The Rudolf Steiner Archive

Afterword by Marie Steiner to the first edition of the book, 1925

Here the biography comes to an abrupt end. Rudolf Steiner passed away on March 30, 1925.

His life, entirely devoted to the service of humanity, was met with unspeakable hostility; his path of knowledge was turned into a path of thorns. Yet he walked that path and conquered it for all of humanity. He broke through the boundaries of knowledge: they no longer exist. Before us lies this path of knowledge in the crystal-clear clarity of thought, to which this book also bears witness. He has raised human cognition to the level of the Spirit, permeated it, and connected it with the spiritual essence of the cosmos. In doing so, he has accomplished the greatest human deed. He taught us to understand the greatest Divine deed. He accomplished the greatest human deed. How could he not be hated with all the demonic power of which hell is capable?

But he responded with love to the lack of understanding he encountered.

He died—a sufferer, a leader, an achiever,
in a world that trampled him underfoot
and which he had the strength to lift up.
He lifted it up, they threw themselves in the way,
they spewed hatred, blocked his paths,
buried what was in the making.
They raged with poison and flame,
now they rejoice, defiling his memory. —

“Now he is dead, he who led you to freedom,
to the light, to consciousness, to the realization
of the Divine in the human soul,
to the Self, to Christ.
Was this endeavor not a crime?
He did what Prometheus had already atoned for,
What Socrates was rewarded with—the cup of hemlock,
What was worse than Barabbas’s offense,
What found its atonement only on the cross:
He lived out the future for you.

We, the demons, cannot tolerate this,
we hunt down and pursue those who dare to do such things,
with all the souls that have surrendered to us,
with all the powers at our command.
For the turning of the ages belongs to us,
this humanity, which, bereft of God,
languishes in weakness, delusion, and vice.
We will not let our spoils slip away,
we will tear apart those who dare to do such a thing.”

He dared—and bore his lot.
In love, in patience, in tolerance
with inadequacy, with human frailties,
which constantly endangered his work,
which constantly misinterpreted his word,
which constantly misunderstood his leniency,
who, in their smallness, did not comprehend themselves,
because his greatness defied measure.
So he carried us—and we were left breathless
as we followed in his footsteps, in that flight,
which swept us up dizzyingly high. Our weakness,
it was the obstacle to his flight,
it weighed down his feet like lead...

Now he is free. A helper to those above,
who receive what has been achieved on Earth
to safeguard their goals. They welcome
the Son of Man, who unfolded his creative powers
in service to the will of the gods,
who imprinted and elicited the Spirit
from the most hardened age of reason,
from the driest age of machinery...

They defended him.
The earth weaves in the shadows,
figures take shape in the cosmos,
the leader waits, the heavens are open,
the multitudes stand in awe and joy.

But a gray night envelops the globe.