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The Teachers' Group

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TG, or in Danish, Lrergruppen, or LG

The Teachers Group is at the heart of Tvind.   It was created in the early 1970s by Amdi Petersen and colleagues as a political movement on collectivist principles.   Members of the TG are simply known as 'Teachers' ('Lre').    All Teachers must have attended a Tvind college and are normally invited to join by existing members   -  if they show the right  attitude.

Teachers accept three principles: common economy, common  time, and common distribution.  (This description of the TG is drawn from  the Danish police documents).

• Common economy  means that the teachers transfer all their available income to joint savings, while for their own requirements they receive food, lodging and pocket money from the community.

• Common time means that the members of the TG are available to the community and that to a certain extent they forgo their personal rights, such as the right to start a family according to their own wish.

• Common distribution means that the community is to decide where the TG members are to work and what they are to work with. In practice this is decided by the Distribution Group. [Note - in practice, by Amdi Petersen].

In practice this means that most Tvind Teachers work for for almost nothing, passing their wages into the central Tvind accounts and subjugating their own individual wishes to those of the group.

Today the Teachers Group is not so much a secret society, as a closed group, somewhat on the defensive and suspicious of outsiders.    There is still a sense of us-and-them.   Parallels with cult behaviour are obvious.

Within the Teachers Group is a kind of inner circle within a circle.  These senior people, who have spent almost their whole lives in the Tvind system,  are the most loyal followers of all,  entrusted with sensitive projects that have nothing to do with Tvind's public face as a charity.   They are company directors, property owners, farmers in huge plantations.  They have a reputation for doing what they're told without question - for them, the purpose is all-important..

The downside of this collective existence, as in a classic cult, is that members of the TG are liable to lose their sense of individual identity.    Former Teachers Group members have reported becoming estranged from their friends and family, become totally reliant on Tvind for everything, and to have suffered psychological trauma at the prospect of leaving. They have become brainwashed.

There is evidence that Tvind has fostered this.  In around 1978, Amdi Petersen issued instructions to his followers in the Teachers Group to burn old family photographs and scrapbooks. Among Teachers Group members, evidence of disloyalty or wrong thinking is still punished by the prospect of ejection from the inner circle.  These are the values passed down to ordinary, non-TG volunteers.

Defectors

Many former Teachers Group members have succeeded in leaving the organisation, although according to psychiatrists many are severely traumatised.    But a few - since the arrival of Tvind Alert, an increasing number  -  have gone public about their experiences.     Among these are Britta Rasmussen and Steen Thomsen.  Read  the personal stories.

Rasmussen was a member of the Teachers Group working in the United States when she realised she had become part of a cult.     Click here for Britta's story.

Steen Thomsen worked for Tvind for 26 years and was head teacher of Winestead Hall School in England when he realised his loyalty to Mogens Amdi Petersen was leading him to behave unreasonably  -  he left, and has since written a long report to the Danish government claiming Tvind is a cult.  Click here for Steen's story.

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The Teachers Group is at the heart of Tvind.   It was created in the early 1970s by Amdi Petersen and colleagues as a political movement on collectivist principles.   Members of the TG are simply known as 'Teachers' ('Lre').    All Teachers must have attended a Tvind college and are normally invited to join by existing members   -  if they show the right  attitude.

Teachers accept three principles: common economy, common  time, and common distribution.  (This description of the TG is drawn from  the Danish police documents).

Common economy  means that the teachers transfer all their available income to joint savings, while for their own requirements they receive food, lodging and pocket money from the community.

Common time means that the members of the TG are available to the community and that to a certain extent they forgo their personal rights, such as the right to start a family according to their own wish.

Common distribution means that the community is to decide where the TG members are to work and what they are to work with. In practice this is decided by the Distribution Group. [Note - in practice, by Amdi Petersen].

In practice this means that most Tvind Teachers work for for almost nothing, passing their wages into the central Tvind accounts and subjugating their own individual wishes to those of the group.

Today the Teachers Group is not so much a secret society, as a closed group, somewhat on the defensive and suspicious of outsiders.    There is still a sense of us-and-them.   Parallels with cult behaviour are obvious.

Within the Teachers Group is a kind of inner circle within a circle.  These senior people, who have spent almost their whole lives in the Tvind system,  are the most loyal followers of all,  entrusted with sensitive projects that have nothing to do with Tvind's public face as a charity.   They are company directors, property owners, farmers in huge plantations.  They have a reputation for doing what they're told without question - for them, the purpose is all-important..

The downside of this collective existence, as in a classic cult, is that members of the TG are liable to lose their sense of individual identity.    Former Teachers Group members have reported becoming estranged from their friends and family, become totally reliant on Tvind for everything, and to have suffered psychological trauma at the prospect of leaving. They have become brainwashed.

There is evidence that Tvind has fostered this.  In around 1978, Amdi Petersen issued instructions to his followers in the Teachers Group to burn old family photographs and scrapbooks. Among Teachers Group members, evidence of disloyalty or wrong thinking is still punished by the prospect of ejection from the inner circle.  These are the values passed down to ordinary, non-TG volunteers.

Defectors

Many former Teachers Group members have succeeded in leaving the organisation, although according to psychiatrists many are severely traumatised.    But a few - since the arrival of Tvind Alert, an increasing number  -  have gone public about their experiences.     Among these are Britta Rasmussen and Steen Thomsen.  Read  the personal stories.

Rasmussen was a member of the Teachers Group working in the United States when she realised she had become part of a cult.     Click here for Britta's story.

Steen Thomsen worked for Tvind for 26 years and was head teacher of Winestead Hall School in England when he realised his loyalty to Mogens Amdi Petersen was leading him to behave unreasonably  -  he left, and has since written a long report to the Danish government claiming Tvind is a cult.  Click here for Steen's story.

Essential reading on the TG

Anybody wishing to join TG must remember that it is most certainly a money making scheme and as a TG member you are a wheel in that machine.   Hanna's story

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