Well-being Instead of Well-off
UNICEF, the United Nations Children’s Fund, has released its 2026 report on child well-being. Germany is in 25th place out of the 37 countries evaluated. How is that possible?
Philipp Reubke · 17 June 2026 · 4 min
Section · Essay
Section
Essay
8 articles
Working with the Intelligence of Life
Every time we go online, AI is there. Whether we want it to or not, AI is becoming part of our everyday lives. In many cases, it is incredibly convenient—the machine knows! In other situations, it’s enormously unsettling—how can a machine know that? And then there’s the question: Are there other forms of intelligence besides AI? There is the intelligence of life. Ernst Zürcher knows this. Trees are living witnesses to annual rhythms, pulsations of cosmic forces. They are also …
Ueli Hurter · 17 June 2026 · 1 min
Becoming Human
Biography Work in the House of Life illustrates how opportunities and challenges can be understood and fulfilled in every stage of life. Who am I? What is the meaning, the leitmotif, of my life? Often, many people today want to ignore these important questions. At the same time, one of the signatures of our time is the wish to make the most of what life has to offer. Anthroposophical biographical work, the foundations of which were developed by Rudolf Steiner, …
Susanne Hofmeister · 10 June 2026 · 1 min
It’s Worth Asking
Questions are a way of listening to one another and showing interest. But not every question awakens the other person’s interest. For some, certain questions aren’t really “their” questions, either because they already know the answer or have figured it out for themselves or because they don’t find the question particularly interesting or relevant. How can I tell the difference? How do I know whether a question touches me or not? What makes it moving, and what makes it boring? …
Andreas Laudert · 10 June 2026 · 1 min
When Life Calls Us Deep Within
The age of 49 is a time to reorient and mature. The Greek philosopher Plato, as always, offers some guidance. Around the time we turn 49, we tend to question our self-image. We often experience self-doubt and emphasize more the deficit on our balance sheet of life. Add to this questioning the fact that—for the last 49 years—we’ve been convinced our bodily performance would continue unabated. The first signs of demise disrupt this autosuggestion. We probably find our careers overly …
Volker Rothfuß · 10 June 2026 · 1 min
Multiperspectivism: A Requirement for Seeking Peace
Discussions on war and geopolitics are the most polarizing. This polarization hinders dialogue and sometimes even thinking itself. Could it be that our cognitive processes shape our perceptions of war and peace? A plea for multiperspectivism, using the war in Ukraine as an example. In Western public discourse and the media, there’s a phrase that’s become widely accepted: the war in Ukraine is “an unprovoked war of aggression.” The war is said to be the result of the imperialist ambitions …
Louis Defèche · 03 June 2026 · 1 min
The Earth Is the Substance of Our Destiny
We incarnate on a planet whose evolution is intertwined with the destiny of humanity. The “Great Mother” is our body. We have a karmic relationship with the Earth. Our primary experience is unity—oneness between self and world. Gradually, duality emerges: child–mother, ‘I’–world, human–Earth. Every day—upon waking—we can try to catch that moment when the ‘I’ again falls out from the unified continuum of experience and ‘I’ and world stand in opposition to one another as separate objects. This awakening to …
Ueli Hurter · 27 May 2026 · 1 min
The Maternal Body
When Marcel Proust was denied a kiss, the longing that remained gave birth to his future writings. Ensheathed by the principles of the mother and unconditional love, we are perpetually reborn. Marcel Proust’s In Search of Lost Time opens with a missing kiss. His mother stays at an evening party and sends word to her son that she cannot say goodnight to him tonight—and thus plunges him into a deep crisis. In the absence of his mother’s kiss, an inner …
Luke Wilkins · 27 May 2026 · 1 min