† Count Carl Keyserlingk

Adalbert Keyserlingk, on the death of his father, Count Carl Keyserlingk, wrote of the hostility that his father had endured pursuing his anthroposophic agricultural goals:

“In the years that followed the course, the firms IG-Farben and Kali-Syndikat had grown more and more hostile towards Count Keyserlingk … He died suddenly at the end of December 1928 when on his way to a conference in Dornach, one might say from a broken heart because of the way things were going”

At that time, IG-Farben and Kali-Syndikat were leading, as well as commercially aggressive, Germanfertilizer companies (Lamer, 1957).

In a requiem to “Count Carl von Keyserlingk”, Meyer (1929, p.38) wrote of the Count, and of another recently departed Anthroposophist, that:“ … the heart of each had broken as day by day they must suffer the pain of all that, out of the spirit of our times, must stand opposed to the ideals they set before them”.

Keyserlingk had been the driving force behind the agriculture course (Vreede, 1929). He was described by Vreede as “one to whom farming itself was a priestly office” (p.38). According to Meyer (1929, p.29): “CountKeyserlingk had realised the dire need for a complete revival of cultural methods”.

John Paull – From Koberwitz to the World – Journal of Organic Systems, 6(1), 2011