Invitation to the Whitsun Conference 2024

Fr. May 17 - Mo. May 20, 2024

Giving meaning – living the spirit

In Rudolf Steiner’s 13th Lecture of The Study of Man, he speaks of intellectual activity that is merely mechanical as opposed to being enlivened with interest, as well as meaningless physical activity as opposed to being filled with purpose. Self-motivated learning and understanding, filled with emotion, and meaningful physical activity that has purpose and involves the spirit – these are central aspects in the preschool curriculum and are taken into consideration for example in free play, in movement exercises with rhymes, finger plays, and songs, in eurythmy, and in the work of the educators. At the same time, these are important questions of our time that touch on the human search for meaning and on questions about our future. This lecture offers a wealth of inspiring motifs that we would like to discover together with you and implement as suggestions for preschool practice. As in previous years, we will offer text work on the 13th lecture in online format as a joint introduction to the conference.

As this year’s lecturers we are happy to welcome Wolfgang Held (Chief Editor “Das Goetheanum“), Philipp Gelitz (ALANUS University, Alfter), Philipp Reubke (Pedagogical Section, Goetheanum), Sabine Cebulla-Holzki (Pedagogical Management, Association of Waldorf Preschools), and Dr. med. Karin Michael (Medical Section, Goetheanum). We are keeping our new time structure – beginning the conference on Friday afternoon and ending Monday midday. There will be seminar and artistic workshops, and space for encounters and exchanges on the wonderful school grounds. Musical, eurythmic and creative evening activities will round off the program.

We invite and welcome you!


We are continuing our collaboration with the Professional Association of Eurythmists with a focus on kindergarten eurythmy, including interesting new courses to encourage professional encounters between kindergarten eurythmists and teachers.

We would especially like to invite, at a reduced rate, all childminders, daycare providers, and leaders of parent-child groups. We are committed to supporting everyone in their work with children and families, and we hope to provide a network of learning and support. To this end, we invited the Waldorf Day Care Collective to assist in conference preparations.

Once again, you will have the opportunity to participate online and follow the presentations digitally.

We look forward to welcoming interested participants from around the world, either in reality or virtually, on the beautiful grounds of the Waldorf School Maschsee!

On behalf of the staff of the Whitsun Conference Team and in cooperation with the Pedagogical Section of the Goetheanum,

Heartfelt greetings,
Dagmar Scharfenberg and Philipp Reubke

Whitsun Conference - the movie

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