Kaspar Hauser and the Grail The Kaspar Hauser Festival in Columbia County, NY October 31-November 3, 2019

Author
Mariola Strahlberg
From the Threefold Branch, Chestnut Ridge, NY

    October 31st – November 3rd, 2019, I attended my first Kaspar Hauser Festival at three Camphill communities in Columbia  County, NY. Since it was my first encounter with Kaspar Houser, I read two short essays about him by Max Stibbe and Ferosa. Who was this Child of Europe? Why did he appear on earth between 1812-1833 and did he achieve his mission? -  were the questions I brought to the event.
The story was beautifully presented by Glen Williamson in his 4-part performance: The Prince, The Foundling, the Child of Europe and the Sacrifice – Kaspar Hauser: The Open Secret of the Foundling Price.
     Richard Steel introduced the theme of Kaspar Hauser and the Grail. Alan Thewless reminded us that our biographies are written by the stars and through astrosophy we were able to visually experience the cosmic aspects of Mystery of Golgotha, Rudolf Steiner’s birth date and Kaspar Hauser death day. Penelope Baring gave a fascinating talk entitled Mani and the Egyptian Mysteries.
     Eckart Boehmer presented a two parts talk on Kaspar Hauser and Parzival. He is the founder and artistic director of the Festival in Ansbach, Germany for the past 21 years and the founder of the Kaspar
Hauser Research Circle supported by Richard Steel and Karl Konig Institute. He has spearheaded the effort to bring Kaspar Hauser Festival to the town where Hauser spent his last 3 years. In 2019 the festival attracted 4000 people. 
     We also learned about the launching of the Kaspar Hauser Center for Healing Education to be inaugurated on May 20th, 2021. The center will house:
-the largest private archive on Hauser thanks to materials from Johannes Mayer and the literary estate of Dr. Hermann Pies, who published eight volumes between 1925 and 1973 that contained the most important eye-witness accounts and of special documents related to Hauser’s life.
- hotel and seminar space 7000 participants and 4000 hotels guests per year.
-biodynamic restaurant, event hall,  and conference rooms.
- trauma-pedagogical outpatient services for children and adolescents in need.
 will provide jobs for 32 disadvantaged youth and young adults.
To learn more and support this incredible project, visit www.kind-europas.de.
     On All Soul’s Day, we drove from Camphill Copake to Camphill Triform to see Karl Konig’s “A Christmas Story” performed by students and volunteers in Puppet Theater*.
     As if this was not enough, our Festival experience was enriched by three artistic workshops we were able to choose from: Acting with Glen Williamson, Poetry with Stephen Steen from Triform and Eurythmy with Orin and Michal Bar-Shalom. I attended the poetry workshop and was truly amazed at what we were able to accomplish and present as a group after spending only 1 ½ hours in the workshop!
     I greatly appreciate the whole experience. The Festival gave me the opportunity to visit 3 Camphill villages: Ghent, Copake, and Triform. The event was very well organized, the meals were delicious, staying in Copake with villagers and co-workers was very special and the materials presented opened for me a window on an enigma and a life story I want to learn more about.
     To end, I would like to share with you a poem, Kaspar Hauser, 17 years old wrote in his diary in Nurnberg, just two years after his appearance:

Contentment is the Greatest Miracle Worker
Contentment changes water into wine, Grains of sand into pearls, Raindrops into balsam, Poverty into riches, The smallest into the largest, The most common into the purest, The earth into paradise.
Beautiful is the heart which remains in harmony with itself at all times.
Beautiful is a life in which all deeds are in harmony with each other.
Kaspar Hauser diary, 1829, Nurnberg

         Mariola's article originally appeared in January/February 2020 issue of Camphill Correspondence. Mariola and the editor of Camphill Correspondence gave the NAC permission to post the article on this blog page. To know more about Camphill Correspondence, please visit the website camphillcorrespondence.net/

    *The puppet theater was performed by the 3rd year students of Camphill Academy Social Therapy Program in Camphill Village Copake. To know more about Camphill Academy, please visit the website. camphill.edu/
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    To know more about the Kaspar Hauser Festivals which took place from 2015 to 2019 in the U.S., please visit the website www.kasparhauserfestival.net. You will be able to see photos and read articles about the festivals. If you would like to know more about the world-wide effort of researching the legacy of Kaspar Hasuer, please visit the website of the Kaspar Hauser Research Circle. www.kaspar-hauser.net/en/index.html The  Kaspar Hauser Research Circle is located in Berlin, Germany. Ths summer in Ansbach, Germany, the Kaspar Hasuer Festival will tkae place from July 26 to August 2, 2020. You can see the program of the Kaspar Hauser Festival at the following website. The festival and the program is in German. www.kaspar-hauser.net/en/Kaspar_Hauser_Festival_Ansbach_Program_2020.pdf