The Goetheanum distances itself from newspaper article
The article ‘And the Virus Dances its Name’ by Linus Schöpfer, published in the Tamedia Group’s newspapers on 25 November 2021– some with front-page notice, some online – can hardly be taken seriously. Shortly before the vote on the Covid law in Switzerland, it uses a number of common clichés regarding Anthroposophy and Rudolf Steiner and clearly lacks journalistic rigour.
Schöpfer claims, for instance, that the authorities ordered the closure of the Zurich Rudolf Steiner School. A look at the school's media releases would have shown the author that this claim is untrue. In fact, the school itself decided to change to distance learning from November 11 to 19 because of the high number of positive Coronavirus cases. The school was not closed nor did the authorities issue an order to that effect.
The author also incorrectly refers to Ita Wegman as Rudolf Steiner's wife!
The article also falsely insinuates that the parents of Steiner students decided in favour of this school system because they distrusted the state. According to a study into Rudolf Steiner Schools from a parental point of view, carried out by Heinz Brodbeck, the reasons parents give for choosing a Steiner school include its holistic educational concept, positive learning environment and the fact that the school promotes students’ individual abilities.
The listed examples of lacking journalistic rigour could be overlooked, had the author referred to the Goetheanum’s current commitment to understanding the pandemic, the climate breakdown and the loss of species as three wake-up calls of nature, because our health as human beings is inseparable from that of the earth. It is to this holistic idea of ‘one health’ of all biospheres that the efforts of anthroposophically inspired medicine, agriculture and education worldwide are devoted. This wide-ranging interdisciplinary ecological view was the subject of a conversation at the Goetheanum on 20 October, with Matthias Girke and Ueli Hurter, that could have been mentioned by the author instead of randomly compiled statements by Rudolf Steiner.
As a cultural institution in Switzerland, the Goetheanum is of course obliged to implement the current official protective measures.
English by Margot M. Saar