The Rudolf Steiner Archive

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

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

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

But he repaid with love what was shown to him in the form of incomprehension.

He died—a sufferer, a leader, an achiever,
in a world that trampled him underfoot
and which he had the power to lift up.
He lifted them up, they threw themselves in between,
they spat hatred, blocked his paths,
spilled what was in the making.
They raged with poison and flame,
now rejoice, defile his memory. —

"Now he is dead, he who led you to freedom,
to light, to consciousness, to understanding
the divine in a human soul,
to the self, to Christ.
Was this undertaking not a crime?
He did what Prometheus already atoned for,
What Socrates rewarded with the hemlock cup,
What was worse than Barabbas' transgression,
What could only find atonement on the cross:
He lived the future for you.

We, the demons, cannot tolerate this,
we incite, hunt down those who dare to do such things,
with all the souls who surrendered to us,
with all the powers at our command.
For the turning point in time belongs to us,
this humanity, which, bereft of God,
languishes in weakness, delusion, and vice.
We will not let go of what we have captured,
we will tear apart those who dare to do such things."

He dared – and bore his fate.
In love, patience, in enduring
of inadequacy, of human weaknesses,
which always endangered his work,
which always misinterpreted his words,
which always misjudged his forbearance,
which, in their smallness, did not comprehend themselves,
because his greatness defied measure.
So he carried us, and we lost our breath
as we followed his steps, in the flight,
which carried us up to dizzying heights. Our weakness,
it was the obstacle to his flight,
it weighed like lead around his feet...

Now he is free. A helper to those above,
who receive earthly achievements
to preserve their goals. They welcome
the Son of Man, who unfolded his creative powers
in the service of the will of the gods,
who imprinted and elicited the spirit
from the hardest age of reason,
the driest age of machines...

They resisted him.
The earth weaves in the shadows,
figures form in the space between worlds,
the leader waits, the heavens are open,
the multitudes stand in awe and joy.

But gray night envelops the globe.