Members of the Rotary Club of Aberdeen Deeside will be guests of Camphill on Wednesday evening (March 31) to hear about the work of Camphill Aberdeen City and Shire communities in this, the charity’s 70th anniversary year.

The event, hosted by Camphill Medical Practice, will include a tour of the Murtle Campus of Camphill School Aberdeen and a presentation about Camphill’s work with children and adults who have special needs.


Camphill school pupils in the grounds of Camphill House

The guests will hear how ‘Camphill Home for Boys and Girls’ (as it was then known) opened its doors at Camphill House in the Milltimber area of Aberdeen, in the early years of World War 2.

The founders were a group of refugees, led by Dr Karl König, who had been planning their community for children with special needs for many years. Following the Nazi annexation of Austria they had to flee the country.

With the support of eminent Aberdonians, including University Principal and Camphill trustee Sir William Hamilton Fyfe, they were able to open the doors of their first community at Camphill House, in the Milltimber area of Aberdeen, on June 1, 1940.

The local support was to prove vital because, at the time of the opening, all the male refugees were actually interned, as aliens, in the Isle of Man.

Now more than 700 people live and work in Camphill communities in the Aberdeen area. From Aberdeen, the Camphill Movement has grown internationally and there are 100 centres with 10,000 people across Europe, the USA, Canada, Russia, Africa and India.

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