Heinrich Jacoby originally a musician, was a German educator whose teaching was based on developing sensitivity and awareness. A great role in his researches played the collaboration with the colleague Elsa Gindler

Elsa Gindler

Elsa Gindler was a somatic bodywork pioneer in Germany.Born in Berlin, gymnastics teacher, student of Hedwig Kallmeyer ....

, whom he met in 1924 in Berlin

Berlin

Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...

. With the advent of nazism

Nazism

Nazism, the common short form name of National Socialism was the ideology and practice of the Nazi Party and of Nazi Germany...

 in 1933 Jacoby was forced to leave Germany

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

, but he continued his work in Switzerland

Switzerland

Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....

.

Jacoby and Moshe Feldenkrais

Moshé Feldenkrais

Moshé Pinchas Feldenkrais was an Israeli physicist and the founder of the Feldenkrais Method, designed to improve human functioning by increasing self-awareness through movement.-Biography:...

 were among a small group of European 20th Century innovators who emphasized the "self" in self-development, so that as in the zen

Zen

Zen is a school of Mahāyāna Buddhism founded by the Buddhist monk Bodhidharma. The word Zen is from the Japanese pronunciation of the Chinese word Chán , which in turn is derived from the Sanskrit word dhyāna, which can be approximately translated as "meditation" or "meditative state."Zen...

 inspired arts such as archery or judo

Judo

is a modern martial art and combat sport created in Japan in 1882 by Jigoro Kano. Its most prominent feature is its competitive element, where the object is to either throw or takedown one's opponent to the ground, immobilize or otherwise subdue one's opponent with a grappling maneuver, or force an...

 or even flower arranging a skill was not an end in itself. Practicing a skill was a path to greater awareness.

The work of Heinrich Jacoby was an important influence to body psychotherapy through the workshops that Charlotte Selver

Charlotte Selver

Charlotte Selver was a German music educationalist.The central point of Charlotte Selver's work was "experience through the senses"...

, student of Elsa Gindler

Elsa Gindler

Elsa Gindler was a somatic bodywork pioneer in Germany.Born in Berlin, gymnastics teacher, student of Hedwig Kallmeyer ....

, gave to major body psychotherapists at the Esalen Institute

Esalen Institute

Esalen Institute is a residential community and retreat in Big Sur, California, which focuses upon humanistic alternative education. Esalen is a nonprofit organization devoted to activites such as meditation, massage, Gestalt, yoga, psychology, ecology, and spirituality...

in the 1960s.

External links

• Heinrich Jacoby (1889-1964) a short biography, in German