Karl Bartes
Congress Organiser 1932
Member of the IVU Committee 1932-35

From the reports of the 1932 IVU Congress at the Eden Colony, near Berlin:

The official opening of the proceedings took place at 10 a.m. on Sunday, when short speeches were delivered by the President, Mr. C. Gumprecht, Mr. Karl Bartes (the local Congress Secretary) and others.

In the afternoon several hundred friends foregathered in the open air theatre to witness a performance of "Apollonius von Tyana," a play in six acts, by Karl Bartes, . . .

. . . in the improvised amphitheatre before mentioned there was a performance of a play, "Apollonius of Tyana," written by Mr. Karl Bartes (photo right), the Secretary of this year's Congress, in which German amateur artistry and thoroughness of production were alike exemplified.

At 8 o'clock in the evening the Concert Hall was again crowded this time to hear the enthusiastic and energetic local Congress Secretary, Mr. Karl Bartes, give a lantern lecture on ''The History and Development of the Eden Colony."

. . .After a day thus spent in the open air, evening found the delegates once more assembled in the congress hall, for the purpose of listening to a lantern lecture by Mr. Karl Bartes (who holds a highly responsible position in the Eden organisation) on the rise and development of the settlement from its first beginnings nearly forty years ago. Its present population is about one-fourth vegetarian, and among its special products is a vegetable "butter" and a particular brand of unfermented apple-juice, the latter, if not also the former, being well known throughout Germany. The lecturer, Mr. Karl Bartes, whose protrait is is reproduced herewith (above), was one of the most forceful and representative figures at the Congress his versatility being yet further displayed by the following evening by a rmearkably successful adaptation of some scenes from Goethe's "Faust," this performance, like the preceeding ones, being once again rendered by amateurs.

A proposal from Holland resulted in the formation of a small international committee which would meet whenever there was important business to transact. The appointed committee con-sisted of the new President, Mr. C. J. van Borrendam (Amsterdam), the Treasurer, Mr. Oluf Egerod (Copenhagen), the General Secretary, Mr. Hans E. Feix (Warnsdorf), together with Mr. K. Bartes (Eden-Berlin) and Mr. Frank Wyatt (London).

. . .Dancing followed and concluded a programme of four days' work and play, well organized, well carried through, and such as must have brought ample satisfaction to Karl Bartes and his loyal and unselfish company of workers in Eden.

The man on the left, in the above picture, is Karl Bartes - the organizer of the IVU congress
in Berlin-Eden, obtained from Eden data archive by Jan Stastny of Prague.

The reports of the 1935 IVU Congress, moved from Zurich to Denmark due to the political situation, make no mention of Herr Bartes. The rest of the IVU Committee was re-elected, but without him. We have a report elsewhere that the German Government banned German nationals from attending the Congress in Denmark, which would account for his absence, but this is unconfirmed.

The notes below are from the website of the Eden Colony ( www.eden-eg.de ) which is all in German, we've added a bad computer translation into English:

We have no other information about Herr Bartes at this time.

If you have any more information about anything on this page please contact John Davis - webmaster@ivu.org