The Rudolf Steiner Archive

by Marie Steiner (1943)

Germany's collapse after the World War had fateful consequences. Revolution, coups, impoverishment and hunger, exploitation by unscrupulous profiteers: all of this played out in wild confusion. Complete chaos loomed.

Then the energies of the people coalesced. While some sought salvation in the violent incitement of national and racial sentiment, hoping in this way to overcome the external and internal enemy in the future, others strove to rekindle the idealism of the intellectual life, which had once been Germany's greatness, in a way that was appropriate to the present. They sought to raise the level of culture and also to overcome social damage by recognizing the true nature of man and his destiny.

Those who, like Rudolf Steiner, had striven for such goals before the war, had been repelled by the indifference of the bourgeoisie, by the resistance and even the scorn of the circles dominating intellectual and economic life. The growing external power of the Reich, its successes in the fields of industry and world trade, gave satisfaction. The gathering storm on the periphery was often overlooked; too little attention had been paid to the forces pushing from below; warning voices had been ignored. Now, in the ever-increasing misery and despair, some hoped that the German would once again focus on his true calling and follow the paths laid out for him by his great minds.

Ways had to be found to channel intellectual impulses into the reality of everyday life in the most diverse areas of practical and social activity. Above all, education had to be placed on a healthy basis, elementary school teaching had to be rescued from dryness and a fresh approach had to be brought into teacher training; university life had to be withdrawn from mechanization; and new methods had to be worked out in medicine that would be based more on knowledge of the living than of the dead. Theologians approached Dr. Steiner, longing to tap into new sources of knowledge; artists were driven by the desire to consciously grasp the unconscious that was seething within them and struggling for expression. With all these desires and problems, people came to Rudolf Steiner, seeking his help to translate their burning aspirations into action.

He had been the voice of warning at the beginning of the 20th century, pointing out the symptoms of our culture and their inevitable consequences, which would have catastrophic effects if we continued to remain indifferent to the demands of the spirit and in the deafening rush for mere material goods. Where this would lead had now been shown in the catastrophe of the world war. The old order had collapsed; now it was necessary to build up anew from the ruins.

The members of the Anthroposophical Society felt obliged to help in this building up. Full of goodwill and noble fire, they wanted to throw their idealism into the balance. They drew courage from the enthusiasm that had been kindled in them by what Rudolf Steiner had revealed to them over the course of almost two decades: the nature of the world and the destiny of the earth, the eternal laws of being and the human-transforming depths of the act of Christ. They wanted to use the knowledge they had gained to enrich practical life.

The most pressing social obligation seemed to be the establishment of a unified school based on an understanding of the nature of the human being. Dr. Steiner gladly accepted the offer to lead the school founded by industrialist Emil Molt for the children of his factory workers. A thorough training course for teachers, led by Dr. Steiner, preceded the opening of the Waldorf School, which soon became known in many circles at home and abroad.

The aim was to bring order and system to the confusion of councils of all kinds in the economic field. Lectures were given at the request of many workers' circles, which had a strong urge but aroused the anger of the party leaders because their content did not correspond to Marxist theories and the slogans that had been issued. A university federation was founded by academic youth with the aim of revitalizing the deadlocked university system. A number of talented young scholars joined forces to fertilize the natural sciences with the results of spiritual research and to experiment in laboratories from new perspectives. Particular attention was paid to the production of remedies based on the knowledge of cosmic laws reflected in earthly ones. The good results achieved led to the founding of clinical-therapeutic institutes in Stuttgart and Arlesheim, which were supervised by several anthroposophical doctors, and later to similar foundations in other countries. Good results were achieved in the field of the production of plant dyes by working out their inherent intense luminosity. Economic associations of members working in industry were formed in order to take tentative steps towards the ideal of the association. Among other things, it was hoped that this merging of businesses would generate more funds to finance the above-mentioned foundations for the benefit of science. Dr. Steiner felt, even if some concerns arose in relation to success, obliged to let the men, who had matured in the practical work, have their way in these matters, since otherwise he could have been reproached with having prevented the necessary basis for the material security of the new enterprises; but this aspect of the matter caused him particular concern.

And here it was where the difficulties soon arose, piled up like mountains. The practitioners proved to be too bound by the thought patterns of the present to be able to cope with the resistance they encountered and the attacks by experienced opponents. Some forces weakened when the first enthusiasm had to be transformed into the laborious drudgery of everyday life in the midst of the most complicated external circumstances. It was a time of inflation, hostile occupations, repeated taxes of all kinds under changing designations, party struggles and the associated malicious persecution of dissenters. Dr. Steiner had to devote more and more of his time to the complications that arose in the enterprises, which the leading personalities there could not cope with. And unfortunately there were also more and more personal differences to be reconciled.

The worst thing was that the best forces were thus drawn away from the work for the anthroposophical movement as such. The new cultural foundations and the economic enterprises were now at the forefront of the interest of those burdened with them, and there was a lack of energetic advocacy for the living conditions of society, a lack of unity in leadership; special interests began to assert themselves there as well. The periphery, however, was dissatisfied with Stuttgart. And the youth, who were now pushing forward and strongly insisting on their cleverness, sought above all to express their new sense of community by criticizing and rebelling. In the midst of this turmoil, Dr. Steiner had to speak out sharply against what was then called the Stuttgart system; he had to travel to Stuttgart more and more often to try to set things right there. It was a time of unspeakable trials and tribulations for him — one can truly say: a martyrdom.

Several years had now passed in the midst of such work and worries, and many a hope had to be buried. Harmonious cooperation could have compensated for much of what the strength of character and endurance of the individual could not achieve. But harsh contradictions had arisen, characters had not found each other, and cliques dominated in society. Dr. Steiner was forced to demand a change in attitude and methods in all seriousness, so that personal considerations would be set aside and whatever was necessary for the consolidation of the Society would be done; otherwise he would be compelled to take quite different paths in order to prevent the movement from being fundamentally damaged by the Society.

Achieving harmony between strongly divergent temperaments was the most difficult task: Dr. Steiner tirelessly tried to bridge the tensions and awaken insight into this necessity.

We live in an age of pronounced personal idiosyncrasy and the most diverse differentiations. And where the strongest convictions have taken hold of souls, it is perhaps most difficult to find a balance between the contradictions that arise. One must have attained a very high degree of respect for other people, of inner tolerance, in order to achieve harmony where the clearly contoured thoughts of individuals come into conflict with each other and “the will hardens in delusion”. The history of the Church shows how relentlessly opposing opinions can confront each other and how quickly fanatical zeal can take the place of inner tolerance. In his mystery drama “The Testing of the Soul”, Dr. Steiner has the young miner say:

... It is still hidden from you
How compelling the power of thought proves,
When it completely takes hold of the human soul...
Thought turns from thought.—
I feel its power in my soul;
To resist it would be for me
would be the true spiritual death of my own being.

This is just to point out some of the otherwise incomprehensible things in the history of the church and religious movements in general. But back then in Stuttgart it was not about matters of faith. Rather, it was about finding each other in order to realize the ideal expressed in the words:

When many people's words
Present themselves to the soul in such a way,
Then it is as if
Mysteriously standing between them
Is the full image of man;
It shows itself in many souls
In a structured way, like the One Light
in the rainbow in many colors.

The souls had to learn to find their way to each other in kindness; the bossy and arrogant in one's own nature had to be recognized so that it could be overcome of one's own free will. They had to recognize the untruthfulness and power-hungry nature within themselves in order to be able to renounce seemingly justified claims. Dr. Steiner called on the souls to do this self-reflection as well, so that the powerful spiritual impulse behind the anthroposophical movement would not be shattered by what can best be characterized by Dr. Steiner's words:

He who, by the grace of higher spiritual powers,
Is allowed to cast glances into human souls,
Sees the enemies that oppose themselves
In their own being.
The battle that our opponents prepare for us
Is only a reflection of the great war
Which a power in the heart of perpetually
Out of hostility against others must lead.

These forces still rage today with their burning embers in souls; they spark catastrophes: both those within people that then destroy the social community, and those of the course of history. To detect them, even in the most secret folds of the soul where they hide, is the task of the modern human being who, in developing the powers of consciousness, is now to cultivate not only self-knowledge but also a sense of community. To do this, we need not only the philosopher's lamp and the surgeon's probe, but also the cherub's lightning bolt that strikes the conscience. Steiner gave us an abundance of light for the development of such self-knowledge, which leads to the formation of an alert sense of community. And the devastating flash of a mighty blow of fate also hit our community. 1923 became the year of the most severe test. The fire destroyed the Goetheanum building, which was a visible symbol of our spiritual and artistic work. But this catastrophe was preceded by discrepancies that manifested the drifting apart of forces that, in their unity, would have formed a spiritual defense. Too many special interests had asserted themselves. This had already become apparent in 1921 and 1922. Dr. Steiner himself described this regrettable phenomenon as follows: the daughter movements forgot the mother movement from which they had drawn their strength. They withdrew from it inwardly by concentrating exclusively on the interests of their particular sphere of activity, and harmed it by often seeking financial support from the impoverished Anthroposophists, despite promises not to do so because other possibilities were available, thus depriving the Society of the very limited funds available.

Dr. Steiner recognized that in order to save the anthroposophical movement from disintegration, he had to gradually reject the increasing number of burdens and responsibilities that were not directly related to it. In an essay that appeared in the “Goetheanum” in 1923, he briefly and objectively explained the reasons for this decision (see Open Letter Regarding My Resignation as Chairman of the Supervisory Board of “Kommende Tag AG”).

From the ranks of the Anthroposophical Youth, who, in addition to a beautiful zeal, naturally also revealed some rashness and clumsiness, an academic university federation had meanwhile emerged, which provoked the worst enmity among professors. The opponents of the most diverse camps and shades, the political, the ecclesiastical, the ideological, the backward occult currents, clenched themselves together into a well-organized hostile power, which had the extermination and destruction of the anthroposophical movement as its goal. They were no longer a few venomous haters spewing venom, whose rage should have gradually dissipated in the face of the truth: powerful, organized parties with widespread hate propaganda emerged.

Dr. Steiner had to make the members aware of the extent to which these things were connected with the mistakes that had been made. Just as he had always warmly and cordially praised all achievements that were made to him, gratefully acknowledged and emphasized every spirit of sacrifice, so now, in order to awaken an awareness of the transgressions, he had to appear firm and seemingly harsh and make demands for the consolidation of society. As early as the beginning of December 1922, he had spoken a decisive word in this direction and at the same time given a Stuttgart board member a task for his colleagues, the conscientious execution of which was particularly important to him – but it was not carried out, it was ignored, overlooked, perhaps overslept... It is not clear what word to use for this failure; it does not seem to have penetrated to the consciousness of the person who received the order. But Dr. Steiner, who had to devote himself to the work in Dornach, waited for the result of the order he had given. When he next visited Stuttgart, he was confronted with an unexpected and confusing situation. In some of his later speeches, he regretfully refers to this [see p. 201 ff.].

The purpose of this commemorative volume is to preserve the words spoken under such difficult conditions and bitter suffering at that time in their context. The above remarks may serve as an introduction to it. They are intended to create an understanding of the special situation in which the anthroposophical movement found itself at that time. They complete the picture of our society's development, which has by no means been happily illuminated only by the gifts of the spirit, but which has also had to struggle through unspeakable hardships and hard struggles and has suffered severely from human inadequacies. It would not be right to keep this secret. Looking at errors must also serve to sharpen and foster our sense of truth and to protect us from vain appearances. Outwardly, the words strung together here as the final words of various lectures may appear pieced together; but they give a picture of our social struggle, and it has historical value to trace these stages chronologically, past the milestones of our trials and our intellectual fall from grace. They point to the confusions and karmic chains of life and to the life conflicts and problems that arise from them. The answer, which only Dr. Steiner could have given, was an unparalleled act of sacrifice; it took place at the Christmas Conference of 1923/24 [GA 260]. After this spiritual atonement for sin that he performed for us, we were able to gain insights into the mighty workings of destiny, as set down in the esoteric reflections of 1924 [GA 235-240]. Cosmic and human events are interwoven there, as if at the focal point of a turning point in time. That we are experiencing such a turning point can be seen from the tragic events of our present time, which exceed all measure and surpass everything that has gone before in terms of horror. The waves of these events have also thrown our ship onto many reefs and dragged it into many whirlpools. It has not yet sunk – a kind fate has spared it. Will we be able to steer it through? That is the anxious question. – We will, if we sharpen our powers of perception on the paths that Rudolf Steiner has shown us, transform them through wisdom into love and mature them into action.

From December 24, 1922 to January 6, 1923, Dr. Steiner gave the lecture cycle “The Moment of Origin of Natural Science in World History and its Development since then” [GA 326], following the very significant lectures “The Spiritual Communion of Humanity” [in GA 219]. It was addressed primarily to young academics, and they also had access to the lectures for members, which began on January 1 following the above-mentioned theme and esoterically deepened what had been said in many directions. On New Year's Eve, the fire disaster occurred: on January 1, 1923, the Goetheanum was a pile of rubble. Despite the fire, there was no break in the work. Not a single event was canceled. Dr. Steiner only touched on the tragic event in brief, simple words, for pain cannot be expressed in words. He did not miss a single lecture or hour of his usual work. He had to divide his attention between Dornach and Stuttgart, interrupting the work in Dornach several times to travel back and forth to Stuttgart. The lectures on 1, 5, 6 and 7 January were on the theme: The Need for the Christ. The task of academic youth to gain knowledge. The recognition of the human heart [in GA 220]. On January 5, he gave the first lecture to the construction workers since the fire; they had all risen from their seats in sympathy when he entered — and even now he only touched on the event with few words, pointing to the crude agitation that had preceded it and to the hate-filled enmity to which the opposition had risen [see p. 70].

The subsequent January lectures, which tie in with the problems of the time and today's science, meet the aspirations of young students; they are contained in the volume “Lebendiges Naturerkennen. Intellektueller Sündenfall und spirituelle Sinnenerhebung” [GA 220]. February 2 saw the lecture 'Know Thyself'. Experiencing the Christ in Man as Light, Life and Love'; the theme of February 3 and 4 was 'The Night-Person and the Day-Person. The I-Being can be introduced into pure thinking' [all three in GA 221]. These are followed by admonitions that are particularly addressed to the members of the Anthroposophical Society and draw on much of what had to be said in Stuttgart in the meantime: “Words of pain, of soul-searching, words to awaken to responsibility” on January 23, and on the 30th: “Forming judgments based on facts. The twofold remelting of a spiritual-scientific judgment” [in GA 257]. February 9 and 10 brought the Dornach lectures: ‘Earthly Knowledge and Celestial Insight. Man as a Citizen of the Universe and Man as an Earthly Hermit’. These were followed on February 11 by ”The Invisible Man in Us. The pathology underlying therapy], and on February 16, 17 and 18, “Moral Impulses and Physical Effectiveness in the Human Being” [all in CW 221]. The subtlest cognitive problems were treated by presenting the phenomena of nature and the facts of the soul life and cosmic events in their context before the spiritual eye of the audience; the fate of those who, struggling to solve these problems, suffered greatly or were broken by them, was described. But in addition to this, Dr. Steiner also spoke those words that related to the new situation of our movement that had arisen as a result of the fire and to the conditions in society and its living conditions, to its tasks in the present and future. Or he interspersed episodic observations that were intended only for the members.

Meanwhile, these problems of society had been discussed again in Stuttgart in an intensive way in the lectures of February 6 and 13 [in GA 257]: “New Thinking and New Volition. The Three Phases of Anthroposophical Work”; “Anthroposophical Society Development. The Soul Drama of the Anthroposophist”. The warning and rallying cry of these lectures was consolidation of the society, self-reflection: an appeal to courageous will.

Dr. Steiner summed up the spiritual goal of the Society in the concluding lecture of the Dornach February series on 22 February: “The Renewal of the Three Great Ideals of Humanity: Art, Science and Religion” [in GA 257]. This lecture, which followed on from the consideration of the previous difficult life problems, is imbued with a solemn and festive mood.

Now the time had come for the delegates' meeting, which had been convened in the meantime, to take place in Stuttgart from February 25 to 28, 1923. The results of those discussions are sufficiently well known through the minutes that were immediately published for the members and through the private printing of the lectures given by Dr. Steiner at the time: “Two lectures for the delegates' meeting”. Dr. Steiner also reported on them in Dornach on 2, 3 and 4 March [GA 257].

The severe social crises unfolding in Stuttgart in 1922 were followed by the fire disaster in Dornach on New Year's Eve. Internal failings and external misfortune demanded a powerful awakening, a mighty upsurge of the soul. The words of Rudolf Steiner give us the awakening power to do so, if we open ourselves to them and do not shy away from the introspection they call for.

He shows us ways out of seemingly unsolvable situations, which, if we enter them with a pure heart and good will, can lead to a broadening of our horizons and to a healthy social structure. In order to accomplish this in conscious awareness – organically alive, not intellectually constructed – he gives us a comprehensive overview of the development of the anthroposophical movement in the Dornach lectures of 1923, about its necessity in the context of the decline of materialistic culture, and about the tremendous responsibility that lies with those who have been called to work in and carry it through.

On January 6, at the end of a meeting convened by the Dornach members to discuss the reconstruction of the Goetheanum, he spoke the following [see p. 73].

Additions to the lectures given by Dr. Steiner in February 1923 “The Will as Active Force" (GA 221)

The theme of the lecture on February 3, “The Night Person and the Day Person,” was the significance for waking daytime life of the experiences of the I and astral body that remain unconscious after they have emerged from the physical body during sleep. In order to make these experiences effective, the will was pointed to as the active force. Choosing an example, Dr. Steiner concluded with the following explanatory consideration:

Looking back at the development of the Anthroposophical Society. Sharpening our sense of responsibility.

In the second part of the lecture on February 4, “The Night-Person and the Day-Person – The I-Being can be thrust into pure thinking,” it was said that the will must be drawn into the inner life of the soul in order for the human being to awaken. This is the basis of initiation in modern times. The Theosophical Society, however, wanted to carry old methods of initiation over into the present. It lacked an historical overview and a sense of the importance of an awareness of the times. Dr. Steiner placed particular emphasis on this difference.

The theme of the lecture on February 9 was “Man as a citizen of the universe and man as an earth hermit”. Anthroposophy must be supported by a new life. The Society has not fully complied with the development of Anthroposophy and must decide whether it is viable or not. The state of the negotiations in Stuttgart. The provisional committee (see p. 113).

The theme of the lecture on February 16 was: “The conflict between Nietzsche's honesty and the dishonesty of the time”. Nietzsche, the representative personality of the last third of the 19th century, was broken by the problems of that time. The task of the Anthroposophical Society is to work on their solution. This can only come about through the soul of the human being acquiring a concrete relationship with the spiritual world. A powerful opposition is rising up against this. The development of the Anthroposophical Society is not keeping pace with the anthroposophical movement. The Society can be compared to a garment that has become too short. Referring to Nietzsche, Dr. Steiner says [see p. 116].

The theme for February 22 was “The renewal of the three great ideals of humanity: art, science and religion” [in GA 257).

The Stuttgart Negotiations on the Consolidation of the Anthroposophical Society

The provisional committee in Stuttgart, which had replaced the former central board, now issued an appeal to the Central European membership, calling on them to send representatives from all branches and working groups to send representatives to a delegate assembly to discuss with awakened responsibility the situation in which the Society had found itself as a result of the various foundations and its own inactivity [see the appeal on page 334]. |

The call was widely heard. The members flocked in droves. From February 25 to 28, this memorable assembly met in the great hall of the Siegle House in Stuttgart, where debates were held with short breaks well into the night. The lectures that Dr. Steiner himself gave during the proceedings in Stuttgart [in CW 257] are not recommended for study with sufficient intensity. If we let the content of these transcripts sink in, we too will be able to find ways out of seemingly unsolvable situations in the sense of growing organically beyond ourselves. Even if situations do not repeat themselves in the same way, the spirit in which they were resolved at the time points the way forward. It comes to us fully in Rudolf Steiner's speeches, in their straightforward severity, unity and all-embracing warmth of love, in their urgency that awakens our conscience. In this commemorative volume, those words are to be reproduced in which Dr. Steiner intervened, albeit rarely, in the general discussion during the four days of negotiations in Stuttgart.

Course of the Stuttgart Delegates' Conference

On February 25th, after the welcoming address by the chairman of the assembly, Mr. Leinhas, Dr. Kolisko gave a report on the serious situation in which society had found itself since 1919 due to the various new foundations; above all, the Federation for the Threefold Social Order, the School of Spiritual Science, the research institutes and the movement for religious renewal. The leading personalities of the individual institutions focused all their attention on their new foundations, which included, most gratefully, the Waldorf School, the Clinical Therapy Institute and the Kommende Tag. But it is fair to say that the parent organization, from which the daughter movements drew their strength, was forgotten. It was, so to speak, neglected. The tasks that arose for the anthroposophical community were neglected. Instead of warm relationships from person to person, a sober bureaucracy gradually emerged; the leading personalities in the institutions faced each other individually, without mutual understanding. The branch offices on the periphery were not sufficiently informed about what was happening in the society. This is what has been called the “Stuttgart system.” It led to compartmentalization and isolation; now this must stop, and contact with the entire membership must be reestablished. The delegates are asked to provide a picture of the situation in the Society from their point of view and not to be afraid to express criticism.

On this first day, a great many people immediately spoke up. When on the second day, February 26, the danger of digressing from the central question repeatedly emerged, Dr. Steiner had to point out that in order not to lose sight of the goal, one should stick to the actual topic: the consolidation of the Society, which now had to reflect on itself and its tasks. He spoke as follows (see p. 376).

After a procedural debate, the decision was taken to hear the reports on the individual institutions, since the difficulties had arisen from their justifications. Dr. Unger's paper on the threefold social organism points to the source of the difficulties: the branches had been appropriated for work in the spirit of threefolding; but the work of the Anthroposophical Society had been largely destroyed by this. The consequence of that work in the outer world was an enormous opposition that now pounced on Anthroposophy and Dr. Steiner. In a good sense, the threefold social order movement gave rise to the Waldorf School, founded on social impulse, the Clinical Therapeutic Institute, the scientific institutes, the journals and the 'Federation for Free Spiritual Life' — as well as the efforts of the 'Day to Come', which of course met with strong resistance in the outside world. The task for the Society now is to give effect to the social impulse within. The social demand involves something that is connected with the transformation of the whole person and requires constant work on oneself; the lectures that Dr. Steiner gave at the Vienna Congress are an example of this. — The proletarians take a lively part in the discussion that now follows.

In response to a delegate's request that we should first hear all the presentations before continuing with the discussion that has just begun, Dr. Steiner remarks:

"I think we really should take care to bring this to a fruitful conclusion. It may well be — although this has not been emphasized enough — that the fate of the Society depends on these three days. If we do not come to a result in these three days, there will be no alternative but for me to address every single member of the Society myself to ensure that this is carried out. So, if a reorganization is to take place within the Society, it must be done in these three days. We are in an Anthroposophical Society: everything is interrelated. You will be best able to form an opinion and also to talk about the threefold order when you have heard everything. Everything is interrelated. Therefore, it is most practical if you let the presentations run and get the full picture; then a fruitful discussion can arise, while each speaker will be tempted to talk about each individual detail — which leads to infertility. Mr. Conrad's proposal is practical: that we run the presentations as quickly as possible so that we know what has happened in Stuttgart as a whole.

Conrad's motion is carried.

In the presentation by Mr. Emil Leinhas on the 'Coming Day', he describes the emergence of joint-stock companies as an attempt to form a core of associative economic life through a merger of banking, industry and agriculture with scientific and intellectual enterprises. The implementation of the idea on a large scale failed due to the lack of understanding shown by leading circles of economic life.

There then followed papers [see p. 392 ff.] on the free Waldorf school (Dr. Caroline von Heydebrand), on the Clinical-Therapeutic Institute (Dr. Otto Palmer), the scientific research institute (Dr. Rudolf Maier), the scientific movement (Dr. Eugen Kolisko), a paper on the relation of anthroposophy to the Movement for Religious Renewal (Dr. Herbert Hahn), and one on the “Federation for Anthroposophical School of Spiritual Science Work” (Dr. W. J. Stein). The discussions continued on Tuesday, February 27. The address of the chairman introducing the proceedings was followed by a lecture on “Youth Movement and Anthroposophy” (Ernst Lehrs, Jena) and one on the opposition (Louis Werbeck, Hamburg); there was also a lecture on the “Bund für freies Geistesleben” (Dr. Karl Heyer). For the following discussions, speaking time had to be limited to ten minutes. When a motion to elect a new executive committee was suddenly raised, Dr. Steiner responded with the following words:

"This assembly has come together to decide on the fate of the Society. And it is truly necessary that the individual participants become aware of the importance of the moment. The Anthroposophical Society is certainly not a bowling club. It is therefore absolutely impossible to approach the Anthroposophical Society with the pretension that a board of directors should now be elected before the circumstances as they now exist have been thoroughly discussed. That is something you can do in a bowling club, but not in the Anthroposophical Society, where continuity is above all necessary. It can only be a matter of this meeting being brought to a close by those who were the leading personalities in Stuttgart. How this can be discussed, especially at this moment, is beyond me. We would descend into utter chaos if motions such as Dr. Toepel's were to be tabled at such a moment. Such motions can only be tabled if the intention is to blow the whole meeting apart.

Dr. Toepel's motion was rejected.

Discussions on the problems of youth and the proletariat continued until the evening, when Dr. Steiner gave the first of his two lectures on the conditions for “Anthroposophical Community Building”. It is printed in the stenographic transcript [GA 257] and should be studied in detail. In it, particular emphasis is placed on the understanding of a different kind of community element than that present in the original human context, which is based first on blood ties, then on language and the memory of shared experiences. A powerful relationship that connects people arises from a shared cult, as it has now been given to the movement for religious renewal. The true cultus imparts the memory of the pre-earthly existence, even if this memory remains in the subconscious depths of the soul. Forces from the spiritual worlds are carried down in the living images of the cultus; the cultic act is then not a symbol, but a bearer of power, because the human being has before him that which belongs to his spiritual environment when he is not in the earthly body. This different nature, which the Anthroposophical Society needs as a basis for building a community, lies in the fact that it must not only understand the secret of language and memory, which is the connecting element in community life, but must also look to something else in human life. A comparison of the dreaming state of man with the waking state can lead us to this understanding. In the world of his dreams, the human being is isolated; he is alone there. When he wakes up, he wakes up to a certain extent into a human community through the nature of his relationship to the outside world: through light and sound, through space in its warmth and the rest of the sensory world, through the appearance of other people, that which is their natural side. But there is still another awakening; this can take place through the call of the spiritual soul in the other person. And here the first understanding of the spiritual world begins. We may see beautiful pictures in the isolation of dreams, we may experience great things in this isolated dream consciousness: but our real understanding of anthroposophy only begins when we awaken to the soul and spiritual reality of the other person. And the strength for this awakening can be generated by cultivating spiritual idealism in a community of people. Real idealism is present when — just as in the form of worship the spiritual world is carried down into the earthly world — something that the human being has learned to recognize and understand in the earthly world is now elevated by him into the ideal. He can raise it into the spiritual and supersensible, and it comes to life when he penetrates it in the right way with feeling and a true will impulse. By permeating his whole inner being with such will, man, by idealizing his sensory experience, takes the opposite path to a cultic act. Through the living power he puts into shaping his ideas about the spiritual, he experiences something awakening that is the opposite of a cult: the sensual is raised into the supersensible. We must learn, through our soul disposition, to let a real spiritual being be present in the space in which the word of anthroposophy resounds. Then, shared real spirituality will sink into the awakened soul; but it must be evoked from the deepest sources of human consciousness itself.

Anthroposophy is independent of any anthroposophical society. It can be found by people forming communities out of the awakening they experience with each other; then they want to stay together for spiritual reasons. If we can pour anthroposophical impulses into our hearts with full clarity, we will also emerge from the present chaos; otherwise we will get deeper and deeper into the tragedy of this chaos. Two groups of people in this hall cannot understand each other, but both want to stand up for anthroposophy: that is the reality of the present situation. Since no possibility has been found to bring the two groups of people in the Anthroposophical Society to a mutual understanding, only one solution remains: each group could continue to work in their own way in separate organizations. One could then accept each other, since one no longer stands in each other's way, and would be able to achieve the desired unity and brotherhood through this purely organizational separation.

At first, this suggestion by Dr. Steiner caused great consternation. It was difficult to come to terms with what seemed to realize what everyone had feared above all: the threatening split in the Anthroposophical Society.

The chairman now asks that the discussion be adapted to what has been given by Dr. Steiner's lecture.

First, Mr. Uehli emphasized that, although he was no longer speaking as a member of the central board, he would like to express what he sees as his life's work: to continue to work with both the young, new members and those who have been there from the beginning and represent the historically developed society, in constant loyalty and with firm, honest will. He hopes that if the membership follows this path, then the various institutions founded since 1919 can also be supported by all and carried to what they are needed for.

After him, Dr. Unger takes the floor. It is only fair to let him, as the most outstanding representative of the historic Anthroposophical Society, which has become a hindrance to the egoism of some new members, have a personal word here. Dr. Unger stated the following [see p. 420].

Dr. Kolisko was the third to speak. He expressed the horror he felt at Dr. Steiner's suggestion that they should henceforth work together in two groups in a friendly way, instead of fighting each other in one [see p. 422].

Dr. Steiner replied: “I have only one request: you have seen from what has been discussed that tomorrow we will all have every reason to talk about those things that lead to a kind of consolidation of the Society in one form or another. I see no need to talk about things that are in order, for example the eurythmy section. We must begin with the present central council briefly setting out its view, so that we can arrive at something positive. I do not see that it is necessary to talk about things that are in order. Why do we want to fill the time with this and not finally address the things that need to be put in order? I would like to point out this necessity with the perspective that I ask you to consider something tonight or tomorrow and to deal first with what is necessary: to remodel or to redesign."

On behalf of the nine-member board, which has now taken the place of the old central board, Dr. Unger makes the following statement [see $. 429].

A representative of the youth movement, Dr. H. Büchenbacher, expressed his thanks to Dr. Steiner for helping to find a solution by which young people could continue their own anthroposophical development without having to contribute to the chaos and atomization of society. Until yesterday it seemed as if the youth were the impetus that could have led society into chaos. Now, alongside what has become historically established society, something new could unfold with a certain independence, but which also wants to serve the whole anthroposophical movement. Dr. Steiner believes it is possible for one and the same person to be active in both groups, regardless of age. The friendly connection between the two groups will arise out of Anthroposophy, and the present obstructive opposition will disappear.

Dr. Kolisko no longer wishes to adhere to his previously stated objections, now that it has been established that the split is not a “split” but a division.

In response to the chairman's announcement that there are 55 requests to speak and some written communications, a motion is made to vote on the program of the commission of nine. After a few comments, the assembly unanimously approves the program. The depression has given way to a joyful feeling since Dr. Steiner helped out of the emergency with his advice. A so-called tactical proposal for this living together of two families under one roof is still made out of a concerned soul: if the three different directions - art, science and religion - were represented more, without prejudice to the actual leadership of the branches, this living together could be easier.

After the morning discussion, Dr. Steiner gave his second lecture on the conditions for building community in the Anthroposophical Society (in GA 257).

The subsequent discussion mainly focuses on this area. In addition, debates are held on scientific problems and discussions about the possible founding of a free university. Finally, the great moment arrives when the chairman closes the meeting with a review of the serious concerns that gave rise to the convening of this meeting of delegates; the proceedings have shown how justified these concerns were. He expresses his thanks to the audience for the serious participation they have shown in the fate of the Society. It is thanks to the active help of Dr. Steiner that we have emerged from chaos and can look to the future with confidence. It is out of the right love for the work that the strength for the right action will arise.

Dr. Steiner's advice had been given on the basis of what he had encountered from the assembly, and with full consideration of what he wanted to be respected and observed as the sphere of human freedom of the soul. That is why the negotiations and discussions had to take so long and could not be abruptly interrupted; they were intended to lead to insight, not to surging emotions and majority decisions. In wise foresight of human weakness, which overcomes only through repeated new approaches and constant willingness to purify the will and recognize the errors, he spoke the prophetic but so obvious word: For a few years it would now go well again! At least it would be possible to work again. — And with his usual energy, he now set to work on the new construction of the international society, which was to be based on the individual national societies, now that it could be hoped that the affairs of the society in Germany would be steered in the right direction.

“What was the aim of the Goetheanum and what is the aim of anthroposophy?”

Further work in Switzerland and Stuttgart
Journey to Prague and Norway
The international delegates' conference in Dornach

Dr. Steiner reports on the events of the Stuttgart delegates' meeting in Dornach on 2, 3 and 4 March [in GA 257].

What Dr. Steiner otherwise spoke about in Dornach from the beginning of March to the end of June carries us upwards with a mighty flapping of wings, beyond the troubles and pains of everyday life to cosmic expanses, to the brilliant deeds of the spirit, which radiate over and give impulses to the historical becoming on earth and are mirrored in that which is our connecting link with the spiritual world: art. These new Dornach lecture series begin with esoteric reflections on: “The Impulsion of World-historical Events by Spiritual Powers” (March 11-23 [GA 222]). Language and music relate us to spiritual powers; between falling asleep and waking, they create a connection between our astral body and our ego and the hierarchies. But their influence on earthly events is reflected in historical events, which are, after all, images of supersensible deeds.

A trip to Stuttgart brings new ideas for education (March 25-29); the given material is presented in the lectures: “Education and Art”, “Education and Morality” [in GA 304 a]. On March 31, the esoteric reflections on the “Annual Cycle of the Year and the Four Great Festival Seasons” [CW 223] began in Dornach, which particularly elaborate the idea of resurrection and came to a preliminary conclusion on April 8. On the 13th, a further spiritual high point was reached in the lectures on “The Recapturing of the Living Source of Language through the Christ Impulse” [in GA 224], which open up the prospect of a future Michaelmas festival.

Meanwhile, Bern had also been visited. In the local branch there, Dr. Steiner spoke about “Shaping Destiny in Sleep and Wakefulness, about the Spirituality of Language and the Voice of Conscience” [in GA 224]. On April 5, he gave the public lecture in the Grossratssaal in Bern, and on the 9th in Basel: “What did the Goetheanum want and what should anthroposophy do?” The text of the Basel lecture is contained in the volume of the same title [GA 84].

Now, in addition to the workers' lectures and introductory words to public eurythmy performances, education is once again taking center stage in Dornach. A vacation course is taking place for teachers and those interested in education (April 14-22): eight lectures, published under the title “Educational Practice from the Point of View of Anthroposophical Knowledge of Man. The Education of Children and Young People” [GA 306]. The focus was on school management.

Following the course for teachers and those interested in education, Dr. Steiner gave the anthroposophical evening lectures in such a way that they could also be understood by those who had only recently come to anthroposophy. They provide an overview of human life in its entirety, in sleep and in wakefulness. Everything that had been gathered so far from the most diverse sources to shed light on the soul life of man: how it develops out of a dull germinal state, becomes a mirror of unfolding images, gradually to grasp itself consciously in the faculty of thinking and finally to awaken in it through lively, inwardly stirring thoughts – it is here transformed into a practice of knowledge, into a science of the soul that grows beyond dogmatic boundaries. The path is precisely characterized, which, through methodical practice, can give each individual the opportunity to overcome, from within, the passivity of reflecting thought and to transform it into active engagement. And this is something that is needed not only by the philosopher and the scientist to overcome cultural decline, but above all by the artist if he is to grasp the creative element in which art is rooted and can flourish alone. Above all, it is needed by the artist of life, who has made the education of the developing human being his particular task.

The presentation of this path of knowledge through the awakening of thinking activity provides a living foundation, not only for an insight into the human being's structure of being, but also for his being placed in the totality of the universe. How the individual elements of the human being are connected to the corresponding worlds of the universe is described here from within.

These five lectures, which effectively supplement the content of “How to Know Higher Worlds” and “The Stages of Higher Knowledge”, are printed in the volume “What Was the Goal of the Goetheanum and What is the Purpose of Anthroposophy?” [GA 84].

On April 22, the general assembly of the Swiss national society took place, during which the decision was made to take the necessary external steps to secure the reconstruction of the Goetheanum [see $. 477 ff.]. The inner possibility for this had been created by Rudolf Steiner's consciousness-awakening and morally uplifting activity. His tireless response to the pleas of the distant branches that invited him had developed that unifying sense of community that made the members look to Dornach as the center of their spiritual striving, where they would always seek to strengthen themselves. In essence, the form of reorganization of the society, which had been torn apart by the world war, emerged naturally from the real forces present: the outstanding spirituality of Rudolf Steiner, the world situation at that time and the soul need of the members to have a common meeting place, also locally at the place itself, for that activity combining art, science and mystery knowledge. It was only necessary to have a clear picture of all the circumstances present, so that each individual could develop the will to participate in deeds that would benefit humanity, out of an objectively focused clarity of soul.

Via Stuttgart, which was always urgently awaiting Dr. Steiner with its many concerns, the journey now continued to Prague. Negotiations were planned there with a view to founding a Czech national society. In addition to the public lectures on “The Eternity of the Soul in the Light of Anthroposophy” (April 27) and on “Human Development and Education in the Light of Anthroposophy” (April 30) [both in CW 84], and in addition to the introductory the introductory words to the eurythmy performance in the large, sold-out Deutsches Theater (Sunday matinee on April 29), Dr. Steiner addressed the branch in the Zweige during the important discussions about human development in early childhood and the work of the hierarchies on him in prenatal life. These two lectures, given on April 28 and 29, penetrate deeply into the mystery of language; they culminate in remarks about the mystery of Golgotha and are printed in the volume: “The Human Soul in Its Connection with Divine-Spiritual Individualities. The Interiorization of the Annual Festivals” [GA 224]. We do not have a shorthand transcript of the proceedings concerning the Society's finances, but we do have the short address with which Dr. Steiner responded to the words of greeting from the local friends [see $. 134].

On 2 May, Dr. Steiner will once again be giving his lecture in Stuttgart, which is of great importance for speech artists. The lecture is published as a brochure with the title 'The Individualized Logos and the Art of Detaching the Spirit from the Word' [in GA 224]. On May 5, before his actual topic 'The Spiritual Crisis of the 19th Century', he reports in Dornach on the working days in Prague (see $. 136).

Following on from the Dornach report on the working days in Prague, Dr. Steiner also spoke on May 6 about the spiritual crisis in the last third of the 19th century [fin GA 225], which started from a critical consideration of the novel “Auch Einer” by the so-called Schwaben-Vischer, the well-known aesthetician. And on May 7, Ascension Day, we receive as a festival gift the lecture “The Easter Thought, the Revelation of Ascension and the Mystery of Pentecost” [in GA 224]. The festival reflection was followed by a workers' lecture on May 7 and 9 [in GA 349]. Seen in retrospect, the closing words of the lecture for members, which relate to the guard duty of those who have taken on the task of watching over the place of work that remains to us since the fire, may seem curious, but perhaps they are indicative of all the things to which Dr. Steiner had to devote his care.

Dr. Steiner was able to work in Dornach for barely a week before we left for Norway via Stuttgart and Berlin.

The stay there lasted from 14 to 21 May with several events each day: In Kristiania (Oslo) there were two semi-public lectures on education; six branch lectures, recorded in the essay 'Human Nature, Human Destiny and World Development' [GA 226]; an address in the Vidar branch on social issues, on the occasion of the founding of the national society; two eurythmy performances; two semi-public lectures on “Anthroposophy and Art. Anthroposophy and Poetry” [in CW 276]; a Whitsun meditation: ‘World Whitsun, the Message of Anthroposophy’ [in CW 226] — and much more. It may be mentioned in this brief survey, which categorizes the lectures recorded in shorthand, that in addition to countless conversations with visitors, many other events had to be inserted into the overcrowded daily program. — Dr. Steiner's address at the Vidar Group's general assembly on 17 May has been preserved for us [see $. 469].

Dr. Steiner reported only briefly on the Nordic journey, introducing his first lecture in Dornach [see $. 143], after he had returned via Berlin and Stuttgart and arrived here on May 27. On May 23, in addition to a eurythmy performance, a branch lecture had taken place in Berlin about the nature of human experience during sleep and waking, about the feasts and the approach of the power of Michael. This lecture is printed under the title 'The Riddles of the Inner Man' [in CW 224]. Stuttgart had many concerns of a different kind that took up all of Dr. Steiner's time.

And now Dr. Steiner [in Dornach] spoke about the nature of the different cultural epochs in their connection with art, especially about ancient Greece, and about the original art: language. In the reflections that followed this lecture, 'The Artistic in its World Mission, the Genius of Language and the World of the Revealing Radiance' (May 27 to June 9 [GA 276]), he gave what is surely the most profound and comprehensive account of art that has ever been given.

The lectures for the workers at the Goetheanum should also be mentioned, which took place repeatedly in Dornach from 1922 onwards. They are of a very special educational value and contain Dr. Steiner's answers to questions on various topics of interest to workers. They surprise with the freshness and immediacy of their tone.

Meanwhile, the wishes of the foreign members to see a second Goetheanum erected had taken on ever more concrete form and combined with the efforts of the Swiss members. The Annual General Meeting of the Anthroposophical Society in Switzerland, held in Dornach on June 10, took up a proposal contained in a letter dated June 8 “To the branches in all countries” from the Anthroposophical Society in Great Britain, and passed a resolution to convene a meeting of delegates from all countries in Dornach at the end of July. This joint decision was to lead to the longed-for reconstruction of the Goetheanum and the necessary financial measures. The negotiations of the general assembly of the Swiss national society on June 10 [see p. 512] were followed by the eight lectures on “The History and Conditions of the Anthroposophical Movement in Relation to the Anthroposophical Society” [GA 258]. They lasted until June 17. On the morning of June 17, the memorable general assembly of the Goetheanum Building Association took place, attended by a large number of delegates. Dr. Steiner's address was a deeply moving one.

Now it had become necessary to visit Stuttgart again. The subject of the lecture of June 21, which followed the usual concerns, was: “Our Thought Life in Sleep and Wakefulness and in the Post-mortal Existence” [in GA 224]. He gave a presentation of the duality in man, who is at once a rung in heaven and an earthly germ, and how both express themselves in the nervous system on the one hand and in the blood system on the other. The lecture has just been published and should be of particular interest. It culminates in the description of that region of the physical being that makes it possible to realize human freedom.

On this occasion, the profound difference between the theosophical and anthroposophical movements was also discussed and the essential point of the anthroposophical movement was emphasized.

On June 24, a double Midsummer celebration took place in Dornach, with introductory words about the Midsummer mood during the eurythmy performance, and in the evening with the now also published lecture: “The Sharpened Midsummer View” [in GA 224].

On June 29, we experienced the deeply moving cremation ceremony of Hermann Linde, the second chair of the building association, who worked so devotedly for the Goetheanum, and the painter of the great dome of the Goetheanum, who, it can be said, had his heart broken by the fire disaster. That same evening, Dr. Steiner gave a lecture in his memory on life after death and our relationship with the dead [in GA 261]. On June 30 and July 1, at a subsequent pedagogical conference for Swiss teachers, Dr. Steiner spoke on the topic “Why Anthroposophical Pedagogy?” The lecture was published in “Anthroposophical Study of Man and Education” [GA 304 a]. The evening lecture on July 1 was on “The Constitution of Our Civilization” [in GA 225]. This was followed by daily visits to the Waldorf School in Stuttgart, as well as attending to social concerns and inspecting the scientific institutes and research laboratories. The lecture of 4 July [in GA 224], which is contained in the same volume as that of 21 June, took up considerations about living and dead thinking and emphasized the necessity of penetrating to a real soul teaching. Starting from Mauthner's 'Criticism of Language', Dr. Steiner discusses the spiritual foundations of the human soul life, the reality of thinking, feeling and willing, which has been lost to our time, so that only the abstract word remains. With all due recognition of the scientific merits of some outstanding contemporaries, such as Rubner and Schweitzer, and with full appreciation of Albert Schweitzer's important work “Decay and Rebuilding of Culture”, Rudolf Steiner shows the powerlessness of today's thinking in the face of the cultural decline of our time, using examples taken from some of their works.

It can only be noted that from July 11 to 14 in Stuttgart, the priests of the Christian Community were also given what enabled them to further develop the movement for religious renewal.

In Dornach, a new series of lectures began on July 6, which has been published in the volume 'Three Perspectives on Anthroposophy' [GA 225]. In it, the difference between Western, Central European and Eastern folk spirituality was elaborated; the reflection culminates in the harrowing lecture of July 15 on the earthly astral realm in the Ural and Volga region.

And now, after some profound remarks in the introductory words to eurythmy, we arrive at some interesting working lectures, at the proceedings of the particularly well-attended international assembly of delegates from 20 to 23 July and the three informative lectures on the “Three Perspectives of Anthroposophy” given in the evenings following those important proceedings. The words of serious admonition spoken by Dr. Steiner during those negotiations can be found in this volume [see p. 593]. The reconstruction of the Goetheanum was now assured. In the third lecture of the “Three Perspectives”, Dr. Steiner expressed, in the name of anthroposophy, his deepest satisfaction with what had been negotiated at this conference with regard to the reconstruction of the Goetheanum.

The decision to rebuild the Goetheanum was taken by the entire Anthroposophical Society that had gathered in Dornach – in other words, by the entire Society through its authorized representatives. The work should be approached with new joy, albeit with new concerns.

Anthroposophical impulses must bring about an awakening from the cultural slumber of humanity.

Now that the construction of a second Goetheanum building had to be considered, Dr. Steiner again turned to the tasks of art with particular intensity. He saw the main task of anthroposophy in relation to art as being its reunification with the forces of the universe. It arises from the spirit and enables human beings to sense the divine in the image. When science became dominant in the sense of intellectualistic thinking, art also led to naturalism. Gradually, it too lost its connection with the universe, which had become a mechanically functioning structure of rotating spheres. Art lost its significance through the materialism that dominated it; after all, nature itself cannot be surpassed by its image, and the trivialities of life cannot satisfy the soul in the long run. The consequence is a barbarization of culture through naturalism, which remains in the realm of the obvious. If art does not rise above nature by absorbing its creative principle and climbing up to spiritual heights through the path of spiritual experience, if it is unable to elevate earthly reality to the level of the ideal, then it must degenerate. Dr. Steiner repeatedly emphasized the infinite significance of art as a path to the spirit. Art, religion and science had to be reunited, as was the case in the ancient mysteries. The Goetheanum wanted to serve this purpose. Hostile forces had destroyed it. Now a second attempt should be made.

For months, Dr. Steiner had been working tirelessly on the moral foundation of society. He could hope that his call, which repeatedly called on souls to awaken, to become aware of what they owed to the world situation and what they had to bring into the world to counteract the decline of culture, had not gone unheard. Now that the new building was to be tackled, he turned again from the scientific and philosophical problems that had been treated particularly intensively in the preceding months, to ever deeper explanations of the ancient mystery being and the art that emerged from it. During the delegates' meeting, he was able to say many things not yet expressed about the weaving of language rooted in the universe during a eurythmy performance, since he could count on the anthroposophists as an audience that had the necessary prerequisites for understanding more intimate spiritual nuances. It is preserved under the title 'The Imaginative Revelation of Language' [in GA 277]. Then, after the delegates' conference, he gave a cycle of three lectures on the secrets of the planetary system, in addition to the carefully prepared workers' lectures. More could not be wrested from the limited time before the new journey, but this short cycle gives a basis for the mood that must prevail in the souls if they are to penetrate into the essence of the mystery teaching.

These three lectures concluded with an appeal to overcome all sectarianism so that anthroposophy can continue the development of humanity in the right way [see p. 162].

“Coming out of the sectarianism” was something that Dr. Steiner had to emphasize again and again. A broad-heartedness towards the needs and demands of the world, not becoming absorbed in one's own concerns but having one's eyes open to one's surroundings: this was what he regarded as the necessary basis in that fateful year of 1923 in order to be able to respond to the repeated pleas of members : to begin again with the closed circle the esoteric work together, similar to that which had taken place before the World War, but during the war and the post-war period was not considered by him to be an option [GA 264 and 265]. This is because the demonically ravaged astral sphere of the earthly realm makes it impossible; it would, so to speak, give the demons of hatred the opportunity to open themselves gateways into the souls. In other ways too, people are never more exposed to whisperings or distracting, tempting thoughts than in such hours of collective concentration, which can signify a catharsis, but where the evil and contradictory still present in the souls still rise up before they recede, the elemental beings, so to speak, gather. It is not without reason that monasteries were often said to be besieged by demons. — Dr. Steiner replied to those complaining about the renunciation: We too have to bear our share of human karma; we cannot withdraw from it. This makes it all the more important for the individual to be vigilant in their meditation. To those who repeatedly asked Dr. Steiner in the post-war period to resume the joint esoteric work, he replied: “First learn to get along with each other. You must first learn to sit at the same table. Only then can you work together esoterically.

Slowly and gradually, he tried to prepare the future by creating a moral fund that he intended to give and that would become a summary of everything that is set out in his many esoteric considerations, which are available as cycles, in his individual appearances.

Working weeks in England

The journey to England was a rich and varied experience. It began with the pedagogical course in Ilkley, a small town in Yorkshire, which lasted from August 5 to 17 and the content of which has been published in several editions as a book entitled “Contemporary Spiritual Life and Education” [GA 307]. On his return to Dornach, Dr. Steiner gave a detailed report on the conference, which also conveys the mood associated with this area, where naked industrialism devastates the soul in black cities, and where traces of ancient spirituality surprisingly emerge from the green solitude of high moors.

This cycle, dedicated to pedagogy, was followed by the purely anthroposophical one in Penmaenmawr from August 18 to 31, which is preserved in the book “Initiations-Erkenntnis. The spiritual and physical development of the world and of humanity in the past, present and future, from the point of view of anthroposophy” [GA 227]. There were also several addresses by Dr. Steiner that have not yet been published, which may find their place here because they repeatedly contain new, surprising or essential insights, sometimes ones that are not noted anywhere else.

After being welcomed by the organizers of the conference in Penmaenmawr, Dr. Steiner gave the following address.

The first course lecture took place on the morning of the following day, opened by the highly esteemed pedagogue and social worker Miss McMillan, whose effectiveness in the report of Dr. Steiner will be mentioned. In the afternoon, a discussion followed among members about anthroposophical work in England, at which Dr. Steiner was asked to speak. He said the following, which can also give us some guidelines [see $. 170].

The following evenings were devoted to discussing the wisdom that had been received in the meantime. Dr. Steiner was asked to answer questions that people had not fully grasped intellectually. He was happy to address them.

Art and its future task: colors, language, eurythmy.

The course lectures continued in the mornings, with discussions and presentations by members in the evenings. On the evening of August 24, Dr. Steiner spoke about colors and the tasks of art [in GA 284] following Baron Rosenkrantz's lecture and concluded with the words: “But that [replicating nature] is also true artistic creation, and all the arts will come back to this to a greater or lesser extent in the future. That was artistic creation in all great art epochs. And that is what also shone forth in all the individual examples of Baron Rosenkrantz's excellent lecture. That is what you can see particularly wherever new artistic impulses emerge in the evolution of the earth. From these new impulses one can draw courage and hope that new forms of art can indeed arise out of what can be experienced in spiritual science. — How eurythmy has arisen from this, I will take the liberty of explaining in a special lecture, which is to be scheduled, which has been requested. In doing so, I will perhaps be able to add a few more details to what I have said today.

Dr. Steiner was also asked to give more details about the art of eurythmy and how it came about. On August 26, he gave a brief overview of its origin and sketched out its basic laws, which rest in the supersensible and embrace the whole human being. We find this lecture printed as an introduction to the book 'Eurythmie als sichtbarer Gesang' [GA 278].

Therapeutic principles and curative eurythmy

On one of the following evenings, Dr. Steiner was asked to speak about the therapeutic principles that have emerged from the anthroposophical world view. The rather long lecture he gave on this subject is printed in the volume “Anthroposophical Knowledge of Man and Medicine” [GA 319].

On August 31, Dr. Steiner said goodbye to the organizers and participants of the course [His farewell words will appear in the Complete Edition in GA 227].

Re-constitution of the English Anthroposophical Society

Some questions about the reconstitution of the English Anthroposophical Society had already been discussed in Penmaenmawr. Now in London, this was the focus of attention. On September 2, the Annual General Meeting of the “British Anthroposophical Society” took place in London. He answered the questions put to him by Dr. Steiner in a way that also pointed the way forward for us. We have a shorthand record of his remarks [see $. 603].

On the same day, the lecture that appeared some time ago as the esoteric study, “The Human Being as the Image of Spiritual Beings and Spiritual Activity on Earth” (in GA 228), took place in the Zweige. As if continuing to answer a question that had already been asked in Penmaenmawr, Dr. Steiner spoke about the significance of the state of sleep for the development of the ego in man: there his soul plunges into the world of the stars. In earthly existence, the ego is initially darkness of life, non-existence, only a hint of the true being. Man on earth is only the image of that which of his true nature never descends into earthly existence. But the hierarchies also work in his organism. They gave him a dull cosmic consciousness, which lived as an instinctive clairvoyant power in an older human race. Through the Mystery of Golgotha, man can now freely acquire a new cosmic and ego consciousness. This meditation concludes with a meditation to gain the I.

Medical lectures for doctors were also held on September 2 and 3 [in GA 319]. It should also be noted that it was not uncommon, no, often the case that Dr. Steiner had to give three or even four lectures in one day.

Dr. Steiner took leave of his friends in London with the words [see p. 177].

Dr. Steiner on the work and impressions of the journey in England

On September 9, Dr. Steiner gave an account of his journey and stay in England in Dornach. This lecture is a wonderful evocation of the many impressions that made that time so rich. [In the new edition of GA 228.]

The lecture on September 10 was another highlight in the presentation of cosmic-human interrelations, of the interlocking of heavenly wisdom and the human soul opening to it, which ultimately, “always creating itself, becomes aware of itself.” [*From ” Anthroposophical Calendar of the Soul] This irradiation of the spiritual and divine into the earthly-human sphere is the content of the meditation that pictorially describes cosmic-earthly becoming and its metamorphosis into self-awareness in the time between Johanni and Michaelmas, but in the magic of the ancient Druidic culture, under the immediate impression of those mountain peaks of Wales with the remains of ancient cult sites – austere, stone-grey and primeval, but sun-drenched and with an inner strength that is still tangible today. The gusts of wind and heavy showers that blow in between give the radiance in the sky ever-new charm and proclaim the sun's triumph, despite the forces fighting against it. And in the deep warm violet of the heather flowing down the mountain slopes, sending its color greeting to the foaming sea below, the soul drinks in refreshment.

This lecture has also been preserved and will soon be published under the title: “The Druid Priest's Solar Initiation and his Knowledge of the Moon Beings” [in GA 228].

Conference of the German Anthroposophical Society

The first conference of the Anthroposophical Society in Germany, founded at the end of February, took place in Stuttgart from September 13 to 17 at the Siegle House. In the invitation, its goals were described as follows [see $. 615].

On three evenings (14, 15 and 16), Dr. Steiner gave lectures on the subject “Man in the Past, Present and Future” [in GA 228]. He greeted those present with the words [see $. 625].

This was followed by a presentation of the human being, how it has developed in a certain past, how it stands in the immediate present, and how its perspectives arise for the future of human development on our planet Earth.

Dr. Unger submitted the “Draft of the Basic Principles” for discussion (see p. 635). The meeting decided to leave further work on it and its transmission to the Dornach Conference to the Executive Council.

From this point of view, the members in Germany prepared the founding of the General Anthroposophical Society on a new basis in Dornach during the Christmas period.

From Dornach to Vienna and back via Stuttgart

In addition to the lectures for workers, the work in Dornach during the September days should also include the celebration in memory of the laying of the foundation stone of the building that was lost to us only ten years ago, with a report on the Stuttgart conference [see $p. 639]. This was followed on September 22 and 23 by descriptions of the various states of consciousness in humans, sleeping and waking, and reflections on contemporary scientific works [in GA 225].

The next destination was Vienna, where the Austrian national society was to be founded. This social event was preceded by a lecture cycle for members, which is available as “Anthroposophie und das menschliche Gemüt” [in GA 223]. A lecture for physicians was also given [in CW 319]. The first public lecture took place on the 26th, the second on the 29th, with a large crowd in the main hall of the concert hall. The two lectures were published [in CW 84].

At the founding meeting of the Austrian national society, Dr. Steiner did not take the floor. It was only after his final lecture to the members that evening that he referred to the afternoon's merger of the Austrian branches into a national society (see footnote 657).

How lovingly Dr. Steiner penetrates to the essence of things and people, even when he has to say things that call for wakefulness, that do not flatter and want to win, but educate, can be seen in this address as an example.

On October 5, Dr. Steiner gave a brief report in Dornach on the Vienna Days [see p. 182], and then moved on to the lectures that have become known as the Archangel lectures [GA 229].

The following descriptions of the archangel imaginations interwoven with the annual cycle are among the most powerful impressions we have experienced through the words of Rudolf Steiner. After they were made available to every member as an addition to the newsletter on the occasion of the great festivals, they will now also be available, in response to many requests, as esoteric reflections and a beautiful festival gift under the title “Experiencing the Course of the Year in Four Cosmic Imaginations” (Oct. 5-13) [GA 229].

On October 15, Dr. Steiner also spoke in Stuttgart about the imaginative life connected with the course of the year, about the meteoric iron and the Michael festival to be renewed in the lecture on the Michael Imagination. Spiritual Milestone in the Course of the Year [in GA 229]. For Waldorf teachers, he gave two lectures: one on the comprehensive human insight as a source of imagination for educators and the other on the phenomenon of the gymnast, the rhetorician and the doctor, which arose over time within different civilizations, and their necessary synthesis for the present [in GA 302 a]. On the nineteenth of September in Dornach, he was able to begin the wonderful series of esoteric reflections on the inner connection between world phenomena and world essence, which have become known under the title 'Man as the Consonance of the Creative, Formative and Shaping World Word' [GA 230]. They were continued until November 11. In our soul's eye, the entire multiform nature arises before us in its pictorialness, its formative urge and creative urge, in the richness of its sprouting and sprouting, and dissolves into spirituality - as it is indeed in a saying by Dr. Steiner: “The spirit melts in the world's weaving, the heaviness of the earth into the light of the future.”

Conference in Holland

Establishment of the Dutch national society
End of the year in Dornach

The need for active work within the Anthroposophical Society in order to make it a reality. It is necessary to awaken to what is happening in the world, to what interests people, so that the anthroposophical movement can have an instrument in society. Anthroposophy is knocking at our hearts to bring us the true human being. The historical passage of modern civilization through the threshold to the spiritual world.

On November 12, the trip to the Netherlands took place on the occasion of the imminent founding of the local country society. As early as November 13, the cycle of five esoteric reflections “The Supernatural Man, Anthroposophically Recorded” [GA 231], one of the most important study materials, begins in The Hague. The public lectures of that time are: “Anthroposophy as a Challenge of Our Time” and ‘Anthroposophy as a Human and Personal Path of Life’ [in GA 231] as well as two lectures on education [in GA 304a]. For physicians, two lectures could again be held on ‘Anthroposophical Knowledge of Man and Medicine’ [in GA 319].

The introductory words that Dr. Steiner addressed to the members before the start of the internal lecture cycle, which refer to the warm welcome he received [see p. 663], as well as the words with which he the Hague [see $681], they are, like the entire lecture cycle, an objective with regard to what runs through the manifold reflections of 1923 as a guiding thought: We have lost the human being. How do we find him again?

Unfortunately, we have no shorthand notes or notes of the negotiations during the founding of the national society.

The report that Dr. Steiner gave about this on November 23 in Dornach contains the essentials of what he, in all the places he had wished to write in the hearts of the members at all the places where he spoke – and which, if properly received in feeling and carried through in will, should place the founding of the International Anthroposophical Society, planned for Christmas and centered in Dornach, as a living factor in the service of human evolution.

The following words were added to this report, as a transition to the actual lecture:

"Now, my dear friends, we want to use the time we have left for lectures here at the Goetheanum before Christmas Week in such a way that those members who live here in Dornach in the expectation of Christmas Week being here will be able to take with them as much as possible of what the Anthroposophical Movement is able to bring into people's hearts. So that those who will be here until Christmas will really have something to say in their thoughts, especially about what can still happen in the last hour. I will not talk about the International Anthroposophical Society, that can be done in a few hours during the meeting itself. But I will now try to structure these reflections in such a way that they can also convey something about the mood that should then be. What I have already explained here in the last few weeks, I will try to approach from a different starting point. Today I will begin by approaching an understanding of the secrets of the world through the life of the soul of man himself.

This promise was more than amply kept. After the attempt, carried out with so much self-sacrifice, to morally strengthen the membership, to awaken in them a keen sense of responsibility for the duties towards the world that arise from receiving such impulses, the spiritual generosity of From this spiritual generosity of Steiner's flowed an infinite abundance of cosmic and historical overviews, which revealed the seamless connection between the laws of nature on earth and the human soul life with the powers of the universe that are active in the supersensible. Deeper and deeper they penetrated into the secrets of a knowledge of nature that was illuminated from within. The ancient wisdom could be freely subjected to the test of the newly acquired intellectual thinking: the objective facts yield the proof of truth. These truths of a spiritual revelation that encompasses the past and the future at the same time can be sensed inwardly by the soul and inwardly felt through newly awakening powers of consciousness, as it were. Exposed to the criterion of unprejudiced science, intellectual knowledge was at the same time offered a magnificent, cosmic-historical picture of the metamorphosing ability of the human soul under the influence and wise guidance of the mystery being, which reached back into gray primeval times and led this development. The mystery centers were also subject to historical change in their development and work, to the law of flowering, maturity and decay; but the stream of life that permeated their various forms of expression continued to flow secretly into our darkened time.

These cycles must be read in the wording. Keywords taken from them could only weaken their effect, extinguish the living spirit. The “Mysteries” [GA 232] are an organic continuation of the cycle “Man as the harmony of the creative, forming and shaping world word” [GA 230] and lead to the esoteric-historical reflections that introduced the Christmas Conference: “World History in Anthroposophical Light and as a Basis for Knowledge of the Human Spirit” [GA 233].

The workers at the Goetheanum were still allowed to gain insights into the secrets of immediate nature through a course on bees given at their request. GA 351].

Retrospective

A cycle had been completed. Starting from the knowledge of external nature at the beginning of the year, Rudolf Steiner had allowed his audience to glimpse into its deep secrets and thus into the hidden foundations of the cosmos, from which nature can only be recognized. Today's mechanistic natural science has made us lose sight of the human being, who is the sum of the world's riddles. We must rediscover this supersensible human being in us, whom we have lost. He allowed the figures of the victims of a dark age, consumed in a futile spiritual struggle, to pass before our soul's eye. Their struggle was not in vain, for it is only through such vicarious struggle that the creative spirit can be forced down through the soul's prayer of action, and grace flows to mankind. Even the negative ultimately gives birth to the positive if it is selfless, if it fights out of honesty. Despair drew near the savior, who became the instrument of the descending revelation, he who possessed the perfect equipment of earthly knowledge and was willing to sacrifice his individual being to humanity in full selflessness. He did not shy away from the difficulty of this act of rescue, however weak and inadequate the human material was with which he had to work. Despite the meagreness of the talents or the weakness of the souls that confronted him, he saw the striving of the individual ego, saw the longing of the souls to rise above themselves. And he gave this soul flame spiritual nourishment so that it would grow and communicate itself to humanity, not extinguish itself. A tireless educator of humanity, he guarded this sacred fire, calling it to alert activity again and again when it threatened to fade away. Often the inert mass of matter seemed to paralyze the momentum of the soul; the power of resistance on the part of the forces dominating the outer world seemed to carry the victory. But anyone who works with the forces of the future knows that the spiritual seed, and not only the earthly seed, must first make its way through chaos and death in order to sprout. We are experiencing the chaos. Rudolf Steiner's spiritual deed looks forward to its resurrection in the future.

Dear Dr. Steiner,

Stuttgart, January 23, 1923

I thank fate for allowing me to attend yesterday's meeting and to gain insights into things that one may have felt for but not known in their reality.

For a long time now, I have felt the need for renewal in the Anthroposophical Society. I know that the icy coldness that prevails in it in the relationship between people is an expression of the wrong attitude, which results in fragmentation and cannot cope with the struggles outside. If we had lived by even a small portion of social principles, many attacks and perhaps the worst incident at New Year would have been avoided. Yesterday, I was forced to say that we are not authorized to make accusations against the leadership. I believe that this is impossible under the impact of the findings and facts and should only be done by the doctor. Yesterday evening might have yielded better results if, in addition to what the doctor had to say about the personalities of the board and their mistakes, we had also dealt with and expressed our own suggestions for consolidating the society. I had to ask myself whether it was a good idea to immediately name the three personalities who were nominated for the new election – whether it would not have been better to call for an unprejudiced new election in the relatively small circle without immediately singling out certain personalities, which would have immediately led to a position being taken. My immediate feeling that the society should not be led by three Waldorf teachers was confirmed by Dr. [...]. However, the group from which these proposals arose has, despite all their good intentions, shown that their potential leadership will also require supplementation. This consideration again made me realize how difficult it is to find the right board of directors, because we are all only more or less able to contribute, and it is only by complementing each other that we can become suitable. I therefore thought that a force like Dr. Unger, whose clear and decisive representation, which we have once again experienced on recent significant occasions, will be difficult to replace, and I thought that if a more fortunate addition were chosen instead of Mr. Uehli, the bureaucratization that we all feel bitterly about could be eliminated. So I asked for the re-election of Dr. Unger. I also wished to advocate the election of a woman to the board because I believe that women have a specific role to fulfill in society and that a representative on the board is necessary. I wanted to bring all this up yesterday, but it turned out that I could not speak. Allow me, dear Dr. Unger, to do so today, in this way. Not because I consider what was said important, but for the sake of clarification of what I said yesterday.

May I say a few words about religious renewal. I certainly do not want to deny that the board is to blame for the confusion among the members of the Anthroposophical Society. But each member had a greater responsibility for himself. For Dr. Unger had already touched on this sense of responsibility at the very beginning of the religious renewal. So, as a member of the Anthroposophical Society, I have to say to myself: If the doctor shows leniency towards us members of the Anthroposophical Society in this matter, then this leniency is more burdensome than the accusation against the leadership of our Society. This protection is proof of our immaturity. Many anthroposophical friends believed that they would receive esotericism through the ritual of the religious renewal - the longing for this is great. I also acknowledge this longing, although I know that esotericism could be found and that it is only my weakness that prevents me from finding it.

Oh, dear Dr. Schuessler, enthusiasm is there, but so much else is missing to make us suitable, and it is one of the most bitter sufferings to find ourselves unsuitable, as we did yesterday, when the doctor's call comes to us. — The heart is overflowing, but the hands that are supposed to do deeds are empty. — But I want to!

In deep admiration, Lia Stahlbusch

The Anthroposophical Society is dedicated to the cultivation of spiritual scientific research. The basis of this research is the realization that it is possible and necessary for our time to experience a similar change of views regarding the spiritual as human views experienced a similar change 4-5 centuries ago through Copernicus, Kepler, Galileo, Giordano Bruno and others regarding the natural sciences. This spiritual science is based on a real exploration of the spiritual world. In this respect, it is strictly opposed to all materialistic - or, as it is often called today, monistic - dogmatism. It seeks to apply the real methods of spiritual research and is of the opinion that materialistic world views and mere natural science simply do not know these methods - or have no inclination to deal with them - and therefore reject them. It takes the view that this rejection is currently arising from the same blinkered mentality as that which once opposed the Copernican worldview. The view of repeated lives on Earth is not a dogma of faith for spiritual researchers, but a result of their research. It seems just as incredible to people today as the assertion that the earth moves and does not rest once seemed to them. Thus, the Anthroposophical Society is to be regarded as a scientific society, not as a religious community or sect. The insights of spiritual research that are already possible today can be found in the writings of Dr. Rudolf Steiner. The building in Dornach near Basel, which is currently under construction, also serves to cultivate this knowledge. The artistic expression flowing from the insights of the spiritual world is also expressed in this building.

Since the spiritual-scientific results concern the important facts of the human soul life, it is natural that people's minds should also be interested in these results, that these results can become the innermost personal convictions, valuable to each one, which support and sustain him in his ethical, in his whole spiritual and also outer life. At the same time, it remains true that there can be no question of the Anthroposophical Society founding a religion or anything similar. The Society is far from even touching on any religious worldview. It can have the adherents of any religious confession in its midst. It cultivates spiritual scientific research and has nothing to do with any creed. It presents what can be investigated by spiritual science, just as natural science presents what can be investigated by natural science. Just as true natural science can never interfere with religion, given a proper understanding of the relationship between the two, so spiritual science cannot do so either. At present, anthroposophy no longer has any community with the so-called theosophical societies. It stands completely independently of any other society on the basis of the spiritual research characterized above. It is understandable that it faces opposition from religions and also from materialistic science, since its research results are currently still misunderstood, misinterpreted and the like. She will have to struggle not to appear like a sect, but like the bearers of such knowledge, which at the time of its appearance seems like fantasies, but which then become the basic pillars in the progression of the human worldview.

However, anyone who believes that there can be no other view of the spiritual world than the traditional one, or that such a view must be preserved for “belief”, will inevitably misunderstand the whole nature of spiritual research. But one should recognize that this currently reveals the same attitude as that which rejected Copernicus because it was believed that the Christian canon was contrary to the Bible.

Those who are familiar with spiritual science are of the opinion that the establishment of the fundamentals of human life in the broadest sense can lead to an elevation of the moral and of all life in general, and that with the spread of spiritual science, many an ideal will be realized, for which the best and most honest minds yearn; or in whose realization many despair because they see no possibility of realization in the materialistic present. Perhaps he will no longer do so when he penetrates into the real meaning of spiritual research. The Anthroposophical Society would like to serve knowledge and life in a calm way, based on genuine science. But it is based on a science that does not stop short of exploring real spiritual realms. —

It is a little difficult to continue what has been given in the last lectures, because so many friends who have not taken part in these studies are here to-day. On the other hand it is hardly possible to make a new beginning, for many things contained in the previous lectures have still to be completed. Friends who have just arrived will have to realise that if some of our thoughts to-day prove somewhat difficult to understand, it is because they are connected—inwardly, though not outwardly—with preceding lectures. At Easter we shall have a self-contained course, but to-day I must continue what has gone before. We did not expect so many friends at this date, although needless to say we are extremely glad that they have come.

In recent lectures we have been speaking of definite karmic relationships—not with the object of finding anything sensational in the successive earthly lives we have studied, but in order to arrive step by step at a really concrete understanding of the connections of destiny in human life.

I have described successive earthly lives of certain historic figures, in order to call forth an idea of how one earthly life works on into the next—and that is not an easy matter.

Again and again it must be emphasised that a new trend has come into the Anthroposophical Movement since the Christmas Foundation Meeting at Dornach. Of this I should now like to say a few introductory words.—You know, my dear friends, that since the year 1918 there have been all manner of undertakings within the Anthroposophical Society. Their origin is clear. When the Anthroposophical Society was founded, this question was really being asked, out of a deep occult impulse: Would the Anthroposophical Society continue to evolve by virtue of the inner strength which (in its members) it had acquired until then? There was only one way to make the test. Until then, I, as General Secretary, had had the leadership of the German Section, which was the form in which the Anthroposophical Movement had existed within the Theosophical Society. The only way now was for me no longer to take in hand the leadership of the Anthroposophical Society but to watch and see how this Society would evolve through its own inherent strength.

You see, my dear friends, that is something quite different from what the position would have been if already at that time (as at our Christmas Foundation Meeting) I had said that I would undertake the leadership of the Society. For the Anthroposophical Society, if led by me, must naturally be an altogether different thing than if led by someone else. Moreover, for certain deep reasons, the Society might have been led all the better if I myself had not had the administrative leadership. Many things might have been done if human hearts had spoken—things which in fact remained undone, or which were even done from outside, often enough under resistance from the anthroposophists.

During the War, of course, we had little opportunity to unfold our forces in all directions. So it came about that after the year 1918, the prevailing state of affairs was taken advantage of by those from many quarters who wanted to do this or that. If I had said at the time, “No, these things shall not be done”, then of course we should hear it said to-day: “If this or that had only been allowed, we should now have numbers of flourishing undertakings.”

For this very reason it was the custom at all times for the leaders of occult movements to let those who wanted to do something try it out and see what became of it, so that convictions might be called forth by the facts themselves. For that is the only way to call forth conviction. And so it had to be in our case too.

The upshot of it all has been that since the year 1918, opposition to our Movement has grown rife, and has brought about the present state of affairs, when it is impossible for me, for instance, to give public lectures in Germany.

At the present moment these facts must in no way be concealed from the Anthroposophical Movement. We must face them with all clarity. As long as we work with unclear situations we shall make no progress.

As you know, all manner of experiments were made in the hope of being ‘truly scientific’—shall we say? Quite naturally so, in view of the characters of those concerned! Scientists who also partake in our Society naturally like to be scientific. But that is the very thing that annoys our opponents. When we say to them, “As scientists we can prove this or that truth”, they come forward with all their so-called scientific claims, and then of course they become furious. We should be under no illusions on this point. Nothing has annoyed our opponents more than the fact that our members have tried to speak on the same subjects as they themselves do, and in the same manner, only—as these our members often used to say—“letting a little Anthroposophy flow into it.” It was precisely this which called forth our opponents in such overwhelming numbers.

Again, we offend most strongly against the life-conditions of Anthroposophy if we give ourselves up to the illusion that we can win over the adherents of various religious communities by saying the same or similar things as they, only once more “letting Anthroposophy flow into it.”

But now, since the Christmas Foundation Meeting, an entirely new element must come into all that is being done in the field of Anthroposophy. Those of you who have observed the way Anthroposophy is now being presented here, or the way it was presented at Prague and again at Stuttgart, will have observed that impulses are now at work which call forth something altogether new, even where our opponents are concerned. If we try to be ‘scientific’ in the ordinary sense of the word—as, unfortunately, many of our members have tried to be—then we are presuming, so to speak, that it is possible to enter into discussion with them. But now take the lectures that have been given here, or the lectures at Prague, or the single lectures at Stuttgart—can you believe for a single moment that there can be any question of entering into discussion with our opponents on these matters? It goes without saying: we can enter into no discussion with our opponents when we speak of these things. How, for example, should we discuss with any representative of the civilisation of to-day the statement, for example, that the soul of Muavija appeared again in the soul of Woodrow Wilson?¹

Thus in the whole Anthroposophical Movement there is now a prevailing quality which can tend to nothing else than this.—We must take it at last in real earnest that there can be no question of entering into discussion or argument with our opponents. For if we do so, it will in any case lead nowhere. Thus we must realise that, with regard to our opponents, it can only be a question of refuting calumnies, untruths and lies. We must not give up ourselves to the illusion that these things can be discussed. They must expand by their own inherent power; they cannot be decided by any dialectic.

Through the whole tenor of the Anthroposophical Movement as it has been since Christmas last, this will perhaps be realised increasingly, even by our members. Henceforth the Anthroposophical Movement will take this attitude: It will no longer pay heed to anything other than what the spiritual world itself requires of it.

It is from this standpoint that I have placed before you various thoughts on karma. Those of you who were here, or who heard my last lecture at Stuttgart, will remember that I tried to show how the individualities who lived in the 8th and 9th centuries A.D. at the Court of Haroun al Raschid in Asia, having continued to evolve after death in different directions, played certain definite parts in their new incarnations. At the time of the Thirty Years' War (and a short time before) we have on the one hand the individuality of Haroun al Raschid, reincarnated in the Englishman, Bacon of Verulam. And a great organiser at the Court of Haroun al Raschid, who had lived at the Court—not indeed as an Initiate, but as the reincarnation of an Initiate—this individuality we found again as Amos Comenius, whose field of action was rather in Middle Europe. From these two streams, much in the spiritual part of modern civilisation flowed together. In the spiritual and intellectual aspect of modern civilisation, the Near East—as it was in the time immediately after Mohammed—lived again, on the one hand through the reincarnated Haroun al Raschid, Bacon of Verulam; and on the other hand through Amos Comenius, who had been his counsellor.

In the present lecture I wish to emphasise the following fact:—The evolution of man does not merely take place when he is here on earth, but also when he is between death and a new birth. Bacon as well as Amos Comenius, having fastened Arabism—so to speak from two different sides—on to the civilisation of Europe, died again and passed into the life between death and a new birth. And there they were together with many souls who came down to earth after their time. Bacon and Amos Comenius, having died in the 17th century, lived on in the spiritual world. Other souls, who came down to earth in the 19th century, were in the spiritual world together with the souls of Bacon and Amos Comenius from the 17th to the 19th. On the one hand there were souls who gathered mainly around the soul of Bacon—Bacon whose work became so dominant. Then there were the souls who gathered around Amos Comenius. And though this is rather a pictorial way of speaking, we must not forget that there are ‘leaders’ and ‘followers’—albeit under quite different conditions—even in the spiritual world which men pass through between death and a new birth. Such individualities as Bacon or Amos Comenius worked not only through what they brought about on earth—through their writings, for example, or through the traditions of them which lived on on earth. No, these leading spirits were also working through the souls whom they sent down, or the souls with whom they were together and who were then sent down; they worked by causing certain tendencies to germinate in these souls in the spiritual world. Thus among the men of the 19th century we find souls who had become dependent already in their evolution in the pre-earthly life on one or other of these two spirits—the discarnate Amos Comenius, and the discarnate Bacon.

As I said, I want to lead you more and more into the concrete way in which karma works. Therefore I will now draw your attention to two personalities of the 19th century whose names will be known to most of you. One of them was especially influenced in his pre-earthly life by Bacon, and the other by Amos Comenius.

If we observe Bacon as he stood in earthly civilisation—in his earthly life as Lord Chancellor in England—if we observe him there, we find that his working was such that an Initiate stood behind him. The whole Bacon-Shakespeare controversy, as it is outwardly pursued by the historians of literature, is appallingly barren. All manner of arguments are brought forward which are supposed to show that Shakespeare the actor did not really write his dramas, but that they were written by Bacon the philosopher and Lord Chancellor, and so on ...

All these things—working with external methods, seeking out similarities in the way of thought in Shakespeare's dramas and Bacon's philosophic works—all these are barren superficialities. They do not get at the real truth. For the truth is that at the time when Bacon, Shakespeare, Jacob Boehme, and a fourth were working on the earth, there was one Initiate who really spoke through all four. Hence their kinship, for in reality it all goes back to one and the same source. Of course, these people who dispute and argue do not argue about the Initiate who stood behind, especially as this Initiate—like many a modern Initiate—is described to us in history as a rather intolerable fellow. But he was not merely so. No doubt he was so sometimes in his external actions, but he was not merely so. He was an individuality from whom immense forces proceeded, and to whom were really due Bacon's philosophic works as well as Shakespeare's dramas and the works of Jacob Boehme, and also the works of the Jesuit, Jacob Balde.

If we bear this in mind, then we must see in Bacon, in the philosophic realm, the instigator of an immense and far-reaching stream of the time.

It is most interesting to observe what could become of a soul who lived throughout the two centuries, in the life beyond the earth, under the influence of the dead Bacon. We must turn our attention to the way in which Bacon himself lived after his death. For our studies of human history it will in fact be more and more important to observe the human beings who have lived on earth not only until the moment of their death but in their working beyond death, where they work on and on upon those souls who are afterwards to descend to earth. This applies especially to those who have themselves been responsible for great spiritual achievements.

No doubt these things may be somewhat shocking for men of the present time. So for instance I remember—if I may make this digression—I remember on one occasion I was standing at the entrance to the railway station in a small German University town with a well-known doctor who went in a great deal for occultism. Around us stood many other people. Presently he warmed up to his subject and out of his enthusiasm said to me in a loud voice, so that many of those who were around could hear him: “I will make you a present of the biography of Robert Blum; but that is a biography which begins only after his death.” Spoken loudly as it was, one could well observe the shock it gave to those who were standing around us! One cannot say without more ado to the people of to-day, “I will make you a present of the biography of a man, but it begins only after his death.”

For the rest—apart from this two-volumed biography of Robert Blum, which begins not with his birth but with his death—little has yet been done in the way of relating the biographies of men after their death. Biographies generally begin at birth and end at death; there are not yet many works that begin with a man's death.

Yet, for the real happenings of the world, what a man does after his death is immensely important, notably when he passes on the results of what he did on earth—translated into the spiritual—to the souls who come down after him. We cannot understand the age which succeeds a given age if we do not observe this side of life.

Now I was specially interested in observing those individualities who surrounded Bacon after his death. Among them were individualities who were subsequently born as natural scientists. But there were also others who were born as historians; and if we observe the influence of the dead Lord Bacon on these souls, we see how the materialism which he founded upon earth—the mere researching into the world of sense (for, as you know, everything else was for him an ‘idol’)—translated into the spiritual, reverts into a kind of radicalism. And so indeed, in the very midst of the spiritual world, these souls received impulses which worked on in such a way that after their birth, having descended to the earth, they would attach no value to anything that was not a concrete fact visible to the senses.

I will now speak in a somewhat popular form, but I beg you not to take my words too literally, for if you do so it will of course be only too easy to say: ‘How grotesque!’ Among these souls there were also some who, by their former tendencies—derived from former earthly lives—were destined to become historians. And among them was one who was the greatest. (I am still speaking of the pre-earthly lives of all these souls). One among them was the greatest. Under the influence of Lord Bacon's impulses, all these souls said to themselves, in effect: It is no longer permissible to write history as it was written in former times, to write it with Ideas, investigating the inner connections. Only the actual facts must now be the object of our research.

Now I ask you, what does this mean? Are not the intentions of men the most important thing in history?—and they are not outwardly real! These souls, however, no longer permitted themselves to think in this way; and least of all did the soul who afterwards appeared again as one of the greatest historians of the 19th century—Leopold von Ranke. Leopold von Ranke was a pre-earthly disciple of Lord Bacon.

Study the earthly career of Leopold von Ranke as a historian. What is his principle? Ranke's principle as a historian is this: nothing must be written in history save what is to be read of in the archives. We must compile all history from the archives—from the actual transactions of the diplomats.

If you read Ranke you will find it so. He is a German and a Protestant, but with his sense of reality this has no effect on him. He works objectively—that is to say, with the objectivity of the archives. So he writes his History of the Popes—the best that has ever been written from the pure standpoint of archives. When we read Ranke we are irritated, nay dreadfully so. It is a barren prospect to imagine the old gentleman—quick and alert as he was until a ripe old age—sitting forever in the archives and merely piecing together the diplomatic transactions. That is no real history. It is history which reckons only with the facts of the sense-world—that is to say, for the historian, with the archives.

And so indeed, precisely by taking into account the life beyond the earth we have the possibility to understand why Ranke became what he was.

But now we can also look across to Amos Comenius, and observe how he worked on the pre-earthly willing of souls who afterwards descended to the earth. For just as Leopold von Ranke became the greatest disciple of Bacon—of Bacon after his death—so did Schlosser become the greatest disciple of Comenius after his death.

Read Schlosser's History; observe the prevailing tone, the fundamental note he strikes. On every page there speaks the moralist—the moralist who would fain seize the human heart and soul—whose object is to speak right into the heart. Often he scarcely succeeds, for he is still rather a pedant. He speaks, in effect, like a pedant speaking to the heart. Nevertheless, being a pre-earthly disciple of Amos Comenius, he has absorbed something of the quality that was in Comenius himself, who was so characteristic by virtue of the peculiar quality of his spirit. For after all, Comenius too came over from Mohammedanism. Though he was very different from the spirits who gathered around Lord Bacon, nevertheless Comenius too, in his incarnation as Comenius, concentrated on the real, outer world. Everywhere he demanded visibility, objectivity, in education. There must always be an underlying picture. He demands vision—object lessons, as it were; he too lays stress on the sense-perceptible, though in quite another way. For Amos Comenius was also one of those who at the time of the Thirty Years' War believed most enthusiastically in the coming of the so-called Millennium. In his Pansophia he wrote down great and world-embracing ideas. He wanted to work for human education by a great impulsive power. This too worked on Schlosser. It is there in Schlosser.

I mention these two figures—Ranke and Schlosser—in order to show you how we can understand what appears as the spiritually productive power in man only if we also take into account his life beyond the earth. Only then do we understand it—just as we have also learnt to understand many things by taking into account repeated lives on earth. For in the thoughts which I have recently placed before you, we have observed this marvellous working across from one incarnation to another. As I said, I give these examples in order that we may then consider how a man can think about his own karma. Before we can dwell on the way in which good and evil—or illnesses or the like—work over from one incarnation to another, we must first learn to perceive how that which afterwards emerges in the spiritual and intellectual life of civilisation also works across from one incarnation to another.

Now my dear friends, I must admit that for me one of the most interesting personalities in modern spiritual life, with regard to his karma, was Conrad Ferdinand Meyer. Anyone who observes him closely will see that his most beautiful works depend on a peculiar fact, namely this: Again and again, in his whole human constitution, there was a kind of tendency for the Ego and astral body to flee from the physical and the etheric bodies.

Morbid conditions appear in Conrad Ferdinand Meyer, bordering very nearly on dementia. But these morbid conditions only express in a rather more extreme form what was always present in him in a nascent state. His soul-and-spirit tends to go out—holds to the physical and etheric only by a very loose thread. And in this condition—the soul-and-spirit holding to the physical and etheric by a very loose thread only—the most beautiful of his works originate; I mean the most beautiful of his longer works and of his shorter poems too. Conrad Ferdinand Meyer's most beautiful poems may even be said to have originated half out of the body. There was a peculiar relationship between the four members of his nature. Truly there is a great difference between such a personality and an average man of the present time. With an average man of this materialistic age we generally find a very firm and robust connection of the soul-and-spirit with the physical and etheric. The soul-and-spirit is deeply immersed in the physical and etheric—‘sits tight’, as it were. But in Conrad Ferdinand Meyer it was not so. He had a very tender relation of the soul-and-spirit to the physical and etheric. To describe his psyche is really one of the most interesting tasks one can undertake when studying the developments of modern spiritual life. Many things that emerge in Conrad Ferdinand Meyer appear almost like a dim, cloudy recollection—a recollection which has however grown beautiful in growing dim. When Conrad Ferdinand Meyer writes we always have the feeling: He is remembering something, though not quite exactly. He changes it—but changes it into something beautiful and form-perfected. We can observe this wonderfully, piece by piece, in certain of his works.

Now it is characteristic of the inner karma of a human being when there is such a definite relationship of the four members of his nature—physical body, etheric body, astral body and Ego. And in Conrad Ferdinand Meyer's case, when we trace back this peculiarly intimate connection, we are led, first of all, to the time of the Thirty Years' War. This was the first thing clear to me in his case: there is something of a former earthly life at the time of the Thirty Years' War. And then there is a still earlier life on earth going back into the pre-Carlovingian age, going back quite evidently into the early history of Italy.

When we endeavour to trace Conrad Ferdinand Meyer's karma, the peculiar, intangible fluidity of his being (which none the less expresses itself in such perfection of form)—the peculiar, intangible fluidity of his life somehow communicates itself to our investigation, until at length we feel: We are getting into confusion. I have no other alternative but to describe these things just as they happened in the investigation.

We go back into the time of the 6th century in Italy. There we have the feeling: We are getting into an extraordinarily insecure element. We are driven back again and again, and only gradually we observe that this is not due to ourselves but to the object of our research. There is really in the soul—in the individuality—of Conrad Ferdinand Meyer something that brings us into confusion as we try to investigate him. We are driven to return again and again into his present incarnation or into the one immediately before it. Again and again we must ‘pull ourselves up’ and go back again.

The following was the result.—You must remember, all that has lived in a human soul in former incarnations becomes manifest in the most varied forms—in likenesses which are often quite imperceptible to outer observation. This you will have seen from other instances of reincarnation given here.

So at length we come to an incarnation in Italy in the early Christian centuries—at the end of the first half of the first millennium A.D. Here we come to a halt. We find a soul living in Italy, to a large extent at Ravenna, at the Roman Court. But now we come into confusion. For we must ask ourselves: What was living in that soul? The moment we ask ourselves this question (in order to call forth the further occult investigation), the whole thing is extinguished once again.

We become aware of the experiences which this soul underwent while living at the Court at Ravenna—at the Roman Court. We enter into these experiences and we think we have them, and then again they are extinguished—blotted out from us; and we are driven back again to Conrad Ferdinand Meyer as he lived on earth in the immediate past. At length we perceive that in this later life he obliterates from our vision the content of his soul in the former life. Only after long trouble do we perceive at length how the matter really stands. Conrad Ferdinand Meyer—or rather the individuality who lived in him—was living at that time in a certain relationship to one of the Popes who sent him, among others, to England on a Roman Catholic, Christian Mission.

The individuality who afterwards became Conrad Ferdinand Meyer had first absorbed all that wonderful sense of form which it was possible to absorb in Italy at that time. The Mosaic art of Italy bears witness to it; also the old Italian painting, the greater part, nay practically the whole of which has been destroyed. This art did not continue.

And then he went on a Roman Catholic Christian Mission to the Anglo-Saxons. One of his companions founded the Bishopric of Canterbury. What afterwards took place at Canterbury began essentially with this foundation. The individuality, however, who after-wards appeared as Conrad Ferdinand Meyer, was only there as a witness, so to speak. Nevertheless, he was a very active person, and he called forth the ill-will of an Anglo-Saxon chieftain, at whose investigation he was eventually murdered. That is what we find to begin with.

But while he lived in England there was something in the soul of this Conrad Ferdinand Meyer which robbed him of real joy in life. His soul was deeply rooted in the Italian art of his time—or, if we will call it so, in the Italian spiritual life. He gained no happiness in the execution of his missionary work in England. Yet he devoted himself to it with great intensity—so much so that his assassination was a reaction to it.

This constant unhappiness—being repelled from something which he was none the less doing with all force and devotion out of another impulse in his heart—worked on in such a way that when he passed through his next earthly life there ensued a cosmic clouding-over of his memory. The inner impulse was there but it no longer coincided with any clear concept.

And so it came about that in his subsequent incarnation as Conrad Ferdinand Meyer, an undefined impulse was at work in him, to this effect: ‘I was once working in England. It is connected somehow with Canterbury. I was murdered owing to my connection with Canterbury.’

So indeed the outer life of Conrad Ferdinand Meyer in this incarnation takes its course. He studies outer history, he studies Canterbury, studies what happened in Canterbury, in connection with the history of England. He comes across Thomas à Becket, Chancellor of King Henry II in the 12th century. He learns of the strange destiny of Thomas à Becket, who from being the all-powerful Chancellor of Henry II, was murdered virtually at his instigation. And so in this present incarnation as Conrad Ferdinand Meyer, his own half-forgotten destiny appears to him in Thomas à Becket. It comes before him, half-forgotten in his subconsciousness, for I am speaking of course, of the subconscious life which comes to the surface in this way. So he describes his own fate in a far distant time. But he describes it in the story of what actually happened in the 12th century between King Henry II and Thomas à Becket of Canterbury, whose fate he recounts in his poetic work Der Heilige (The Saint). So indeed it is—only all this takes place in the subconscious life which embraces successive incarnations. It is as though within a single earthly life a man had experienced something in his early youth in connection with a certain place. He has forgotten it. He experienced it maybe in the second or third year of his life. It does not emerge, but some other similar destiny emerges. The very same place is named, and as a result he has a peculiar sympathy for this other person's destiny. He feels it differently from one who has no ‘association of ideas’ with the same place.

Just as this may happen within one earthly life, so it took place in the concrete instance I am now giving you. There was the work in Canterbury, the murder of a person connected with Canterbury (for Thomas à Becket was Archbishop of Canterbury), the murder of Thomas à Becket at the instigation of the King of England. All of these schemes work in together. In the descriptions in his poem he is describing his own destiny.

But now the thing goes on—and this is most interesting in Conrad Ferdinand Meyer's case. He was born as a woman about the time of the Thirty Years' War—a lively woman, full of spiritual interest in life, a woman who witnessed many an adventure. She married a man who first took part in all the confused events of the Thirty Years' War, but then grew weary of them and emigrated to Switzerland, to Graubünden (Canton Grisons), where he lived a somewhat philistine existence. But his wife was deeply affected and impressed by all that took place in the Graubünden country under the prevailing conditions of the Thirty Years' War.

This too is eclipsed, as though with another layer. For it is so with this individuality: That which is living in him is easily forgotten in the cosmic sense, and yet he calls it forth again in a transmuted form, where it becomes more glorious and more intense. For out of what this woman observed and experienced in that incarnation there arises the wonderful characterisation of Jürg Jenatsch, the man of Graubünden, in Conrad Ferdinand Meyer's historic novel. Observing Conrad Ferdinand Meyer in this incarnation, we have indeed no explanation of his peculiarity if we cannot enter into his karma. I must say—speaking with a grain of salt—that I envy the people who ‘understand’ him so light-heartedly. Before I knew his reincarnations, all that I understood was that I did not understand him. This wonderful inner perfection of form, this inner joy in form, this purity of form, all the strength and power that lives in Jürg Jenatsch, and the wonderful personal and living quality in The Saint,—a good deal of superficiality is needed to imagine that one understands all this. Observe his beautiful forms—there is something of clear line in them, almost severe; they are painted and yet not painted. Here live the mosaics of Ravenna. And in The Saint there lives a history which was undergone once upon a time by this individuality himself; but a mist of the soul has spread over it, and out of the mist it emerges in another form.

And again one needs to know: All that is living in his romance of Graubünden, Jürg Jenatsch, was absorbed by the heart and mind of a woman; while in the momentum, the driving power that lives in this romance there lives again the swashbuckler of the Thirty Years' War. The man was pretty much of a philistine, as I said, but he was a swashbuckler. And so, all that comes over from former experiences on earth comes to life again in a peculiar form in Conrad Ferdinand Meyer. Only now do we begin to understand him. Now we say to ourselves: In olden times of human evolution, men were not ashamed to speak of Spirits from beyond descending to the earth, or of earthly human beings finding their way upward and working on from spiritual worlds. All this must come again, otherwise man will not get beyond his present outlook of the earthworm. For all that the natural-scientific conception of the world contains, it is the world-outlook of the earth-worm. Men live on earth as though only the earth concerned them, as though it were not true that the whole Cosmos works upon all earthly things and lives again in man. As though it were not true that earlier epochs of history live on, inasmuch as we ourselves carry into later times what we absorbed in former times.

We do not understand karma by talking theoretic concepts about successive earthly incarnations. To understand karma is to feel in our hearts all that we can feel when we see what existed ages ago flowing into the later epochs in the souls of men themselves. When we begin to see how karma works, human life gains quite a new content. We feel ourselves quite differently in human life.

Such a spirit as Conrad Ferdinand Meyer feels his former earthly lives like an undertone—an undertone that sounds from far away. We understand what appears in him only when we develop an understanding for this undertone. The progress of mankind in spiritual life will depend on its ability to regard life in this way, to observe in all detail what flows across from former epochs of the world's evolution into later epochs through the human beings themselves. Then we shall cease, in the childish way of psycho-analysts, to explain the peculiarities of souls by speaking of ‘hidden underlying regions’ and the like. After all, one can ascribe anything one likes to what is ‘hidden’. We shall look for the real causes. In some respects, no doubt, the psycho-analysts do quite good work. But these pursuits remind us of the story of how someone heard that in the year 1749 a son was born to a certain patrician. Afterwards this son emerged as a very gifted man. To this day we can point to the actual birth-place in Frankfurt of the man who afterwards came forth as Wolfgang Goethe. ‘Let us make excavations in the earth and see by dint of what strange emanations his talents came about’. Sometimes the psycho-analysts seem to me just like that. They dig into the earth-realm of the soul, into the hidden regions which they themselves first invent by their hypotheses, whereas in reality one ought to look into the preceding lives on earth and lives between death and a new birth. Then if we do so, a true understanding of human souls is opened out to us. Truly the souls of men are far too rich in content to enable us to understand their content out of a single life alone.

• 1. See Vol. I, lecture X.

Hotel “Preussischer Hof”, February 8, 1913

Dear Dr. Steiner.

You have called upon us to “watch over” the newborn Anthroposophical Society, which is beset by enemies, and ensure that no harm befalls it. I believe I am acting in accordance with this instruction when I take the liberty of drawing your attention to a danger that threatens it from within. I will illustrate this danger with an example.

A Mr. Daeglau gave a lecture at the architects' house in which he provided evidence that “science” had misunderstood the nature of gravity. He claimed that there was hardly any attraction of bodies through the earth, but that the fall was caused by repulsion through the zodiac. In his explanations, he said some outrageous things as if they were well-known facts, such as that the direction of gravity is the same everywhere, that according to the laws of mechanics g = # would have to be if the mass of the earth were to be assumed to be infinitely large in relation to the mass of the falling body, and so on.

For anyone familiar with the fundamentals of physics, it was clear that one had before them a half-educated fantasist, but the majority of the ladies present and some of the gentlemen did not even have this modest knowledge. Since no objections were raised against the lecturer's assertions, such listeners could have been left with the impression that new proof had been provided of how foolish “science” is how far-sighted secret research is; and if they then carry this wisdom home in black and white (as some do) and occasionally share it with an outsider, the Anthroposophical Society, or more correctly Dr. Rudolf Steiner, can suffer as a result of such a fact, which is immediately generalized.

For one must always bear in mind that the Anthroposophical Society is not a society of equal members who have elected Dr. Rudolf Steiner as their chairman, but are actually and unequivocally the disciples of a man around whom they gather to learn facts from his mouth, the correctness of which they cannot verify because they lack the necessary sense for doing so. They can check the conclusions themselves, but they have to accept the facts on trust. This is the fundamental difference between secret research and science, which is based on the empirical facts of the five normal senses. In science, every normal person is able to check the premises on which a scientific proposition is based; in secret research, they are not. In science, to believe authorities is a sin against the fundamental principle of the same; in secret research, on the other hand, belief in the truthfulness and flawless observation of the only qualified secret researcher is a basic condition.

If, in the presence of the teacher, one of the students makes false assertions without being refuted, serious damage can result.

I understand very well the motives for which you, with regard to the lectures of your students (and these are all members of the Anthroposophical Society), pay homage to the principle “the more, the better”; but as a seminar leader who is concerned about the development of his students, seeks to involve all of them in the preparation of presentations, but only with the proviso that the mistakes made are corrected in the presence of those present, for their benefit and edification.

Now, even with your universal knowledge and inexhaustible capacity, it is not possible for you to go to all that trouble, but then it would have to be ensured that when a “weak student” wishes to speak, a fellow student well versed in the subject in question should be instructed to correct any, even very serious, lapses, such as those made by Mr. Daeglau.

Please excuse the length of these explanations, but I felt I had to draw attention to the danger that threatens your and consequently our cause if the attempts of your students to apply the facts communicated to us from the spiritual world to events in the physical plane are not controlled by the teacher himself but on his behalf by a competent party.

With sincere reverence,

Your humble servant,

Friedrich von Wrangel

A teacher asks Dr. Steiner to begin the meeting with a short speech.

Dr. Steiner asks about gymnastics class.

A gymnastics teacher: We tried teaching at the same time in the same room. We could just do it with the third grade, but it was completely impossible with the sixth grade. Because of the size of the gymnasium, we were unable to keep the two classes under control. We do not think there is any advantage in continuing in this way. In addition, we also need the gymnasium for teaching eurythmy some of the time.

A teacher: We do not yet have an instrument for the new small eurythmy room.

Dr. Steiner: That is only temporary.

A eurythmy teacher: The new eurythmy room is too small for some of the classes, which is why we have to use the gymnasium.

Dr. Steiner: The so-called “little eurythmy room” is large enough. It is not a little room, it is a large hall. Anything larger would be too large for eurythmy. It is not very fruitful to teach eurythmy in an enormous room. That would certainly not be fruitful.

The fact is that you need the gymnasium so much that eurythmy cannot be taught there. It was conceived as a gymnasium and thus should be used to hold gymnastics class. Where else could you teach it?

Concerning the first two grades, there is not much we can do for now. In the future, though, gymnastics is actually too much for the first two grades. Instead, they should have some supervised play. We should begin with such supervised games as soon as we have a little breathing room, so that in the third grade a transition can be made from games to actual gymnastics. The children need real movement.

The gymnastics teacher: Without increasing the number of hours, we could include the first and second grades by giving them only one hour of instruction.

Dr. Steiner: The third grade has two hours.

How are things with eurythmy in the various grades?

A eurythmy teacher: The first through fifth grades have one hour each; the sixth through eleventh grades, two.

The gymnastics teacher: Due to the large number of classes in the tenth and eleventh grades, we had to move one of the gymnastics classes into the time allocated for shop.

Dr. Steiner: Gymnastics loses less than shop if one hour is dropped. We could talk about it if the question was how to give a complete education without any manual training. That seems preferable to me since the children have a quiet form of gymnastics in their shop class. We have arranged the schedule so that the gymnastics does not adversely affect the periods following, haven’t we?

A teacher: We could arrange to have a games period.

Dr. Steiner: We have no one to teach it, so we can hardly consider that now. It will not be possible to decrease the teaching load until the end of this school year.

The gymnastics teacher: We are certainly not concerned with an overburdening.

Dr. Steiner: Fifteen hours are enough. If you teach fifteen hours, then you need to give two or three hours per day, and that is a lot for gymnastics.

The gymnastics teacher: We want to find a way.

Dr. Steiner: That is true. Nevertheless, you must take the following into consideration. In a school such as ours, we need to develop gymnastics class in a certain way, but that can happen only over time. Next year we may well be able to focus on developing gymnastics for the twelfth grade. At present, we treat it as only a stepchild. We will need to work together on that.

I think teaching gymnastics will present a number of difficulties for you as our Waldorf School develops. The main thing is that, beginning with a particular grade, the purpose of gymnastics will be conscious exercise for strengthening the human organism, a kind of hygienic whole-body massage of the human organism. I think you need to orient yourself more toward the upper grades.

In the lower grades, I am considering having the women work on the games. The authority of the gymnastics teachers should not suffer by first having them play with the children. They should represent what actually occurs in gymnastics. The children should not feel that their games teacher is now teaching gymnastics to them. I am, of course, not belittling games. A female games teacher in the first and second grades would not go on to gymnastics. The children would get a distorted feeling if we don’t make such a change. What I mean with games is movement.

What is important now is to find a replacement for Mrs. Baumann during her illness. Mrs. Fels should take over half the eurythmy classes and Mrs. Husemann, the other half. Mrs. X. would have the more mature students because she is older and more mature herself.

Marie Steiner: Mrs. X. first had quite a shock.

Dr. Steiner: I do not want Mrs. Y. to give the entire instruction, because I want the older children to have a more mature person.

A teacher: Tittmann will be free only after the first of April.

Dr. Steiner: Then there is nothing we can do other than wait. I am really sorry that this situation must continue. I thought it was very difficult that you had to do the French class immediately after art.

A teacher: There is nothing we can do about that.

Dr. Steiner: It is difficult, but there is nothing we can do. Twentyfive hours is too much, but we have to wait.

A teacher: We will lose eight teaching days due to the earlier close of school.

Dr. Steiner: We don’t need to cling to our schedule as though it were a great treasure. The exact amount of material per week is not so important.

A teacher: Should we do a longer book in tenth-grade French?

Dr. Steiner: You could use a different book. They should complete at least one book, even if they do not read a lot. Have you thought of something? I think you could choose something shorter that could be completed in the remaining two and a half months. In a class like that, it might be best to read a biography. There is a nice little book called La Vie de Molière.

Marie Steiner: Enfant célèbre.

Dr. Steiner: I would particularly recommend a biography.

A teacher: We read Livius in Latin. Next we will do Somnium Scipionis. I also included Horace, and we will read two or three odes and learn them from memory.

Dr. Steiner: You will certainly take up Cicero?

A teacher: In tenth-grade English, we completed The Tempest, and now we are doing excerpts from Lord Byron’s Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage.

Dr. Steiner: I would prefer that, instead of excerpts, you read the whole book. Making a selection for English is not easy. As soon as you move past Shakespeare, things become difficult.

It may be good to read Macaulay in the tenth grade, but that depends upon how you treat it. This is the age of life where children should learn to characterize in a broad and comfortable way. Biographies, for example Luther’s, are very useful for children at the age of fifteen. They are not very appropriate later, as the children will find them boring. In contrast, I think it would be good to read Carlyle and Emerson in the eleventh and twelfth grades. You might recommend Walter Scott for reading by themselves, but Emerson and Carlyle would be books for the class. Emerson has such short sentences.

A teacher asks about a newly enrolled child.

Dr. Steiner: She could go into the ninth grade. In foreign languages, she would be at the very bottom, but that is not so bad. You should, however, make her acceptance dependent upon her having some place to live, but you will need to do that with some tact. You might even consider trying to find good living quarters for her yourself.

We now have two children of workers at Dornach in the eighth grade, and the tuition has to be paid out of the funds for the building. They will have to find their own living quarters, but they will have to be places where we know that the adults pay some attention to such children. The workers at the building are quite connected to these things.

A teacher: If I were a man and had an apartment I would take some children myself.

Dr. Steiner: Now you tell me you are almost a man.

A class teacher: T.M. and O.Nr. need to be separated in the fourth grade.

Dr. Steiner: With such children, much depends upon what they are accustomed to. It will not make much difference in the first half-year, but afterward for sure. They should be separated. (Speaking to the teacher of the parallel class) T.M. would go to you. He is easier to handle. I think it would be best if you took him.

A religion teacher asks if it would be all right if he were to go on a lecture tour.

Dr. Steiner: If you arrange it with the others, there should be no difficulty.

A teacher: We are striving to awaken a religious mood, but there are some problems with many of the children. X. often ruins the class. He does not like such moods.

Dr. Steiner: He certainly does not like moods, but there is nothing to be done. Even worse could occur. You could use his lack of participation to highlight the seriousness of the material.

A teacher asks about a service for the older children.

Dr. Steiner: I will soon arrange for an offering at the Sunday service.

A religion teacher asks another question.

Dr. Steiner: In connection with this question, we need to return to something we have already discussed. It is important that the youth of our Waldorf School talk less about questions of world perspective. The situation is that we need to create a mood, namely, that the teacher has something to say that the children should neither judge nor discuss. That is necessary, otherwise it will become trivial. An actual discussion lowers the content. Things should remain with simply asking questions. The children even in the tenth and eleventh grades should know that they can ask everything and receive an answer. For questions of religion and worldview, we need to maintain that longer. The religion teacher needs to retain a position of authority even after puberty. That is something I mentioned before in connection with the “discussion meetings.” They need to be avoided. If the children put forth questions of conscience, and you answer them, then there is nothing to say against that.

We also need a second thing. The older students often mentioned that we emphasize that the Waldorf School is not to be an anthroposophical school. That is one of the questions we need to handle very seriously. You need to make the children aware that they are receiving the objective truth, and if this occasionally appears anthroposophical, it is not anthroposophy that is at fault. Things are that way because anthroposophy has something to say about objective truth. It is the material that causes what is said to be anthroposophical. We certainly may not go to the other extreme, where people would say that anthroposophy may not be brought into the school. Anthroposophy will be in the school when it is objectively justified, that is, when it is called for by the material itself.

In things such as Parzival, it is already there, so that you will need to direct attention away from symbols rather than toward them. Wagner’s followers in Bayreuth have gone into much more nonsense about symbols than occurs here. We do not do that here. Parzival has to be taught as a man of the world, not a monk. I think this is something I needed to say today. For the children, of course, much is quite difficult.

It would be best if you discussed symbolism as little as possible. Stay with the facts, the historical background, without becoming trivial. Remain with the facts, not symbols.

A teacher asks about the English teachers who had visited the Waldorf School.

Dr. Steiner: Only women came, and they were quite satisfied. I certainly thought we would have to deal with much harsher judgments.

Discipline is much easier in England. When you go into a boys’ school there, you find only well-behaved boys. You might not find that so nice, but if you love discipline, you will find it wonderful. Modern Englishmen, at least in regard to their external behavior, are close to being insolent. Everybody assures you that they get better by the age of fourteen. That is certainly true in Gladstone’s school. I have observed how they go into the dining hall. It’s something that lies in the temperament of the people. The children are quieter there than here.

A teacher: N.G. is here.

Dr. Steiner: I do not want to have anything to do with that family, even indirectly. Besides N.G., I feel sorry for the children.

I am very sorry to have disturbed the harmonious mood. So much occurred that I referred to as the “Stuttgart attitude” following that terrible misfortune. I could not let things pass by without naming names, because things were really catastrophic. I have to say that was the way things had to be. Due to the nature of the problem, I repeatedly needed to put these things in the proper light. I also would have thought, considering the situation, that no one would have thought of doing something like this. It is quite strange how things that outside, in normal life, would not occur at all, blossom so well in this anthroposophical foundation, the foundation of the Waldorf School that should be kept pure. It would be hard to imagine a normal faculty meeting where someone asks the school principal to say something nice. If we have no self-discipline, we cannot move forward. It is very painful for me that things are as they are. Aside from the fact that I have been unable to determine the actual content of the problem, everything is simply swimming around. If only something would move in a particular direction, but everything is simply floating about. I do not know what people are thinking. The mood here is so tense. We need to give some thought to all this. Certainly one task of the Waldorf School faculty is to cease all of this inner comfort. The fact that things are done in the way they are is a part of these nonmethods. It is really too bad for today’s meeting, since a disharmony has now come into it.

In the interest of the Anthroposophical Society, I had to see that the methods that have arisen here since 1919 do not go any further. Something must happen in the near future in the leadership of the Anthroposophical Society. This is an important question, but people will have to think about it. It would be best not to do things in that way, and better if you helped to improve the situation. You can certainly not say that working together does not make sense, and that everyone should work individually. If that principle had been in effect in 1901, there would be no room for us. People worked together until the end of the war. This kind of separation from one another arose only since 1919 when individuals went off to the great tasks that were begun then. That is the reason for what has unfortunately occurred in the Anthroposophical Society, namely, that the Society has divided into a number of cliques. Before, there was some balance that inhibited the formation of such cliques. Now, there are big and little cliques everywhere, and everything is falling apart.

We cannot say everyone should live like a hermit. A harmonious cooperation should arise from the admonitions of our opponents that became so clear through the catastrophe at Dornach. Learn from our opponents! Our opponents know things very exactly, and they know, at least from their perspective, how to take them seriously, more seriously than is done by the Anthroposophical Society. There is a continual demand for something new, as has happened in Dornach. The Society as such needs to become a genuine reality, not simply a bureaucratic list of so-and-so-manythousand people who barely want to know anything about one another. The Society must become a reality, and there is much we can achieve through the Waldorf School if the faculty would stand as an example of harmonious cooperation. Everyone needs to really give something of themselves, and that is where individual activity comes in, namely, that everyone takes interest in each other’s work. It is simply narrow-minded to always seek the error in someone else. If we fall prey to that error, we will cease to be an anthroposophical society. There is certainly no other real example of anthroposophical activity if it is not here in the faculty. If you do not want to become enthusiastic about anthroposophy, then I do not know how it will be possible to save anthroposophy itself. That is really necessary. The catastrophe in Dornach is the culmination of our opponents’ activity. The Waldorf School faculty needs to take on the leadership of anthroposophical behavior. That is what is necessary.

A teacher asks a question.

Dr. Steiner: I would be happy to give you information. What I said recently about the incorrect methods relates to how anthroposophical matters are treated, not to the teaching methods here. What I have to say about that, I have already said. As of this morning, I cannot say that anything special has resulted. I was satisfied with the little I saw this morning. I thought things would come to a good conclusion. It was clearly noticeable, for example, that there is a greater level of seriousness in the higher grades. There is a much better tone in the higher grades. I see nothing to talk about there. I spoke about incorrect methods in connection with the extent of faculty participation in the leadership of the Anthroposophical Society.

(Speaking to a teacher) It would be good if you were careful to leave out the inner school methodology in your considerations until tomorrow.

We will overcome the problems in the school methodology. The Waldorf School has proven what lies in its basic impulse. Individual problems have arisen, but as a whole, the Waldorf School has proven what lies at its basis. We will overcome the problems. Most certainly, we will move forward with the inner methodology. There is something else that comes into question aside from the general anthroposophical aspect. In connection with methodology, we could try to lift everything from the Earth and move it to the moon where we could perfect it. But, that is something we cannot do with anthroposophical activity. We will overcome the problems at the school because that is an isolated area and can remain so.

Everything was present in the discussions with the leaders of the Movement for Religious Renewal. In the lecture I had to give in Dornach on December 30, I directed everything toward anthroposophists, not toward those working for a renewal of religion. 4 That was clear from ten paces away, but it lead to an argument between the anthroposophists and those of the Religious Renewal. There is now a tense mood and a heavy atmosphere. If we leave these things the way they are, the Anthroposophical Society will be destroyed, and other institutions along with it. It is sad that this all occurred directly following the events in Dornach. We should have guarded against that. We need to do something to relieve it. Those anthroposophists who are not involved with the renewal of religion said nothing, but the anthroposophical perspective should have been maintained, but without rancor. You cannot expect the Movement for Religious Renewal to make things easy for anthroposophists. They are taking the cream and leaving the rest, but the Anthroposophical Society needs to stand firm. That is something of concern to everyone. The school should not shine because the faculty has no concern about the Anthroposophical Society. You need to have a strong interest in it.

The Executive Council of the Anthroposophical Society

As you already know, we, the undersigned, took over the leadership of the Anthroposophical Society as the new Executive Council at the Assembly of Delegates of the Anthroposophical Society, which met here in Stuttgart from February 25-28. This took place with the unanimous consent of the meeting and by cooption by the old Central Council. Since we still need an active co-worker in the midst of all the work, we have coopted Dr. Walter Johannes Stein into the Council after the fact. Accordingly, he has co-signed this letter. One of our most urgent duties, as set out in the 'Draft Principles of an Anthroposophical Society', is to create a body of trusted individuals. The first step in this direction is to approach those of our friends in whom we recognize the same ideals for our cause, and by whom we ourselves wish to be guided in our work. To this end, we wish to establish two institutions:

1. an extended board of directors
2. a body of trusted individuals.

The purpose of this letter is to ask you to join the circle of trusted individuals and to let us know of your agreement. The extended board is in the process of being formed, and we will let you know which friends will be on it as soon as it has been constituted. The extended board will form a body whose relationship to the local board will develop in the course of the lively cooperation of all those involved. The members of this extended board will have to represent the views of the Society as a whole, but they will be involved in the work in the individual localities to a much greater extent than would be possible with a single central management. The members of the extended board will also have all the powers that are intended for the trusted representatives.

Since we understand our tasks entirely in the sense of the “Draft Principles of an Anthroposophical Society” ¹, what is said about this on pages 4 and 5 of the draft will also be decisive for the work of the trusted personalities. It will therefore be their “responsibility to accept the registration of members” and they will “take over the guarantee for the members they propose to the board.”

In view of the seriousness of the situation in which our society finds itself, we may well assume that you are aware of the importance of admitting new members. An unusual degree of responsibility arises here, because it is important to enable the many people who long for anthroposophy in their essential being to enter our circles, and even to find such people. But at the same time, the greatest care is needed to avoid harming our society through new members joining. Our worst opponents draw on the material provided by former members. Of course we know from our own experience how tremendously difficult it is to do the right thing when admitting members.

But surely there is a way to do justice to these tasks through a close collaboration between the trusted individuals, the leaders of the working groups and those friends who give introductory courses and public lectures on anthroposophy, insofar as these activities do not coincide. It will always be necessary for those friends who are involved in the admission of new members to make it their heartfelt concern that the newly admitted are also received in the right way within the Society. In larger working groups, special arrangements will have to be made for this. We will take the liberty of sharing some thoughts on this at the earliest opportunity, and we are always grateful for friends sharing their experiences with us.

The Anthroposophical Society draws its life from the spiritual impulses at work within it. For each person, joining our Society marks an important stage in their life. The welcome in our midst can become an expression of this spiritual fact; then we will grow in our community-building power. Dr. Steiner spoke of this community-building power in his lectures on February 27 and 28.² We must seek ways to give effect to these impulses in the handling of such concrete matters as the admission of members.

It will make the tasks of the trusted representatives easier if they see themselves as a cohesive body that can provide support to the individual in their togetherness. We would like to be in close contact with each trusted personality, but we would also be delighted if the trusted personalities of one place and neighboring districts could establish a lively relationship with each other and with the members of the extended board. Here, too, a piece of joint anthroposophical work can emerge.

We would be grateful if you would comment on the questions briefly outlined here, as this will lead to many beneficial results for the task of our society of creating space for anthroposophy in people's hearts.

With warmest anthroposophical greetings

The Executive Council of the Anthroposophical Society

Jürgen von Grone, Dr. Eugen Kolisko, Emil Leinhas, Johanna Mücke, Dr. Otto Palmer, Dr. Friedrich Rittelmeyer, Dr. Walter Johannes Stein, Dr. Carl Unger, Wolfgang Wachsmuth, Louis Werbeck.

A list of those personalities who have received the same letter is attached.

Provisional list of trusted third parties:

1. Miss Lina Arnold, Bochum, Bergstr. 125

2. Mr. Franz Alwes, Breslau, Heiligengeiststr. 7
3. Mr. Adolf Arenson, Stuttgart-Cannstatt, Paulinenstr. 13
4. Mr. Moritz Bartsch, Breslau, Gottschallstr. 8
5. Mr. Otto Baster, Düsseldorf, Kaiser-Wilhelm-Str. 12
6. Mr. Michael Bauer, Breitbrunn am Ammersee
7. Mr. Max Benirschke, Düsseldorf, Gartenstr. 99
8. Mr. Max Benzinger, Stuttgart-Ostheim, Rotenbergstr. 164 a
9. Mr. Martin Borchart, Dresden, Schnorrstr. 49
10. Mrs. Luise Cayard, Frankfurt a. M., Suchaystr. 5
11. Mr. Walter Classmann, Vohwinkel b. Elberfeld, Emilstr. 161.
12. Mr. Willi Conrad, Cologne, Hohenzollernring 37
13. Prof. Hermann Craemer, Bonn, Rheinbacherstr. 13
14. Mr. Otto Daeglau, Breslau, Schuhbrücke 81
15. Mr. Felix von Damnitz, Elberfeld, Kluserhöhe 11
16. Prof. Dr. Fritz Dauner, Konstanz, Schützenstr. 22
17. Mr. Heinrich David, Bielefeld, Freiligrathstr. 7
18. Mr. Claus van der Decken, Hannover, Bodenstedtstr. 13
19. Ms. Clara Dennhardt, Magdeburg-Werder, Zollstr. 12a
20. Mr. Dipl.-Ing. Hugo Detert, Karlsruhe, Klauprechtstr. 35
21. Mr. Anton Deutzmann, Barmen, Lindenstr. 14
22. Dr. Friedrich Doldinger, Freiburg i. Br., Reiterstr. 20
23.* Mr. Anton Dibbern, Hamburg 20, Geffkenstr. 10
24. Mr. Wilhelm Eggers, Hanover, Voßstr. 43
25. Dr. Otto Eisenberg, Kassel, Obere Königstr. 221.
26. Mr. Josef Elkan, Munich, Karlsplatz 24
27. Mr. August Everbeck, Hanover, Meterstr. 211.
28. Mr. Bernhard Gantenbein, Berlin, Krausenstr. 39/39 a
29. Mr. Ernst Gerst, Eßlingen, Ehnisstr. 2
30. Mr. Karl Greber, Heidelberg, Zähringerstr. 6
31. Mr. Wilhelm Goyert, Cologne, Habsburgerring 23
32. Baroness Gumppenberg, Munich, Neuberghauserstr. 11
33. Mr. Richard Hannemann, Wierow near Greifenhagen in Pomerania
34. Mr. Hugo Harder, Karlsruhe i. Baden, Edelsheimerstr. 5
35. Mr. Walter Hartwig, Lörrach-Stetten, Dammstr.
36. Mr. Horst von Henning, Weimar, Luisenstr. 19
37. Miss Elfriede Herrmann, Halle a. 5., Humboldtstr. 40
38. Mr. Friedrich Hirsch, Memmingen, Ulmerstr. 13
39. Dr. Caroline von Heydebrand, Stuttgart, Werastr. 13
40. Mr. Bernhard Hubo, Hamburg, Hohenfelderallee 12
41. Mr. Johannes Jung, Erfurt, Alsenstr. 18
42. Dr. Josef Kalkhof, Freiburg i. Br., Katharinenstr. 1
43. Mr. Carl Kälber, Eßlingen, Olgastr. 10
44. Mr. Carl Keyserlingk, Koberwitz near Breslau
45. Mr. Karl Kieser, Stuttgart, Schützenplatz 16
46. Miss Luise Kieser, Heilbronn, Mörikestr. 8
47. Mr. Andreas Körner, Nuremberg-Loher Moos, Heroldsbergerweg 67
48. Mr. Friedrich Kiem, Berlin-Steglitz, Hollsteinischestr. 30
49. Mr. Werner Klein, Düsseldorf, Viktoriastr. 5
50. Mr. Wilhelm Korth, Berlin-Schmargendorf, Breitestr. 3 III.
51. Mr. Eugen Kuenstler, Cologne, Belfortstr. 9
52. Mr. Georg Kugelmann, Rostock, Schröderstr. 42
53. Mr. Friedrich Kutscher, Dresden-Weißer Hirsch, Querstr. 11
54. Dr. Willibald Lehmann, Bremen, Wartburgstr. 8
55. Graf Otto Lerchenfeld, Schloß Köfering near Regensburg
56. Frl. Anna Mahn, Vitznau, Canton of Lucerne (Switzerland), at
57. Frau v. Brandenstein Herr Walter Mayen, Breslau, Lehmdamm 6811.
58. Mr. Alfred Meebold, A.-G. Stahlwerke-Weißenfels, Julisch-Venetien (Italy)
59. Miss J. Charlotte Mellinger, Frankfurt a. M., Bürgerstr. 90
60. Mr. Rudolf Meyer, Berlin, Cottbuser Ufer 25
61. Miss Anna Mollwo, Lübeck, Overbeckstr. 8
62. Mr. Emil Molt, Stuttgart, Spittlerstr. 8
63. Mr. José del Monte, Stuttgart, Spittlerstr. 8
64. Mrs. Gertrud Müller-Thalwitzer, Königsberg i. Preußen, Ht. Trag. 19
65. Mr. Emil Mund, Leipzig A, Posadowsky-Anlage 17 II.
66. Mrs. Henny Mustert, Osnabrück, Friedrichstr. 221.
67. Dr. Ludwig Noll, Stuttgart, Gänsheidestr. 88
68. Dr. Felix Peipers, Stuttgart, Gänsheidestr. 88
69. Carl Picht, Ulm a. D., Olgastr. 4
70. Dr. Hermann Poppelbaum, Frankfurt a. M., Holzhausenstr. 30
71. Mr. Hans Raether, Berlin NW 87, Solingerstr. 3
72. Mrs. Thekla von Reden, Berlin, Motzstr. 54
73. Mr. Dipl.-Ing. Alfred Reebstein, Durlach near Karlsruhe, Schloßstr. 6
74. Dr. Paul Reiche, Greifswald, Knopfstr. 4
75. Ms. Helene Röchling, Mannheim, L. 9. 10
76. Prof. Dr. Oskar Römer, Leipzig, Windmühlenweg 25
77. Miss Dorothea von Schmehling, Wiesbaden, Adelheidstr. 91
78.* Mr. J. G. W. Schröder, Stuttgart, Schwarenbergstr. 84
79. Mr. Friedrich Schuster, Essen, Papestr. 59
80. Mr. Hans Schwedes, Bensheim a. d. Bergstraße, Schönbergerstr. 35
81. Mr. Richard Seebohm, Zwätzen near Jena
82. Mr. Albert Seel, Pforzheim, Zähringerallee 25
83. Mr. Franz Seiler, Stuttgart, Champignystr. 17
84. Mr. Wilhelm Selling, Berlin, Motzstr. 17
85.* Mr. Carl Stahlbusch, Berlin-Zehlendorf, Annastr. 5 86. Mr. Carl Stavenhagen, Hamburg, Klosterallee 49
87. Mrs. Gertrud Stein, Fahr near Neuwied, Haus Hohenstein
88.* Mrs. Johanne Stockmeyer, Waldhaus Malsch, Amt Ettlingen near Karlsruhe
89. Mr. E. A. Karl Stockmeyer, Stuttgart, Kanonenweg 44
90. Mr. Dipl.-Ing. Alexander Strakosch, Stuttgart, Kanonenweg 44
91. Mr. Otto Thorwirth, Gotha, Leesenstr. 23 a
92. Mrs. Joanna Thylmann, Darmstadt, Herderweg 62
93. Mr. Wilhelm Trommsdorff, Stuttgart, Gerokstr. 65
94. Mr. Ernst Uehli, Stuttgart, Hohenheimerstr. 67
95.* Ms. Hildegard von Veltheim, Munich, Ohmstr. 15
96. Miss Toni Völker, Stuttgart, Falkertstr. 72
97. Miss Ellida Wagner, Quedlinburg a. H., Heiligegeiststr. 5
98. Mr. Günther Wagner, Frauenalb near Karlsruhe i. B.
99. Mr. Kurt Walther, Frankfurt a. O., Gurschstr. 6
100. Mr. August Wegfraß, Erfurt, Schmidstetter Ufer 4
101. Mrs. Anna Weißbrod, Freiburg, Badstr. 50
102. Mrs. Ella Weißhaar, Wildberg Castle on the Nagold
103. Mr. Wilhelm Wittkopf, Lehe on the Weser, Kronprinzenallee 40 104. Prof. Dr. Hans Wohlbold, Munich, Adalbertstr. 55 105. Mr. Max Wolffhügel, Stuttgart, Maienstr. 2
106. Mrs. Elise Wolfram, Leipzig, Karlstr. 26
107. Mr. Wilhelm Zeuch, Gera, Flanzstr. 8II.
108. Mrs. Magda Zoeppritz-Ney, Mergelstetten, Felseck, Wttbg.
109. Mrs. Clara von Zychlinski, Bonn, Schumannstr. 43

n October 1923, the definitive list of trusted persons was published in No. 8 of the “Mitteilungen”. Of the 109 names listed above, those marked with an asterisk (*) no longer appeared. The following new ones had been added:

Mr. Cornelis Apel, Stuttgart, Landhausstr. 95
Dr. Hermann v. Baravalle, Stuttgart, Landhausstr. 14
Mr. Paul Baumann, Stuttgart, Kanonenweg 44
Mr. Eugen Benkendberfer, Cannstatt, Paulinenstr. 13.
Mr. Christoph Boy, Stuttgart, Rechbergstr. 4
Colonel Max v. den Brincken, Sondershausen, Marienstraße 60
Mr. Albert Dibbern, Stuttgart, Werfmershalde 10
Miss Emmi Dresler, Siegen i. Westf., Burgstr. 5
Mr. Wilhelm Fink, Stuttgart, Ameisenbergstr. 1
Mr. Ludwig Gauf, Darmstadt, Annastr. 36
Mr. Wilhelm Gaum, Pforzheim, Nagoldstr. 9
Mr. Jürgen von Grone, Stuttgart, Villastr. 14
Mr. Max Gümbel-Seiling, Kaiserslautern i. d. Pfalz, Finkenstr. 1
Dr. Herbert Hahn, Stuttgart, Landhausstr. 95
Mr. Georg Heins, Bremen, Besselstr. 40
Dr. Karl Heyer, Stuttgart, Im Kühnle 4 B
Dr. Friedrich Husemann, Stuttgart, Gänsheidestr. 88
Countess Pauline Kalckreuth, Munich, Adalbertstr. 55 III
Mr. Georg Klenk, Munich, Arcisstr. 49 III
Mr. Rudolf Köhler, Bremen, Humboldstr. 141
Dr. Eugen Kolisko, Stuttgart, Kanonenweg 44
Dr. Bruno Krüger, Stuttgart-Obertürkh., Cannstatterstr. 20
Mr. Hans Kühn, Stuttgart, Ameisenbergstr. 1
Mr. Theodor Lauer, Stuttgart, Kornbergstr. 7
Mr. Emil Leinhas, Stuttgart, Werastr. 13
Ms. Erdwine Lindemann, Brake (Lippe-Detmold), Detmolderstr. 113
Dr. Rudolf Maier, Stuttgart, Werfmershalde 8
Baroness Nora von Malchus, Ravensburg, Rudolfstr. 8
Mrs. Meta Meier, Bremen, Humboldtstr. 133
Mr. Oskar Meyer, Freiburg i. Br., Weberstr. 4
Miss Johanna Mücke, Berlin W 30, Motzstr. 17
Mr. Martin Münch, Berlin, Zahlendorf-Mitte, Gertraudstr. 10
Dr. Otto Palmer, Stuttgart, Gänsheidestr. 88
Mr. Wilhelm Pelikan, Stuttgart, Fraasstr. 14
Dr. Kurt Piper, Stuttgart, Urbanstr. 31 A
Dr. Paul H. Praußnitz, Jena, Johann-Friedrich-Str. 1 pt.
Mr. Otto Reebstein, Stuttgart, Landhausstr. 70
Mr. Otto Rennefeld, Charlottenburg, Kantstr. 130 A
Dr. Friedrich Rittelmeyer, Stuttgart, Urachstr. 41
Dr. Ludwig Roesel, Leipzig, Georgiring 5
Miss Dr. Maria Röschl, Stuttgart, Landhausstr. 90
Mr. Wilhelm Ruhtenberg, Stuttgart, Kanonenweg 44
Mr. Diplom-Ing. Lothar Schäfer, Bremen, Osterholzerstr. 35
Mr. Franz Schäffler, Eßlingen, Urbanstr. 36
Mr. Werner Schlitte, Naumburg a.S., Friedenstr. 5
Mr. Wilhelm Schrack, Cannstatt, Teckstr. 4
Dr. Erich Schwebsch, Stuttgart, Alexanderstr. 26 B
Dr. Walter Johannes Stein, Stuttgart, Kanonenweg 44
Dr. Simon Streicher, Stuttgart, Falbenhennenstr. 5
Dr. Hans Theberath, Stuttgart, Maienstr. 5/7
Dr. Carl Unger, Stuttgart, Werastr. 13
Mr. Wolfgang Wachsmuth, Stuttgart, Bopserstr. 19
Mr. Louis Werbeck, Hamburg, Holzdamm 34
Dr. Rudolf Zoeppritz, Mergelstetten, Felseck, Wttb.

• 1. See under Notes.
• 2. Coming soon – for members only – from the Philosophisch-Anthroposophischen Verlag Berlin. More details will be provided. [Now in GA 257]

[ 1 ] In the present stage of its evolution the human consciousness unfolds three forms, the waking, the dreaming, and the dreamless sleeping consciousness.

[ 2 ] The waking consciousness experiences the outer world through the senses, forms ideas about it, and out of those ideas can create such as portray a purely spiritual world. The dreaming consciousness develops pictures in which the outer world is transformed, as, for instance, when the sun shining on the bed is experienced in dream as a conflagration in all its details. Or a man's own inner world may appear before him in symbolic pictures, as, for instance, the throbbing heart in the picture of an over-heated oven. Memories also re-appear transformed in the dream consciousness. What these memory pictures contain is not borrowed from the world of the senses, but from the spiritual world. However, it is not possible through the memory pictures to penetrate with understanding into the spiritual world, because they are just too dim to rise into the waking consciousness, and because what little may be perceived cannot be really understood.

[ 3 ] But it is possible in the moment of waking to grasp so much of the dream world as to become aware that it is the imperfect copy of a spiritual experience which has happened in sleep, but which for the most part evades the waking consciousness. In order to comprehend this, it is only necessary to shape the moment of waking in such a way that the outer world is not conjured all at once before the soul, but that the soul, without as yet regarding the outer world, feels itself surrendered to what has been experienced within.

[ 4 ] In the dreamless sleep consciousness the soul passes through experiences which mean nothing more for the memory than an indifferent period of time between falling asleep and waking.

These experiences may be spoken of as non-existent, until the way into them has been opened up through spiritual scientific investigation. But if this takes place, if the Imaginative and Inspired consciousness described in anthroposophical literature be developed, then out of the darkness of sleep the pictures and inspirations belonging to the experience of previous lives on Earth make their appearance. It then becomes possible to survey also the content of the dream consciousness. This cannot be grasped by the waking consciousness; it has to do with the world in which man dwells as a disembodied soul between two earthly lives.

[ 5 ] If one learns to know what is hidden behind the dream- and sleep-consciousness in the present age, then the way is clear to the understanding of the forms of human consciousness in past ages. One cannot, however, arrive at this by means of outer investigation; for evidence received from the outer world shows only the after-effects of the experiences of human consciousness in prehistoric times. Anthroposophical literature gives information as to how, by means of spiritual investigation, one may attain to the vision of such experiences.

[ 6 ] It is found by means of spiritual research that in ancient Egyptian times man possessed a dream-consciousness which was much more like the waking consciousness than it is at the present day. The memory of the dream experiences passed into the waking consciousness, and the latter provided not only the sense impressions that can be grasped in clearly outlined thoughts, but in addition to these the Spiritual that is at work in the world of the senses. Man's consciousness thereby lived instinctively in the world he had left when he incarnated on the Earth—the world he will re-enter when he passes through the gate of death.

[ 7 ] Inscribed monuments and other records preserved from ancient times give to those who penetrate them with an impartial mind, clear evidence of a consciousness of this kind, belonging to an age of which no outer relics exist.

[ 8 ] In ancient Egyptian times the sleep-consciousness contained dreams of the spiritual world, just as the sleep consciousness of the present day contains dreams originating from the physical world. [ 9 ] But among other peoples we find in addition another kind of consciousness. The experiences undergone during sleep passed over into the waking consciousness in such a way that there was an instinctive vision of repeated earthly lives. The traditions regarding the knowledge of repeated earthly lives possessed by ancient humanity originate from these forms of consciousness.

[ 10 ] In the developed Imaginative consciousness we find again the dream-consciousness which in ancient times was dim and instinctive, only in the Imaginative consciousness it is fully conscious, like our waking life. [ 11 ] And through the Inspired knowledge we become aware of the pre-historic instinctive insight which still saw something of the repeated earthly lives.

Modern writers of works on the history of humanity make no note of this transformation in the forms of human consciousness. They would like to believe that on the whole the present forms of consciousness have existed as long as humanity has been on the Earth. [ 12 ] And what, in spite of this, does point to other forms of consciousness, viz., the myths and fairy-tales, they would prefer to look upon as the result of the poetic fantasy of primitive man.

Further Leading Thoughts issued from the Goetheanum for the Anthroposophical Society

[ 13 ] 88. In the waking day-consciousness man experiences himself, during the present cosmic age, standing in the midst of the physical world. This experience conceals from him the presence, within his being, of the effects of a life between death and birth.

[ 14 ] 89. In dream-consciousness man experiences, in a chaotic way, his own being unharmoniously united with the spiritual being of the world. The waking consciousness cannot seize the real content of the dream-consciousness. To the Imaginative and Inspired Consciousness it is revealed how the Spirit-world through which man lives between death and birth is helping to build up his inner being.

[ 15 ] 90. In dreamless sleep-consciousness man experiences, all unconsciously, his own being permeated with the results of past earthly lives. The Inspired and Intuitive Consciousness penetrates to a clear vision of these results, and sees the working of former earthly lives in the destined course—the Karma—of the present.

Further Leading Thoughts issued from the Goetheanum for the Anthroposophical Society

[ 16 ] 91. The Will enters the ordinary consciousness, in the present cosmic age, only through Thought. Now in this consciousness we always have to take our start from something sense-perceptible. Thus, even of our own Will, we apprehend only what passes from it into the world of sense-perceptions. In the ordinary consciousness it is only by observation of himself in thought that man is aware of his Will-impulses, just as it is only by observation that he is aware of the outer world.

[ 17 ] 92. The Karma that works in the Will is a property belonging to it from former lives on Earth. This constituent of the Will cannot therefore be apprehended with the ideas of our ordinary sense-existence, which are directed only to the present earthly life.

[ 18 ] 93. Because they are unable to take hold of Karma, these ideas refer what is unintelligible to them in man's impulses of Will to the mystic darkness of the bodily constitution, whereas in reality it is the working of past earthly lives.

Further Leading Thoughts issued from the Goetheanum for the Anthroposophical Society

[ 19 ] 94. With the ordinary life in ideas transmitted through the senses, man is in the physical world. For this world to enter his consciousness, Karma must be silent in his thinking life. In his life of ideation, man as it were forgets his Karma.

[ 20 ] 95. In the manifestations of the Will, Karma works itself out. But its working remains in the unconscious. By lifting to conscious Imagination what works unconsciously in the Will, Karma is apprehended. Man feels his destiny within him.

[ 21 ] 96. When Inspiration and Intuition enter the Imagination, then, beside the impulses of the present, the outcome of former earthly lives becomes perceptible in the working of the Will. The past life is revealed, working itself out in the present.

Further Leading Thoughts issued from the Goetheanum for the Anthroposophical Society

[ 22 ] 97. For a cruder description it is permissible to say: Thinking, Feeling and Willing live in the soul of man. For greater refinement we must add: Thinking always contains a substratum of Feeling and Willing; Feeling a substratum of Thinking and Willing; Willing a substratum of Thinking and Feeling. In the life of thought, however, Thinking predominates; in the life of feeling, Feeling predominates; and in the life of will, Willing predominates over the other contents of the soul.

[ 23 ] 98. The Feeling and Willing of the life of Thought contain the karmic outcome of past lives on Earth. The Thinking and Willing of the life of Feeling karmically determine the man's character. The Thinking and Feeling of the life of Will tear the present earthly life away from Karmic connections.

[ 24 ] 99. In the Feeling and Willing of Thinking man lives out his Karma of the past; in the Thinking and Feeling of Willing he prepares his Karma of the future.

Further Leading Thoughts issued from the Goetheanum for the Anthroposophical Society

[ 25 ] 100. The thoughts of man have their true seat in the etheric body. There, however, they are forces of real life and being. They imprint themselves upon the physical body, and as such ‘imprinted thoughts’ they have the shadowy character in which the everyday consciousness knows them.

[ 26 ] 101. The Feeling that lives in the Thoughts comes from the astral body, and the Willing from the Ego. In sleep the human etheric body is certainly irradiated with the world of his Thoughts, but man himself does not partake in it. For he has withdrawn, with the astral body the Feeling of the Thoughts, and with the Ego their Willing, out of the etheric and the physical.

[ 27 ] 102. The moment the astral body and Ego loose their connection during sleep with the Thoughts of the etheric body, they enter into connection with ‘Karma’—with the beholding of the events through repeated lives on Earth. To the everyday consciousness this vision is denied, but a supersensible consciousness can enter into it.

approved at the third general assembly of the Johannesbau-Verein

Corrections by Rudolf Steiner are in italics in brackets and, where applicable, marked with strikethroughs.

Articles of association of the association
“Anthroposophical Colony Dornach“
(”Johannesbau-Colonie Dornach")

§1. Under the name “Anthroposophen-(J. B.-)Kolonie-Dornach” there exists in Dornach (Canton Solothurn, Switzerland) an association in the sense of Art. 60ff. of the Swiss Civil Code. It is to be entered in the commercial register of the Canton Solothurn.

§2. The purpose of the association is to establish and develop an anthroposophical colony in Dornach, as well as to protect and promote the ideal interests of the colonists. In doing so, it sets itself the further task of ensuring that the buildings constructed within the colony are related in their external architectural design to the Johannesbau as their center.

(It is formed from members of the Anthroposophical Society and aims to establish a colony with the Johannesban as its spatial center and to contribute to the realization of the intentions of the Anthroposophical Movement through its design.)

§3. The association seeks to achieve this purpose by the following means in particular:

a) by procuring suitable building land, whether by acquiring ownership or by acquiring building rights. (Art. 675 & 779 Z.G.B.),

b) by constructing road, sewerage and lighting systems,

c) by acquiring sources, supplying water, gas and electricity,

d) by constructing residential buildings, other buildings and facilities that can serve to achieve the purpose of the association (in particular by adhering as closely as possible to the architectural style of the Johannesbau),

e) by acquiring existing buildings, demolishing or converting them, in order to significantly improve the overall facilities of the Anthroposophical (Johannesbau) Colony in Dornach.

f) by giving developed or undeveloped parcels of land to its members for limited use,

8) by renting buildings for uses that do not disturb life in the colony.

§4 The land and buildings of the Anthroposophical (J. B.) Colony Dornach are to be permanently preserved for the purposes of the Anthroposophical Movement and therefore, if possible, remain the property of the colony itself or its members (or the Johannesbau Association). To achieve this, the following standards must be adhered to when land or buildings are sold:

a) When the land and buildings are handed over, an easement is to be imposed in favor of the Anthroposophical Colony (land parcel no.) to the effect that no business or trade may ever be carried on on or in the same that causes a nuisance to the neighborhood through noise (exceptions may ), dust, smoke, soot, odour, or which is associated with a risk of fire or explosion, and that no animals may be kept on or in the same which may cause a nuisance to the neighbourhood through noise or unpleasant odours. (With regard to noise, exceptions may be granted by the board.)

b) The purchasers of land or buildings shall grant the Anthroposophical Colony of Dornach a right of purchase to the effect that, after the purchaser has left the association, the Anthroposophical Colony is entitled at any time to purchase the land and buildings at a value determined by a joint expert opinion on terms agreed in advance with a one-year notice period. This right of purchase shall be entered in the land registry and renewed one year before its expiry in each tenth year (otherwise membership will be lost).

The Anthroposophical Colony will only make use of this right if the former member's continued ownership of the relevant parcel of land causes significant inconvenience to the colony or the anthroposophical movement , which shall be decided by a general meeting of the association by secret ballot with an absolute majority of all members of the association; the person concerned has the right to appeal to the arbitral tribunal provided for in $ 19 within one month of notification of this decision of the association.

In the event of the member's death, however, the right of preemption can only be exercised vis-à-vis the first generation of descendants when these descendants have reached the age of thirty.

c) Similarly, the purchasers of land or buildings of the Anthroposophical Colony of Dornach shall grant a (real) right of first refusal, which, in the event of a sale to a buyer outside the Anthroposophical Colony of Dornach, entitles the Anthroposophical Colony of Dornach to enter into the relevant purchase agreement. This right of first refusal should also be recorded in the land registry and renewed (one year) before its expiry in the tenth year (otherwise membership will be lost).

d) Finally, the buyers of land or buildings from the Anthroposophical Colony of Dornach must undertake to rent buildings only to members of the association, subject to a conventional penalty of 10,000 francs. (ten thousand francs), for which a land charge is to be registered on the property in question, which in its rank immediately follows the liens existing at the time of the purchase settlement, with the right of succession in the event of partial payments to the previously pledged'promotional funds. However, the board of directors may, in individual cases, freely grant permission to rent to non-members on a provisional basis and with the right of revocation at any time. (The paragraph with the comment is in italics: changed)

§5. To be admitted to the association, the person to be admitted must be a member of the Anthroposophical Society. However, associations of members of the Anthroposophical Society (associations, societies, local groups, country groups, etc.) can also be admitted to the association; they must designate a first and second representative, of whom the first, or the second if the first is prevented, exercises the membership rights for the association.

Admission is based on a written application for admission addressed to the board (after a debate) in a secret ballot by a resolution of the association with an absolute majority of all members of the association.

About the association the reasons for the admission or rejection of the persons involved in the association's decision (are put forward), as well as the names of the candidates for or against, the participants (in the votes) have to and to break this only if a legitimate claim to do so is asserted in the opinion of the colony's board of directors. Anyone who is granted a right of use to a property or a building or both by the Johannesbau-Verein enjoys the full rights, including all the voting rights of a member, and must fulfill the member's obligations.

Inserted list of members as of December 1, 1915 [abbreviated, here without first and last names]:

(Frau Dr. Grossheintz), Levy, Ehmck, Ostermayer & Lutz, Greber, Rebstein, Liedvogel, Peelen, Meebold, Peet, Muntz, Grossheim, Hilverkus, Gatey, Hagemann-Maquet, Ruffner, Collison, Smit, Herwarth, Freund, Strakosch, Richmond, Eiffe, Johannesbau-Verein, Gruppe Holland, Laute. Added by hand: Wilson, de Jaager, Mutach, Weigele theos. Art funds: Mackenzie (4 Building committee: de Jaager, Peelen, Mistach, Eiffe, Mrs. Grossheintz, v. Herwarth)

The admitted party is obliged to have a building plot or a house within the colony or to acquire one within a year. (!) This obligation does not apply to admitted associations; it is sufficient for them that one of their members has or acquires a building plot or house within the colony or rents it on a permanent basis. Failure to comply with this obligation will result in exclusion or suspension.

Upon admission, the admitted person submits to all provisions of these statutes and all amendments to them that will come about in a lawful manner.

§6. The ordinary annual contribution for all members of the association is Fr. 30 (thirty francs).

The extraordinary annual contributions are decided annually by the ordinary association meeting. For their collection, the members are divided into three classes according to the surface area of their property (the land tax assessment of their property) (I. Class up to 1500 m² (15,000 francs), II. Class from 1500 to 3000 m² (15,000 to 50,000 francs), II. Class over 3000 m² 50,000 francs), of which members of I. Class pay the simple, those of II. Class pay double, those of III. Class pay triple. (A special regulation will be established for the distribution of costs for road, sewer, water, gas and electricity installations.) The general assembly of the association shall determine the respective unit rate, while the board of directors shall assign members to the respective classes. Members who have not yet purchased property or who only hold property on a rental basis shall pay the simple rate. Beneficiaries within the meaning of §5 shall be treated the same as owners with regard to all rights and obligations under §6.

§7. Membership can be terminated by resignation, which is possible at any time, by loss of membership of the Anthroposophical Society (by death), and by expulsion.

A member may also be suspended for a specified period of time in the exercise of membership rights, namely in participation in association meetings, votes and elections; however, this does not affect their rights to property within the colony.

§8. Expulsion or suspension shall be effected by a resolution of the Association; there must be important reasons for this, which must be communicated to the person concerned in writing. The excluded or suspended person may appeal to the decision of the court of arbitration (§19) within one month by submitting a written reasoned appeal.

§9. Only the Association's assets shall be liable for the Association's obligations; personal liability of the members is excluded.

§10. The assets are formed in particular by:

a) the ordinary and extraordinary membership fees,
b) voluntary contributions, donations and bequests,
c) through land and buildings that the association acquires and their yields,
d) through the proceeds from the sale of land and buildings and their interest,
e) through provisions (§17).

§11. The organs of the association are:

1. The General Assembly,
2. the Board,
3. the Building Committee,
4. the Auditors.

§12. The (ordinary) General Assembly shall meet as scheduled once a year usually in August.

An extraordinary general meeting may be convened by the board at any time; it must be convened as soon as one fifth of all members of the association request it in writing, stating the subject of the meeting.

The board of directors shall convene the association's meetings by sending a registered letter to the members, stating the place, time and agenda; these invitations must be issued no later than 30 days before the ordinary (association) meetings and no later than 3 days before the extraordinary meetings.

The General Assembly is opened and chaired by the Chairman of the Board or the deputy appointed by the Board; he appoints the secretary and the tellers.

At the General Assembly, a member can be represented by another. The representative must hand in the written power of attorney at the beginning of the meeting.

Resolutions are passed by an absolute majority of the members present, subject to the provisions for admission (§5), dissolution (§20), amendment of the statutes (§21), exercise of the purchase right (§4b).

Each member has one vote. In the event of a tie, the chair of the meeting has the casting vote.

Voting is open unless a majority of the assembly decides on a secret ballot or such a ballot is provided for by the statutes. (§4b, §5).

The minutes of the association meetings are signed by the chair of the meeting and the secretary.

The written consent of all members to a proposal is deemed equivalent to the resolutions of a general meeting (Art. 66 2.6.8.).

§13. The following matters are reserved for the general meeting:

a) Election of the board and its chairperson, as well as dismissal of the same,
b) Election of the building committee,
c) Election of the auditors,
d) Determination of the extraordinary membership fee,
e) Approval of the annual financial statements,
f) Admission, exclusion and suspension of members,
g) Decision on the exercise of the right of purchase (§4b),
h) Approval of general construction plans,
i) Revision of statutes,
k) dissolution of the association.

In addition, the board of directors must submit important business to it for discussion and decision-making, which in individual cases results in an obligation or expenditure of more than CHF 10,000 (ten thousand francs).

§14. The committee consists of (at least) 5 - 7 members and is elected each year at the ordinary association meeting. If a committee member leaves during the year of office, the committee has the right to make an additional election for the remainder of the term of office.

The committee constitutes itself by electing the deputy chairperson, the secretary and the treasurer.

The participation of an absolute majority of the board members is required for a valid resolution of the board; the resolutions are passed with the absolute majority of those present.

Resolutions can also be passed by circular letter; for their adoption, the written consent of the absolute majority of the board members is required, but the circular letter must have been sent to all board members.

The board is the governing body for the management of the association; its responsibilities include all business related to the achievement of the association's purpose that is not reserved by law or the statutes (§13) for the association's meeting, or by the statutes for the building committee (§15), the auditors (§16) or the arbitral tribunal (§19). It prepares the business of the association's meeting and executes its resolutions.

It designates those members of the board who are to hold the legally binding signature for the association (§18).

The Executive Council is authorized to transfer certain responsibilities to individual members and to call in experts, who do not have to be members of the association, to examine and assess important business (however, experts who are not members of the Anthroposophical Society should only be appointed if no experts can be found within the Anthroposophical Society for the cases in question).

If the executive council concludes a business transaction involving an obligation or expenditure of more than 10,000 francs (ten thousand francs) without obtaining the approval of the general meeting in accordance with §12, last paragraph, those of its members who have not demonstrably voted against such a conclusion, are liable to the association for all damages arising therefrom and may themselves be required to personally take over the business in question; the ordinary courts shall decide on this, excluding the arbitral tribunal provided for in §19.

§15. The building committee consists of five people (members), of whom four belong to the association and one is taken from the “Johannesbau-Verein Dornach”.

The building committee decides on the external architectural design of the buildings that the association members wish to construct within the colony. It has to make its (motivated) decision within three (six) weeks of submission of the relevant building plans and notify the applicant. In the event of non-approval, the building committee has to provide the applicant with the plan amendments in the form of detailed projects within three months at the latest..

The building committee is only to assess the external architectural design of the buildings; the floor plan is to be determined by the builder.

The building committee is to consult with members of the Anthroposophical Society who are professionally or artistically trained for the assessment of the construction plans and consultations.

§16. Each year at the regular meeting of the Society, two members of the Society shall be elected as auditors. They shall audit the annual accounts and submit a report on them to the Society's meeting. The Society's meeting may not approve the annual accounts without this report.

§17. At the end of each calendar year, the board of directors shall prepare the annual financial statements in accordance with commercial principles. Appropriate provisions shall be made in the financial statements for securing the proper operation of a business and for extraordinary events.

§18. The legally binding signature for the association is held jointly by two members designated by the board from among its members.

§19. All disputes between the association on the one hand and its organs and members on the other, as well as all disputes between organs on the one hand and other organs or association members on the other, and finally disputes between association members among themselves regarding association matters, shall be finally settled, to the exclusion of the ordinary courts, by a court of arbitration consisting of three arbitrators, who shall be chosen for each individual case by the Centralvorstand of the Anthroposophical Society (the board of the Johannesbau-Verein designated). (Members of the board of the “Johannesbau-Verein” can also be designated as arbitrators.)

Should the Central Board refuse to establish the court of arbitration in an individual case, the ordinary courts shall decide on the merits of the dispute in question.

The court of arbitration also retains jurisdiction for disputes between the association and a former member or their legal successors until such time as a final settlement has been reached regarding the relationship between the former member and the association, including, in particular, the exercise of the right of purchase (Section 4b).

The court of arbitration is not authorized to decide on the liability of association bodies and their members in accordance with § 14, last paragraph.

§20. A resolution passed by a three-quarters majority at a general meeting at which three-quarters of all members are present or represented is required to dissolve the association. Any assets remaining after the liquidation shall go to the Johannesbau-Verein in Dornach.

§21. These statutes may be amended by a resolution adopted at an ordinary or extraordinary meeting of the Association at which at least three quarters of all members are present or represented, with a three-quarters majority vote.