Conrad Rehbach

Conrad Rehbach was born 1957 in post World War II Germany, growing up in a city divided over whether it was a blessing or a curse to be the hometown of Bertold Brecht. He remembers going on walks in the woods with his dad who pointed out the bomb craters as we passed them. After studying and earning a M.A. in Social Pedagogy at a University in what was then West-Berlin, he earnedhis living and gained life experience as a soccer player, counselor at the department of justice and for orphaned teenage refugees and as a truck driver. He traveled (at times also as a truck driver) widely in Europe and the Middle East including the then communist Eastern European countries, and to Asia as far as Bangla Desh to the East, North Africa to the South and Baja California to the West. Having experienced a wide variety of political and social realities and their effects on the individual people, and struggling with deep existential questions, Conrad Rehbach found his way to Anthroposophy and the Camphill Movement in North America, where he worked and lived from 1985 - 1997. At Camphill he studied and was able to practically apply some of the ideals of Anthroposophy and Curative Education. He founded a therapeutic bakery workshop and a family, and published essays and articles in the Camphill Correspondence and the Journal for Anthroposophy. The next station in his life was meant to be Waldorf Education. After completing Waldorf teacher training in 1993, and 4 years of being involved in setting up and teaching in a small community based Waldorf school in Minnesota, he eventually found his way to Viroqua, Wisconsin, where the task of developing a struggling, small, but innovative Waldorf high school awaited him. Teaching German, Math and Life Skills, and taking on the administrative tasks as the school coordinator at this school, the “Youth Initiative High School” filled his days and his life for over 10 years. In addition, he founded the beginnings of an adult education center, the “Sophia Institute”, which offers adult education courses in Anthroposophical foundations, early childhood education, online courses, Nurturing Arts, etc., and the “Sophia Institute Publishing”, which has published course guides for students of Anthroposophy and teachers, the book "Germans are Funny. A Guide to Teaching Foreign Languages in Waldorf Schools" and related works. Following a 10 months engagement as a project coordinator in a small rural Anthroposophical (“Threefold”) community in Wernstein, Germany, Conrad Rehbach took on the task of leading the Taos Waldorf School as the school administrator from 2009 to 2012. He guided the school through a phase of transition and into becoming a member of the Waldorf Association. Since summer 2012 he is engaged full time as the director of the Sophia Institute with a focus on adult education and support for (Waldorf) teachers and schools and publishing.