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George Adams Kaufmann
George Adams Kaufmann, also George Adams and George von Kaufmann, (8 February 1894, Maryampol, Galicia, then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire – 30 March 1963, Edgbaston, UK) was a British mathematician, translator, and anthroposophist. He travelled widely, spoke several languages and translated many of Rudolf Steiner’s lectures into English. Through his studies in theoretical physics, he contributed to the expansion and development of the natural sciences as extended by the concepts of anthroposophy.
His father, Georg von Kaufmann, a British subject of German descent, was a pioneer of the oil industry. His mother was born Kate Adams in England. Shortly after George's birth, the family moved to Solotwina in the foothills of the Carpathians. In 1897, when he was three years old, his parents divorced. His father retained custody of the children and it was only a short while before her death in 1935, that Adams saw his mother again.
The father married again – a young German woman, who created for George and his siblings a happy childhood. Educated by English governesses, he was raised to fluency in several languages, primarily English, German and Polish. From 1905, Adams attended Mill Hill School in England, travelling home alone to his family in Galicia. In 1912 he entered Christ's College, Cambridge to read Chemistry, completing his BA in 1915. He was president of Cambridge University Socialist Society in 1915.
Preoccupied with problems of social reform, he rejected all manner of violence, remaining a conscientious objector throughout the First World War – a "militant revolutionary" as he described himself. He was imprisoned after refusing to serve with other conscientious objectors in the Non-Combatant Corps and was only released in 1919, after a hunger strike. The atomistic and materialistic thoughts of his time failed to satisfy him, causing him to seek for alternatives in the work of Alfred North Whitehead and Bertrand Russell. On questioning Russell on how to reach satisfactory conclusions in theoretical physics without the hypothesis of the atom, Russell encouraged him to study projective geometry. Following this advice, Adams began to concern himself primarily with mathematics and theoretical physics. He heard lectures by G. H. Hardy and began to research projective, non-Euclidean geometry.
In 1914 he had encountered Rudolf Steiner’s "Occult Science" and become a member of the Emerson Group in London in 1916. During his time as conscientious objector he had come to know Mary Fox, a Quaker and in 1920 they married.
His interest in Steiner's ideas on social reform and his intention to translate the book The Threefold Social Order (GA 23) caused him to visit Steiner together with Ethel Bowen Wedgwood in Dornach, Switzerland. Steiner advised him to become involved in some form of social work, something Adams could readily accept amid the social collapse in Central and Eastern Europe following the war. He went on several journeys to Poland as part of the English and American Quaker organisation.
In 1920 he took part in the inauguration of the first Goetheanum building. On his return to England, he cooperated with some friends on spreading the ideas of Social threefolding as well as the anthroposophical ideas of Steiner. His wife Mary Adams began her work as librarian and translator for the Anthroposophical Society in London that she was to carry for many years. In addition, Adams was the free verbal translator of around 110 lectures of Steiner into English. He went on to translate many of Steiner's written works, often with Mary Adams.
He was often in Dornach during these times and experienced the burning of the first Goetheanum on New Year's Eve 1922/23 and was part of the Christmas Foundation meeting of the General Anthroposophical Society in 1923/24. In 1924 he became one of the Goetheanum-Speakers authorised by Steiner.
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George Adams Kaufmann
George Adams Kaufmann, also George Adams and George von Kaufmann, (8 February 1894, Maryampol, Galicia, then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire – 30 March 1963, Edgbaston, UK) was a British mathematician, translator, and anthroposophist. He travelled widely, spoke several languages and translated many of Rudolf Steiner’s lectures into English. Through his studies in theoretical physics, he contributed to the expansion and development of the natural sciences as extended by the concepts of anthroposophy.
His father, Georg von Kaufmann, a British subject of German descent, was a pioneer of the oil industry. His mother was born Kate Adams in England. Shortly after George's birth, the family moved to Solotwina in the foothills of the Carpathians. In 1897, when he was three years old, his parents divorced. His father retained custody of the children and it was only a short while before her death in 1935, that Adams saw his mother again.
The father married again – a young German woman, who created for George and his siblings a happy childhood. Educated by English governesses, he was raised to fluency in several languages, primarily English, German and Polish. From 1905, Adams attended Mill Hill School in England, travelling home alone to his family in Galicia. In 1912 he entered Christ's College, Cambridge to read Chemistry, completing his BA in 1915. He was president of Cambridge University Socialist Society in 1915.
Preoccupied with problems of social reform, he rejected all manner of violence, remaining a conscientious objector throughout the First World War – a "militant revolutionary" as he described himself. He was imprisoned after refusing to serve with other conscientious objectors in the Non-Combatant Corps and was only released in 1919, after a hunger strike. The atomistic and materialistic thoughts of his time failed to satisfy him, causing him to seek for alternatives in the work of Alfred North Whitehead and Bertrand Russell. On questioning Russell on how to reach satisfactory conclusions in theoretical physics without the hypothesis of the atom, Russell encouraged him to study projective geometry. Following this advice, Adams began to concern himself primarily with mathematics and theoretical physics. He heard lectures by G. H. Hardy and began to research projective, non-Euclidean geometry.
In 1914 he had encountered Rudolf Steiner’s "Occult Science" and become a member of the Emerson Group in London in 1916. During his time as conscientious objector he had come to know Mary Fox, a Quaker and in 1920 they married.
His interest in Steiner's ideas on social reform and his intention to translate the book The Threefold Social Order (GA 23) caused him to visit Steiner together with Ethel Bowen Wedgwood in Dornach, Switzerland. Steiner advised him to become involved in some form of social work, something Adams could readily accept amid the social collapse in Central and Eastern Europe following the war. He went on several journeys to Poland as part of the English and American Quaker organisation.
In 1920 he took part in the inauguration of the first Goetheanum building. On his return to England, he cooperated with some friends on spreading the ideas of Social threefolding as well as the anthroposophical ideas of Steiner. His wife Mary Adams began her work as librarian and translator for the Anthroposophical Society in London that she was to carry for many years. In addition, Adams was the free verbal translator of around 110 lectures of Steiner into English. He went on to translate many of Steiner's written works, often with Mary Adams.
He was often in Dornach during these times and experienced the burning of the first Goetheanum on New Year's Eve 1922/23 and was part of the Christmas Foundation meeting of the General Anthroposophical Society in 1923/24. In 1924 he became one of the Goetheanum-Speakers authorised by Steiner.