Ernst Uehli

Ernst Uehli (c. 1920)

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

Life

Childhood and apprenticeship

Growing up in humble circumstances and with only an elementary school education in the region of Zurich, Ernst Uehli acquired an education through self-study and with the help of anthroposophy which enabled him to work in many ways as a teacher, representative of social threefolding and finally as a freelance writer and lecturer.

Uehli spent his first school year in Bern. When his father emigrated to America with his eldest son, his mother moved with the five remaining children to Hallau, where Uehli had to grow up under severe material deprivation. He attended the simple village school. His school education was so modest that he did not pass the entrance examination for the postal service.

He then did a three-year commercial apprenticeship, again in Bern. There he also began his autodidactic further education. He was encouraged to do so by four grammar school students who took him into their "friendship alliance" and lent him books. A workers' uprising in Bern, which was bloodily put down by the authorities with the help of the army, left a deep impression on him.

After a more manual job as a trainee in a wine shop in La Chaux-de-Fonds, he worked for the Federal Customs Administration in St. Gallen, Romanshorn and Zurich for 14 years from 1896. In St. Gallen he joined the "Kaufmännischer Verein" and was soon elected to the board as head of the library; now he had a larger library at his free disposal. In the circle of friends, the new dramas, for example by Ibsen, writings such as "Die conventionellen Lügen by Max Nordau or contemporary poetry - mediated by the journal "Sonnenblumen by Karl Henckell - were read and discussed. He heard an opera by Richard Wagner for the first time at the Stadttheater. Through 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 became acquainted with the ideas of socialism, either through personal encounters or by reading the works of Marx and Engels.

Encounter with Anthroposophy

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

After a press conference office he had founded with a journalist went bankrupt, he became penniless. In his distress, Uehli turned to Steiner. He directed him to Munich, to the "Ärztehaus" run by Felix Peipers. There, from 1911 to 1919, Uehli cared for a blind and epileptic young man. During this time he began to give lectures on spiritual-historical topics, especially on Wagner, Germanic and Celtic mythology or the search for the Grail.

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

After the end of the World War I, when Rudolf Steiner was publicly active for the social threefolding, Uehli also put himself at the service of these efforts. Between 1919 and 1922 he was editor of the journal "Dreigliederung des Sozialen Organismus" and from January 1921 director of the "Bund für Soziale Dreigliederung" in Stuttgart. In the summer of 1921, the public congress "Kulturausblicke der anthroposophischen Bewegung" took place in this city. Uehli spoke at its opening. In October 1921 the journal "Die Drei" was founded, of which Uehli was one of the founders. He edited the journal until 1923 and also edited the journal "Anthroposophie" in 1922 and 1923.

From 1921 he served on the Central Executive Committee of the German National Society of the Anthroposophical Society together with Carl Unger and Emil Leinhas. After serious disputes in the so-called "Circle of Seven" in January 1923, he withdrew from the Central Executive Committee.

As a teacher and writer

From 1924 to 1937 Uehli worked as a teacher at the Stuttgart Waldorf School, initially for religion, then, in addition to German and literature, mainly for history and art history in the upper school. In 1930, together with Caroline von Heydebrand, he published the reading book "Und Gott sprach..." (And God Spoke...), which was used in many Waldorf schools. which was used in many Waldorf schools.

In 1937 Uehli returned to Switzerland "in order to preserve 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 a second marriage with Erna Elisabeth Schnell, an eurythmist from Dresden.

Appreciation and criticism

With his works Uehli also gained recognition outside anthroposophical circles. He was repeatedly honoured by the Education Department of the Canton of Zurich as well as by the municipal authorities of his birthplace Andelfingen. On the occasion of his passing and the tenth anniversary of his death, various Swiss newspapers published obituaries and tributes to his life's work; at the cremation ceremony in Zurich his friend Albert Steffen gave an address.

When, at the request of the Federal Ministry of Family Affairs, the Federal Review Board for Media Harmful to Young People wanted to examine Uehli's book "Atlantis und das Rätsel der Eiszeitkunst" for racist passages in 2000, the Mellinger Verlag withdrew the remaining edition from sale.

Works

• Die Geburt der Individualität aus dem Mythos als künstlerisches Erlebnis Richard Wagners. Hans Sachs-Verlag, München 1916
  • Neuausgabe als: Richard Wagners mythisches Lebensbild. Are Verlag, Ahrweiler 1953
• Ein Sohn des Schicksals. Roman. Sachs, München 1918
• Eine neue Gralsuche. Der kommende Tag, Stuttgart 1921
• Rudolf Steiner als Künstler. Der kommende Tag, Stuttgart 1921
• Zwischen Sphinx und Gral. Der kommende Tag, Stuttgart 1922
• Nordisch-germanische Mythologie als Mysteriengeschichte. Rudolf Geering, Basel 1926
• „Und Gott sprach...“ Biblisches Lesebuch für das 3. Schuljahr der Freien Waldorfschule (mit Caroline von Heydebrand). Waldorfschul-Verlag, Stuttgart 1930
  • letzte Auflage: Mellinger, Stuttgart 1987, ISBN 3-88069-039-1
• Die Mosaiken von Ravenna. Heitz, Leipzig/Straßburg/Zürich 1935
• Atlantis und das Rätsel der Eiszeitkunst. Versuch einer Mysteriengeschichte der Urzeit Europas. Julius Hoffmann, Stuttgart 1936
• Vorzeit der Schweiz. Metz, Zürich 1942
• Der Kristall der sieben Einsamkeiten. Ein Lebensmythos. Mit sieben Zeichnungen von Hans Wildermann. Quart, Winterthur 1955 (Sonderausgabe aus Leben und Gestaltung)
• Kultur und Kunst Ägyptens. Ein Isisgeheimnis. Philosophisch-Anthroposophischer Verlag am Goetheanum, Dornach 1955
• Mythos und Kunst der Griechen im Geiste ihrer Mysterien. Goetheanum, Dornach 1958
• Die drei großen Staufer. Friedrich I. Barbarossa / Heinrich VI. / Friedrich II. in universalhistorischen Aspekten. Goetheanum, Dornach 1961
• Leonardo, Michelangelo, Raffael und die geistigen Grundlagen der italienischen Renaissance. Goetheanum, Dornach 1967
• Die Adler-Imagination. Von der Schicksalsaufgabe der Deutschen. Mellinger, Stuttgart 1975
• Bildgestalten und Gestaltenbilder. Zur Begründung des Kunstunterrichts. Freies Geistesleben (Menschenkunde und Erziehung 32), Stuttgart 1975, ISBN 3-88069-136-3

Literature

• Hans Reinhart / Jakob Hugentobler (editors): Ernst Uehli – Leben und Gestaltung. Festschrift zum 70. Geburtstag. Francke, Bern 1945
• Leben und Gestaltung im Dienste eines neuen Welt- und Menschenbildes. Autobiographische Texte, edited by. Elisabeth Uehli-Schnell. Mellinger, Stuttgart 1975

Weblinks

• Ernst Uehli in the online documentation of the anthroposophical Forschungsstelle Kulturimpuls (Andreas Dollfus)