Coué foundation

In 1924 Farwerck was involved in yet another activity, a foundation to spread the ideas of Emile Coué (1857-1926). “King of the subconciousness” Coué himself came to Hilversum to speak. Farwerck, chairman of the new foundation, also spoke at that gathering.

I’m not yet 100% sure about the events that led to this foundation. A respondent (see below this text) mentions the name of Josephina Simonis, but I haven’t ran into that name anywhere in the information that I gathered. Then again, looking for her specific name, she does appear to have advertised for having a Coué method practice. In one of them, she names herself a student of Coué.

Josephina (or Phine) is named Josephina Maria Johanna Petronella Simonis in full. She was born in Den Haag (The Hague) on 31 Januari 1885. She passed away in Laren on 6 July 1951.

According to the respondent, Simonis went to Nancy to study under Coué in 1923. I haven’t found anything to corroborate this, but a fact remains that in May of the same year, Coué was in the Netherlands to lecture. Information about the lecture could be obtained from Henri van Ginkel, whom Farwerck joined his Masonic lodge with.

A year later, a “second tour” is announced and there are newspaper reports saying that Farwerck presided the evening and introduced the speaker. In December 1924, the Coué foundation was started. None of the news mention Simonis.

There is something interesting though. Simonis frequently advertised her practice. The oldest advertisement that I found is from May 1924. At the time she lived in Hilversum. Two years later, she lived at another address in Hilversum, the Oude Enghweg where the Farwerck-Eijlardi weaving factory was located. Better even, Simonis lived almost exactly accros the street where Farwercks lodge meets nowadays!

After another moving in Hilversum, Simonis ended up in Laren where the earlier mentioned Van Ginkel lived.

The above makes it likely that Simonis and the group of the foundation knew each other. Maybe Simonis wanted to stay on the background or she had some other reason to not be involved. If indeed she went to Nancy in 1923, Simonis may have been the (in)direct reason for Coué to some to Hilversum that May. Either that, or Simonis knew (for example) Van Ginkel who was already in contact with Coué and also inspired Simonis to apprentise him.

Be that as it may, in a shorter newspaper article some names of those involved in the foundation are mentioned. Some will start to sound familiar. Emil Luden (1863-1942) who was another of the founders of the Goois Museum. J.L.C. van Meerwijk (1873-1948) was a familiar of Farwerck on several other occasions, Theosophy Freemasonry, Sufism.

There was another news article about the foundation and this one gives many more names. Most notably C.W. Farwerck. A long, long list follows:

J. Helder (Den Haag), C.W.Th. van den Brandhof (Den Haag), A.J. van den Brandhof-Dekker (Den Haag), D. de Clercq (Noordwijk), A. de Clercq-van Weel (Haarlem), M.L. Diemont-Luden (Ginneken), G.W. Eekhout (Amsterdam). A.G. Eekhout-van Andringa de Kempenaer (A’dam), G. Espeet (Bussum), Grenfell-Besse van Ittersum (Brummen), L.S. van den Heuvel tot Beichlingen gezegd Bartolotti Rijnders-Dijkhoff (Den Haag) Paul Hugenholtz van Heemstra (Den Haag), G. Posthumus Meyes (Ellekom) H.O. Posthumus Meyes-Hovy (Ellekom), J.T.J. Noyon-Neurdenberg (Ellekom), S. van Olden-Westenberg (Den Haag), Besse Schimmelpenninck van der Oije-Huyssen van Kattendijke (Doorn), F. Teding van Berkhout sr (Haarlem), S.W. Teding van Berkhout van Taack.

So how big exactly was this foundation? The newspaper article also mentions the professions of some people. Quite some high-placed people and again also some nobility.

Besides the ones I already mentioned most names are new. Well, not all. Two times “de Clerq” is mentioned. In 1939/40 Farwerck and the oldest daughter of poet René de Clerq started an organisation to safe the poets legacy. This oldest daughter was called Elza and lived in St. Niklaas, Belgium, so perhaps (distant) relatives?

Farwerck must have had quite a network for all his projects with not the least people.