Willi Aeppli Obituary

Willi and Martha "Mono"

"To be active until the last second is a characteristic image of the personality of Willi Aeppli. His death surprised him at the desk. He worked as a Waldorf teacher, a consultant to the Waldorf schools and a journalist.

Willi Aeppli was born on 3 June 1894 in Ada, near Accra (Ghana). His father Heinrich was a merchant and head of a factories of the Basel mission on the Gold Coast. His mother, Jeanette Plüss, also worked as a teacher in the mission.

My great grandparents, Heinrich "Henry" Aeppli and his wife, Jeanette Pluss, with their children.

Willi Aeppli is sitting and Ernst and Fritz (where were twins) are standing, along with Harri.

Aeppli's own low­spirited humor is exemplified in his remark: "I have been in the arms of a queen." The parents had taken the boy... on a voyage to the stations of the factories in the interior of the country. One morning the child was missing. The anxious parents found him in the next settlement in the arms of an ancient queen. Ernst Weißert, who loved and liked unusual situations, even said that the queen had offered to weigh the child in gold if he were left to her. By giving birth in an English colony, Aeppli became an English citizen, paying tribute to this fact, always arriving at the New Year's reception of the British Ambassador.

The father died of a tropical disease when Willi was one and a half years old. The mother returned to her Aargauer village, where Aeppli had a happy childhood. She accepted a missionary child for her co­education. The two boys loved each other intensely. Willi was five years old when his friend fell ill with scarlet, came to the hospital and died. Willi had such a longing for him that he lost all the joys of life and watched the nights. Then he saw that his friend came to him. From then on, he knew that life had no end with death. This childhood experience may once again have come to his mind when he heard a lecture by Rudolf Steiner in 1918. He did not know anything about the lecture the next day, but he immediately began to read Theosophy. Then he learned of the world from which his late friend had come. He spontaneously linked himself to his future life with Anthroposophy. When I heard this story from Willi Aeppli's youth, I could understand the absolute seriousness and diligence with which he lived Anthroposophy.

Rudolf Steiner

After completing the district school, he chose the profession of the mother, came to the four­ year teacher training seminar, which was strictly guided by the Protestant spirit, and left it as a elementary school teacher. In addition to his debt service at Scuola Svizzera (Swiss School), which he joined in 1914, he served as a border guards in the Jura. From 1917 he visited the university in Zurich. He studied German and New History, and at the end of 1920 was a teacher at a secondary school.

guards of the Jura

In 1922, he published four articles on the philosophy of freedom in the Solothurn newspaper. The interest in what happened in time accompanied him all his life. The distress he recognized made him point to the importance of Anthroposophy for this distress. In the same year, he founded the Troxler branch in Olten, which he chaired for 14 years. In 1923 he took part in the founding of the General Anthroposophical Society as a representative of the Swiss regional society. He was in his 28th year.

At that time, he also held several talks with Rudolf Steiner. Willi Steppli, who was the first person to feel the tact, probably came from Rudolf Steiner. When these conversations took place in the studio, Rudolf Steiner worked on the large wooden sculptures. He began to carve during the conversation. In the breaks that followed, questions arose in Aeppli's soul, which he did not express. To his surprise, though they had not spoken, they were answered by Rudolf Steiner. Willi Aeppli became the model for this intensity of approaching the other. He practiced listening for a lifetime. That made him so successful, especially his last 20 years.

Hans Rudolf Niederhauser, his friend, later reported: [quote is translated poorly] "Willi Aeppli could be a good guide, because he rarely had the gift to listen selflessly to the other people. Thus, what he gave as a 'council' was not his ready­ brought idea, which would have made the other only unfree; Together with his young colleague, something quite new emerged, something richer than what arose in the soul of the individual, which was the result of the given situation, and could only be valid for this one­ time case. In this way, the adviser felt himself free, and even pointed out by the friend to his own creative powers; But also for Willi Aeppli, this rate was a creative act that kept him young and alive. "(Niederhäuser 1973, p. 2f)

Ignaz Paul Vital Troxler

Willi Aeppli prepared the start of the Basel Waldorf School with others. In 1927 he took over a first class. What he experienced during his eight­ year school­ lecture period, and the study of the human sciences, is the content of his first book, "From the Teaching Practice at a Rudolf Steiner School." During this time also the intensive employment with the Swiss educator and philosopher Ignaz Paul Vital Troxler. It is thanks to Willi Aeppli that the life and work of this great Swiss man was once again developed. Through his mother he got access to the big neck (?) Troxler and thus to his estate, which had to be deciphered in painstaking work. In 1936 he published the "fragments", about 1500 records of Troxlers, wrote an introduction and Troxler's biography. In 1944, the "Nature's Teaching of Human Knowledge" followed, in 1958 "Certainty of the Spirit" with a contribution by Willi Aeppli. Working with Troxler, he practiced the discipline of his own thinking. She helped him to present difficult educational topics. "Sinnesorganismus, Sinnesverlust und Sinnespflege" ( "The Care and Development of the Human Senses") was published in 1955, "Wesen und Ausbildung der Urteilskraft" ("Being and Education of Judgment"), 1963. They are born out of the distress that Aeppli, triggered by degrading Zeittendenzen (time trends). They provide clues as to what can be done in practice to counter these tendencies. Even today, almost half a century after their appearance, these writings are by no means outdated.

Rudolf and Marie Steiner

For the General Anthroposophical Society, the year 1947 was a year of crisis. Marie Steiner had publicly justified how she would deal with Rudolf Steiner's estate in the future: by means of an institution independent of society. This seemed unacceptable to a part of the company, including the directors Albert Steffen and Guenther Wachsmuth. In the ensuing conflicts, Willi Aeppli also fell into the sharpest criticism of Steffen. Aeppli, however, went unhurt the way which he personally regarded as right, without any anger. He acted very quietly, but decisively. At the age of sixty, Ernst Weissert called him into the service of the Federation of Waldorf Schools in Germany. He attended the schools, which were partly still in the process of construction, with his teachers, working days, enriched with his profound knowledge of Waldorf education the conferences, advised individual teachers. Willi Aeppli's vocation was a stroke of luck for the German school movement. It was not until 1969, when Aeppli was already 75 years, that he asked for his release. It was amazing how fresh he was to the end, and with what patience he could endure the travels and changing accommodations, his travels went to Sao Paulo. After that, he still had many literary plans. Unfortunately, he did not go beyond preliminaries."

Erhard Fucke Works: From teaching practice at a Rudolf Steiner School, Basel 1934 ²1950; Paul Vital Troxler. Essays, Basel, 1929; 5 Articles in: human formation, Basel 1934; as editor of Troxler, IPA: fragments, St. Gallen 1936, natural science, Bern 1944, and certainty of mind, Stuttgart [1958]; Sense­organism, loss of meaning, sense­care. The meaning teachings of Rudolf Steiner in their significance for education, Stuttgart 1955, 1996 (5th ed.); Parents prepare the learning ability of their children, in: Plan and practice of Waldorf kindergarten, Stuttgart oJ; Being and education of Judgment, Stuttgart 1963 ²1986; From the early stages of teaching a Rudolf Steiner School, Oberwil 1982 ²1988 (abridged version of "From teaching practice"); Translations into English, Spanish and published Swedish; numerous articles in hum, more in BfA, EK, G, Ggw, WNA. Literature: Hagemann, E .: Bibliography of the works of students Dr. Steiner, oO 1970; Autobiographical: From memories. My ancestors in Leh . 1972, No. 5; Schöffler, 1987; Room, R .: Willi Aeppli, in: N 1972, No.14; Baumgärtner, B .: Willi Aeppli, in: MaD 1972, no. 102; Niederhäuser, HR: In Memory of Willi Aeppli, in:. Hum 1973 # 1. Abbreviations : see www.kulturimpuls.org Copyright : Text and image are copyright protected. Reproduction in any form only after written permission of the Research Center Kulturimpuls, Dornach 

Willli Aeppli Obituary

BOOKS by Willi Aeppli:

The Care and Development of the Human Senses  

The Developing Child