Wilhelm Ernst Barkhoff
Wilhelm Ernst Barkhoff (26 June 1916 in
Biography
Wilhelm Ernst Barkhoff was the son of a miner in the German
He studied law in
During the war, he married Ottilie Grave from Bocholt. Their first son was born in 1945, had Down syndrome and lived for only eleven months. Later, the couple had three more sons and a daughter. After the war, on completing his articles in 1948, he became a solicitor, founding and running one of the leading law firms in Bochum. He and his wife cultivated close friendships with the artists of the Bochum Art Association.
In 1956, he joined the governing board of the
The development of these instruments of funding, as well as his talent for bringing people to work together, brought him into contact with Special Needs Education, particularly close work with Karl König and the Camphill Movement as well as the Wuppertal initiatives around Siegfried Schmock.
He soon became involved in financially securing and spreading the work of biodynamic agriculture In order to save them from the destructive hereditary division they were subject to, he invented the Non-profit Agricultural Research Company (Gemeinnützigen Landbauforschungsgesellschaften) as the holding company of the farm. He tied credit worthiness to their willingness to be “more” than simply a farming business, rather striving towards the inclusion of people with special needs, child or adult education, landscape and community development. Barkhoff wanted to create instruments for new types of human communities in order to replace the ties of blood relationships that had for many centuries determined and carried agriculture. He advised Manfred Klett and his co-workers in the establishment of the Dottenfelderhof, a rural community working to a high professional and human standard. Forming a company out of the Bauck-Höfe belonging to Nicolaus Remer and Joachim Bauck of the Bauck family, that continued to work the farm, was a more traditional version. After some time, around a hundred such organisations were established.
As banking organisations the Gemeinnützige Treuhandstelle (Charitable Trustee Agency) was founded in Hamburg in 1961, the Gemeinnützige Kreditgarantie Genossenschaft (Charitable Credit Guarantee Cooperative) in 1967 and finally the GLS Gemeinschaftsbank (GLS Community Bank) in Bochum in 1974. From 1968 onwards, Rolf Kerler joined the Barkhoff/Reuther team. Meetings with the Heidenheimer Kreis (Heidenheim Circle), a group of industrialists around Hanns Voith and Peter von Siemens dedicated to cultivating the social impulses of Rudolf Steiner, led to a co-work with the industrialist Alfred Rexroth, whose substantial donations went a long way towards securing and realising the banking initiatives.
Besides his activities within the anthroposophical scene, Barkhoff began his work with the German welfare organisations during the early 60’s. In 1961 he became chairman of the
This unprecedented growth in membership was due to the Welfare Association’s involvement with the movement for the emancipation of parents of children with special needs, with student the women’s rights as also various self-help groups of a more medical nature, initiatives of the unemployed and recipients of social benefits. As a member of the national executive he represented the viewpoint at the various strategy conferences that the greatest force binding together social life arises precisely through the faith in the individual human being; that an association, which has the courage to fully entertain the competing views of its members on a conceptual and spiritual basis is not weakened but grows stronger than any ties of a common world view can provide. Through Barkhoff, the Parity Welfare Association opened itself to the transforming societal energy of the 1968 movement, which gave it a sphere of activity and new challenges. He also established a new financing instrument for the Parity Welfare Association, the Parity Financial Counseling Paritätische Geldberatung.
In 1981, Wilhelm Ernst Barkhoff retired from all his business involvements, continuing to serve only as speaker, impulsator and counsellor. He travelled a great deal internationally during this time, particularly to North and South America, and was regularly invited to appear in Scandinavia.[citation needed]
Publications
- Das gefährdete Ich. Der Mensch in der Krise des Erkennens Hans Börnsen, Wilhelm Ernst Barkhoff, Gerhard Kienle Freies Geistesleben GmbH (November 1983) ISBN 978-3-7725-0725-0
- Die Rudolf Steiner Schule Ruhrgebiet Sönke Bai, Wilhelm Ernst Barkhoff, Michael Bockemühl, Rowohlt TB-V., Rnb. March 1990, ISBN 978-3499169854
- Sozial handeln, aus der Erkenntnis des sozial Ganzen Soziale Dreigliederung heute Reinhard Giese (Editor), Stefan Leber, Wilhelm Schmundt, Peter Schilinski, Wilhelm Ernst Barkhoff, Gerald Häfner, Reinhard Engelen, Hans Georg Schweppenhäuser Verlag Reinharf Giese ASIN B002FDGDHY