A Talk to Young People
GA 217a
20 July 1924, Arnheim
Translated by Ruth Pusch
You have come to this Youth Conference with all the questions and problems in your hearts that assail young people today everywhere in the world—some more, some less—ever since the turn of the century, the time which those who can see deeply into human evolution call the end of Kali Yuga and the beginning of an epoch of light.
We don't see much light yet. You can even say that events in these last two decades have become even darker and more chaotic than before. But just as in ordinary natural phenomena there is resistance in an object to changing either its motion or its lack of motion, inertia is also a property of human beings. We can observe this in the many people who don't seem to belong at all to the 20th century; sometimes we feel we must have seen them a hundred years ago or even earlier. Not only have they remained at a certain age but they are still (however ridiculous this sounds) at the same standpoint where they were before they were born.
Nevertheless we should look at the divine forces concerned with the destiny of the earth. Then we will discover that we have emerged from an epoch in time when we were unconsciously guided by creative spiritual forces that led our souls with supernatural strength. Now we have matured into a new era; certain spiritual beings have withdrawn, while others, whose central impulse is the growing freedom to be allotted to human beings, have begun to influence our development. Young people born since the turn of the century feel this in their unconscious, feel it inwardly, like an earthquake shaking human evolution. But people merely say, “It's the same as always. Youth continually rampages against everything their elders or traditions have brought about.” The clever ones put it like this: “The emperor's enemy is the crown prince.” Certainly in every epoch the young have rebelled against the old.
However, what is living and working today in young people, more or less unconsciously, has never before been experienced. And one must say, there has never been such a discrepancy, such a total contradiction, between what comes to the surface in response to this inner experience they are having and the actual inner experience itself. We have already seen the various groups and the movements young people are taking up—Wandervögel1we call them hippies today. Tr. and other youth groups—we've seen them all; they were attempts to escape from what older people call civilization, a flight to the powers which cannot yet be identified.
You see, it's been clear to me from the very beginning that in the deep subconscious of most of today's young people there is the peculiarly solid realization: that an earth-shaking change must take place in human evolution. Sometimes you can observe this quite intensely, as happened to me in Norway. A very young high school lad wanted to see me but was being discouraged away; people in the house thought such a young fellow would only bother me. (In these matters it's usually just the opposite.)
However, fate decreed that I should step out of my door just at that moment, and I realized that even though he was so young, in ninth or tenth grade, I should listen to him. “All of us High School students want to begin something our High School doesn't have, a publication for young people, doing everything ourselves. Couldn't you help us?” “I will help in every way possible,” I told him, “if you can get things started.” We talked together and what he said showed clearly that subconsciously in him was what older people call “the adolescent crisis” they can hardly understand.
I have asked many of these older people what they think about adolescence; their answer was usually, “Young people have always been rebels.” I have also asked many young people about the “adolescent crises” some of them claim to be taking part in—but they, too, haven't had much of an answer for me. Yet I know that many of them know very well this youth experience in their subconsciousness but are not able to describe it. Even though young people can say very little about it, it is clearly present within them. What they feel clearly and very strongly emerges, for one thing, on looking at a beautiful landscape. People in the past have always admired “scenery,” but not in the same way as the younger generation does today. Perhaps they go at it less perfectly but as they look out at nature, their distinct feeling is, “We are helpless. Even to come to a primitive kind of appreciation for nature, we should develop the most elementary forces within us!”
You see, when you are aware of such an attitude, you will feel deeply, very deeply indeed, the inner meaning of these youth movements. We all remember the powerful claims for nature and the natural order, for instance, by Rousseau and his disciples. That was also a youth movement, one that burst out like an explosion, much more alarming than any in our own time. What was the result of that early 19th century rebellion? Imagine! It was followed by the greatest amount of narrow-mindedness and pedantry than at any time in the last century. Its result was the loneliness that young people feel today within modern civilization. They feel that the world has grown old. The young feel this strongly. They feel even much more. (However, in this regard I put greater value on the mind than on feelings).
Today there is a lot of revolution and too much horrible willingness thereby to commit suicide. Young people born around the turn of the century find this sort of thing, if they are honest with themselves, not altogether what they are looking for. They feel that they did not grow up, even as children, alongside older people who could have helped them develop a really joyful enthusiasm for nature. Actually, we have had to see souls maturing alone into something quite wild. Therefore their urge: Away! Get away—anywhere! Leave behind everything the centuries have piled up on us!
Indeed, you notice that I'm speaking about these matters rather indecisively. Sometimes this is necessary in life—but at the same time one must be warmly concerned, even though indecisive. It's better not to falsify the issue by spelling it out with ordinary narrow-minded logic.
I saw this “youth crisis” in its very dawning; now it is already noonday. I observed it in its first misty light, when the youth of the 1870s were also full of enthusiasm and later kept their enthusiasm into what they regarded as grey middle age, still acting like the young people they had been. Such a young person—to put it concretely—I met in the 1880s, giving vent to his enthusiasm in an oration on the death of a workman killed in the 1848 revolution. As I listened to the oration, I thought to myself, “There is a conservative attorney general stuck inside that young man,” and this he really did become some years later. On the other hand, I knew several in that period who were not able to grow into the traditional professions awaiting them. I saw young people in those years die early when it seemed impossible to them to step into the human conditions of the time. There seemed to be an unconscious youth movement that I'd like to describe—please don't misunderstand the phrase—as filled with shame. Young people were not able to reveal what they felt. What was underneath did not rise to the surface. Rather than appear in daylight it turned sick inside. Above all, it could not be brought into the stream of ordinary life.
Years went by, decades even, and one could say the vessel was full and spilling over. The feeling of shame could no longer continue. Young people had to ask themselves the reason for their suffering and what they were actually longing for. This has been moving them into the various youth groups of our time.
Not so long ago a number of these young people came also into the anthroposophical movement. A singular understanding came about between the anthroposophical movement and what was living in their hearts. Today, although it's been only a short time, many of them have grown into the various activities of the movement. However, what we need from young persons is first and foremost the will to try to understand other people in the most human way. Otherwise we won't get beyond the endless unproductive discussions. The will to understand human beings humanly! All the subjects of the discussions we have with each other are downright unimportant; the essential thing is that our hearts recognize what the others are feeling. In this way we can find some agreement, can always discover how much we really agree. What is so necessary is that we fully and heartily understand others; it is also necessary that the individual leaders within the youth movements acquire more confidence in the integrity of the anthroposophical movement and its principles. Otherwise we will not be able to accomplish very much with our Youth Section.
This Section, I originally believed, I had to found for all those who clearly and honestly perceived in themselves “hunger for a truly modern life style.” If they can actually find their way to the anthroposophical movement, we will be able to achieve everything I wrote about in the Mitteilungen [Anthroposophical Newssheet] concerning youthful sagacity, something that should not be at all pedantic but rather distinguish itself through heartfelt action and heartfelt efforts at human understanding. You see, it was an attempt to search out and explore warmly what is alive in the young today. We tried first of all sending around a questionnaire to find out what young people imagined a Youth Section should be; we hoped to hear what thoughts were emerging or if not thoughts, even better, what strong, “balled-fist” feelings, what spade-thrusts of will. We were ready to accept anything like this—but there was no response. Now I have gone at it more rigorously and have sent out the following question to young people, which you yourselves may have read by now: “How do you imagine the world and humanity should be by 1935, if what you are now hoping for shall have a rightful place in it?” If someone could take this question seriously it would require plenty of good solid thought and sensitivity. How we are to proceed depends actually on our honest efforts, without a lot of blather.
What is this old world steering towards? If we're comfortable in it, we're not living in the three dimensions revealed by the threefold nature of the world order. Instead, we're living in clichés, in convention, in routine, and habit. Cliché, convention, routine—we find them everywhere in every sphere of life. We hear from childhood on how we are to relate to other people—just so or so, one particular way or another. But a young person can't agree to that, for since the turn of the century there has been a completely new impulse entering our souls.
Routine is what can be learned very quickly, for it remains just on the surface of things. Leave everything else for later on, people say. What, however, is very much needed in the world, is something that I could feel emerging many years before the end of Kali Yuga [The “dark ages” up to 1879, when the regency of the Archangel Michael began.]: one cannot be pressed into a profession or work in the old, traditional way. I took this very seriously. I myself never entered any specific profession. Had I done so, there would be no anthroposophical movement today, for this had to be created entirely free from tradition. Even the smallest link to something from the past would have made it impossible. Anyone who cannot understand this is an enemy of what we have tried to do from the very beginning.
The anthroposophical movement is therefore one of pure youthfulness. Shouldn't youth find its way to youth? If this anthroposophical movement is sincere and if young people find it necessary to be honest, what is needed above all?—Courage! Something one learns very fast or not at all. Real courage! The courage to say: the world as it is today must get a new foundation underneath it. This is clearly inscribed in the subconsciousness of the young; I have never seen anything different but what is written there: the world must be changed to its very foundation.
But you can cover up this inscription with negation, argumentative remarks and lots of discussion; you can cover it up and pervert what lies there in the subconscious that wants to be completely honest and courageous. The anthroposophical movement can well be the school par excellence to develop courage, since for many people today anthroposophy is not given first place but is rather something incidental. You can observe this at our lecture series and other events. It seems to be becoming more and more fashionable (and one has to get used to it somehow) to be invited to take part in workshops and seminars held in the country, as though on a holiday trip. And why shouldn't one have a bit of anthroposophy while there instead of band concerts?
But it is a symbol—not bad in itself but nevertheless a symbol—of the lack of thoroughgoing courage in grasping the living substance of anthroposophy, the spiritual essence of anthroposophy in its full reality, not just the shadow of anthroposophy. It is really a matter of our feeling life. I am not criticizing but rather pointing out symptoms.
The youth movement must be able to find its way to unite with what I have described as the great task of the century, the spur to action of the Archangel Michael. To do this, however, young people should learn to descend more deeply into themselves, while giving up all their abstract kind of dreaminess. Then the big problems will turn up. No narrow-minded man on the street will understand what you mean when you say: Michael has lost the cosmic intelligence; he himself has remained in the cosmos; now human beings must rise up and win back with Michael what he once had under his dominion. Young people will begin to understand this when they begin to understand themselves. To others, today, it will sound like abstractions dressed up in a poetic costume. But this it certainly is not. We must realize that the spirit is alive and real; we must learn how to deal with it. We have also to begin to feel how everything spiritual is different in our time than it was in any earlier time.
A century ago the morning sunrise, shining mistily, was an image of the spiritual world. Behind the glimmering image like a curtain one saw the spirit, alive and luminous. But during the 19th century up into our time this was changing. The sunrise has become flaming red. Out of the shining sun, flames break forth. If we describe for modern times the kind of sunrise Herder or Goethe wrote about we would be guilty of untruthfulness—for it has become altogether different. In Herder and Goethe's time it was a shining glimmer; today it is fiery. Out of the flames comes a summons to active, fervent spirituality. The spiritual world has taken on a new gesture towards our physical world.
If we can begin to understand these gestures of the spiritual world we can perhaps prevent the youth movement of the 20th century from becoming the sort of middle-class narrow-mindedness and pedantry that came after Rousseau. If today's youth can become enthusiastic about what is truly young, if today's youth, with understanding, can lay hold of the real spiritual world that is here, then Michael's time will come. If today's youth cannot do this, the middle-class narrow-mindedness and pedantry will be infinitely greater in our century than that which followed Rousseau. In all the many centuries before, there were never better or more proper citizens than in the 19th century; people in the earlier times never knew Rousseau or his ideas.
We have been talking a good deal here in Arnhem about the new education and the principles of Waldorf education.2In these July days of 1924, Dr. Steiner was giving the course published in English as Human Values in Education, Rudolf Steiner Press, London 1971 The most important principle is to continue growing. Every day there's danger that things will get sour. We have to make sure that when we have to plan something new or get something done, we don't fall asleep sticking to our old habits. Let us try to divide our sleeping and waking, to keep a clear gulf between them. We must be able to sleep in the right way but also to be awake in the right way. Unfortunately we're continually sleeping when we should be awake. It is just not in our nature to tell ourselves over and over to wake up, otherwise all the reform movements and revolutions will be useless; it is almost always the best endeavors that suffer the most when they are taken over by narrow-mindedness and pedantry: a strong light produces a strong shadow. What should we do?—not think out something to be done one way or another, but rather to feel how different the sunrise is now in our time and how nature with its flaming color speaks to us of the spirituality that surrounds us.
Our hearts, too, have changed. We have a different kind of heart in our body. Our physical heart has become hard, but our etheric heart is more flexible. We must find the way to make use of this supersensible heart of ours. It then will help us to understand spiritual science. To put it plainly, just about everybody and his uncle are talking about spiritual science but only because most science can be taken in lazily. We have to be quite clear about it: spiritual science must come alive in our hearts. And the hearts of young people are perfectly formed to feel what is true in this sphere—if there's enough courage for such thoughts.
Friedrich Schiller3Poet and dramatist 1759-1805. See also Rudolf Steiner, The Karma of Human Vocation, Lecture 2, Anthroposophic Press 1944. with his warm enthusiasm had much to give the world. He died in very peculiar circumstances. There was an autopsy. His heart was examined; it was found to have become an empty pouch, completely dried up, burned out.
All our hearts will burn out like this if we can lay hold of them and make them new. And if we are to be serious about spirituality we will have to tell ourselves with a certain amount of courage: “Whenever we seem not to be able to live with the rest of the world, it is because we need to have a new kind of heart!”
However, this should not be just a phrase. Let us be awake to the fact that our new hearts should be aware of the world in quite a different way from the old hearts. If wetake this very seriously the youth movement will become something like a flame blazing towards the flames of the sunrise. This will not result from discussions about being young or from talk about inner feelings; in this regard peculiar things can happen. In Breslau the elderly members in their welcome called me “Papa”; in the youth group there they said I was the youngest of all, though I was three times older than most of them.
Indeed it is important to be able to admit this about oneself. The flames from within, the flames from outside, the two flames must strike against each other. It is not at all important to decide or define anything. It is important that we bring about a new kind of enthusiasm. It comes down to this: we should not only learn to sit down but we should learn to stand up. Nietzsche had an apt phrase for Carlyle, who impresses many people with his talent for enthusiasm. “Carlyle's enthusiasm,” said Nietzsche, “is the kind that takes off its coat.” In other words, Carlyle always had time to take off his coat whenever he was seized by enthusiasm. Carlyle always had time as he got warmly enthusiastic, without hesitation, to take off his coat. One can imagine how this fellow would pull on a silk vest after he has had time to get fully into his enthusiasm and slowly to take off his coat.
But the right enthusiasm is the kind that doesn't give you time to take off your coat; it makes you sweat, wearing your coat, and you don't even notice how you're perspiring! This is the right enthusiasm, my dear friends! It should overpower us so completely that we keep our coats on.
That enthusiasm we should feel compelled to bring into being out of the fullness and immediacy of life itself. We need today to overcome our heavy, sticky tiredness. It is actually lazy to insist on “being clear.” There may well be no time to become clear in the old sense of the word. But there is the real necessity to become enthusiastic—for enthusiasm will be able to accomplish everything. The word itself will then reach its true meaning. The German word Begeisterung carries Geist, spirit, in itself. That is self-evident: we need spirit. The English-Greek word enthusiasm has the divine within it (Gr. Theos). A god is in the word.
Grow inwardly with the flame that is kindled in you today, for then the Michael impulse will be achieved! Without fire, it cannot be achieved. But if you are to live and work, glowing through and through, you yourself will have to become a flame. The only thing not burned up by flames is a flame; when we can begin to feel we are becoming one, and cannot be burned up by other flames, we can safely let our physical heart remain behind as an empty pouch, for we have an etheric heart. It is our etheric heart that will understand that humanity is moving into a new epoch, into a life in the spirit. Our growing into this life in the spirit will form the youth movement, the youth experience, in all its strength.
Ansprache während der anthroposophisch-pädagogischen Tagung
[ 1 ] Meine lieben Freunde! Die Frage und die Sehnsucht, die Ihnen auf dem Herzen liegen, insofern Sie sich als Jugend versammelt haben, sind solche, welche - hier weniger, dort mehr - seit etwa zwei Jahrzehnten in den Herzen der heutigen Jugend wahrgenommen werden können, seit dem Zeitpunkte, den man aus der Einsicht in die Entwickelung der Menschen heraus den Abschluß des Kali Yuga und den Aufgang des lichten Zeitalters nennt. Von vorneherein stößt man damit leicht auf ein Mißverständnis, wenn man den Aufgang des lichten Zeitalters gerade in unsere Zeit hereinsetzt. Zu bemerken ist nicht viel von Lichterwerden. Man kann sogar durchaus sagen: Die Verhältnisse sind seit der Jahrhundertwende verworrener und dunkler geworden. Das ist nun einmal so: wie es in äußeren physikalischen Erscheinungen eine Trägheit gibt, wonach ein Körper seinen Zustand, den er angenommen hat, beibehält, so ist es auch bei allen Menschen: sie behalten noch eine Trägheit bei. Wir können sehen, wie das Beibehalten geschieht, wie die meisten Menschen heute keine Menschen des 20. Jahrhunderts sind, sondern bei den meisten hat man das Gefühl, man muß sie doch einmal vor hundert Jahren oder vor noch längerer Zeit gesehen haben. Sie sind nicht bloß in einem Lebensalter stehengeblieben, sondern - man möchte sagen, so paradox es klingen mag - sie sind stehengeblieben lange vor ihrer Geburt auf dem Standpunkt, auf dem sie gestanden haben. Dennoch aber: wenn man auf die Wesenheiten hinsieht, die sich am Erdenschicksal betätigen, so findet man in ihnen, daß der Mensch aus einem Zeitalter herausgewachsen ist, in dem er mehr oder weniger durch schöpferisch geistige Mächte unbewußt geführt worden ist, die seine Seele aus Geisteskräften leiten. Der Mensch ist hineingewachsen in jenes Zeitalter, in dem sich gewisse geistige Wesen zurückgezogen haben und andere, die mehr ihre Impulse auf die Freiheit der Menschen angelegt haben, in die Entwickelung der Menschheit eingegriffen haben. Die Menschen verstehen mit ihrem Bewußtsein heute im allgemeinen noch wenig von diesem Eingreifen ganz neuer geistiger Mächte in die Entwickelung der Menschheit. Aber die Jugend hat tief im Unterbewußten gerade seit der Jahrhundertwende eine innere Erlebnisart, durch die sie zeigt, daß sie fühlt: da rüttelt etwas erdbebenartig an der Entwickelung der Menschheit. Nun kommen die Menschen und sagen: Es war doch immer so. Stets hat die Jugend sich gegen das aufgelehnt, was das Alter oder die Tradition in irgendein Zeitalter hineingestellt hat. Ganz Gescheite sagen dann: Die Kronprinzen sind die Opponenten der Imperatoren. Die Jugend lehnt sich auf gegen das Alter.
[ 2 ] Das war allerdings bis zu einem gewissen Grade immer der Fall. Was aber heute in der Jugend, zum Teil ganz unbewußt, lebt, war eben noch nicht da. Und man kann sagen, es war niemals eine so große Diskrepanz, ein so großer Gegensatz da zwischen dem, wie das innere Erleben der Jugend äußerlich zum Ausdruck kommt, und dem, was das innere Erleben der Jugend eigentlich ist. Wir haben alle möglichen Bewegungen der Jugend gesehen: Wandervogelbewegung, die freien Jugendgruppierungen mit den verschiedenen Namen, wir haben alles mögliche von dieser Art gesehen - solch ein Sich-Herausziehen aus all dem, was gegenwärtig die alten Leute für Zivilisation halten, ein Entfliehen-Mögen zu den Mächten, die man zunächst nicht bezeichnen will. Von Anfang an schien es mir ganz deutlich, daß durch einen Großteil der gegenwärtigen Jugend im tiefsten Unterbewußtsein eigentlich ein Zug lebt von einem merkwürdig gründlichen Verständnis dafür, daß ein großer, erdbebenartiger Umschwung in der ganzen Entwickelung der Menschheit sich vollziehen muß.
[ 3 ] Manchmal nimmt man solche Dinge in erschütternder und eindringlicher Art wahr. Immer möchte ich auf ein Beispiel hinweisen, das mir in Norwegen passiert ist. Es kam ein ganz junger Mensch, ein Gymnasiast, zu mir. Man wollte ihn abweisen, weil man meinte, solch ein ganz junger Kerl kann mich nur molestieren - in diesen Dingen wird ja nicht immer das Rechte gemeint. Das Karma machte es, daß ich gerade zur Türe herausging und ihn hereinnahm, weil ich meinte, trotzdem er ganz jung war, da ist es notwendig, daß man eine Unterredung herbeiführt. Er setzte mir auseinander: Unter uns Gymnasiasten lebt eine Sehnsucht nach etwas, was uns das Gymnasium nicht gibt. Wir möchten eine Jugendzeitschrift begründen — nur unter uns Gymnasiasten. Können Sie uns nicht helfen? - Ich will, wenn die Sache sich vollzieht, in jeder Art helfen, sagte ich. Dann sprach ich noch etwas weiter mit diesem jungen Mann, der Gymnasiast war, noch nicht einmal nahe dem Abiturium. Es zeigte sich da, daß in der unterbewußt klarsten Weise das vorhanden war, was viele Jugenderlebnis nennen, was ja recht wenig von denen verstanden wird, die alt sind.
[ 4 ] Ich habe viel gefragt bei jenen, die alt sind, was sie sich unter dem Jugenderlebnis vorstellen. Solche Antworten waren da: Die Jugend hat immer opponiert! Ich habe auch unter den Jungen gefragt, die behaupteten, das Jugenderlebnis zu haben. Da habe ich auch keine Auskunft bekommen. Und dennoch .habe ich gewußt, daß viele, die keine Auskunft geben können, in ihrem Unterbewußtsein das Jugenderlebnis kennen. Es kommt nur sehr wenig heraus, wenn die Jugend darüber spricht, aber es ist in klarster Weise im Unterbewußtsein durchaus vorhanden. Was die Jugend ganz deutlich und stark fühlt, das kommt zum Beispiel dann heraus, wenn die Jugend, sagen wir, ein Naturpanorama bewundert. Das hat man immer bewundert, aber nicht so, wie die heutige Jugend das tut. Vielleicht tut das die heutige Jugend viel unvollkommener. Aber die heutige Jugend tut es so, daß sie deutlich fühlt: Wir sind hilflos. Wir müssen selbst zur einfachsten Naturbewunderung erst durch allerelementarste Kräfte gelangen.
[ 5 ] Sehen Sie, wenn einem so etwas entgegentritt, dann fühlt man so tief, tief, welch innere Bedeutung diese ganze Jugendbewegung hat. Man erinnere sich nur an jenen gewaltigen Ruf nach der Natur, der zum Beispiel durch Rousseau und seine Anhänger da war. Auch da war eine Jugendbewegung, die sich explosionsartig sogar geäußert hat, viel stürmischer als die heutige Jugendbewegung. Was ist daraus geworden? Aus all dem ist das größte Philistersum des 19. Jahrhunderts geworden, gerade das, was macht, daß die Jugend sich heute so einsam fühlt innerhalb der gegenwärtigen zivilisierten Menschheit. Dasjenige, was an geistigem Leben vorhanden ist, was so vorhanden ist, daß sich die Menschen konventionell darüber freuen oder selbst darüber sich ärgern, das ist alt geworden. Die Jugend fühlt noch viel mehr, sie fühlt es. Aber da muß ich den größten Wert legen auf das mehr Erkenntnismäßige. Es wird heute so viel revolutioniert, reformiert. Das ist so gräßlich alt, so gräßlich sterbensartig, revolutionieren zu wollen. Das sind alles Dinge, in die ein Mensch, der um die Jahrhundertwende geboren ist, wenn er ehrlich gegen sich ist, eigentlich nicht hineinwachsen kann. So fühlt die Jugend. Die Jugend fühlt: Wir haben nicht aufwachsen können, schon als Kinder nicht aufwachsen können neben älteren Leuten, an denen sich hätte heranbilden können freudige Begeisterung an der Natur. Nein, wir haben eigentlich wild die Seelen heranwachsen sehen. — Und da entstand der Drang: Heraus! Irgendwohin, wohin es auch sei! Immer nur heraus aus dem, was die Jahrhunderte heraufgetragen haben!
[ 6 ] Ja, sehen Sie, wenn ich über diese Sache spreche, spreche ich unbestimmt. Das ist gerade das Notwendige im Leben: unbestimmt, aber herzhaft. Will man es zur gewohnten philiströsen Klarheit bringen, dann fälscht man es.
[ 7 ] Nun, dieses Jugenderlebnis — ich habe es in der Morgendämmerung beobachtet. Jetzt ist es Tag. Ich habe es in der Morgendämmerung beobachtet, ich habe den Unterschied wahrnehmen können zwischen den jugendlichen Menschen der siebziger Jahre des vorigen Jahrhunderts, die nun auch Jugend waren, begeisterungsvolle Jugend waren und die: aus der jugendlichen Begeisterung heraus das Alte als grau angesehen haben und dann sich jugendlich gebärdet haben. Ich habe gesehen - ich rede, liebe Freunde, in konkretem Sinne - solch einen Vertreter in den achtziger Jahren des vorigen Jahrhunderts. Er hat seine Begeisterung dadurch ausgelebt, daß er eine große Rede auf einen gefallenen Achtundvierziger (1848) gehalten hat. Ich habe mir diese Rede angehört. Es steckt ein Hofrat darin, sagte ich. Und er ist auch einer geworden. Ich habe andere kennengelernt, solche, die eigentlich schon dazumal nicht mit irgend etwas, was sich als Beruf herausgebildet hatte, in der Tradition zusammenwachsen konnten. Ich habe jugendliche Menschen der achtziger Jahre früh ins Grab sinken sehen, weil es einfach für sie nicht möglich war, mitzuerleben die heraufgekommene Menschheitsentwikkelung. Dazumal gab es unterbewußt eine Jugendbewegung, die etwas sehr Eigentümliches hatte, das ich so bezeichnen möchte: Sie hatte — Sie mißverstehen den Ausdruck nicht -, sie hatte etwas von Gschämigkeit, Schamhaftigkeit. Sie gestanden nicht, was sie fühlten. Es wollte nicht an die Oberfläche des Daseins, was sie fühlten; es siechte lieber dahin, als daß es an die Oberfläche des Daseins hätte kommen wollen. Es konnte vor allen Dingen nicht hineinwachsen in das, was die normale Entwikkelung der Menschen in der Zeit anforderte. Nun kamen noch Jahre, Jahrzehnte. Das Gefäß wurde sozusagen voll, übersprudelnd. Die Schamhaftigkeit konnte nicht mehr weiter dauern. Die Jugend mußte sich selber fragen, woran sie litt, wonach sie sich sehnte. Ja, sehen Sie, das haben wir hereinfließen sehen können in verschiedene Jugendvereinigungen dieser Jugendbewegung.
[ 8 ] Vor verhältnismäßig nicht langer Zeit kam eine Anzahl von solchen Menschen auch in die anthroposophische Bewegung herein. In einer merkwürdigen Weise konnte eine gewisse Verständigung gefunden werden zwischen der anthroposophischen Bewegung und zwischen dem, was in den Herzen der Jugend lebt. Es ist heute vielfach trotz des kurzen Zeitraumes auf den mannigfaltigen Gebieten ein Hereinwachsen und Heranwachsen der Jugend in die anthroposophische Bewegung durchaus geworden. Aber das, was wir insbesondere in der Jugendbewegung brauchen, das ist ein Wollen, menschlich den Menschen zu verstehen, sonst kommen wir nicht über das fruchtlose Diskutieren hinaus. Menschlich den Menschen zu verstehen! Es ist schrecklich gleichgültig, was der Inhalt dessen ist, was wir miteinander reden, wovon wir reden. Das Wesentliche ist, daß wir ein Herz haben für das, was der andere fühlt. Da werden wir einig sein, da kann man immer wieder einig sein. Aber das ist es, was gerade herzlich verstanden werden muß, und in dieser Beziehung wäre es schon notwendig, daß einzelne innerhalb der Jugendbewegung stehende jugendliche Führer noch etwas zunehmen würden in ihrem Vertrauen in die Aufrichtigkeit und Verläßlichkeit der anthroposophischen Bewegung. Sonst kommen wir mit der Jugendsektion nicht vorwärts.
[ 9 ] Die Jugendsektion glaubte ich zuerst inaugurieren zu müssen wegen derjenigen, die in aufrichtiger, klarer Weise fühlen: Jugendsehnsucht im heutigen Lebensstile ist in mir. Die mögen sich einmal wirklich in dieser Jugendsektion der Anthroposophischen Gesellschaft zusammenfinden, dann werden wir das zustande bringen, wovon ich in den «Mitteilungen» spreche als von der Jugendweisheit. Es soll nichts Pedantisches sein, es soll etwas sein, was durch herzliches Wirken, durch herzliche Verständigung unter den Menschen erarbeitet wird. Gewiß, es handelt sich darum, daß man da tastend forscht, liebevoll erfaßt, wie es in der Jugend heute lebt. Zunächst haben wir versucht, eine Rundfrage zu geben an die Jugend, wie man sich die Jugendbewegung vorstellt, damit Gedanken auftreten sollten, vielleicht nicht Gedanken, besser vielleicht Faustschläge des Gefühls, Spatenstiche des Willens. Alles hätte hineingenommen werden können. Es ist nichts daraus geworden. — Nun ging ich einmal schärfer vor und habe jetzt eine Rundfrage an die Jugend gerichtet. Sie werden sie gelesen haben: «Wie stellst Du Dir vor, daß die Welt der Menschheit um 1935 sein soll, wenn dasjenige, was Du in Deiner Jugend ersehnst, darin Platz haben soll?» Das ist etwas, worüber man, wenn man es ernst nimmt, gründlich viel nachdenken, gründlich viel empfinden kann. Wir kommen wirklich nur weiter, wenn das Weiterkommen durchaus ehrlich ist, nicht phrasenhaft ist, darauf kommt es an.
[ 10 ] Wohin ist unsere alte Welt gesteuert? Wenn wir uns in die alte Welt einleben, dann sehen wir: wir leben nicht etwa in den drei Gliedern der Weltordnung, die bei der Dreigliederung angegeben worden sind. Wir leben heute in der Phrase, wir leben in der Konvention, wir leben in der Routine. Phrase, Konvention, Routine: das ist es, was auf allen Gebieten Platz gegriffen hat. Der junge Mensch hört von Kindheit an, wie man sich verhalten soll zum Menschen, so oder so. Er kann sich nicht darnach richten, weil er einen ganz neuen Impuls seit der Jahrhundertwende in seiner Seele empfangen hat.
[ 11 ] Ich habe schon durchaus fühlen können: Jahrzehnte vor dem Ablauf des Kali Yuga, da kommt etwas herauf, was sich nicht in irgendeinem Beruf, wie er traditionell aus alten Zeiten herkommt, einfügen läßt. Aber ernst ist es mir schon gewesen. Ich selbst steckte niemals in-einem Berufe darin. Wäre ich untergetaucht in einem Berufe, dann gäbe es heute keine anthroposophische Bewegung. Anthroposophische Bewegung ist doch etwas, was ganz frei von allem Traditionellen geschaffen worden ist. Der geringste Hang zu dem oder jenem würde die anthroposophische Bewegung unmöglich gemacht haben.
[ 12 ] Alle jene, welche nicht begreifen können, daß so etwas von Anfang an gemacht werden soll, sind Gegner der anthroposophischen Bewegung. Die anthroposophische Bewegung ist auf diese Weise die reinste Jugend. Warum sollte sich da Jugend und Jugend nicht zusammenfinden? Wenn dann eine anthroposophische Bewegung ehrlich ist, und die Jugend nötig hat, ehrlich zu sein, was ist dazu vor allen Dingen nötig? Mut! Den lernt man sehr schnell oder gar nicht. Wirklich Mut! Mut, sich zu sagen: Das Leben der Welt muß in seinen Fundamenten neu gegründet werden.
[ 13 ] Ich habe niemals etwas anderes im Unterbewußtsein der jugendlichen Menschen eingeschrieben gesehen. Das ist es wirklich: Die Welt muß aus dem Fundament neu begründet werden. Nun kommen alle die Widerlegungsgründe. Man diskutiert über alles mögliche, man deckt jenes gerne zu. Da verfälscht man das, was im Unterbewußtsein ganz ehrlich sein will und was Mut braucht. Anthroposophische Bewegung kann die hohe Schule des Mutes sein. Allerdings, es ist schwierig, daß die anthroposophische Bewegung die Schule des Mutes wird, weil sie von vielen heute nicht als das Erste ins Leben hineingestellt wird, sondern als das, was nebenherläuft. Das kann man schon in den äußeren Veranstaltungen sehen. Nach und nach wird es häufigerweise so, daß man gar nicht weiß, wie man weiter damit zurechtkommen soll, daß wir zu lauter Kursen eingeladen werden, daß sie irgendwo abgehalten werden, wo die Leute Sommeraufenthalt nehmen, so ganz nebenbei, wie man aufs Land geht. Warum soll man nicht statt der Konzerte, die man sonst hört, auch Anthroposophie haben? Es ist ein Symptom - an sich ist es nicht schlimm -, aber es ist ein Symptom dafür, daß der durchgreifende Mut nicht da ist, sich ins Substantielle in der Hauptsache hineinzuleben, sich mit dem Geistigen der Anthroposophie in Wirklichkeit zu verbinden, nicht mit dem Schatten der Anthroposophie. Es ist schon eine Gefühlssache, um die es sich handelt. Ich will nicht kritisieren, ich will nur auf Symptome aufmerksam machen.
[ 14 ] Es muß die Jugendbewegung den Anschluß an das finden können, was ich gestern als das große Ziel des Jahrhunderts hingestellt habe, als die Impulse der Michael-Zeit. Aber da muß die Jugend lernen, tiefer in sich selbst hineinzusteigen, alle Träumereien abstrakter Art zu vermeiden. Dann stellen sich schon die großen Probleme ein. Kein Philister versteht das, wenn man ihm sagt, Michael hat die kosmische Intelligenz verloren, er ist oben geblieben. Jetzt, nachdem Michael ohne dasjenige erscheint, was er verwaltet hat, handelt es sich darum, daß der Mensch auf Erden aufersteht, um es mit ihm, für ihn zurückzuerobern. Die Jugend wird so etwas verstehen, wenn sie sich selbst versteht. So etwas wird heute vielfach nur als poetische oder sonst geartete Verkleidung von irgend etwas Abstraktem genommen. Das ist es nicht. Darum handelt es sich, daß das Geistige wesenhaft ist, daß wir lernen müssen mit dem Geistigen verkehren. Daß wir auch eine Empfindung erhalten, wie das Geistige sich anders verhält als vor einiger Zeit. Morgendliches Sonnenpanorama war vor einem Jahrhundert etwas, was der Schein war, der nebelhafte Schein von einer geistigen Welt. Man sah: hinter dem Vorhang, hinter dem nebelhaften Schein lebt das Geistige; vorher war es glimmend, im Laufe des 19. Jahrhunderts ist es anders geworden: da ist es flammend geworden. Da kommen aus dem Schein die Flammen heraus, und es ist nicht wahr, wenn jemand einen Sonnenaufgang für die heutige Zeit nach dem Beispiele Herders oder Goethes beschreibt. Er ist anders geworden: dazumal war er glimmend, heute ist er flammend geworden. Aus den Flammen kommt heraus das Auffordernde, zur Aktivität entflammende Geistige. Die geistige Welt hat eine andere Geste angenommen zur physischen Welt!
[ 15 ] Wenn man diese Gesetze der geistigen Welt versteht, dann wird verhütet werden können, daß die Bewegung des 20. Jahrhunderts ein solches Philisterium wird, wie die nachrousseauische Zeit es geworden ist. Wenn das, was jetzt die Jugend begeistern kann dadurch, daß sie wirklich jung ist, verständnisvoll ergreifen wird die geistige Welt, die da ist, dann wird die Michael-Zeit kommen. Wenn sie das nicht kann, dann wird im 20. Jahrhundert das Philisterium unendlich viel größer sein als jenes, welches auf Rousseau gefolgt ist. Bravere Bürger als im 19. Jahrhundert hat es in allen früheren Jahrhunderten nicht gegeben, obwohl die früheren den Rousseauismus nicht gekannt haben. Wir reden hier viel von Waldorfschulprinzip, von neuer Pädagogik. Das Wichtigste ist, daß man im Wachstum bleibt. Jeden Tag ist die Gefahr vorhanden, daß die Dinge sauer werden. — Das ist es, worauf es ankommt, daß man nicht vom Kleben an den Gewohnheiten einschläft, wenn man etwas tun soll, wenn man etwas bereiten soll. Wir müssen uns angewöhnen, zwischen Schlafen und Wachen einen Abgrund aufzurichten; wir müssen richtig schlafen, aber auch richtig wachen können. Wir schlafen aber fortwährend da, wo wir wachen sollen. Wir sind nicht so geartet, daß wir uns sagen: wir müssen immer neu und neu aufwachen, sonst nützen uns alle Reform- und Revolutionsbewegungen nichts. Gerade bei den besten Bestrebungen ist es viel schlechter, wenn sie vom Philisterium ergriffen werden. Wo ein starkes Licht ist, ist auch ein starker Schatten. Was notwendig ist, ist nicht, daß man dieses oder jenes ausdenkt, was geschehen soll, sondern daß die Menschen fühlen: das Geistige draußen spricht aus einer flammenden Natur, der Sonnenaufgang ist etwas anderes geworden.
[ 16 ] Aber unsere Herzen sind auch anders geworden, wir tragen nicht mehr dieselben Herzen in der Brust. Unser physisches Herz ist hart, unser ätherisches Herz ist beweglicher geworden. Wir müssen die Möglichkeit finden, uns an unser übersinnliches Herz zu wenden. Wir müssen nach dieser Richtung hin Geisteswissenschaft verstehen. Geisteswissenschaft, so trocken es klingt, ist etwas geworden, wovon alle Leute reden. Wissenschaft ist etwas recht Faules. Man muß sich schon klar sein, Geisteswissenschaft ist es, was leben muß in den Herzen. Die Herzen der Jugend sind wie geschaffen, auf diesem Gebiete das Richtige zu fühlen. Man muß den Mut haben, wirklich es zu denken. Schiller hat aus seiner Begeisterung heraus der Welt viel zu sagen gehabt. Er ist unter merkwürdigen Umständen gestorben. Aber man hat ihn doch seziert und sein Herz gefunden. Es war ein leerer Beutel, ganz vertrocknet, verbrannt.
[ 17 ] So werden alle Herzen verbrennen, die sich in ihrer Erneuerung ergreifen. Wollen wir mit der Spiritualität ernst machen, dann müssen wir selbst uns mutvoll gestehen: Wenn es in uns nicht geht, mit der Welt mitzuleben, so kommt das davon her, daß wir neue Herzen haben müssen. Das sollen wir aber nicht bloß als Phrase empfinden. Werden wir uns bewußt, daß wir neue Herzen haben, daß neue Herzen die Welt ganz anders fühlen müssen als die alten Herzen, und nehmen wir das ganz ernst, dann wird aus der Jugendbewegung etwas werden wie eine Flamme, die der Flamme des Sonnenaufgangs entgegenschlagen wird.
[ 18 ] Das kann aber erst werden, nicht aus Diskussion über das Jungsein, nicht aus dem Sprechen über Erlebnisse. Dabei erlebt man sonderbare Dinge. In Breslau hat man mich bei den Alten empfangen, indem man mich Vater genannt hat. Bei der Jugend hat man gesagt, ich sei der Allerjüngste, obwohl ich dreimal so alt war wie die meisten der Anwesenden. Ja, es kommt darauf an, daß man sich dies selber gestehen kann. Flammen von innen, Flammen von außen herein: die beiden Flammen müssen zusammenschlagen. Es kommt nicht darauf an, daß man dieses oder jenes lernt, bestimmt oder definiert. Es kommt darauf an, daß man eine neue Begeisterung wirklich aufbringt. Nietzsche hat ein schönes Wort über Michelet geprägt. Michelet erscheint ja vielem gegenüber als begeisterungsfähiger Mensch. Michelet, sagt Nietzsche, die Begeisterung, die sich den Rock auszieht. — Michelet hat nämlich immer Zeit gehabt, den Rock auszuziehen, wenn er in Begeisterung geriet. Michelet hatte immer Zeit gehabt, um mit Wärme in Begeisterung zu kommen, sich aber dabei den Rock auszuziehen. Man spürt, wie dieser Mann die Seidenweste angezogen hat, und man spürt, wie er Zeit hat, um so recht in die Begeisterung zu kommen, sich langsam den Rock auszuziehen. — Die rechte Begeisterung aber ist die, die nicht Zeit hat, den Rock auszuziehen, die unter dem Rocke schwitzt und nicht bemerkt, daß sie schwitzt. Deshalb: Begeisterung, meine lieben Freunde! Begeisterung, die uns so überwältigt, daß wir den Rock anbehalten, daß wir die Begeisterung aus dem vollen, unmittelbaren Leben heraus zu entwickeln uns gedrängt fühlen. Wir brauchen heute wirklich eine Überwindung des in sich Klebenden, des Müden. Es ist so müßig, klar werden zu wollen. Wir dürfen auch nicht Zeit dazu haben, nach alter Art klar werden zu wollen. Wir haben es nötig, wirklich in Begeisterung zu kommen. Begeisterung wird alles machen. Dann wird das Wort einen Sinn haben: Begeisterung trägt den Geist in sich. — Das ist etwas, was sehr natürlich ist. Enthusiasmus braucht man. Enthusiasmus trägt den Gott in sich. Da ist der Gott im Worte.
[ 19 ] Innerlich zusammenwachsen mit der Flamme, die sich heute entzündet, auf daß die Michael-Impulse verwirklicht werden! Ohne daß Flammen da sind, können sie nicht verwirklicht werden. Aber um durchflammt zu leben und zu arbeiten, dazu ist notwendig, daß man selber Flamme wird. Nur die Flamme wird von der Flamme nicht verzehrt. Wenn wir so fühlen können, daß wir Flammen werden, die von den Flammen nicht verbrannt werden, dann können wir ruhig die physischen Herzen als leere Beutel zurücklassen, denn wir haben das ätherische Herz, das verstehen wird, daß die Menschheit in ein neues Zeitalter hineinrückt: in das Leben der Geistigkeit. Das Zusammenwachsen mit der Geistigkeit wird das volle Jugenderlebnis sein.
Address during the anthroposophical educational conference
[ 1 ] My dear friends! The question and longing that are close to your hearts, insofar as you have gathered here as young people, are those that—here less, there more—have been felt in the hearts of today's youth for about two decades, since the moment that, based on insight into human development, is called the end of the Kali Yuga and the dawn of the age of light. From the outset, it is easy to misunderstand if one places the dawn of the age of light precisely in our time. There is not much to be seen of light becoming brighter. One can even say that conditions have become more confused and darker since the turn of the century. That is simply the way it is: just as there is inertia in external physical phenomena, whereby a body maintains the state it has assumed, so it is with all human beings: they still retain a certain inertia. We can see how this retention occurs, how most people today are not people of the 20th century, but rather, in most cases, one has the feeling that one must have seen them a hundred years ago or even longer. They have not merely remained at a certain age, but—paradoxical as it may sound—they have remained long before their birth at the point where they stood. Nevertheless, when one looks at the beings who are active in the destiny of the earth, one finds in them that human beings have outgrown an age in which they were more or less unconsciously guided by creative spiritual powers that direct their souls from spiritual forces. Human beings have grown into an age in which certain spiritual beings have withdrawn and others, who have directed their impulses more toward human freedom, have intervened in the development of humanity. With their consciousness, people today generally understand little about this intervention of entirely new spiritual forces in the development of humanity. But since the turn of the century, young people have had a deep inner experience in their subconscious that shows they feel that something is shaking the development of humanity like an earthquake. Now people come and say: It has always been this way. Youth has always rebelled against what age or tradition has imposed in any age. Very clever people then say: The crown princes are the opponents of the emperors. Youth rebels against age.
[ 2 ] That has always been the case to a certain extent. But what is alive in young people today, partly quite unconsciously, was not there before. And one can say that there has never been such a great discrepancy, such a great contrast between how the inner experience of youth is expressed outwardly and what the inner experience of youth actually is. We have seen all kinds of youth movements: the Wandervogel movement, the free youth groups with their various names, we have seen all kinds of things of this kind—such a withdrawal from everything that older people currently consider civilization, a desire to escape to powers that one does not want to name at first. From the beginning, it seemed quite clear to me that a large part of today's youth has a deep subconscious understanding that a great, earth-shattering change must take place in the entire development of humanity.
[ 3 ] Sometimes one perceives such things in a shocking and vivid way. I always like to refer to an example that happened to me in Norway. A very young person, a high school student, came to me. They wanted to turn him away because they thought that such a young guy could only molest me—in these matters, people don't always mean well. As luck would have it, I was just leaving and took him in because I thought that even though he was very young, it was necessary to talk to him. He explained to me: “Among us high school students, there is a longing for something that high school does not give us. We want to start a youth magazine—just for us high school students.” Can't you help us? “I will, if the thing comes to fruition, I will help in any way I can,” I said. Then I talked a little more with this young man, who was a high school student, not even close to graduating. It became apparent that what many call “youth experience” was present in the clearest subconscious way, something that is understood very little by those who are old.
[ 4 ] I asked many older people what they thought the experience of youth was. Their answers were: “Young people have always rebelled!” I also asked young people who claimed to have had the experience of youth. I didn't get any answers there either. And yet I knew that many who could not provide any information were aware of the experience of youth in their subconscious. Very little comes out when young people talk about it, but it is clearly present in their subconscious. What young people feel very clearly and strongly comes out, for example, when they admire a natural panorama. People have always admired this, but not in the way today's youth does. Perhaps today's youth does it in a much more imperfect way. But today's youth does it in such a way that it clearly feels: We are helpless. We must first attain the most elementary powers before we can even admire nature in the simplest way.
[ 5 ] You see, when you encounter something like this, you feel so deeply, deeply, what inner meaning this whole youth movement has. Just remember the powerful call for nature that came, for example, from Rousseau and his followers. There, too, was a youth movement that even expressed itself explosively, much more stormily than today's youth movement. What became of it? All of that resulted in the greatest philistinism of the 19th century, precisely that which makes young people today feel so lonely within contemporary civilized humanity. That which exists in spiritual life, that which exists to such an extent that people conventionally rejoice in it or even resent it, has become old. Young people feel much more than that; they feel it. But here I must place the greatest emphasis on the more cognitive aspect. So much is being revolutionized and reformed today. It is so terribly old, so terribly death-like, to want to revolutionize. These are all things that a person born at the turn of the century, if they are honest with themselves, cannot really grow into. That is how young people feel. Young people feel: We couldn't grow up, even as children we couldn't grow up alongside older people who could have inspired us with a joyful enthusiasm for nature. No, we actually saw our souls grow wild. — And that's where the urge arose: Get out! Somewhere, anywhere! Just get out of what centuries have built up!
[ 6 ] Yes, you see, when I talk about this, I speak in vague terms. That is precisely what is necessary in life: vague, but heartfelt. If you want to reduce it to the usual philistine clarity, then you falsify it.
[ 7 ] Well, this experience of youth—I observed it at dawn. Now it is day. I observed it at dawn, I was able to perceive the difference between the young people of the 1970s, who were also young, enthusiastic young people, and those who, out of youthful enthusiasm, regarded the old as gray and then behaved youthfully. I saw — I am speaking in concrete terms, dear friends — such a representative in the 1980s. He lived out his enthusiasm by giving a grand speech about a fallen member of the 1848 revolution. I listened to this speech. There is a court councillor in him, I said. And he became one. I met others who, even back then, were unable to grow together with tradition in any profession that had developed. I saw young people of the 1980s sink into an early grave because it was simply impossible for them to witness the emerging development of humanity. At that time, there was a subconscious youth movement that had something very peculiar about it, which I would describe as follows: it had—don't misunderstand the expression—it had something of bashfulness, modesty. They didn't admit what they felt. What they felt did not want to come to the surface of existence; it preferred to languish rather than come to the surface. Above all, it could not grow into what the normal development of human beings at that time required. Then years and decades passed. The vessel became full, so to speak, overflowing. The modesty could no longer continue. Young people had to ask themselves what they were suffering from, what they were longing for. Yes, you see, we were able to see this flowing into various youth associations of this youth movement.
[ 8 ] Not so long ago, a number of such people also joined the anthroposophical movement. In a remarkable way, a certain understanding was found between the anthroposophical movement and what lives in the hearts of young people. Despite the short period of time, there has been a widespread growth and maturation of young people within the anthroposophical movement in many different areas. But what we need especially in the youth movement is a willingness to understand people as human beings, otherwise we will not get beyond fruitless discussion. To understand people as human beings! It is terribly indifferent what the content of our conversations is, what we talk about. The essential thing is that we have a heart for what the other person feels. We will agree on that; we can always agree on that. But that is what needs to be understood wholeheartedly, and in this regard it would be necessary for individual young leaders within the youth movement to increase their trust in the sincerity and reliability of the anthroposophical movement. Otherwise we will not make any progress with the Youth Section.
[ 9 ] I felt I had to inaugurate the Youth Section first because of those who feel in a sincere, clear way: I have a longing for youth in today's lifestyle. May they truly come together in this Youth Section of the Anthroposophical Society, then we will achieve what I speak of in the “Mitteilungen” as the wisdom of youth. It should not be something pedantic, it should be something that is worked out through heartfelt activity, through heartfelt understanding among people. Certainly, it is a matter of feeling our way, lovingly grasping how young people live today. First, we tried to conduct a survey among young people to find out how they imagine the youth movement, so that thoughts might arise, perhaps not thoughts, but rather blows of the fist of feeling, spades of the will. Anything could have been included. Nothing came of it. — So I took a more rigorous approach and sent out a questionnaire to young people. You will have read it: “How do you imagine the world of humanity will be in 1935, if the things you long for in your youth are to have a place in it?” This is something that, if taken seriously, can be thought about and felt very deeply. We can only really move forward if that progress is entirely honest, not just empty phrases. That is what matters.
[ 10 ] Where is our old world headed? When we settle into the old world, we see that we do not live in the three members of the world order that were indicated in the threefold social order. Today we live in phrases, we live in conventions, we live in routine. Phrases, conventions, routine: that is what has taken hold in all areas. From childhood, young people hear how they should behave toward others, this way or that way. They cannot follow these rules because they have received a completely new impulse in their souls since the turn of the century.
[ 11 ] I could already feel it clearly: decades before the end of the Kali Yuga, something was coming up that could not be integrated into any profession as it had traditionally existed since ancient times. But I took it seriously. I myself was never stuck in a profession. If I had immersed myself in a profession, there would be no anthroposophical movement today. The anthroposophical movement is something that has been created completely free of all tradition. The slightest inclination toward this or that would have made the anthroposophical movement impossible.
[ 12 ] All those who cannot understand that something like this must be done from the beginning are opponents of the anthroposophical movement. In this way, the anthroposophical movement is pure youth. Why should youth and youth not come together? If an anthroposophical movement is honest, and youth needs to be honest, what is necessary above all else? Courage! You learn that very quickly or not at all. Real courage! Courage to say to yourself: The life of the world must be rebuilt on new foundations.
[ 13 ] I have never seen anything else written in the subconscious of young people. That is really what it is: the world must be rebuilt from its foundations. Now come all the reasons for refutation. People discuss everything possible, they like to cover things up. This distorts what is honestly trying to emerge from the subconscious and what requires courage. The anthroposophical movement can be a high school of courage. However, it is difficult for the anthroposophical movement to become a school of courage because many people today do not place it at the forefront of their lives, but rather as something that runs parallel to it. This can already be seen in the external events. Gradually, it often happens that we don't know how to cope with the fact that we are invited to all kinds of courses, that they are held somewhere where people go on summer vacation, just as one might go to the country. Why not have anthroposophy instead of the concerts one usually attends? It is a symptom—in itself it is not bad—but it is a symptom of the lack of courage to really live into the substance of the main thing, to connect with the spiritual aspect of anthroposophy in reality, not with the shadow of anthroposophy. It is really a matter of feeling. I do not want to criticize, I only want to draw attention to symptoms.
[ 14 ] The youth movement must be able to connect with what I presented yesterday as the great goal of the century, as the impulses of the Michael era. But young people must learn to delve deeper into themselves and avoid all abstract daydreaming. Then the great problems will arise. No philistine understands when you tell them that Michael has lost his cosmic intelligence, that he has remained above. Now that Michael appears without that which he administered, it is a matter of human beings on earth rising up to recapture it with him and for him. The youth will understand this when they understand themselves. Today, such a thing is often taken merely as a poetic or other kind of disguise for something abstract. That is not what it is. The point is that the spiritual is essential, that we must learn to interact with the spiritual. That we also gain a sense of how the spiritual behaves differently than it did some time ago. A century ago, the morning sun panorama was something that was an appearance, the misty appearance of a spiritual world. One saw that behind the curtain, behind the misty glow, the spiritual lived; before, it was smoldering, but in the course of the 19th century it changed: it became flaming. Flames emerge from the glow, and it is not true when someone describes a sunrise today following the example of Herder or Goethe. It has changed: back then it was smoldering, today it has become flaming. From the flames emerges the spiritual, which calls for action and ignites activity. The spiritual world has taken on a different gesture toward the physical world!
[ 15 ] If we understand these laws of the spiritual world, we will be able to prevent the movement of the 20th century from becoming as philistine as the post-Rousseau era. If what inspires young people today, because they are truly young, is understood by the spiritual world that exists, then the Michael era will come. If it cannot do so, then the philistinism of the 20th century will be infinitely greater than that which followed Rousseau. There have never been more well-behaved citizens than in the 19th century, even though the earlier generations did not know Rousseauism. We talk a lot here about the Waldorf school principle, about new pedagogy. The most important thing is to keep growing. Every day there is a danger that things will turn sour. — That is what matters, that we do not fall asleep clinging to habits when we have something to do, when we have something to prepare. We must get into the habit of erecting a gulf between sleeping and waking; we must be able to sleep properly, but also to wake properly. But we are constantly sleeping where we should be awake. We are not of a nature that says to ourselves: we must wake up again and again, otherwise all reform and revolutionary movements are useless. It is much worse when even the best endeavors are seized by philistinism. Where there is strong light, there is also strong shadow. What is necessary is not that we think up this or that which should happen, but that people feel: the spiritual outside speaks from a flaming nature, the sunrise has become something else.
[ 16 ] But our hearts have also changed; we no longer carry the same hearts in our breasts. Our physical heart is hard, our etheric heart has become more mobile. We must find a way to turn to our supersensible heart. We must understand spiritual science in this direction. Spiritual science, as dry as it sounds, has become something that everyone is talking about. Science is something quite lazy. One must be clear that it is spiritual science that must live in our hearts. The hearts of young people are made to feel what is right in this area. One must have the courage to really think it. Schiller had a lot to say to the world out of his enthusiasm. He died under strange circumstances. But they dissected him and found his heart. It was an empty bag, completely dried up, burned.
[ 17 ] Thus will all hearts burn that are seized by renewal. If we want to take spirituality seriously, then we must courageously admit to ourselves: if we cannot live with the world, it is because we need new hearts. But we should not regard this as mere rhetoric. If we become aware that we have new hearts, that new hearts must feel the world quite differently from old hearts, and if we take this seriously, then the youth movement will become something like a flame that will meet the flame of the sunrise.
[ 18 ] But this can only come about, not from discussions about being young, not from talking about experiences. You experience strange things. In Breslau, the old people welcomed me by calling me father. The young people said I was the youngest, even though I was three times as old as most of those present. Yes, it is important to be able to admit this to oneself. Flames from within, flames from without: the two flames must collide. It is not important to learn, determine, or define this or that. What is important is to truly muster a new enthusiasm. Nietzsche coined a beautiful phrase about Michelet. Michelet appears to many as an enthusiastic person. Michelet, says Nietzsche, enthusiasm that takes off its coat. — Michelet always had time to take off his coat when he became enthusiastic. Michelet always had time to become enthusiastic with warmth, but to take off his coat in the process. One senses how this man put on his silk waistcoat, and one senses how he has time to really get enthusiastic, to slowly take off his coat. — But true enthusiasm is that which has no time to take off its coat, which sweats under the coat and does not notice that it is sweating. Therefore: Enthusiasm, my dear friends! Enthusiasm that overwhelms us so much that we keep our coats on, that we feel compelled to develop enthusiasm from the full, immediate life. Today we really need to overcome what is stuck within us, what is tired. It is so futile to want to become clear. We must not have time to want to become clear in the old way. We need to really get enthusiastic. Enthusiasm will do everything. Then the word will have meaning: enthusiasm carries the spirit within it. — That is something very natural. Enthusiasm is necessary. Enthusiasm carries God within it. There is God in the word.
[ 19 ] Grow together inwardly with the flame that is kindled today, so that the Michael impulses may be realized! Without flames, they cannot be realized. But in order to live and work inflamed, it is necessary to become a flame oneself. Only the flame is not consumed by the flame. If we can feel that we are becoming flames that are not burned by the flames, then we can calmly leave our physical hearts behind as empty bags, for we have the etheric heart that will understand that humanity is entering a new age: the life of spirituality. Growing together with spirituality will be the full experience of youth.