Else Klink

Else Klink (23 October 1907 in Kabakada, Bismarck Archipelago – 18 October 1994 in Köngen, Germany) was director of the Eurythmeum Stuttgart, the first training centre for Eurythmy founded by Marie Steiner in 1923¹, from 1935 until 1991¹. In 1945, she established the Eurythmeum Stage Group, which she also led until 1991. Her work contributed centrally to establishing Eurythmy as a performing art within the culture of Europe and internationally.

Else Klink (23 October 1907 in Kabakada, Bismarck Archipelago – 18 October 1994 in Köngen, Germany) was director of the Eurythmeum Stuttgart, the first training centre for Eurythmy founded by Marie Steiner in 1923, from 1935 until 1991. In 1945, she established the Eurythmeum Stage Group, which she also led until 1991. Her work contributed centrally to establishing Eurythmy as a performing art within the culture of Europe and internationally.

The Eurythmeum

Then, in 1935, Marie Steiner sent her to Stuttgart to set up the Eurythmeum once again, which had been discontinued in 1930, and confirmed her as its director. Starting in 1936 the authorities of the Third Reich began to severely curtail the practice of Eurythmy. Klink tried to save her school and travelled to Berlin to negotiate. She managed to come to an agreement that the training could continue, and "Eurythmie" was given a sub-category under the heading of dance. However, all performing of Eurythmy was banned and the diplomas issued had to be ratified by the Reichstheaterkammer. Unobtrusively, Klink ran courses for 40 students¹ over the next six years. When, on 8 July 1941, her students had successfully completed their program and their diplomas, "decorated" with the required swastika, were returned on 2 August 1941, they were no longer of any value. Eurythmy had been forbidden and the school had to close. She was then required to do three years of "Women's War Service" in a parachute factory. When on 12 September 1944, Stuttgart was bombed and the building of the Eurythmeum destroyed, she left the city and found asylum in the village Gundelfingen on the Swabian Alp, where she could practice in an empty barn. Realising the Third Reich would soon be over, she convinced her pianist (Gertrud Födisch) and speaker (Otto Wiemer), to join her, preparing a large tone and speech repertoire for the stage. When the war ended, she and Wiemer returned on foot to Stuttgart and began holding Eurythmy lessons in the hall of the Waldorf School. On 8 November 1945, the first performance took place in a factory building, after which she received a number of requests for training and founded the Eurythmeum Stage Ensemble. As the Eurythmeum building was a mound of rubble, she moved to Köngen where she and Otto Wiemer were able to build up a stage and start a Eurythmy school in old army barracks her principal supporter, Emil Kühn, had been able to secure from the American occupation army. Fortuitously, the American commander was Captain John Fentress Gardner, an anthroposophist and well aware of the art of Eurythmy. In 1948, they founded an association for the fostering of Eurythmy. They called the provisional setting of their school "Private Eurythmy Conservatory Köngen", having done all this in isolation from the rest of the world. In 1947, she was finally able to report on what had happened to Marie Steiner in Switzerland, communication having been cut off for nearly ten years. Marie Steiner, the person responsible for the anthroposophical performing arts, bestowed on her the unrestricted rights to all future activities in Eurythmy. That same year the group gave 17 performances in Wurtemberg and eight in the Ruhrgebiet with a varied program. By 1950 the number had risen to some 50 per year.

Performing Eurythmy

In 1959, the Eurythmeum was rebuilt next door to the Rudolf Steiner House in Stuttgart with its own financial trust, securing the means for a larger stage group and the incorporation of live orchestral music. Klink worked on the preparation of student Eurythmists and the stage group with a vision of building an organisation and repertoire that could make Eurythmy known throughout the world. In 1961 the Eurythmy premiere of Schubert's 8th Symphony (Unfinished Symphony) took place; in 1974 first performance tour in Romania and through Germany at the invitation of the Romanian Philharmonia Arad. In 1975, she was invited to the "Festival de la Danse" in Paris to represent Germany. In 1976 and 1978, she toured again with the Romanian Philharmonia Arad through Germany following with a tour through the United States and Canada and 1979 through seven cities in Romania, including the Congressional Palace in Bucharest with its 3000 seats. By this time every performance was packed wherever she went. In 1986, she received the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany. She continued to organise international tours, with two additional ones in America. In 1991, she handed over the direction of the Eurythmeum to a group of her co-workers and teachers. In 1992, the Eurythmy ensemble was renamed in her honour as the Else Klink Ensemble. She continued to live until 1994 in the "Villa Kühn" in Köngen, where she died on 18 October 1994, five days before her 87th birthday.

Published work

Bühnenkunst 1/90 Verlag Urachhaus Johannes M. Mayer GmbH, Stuttgart, (1990) ASIN B00J18BGY6 Bühnenkunst 2/90 Verlag Urachhaus Johannes M. Mayer GmbH, Stuttgart, (1990) ASIN B00J18BHE0

External links

Eurythmeum Stuttgart

References

Text derived from https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=1362034387 under CC BY-SA 4.0; modifications have been made.