Ita Wegman

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Ita Wegman (1899)

Maria Ita Wegman (born February 22, 1876 in Karawang near Batavia ( Dutch Indies , today Jakarta , Indonesia ); † March 4, 1943 in Arlesheim ( Switzerland )), called Ita Wegman all her life , was a central figure in anthroposophic medicine as a doctor which she founded together with Rudolf Steiner .

In 1921, the socially committed gynecologist founded an anthroposophical private clinic in Arlesheim, from which today's Arlesheim Clinic emerged . There she also developed the rhythmic massage as an anthroposophically shaped direction of the classical massage . From 1923 to 1935 she was a member of the board of the General Anthroposophical Society and headed the medical section of the associated School of Spiritual Science at the Goetheanum in Dornach . Ten years after Rudolf Steiner's death, on April 14, 1935, she was expelled from the Society at the General Assembly of the General Anthroposophical Society.

Life

Youth and education

Ita Wegman was born in Karawang near Jakarta in 1876. She grew up in the upper-class milieu among the Dutch in what was then the colony of the Dutch East Indies . Her father ran a sugar factory there in Parakan-Terus . In 1894 she got engaged, but her fiancé died. She then turned to the modern theosophy founded by Helena Petrovna Blavatsky , which was quite important in India at the time. In 1900 she went to Europe, where in 1902 she obtained a diploma “in Swedish therapeutic gymnastics and massage” and opened a therapeutic center for physical therapy in Berlin. There she met Rudolf Steiner in 1902, who had just been appointed General Secretary of the German Section of the Theosophical Society , an offshoot of the Adyar Theosophical Society based in India .

In 1906 she began studying medicine in Switzerland at the University of Zurich , because at that time it was not yet possible for women to study medicine in Germany. From 1909 to the end of 1910 she moved to the University of Munich for two semesters . In Zurich she obtained her license to practice medicine in Zurich in 1911 and her doctorate in 1912. From October 1912 to around August 1914 she worked at the Theodosianum Hospital in Zurich. From 1915 she was an assistant doctor at the gynecological clinic in Zurich. After completing her specialist training, she opened her own practice in Zurich. In April 1919 she worked with the gynecologist Anna Baltischwiler in a private clinic founded by Ferdinand Sauerbruch . Around 1920 she went to Basel, where she worked as a gynecologist between January 1921 and 1928.

Sanatorium in Arlesheim

Clinic Arlesheim

Wegman was interested in Steiner's occasional suggestions for an anthroposophically oriented alternative medicine as early as the 1910s , and in March and April 1920 she participated as a lecturer in the three-week “First Doctors Course”, in which Steiner developed the basics of future anthroposophic medicine in detail for the first time . On September 27, 1920 she bought a property in Arlesheim near Basel for a planned sanatorium for 65,000 francs, in the immediate vicinity of the Goetheanum , the center of the anthroposophical movement in Dornach . On June 8, 1921, she opened her anthroposophical sanatorium (now the Arlesheim Clinic ). Steiner, who lived nearby, also appeared at the opening and suggested that the hospital be named Clinical-Therapeutic Institute . Twelve to fifteen patients could be admitted to the sanatorium, for which the name Steiner proposed became natural over time. At the same time and closely connected to Wegman's institute, a therapeutic product manufacturing facility emerged from which the later International Laboratories AG and finally today's Weleda AG emerged . In 1922 Wegman, also in Arlesheim, founded the Haus Sonnenhof special educational home for children “in need of soul care”.

Foundation of anthroposophic medicine

Ita Wegman in middle age

Wegman was Steiner's closest collaborator in founding anthroposophic medicine. At first irregularly, later on a daily basis, Steiner made visits to Wegman's clinic in order to go through the medical histories of the respective patients, to check the course of therapy and to make suggestions for therapy. After the rounds, he discussed with Wegman and her interns and gave advice on medical treatment. On December 28, 1923, he entrusted Wegman with the management of the medical section of the newly founded School of Spiritual Science at the Goetheanum. At the same time she was appointed secretary of the board of the General Anthroposophical Society (AAG). On January 1, 1924, Steiner put Wegmann at the center of the esoteric school, which was re-established by her suggestion in 1924. On March 11, 1924, the first and only circular for doctors appeared, which was jointly signed by Steiner and Wegman. At the same time, Steiner announced that Wegman would give meditations in the future, an award that he always denied his wife.

Love relationship with Steiner

Wegman's privileged access to Steiner, with whom she had had a "friendly student-teacher relationship" since 1907, resulted in a love affair that took on enthusiastic features in the summer of 1924 and is documented by Steiner's love letters to his girlfriend. Steiner interpreted the relationship with Wegman as karmic and claimed that they both led a life together at the time of the philosopher Aristotle . According to Steiner, Wegman is said to have been a Persephone priestess in a previous life and was also written to by him with “My dear Mysa-Ita”. Steiner designed the blueprint for Wegman's own house, which was ready for occupancy in 1924.

Steiner's death

Steiner moved out of the Hansi house, which his wife lived in , and took up residence in the carpenter's workshop. On October 1, 1924, his lover Ita Wegman moved into an adjoining room of his sick bed in the studio in order to be able to care for him and provide him with medical care. On the evening of March 29, 1925, Wegman had Steiner's wife , who was on a eurythmy tour in Stuttgart, informed about her husband's deteriorating health. But Marie Steiner, who could not arrive until the next morning, no longer found her husband alive. At the end of 1925 Wegman posthumously published the book Fundamentals for an Expansion of the Art of Healing , which he wrote jointly with Steiner, according to the humanities .

Expulsion from the AAG and posthumous rehabilitation

With Steiner's death Wegman lost her important extensive protection within the General Anthroposophical Society (AAG). She tried in vain to take over the “esoteric” leadership function of the AAG, as her opponents, especially the widow Marie Steiner , tried to push her out of the center of anthroposophy in Dornach. After a long time, it was finally excluded from the AAG on April 14, 1935 at the turbulent General Assembly. The motives behind the allegations were also power-oriented and financial. Personal differences also came into play. Marie Steiner (until Marie von Siever's marriage in 1914) had been Rudolf Steiner's closest colleague from 1902, while Wegman had only been accepted into the leading group in the last years of his life. In addition, Wegman's medical practice has increasingly become the subject of open criticism, for example about questions of the “right” cancer therapy. At the General Assembly of the Anthroposophical Society in 1948 Wegman was posthumously rehabilitated and her exclusion lifted.

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In addition, there was a conflict on the board of AAG about the future direction of work, in which Ita Wegman and Marie Steiner took opposing positions. Marie Steiner was of the opinion that without the deceased spiritual teacher only what had been achieved could be preserved, and in future she wanted to dedicate herself above all to the publication of the literary estate. Wegman, on the other hand, postulated that the deceased could continue to influence the executive committee appointed by him from the spiritual world and that the latter had to continue to actively implement the spiritual impulses that took place in this way.

Central figure in the anthroposophical medical profession

Although Ita Wegman was expelled from the AAG, she rose to become a central figure in the anthroposophical medical profession. In Switzerland and the neighboring countries she devoted herself to setting up anthroposophic medical centers and sanatoriums. After her expulsion from the AAG in 1935, she and her remaining followers founded the United Free Anthroposophical Groups . She also remained the director of the Arlesheim clinic and in 1936 founded a branch in Ascona , the Casa Andrea Cristoforo. Also in 1936 she founded a medical center for the anthroposophical movement in Paris, which was closed again after the German troops marched in in May 1940. During the war years she stayed mainly in Ascona, where she spent the last years of her life.

Death and Estate Administration

Ita Wegman died in 1943 at the age of 67 during a working visit to Arlesheim. Her urn was buried in Brissago in a chapel decorated with frescoes by the artist and art therapist Liane Collot d'Herbois - a close friend of Wegman .

Wegman's extensive estate is now in the archive of the Ita Wegman Institute in her former home on the premises of the Arlesheim Clinic, which Rudolf Steiner had built from wood for her.

Works

literature

  • Clinical-Therapeutic Institute (ed.): Memories of Ita Wegman . Arlesheim 1945; 3. Edition. ibid. 1987, ISBN 3-85817-063-1 .
  • Ita Wegman Fund (ed.): Ita Wegman's life from today's perspective . Natura, Arlesheim 1976; 2nd Edition. ibid. 1980, ISBN 3-85817-064-X .
  • Willem F. Daems: Ita Wegman: Zurich time 1906–1920. First medical cancer treatment with mistletoe . Verlag am Goetheanum, Dornach 1986, ISBN 3-7235-0440-X .
  • J. Emanuel Zeylmans van Emmichoven: Who was Ita Wegman. A documentation . 3 volumes. Reutlingen 1990–92 and Dornach 1992–2004; Volume 4: Arlesheim 2009.
  • Wolfgang Weirauch (Ed.): Ita Wegman and Anthroposophy. An interview with Emanuel Zeylmans (= Flensburger Hefte. Special Issue No. 17). Flensburger Hefte Verlag, Flensburg 1996, ISBN 3-926841-77-X .
  • Peter Selg : "I am for progress". Ita Wegman and the Medical Section . Verlag am Goetheanum, Dornach 2002, ISBN 3-7235-1140-6 .
  • Peter Selg: The last three years. Ita Wegman in Ascona 1940–1943 . Publishing house at the Goetheanum. Dornach 2004, ISBN 3-7235-1205-4 .
  • Peter Selg: The angel over the Lauenstein. Siegfried Pickert , Ita Wegman and curative education . Verlag am Goetheanum, Dornach 2004, ISBN 3-7235-1209-7 .
  • Peter Selg: Dying, Death and Spiritual Life. Ita Wegman's letters of condolence and anthroposophical spiritual science's understanding of death . Verlag am Goetheanum, Dornach 2005, ISBN 3-7235-1228-3 .
  • Peter Selg: Spiritual Resistance and Overcoming. Ita Wegman 1933-1935 . Verlag am Goetheanum, Dornach 2005, ISBN 3-7235-1229-1 .

Web links

Commons : Ita Wegman  - album with pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Michaela Glöckler : Ita Wegmann
    Ita Wegmann School Benefeld : Keep your heart warm, this is the only way not to become alienated from one another, even if opinions differ .
  2. ^ Helmut Zander: Anthroposophy in Germany. Theosophical worldview and social practice 1884–1945. 2nd, revised edition. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2007/08, Vol. 1, ISBN 978-3-525-55452-4 , p. 248.
  3. ^ Helmut Zander : Anthroposophy in Germany. 2007, p. 1531 f.
  4. ↑ Bodo von Plato: On the development of the Anthroposophical Society. A historical overview. Free Spiritual Life, Stuttgart 1986, p. 65 f.
  5. ^ Helmut Zander: Anthroposophy in Germany. 2007, p. 1532.
  6. ^ Helmut Zander: Anthroposophy in Germany. 2007, p. 1489 f.
  7. ^ Helmut Zander: Anthroposophy in Germany. 2007, p. 1532 and 1547 f.
  8. ^ Robert Jütte: History of Alternative Medicine. Beck, Munich 1996, p. 253 f.
  9. ^ A b Helmut Zander: Anthroposophy in Germany. 2007, p. 1534.
  10. ^ A b Robert Jütte : History of Alternative Medicine. Beck, Munich 1996, p. 254.
  11. ^ Robert Jütte: History of Alternative Medicine. From folk medicine to today's unconventional therapies. Beck, Munich 1996, ISBN 3-406-40495-2 , p. 253.
  12. ^ Helmut Zander: Anthroposophy in Germany. 2007, p. 1535 and 1548.
  13. ^ Helmut Zander: Anthroposophy in Germany. 2007, p. 1535.
  14. ↑ Emanuel van Emmichoven: Who was Ita Wegmann . Edition Georgenberg, Heidelberg 1992, Vol. 1, ISBN 3-7235-1075-2 , p. 244; Vol. 3, ISBN 3-929104-02-4 , pp. 120–121 and p. 199.
    Helmut Zander: Rudolf Steiner. The biography. Piper Verlag, Munich 2011, ISBN 978-3-492-05448-5 , p. 465.
  15. ↑ Rudolf Steiner, Ita Wegmann: Fundamentals for an expansion of the healing arts according to humanistic knowledge. Goetheanum, Dornach 1925.
  16. ^ Helmut Zander: Anthroposophy in Germany. 2007, p. 1539 f.
  17. ^ Helmut Zander: Anthroposophy in Germany. 2007, p. 1540.
  18. ↑ Bodo von Plato: On the development of the Anthroposophical Society. A historical overview. Free Spiritual Life, Stuttgart 1986, pp. 76-78. See also Plato, p. 63, on the “esoteric” function of the board.
  19. ^ Helmut Zander: Anthroposophy in Germany. 2007, p. 1540.
    History of Casa Andrea Cristoforo , website of Casa Andrea Cristoforo
    9 houses by Carl Wiedemeyer
  20. ^ Robert Jütte: History of Alternative Medicine. Beck, Munich 1996, p. 252 u. 254.
    Michaela Glöckler : Ita Wegmann
    Ita Wegmann School Benefeld : Keep your heart warm, ...
  21. ^ Maja Rehbein: Liane Collot d'Herbois
personal data
SURNAME Wegman, Ita
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Wegman, Maria Ita
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Dutch doctor and co-founder of anthroposophic medicine
DATE OF BIRTH February 22, 1876
PLACE OF BIRTH Parakan-Terus near Batavia , today Jakarta , Indonesia
DATE OF DEATH March 4, 1943
Place of death Arlesheim , Switzerland