Kurt Hahn Writings

These are a selection of Hahn's writings, biographies of him and bibliographies. The first three speeches provide an excellent overview of his ideas.

The writings are in Adobe PDF format. 
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Kurt Hahn at a celebration of his 80th birthday

Bibliography: a comprehensive list of articles on experiential education, downloadable, in PDF format.

Recommended Books: a comprehensive list of books on experiential education, including brief descriptions of each title, downloadable, in PDF format.

Major Speeches:

Education and Peace: The Foundation of Modern Society: An early address, given in 1936 in Britain, not long after Hahn founded the Gordonstoun School.

Harrogate Address on Outward Bound: One of the last major addresses given by Hahn in 1965, at age 77; it is one of the most eloquent and passionate expressions of his ideas.

Outward Bound, Address at a Meeting of the Outward Bound Trust: Perhaps Hahn's most comprehensive speech, it examines the relationship of Outward Bound to human nature, the development of Outward Bound and his vision of its future.

The speeches below offer further historical background and insight into Hahn's philosophy.

Address at the Forty-Eighth Annual Dinner of Old Centralians: An address on the failure of educational systems and the essential elements of the Outward Bound experience, including expeditionary learning and Samaritan service. Given at Grocer's Hall, London, 17 November, 1958. Published in The Central: The Journal of Old Centralians, London, No. 119, February 1959, pp. 3-8

Founding Day Ceremony Address at the Athenian School: This 1965 address discusses his ideas as relevant to secondary schools.

Gordonstoun and a Europe Mission: An account of the early days of Outward Bound after World War II.

The Love of Enterprise, the Love of Aloneness, the Love of Skill: Notes for a speech given during World War II at Liverpool Cathedral in London, one year before the first Outward Bound course was held. 

Training For and Through The Sea: Notes for a 1947 address given to the Honorable Mariners' Company in Glasgow, Scotland. 

Two Sermons: Given during World War II, these two addresses focus on the exercise of courage and compassion during war and the importance of rescue training and Samarian service.

Recommended biographies of Hahn

James, Thomas, Kurt Hahn and The Aims of Education

Stetson, Charles P., An Essay on Kurt Hahn, Founder of Outward Bound

Recommended reading

Richards, Anthony, The Genesis of Outward Bound

Zelinski, Mark, Outward Bound: The Inward Odyssey, Beyond Words Publishing, Hillsboro, 1991
Click here for more info on the just released new edition

Miner, Josh, and Boldt, Joe, Outward Bound USA
Click here to get info on the new edition

Brown, Arnold, Unfolding Character

Byatt, D. A., Kurt Hahn, An Appreciation of His Life and Work

Cunningham, Liz, Everyone's Uncle Kurt: Memories of Kurt Hahn

Godfrey, Robert, Outward Bound: Schools of the Possible, Anchor Books, New York, 1980

Hogan, James, Impelled Into Experience

Rohrs, Hermann, Kurt Hahn

Stetson, Charles P., Men Without Equal In Their Times, King's College Press, New York, 1999.

Additional Research Resources:

The Kurt Hahn Archive is the central archive for those interested in Kurt Hahn. It is located at Schule Schloss Salem, South Germany. It contains Kurt Hahn's writings and information concerning Outward Bound, the Duke of Edinburgh's Award, the United World Colleges, the Trevelyan Scholarships and other initiatives inspired by Hahn's ideas such as Round Square.

http://www.salem-net.de

Outward Bound International research page: this page contains a wide range of Web links, articles and bibliographic materials.

http://www.outward-bound.org/staff_sub2_research.htm

Indiana University Adventure Research Cache Search Engine: a compendium of various adventure recreation/education journal articles. You may query the journal article database to narrow your results.

http://webdb.iu.edu/Hperweb/iole/index.cfm

The Association for Experiential Education:

http://www.aee.org/