at the Hannover school until 1940. Archival sources also make clear that the Kassel school closed in March 1939, not June 1938.

Even the Berlin Waldorf school, which is sometimes held up as a shining example of a Waldorf school that decided to shut itself down rather than submit to further compromises with Nazi authorities, had a complicated history in this regard. After announcing in August 1937 their intention to close the following year, the faculty of the Berlin Waldorf school changed their minds a few months later. In December 1937 the school reversed course and applied for permission to rescind their prior announcement and continue operating past the following year. The municipal education authorities opposed this, and were backed by the Ministry of Education. In March 1938, when the process of 'Umschulung' or transitioning to public school was to have been completed and the school shut down entirely, the local school officials allowed the third and fourth grades to continue until April 1939 in order to prepare the Waldorf pupils adequately for transfer to public schools. Thus the 1937 decision for self-closure was not fully implemented until 1939. Also in March 1938, Maikowski proposed the Berlin Waldorf school as another candidate for ‘experimental school’ status (Maikowski's March 25, 1938 letter to Ministry of Education). The possibility of recognition as an ‘experimental school’ was still being pursued for the Berlin school even in April 1939 (Elisabeth Klein to Alfred Baeumler, April 2, 1939).

Peter Staudenmaier