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Bothmer News

12 November 2021
In memory of November 13, 1941

 In 2022 all of us, whose work and life is permeated with Bothmer gymnastics, will celebrate the 100th anniversary of Bothmer gymnastics.  We all consider the start of Bothmer's work as a gymnastics teacher at the Stuttgart Waldorf School as the birth of Bothmer gymnastics. We look gratefully and admiringly at Bothmer's work, as well as commemorate the spiritual founder and director of the Waldorf School: Rudolf Steiner, who gave Bothmer the fateful assignment of creating gymnastics lessons for the first Waldorf School, which became his life-task.
 
The year 2021 is a year of remembrance in a different sense: November 13th marks the 80th anniversary of Bothmer's death. I would like to take this date as an opportunity, dear readers, to take a look at the last four years of Bothmer's life, which on the one hand are characterized by loss and painful renunciation, on the other hand opened up spaces of time, which was used for even more intensive research into the essence the movement, concluding in the preliminary completion of Bothmer's book "Gymnastic Education": the culmination of his work.
 
In the 1930’s the German Waldorf  movement experienced a deep crises. One of the reasons for it was of course the NSDAP (National Socialist German Workers' Party) taking power, but the difficulties that had arisen at the Goetheanum in Dornach after Rudolf Steiner's death in 1925 have also played a role. Political events threatened the external existence of Waldorf schools from the start, and the internal difficulties of the anthroposophical society threatened to cause a division amongst the school's teaching staff.
The serious illness of Emil Molt, the "father of the Waldorf School", appeared to Bothmer to forecast a picture of the impending process and he said: "... That is how the life of the school becomes more and more a struggle to stay alive...”
The increasingly threatening situation meant that the Stuttgart school required a new management for its internal and external affairs. In 1935 Fritz von Bothmer took on this difficult task, together with his colleague Sandkühler. At the same time he became a member of the college of religion teachers. The story of a Class 3 pupil offers a glimpse into Bothmer’s inner mood at the time; how the confronting feelings of being a Christian but also being defiant lived in Bothmer as he took on the enormous responsibilities: Bothmer pointed it out to the children that a cross is always a sword.
 
Even though his chivalrous work could delay the final ban of the school, it could not avert it. In mid-March in 1938 the Württemberg Ministry of Education withdrew the school’s approval from April 1 on. And so, on March 30th, on Rudolf Steiner's birthday, the sorrowful event of closing the school was celebrated in the most festive and dignified manner, with a big celebration, which united students, parents and guests. Bothmer, as headmaster, was officially in charge of closing down the school, to which task he-shockingly noticeably for all those present- rose in the most humanly noble manner.
 
A completely different and for Bothmer also a deeply shocking experience was the rejection of his offer of making himself available to the country as an officer in the German Wehrmacht. He sent off his application in July 1941.
 
Looking back at those times 80 years ago and knowing how deeply he was rooted in anthroposophy, this request is difficult to understand.  A Waldorf teacher, a religion teacher, a school principal who had to expel his Jewish colleagues-  how can it be that he offered his services to a country that has destroyed the spiritual and physical foundations of his existence? The reasons for this step probably lie in Bothmer's ancestry and upbringing, as well as in the decades of fulfilling occupation as an officer in the infantry “Leibregiment“ of the King of Bavaria. Even the years of the First World War with several, sometimes life-threatening wounds didn’t change Bothmer's “...nature and people-loving soldier's heart...”, so that he continued his activity as an officer for some time after the war: “In spite of everything, I am currently an officer, captain as before and lead a training company ... I consider it my duty to support the government that has emerged from the elections so that it can show whether it is capable of positive work ... ». And 20 years later, when Germany was in the Second World War, the feeling of loyalty and willingness to make sacrifices practiced by his ancestors and himself over many generations stirred in Count Bothmer's soul: a feeling towards a country, which he considered less as a nation or state but experienced more as a physical and spiritual Home. The enormous cultural heritage and idealism of the 18th and 19th century lived on in his mind, apparently undamaged by the inhuman social and political realities of Germany.
The rejection of his application by the authorities struck Bothmer hard: «My inquiry about the conditions of my military re-entry revealed partly hopelessness, partly such degrading conditions that it settled the matter for me. If there was a strong shock, mainly because I wasn't ready for something like that, I was able to calm myself down; and now the rest of my life belongs to the work that I have built myself and that no one else can do for me. Something like a wind of change is blowing again. Width, height, goals ... "and" ... Now my life goes on. I don't need to worry about the future. It belongs to gymnastics ... »
 
The breaking of the ties with everything conventional, which had been initiated much earlier, was now finally completed and Bothmer was free to complete his work to the extent that it could be passed on and preserved for posterity. How short this window of opportunity would be, Bothmer did not yet suspect in the summer of 1941. He had been suffering from a persistent cough for a long time and had occasional breathing difficulties, but he thought he could cure this by recuperating in the mountains.
Busy with writing, drawing and revising relentlessly, he was nearing the completion of the book. He was that far that he sent his manuscripts "into the typewriter".
 
In a letter from July 17, 1941 two "uncorrected copies" of the book "in the black and grey paper" are mentioned. It seems that in July 1941 all that was left to do was the proofreading. One month later (August 19), Bothmer wrote to Elisabeth Dessecker, who was apparently the first to receive the finished book from him: “Your letter was and is a great pleasure for me. How could I have wished for more? Isn't what you write is the nicest review of my book I could have ever asked for? So affirmative that there is nothing left for me to say but: I am happy that I submitted this book to your judgment first and that from now on it rests in your hands..... ».
 
From these data it can be assumed that at the beginning of August 1941, Bothmer regarded the «Gymnastic Education» (English title: Bothmer Gymnastic Exercises) finished and from then on it "rested" in the hands of a younger generation.
 
Two months after finishing his book, two weeks before his death, after his health had caused him more and more complaints, Bothmer was finally diagnosed with "advanced stage of lung cancer". A new, deeply serious space opened up, into which Bothmer, as it is reported, wanted to enter not only calmly, but also happily.
80 years ago, on November 13, 1941, he made the transition into the spiritual world.
 
For this little memorial text I used Bothmer's diary entries and letters, some of which I have, some of which were compiled in Alheidis von Bothmer’s book.

Rose Aggeler
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