Ernst Uehli

Ernst Uehli, around 1920

Ernst Uehli (born May 4, 1875 in Andelfingen ; † November 16, 1959 in Zurich ) was a Swiss teacher , anthroposophist and writer .

Life

Childhood and apprenticeship years

Having grown up in modest circumstances and only with elementary schooling in the Zurich Unterland , Ernst Uehli acquired an education through self-study and with the help of anthroposophy that enabled him to work as a teacher, representative of social threefolding and ultimately as a freelance writer and speaker.

Uehli spent the first year of school in Bern . When the father emigrated to America with the eldest son, the mother moved with the five remaining children to Hallau , where Uehli had to grow up under severe material hardship. He attended the simple village school. His schooling was so poor that he failed the postal service entrance exam.

He then did a three-year commercial apprenticeship, again in Bern. This is also where his self-taught training began. He received suggestions for this from four high school students who accepted him into their “friendship association” and lent him books. A workers' uprising in Bern, which was bloodily suppressed by the authorities with the help of the army, left a deep impression.

After a more manual activity as a trainee in a wine shop in La Chaux-de-Fonds , he worked for 14 years from 1896 at the Federal Customs Administration in St. Gallen , Romanshorn and Zurich. In St. Gallen he joined the commercial association and was soon elected to the board as library manager; now he had a larger library at his disposal. Among friends, the new dramas were about of Ibsen , headlines like The convention ellen lies of Max Nordau or contemporary poetry - mediated by the magazine sunflower from Karl Henckell - read and discussed. In the city theater he heard an opera by Richard Wagner for the first time . By reading the magazine Junge Schweiz , he became aware of Fritz Brupbacher , whom he visited in Kilchberg and with whom he remained on friendly terms until his death. He also made himself acquainted with the ideas of socialism , be it through personal encounters or through reading the works of Marx and Engels .

Encounter with anthroposophy

In 1905 he heard Rudolf Steiner's lecture for the first time in St. Gallen . Uehli also got into conversation with Steiner personally. When he moved to Zurich in 1906, he came into close contact with the local Theosophical Society . He now got to know theosophical literature; he mentions in his autobiography by name The Great Initiates by Édouard Schuré and Ancient Wisdom by Annie Besant . In 1908 he joined the TG, and in 1910 he became head of the Zschokke branch of the TG in Zurich.

He became penniless after a press conference bureau founded with a journalist went bankrupt. In an emergency, Uehli turned to Steiner. This directed him to Munich, to the "medical center" run by Felix Peipers . There Uehli looked after a blind and epileptic young man from 1911 to 1919 . During this time he began to give lectures on intellectual history topics, especially Wagner, Germanic and Celtic mythology and the search for the Grail .

In 1913 Uehli married Ernestine Baudisch, who was eight years his junior, from Vienna. They had two sons, Ernst Eugen and Walter.

When Rudolf Steiner worked publicly for social threefolding after the end of the First World War , Uehli also put himself at the service of these endeavors. Between 1919 and 1922 he was editor of the journal Dreigliederung des Soziale Organismus and from January 1921 head of the "Bund für Soziale Dreigliederung" in Stuttgart. In the summer of 1921 the public conference on cultural outlooks of the anthroposophical movement took place in this city . Uehli spoke at the opening. In October 1921 the magazine Die Drei (magazine) was created , of which Uehli was one of the founders. He edited the paper until 1923. He also edited the journal Anthroposophie in 1922 and 1923.

From 1921 he worked together with Carl Unger and Emil Leinhas on the central board of the German national association of the Anthroposophical Society . After serious disputes in the so-called "Seven Circle" in January 1923, he withdrew from the central board.

As a teacher and writer

From 1924 to 1937 Uehli worked as a teacher at the Stuttgart Waldorf School , first for religion, then next to German and literature, especially for history and art history at the upper level. In 1930, together with Caroline von Heydebrand , he published the reading book And God spoke ... which is used in many Waldorf schools .

In 1937 Uehli returned to Switzerland “to keep my freedom” , as he himself put it. From then on he worked as a freelance writer and lecturer until the end of his life.

In 1939 Uehli divorced and entered into his second marriage with the eurythmist Erna Elisabeth Schnell from Dresden .

Appreciation and criticism

With his works, Uehli also gained recognition outside of anthroposophical circles. He has been honored repeatedly by the Education Department of the Canton of Zurich and by the municipal authorities of Andelfingen, his birthplace. On the occasion of his passing and on the tenth anniversary of his death, various Swiss newspapers published obituaries and appreciations of his life's work; His friend Albert Steffen gave a speech at the cremation ceremony in Zurich .

After the Federal Inspectorate for Media Harmful to Young People informed the Federal Ministry of Family Affairs in 2000 that Uehli's book Atlantis and the Riddle of Ice Age Art should be examined for racist points, Mellinger Verlag decided to withdraw the book from circulation with immediate effect and to remove the remainder to be destroyed. However, according to § 2 I GjS ( law on the distribution of writings harmful to minors ), the book was not included in the list . The presence of a youth risk was recognized.

Works

• The birth of individuality from myth as an artistic experience by Richard Wagner . Hans Sachs-Verlag, Munich 1916
  • New edition as: Richard Wagner's mythical life picture . Are Verlag, Ahrweiler 1953
• A son of fate . Novel. Sachs, Munich 1918
• A new grail quest . The coming day, Stuttgart 1921
• Rudolf Steiner as an artist . The coming day, Stuttgart 1921
• Between the Sphinx and the Grail . The coming day, Stuttgart 1922
• Nordic-Germanic mythology as a story of mysteries . Rudolf Geering, Basel 1926
• "And God spoke ..." Biblical reading book for the 3rd year of school at the Free Waldorf School (with Caroline von Heydebrand). Waldorf School Publishing House, Stuttgart 1930
  • last edition: Mellinger, Stuttgart 1987, ISBN 3-88069-039-1
• The mosaics of Ravenna . Heitz, Leipzig / Strasbourg / Zurich 1935
• Atlantis and the enigma of Ice Age art. Attempt at a mystery story of prehistoric Europe . Julius Hoffmann, Stuttgart 1936
• Prehistoric times of Switzerland . Metz, Zurich 1942
• The crystal of the seven solitudes . A myth of life. With seven drawings by Hans Wildermann. Quart, Winterthur 1955 (special edition from life and design )
• Culture and Art of Egypt. An Isis secret . Philosophical-Anthroposophical Publishing House at the Goetheanum, Dornach 1955
• Myth and art of the Greeks in the spirit of their mysteries . Goetheanum, Dornach 1958
• The three great Hohenstaufen. Friedrich I. Barbarossa / Heinrich VI. / Friedrich II. In universal historical aspects . Goetheanum, Dornach 1961
• Leonardo, Michelangelo, Raffael and the spiritual foundations of the Italian Renaissance . Goetheanum, Dornach 1967
• The eagle imagination. From the fateful task of the Germans . Mellinger, Stuttgart 1975
• Bildgestalten and Gestaltenbilder. To justify the art class . Free intellectual life (human studies and education 32), Stuttgart 1975, ISBN 3-88069-136-3

literature

• Hans Reinhart / Jakob Hugentobler (eds.): Ernst Uehli - life and design . Festschrift for the 70th birthday. Francke, Bern 1945
• Life and creation in the service of a new world and human image . Autobiographical texts, ed. v. Elisabeth Uehli-Schnell. Mellinger, Stuttgart 1975

Web links

• Biographical entry in the online documentation of the anthroposophical research center Kulturimpuls

swell

1. ↑ From my life , contained in: Leben und Gestaltung , 1975, pp. 7–79
2. ↑ Ibid., P. 79
3. ↑ Federal testing agency for writings harmful to minors. Decision No. 5838 (V) of July 31, 2000