Author of the Month June June 01 2026

Fritz Julius (1902-1970) was a Waldorf high school science teacher who was held in very high esteem by those he taught and all who knew him. He had a special way of stimulating imaginations and comprehension in the hearts and minds of his students. Like the sudden lighting in the dawn of the world when the sun clears the horizon and brilliant light floods everything, so Fritz Julius would pull students into topics with his own keen interest and build imaginative pictures until the whole class lit up like the dawn.

Waldorf Publications cherishes the two books we carry of his: Fundamentals for a Phenomenological Study of Chemistry and, most recently Alchemical Pathways of a Researcher and Teacher. The latter is a delightful collection of Julius’s ruminations on a variety of topics — precious metals, alchemy, ants and other insects, plants, myths, and the Dutch people, to name but a few. 

Fritz Julius was born in Gulpen in the Netherlands and lived his life there. He taught biology and chemistry for decades at the Waldorf school in the Hague and then taught at the teacher training seminar in Stuttgart, Germany, home of the first Waldorf school. He based his understanding of an effective way to teach life sciences and chemistry on the works of Johannes Wolfgang von Goethe and Rudolf Steiner. He seems to have had both a remarkable grasp of insight into the sciences but also into the hearts and minds of the teenagers and adults he taught. There is in his books a spark of light that compels the reader forward. 

Fritz Julius wrote several books in his relatively short lifetime. These were written in German and Dutch and published in England, Holland, and Germany. There is a quality about the books that, in the very way they are written, teach teachers how to teach. One insightful donor recognized the value of his later book, Alchemical Pathways of a Researcher and a Teacher, published in German. This led to hiring a translator to make the book accessible in English. Waldorf Publications very much wanted to publish it, however, the editor in chief at Perceval Books in Montreal, Canada, was a student of Fritz Julius and was thrilled to have that chance. The donor made it possible to ensure that Waldorf Publications could deliver the book to Waldorf schools in the US and Canada. It is thrilling to have this book available through both Perceval and Waldorf Publications — a companion piece with Fundamentals for a Phenomenological Study of Chemistry.

To think about the substances of the earth as living material, and to approach the whole earth as a living being is an urgently needed transformation of our culture’s imagination thus far. These books will help with this process. Guaranteed!