Karl Ballmer was born in 1891 in Aarau, studied in Basle and Munich, met Rudolf
Steiner in 1917 and was involved in the development of the first Goetheanum in
Dornach. He was a painter and a writer in equal measures, gave lectures on art
and anthroposophy and published critical-philosophical essays, later under the
pseudonym Heinrich Tanner. He left Dornach in a conflict and came to Hamburg in 1922. |
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On 5th November 1936 – i.e. during Beckett's stay in Hamburg - Karl Ballmer and Katharina van Cleef got married in Hamburg (they had already met in Dornach), end March they moved to Glinde. On 16th Septemebr 1938 they left Germany forever. Ballmer himself described this move as "Emigration ins Vaterland" ("Emigration to Fatherland"). His passport, issued by the Swiss consulate in Hamburg, had already expired on 8th September 1938. After intermediate stops
in Basle, the Ballmers moved on to Lamone near Lugano in 1941, where they lived in increasing isolation – Ballmer until his death
in 1958. |
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