The original Waldorf school opened in Stuttgart, Germany, in 1919. The pedagogy was provided by Dr Rudolf Steiner. The initial funds, land, buildings and students were provided by Emil Molt, who was the manager of the Waldorf cigarette factory in Stuttgart.Paull, John & Hennig, Benjamin (2020) Rudolf Steiner Education and Waldorf Schools: Centenary World Maps of the Global Diffusion of "The School of the Future" Journal of Social Sciences and Humanities. 6(1): 24–33. In the decade following the founding of that first school, further Waldorf schools opened in Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Netherlands, Hungary, Norway, the UK and the US. All the Waldorf schools in Germany were closed down by the Nazis and they progressively reopened after WWII. There are now Waldorf schools in 74 countries. Some are called ‘Waldorf’ schools and others are called ‘Steiner’ schools.Paull, John & Hennig, Benjamin (2020) Rudolf Steiner Education and Waldorf Schools: Centenary World Maps of the Global Diffusion of "The School of the Future" Journal of Social Sciences and Humanities. 6(1): 24–33.

The first Waldorf schools In the chaotic circumstances of post-World War I Germany, Rudolf Steiner had been giving lectures on his ideas for a societal transformation in the direction of independence of the economic, governmental and cultural realms, known as social threefolding, to the workers of various factories. On April 23, 1919, he held such a lecture for the workers of the Waldorf-Astoria cigarette factory in Stuttgart, Germany; in this lecture he mentioned the need for a new kind of comprehensive school. On the following day, the workers approached Herbert Hahn, one of Steiner's close co-workers, and asked him whether their children could be given such a school. Independently of this request, the owner and managing director of the factory, Emil Molt, announced his decision to set up such a school for his factory workers' children to the company's board of directors and asked Steiner to be the school's pedagogical consultant. The name Waldorf thus comes from the factory which hosted the first school.Johannes Hemleben, Rudolf Steiner: A documentary biography, Henry Goulden Ltd, , pp. 121-126 (German edition Rowohlt Taschenbuch Verlag ).

The original Waldorf school was formed as an independent institution licensed by the local government as an exploratory model school with special freedoms. Steiner specified four conditions:Barnes, Henry (2012) "Waldorf Education... An Introduction", Association of Waldorf Schools of North America

that the school be open to all children; that it be coeducational; that it be a unified twelve-year school; that the teachers, those individuals actually in contact with the children, have primary control of the school, with a minimum interference from the state or from economic sources.

On May 13, 1919, Molt, Steiner and E.A. Karl Stockmeyer had a preliminary discussion with the Education Ministry with the aim of finding a legal structure that would allow for an independent school. Stockmeyer was then given the task of finding teachers as a foundation for the future school. At the end of August, seventeen candidates for teaching positions attended what would be the first of many pedagogical courses sponsored by the school; twelve of these candidates were chosen to be the school's first teachers. The school opened on September 7, 1919, with 256 pupils in eight grades; 191 of the pupils were from factory families, the other 65 came from interested families from Stuttgart, many of whom were already engaged in the anthroposophical movement in that city. In the following years, a numerical balance between the factory workers' and outside children was achieved; it had been an explicit goal of the social threefolding movement to create a school that bridged social classes in this way. For the first year, the school was a company school and all teachers were listed as workers at Waldorf-Astoria, by the second year the school had become an independent entity.

The Stuttgart school grew quickly, adding a grade each year of secondary education, which thus by the 1923/4 school year included grades 9–12, and adding parallel classes in all grades. By 1926 there were more than 1,000 pupils in 28 classes. Already, in 1922, Steiner had brought his educational ideas to an English-speaking audience when he delivered twelve lectures at Manchester College at the Oxford ConferencePaull, John (2010) "A Postcard from Oxford: Rudolf Steiner at Manchester College", "Journal of Bio-Dynamics Tasmania", 100: 6-14. on the philosophy and practice of education and the imperative for a moral component.Paull, John (2011) Rudolf Steiner and the Oxford Conference: The Birth of Waldorf Education in Britain. European Journal of Educational Studies, 3(1): 53-66. This was followed up in 1924 with a course by Steiner for teachers held at Torquay during Steiner's final visit to Britain.Paull, John (2018) Torquay: In the Footsteps of Rudolf Steiner, Journal of Biodynamics Tasmania. 125 (Mar): 26–31.

The first decade Schools founded in the first decade after the Stuttgart school include: Cologne, Germany (1921) (closed 1925) Dornach, Switzerland (1921) – high school King's Langley, Hertfordshire, England (1922) where a boarding school began transitioning into a Waldorf school Hamburg, Germany (1922) Essen, Germany (1922) (closed by the Nazi government in 1936) The Hague, Netherlands (1923) London, England (1925), now Michael Hall school in Sussex, England Basel, Switzerland (1926) Oslo, Norway (1926) Hannover, Germany (1926) Budapest, Hungary (1926) Zurich, Switzerland (1927) Gloucester, England (1927) Berlin, Germany (1928) New York, US (1928) Vienna, Austria (1929) Bergen, Norway (1929) Dresden, Germany (1929)

A 1928 attempt to found a Waldorf school in Nuremberg met with resistance from the Bavarian Education Ministry, which stated that there was the "no need in Bavaria for independent schools employing novel ideas, especially when they had no religious ties."

Second World War The Stuttgart school grew rapidly, opening parallel classes, and by 1938 schools inspired by the original school or its pedagogical principles had been founded in the United States, the United Kingdom, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Norway, Austria, Hungary, and in other towns in Germany. Political interference from the Nazi regime limited and ultimately closed most Waldorf schools in Europe; the affected schools, including the original school, were reopened after the Second World War.P. Bruce Uhrmacher, "Uncommon Schooling: A Historical Look at Rudolf Steiner, Anthroposophy and Waldorf Education", Curriculum Inquiry, Vol. 25, No. 4. Winter 1995. Abstract

Present-day

Three-quarters of the Waldorf schools today are located in Europe; schools are now being established in Eastern Europe, where communist regimes forbade Waldorf schools until their overthrow in 1989. In the English-speaking world, there are about 200 schools in the United States, 70 in Australia and New Zealand, 40 in Great Britain, and 30 in Canada; there are also many schools in New Zealand and South Africa.

World-wide system of schools Germany, the United States and the Netherlands have the largest number of schools, while Norway, Switzerland and the Netherlands have the greatest concentration of schools per population.

Australia

All independent schools in Australia receive partial government funding,Independent Schooling in Australia Snapshot 2010, study by Independent Schools Queensland including the currently approximately 40 independent Steiner-Waldorf schools. In addition, 10 schools administered by the state are currently operating Steiner programs. In 2006, state-run Steiner schools in Victoria, Australia were challenged by parents and religious experts over concerns that the schools derive from a spiritual system (anthroposophy); parents and administrators, as well as Victorian Department of Education authorities, presented divergent views as to whether spiritual or religious dimensions influence pedagogical practice. If present, these would contravene the secular basis of the public education system.Steiner education in state schools. ABC National Radio. 25 July 2007 Religion Report, I, 1 August 2007 Religion Report II

A detailed. History of the Australian Waldorf schools has been written.WALDORF (RUDOLF STEINER) SCHOOLS AS SCHOOLS IN THE PROGRESSIVE EDUCATION TRADITION, Alduino Bartolo Mazzone

Canada There are more than 30 independent Waldorf schools in Canada; for a current list see here .

State schools using Waldorf-based methods include: French speaking: Chambly, Montreal, Waterville, Victoriaville, and Ottawa English speaking: Edmonton, Calgary and Kelowna.

China The Chengdu Waldorf School was the first of its kind opened in China, in 2004, teaching about 500 students between the ages of three and eighteen. In total China has about 70 Waldorf schools located in its big cities.

Finland In Finland there are 24 Steiner schools operating with 95 - 100% state financing.

Germany In the mid-1930s, the Nazi government began to pressure independent schools in Germany to conform to National Socialist social and educational principles or else face closure. By 1937, most of the German Waldorf schools had decided to cease operation rather than compromise their approach. In 1941, the last Waldorf school operating in Germany (in Dresden) was closed by the Gestapo, as was the school in The Hague, in the occupied Netherlands.Uwe Werner and Christoph Lindenberg, Anthroposophen in der Zeit des Nationalsozialismus (1933-1945), Oldenbourg Verlag, 1999, .

After the Second World War, many of the earlier schools were re-established, and new schools founded at a rapid pace. A second boom in school foundation took place beginning in the 1970s.

There are now close to 200 schools in Germany.

Russia Milestones in the development of Waldorf education include: 1992 - The first Waldorf School in Russia founded in Moscow.Paull, John (2017) The First Waldorf School in Russia: A Postcard from Moscow, Journal of Biodynamics Tasmania. 124 (Dec): 14–17. 1995/96 - The original Waldorf School in Moscow transitions to being state funded as School 1060. 1995 - Association of Waldorf Schools of Russia is founded 2017 - 25th anniversary of School 1080.

There are 18 Waldorf schools in Russia and 30 kindergartens. There are five Waldorf schools in Moscow, as well as Waldorf schools in Saint Petersburg, Irkutsk, Jaroslawl, Kaluga, Samara, Schukowski, Smolensk, Tomsk, Ufa, Vladimir, Voronezh, and Zelenograd. Some are funded by the government and some are privately funded. The Association of Waldorf Schools of Russia now has 21 members.

United Kingdom Various headmasters, teachers, and schools in Great Britain showed an early interest in the new educational methods; as a result Rudolf Steiner held a series of three lectures - in August, 1922 (Oxford), 1923 (Ilkley) and 1924 (Torquay) - introducing Waldorf principles. A number of groups then formed either seeking to transform their existing schools along Waldorf lines (e.g. The New School, Kings Langley in Hertfordshire) or to found new institutions.

In 1922, a small boarding school housed at Friars Wood and located in the grounds of the former Royal Palace of the Plantagenet Kings of England at Kings Langley, in Hertfordshire, became the first school in the United Kingdom to seek to transform itself along Waldorf lines. However, while the transformation process began in 1922, it took a decade and a half to complete. During that time the school added extensive new buildings, opening fully in 1949 when it became known as 'The New School' Kings Langley (in an attempt not to be confused with nearby Kings Langley Grammar School - now Kings Langley Secondary School). 'The New School' later changed its name, to become known as Rudolf Steiner School Kings Langley, and remained open until 2019.