Dear all who are connected in any way with Manfred Bleffert from Germany,
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German musician, composer, visual artist, and instrument maker Manfred Bleffert
A letter from Manfred Bleffert’s wife Ulrike
Date: 7/18/21
Subject: Greetings from the heart to everyone
Dear friends and people close to Manfred near and far!
We send you all warmth and comforting thoughts and big thanks for your deep sympathy, which gives us light and strength!
Yes, it is an unimaginable event that struck with full force and almost robbed Manfred of his life twice in a row. He had many helping good spirits with him when he stood alone in the top attic chamber on the night of July 14th to 15th and listened to the unleashed violence, which raged with unbelievable thunder and roar over the valley – 8-10m high! It had been raining extremely hard for many hours.
At midnight the rising water suddenly stood still, just a little under the roof ridge, the sky tore open and a bright starry sky appeared! Manfred had seen trees, houses, cars swim away and heard how the water tore away two whole walls of our house and the balconies. He stood at the window all night, sometimes singing, and experienced the dramatic rage of violence, which only gradually calmed down towards morning.
Johannes was in another house nearby; they couldn't talk to each other anymore. I myself was still in Freiburg; we wanted to go on vacation to the North Sea in a few days. Manfred had been able to call me again in the evening before all lines and the cellular network broke down, saying it was the end of the world.
I wasn't able to drive off until the next afternoon, only when the catastrophic weather and traffic conditions allowed it again. Bettina Westphal accompanied me with loving support. I wanted to pick up Manfred, who had been saved with Johannes in the meantime.
Towards the morning of the next day we both woke up very early at the same time. Manfred suddenly said the sentence: "Now the events are just reaching me," completely horrified.
Shortly afterwards, he suffered a heart attack.
He's doing reasonably well now, I'm allowed to visit him, but he's still in the intensive care unit. With our friends as well as volunteers from Bonn who are available here, we have meanwhile been able to rescue individual items from the house. The help is overwhelming and fills us with great gratitude!
Everything was under water. Nevertheless – we hope that it dries up. Individual sound tubes and cymbals lay on the completely destroyed ground, individual small sculptural works made of soapstone ... We keep looking ... many friends and our children have offered their help!
Large parts of the house and the whole studio workshop, all musical instruments and the whole household have disappeared in the floods and with it all of Manfred's artistic work from 50 years. It is incomprehensible and still needs to be understood. Irreparable destruction that cannot be physically rebuilt.
Due to my work as a eurythmist in the south, which will end at the end of January with my retirement, there is a small household available for us, including some of Manfred's work, of course. Manfred will join me in Freiburg after his extensive recovery. From there we will look for our "place to live in old age" and trust that we will find it! A place where we can continue our artistic work together. ....
I greet you all near and far in the world in Manfred's name with the light of the heart and great joy over this almost stolen but newly given life for him, the life that gives us so much to work, to learn, to understand – something full of light and pain to the same extent. We do not want to give up our gratitude and hope, bearing Rudolf Steiner's words within us:
Light divine,
Christ-Sun,
Warm our hearts;
Enlighten our heads;
That good may become
What from our hearts we are founding,
What from our heads we direct,
With focused will.
With heartfelt thoughts and in Manfred's name and will,
Ulrike (ulrikebleffert@posteo.de)
Read the article Travels with Manfred about David Adams’ 2014 visit to Manfred and his home and studio in Heiligenberg, Germany, which includes various photos of his paintings, sculptures, furniture, and unusual musical instruments. From the Art Section Newsletter, No. 42, Autumn-Winter 2014, pp. 35-39.
The Beings of Silence: An Introduction to the Musical Work of Manfred Bleffert – From Soundings 3, 2 (Spring 2011): 5-14, published by the Lyre Association of North America.
Read a report on Workshops with Manfred Bleffert in a 2010 article by David Adams, published in Being Human: https://www.rudolfsteiner.org/fileadmin/user_upload/being_human/bh-articles/adams/Bleffert-Adams2.pdf
Field of Strings
"Field of Strings" was one of Manfred’s one-of-a-kind original instruments, consisting of 12 rectangular "Lyres" linked together on a stand in a half circle. Lots of fun to play (but now probably destroyed).