A Sense of Belonging: The Camphill Movement and its Origins

The Camphill Movement is a global network of intentional communities for abled and intellectually disabled people. With over 100 communities today, Camphill began in 1939 after Dr. Karl Koenig, his wife Tilla, and a group of volunteers—all having fled Nazi-occupied Vienna in 1938—rejoined in Aberdeen, Scotland.  There they undertook the care of Austrian- and German-Jewish refugee children, as well as British children, with disabilities. From that first Camphill Special School, a fusion of Jewish diasporas with Austrian and German spiritual movements and the U.S. counterculture all developed Camphill’s extraordinary approach to disability.

In this first podcast of a two part-series, Dr. Katherine Sorrels explains the Camphill Movement as it exists today and as it was founded 80+ years ago.