The World of Ita Wegman
She was a born cosmopolitan—arriving via Java, the Netherlands, and Berlin to Switzerland, where she studied in Zurich and practiced medicine in Arlesheim, near Basel. From her base in Arlesheim, her Clinical Therapeutic Institute, she once again ventured far out into the world.
She spent half the year traveling, in France, Scotland, and England; in Belgium and the Netherlands; in Palestine, Turkey, and Greece; in Sicily, Italy, and Scandinavia; in Germany and Iceland; in Czechoslovakia, Austria, Bulgaria, Hungary, Serbia, and Croatia. With very few exceptions, these were trips to new therapeutic locations established on her initiative or by people who had trained at the Clinical Therapeutic Institute. There were medical practices and the first anthroposophic clinics, numerous curative education homes, and daycare centers. Ita Wegman visited people, saw patients and coworkers, gave therapeutic advice, counseled on political situations, mediated internal crises, helped with financing, held classes and anthroposophical gatherings to deepen the community and intensify the work, and also to gain inner resilience in difficult times. In 1932, however, she visited Greece without a therapeutic assignment. After seven difficult years on the executive board in Dornach, she resigned from the general assembly and traveled with Ilse Knauer to the ancient Mystery sites.
On her way back to Venice by ship, she wrote to Fried Geuter on May 26, 1932, “I enjoyed this trip immensely and took in the whole of Greece. Like a healing balm, the ancient wonders worked upon me, and I feel myself reborn and fortified, ready to continue Rudolf Steiner’s work, as I carry it in my heart, without hesitation. And when you all help, we will be able to carry out at least as much of R. Steiner’s intentions as are connected with me, with my individuality, at least as much as our strength is able, or so much as needs be saved for the future. The deepest tragedy actually rests on our work in this as in the previous life, and yet Rudolf Steiner once said to me that this tragedy will be lifted in the future, indeed, that it is already lifted. And yet everything that could happen has happened! There must also be people who have understanding, I think, understanding of the workings of karma! [. . .] It certainly was essential to have visited Greece and these sites, and even if one finds nothing more than heaps of ruins of the ancient Mysteries, the landscape is still there, as is the human heart that witnessed so much in those ancient times. It is as if everything arises anew in the image and the heart speaks softly of ancient times.”
She would have liked to travel more often outside of Europe, by ship to other continents, but this was no longer possible in her lifetime. According to George Adams Kaufmann, she wanted to go to the U.S. with Rudolf Steiner after his recovery. Shortly before the outbreak of World War II, according to Liane Collot d’Herbois, she considered an invitation to found a clinic in Canada and emigrate there, westward.
With her international network of contacts, her many friends, acquaintances, and former patients, she was able to take action even in times of need. When it came to helping people threatened in Nazi Germany, especially Jewish friends and acquaintances, to flee to non-German countries, she acted quickly, purposefully, and successfully—more so than anyone else in the Anthroposophical Society at that time.
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Title image Ita Wegman at the Swiss Jungfrau Pass, 1922. Photo: Ita Wegman Archive, Arlesheim.