Happy 80th Birthday, Dear Michaela!
The Mystery of Intuition
When I once found myself in Melbourne for anthroposophical lectures, courses, and visits to institutions, you, dear Michaela, were there to meet me everywhere I went. You had been in Australia shortly before me, engaged in the tireless work of the Goetheanum leadership. Everywhere I went, I met you—not you personally, of course, but your influence. So many people of all generations spoke of their pressing questions in their professions and practices, of their difficulties in social, professional, or organizational matters, to which you had responded with helpful insights—and usually with very concrete suggestions for solutions as well. I often encountered a resounding sense of confidence and purpose wherever you had been.
Sometimes, in other creative projects we worked together on, I felt that the views you expressed—always with such verve—were more clear-cut, while I was drawn toward nuanced interpretation and the possibilities of an open-ended approach. Here, I became especially aware of the mystery of intuition in the different directions our aspirations took. I am grateful to you for all these experiences. —Bodo von Plato
A Sense for the Right Moment
From Michaela Glöckler, one can learn that a mother’s etheric body has forces to spare once her children reach school age. As a Section leader, one needs a sure sense of where sources of strength can be found so that the world’s many tasks can be wisely distributed and brought to fruition. No sooner had my daughters reached this age than Michaela approached me for the first time about contributing to the international training of physicians in Taiwan. And so my children’s transition to school became my own transition to new responsibilities.
She probably did not know it, but she sensed that I had just turned 42 and had therefore only just reached the right age to begin teaching. All it then took was one more gentle nudge: “You know that representing anthroposophy in the world also entails membership in the School of Spiritual Science.” And so, naturally, I was glad to become a member of the School as well. Since then, I have often had occasion to admire Michaela’s gifts for setting people on their path, inspiring development, and entrusting them with new responsibilities. Initiatives throughout the world have flourished through her courageous encouragement. Her courage and intuition have become an example to me. My heartfelt thanks, dear Michaela! —Karin Michael
It Worked!
As a member of the Medical Section, I always experienced Michaela’s work as fired by her central concern: to bring anthroposophy and anthroposophic medicine out into the world. I could see how her remarkable talent for public education, together with her charisma, repeatedly awakened enthusiasm for the spiritual-scientific dimensions of this work—even among those who previously had little or no connection with anthroposophy. Under her aegis, the Section work became an international enterprise encompassing all the medical professions. It was sustained by her inexhaustible power of initiative, expressed, for example, in the creation of new forms of conferences, organizations, and training programs—always closely attuned to the needs of the time. Her maxim was: Limited financial resources must not prevent initiative; money begins to flow when we devote our finest capacities to the cause. And it actually worked (for the most part).
Ever and again, I witnessed her expectation that colleagues take responsibility for their own work. Personally, I experienced a space for development sustained by trust and appreciation—the foundation for a willingness to accept last-minute assignments after midnight or, when no other time could be found for an essential meeting, to move the conversation to the dining car and accompany Michaela to the airport. I look back with gratitude on our twelve years of working together, during which I also had the joy of seeing Michaela sing and dance at the International Postgraduate Medical Training (IPMT) weeks. She was always ready to support those wishing to develop an initiative, yet with remarkable resolve she cancelled every commitment when her husband Georg became unwell and needed her care. Hats off to her! —Stefan Langhammer
We Would Not Have Reached the Goal
Twenty years ago, a fruitful collaboration developed between the Medical, Pedagogical, and Agricultural Sections, and soon afterward, with the European Alliance for Initiatives of Applied Anthroposophy (ELIANT). To this day, ELIANT continues to advocate for the rights of anthroposophical expressions of life in European policy. One of its first campaigns was to collect one million signatures in support. The campaign began with great momentum, but after a year and 350,000 signatures, the “low-hanging fruit” had been gathered. It was clear that collecting the remaining 650,000 would require a great deal of hard work—and money, as, gradually, it was understood that each signature cost around one euro.
While some of us—myself included—began to lose confidence that we would reach the longed-for goal and that the result would be worth the effort, Michaela pressed ahead undeterred. For Michaela, it was clear: We must achieve this goal! Of course, she did not accomplish it alone. With the support of many individuals, foundations, companies, and other partners, they reached the longed-for goal in 2011: the memorandum was presented to the European Commission! Michaela’s strong will made it possible to attain a goal that had seemed almost unreachable. Kudos, dear Michaela! —Nikolai Fuchs
The Power of a Vision
My first encounter with Michaela in 2002 remains vivid in my memory to this day and continues to shape my work. Over the past twenty-four years, I have observed and come to understand that she carries within her this power of clear vision and that her warm love for humanity transforms every encounter into a space of healing. In 2003, I attended our first IPMT in the Philippines, where the foundation was laid for the Indian IPMT. Beginning in 2004, Michaela visited India every year, accompanying us with patience and determination. She led us onto a path that brought meaning and purpose to many—physicians, psychologists, educators, supportive educators, and eurythmists—and that was sustained by a strong social impulse. We grew into a community of professionals working together on the shared foundation of anthroposophy. Our journey in India continues, especially following her most recent visit in January 2026, when she addressed the theme of “Social Healing.” I was fortunate to work with her for several years at the Australian IPMTs, and the impulse fostered under her guidance lives on in many Waldorf schools throughout Australia. We would like to take this opportunity to thank her and to send her our warmest wishes, love, and affection. —Allamsetty Lakshmiprasanna
Only Half the Rehearsal Time
We have known each other for more than fifty years, and I was privileged to encounter Michaela at every important stage of my life. When she was studying medicine in Tübingen, we had an extraordinarily active anthroposophical student group centered around the Fichte House. From this group emerged physicians, priests, and teachers. In her own inimitable way, she left a lasting mark on us and radiated the sense that a great task awaited her in life. Every year, we performed the Oberufer Three Kings Play. I was deeply impressed by her direction. Through the power of her enthusiasm, her acting talent, and the clarity of her instructions, we needed only half the usual rehearsal time. And when the question arose of modernizing the music, her answer was brief and unequivocal: without van der Pals, her etheric body would be brushed the wrong way.
I will never forget her wedding celebration with Georg. Several anthroposophists who had known Rudolf Steiner personally spoke about their encounters with him, making it palpable that this couple, too, would place their lives wholly in the service of anthroposophy, largely foregoing what is commonly called a “private life.” For me, Michaela is exemplary in the way that, in the spirit of Ita Wegman, with great forces of heart and an unwavering will sustained by the spirit, she opened the walls of the Goetheanum outward into the world. —René Madeleyn
A Teacher of Love for Humanity
Michaela pursues a mission that spans the globe. Because of this, she has a keen eye for developments that may either foster or endanger the future, including those taking place in our immediate surroundings. As a teacher of love for humanity, she confronts us unmistakably with our own responsibility. Michaela was and remains a pioneer in considering the development of the young child concretely from both medical and educational perspectives: a pioneer in deepening our understanding of the developmental needs of young children; a pioneer in finding helpful ways to address and support today’s parents; a pioneer in professionalizing early-childhood education on an anthroposophical basis and bringing it together in practice with medical support for early-childhood development; a pioneer in recognizing at an early stage the threat that electronic media pose to childhood.
In this way, she has succeeded in inspiring capable colleagues in many countries who, to this day, thoroughly enjoy their work together and who extend the reach of her impulses. Her writings have reached a great many people throughout the world and have opened many hearts to anthroposophy. Her inner youth and her global Michaelic consciousness—a very intensive and challenging consciousness—continue to exert their compelling power. Born in a city devastated by war and possessing a sanguine-melancholic temperament, she has a deep sensitivity to human suffering, together with a contagious and spontaneous interest in the people she encounters and in their questions. The pediatrician has become a globally active teacher of love for humanity. —Georg Soldner
With a Suitcase Weighing a Ton
As a group of medical students, we met twice a year to work on the Course for Young Doctors. While we discussed the content of a lecture with youthful impulsiveness, Michaela would sit silently among us, listening intently, before offering a contribution at the decisive moment that carried the discussion forward. I picture her late one evening, sitting on a staircase at the Goetheanum with someone from our circle, encouraging her to give the presentation scheduled for the following day in the Great Hall. A few weeks after I had begun a new position as an oncologist at the Havelhöhe Community Hospital in Berlin, Michaela called and asked me to teach anthroposophic oncology at the IPMT in India. I explained at length that this was entirely impossible, since I lacked any experience or competence in mistletoe therapy. She acknowledged this kindly, yet all my reasons seemed to leave her unimpressed. She remained sympathetic but unwavering on the telephone until I finally agreed and flew to India with a suitcase weighing a ton, filled with books on mistletoe therapy. This became my first formative experience of how the ingenious IPMT concept enabled the seeds of anthroposophy and anthroposophic medicine to be planted in very different cultural settings. From it grew a relationship with this country that has now lasted twenty years.
An attentive awareness of the people working within the context of the Section, a loving sense for their tasks of destiny, and a determination to take initiative at the right moment, combined with unshakable optimism and trust in the cooperation of the spiritual world—these are qualities I was able to experience in you, dear Michaela. Today, they are a guiding star for my own work in the leadership of the Medical Section. —Marion Debus
When She Sings Our Songs
As a child, Michaela spent a year in Mexico. She speaks Spanish, and something Latin American lives in her soul, too. You can hear it when she sings our songs and plays the guitar and in the way she shares our sense of humor. Michaela herself first came to Argentina in 1978, where she expanded the work of school physicians and gave seminars and lectures for Waldorf educators and parents. She supported the impulse for anthroposophic medicine to become a form of teamwork in which the different therapies, eurythmy, and the arts would collaborate. This required a therapeutic center where everything could take place under one roof. At that time, training in Europe was not accessible to everyone. Under these circumstances, Michaela decided that the Medical Section needed to go out to people where they were—an idea that subsequently proved successful in practice. Georg Glöckler is also an inseparable part of Michaela’s work. They always accepted every invitation and helped with the financing. They adapted to every situation, often under very primitive conditions. Michaela brings order, clarity of thought, and a heartfelt warmth that enables people to integrate her ideas into their own thinking and develop them further. We were able to experience the love that Georg and Michaela had—and continue to have—for Latin America. —Mariana Mampaey
Translation Joshua Kelberman
Image Michaela Glöckler, 100th Anniversary of the Christmas Conference at the Goetheanum in 2023, Photo: Ariel Turner.
