ABOUT US

Erziehungkunst Introduces Itself

Here you find information about the editorial team, the history of Erziehungskunst as well as the Bund der Freien Waldorfschulen (the German Federation of Waldorf Schools).

The Editorial Team

Angelika Lonnemann
Daniela von Pfulstein
Heidi Käfer

Our team consists of the editor in chief Angelika Lonnemann, the two editors Daniela von Pfuhlstein and Heidi Käfer, as well as the editorial assistant Marion Rocca. The editorial team researches, writes articles, composes emails, makes phone calls, corrects, edits, revises, makes appointments, finds headlines, selects photos, puts articles on the homepage, makes plans, discards plans, and makes many decisions every day for the next issue of Erziehungskunst. Marion Rocca keeps track of the large amount of texts, pictures, authors, contact details and the calendar.

History of Erziehungskunst

In October 1927 the bi-monthly journal Zur Pädagogik Rudolf Steiners was issued for the first time as publication outlet for the association for a free school system, called Verein für ein freies Schulwesen in Stuttgart (Association for a Free School System in Stuttgart). The editor in chief at that time was Dr. Caroline von Heydebrand, an anthroposophical teacher who was in charge of a class at the newly founded Waldorf School in 1919.

In the 1927/28 school year, about 1,000 children already attended the Stuttgart Waldorf School, and in other schools in Essen, Hamburg, Hanover and Jena (curative education) there was a total of around another 1,000 students. There were already Waldorf Schools in Poland, Hungary, Norway, Switzerland, the Netherlands and England.

Since 1932 the journal is named Erziehungskunst. In 1950 the German Federation of Waldorf Schools became the publisher. Since then the magazine has been issued monthly.

Starting in 1970, the pages of the monthly issues were counted continuously. In 1987, there were 970 pages in total. In 1988, 1999 and 2008 the magazine was redesigned. Since 2009 all parents at German Waldorf schools receive the magazine through the school.

Wagenburgstraße

Bund der Freien Waldorfschulen (Federation of Waldorf Schools)

The German Waldorf schools united during the threat of national socialism in 1933 and then again in 1949 to found the Bund der Freien Waldorfschulen e.V. (Federation of Waldorf Schools), headquartered in Stuttgart. The Federation is a cooperative association that does not affect the autonomy of the individual Waldorf schools, but does share common tasks and interests. Members of the federation are currently about 250 Waldorf schools as well as 11 colleges for Waldorf education and 26 continuing professional development schools for Waldorf education. The goals of the Federation are: Commitment to independent and self-governing education, further development of Rudolf Steiner's pedagogy (Waldorf education), cooperation with institutions active in the field of Waldorf education in Germany and abroad, support and advice for individual schools, coordination of educational policy activities, organization of public conferences on Waldorf education, planning, implementation and coordination of teacher conferences, symposia of experts, further training and colloquia, financing of teacher training, public relations work, publication of the magazine Erziehungskunst. The Federation employs about 20 staff members.