Architectural Forms
Considered as the Thoughts of Culture and World-Perception
GA 288
20 September 1916, Dornach
Edited by H. Collison
[ 1 ] Three years have passed to-day since we last gathered together on this hill, where a number of our friends met to lay the foundation-stone of this building, which is to stand as a promise that into the recent development of culture there shall break those spiritual impulses which have become for it an absolute necessity; they have become a necessity because only from those impulses can we hope for that insight into life which is necessary for the very existence of mankind, and because from these impulses alone can we hope for that loving human understanding which is necessary for human life. Three years ago we held this celebration, feeling that we were experiencing a critical moment in that spiritual development which, some of us for a long time already, and some for a shorter period, we have had at heart as the persuasive power of our lives. At that time there passed through our minds all that the human heart can feel as the progress of mankind. We did not think of what, although it was to be foreseen, still was not—by the mysterious power that is hidden in thoughts—destined to be kept in mind; we did not think then of that time of suffering and pain which has since descended upon human life in Europe. There still lay in the future, though the near future, the most tragic experience of suffering that has befallen people on this earth in our time. Whatever pain they have had to suffer formerly, the experience which has since passed over Europe is enough to make anyone despair, who lacks that power of inner recovery which springs from a profound consciousness of the life and activity of the spiritual world.
[ 2 ] Now that we have worked three years at our building it seems indeed no time for joyful celebrations. We should be untrue, in a way, to our own hearts, were we to allow even a suggestion of the festive mood. We must leave this for another time, and we shall do better, to-day, to dwell—in a few thoughts re-echoing what we have already said on just this very spot—about the ideals which filled us, to some extent as an historical moment in our movement, when we set ourselves to realise this building.
[ 3 ] This thought arose from the self-sacrificing spirit in which many souls, or at least a number of souls, spent year after year, while our movement gradually took shape within them. The longing of our movement to build its own sanctuary arose most vividly and forcefully in the soul of our unforgettable Fräulein Sophie Stinde at Munich—and coincided later with our need for a place in which to hold our Mystery Plays and the ceremonies connected with them. In this way the thought was first conceived of building a sanctuary for our movement and the spirit that pervades it. And from this arose the other thought, of realising our spiritual movement in the form of this building; that is, of so building this place, that in its form, in its very essence, it should be to the world a visible representation of our spiritual movement. But to achieve this, the building had to be placed like a living, creative thing, not merely on a foundation of modern spiritual life, but on all the essentials, and potential essentials, of modern spiritual life. No ordinary building was to be created for our souls, but it must realise for them a cultural thought. [ 4 ] A deep question then arose: What building does modern culture itself demand as a thought expressing modern culture? The answer depended on the knowledge that all truly fruitful thoughts in building, like all fruitful artistic impulses, have been bound up with contemporary spiritual movements, and above all with new, advancing ones.
One cannot think of Greek architecture without feeling that its very forms express the Greek experience of culture: they are this culture crystallised, moulded, made to live in forms. Whoever studies deeply the Greek style of architecture will find that the achievement of this pure Greek architectural style corresponds to the emotional expression of the Greek outlook on life; it corresponds to the answer the Greek found to his tremendous question about humanity: What powers are those which are active from the moment of the earth's existence, and support the human being, so that he finds himself placed harmoniously on the earth? [ 5 ] If, creating the Greek again in spirit, we see the ancient Greek moving through his Grecian land with his particular conception of the world, with his way of seeing the world in its substance, we feel how there lived in this Greek, more or less consciously, just that power,—sprung from the forces of gravity in the earth—which was to place this Greek upon the earth with just his Greek experience of life between birth and death. This Greek experience is reflected in the beautiful proportions, in the wonderful statics of Greek architecture; it lives in that inward compactness or completeness of Greek architecture, which gives its form the appearance of growing out of the mysterious forces of gravity and balance in the very body of the earth, out of the forces which, with inner, discreet harmony, suffuse and permeate the creations of the Greek tragic poets, of Homer, and Greek plastic art, even of Greek philosophy. A great tide in art can only come from a profound understanding of the world. The Greek wished to live in the Spirit of the Earth itself. Out of the Spirit of the Earth [Geist der Erde] he created his statics of architecture.
[ 6 ] Surveying the centuries which follow, we find that again, although we must speak with the inaccuracy inevitable in such a cursory survey, there develop, under the influence of the Mystery of Golgotha and from the impulses which led a part of the human race to an understanding of this Mystery of Golgotha, new architectural forms. We see that man has discovered, in addition to his earlier experience, that he does not only stand rooted in an earth- spiritual existence that lasts from birth to death, but that the universal soul pervades and spiritualises, from above, all that man effects on earth. And as an external embodiment of this gift of the Spirit of Heaven to mediaeval mankind, as the Greek received his impulses from the Spirit of Earth, we see the rise of mediaeval architecture. [ 7 ] Mediaeval architecture, again, is spiritualised, flooded, permeated by the forceful, powerful stream of the new conception of life which is passing through, and illuminating the world. I should have to go into great detail to show how the Christian spirit identified itself with art, to show how it found a home in Pre-Raphaelite, in Raphaelite art, in the art of Leonardo, of Michelangelo, in the Gothic architecture that aspires to heaven. I should have to enter into great detail were I to describe all the impulses which found such powerful utterance wherever it was sought to express, in form, the action and speech of the soul on the wings of the heavenly spirit; this expression found its consummation in Dürer and Holbein. For the soul that lives in Gothic architecture lives also in Dürer and Holbein.
[ 8 ] With this hasty survey, certainly inexact, we come to modern times. And at this point the human spirit is, in a sense, brought to a standstill by the misery of the Thirty Years War which passed over Europe, particularly Central Europe, and had been preceded by a wonderful exaltation of all hearts to liberty, in such movements as that of Zwingli, Huss, and others like them. We see here, without yet being able to understand it completely, but so that it is clear, this whole misery of the Thirty Years War fanned and provoked by a spirit which already contained much of the later Jesuit spirit. And we see, under the influence of this impulse, ostensibly cultivating the spirit, just those forces grow up which have let loose materialism in Europe. We see that period approach, in which a philosophy of life, only directed, from the point of view of inner human perception, towards the material, cannot grasp the material, because it will not grasp the spirit in matter. We see a philosophy of life sweep Europe, denying freedom, because it desires to restrict everything that aspires to freedom within the limits of a rigid, blind obedience. We see the influx of a human perception—”all too human”—into the spirit that permeates history. And we see how there comes about, under this influence, the impossibility of realising the spiritual life directly in the forms of art.
[ 9 ] Then there arose what one might call the ecclesiastic Baroque art, which is through and through a faithful expression of the new era, but in which human thoughts, human perceptions, are expressed in a subjectively arbitrary manner in artistic form and works of art. We no longer see the soul's urge to participate in the mysteries of earth-statics and earth-gravity, as it did when it built the Greek temple; we no longer see the soul directly expressing its experiences when it loses itself in heavenly heights, as it did when it created Gothic art, when Dürer adapted his profoundly expressive figures to the experiences which saturated his soul. We see rather the attempt everywhere to imbue potential architectural thoughts with human reason, with human, all too human, feelings. We see introduced into the pillars, into the element of support, all kinds of figures which have no architectural function, which originate in human design and are there only for decorative effect. There is no knowledge of the clear distinction between a plastic and picturesque thought and an architectural thought, and yet no power to combine—because of the inability to differentiate between—these different kinds of themes. We see that there is now employed a sham inwardness to support a conception of life no longer filled with its own true inwardness. [ 10 ] We enter many a church building whose pillars we no longer understand because they have not been constructed from a study of the objective facts of the world, but betray the fact that people's conception of the cosmos itself in all its spontaneous elementary power has vanished. Here we go along colonnades where pillars have shapes which are not architectural, but picturesque; recesses are marked by pillars in picturesque manner. But the secret and mysterious should speak from such recesses. And the way such pillars have to support what they have to support should look as a secret. We see human saints introduced in the most impossible places, not springing from a spontaneous architectural necessity, by which plastic art and painting grow out of the architecture with inevitable right- ness. We see art expressing what has no direct connection with a vision of the world; we see the materialistic conception of the world develop, powerless, however, to create for itself a real, appropriate form of art.
[ 11 ] It was not a long way from this to the path which led to the degeneracy of the Baroque style, that style which is so particularly interesting and significant because it shows how this later period desires to live itself out in its own unspiritual way—but how it is unable to find any sort of original artistic thought, but only the thought of the commonplace, with which people are filled and which they can express more or less inartistically. This is particularly clear when the Baroque style is, as it were, taken by force from the Jesuits by Louis XIV and translated into worldly terms. Certainly humanity was always aware that monumental art must be connected with the highest and best of which humanity is capable, when it sinks itself in the universe. But with the new human, all too human, perception, there was intermingled—in a somewhat frigid and academic form—a renewal of antique art, not more than a dash of it, with the Rococo, which we often see mixed grotesquely with the antique. Thus we see, precisely in the art connected with the name of Louis XIV, the apparent severely classical forms concealing all too human Rococo forms, where the human spirit is not seeking admittance to any universal mysteries, however close at hand, but is only desiring to perpetuate its whims and fancies, its everyday feelings and perceptions in the forms which appear around it on the walls.
[ 12 ] Thus we see how edifices arose—for certain reasons I do not wish to mention individual buildings, because they are not properly judged by our times and my valuations therefore would not be understood—which, judged by the inner necessities of art, are simply human champagne-whims poured frothing into forms. We see the Rococo Voltairianism of thought reappearing in countless places in the Rococo treatment of artistic form. This, however, is not adapted, like Greek or Gothic forms, to the very essence of man's conception of the world, but is like an external copy of human inner experience.
[ 13 ] Then we see, in surveying further the development of human art, that in the eighteenth century a human yearning turns to the past to revive the Greeks—Greek taste, Greek art. We see a spirit such as Winckelmann seeking a truly religious consecration in an understanding of the Greek spirit, of the Greek art-spirit. We see the nineteenth century, inspired by Winckelmann, aspiring to recreate those artistic forms. But the philosophy of materialism was never able to win the power, the inner power, by which what is thought, felt, inwardly experienced, is so deeply thought, felt, and experienced, that it overflows as though of itself into its own forms, as it did with the Greeks, as it did with Gothic art. Thus we see, in the nineteenth century, that wonderful, yet, after all, curiously superficial, aspiration of an Overbeck, of a Cornelius, to create forms, to create artistic figures, yet without that permeating impulse of a world-vision. Old motifs, old philosophies are hunted out; old ideas are to live again.
[ 14 ] It was architecture that chiefly suffered under this powerlessness of modern materialistic thought. Beauty—beauty, in the grand style, was achieved by the architects of the nineteenth century in the revival of antiquity. But everything is prompted by the impulse just described. Study such a wonderful revival of the Renaissance as that brought about by Gottfried Semper—you can study it at the Polytechnic in Zurich—and you will see that it is impossible for the deliberate architectural thought to catch that spirit of which it should be an expression.
[ 15 ] Thus we see the time approach, when architecture, with a certain greatness, because it has wonderfully studied old forms and can use them, reveals its impotence in the face of the higher impulses of human development. We see Greek forms, just like an outer husk, built round those great buildings which actually only shame what they do not understand, as many a modern architect has done, when he has evolved Greek forms like husks round modern Parliaments. Or we see architects, with a profound knowledge of Gothic art, yet far removed in heart and soul from Catholicism, build Gothic forms around what should be the essence of the Gothic building, but which is completely foreign to their feeling and perception. Thus we stand before these buildings with a finer sense of art if we can feel: these were built by people who are really far removed in their hearts and perceptions from the sacrifice of the mass and all that is celebrated here.
[ 16 ] What a different experience is ours in the buildings raised by those who still had sympathy with the old Christian feelings, common in the times when the Host was elevated for Consecration with different emotions from those of a latter day; what a different experience, where mysticism was incarnate in the building, compared with the cold life of the present age expressed in the structure of the spiritual-social life of humanity; how different are the buildings where, in the fitting in of stone to stone, there is no flowing in of sacred action or of the tremor of emotion in the human soul. One often feels about art of this kind—if one really contemplates art with sympathy—that an atheist is painting a Madonna.
[ 17 ] Only from this kind of discrimination could there proceed the impulse to the cultural thought necessary for our building. The old impulses can no longer be brought to that degree of vitality at which they can live themselves out in forms. Anything created in the old forms can only be antiquated. But we may well believe that our spiritual science has such an inner vitality as to be able to give birth to forms of its own; such forms, indeed, as we believe to have proceeded through an inner living process from our spiritual scientific conception of the cosmos, and as desire realisation in our building. These forms should manifest again that connection between art and the cosmic conception, which is inherent in the fact that only he can paint a Madonna who has an impulse in his soul towards the feelings for a Madonna. People to-day cannot feel this impulse in their soul to the extent that they can truthfully create artistic forms from it. [ 18 ] If mankind does not wish to reduce itself ad absurdum new impulses must come through spiritual science into humanity. We must therefore make a start with new artistic forms which must be the natural fruit of a new world- outlook. Whoever wishes to understand rightly the meaning of the building whose foundation-stone we laid three years ago, must understand it by a living understanding of our spiritual scientific conception of the world, must understand how this, no more than a beginning, flows from a synthesis between a comprehension of heaven and earth, which we call the spiritual scientific conception of the world. This should arise just as Greek architecture sprang from the Greek conception of the earth, and as Gothic architecture grew from the conception of heaven held by mediaeval Christianity. [ 19 ] We should be stupid indeed to imagine that anything considerable, in the highest sense, not to mention anything perfect, could be achieved at one stroke. We shall never be able to do otherwise than admit that what we have begun is very imperfect; a first tentative groping towards forms which must arise and yet in very many ways be completely different from those evolved by our building. But it is at least easy to see from our building that it is a trial of the spontaneous growth of artistic forms from the urge and the perception that pulsate through our vision of the world. It is because so much in it is new that those who will never tolerate anything new cannot understand—and naturally so—anything so different from what has hitherto been experienced in the former kind of plastic art and painting. Only if we humbly see imperfection, and an inadequate beginning in our building shall we develop the right feeling, with which the beginnings of any evolution should be regarded, when the imperfect beginning is nothing but a stimulus to so much that is still to be created.
[ 20 ] We have now worked three years at the building, and those whose hearts are bound up with the ideal it expresses will now be filled with a warm sense of gratitude towards all those who have made their sacrifice to bring this about—a sacrifice in one form or another—and who have further expended their energy upon it—for a great deal of beautiful, splendid work has flowed into the building which we see before us on the Dornach hill. [ 21 ] If these three years have also brought with them difficult food for thought and difficult experiences for our movement, we can still say: Whatever turn things may take, whatever may be in store for our movement in the lap of Karma—what we have been able to experience in connection with this achievement is precisely a profound experience flowing from the very essence of our movement and can be reckoned among the most beautiful fruits of modern experience. [ 22 ] We have seen many a metamorphosis of this experience; we have seen, for instance, many people, like our unforgettable Fräulein Stinde, whose whole heart and whole soul were bent upon erecting this building in Munich, sacrifice their desires with deep devotion in order to participate in the transformation of their plans destined by Karma. Whether the resolutions formed at that time, to effect this transformation, were absolutely right, only the future can show, when the facts prove how far the culture of the present day is taking up the anthroposophical movement. Much of what could be expected is still unfulfilled, and it would sound like foolish boasting if I were to mention only some of the expectations which could rightly be described as disappointed.
[ 23 ] The building was there. It revealed even in its outward forms the existence of a movement of some kind. Let anyone turn to the bibliography of our movement in many languages in the educated world to-day, and let him see from it how much opportunity there was of understanding our movement, how much opportunity was given of connecting the building on the Dornach hill with certain essentials in our cultural movement. It was all the more to be expected that, at the present time, which has imposed so severe an ordeal on mankind there should be heard, precisely in view of this difficult time of suffering, expressions of sympathy with the deeper cultural significance of this spiritual scientific trend. Of such voices we can say that not a single one was heard from outside, during the terrible time of suffering and war; only a few isolated voices were raised within the anthroposophical society itself, and, because the outside world showed so little understanding for the movement, these died perforce on the wind.
[ 24 ] Thus, to-day, when we wished to look back to some extent on the impulses which inspired us three years ago, we can only pledge ourselves anew and with the greatest solemnity to remain true to that impulse, to win understanding for the contribution of this spiritual scientific conception of the world, and all that it involves, to the development of humanity.
From outside Europe, from distant Asia, opinions are being formed on the European situation which are in a way more illuminating than the war that is raging through Europe. But just these opinions show that the re-birth of Europe is only possible through the spiritual scientific conception of the world. May this eventually meet with understanding. [ 25 ] We suffer from the Karma of thoughtlessness, that thoughtlessness which is at the same time I brutal, because it desires everywhere to crush underfoot any glimmering of the spiritual necessities underlying the development of our time. It is remarkable. The yearnings—as I have often said—are coming to the surface everywhere, yearnings which do not understand themselves because they do not know what they want, and because they cannot, in the brutality of the times, find the way to the vision of the world of which our building is a monument. Whoever contemplates this age at all finds many signs of the times; but they are all signs of longings.
[ 26 ] We find, however, a queer fish of a fellow, a simple journeyman carpenter, who is a living refutation, through what he became, of the senseless idea of modern times that spiritual science is only for educated people and not for simple souls. This is a senseless idea; for just the simplest souls are aware of those longings which could actually be satisfied within them if they were not repressed by the so- called brutal culture of the times. What longings are voiced in words like these of a simple carpenter, who has read a few books and taken stock of the aims and possibilities of the present day, and who expresses himself in these lines:
In the sphere of dream and spirit
I am now, it seems, absorbèd,
And there whisper billows, orbèd
With their countless secrets strange.
And the sounds of life come welling
Out of Nature's inmost place,
Clouds of mist behold dispelling
From the infinite mystery's eternal trace.
[ 27 ] Let us go out to meet the longings, and find the way to those whose hearts are full of yearning. We can look from this simple journeyman carpenter, a queer fellow, as I said, who tried to fight through from knowledge to contemplation—to the man whom I have mentioned before, Christian von Ehrenfels, who is Professor at the University of Prague, and who attempted in his Cosmogony to imagine a “Retrospective Vision,” in which we see longing, inclining towards the attainment and acquisition of what can only be attained and striven for precisely through spiritual immersion in a backward-looking vision. [ 28 ] The thick night of modern so-called philosophy naturally allows such spirits only a limited vision, while permitting occasional glimmerings to shoot up within them; but the stultifying culture of the age restrains them from an understanding of spiritual science. Their longings get no farther. But these longings are sometimes quite curious. And this Cosmogony of Christian von Ehrenfels has a remarkable conclusion. This professor attempted, in his way, to contemplate the world and the course of the universe, he attempted to get a clear conception of the needs of the present day by studying the course of history; and what is his final word? — [ 29 ] “In this sense, and from this point of view, I have sought to understand the history of mankind, and have come to the following conclusion—which, however, I am enabled to impart for the first time without the armour of scientific argument, and simply as the result of expectant awareness;
“In God, with the elevation of the human intellect (and probably with similar processes on other heavenly bodies) consciousness awoke and a deepening process began in His activity.
“In, and with man, God is seeking a guiding principle capable of directing this hitherto impulsive creation into paths of conscious design.
This principle is not yet found.”
[ 30 ] You must remember, such a man naturally calls the nearest spirit he senses his God, as does, for that matter, the whole present age. But he understands from history that he lives in a time when this spirit, near him, has some plan for mankind and stands at a critical turning point. So he says: “In God Himself a phase of deepening has dawned in His activity.” He feels so much. “In and with man” (he goes on) “God is seeking a guiding principle.” As a man he feels himself incapable of thinking out guiding principles, guiding purposes; but he senses a God who seeks guiding principles “capable of directing His hitherto impulsive creation (the Creation of God) into the paths of conscious design. This principle is not yet found.” This is how the book closes: may some God, hovering somewhere about, find a guiding principle somewhere in His impulsive will. This is how a philosophical book ends, and one that has been written in the immediate present.
[ 31 ] Wherever we look—the two examples I have taken, that of a journeyman carpenter and that of a university professor, could be multiplied by hundreds and thousands—everywhere we should see that there are longings to be satisfied by the message of our building. When people understand how this building had to be kept free from all conventionality, and that thus only the spontaneous perception flowing from the spiritual scientific conception of the world can be embodied in it—when people understand how, on the other hand, we had to keep ourselves unsullied by that superficial symbolising practised everywhere by abortive, superficially occult societies and societies aspiring to occultism—when people understand, how, between the conventionality and the shallow symbolism of the present day, we had to seek truth in this architectural thought, people will at last discover in this memorial the fruitful seeds and productive impulses of spiritual science.
[ 32 ] If, with all that the future may bring forth, we absorb this desire, this experience in our soul, the building will be for us, even in what it has been since it was built three years ago, the beginning that we felt it to be, when we laid the foundation-stone, at a time when we were filled with our spiritual scientific ideals. Let us feel this particularly in the midst of an age in which quite a different impulse is reducing itself ad absurdum: let us try to feel how one thing is connected with another: we shall see that we can feel this if we will. Much, indeed, has not yet been brought to pass through this experience. But in many of our souls an honest, genuine will is alive; and this honest, genuine will, if it is true to itself, will add understanding to its honesty of purpose, and then in all our souls there will be formed that other foundation-stone, which will bear into the world, spiritually and in abundant variety, the building that we strove to raise up for our ideal—over the physical foundation-stone which we entrusted reverently to the earth upon this hill three years ago.
Bauformen Als Welt- Und Empfindungsgedanken
Worte am 3. Jahrestag der Grundsteinlegung des ersten Goetheanum
[ 1 ] Es sind heute drei Jahre vergangen, seit wir uns auf diesem Hügel versammelten, seit eine Reihe unserer Freunde sich hier versammelte, um den Grundstein dieses Baues zu legen, der da sein soll ein Wahrzeichen für das Hereinbrechen jener geistigen Impulse in die neuere Kulturentwicklung, welche eine unbedingte Notwendigkeit in der neueren Kulturentwicklung geworden sind; eine Notwendigkeit, weil die für die Menschheit notwendige Welteneinsicht nur aus diesen Impulsen erhofft werden kann, weil das für das Menschenleben notwendige, liebevolle Menschenverstehen nur durch diese Impulse zu erhoffen ist. Wir begingen dazumal diese Feier mit dem Gefühle, einen wichtigen Augenblick derjenigen Geistesentwicklung zu erleben, die wir seit längerer oder kürzerer Zeit in unser Herz, in unsere überzeugende Kraft eingeschlossen haben. Durch unsere Gedanken ging dazumal alles, was an Menschen-Aufwärtsentwicklung das Menschenherz fühlen lässt. Wir dachten damals nicht an das, was, obzwar vorauszuschen, doch nicht immer bedacht werden sollte wegen jener geheimnisvollen Kraft, welche die Gedanken bergen, wir gedachten nicht jener leidensvollen, schmerzerfüllten Zeit, welche mittlerweile über die europäische Menschheit hereingebrochen ist. Es lag noch in der Zukunft, wenn auch in einer nahen Zukunft, dasjenige, was jedenfalls zu dem Allerschmerzlichsten gehört, das Erdenmenschen in dieser Zeit haben erleben können. Mag es noch so schmerzlich sein, was sie sonst erleben mussten, es gehört dieses Erleben, das mittlerweile über Europas Erde hingezogen ist, zu dem, was den Menschen schwer niederdrücken könnte, der nicht die Kraft des inneren Aufrichtens hätte aus dem tiefsten Bewusstsein des Webens und Wirkens der geistigen Welt heraus.
[ 2 ] Jetzt, nachdem drei Jahre an unserem Bau gearbeitet worden ist, scheint ja wirklich nicht eine Zeit gekommen zu sein, um frohe Feste zu feiern. Man müsste wirklich seinem eigenen Herzen gegenüber in einer gewissen Weise unwahr sein, wenn man Festesstimmung nur aufkommen lassen wollte. Und so werden wir dasjenige, was Festesstimmung sein kann, einer anderen Zeit überlassen müssen; wir werden heute besser tun, wenn wir uns mehr zu Gemüte führen in einigen Gedanken, die an das anklingen, was gerade von diesem Orte aus hier schon gesprochen worden ist, die Ideale, die gerade - gewissermaßen als innerhalb unserer Bewegung geschichtlich stehend - uns erfüllten, als wir daran gingen, diesen Bau zu verwirklichen.
[ 3 ] Ausgegangen ist dieser Gedanke ja von der hingebungsvollen Art, die viele Seelen, oder wenigstens eine Anzahl Seelen, die Jahre hindurch hatten, in denen unsere Bewegung, man möchte sagen, im Wandern gepflogen worden ist. Die Sehnsucht, unserer Bewegung eine eigene Stätte zu bauen, entstand am leuchtendsten, am energischsten in einer reifen Seele - in der Seele unseres unvergesslichen Fräulein Sophie Stinde in München - und zusammenfallend später mit dem, was sich als Notwendigkeit ergab für die Aufführungen unserer Mystepiele und desjenigen, was damit zusammenhängt. So war der Gedanke zunächst darauf gerichtet, unserer Bewegung und dem, was geistig durch unsere Bewegung fließt, eine Stätte zu bauen. Und aus diesem Gedanken wurde dann der andere heraus geboren, in dieser Stätte selber auch unsere geistige Bewegung zu verwirklichen, das heißt, diese Stätte so zu erbauen, dass in ihren Formen, in ihrem ganzen Wesen selber, äußerlich sichtbar eine Repräsentation unserer geistigen Bewegung vor der Welt dastehen könne. Dazu aber musste der Bau, um den es sich handelte, hineingestellt werden in lebendiger, produktiver Art nicht bloß in das moderne Geistesleben allein, sondern der Bau musste hineingestellt werden, in alle Notwendigkeiten, in alle werdenden Notwendigkeiten des modernen Geisteslebens. Es musste sozusagen nicht nur ein gleichgültiger Bau für unsere Seelen geschaffen werden, sondern es musste durch unsern Bau selber ein Kulturgedanke verwirklicht werden.
[ 4 ] Da konnte die Frage vor die Seele treten: Was erfordert denn wie einen Baugedanken der modernen Kultur diese moderne geistige Kultur selber? Da konnte man ohne die Erkenntnis nicht auskommen, dass alle wirklich fruchtbaren Baugedanken, wie alle fruchtbaren künstlerischen Impulse überhaupt, zusammenhängend waren mit den geistigen Bewegungen der entsprechenden Zeitalter, mit den aufkommenden geistigen Bewegungen der entsprechenden Zeitalter. Man kann sich die griechische Baukunst nicht denken, ohne die Empfindung zu haben, dass die Formen dieser Baukunst selber wie der griechische Kulturgedanke sind: kristallisiert, in Form ergossen, in Form verlebendigt. Wer sich in den griechischen Baustil vertieft, der wird finden, dass das, was in diesem reinen griechischen Baustil geleistet worden ist, entspricht der in Empfindungen gefassten Weltanschauung des Griechentums; dem entspricht, was der Grieche als Antwort fühlte auf seine gewaltige Menschheitsfrage: Welche Kräfte sind es, die vom Erdensein aus wirkend tragen das menschliche Wesen, sodass es als menschliches Wesen harmonisch auf diese Erde gestellt ist?
[ 5 ] Wenn man, sich ihn im Geiste wiedererschaffend, den alten Griechen hinwandeln sieht über das griechische Land in seiner eigentümlichen Weltempfindung, in seiner Art, die Welt mit ihrer Wesenheit anzuschauen, dann fühlt man in diesem Griechen, wie mehr oder weniger unbewusst dasjenige in ihm lebte, was gerade wie aus den Schwerkräften der Erde emporschießen konnte, um — so wie er sich als Erdenmensch fühlte zwischen Geburt und Tod - diesen Griechen auf die Erde hinzustellen. Das Widerspiel dieser griechischen Empfindung lebt in den schönen Maßen, in der wunderbaren Statik der griechischen Baukunst, lebt in jener inneren Geschlossenheit der griechischen Baukunst, welche die Form dieser Baukunst erscheinen lässt wie herausgewachsen aus den geheimnisvollen Schwerekräften und statischen Kräften des Erdenkörpers selber, aus jenen Kräften, die in ihrer inneren, maßvollen Harmonie zugleich durchwellen und durchweben das, was die griechischen Tragiker, was Homer, was die griechische Plastik, was auch die griechische Philosophie geschaffen hat. Eine große Kunstströmung kann nur kommen aus einer eindringlichen Weltanschauung. Der Grieche wollte leben im Geist der Erde. Aus dem Geiste der Erde heraus erschuf er sich seine baukünstlerische Statik.
[ 6 ] Wir lassen den Blick hinweggleiten über Jahrhunderte und wir finden, indem wir mit der für solche überschauende Betrachtung notwendigen Ungenauigkeit sprechen müssen, wie unter dem Einfluss des Mysteriums von Golgatha und unter den Impulsen, welche einen Teil der Erdenmenschheit hingetrieben haben zu dem Verständnisse dieses Mysteriums von Golgatha, neue baukünstlerische Formen sich entwickeln. Wir sehen, wie der Mensch hinzuentdeckt hat für seine Empfindung, dass er nicht nur drinnen steht mit seinem Sein, das zwischen Geburt und Tod verläuft, in erdengeistiger Wirksamkeit, sondern dass von oben die Weltenseele durchdringt und durchgeistigt alles dasjenige, was der Mensch wirken kann auf der Erde. Und wir sehen als äußere Verkörperung dessen, was die mittelalterliche Menschheit von oben, von dem Himmelsgeiste, so empfangen hat wie der Grieche seine Impulse von dem Erdengeiste, wir sehen so entstehen die mittelalterliche Baukunst.
[ 7 ] Mittelalterliche Baukunst wird wiederum durchgeistigt, durchwellt und durchwirkt von dem energischen, mächtigen Strom der durch die Welt aufklärend gehenden Weltanschauung. Vieles müssten wir anführen, wollten wir zeigen, wie christlicher Geist sich in die Kunst hineinlebt. Vieles müssten wir anführen, um zu zeigen, wie christlicher Geist sich hineinlebt in die vorraffaelische, in die raffaelische Kunst, in die Kunst Leonardos, Michelangelos, wie christlicher Geist sich hineinlebt in die himmelanstrebende Gotik, vieles anführen, wenn wir all die Impulse kennzeichnen wollten, die so gewaltig da zum Ausdruck gekommen sind, wo man in der Charakteristik der Gestalt das Wirken und Sprechen der durch den himmlischen Geist beflügelten Seele auszudrücken suchte, was dann die höchste Entfaltung in Dürer, in Holbein gefunden hat. Denn ein Gleiches wie in der gotischen Baukunst lebt bei Dürer, lebt bei Holbein.
[ 8 ] Damit aber sind wir auch schon, gleichsam in großer Überschau, die natürlich notwendigerweise ungenau sein muss, heraufgekommen bis in die neueste Zeit. Und da wird der Menschengeist gewissermaßen gehalten, als über Europa, über Mitteleuropa namentlich hingeht das Elend des Dreißigjährigen Krieges, dem vorausgegangen war eine wunderbare Erhebung der Herzen zur Freiheit in solchen Bewegungen wie die des Zwingli, des Hus und ähnlichen. Man sieht dann - erst, ohne dass es vollständig verstanden werden kann, aber dann so, dass es deutlich wird - dieses ganze Elend des Dreißigjährigen Krieges, geschürt und aufgebracht durch einen Geist, der in sich viel schon hatte von dem späteren jesuitischen Geiste. Und wir sehen unter dem Einflusse dieses scheinbar den Geist pflegenden Impulses heraufkommen gerade die Kräfte, die den Materialismus über Europa hin ergießen. Wir sehen heraufkommen jene Zeit mit einer Weltanschauung, die zwar dem inneren menschlichen Empfinden nach nur auf das Materielle gehen will, die aber nicht das Materielle erfassen kann, weil sie den Geist in der Materie nicht erfassen will. Wir sehen über Europa hingehen eine Weltanschauung, welche die Freiheit nicht sich entfalten lassen will, weil sie immer mehr und mehr einzwängen will alles das, was nach Freiheit strebt, in starren, blinden Gehorsam. Wir sehen, wie Menschlich-Allzumenschliches sich hineinergießt in das, was als Geist die Geschichte durchströmt. Und wir sehen unter diesem Einflusse entstehen die Unmöglichkeit, aus dem, was geistig lebt, unmittelbar Formen in Kunst zu verwirklichen.
[ 9 ] Und es entsteht zunächst die geistliche Barockkunst, die durchaus ein getreulicher Ausdruck der neueren Zeit ist, die aber zeigt, wie in ihr das, was in menschlichen Gedanken, in menschlichen Empfindungen lebt, in subjektiv-willkürlicher Weise sich zum Ausdrucke bringt in der künstlerischen Form, in den künstlerischen Werken überhaupt. Nicht mehr sehen wir, wie die Seele sich gedrängt fühlt, Erdenstatik-, Erdenschwere-Geheimnisse mitzuerleben, wie sie es getan hat, als sie griechische Tempel baute. Nicht mehr sehen wir die Seele unmittelbar dasjenige zum Ausdruck bringen, was sie miterlebt, wenn sie sich vertieft in Himmelshöhen, wie sie es damals tat, als sie die Gotik schuf, als Dürer seine so viel aussprechenden Gestalten den Erlebnissen anpasste, die seine große Seele durchtränkten. Vielmehr sehen wir, wie versucht wird, dasjenige, was Baugedanken sein sollen, überall zu durchsetzen mit dem, was der menschliche Verstand, was die menschlich-allzumenschlichen Empfindungen durchtränkt. Wir sehen, wie sich in die Säulen, in die Trägerordnung allerlei Gestalten einschieben, die nicht baugedanklich wirken, sondern die dekorativ allein wirken sollen, die aus der menschlichen Absicht entspringen, die nicht reinlich zu scheiden weiß den plastischen Gedanken, den malerischen Gedanken von dem architektonischen Gedanken, und die wiederum nicht zu verbinden weiß - weil sie nicht reinlich zu scheiden weiß - diese verschiedenen Arten von Motiven.
[ 10 ] Wir mehr von ihrer wahren Innerlichkeit erfüllte religiöse Weltanschauung zu tragen. Wir betreten da manchen Kirchenbau, dessen Säulen wir nicht mehr verstehen, weil sie nicht aus den objektiven Verhältnissen der Welt heraus studiert sind, sondern weil sie zum Ausdrucke einer Weltanschauung werden sollten, aus der selber schon die unmittelbare elementare Kraft entflohen war. Man geht durch Säulengänge, in denen Säulen Formen haben, die nicht architektonisch, sondern malerisch sind. Nischen werden in malerischer Art durch Säulen begrenzt. Aber Geheimnisvolles soll sprechen aus solchen Nischen, geheimnisvoll soll aussehen, wie diese Säulen tragen das, was sie zu tragen haben. Menschliche Heiligenfiguren sehen wir an den unmöglichsten Stellen angebracht, nicht hervorgehend aus einer unmittelbaren architektonischen Notwendigkeit, die die Plastik an rechter Stelle und die Malerei an rechter Stelle hervorgehen lässt aus der Architektur. Wir sehen, wie durch die Kunst etwas wirken soll, was nicht mehr unmittelbar als Weltanschauung dient; wir sehen heraufkommen die materialistische Weltanschauung, die aber ohnmächtig ist, sich eine wirkliche Kunstform, die ihr angemessen ist, zu schaffen. Und da war denn der Weg nicht mehr weit, der zu den Ausartungen des Barockstiles führte, jenes Stiles, der deshalb interessant und bedeutungsvoll ist, weil er zeigt, wie die neuere Zeit sich mit ihrer vom Geistigen abgewendeten Art ausleben will, wie sie aber nicht finden kann irgendeinen original künstlerischen Gedanken, sondern nur die Gedanken des Alltäglichen, von dem man erfüllt ist, mehr oder weniger unkünstlerisch auszuprägen imstande ist. Besonders deutlich wird dies, als der Barockstil - man könnte sagen- den Jesuiten entrissen wird durch Ludwig XIV. und ins Weltliche umgesetzt wird.
[ 11 ] Niemals allerdings blieb der Menschheit unbewusst, dass dasjenige, was Monumentalkunst sein soll, nicht ohne Zusammenhang sein dürfe mit dem Höchsten und Größten, was die Menschheit finden kann, wenn sie sich in das Weltenall vertieft. Aber nur wie ein Einschlag in das moderne Menschlich-Allzumenschliche mischte sich hinein dasjenige, was in einer etwas starren, in einer etwas akademischen Form, wie wir heute sagen würden, sich geltend machte wie eine Erneuerung des antiken Kunstwesens, mitten hinein in den Barockstil, den wir oftmals, man könnte sagen, in barocker Weise vermischt sehen mit dem Antiken. Sodass wir gerade in der Kunst, die an den Namen Ludwigs XIV. geknüpft ist, sehen, wie steif klassische Formen nach außen im Innern allzumenschlichste Barockformen bergen, durch die der menschliche Geist nicht irgendwie Einlass finden will zu irgendwelchen - seien sie auch naheliegende - Weltengeheimnissen, sondern durch die er nur fortleben lassen will seine Launen, sein alltägliches Fühlen und Empfinden in den Formen, die ihm rings herum an den Wänden erscheinen.
[ 12 ] Und so sehen wir, wie Bauten entstehen - ich will aus gewissen Gründen nicht einzelne Bauten nennen, weil sie ja auch von der heutigen Zeit noch nicht in der richtigen Weise beurteilt werden und daher die Beurteilung nicht verstanden würde —, wie Bauten entstehen, die geradezu in Formen gegossene menschliche Champagnerlaunen sind, vom innersten künstlerischen Bedürfnis aus beurteilt. Wir sehen, wie der barocke Voltairismus des Denkens an zahllosen Orten wieder erscheint in der barocken Ausgestaltung der künstlerischen Form. Aber nicht so, wie griechische oder gotische Formen angepasst sind dem innersten Wesen der menschlichen Weltanschauung und Weltempfindung, sondern so, wie ein Äußerliches nachgemacht ist dem, was der Mensch in seinem Inneren erlebt.
[ 13 ] Und wir erleben es dann, wenn wir den Blick weiter über die Entwicklung des menschlichen Kunstwesens richten, wie im 18, Jahrhundert die menschliche Sehnsucht zurückgeht, um die Griechen wieder aufleben zu lassen, die griechische Empfindung, den griechischen Kunstsinn wieder heraufkommen zu lassen. Wir sehen, wie ein solcher Geist wie Winckelmann eine wahrhaft religiöse Weihe darin sucht, Griechengeist, griechischen Kunstgeist wieder zu verstehen: Wir sehen dann, wie unter diesen Anregungen Winckelmanns das 19. Jahrhundert strebt, künstlerische Formen, die da waren, wieder zu erzeugen. Aber es hatte die Weltanschauung des Materialismus niemals die Kraft, die innere Kraft erringen können, die dazugehört, dasjenige, was gedacht, gefühlt, innerlich empfunden wird, so stark zu denken, zu fühlen, zu empfinden, dass es sich wie von selbst in seine eigenen Formen ausgießt, wie es beim Griechentum, wie es bei der Gotik der Fall war. Und so sehen wir denn im 19. Jahrhundert jenes wunderbare, aber doch im Grunde genommen merkwürdig äußerlich gebliebene Streben eines Overbeck, eines Cornelius, zu schaffen Formen, zu schaffen künstlerische Gestaltungen, aber ohne den mächtigen, durchströmenden Impuls einer Weltanschauung. Alte Motive, alte Weltanschauungen werden gesucht, alte Vorstellungen sollen aufleben.
[ 14 ] Insbesondere die Baukunst litt unter dieser Ohnmacht des modernen materialistischen Denkens. Schönes, großartig Schönes in der Wiedererneuerung der Renaissance, in der Wiedererneuerung der Antike ist hervorgebracht worden von den Baukünstlern des 19. Jahrhunderts. Aber alles steht, ich möchte sagen, unter dem Impuls, der eben angedeutet worden ist. Studieren Sie ein so wunderbares Aufleben der Renaissance wie das durch Gottfried Semper - Sie können es studieren am Polytechnikum in Zürich - und Sie werden sehen, wie unmöglich der Baugedanke irgendwie fassen kann dasjenige, was durch den Baugedanken zum Ausdruck kommen soll.
[ 15 ] Und so sehen wir denn jene Zeit dann herankommen, wo gerade die Architektur sich — wenn auch in einer gewissen Größe, weil sie alte Formen in einer wunderbaren Weise studiert hat und zum Ausdrucke bringt - doch in ihrer Ohnmacht zeigt gegenüber den höheren Entwicklungsimpulsen der Menschheit. Wir sehen, wie griechische Formen gleichsam wie eine äußere Schale herumgebaut werden um jene Körperschaften, die eigentlich im Grunde genommen nur dasjenige verschandeln, was sie selber nicht kennen, wie es etwa mancher moderne Baukünstler getan hat, wenn er griechische Formen wie Schalen herumgewickelt hat um die modernen Parlamente. Oder wir sehen, wie die Gotik tief kennende Baukünstler, die mit ihrem Herzen und mit ihrer Seele ganz ferne stehen dem alten Katholizismus, die Gotik wie eine äußere Schale herumbauen um dasjenige, was geschehen soll in dem gotischen Bau, dem sie aber vollständig fernestehen mit ihrem eigenen Fühlen, mit ihrem eigenen Empfinden. Und so stehen wir mit einer feineren Kunstempfindung vor solchen Bauten, indem wir fühlen, sie sind aufgerichtet von Menschen, die wahrhaftig mit ihrem Herzen, mit ihrem Empfinden dem Messopfer, das darin verrichtet wird, recht fernestehen, all dem fernestehen, was da geschieht.
[ 16 ] Wie anders wirken die Bauten, die ausgeführt worden sind von denen, die noch mitfühlen konnten mit den alten christlichen Gefühlen, welche empfunden wurden in den Zeiten, in denen die Hostie noch unter anderen Empfindungen eben als in der neueren Zeit zur Konsekration in die Höhe gehoben worden ist; wie anders jene Bauten, welche wirkten wie die verkörperte Mystik gegenüber dem kalten Leben der Gegenwart, wenn man dieses Leben sucht im Gesamtzusammenhange des Geistig-Sozialen der Menschheit; wie anders bei den Bauten, in deren Steinzusammenfügung nichts sich ergossen hat von dem, was darinnen als heilige Handlungen und als die Menschenseele durchzitternde Gefühle vor sich gehen soll! Und so hat man denn oftmals dieser Kunst gegenüber dasselbe Gefühl, das man hat - betrachtet man wirklich Kunstwerke mit Anteil -, wenn ein Atheist eine Madonna malt!
[ 17 ] Nur aus diesem Empfinden heraus konnte der Impuls zu dem Kulturgedanken entstehen, der für unseren Bau notwendig war. Die alten Impulse, sie sind, wie wir wissen, nicht mehr bis zu der Lebendigkeit zu bringen, dass sie sich in Formen ausleben können. Was in den alten Formen geschaffen wird, es wird doch nur antiquiert sein. Aber glauben dürfen wir, dass unsere Geisteswissenschaft eine solche starke innere Kraft hat, dass sie Formen aus sich gebären kann. Und diejenigen Formen, von denen geglaubt werden darf, dass sie durch einen innerlichen lebendigen Prozess aus unserer geisteswissenschaftlichen Weltanschauung hervorgehen, die wollten verwirklicht werden an unserem Bau. Und jener Zusammenhang sollte sich dadurch wieder zeigen, der zwischen der Kunst und der Weltanschauung bestehen muss, und der immer sich doch nur dadurch wird ausdrücken lassen, dass eine Madonna nur malen kann, wer einen Impuls für Empfindungen gegenüber der Madonna in seiner Seele trägt. Den werden die modernen Menschen so nicht in der Seele tragen, dass sie künstlerische Formen daraus in Wahrheit machen können.
[ 18 ] Neue Impulse müssen durch die Geisteswissenschaft in die Menschheit kommen, wenn die Menschheit sich nicht selber ad absurdum führen will. Daher muss der Anfang gemacht werden mit neuen künstlerischen Formen, die sich von selbst ergeben durch eine neue Weltanschauung. Wer daher so recht verstehen will, was der Bau, zu dem wir vor drei Jahren den Grundstein legten, darstellen will, der muss dies verstehen aus der lebendigen Erfassung unserer geisteswissenschaftlichen Weltanschauung, muss verstehen, wie das, was als ein Anfang gewollt ist, herausfließt aus jener Synthesis zwischen Himmels- und Erdenauffassen, die wir geisteswissenschaftliche Weltanschauung nennen, wie die griechische Baukunst herausgekommen ist aus der Erdenanschauung des Griechentums, wie die Gotik herausgewachsen ist aus der Himmelsanschauung des mittelalterlichen Christentums.
[ 19 ] Blöde müssten wir sein, wenn wir glauben wollten, dass mit einem ersten Anhub nur Erträgliches im höheren Sinne, um gar nicht zu sagen Vollkommenes, gleich geleistet werden sollte. Unvollkommenes kann für den ersten Anfang selbstverständlich nur geleistet werden. Und niemals werden wir anders denken können als uns gestehen, dass dasjenige, was wir begonnen haben, recht unvollkommen ist; ein erster, ein allererster Anfang zu Formen, die entstehen müssen, die vielleicht in vieler, vieler Bezichung ganz, ganz anders sein werden als das, was mit unserem Bau erreicht ist. Aber das kann man dem Bau wohl schon ansehen, dass mit ihm gesucht ist ein lebendiges Hervorwachsen der künstlerischen Formen aus dem Impulse, aus dem Empfinden, die unsere Weltanschauung durchpulsen.
[ 20 ] Daher, dass so vieles anders ist, kommt es, dass diejenigen, die zu denen gehören, die niemals etwas Neues dulden wollen, eben nicht verstehen können, begreiflicherweise nicht verstehen können dieses, was so anders ist als das, was in den bisherigen Formen, in der bisherigen Art der Plastik, in der bisherigen Art der Malerei empfunden wurde. Nur wenn wir in dieser bescheidenen Weise Unvollkommenes, einen unvollkommenen Anfang sehen in unserem Bau, dann werden wir das rechte Gefühl haben, das man ja haben kann gerade für Anfänge einer Entwicklung, weil man in den Anfängen einer Entwicklung erfühlen kann, was ganz anderes noch geschaffen werden kann aus dem unvollkommenen Anfang heraus, der nichts weiter geben will als eine Anregung.
[ 21 ] Nun ist drei Jahre an dem Bau gearbeitet worden, und diejenigen, deren Herz verbunden ist mit dem, was durch den Bau beabsichtigt ist, werden jetzt erfüllt sein von wahrem Dankgefühl gegenüber all jenen, die ihre Opfer gebracht haben für das, was geschehen sollte - Opfer in dieser oder jener Form -, die ferner gebracht haben ihre Arbeitskraft; und viele schöne, herrliche Arbeitskraft ist ja in dasjenige hineingeflossen, was auf diesem Dornacher Hügel vor uns liegt. Und haben auch gerade diese drei Jahre Schweres zu fühlen und zu empfinden gebracht für unsere Bewegung, so dürfen wir doch sagen: Wie sich die Dinge auch entwickeln mögen, was auch für unsere Bewegung aus dem Karma erfließen möge - das, was empfunden werden durfte im Zusammenhange mit dem, was getan worden ist, ist gerade tief aus dem Wesen unserer Bewegung fließendes Empfinden, das zu den schönsten Früchten des modernen Empfindens wirklich wohl mitgezählt werden darf.
[ 22 ] Wir sahen manche Metamorphose dieses Empfindens; wir sahen z.B. manche Menschen, wie unser unvergessliches Fräulein Stinde, deren ganzes Herz und ganze Seele daran hing, dass dieser Bau gerade in München aufgeführt würde, in hingebungsvoller Art ihre Empfindungen umändern, um mitzuerleben die durch das Karma herbeigeführte Transformation. Ob diejenigen Entschließungen absolut richtig waren, die dazumal getroffen worden sind zu dieser Transformation, das wird ja erst die Zukunft lehren können, wenn die Tatsachen zeigen werden, wie von der Kultur der Gegenwart dasjenige aufgenommen wird, was anthroposophische Bewegung ist. Manches von dem, was erwartet werden konnte, ist ja ausgeblieben, und es würde heute wie törichte Ruhmredereien erscheinen, wenn auch nur einiges von dem betont würde, was mit Recht als ausgeblieben bezeichnet werden könnte. Der Bau war da. Er zeigte auch in äußeren Formen, dass eine gewisse Bewegung da ist.
[ 23 ] Man sehe sich an das Verzeichnis der Literatur unserer Bewegung in vielen Sprachen der gegenwärtigen gebildeten Welt, und man sehe daraus, wie viel Gelegenheit gegeben war, unsere Bewegung zu verstehen, wie viel Gelegenheit gegeben war, dasjenige, was auf dem Dornacher Hügel erstand, in Zusammenhang zu bringen mit gewissen Notwendigkeiten unserer Kulturbewegung, Man hätte insbesondere erwarten können in der heutigen Zeit, die der Menschheit eine so schwere Prüfung auferlegt, dass sich auch Urteile geltend gemacht hätten, die gerade mit Rücksicht auf diese schwere, leidensvolle Zeit Verständnis gezeigt hätten für die tiefere Kulturbedeutung dieser geisteswissenschaftlichen Richtung. Stimmen von dieser Art: Man darf sagen, auch nicht eine war da, die von außen gekommen wäre während der schweren, leidensvollen Kriegszeit, nur wenige, vereinzelte, die von innen aus der anthroposophischen Gesellschaft selbst gekommen sind, und die naturgemäß dadurch, dass die Außenwelt so wenig Verständnis der Bewegung entgegenbringt, im Winde verhallen mussten.
[ 24 ] Und so können wir denn heute, wo wir haben zurückblicken wollen gewissermaßen auf die Impulse, die uns vor drei Jahren beseelt haben, nur wiederum neuerdings innerlichst geloben, treu bleiben zu wollen diesem Impulse, Verständnis suchen zu wollen für dasjenige, was diese geisteswissenschaftliche Weltanschauung mit alldem, was mit ihr im Zusammenhange steht, der sich entwickelnden Menschheit sein soll. Von außerhalb Europas, vom fernen Asien, kommen jetzt Urteile, die in gewisser Beziehung zutreffender sind in der Beurteilung der europäischen Weltlage als alles dasjenige, was Europa durchtost. Aber gerade solche Urteile zeigen, dass die Erneuerung Europas nur durch die geisteswissenschaftliche Weltanschauung möglich ist. Möge das Verständnis für sie wirklich kommen.
[ 25 ] Wir leiden unter dem Karma der Gedankenlosigkeit, jener Gedankenlosigkeit, die zu gleicher Zeit brutal ist, weil sie überall dasjenige gern zertritt, was nur ahnt, welche geistigen Notwendigkeiten unserer Zeitentwicklung zu Grunde liegen. Merkwürdig, merkwürdig: Die Sehnsuchten - ich habe es oftmals gesagt - die leben überall auf, jene Sehnsuchten, die sich selber nicht verstehen, weil sie nicht wissen, wohin sie sollen, und weil sie durch die Brutalität der Zeit den Weg nicht finden können zu dem, was als Weltanschauung unser Bau bedenkmalen soll. Derjenige, der ein wenig hinblickt auf seine Zeit, der findet viele, viele Zeichen der Zeit; aber nur Zeichen für Sehnsuchten.
[ 26 ] Da ist, man möchte sagen, ein sonderbarer Kauz, ein einfacher Zimmergeselle, der aber durch das, was er geworden ist, ein lebendiger Zeuge ist gegen das unsinnige Urteil der neueren Zeit, welches da sagt, dass Geisteswissenschaft nur etwas sein könnte für gebildete Menschen und nicht für die einfachen Seelen. Ein unsinniges Urteil ist dieses; denn gerade die einfachsten Seelen fühlen in sich jene Sehnsuchten, die ihnen wirklich befriedigt werden können, wenn sie nicht abgehalten werden durch die sogenannte brutale Zeitbildung von ihren Sehnsuchten. Welche Sehnsuchten atmen in Worten wie diesen eines einfachen Zimmergesellen, der einige Bücher gelesen hat, sich umgesehen hat in dem, was man für die Gegenwart erschnen will und kann, und der sich ausdrückt in folgenden Zeilen:
In die Traum- und Geistersphäre
Scheint es, bin ich eingezogen,
Und es flüstern jene Wogen
Mir manch fremd Geheimnis zu.
Und des Lebens Töne wallen
Aus dem Busen der Natur,
Nebelhüllen seh’ ich fallen
Von des Weltgeheimnis ew’ger Spur.
[ 27 ] Man komme nur den Sehnsuchten entgegen und finde die Wege zu den sehnenden Menschenherzen! Hinblicken können wir von diesem einfachen Zimmergesellen, der sogar ein sonderbarer Kauz ist, wie ich sagte, der sich versuchte durchzuringen vom Erkennen zum Schauen - hinblicken kann man zu dem Mann, den ich auch schon angeführt habe, zu Christian von Ehrenfels, der Professor an der Prager Universität ist und von dem ich gesagt habe, dass er in seiner «Kosmogonie» versucht, sich eine Vorstellung zu machen von dem «Rückwärts-Vorstellen», wo wir sehen die Sehnsucht sich hinneigen nach dem Weg, der gerade durch die geistige Vertiefung in der Rückwärtsschau erreicht werden soll, angestrebt werden soll.
[ 28 ] Die Finsternis der gegenwärtigen sogenannten Philosophie lässt natürlich solche Geister nur beschränkt schauen, lässt aber manchmal Sehnsuchten in ihnen aufsprießen. Doch die verblödende Zeitbildung hält sie zurück vom Verständnis der Geisteswissenschaft. Und so bleibt es bei ihren Sehnsuchten. Aber diese Sehnsuchten sind manchmal recht merkwürdig. Und diese «Kosmogonie» des Christian von Ehrenfels, sie schließt in merkwürdiger Weise. Er suchte sich auf seine Art, dieser Professor, die Welt und den Weltenlauf anzusehen, suchte sich die Bedürfnisse der Gegenwart klarzumachen aus dem Lauf der Geschichte; und was sagt er zum Schluss:
[ 29 ] «In diesem Sinne und nach dieser Perspektive habe ich die menschliche Geschichte aufzufassen versucht und bin hierbei zu folgendem Schluss gelangt — den ich jedoch jetzt nur erst ohne das Rüstzeug wissenschaftlicher Argumente, als bloß ahnende Antizipation mitzuteilen vermag: In Gott ist mit der Erhebung des menschlichen Intellektes (und wahrscheinlich mit ähnlichen Prozessen auf anderen Himmelskörpern) das Selbstbewusstsein erwacht und eine Phase der Verinnerlichung seines Wirkens angebrochen. In und mit dem Menschen sucht Gott nach einer führenden Idee, welche fähig wäre, sein bisher triebhaftes Gestalten in Bahnen des Zweckbewusstseins zu leiten. Diese Idee ist noch nicht gefunden.»
[ 30 ] Denken Sie, solch ein Mensch nennt natürlich den nächsten Geist, den er noch ahnt, seinen Gott, wie es ja überhaupt die neuere Zeit tut. Aber so viel hat er von der Geschichte verstanden, dass er in einer Zeit lebt, in der dieser nächst ihm stehende Geist mit der Menschheit etwas vorhat, in einem entscheidenden Wendepunkte steht. Sodass er sich sagt: «In Gott selber ist eine Phase der Verinnerlichung seines Wirkens angebrochen.» Das fühlt er doch. «In und mit dem Menschen», sagt er weiter, «sucht Gott nach einer führenden Idee.» Als Mensch fühlt er sich nicht mächtig genug, denkend stark genug nach führenden Ideen, führenden Zielen; aber er ahnt einen Gott, der nach führenden Ideen sucht, «welche fähig wären, sein bisher triebhaftes Gestalten», das Gestalten des Gottes, «in Bahnen des Zweckbewusstseins zu leiten. Diese Idee ist noch nicht gefunden.» Damit schließt das Buch. So möge denn ein Gott, der irgendwo schwebt, eine führende Idee finden aus dem triebhaften Wollen heraus. So schließt ein philosophisches Buch, das in der unmittelbaren Gegenwart geschrieben worden ist.
[ 31 ] Wo wir hinschauen — die zwei Beispiele, die ich angeführt habe, das eines Zimmergesellen und das eines Universitätsprofessors, sie könnten ins Hundertfache, ins Tausendfache vermehrt werden -, überall würde sich zeigen, wie die Sehnsuchten da sind, die durch das verwirklicht werden sollen, was durch unsern Bau ausgesprochen werden soll. Wenn man einsehen wird, wie dieser Bau von allem Konventionellen ferngehalten werden musste, und wie nur dasjenige, was aus der geisteswissenschaftlichen Weltanschauung als Empfindungsimpuls fließt, in ihm verkörpert sein soll auf diese Weise - wenn man einsehen wird, wie wir uns fernhalten mussten nach der anderen Seite von jener äußeren Symbolisierung, wie sie in stumpfen, äußerlich okkulten Gesellschaften und den nach Okkultismus strebenden Gesellschaften überall auftritt - wenn man verstehen wird, wie zwischen dem Konventionellen und dem schalen Symbolismus der neueren Zeit die Wahrheit im Baugedanken gesucht werden musste, dann wird man auch aus diesem Baudenkmal heraus finden, welche fruchtbaren Keime und produktiven Impulse in der Geisteswissenschaft sein wollen.
[ 32 ] Nehmen wir zu alldem, was die Zukunft bringen mag, solches Wollen, solches Fühlen in unsere Seele auf, dann wird der Bau auch schon in dem, was er bis heute nach drei Jahren ist, für uns das sein können, was wir als einen Anfang empfanden, als wir vor drei Jahren, erfüllt von unseren geisteswissenschaftlichen Idealen, den Grundstein legten. Fühlen wir dies insbesondere mitten in der Zeit, in der ganz andere Impulse sich selber ad absurdum führen; versuchen wir zu fühlen, wie das eine mit dem anderen zusammenhängt. Man wird sehen, dass man es fühlen kann, wenn man will. Vieles ist allerdings von diesem Fühlen noch nicht gerade verwirklicht worden. Aber in vielen unserer Seelen lebt ehrliches, echtes Wollen; und dieses ehrliche, echte Wollen wird, wenn es sich selbst Treue hält, zu der Ehrlichkeit des Wollens Verständnis hinzufügen, und dann wird in aller unserer Seelen der andere Grundstein sich formen können, der vielfach vermannigfaltigend dasjenige geistig in die Welt hineintragen will, was für unsere Idee sich errichten wollte über dem physischen Grundstein, den wir vor drei Jahren weihevoll der Erde anvertrauten hier auf diesem Hügel.
Styles As World And Sensitive Thoughts
Spoken on the third anniversary of the laying of the foundation stone of the first Goetheanum
[ 1 ] Three years have passed since we gathered on this hill, since a number of our friends gathered here to lay the foundation stone of this building, which is intended to be a symbol of the breakthrough of those spiritual impulses in the more recent development of culture, which have become an absolute necessity in the more recent development of culture; a necessity because the world insight necessary for humanity can only be hoped for from these impulses, because the loving understanding of humanity necessary for human life can only be hoped for through these impulses. We celebrated this festival with the feeling of experiencing an important moment in the spiritual development that we have, for a longer or shorter time, included in our hearts, in our convincing power. At that time, everything that the human heart can feel about human development went through our minds. We did not think then of what, although foreseeable, should not always be considered because of the mysterious power of thought; we did not think of that painful, sorrowful time that has since befallen European humanity. What was to come, although in the near future, was certainly one of the most painful experiences that people on earth could have in this time. No matter how painful the experiences were that they otherwise had to endure, this experience, which has now spread across Europe, is one that could weigh heavily on people who do not have the strength to lift themselves up from the deepest awareness of the weaving and working of the spiritual world.
[ 2 ] Now, after three years of work on our building, it certainly does not seem to be a time for celebrating joyful festivals. One would really have to be somewhat dishonest with one's own heart if one only wanted to allow a festive mood to arise. And so we will have to leave the festive mood to another time; today we would do better to reflect more on some thoughts that resonate with what has just been said here in this place, the ideals that - as it were, historically within our movement - filled us when we set about realizing this building.
[ 3 ] These ideas originated in the devoted spirit of many souls, or at least a number of souls, during the years when our movement was, one might say, cultivated in wandering. The longing to build a home for our movement arose most vividly and energetically in the soul of one mature woman, our unforgettable Fräulein Sophie Stinde in Munich, and later coincided with the need that arose for staging our mystery plays and related events. So the first idea was to build a place for our movement and for everything that flows spiritually through our movement. And from this thought was born the other, to realize our spiritual movement in this place itself, that is, to build this place in such a way that in its forms, in its whole being, a representation of our spiritual movement could stand before the world, outwardly visible. But for that, the building in question had to be placed in a living, productive way not only in modern intellectual life, but the building had to be placed in all the necessities, in all the emerging necessities of modern intellectual life. It was necessary, so to speak, not only to create a building for our souls, but to realize a cultural idea through our building itself.
[ 4 ] Then the question could arise in the soul: What is it that this modern spiritual culture itself requires like a building idea of modern culture? One could not do without the realization that all truly fruitful building ideas, like all fruitful artistic impulses in general, were connected with the spiritual movements of the corresponding age, with the emerging spiritual movements of the corresponding age. One cannot conceive of Greek architecture without sensing that the forms of this architecture are themselves like the Greek cultural idea: crystallized, poured into form, brought to life in form. Anyone who immerses themselves in the Greek architectural style will find that what has been achieved in this pure Greek architectural style corresponds to the world view of Greek culture, which is expressed in feelings; it corresponds to what the Greek felt was the answer to his powerful question about humanity: What forces are there that, from earthly existence, support the human being so that it is placed harmoniously on this earth as a human being?
[ 5 ] When we picture to ourselves the ancient Greek walking across the Greek countryside with his own particular feeling for the world, with his way of looking at the world and its essence, , then in this Greek one feels, more or less unconsciously, that which in him was able to shoot up as if from the gravitational forces of the earth, in order to - just as he felt as an earthly human being between birth and death - place this Greek on the earth. The counterplay of this Greek sentiment lives in the beautiful proportions, in the wonderful statics of Greek architecture, lives in the inner unity of Greek architecture, which makes the form of this architecture appear as if it had grown out of the mysterious gravitational and static of the earth itself, those forces which in their inner, measured harmony permeate and interweave all that the Greek tragedians, Homer, Greek sculpture, and Greek philosophy created. A great artistic current can only come from a penetrating world view. The Greeks wanted to live in the spirit of the earth. Out of the spirit of the earth, they created their architectural structures.
[ 6 ] We let our eyes glide over the centuries and we find, speaking with the necessary imprecision for such a survey, how under the influence of the Mystery of Golgotha and under the impulses that have driven a part of humanity on earth to an understanding of this Mystery of Golgotha, new forms of architecture are developing. We see how man has discovered that he does not only stand with his being, which passes between birth and death, in earthly spiritual activity, but that the soul of the world permeates from above and spiritualizes everything that man can work on earth. And we see as the outer embodiment of what medieval humanity received from above, from the spirit of heaven, just as the Greeks received their impulses from the spirit of the earth; we see medieval architecture as arising from this.
[ 7 ] Medieval architecture, in its turn, is permeated, interwoven and interwoven with the energetic, powerful stream of the world view that is enlightening the world. We would have to cite many examples to show how the Christian spirit lives in art. We would have to cite many examples to show how the Christian spirit lives in Pre-Raphaelite art, in Raphael's art, in the art of Leonardo and Michelangelo, how the Christian spirit lives in the heavenward-striving Gothic style, cite many examples if we wanted to characterize all the impulses that have been so powerfully expressed where, in the characteristic of the form, one sought to express the working and speaking of the soul inspired by the heavenly spirit, which then found its highest development in Dürer and Holbein. For something similar to Gothic architecture lives in Dürer and Holbein.
[ 8 ] With that, however, we have arrived at the most recent period, in a broad overview, as it were, which must of course necessarily be imprecise. And there the human spirit is, as it were, held, as the misery of the Thirty Years War descends upon Europe, and upon Central Europe in particular. This was preceded by a wonderful uplift of hearts towards freedom in movements such as those of Zwingli, Hus and others like them. One then sees – first without being able to understand it completely, but then so that it becomes clear – all the misery of the Thirty Years' War, fomented and stirred up by a spirit that already had much in it of the later Jesuit spirit. And we see, under the influence of this impulse, which seemingly cultivates the spirit, the very forces that pour materialism over Europe arise. We see the dawning of an era in which there is a world view that, although it seeks to embrace only the material according to the inner human perception, cannot grasp the material because it does not want to grasp the spirit in matter. We see a world view sweeping over Europe that does not want to allow freedom to unfold because it wants to constrict more and more everything that strives for freedom, into rigid, blind obedience. We see how human and all-too-human traits are infused into the spirit that permeates history. And we see how, under this influence, it becomes impossible to realize forms in art directly from spiritual life.
[ 9 ] And so spiritual Baroque art comes into being, which is indeed a true expression of the new era, but which shows how, in it, what lives in human thoughts, in human feelings, is expressed in a subjective and arbitrary way in the artistic form, in the artistic works in general. We no longer see how the soul feels compelled to experience the static and heavy secrets of the earth, as it did when it built Greek temples. We no longer see the soul directly expressing what it experiences when it immerses itself in heavenly heights, as it did when it created the Gothic style, when Dürer adapted his figures, which express so much, to the experiences that imbued his great soul. Rather, we see how attempts are being made to enforce the idea of what construction should be with everything, with what the human mind, with what human and all-too-human feelings are steeped. We see how all kinds of figures are inserted into the columns and beams, figures that are not meant to have an architectural effect but are intended to be purely decorative, figures that arise from human intention, that do not know how to neatly distinguish the sculptural or pictorial idea from the architectural idea, and that in turn do not know how to combine – because they do not know how to neatly distinguish – these different types of motifs.
[ 10 ] We carry a religious worldview that is more imbued with its true inwardness. We enter many a church building whose columns we no longer understand because they have not been studied from the objective circumstances of the world, but because they were intended to express a worldview from which even the direct elementary power had fled. One walks through colonnades in which columns have forms that are not architectural but painterly. Niches are bounded in a painterly manner by columns. But mystery should speak from such niches, mystery should radiate from the columns as they carry what they have to carry. We see human figures of saints placed in the most unlikely of places, not arising from an immediate architectural necessity, which would allow sculpture in the right place and painting in the right place to arise from the architecture. We see how art is supposed to achieve something that no longer directly serves as a worldview; we see the emergence of the materialistic worldview, which is, however, powerless to create a real art form that is appropriate for it. And so it was only a short step to the degenerate forms of the Baroque style, which is interesting and significant because it shows how the modern age, with its , but is unable to find any original artistic ideas, but only the thoughts of everyday life, of which one is filled, and is able to express them more or less in an unartistic way. This becomes particularly clear when the Baroque style - one could say - is wrested from the Jesuits by Louis XIV and translated into the secular.
[ 11 ] However, it was never lost on humanity that the purpose of monumental art is to be connected to the highest and greatest that humanity can find when it delves into the universe. But only like an impact into the modern human-all-too-human did that mingle, which asserted itself in a somewhat rigid, in a somewhat academic form, as we would say today, like a renewal of ancient art, right into the baroque style, which we often, one could say, see mixed with the ancient in a baroque way. So that in the art associated with the name of Louis XIV, we see how outwardly classical forms enclose within them the most human of baroque forms, through which the human spirit does not want to gain access to any – even if they are obvious – secrets of the world, but through which he only wants to express his whims, his everyday feelings and perceptions in the forms that appear on the walls around him.
[ 12 ] And so we see how buildings arise – for certain reasons I do not want to name individual buildings, because they are not yet judged in the right way by today's standards either and therefore the judgment would not be understood – how buildings arise that are human champagne moods cast in forms, judged from the innermost artistic need. We see how the baroque Voltairism of thought reappears in countless places in the baroque design of the artistic form. But not in the way that Greek or Gothic forms are adapted to the innermost essence of the human world view and world feeling, but in the way that an external appearance is imitated from what man experiences within himself.
[ 13 ] And we then experience, when we turn our gaze further to the development of human artistry, how in the 18th century human longing recedes in favor of reviving the Greeks, reviving Greek sentiment, the Greek sense of art. We see how a mind like Winckelmann's seeks a truly religious consecration in understanding the Greek spirit and the spirit of Greek art. We see how, under Winckelmann's influence, the 19th century strove to recreate artistic forms that already existed. But the materialistic world view never had the power to achieve the inner strength that is needed to think, feel and sense what is thought, felt and sensed inwardly so strongly that it pours out into its own forms as if by itself, as it did with the Greeks and the Gothic period. And so we see in the 19th century that wonderful, but basically strangely externalized striving of an Overbeck, of a Cornelius, to create forms, to create artistic designs, but without the powerful, flowing impulse of a worldview. Old motifs, old worldviews are sought, old ideas are to be revived.
[ 14 ] Architecture in particular suffered from this impotence of modern materialistic thinking. Beautiful, magnificent beauty in the revival of the Renaissance, in the revival of antiquity, has been produced by the architects of the 19th century. But everything is, I would say, under the impulse that has just been hinted at. Study the revival of the Renaissance as practiced by Gottfried Semper – you can study it at the Polytechnic in Zurich – and you will see how impossible it is for the architectural concept to grasp what is to be expressed by the architectural concept.
[ 15 ] And so we see that the time is approaching when architecture, although it has achieved a certain greatness by studying and expressing ancient forms in a wonderful way, shows itself to be powerless in the face of humanity's higher developmental impulses. We see how Greek forms are built around those bodies, as it were, like an outer shell, which basically only disfigure what they themselves do not know, as some modern architects have done when they have wrapped Greek forms like shells around modern parliaments. Or we see how architects who have a deep knowledge of the Gothic style, but whose hearts and souls are far removed from ancient Catholicism, build the Gothic style around that which should take place in the Gothic building, but to which they are completely a stranger in terms of their own feelings and perceptions. And so we stand before such buildings with a finer artistic sensibility, feeling that they were erected by people who truly, with their hearts, with their feelings, were very far removed from the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass that is performed in them, far removed from all that takes place there.
[ 16 ] How different is the effect of the buildings constructed by those who could still sympathize with the ancient Christian feelings, which were felt in the times when the host was still lifted up for consecration in a different way than in more recent times; how different those buildings, which seemed to embody mysticism in contrast to the coldness of modern life, look very different when seen in the context of humanity's spiritual and social life; and the buildings in whose stone construction nothing has been poured that should take place in it as sacred acts and as feelings that shake the human soul! And so, when we look at this art, we often have the same feeling that we have when we look at real works of art: that an atheist has painted a Madonna!
[ 17 ] Only from this feeling could the impulse for the cultural idea arise, which was necessary for our building. The old impulses, as we know, can no longer be brought to the point of vitality that allows them to be lived out in forms. What is created in the old forms will only be antiquated. But we may believe that our spiritual science has such a strong inner power that it can give birth to forms out of itself. And those forms that may be believed to arise from our spiritual scientific world view through an inner living process, they wanted to be realized in our building. And this should show once again the connection that must exist between art and world view, and which can only be expressed by the fact that a Madonna can only be painted by someone who has an impulse for feelings towards the Madonna in his soul. Modern people will not have this impulse in their souls to such an extent that they can turn artistic forms into truth.
[ 18 ] New impulses must come to humanity through spiritual science if humanity is not to lead itself ad absurdum. Therefore, we must begin with new artistic forms that arise from a new world view. Those who really want to understand what the building, for which we laid the foundation stone three years ago, wants to represent, must understand this from the living grasp of our spiritual-scientific world view, must understand how what is intended as a beginning flows out of that synthesis between the conception of heaven and earth, which we call the spiritual-scientific world view, how Greek architecture emerged from the earth-centered view of Greek culture, how the Gothic style grew out of the heavenly view of medieval Christianity.
[ 19 ] We would have to be foolish if we wanted to believe that only the tolerable in the higher sense, not to mention the perfect, should be achieved at the first attempt. Of course, only the imperfect can be achieved for the first beginning. And we will never be able to think otherwise than to admit to ourselves that what we have begun is quite imperfect; a first, a very first beginning of forms that must arise, which, perhaps in many, many descriptions, will be completely, completely different from what has been achieved with our building. But one can already see that the aim of the building is to achieve a living growth of artistic forms from the impulse, from the feeling that pulsates through our world view.
[ 20 ] Because so much is different, those who never want to tolerate anything new cannot understand, understandably cannot understand, this, which is so different from what was felt in the previous forms, in the previous type of sculpture, in the previous type of painting. Only if we see the imperfect, an imperfect beginning in our construction in this modest way, will we have the right feeling, which one can have for the beginnings of a development, because one can feel in the beginnings of a development what else can be created from the imperfect beginning, which wants to give nothing more than a suggestion.
[ 21 ] Now, after three years of work on the building, those whose hearts are connected with what was intended by the building will now be filled with true gratitude to all those who have made sacrifices for what was to be done – sacrifices in this or that form – and who have also contributed their labor; and much beautiful, glorious labor has indeed gone into what lies before us on this hill at Dornach. And even if these three years have brought difficulties for our movement, we may still say: however things may develop, whatever may flow from the karma of our movement, what was felt in connection with what has been done is a feeling that flows directly from the essence of our movement and can truly be counted among the most beautiful fruits of modern feeling.
[ 22 ] We saw many a metamorphosis of this feeling; we saw, for example, many people, such as our unforgettable Fräulein Stinde, whose whole heart and soul was in the fact that this building was performed in Munich, in a devoted way to change their feelings in order to experience the transformation brought about by karma. Whether the resolutions taken at that time for this transformation were absolutely right, only the future will be able to tell, when the facts show how the culture of the present day will take up what the anthroposophical movement is. Much of what could be expected did not come to pass, and it would now seem like foolish boastfulness if only some of what could rightly be described as having failed to materialize were emphasized. The building was there. It also showed in outward forms that a certain movement is there.
[ 23 ] If one looks at the bibliography of the literature of our movement in the many languages of the present educated world, one can see how many opportunities there were to understand our movement, how many opportunities there were to with certain necessities of our cultural movement. One might have expected in particular in this day and age, which imposes such a difficult test on humanity, that judgments would have been made that would have shown understanding for the deeper cultural significance of this spiritual-scientific direction, especially in view of this difficult, suffering time. It may be said that not one of them came from outside during the difficult and sorrowful war period. Only a few, isolated ones came from within the Anthroposophical Society itself, and naturally, because the outside world showed so little understanding for the movement, they had to die away.
[ 24 ] And so today, when we have looked back to the impulses that inspired us three years ago, we can only pledge ourselves to remain true to this impulse, to seek understanding for what this spiritual scientific world view, with all that is connected with it, is meant to be for developing humanity. From outside Europe, from distant Asia, judgments are now coming that are in some respects more accurate in their assessment of the European world situation than anything that is being said in Europe. But it is precisely such judgments that show that the renewal of Europe is only possible through the spiritual-scientific world view. May understanding for it truly come.
[ 25 ] We suffer from the karma of thoughtlessness, that thoughtlessness which is brutal at the same time because it likes to trample on everything that only suspects the spiritual necessities on which our development is based. It is strange, very strange. As I have often said, longings awaken everywhere. These longings do not understand themselves because they do not know where they are supposed to go and because the brutality of the times prevents them from finding the way to what, as a worldview, should serve as a monument to our structure. Those who take a little time to observe their time will find many, many signs of the times; but only signs of longing.
[ 26 ] There is, one might say, a strange fellow, a simple carpenter's apprentice, who, by virtue of what he has become, is a living witness against the nonsensical judgment of modern times, which says that spiritual science can only be for educated people and not for simple souls. This is a foolish judgment; for it is precisely the simplest souls that feel within themselves those longings that can truly be satisfied if they are not deterred from their longings by the so-called brutal modern education. What longings breathe in words like these of a simple carpenter's apprentice who has read a few books, has looked around at what one wants and can achieve for the present, and who expresses himself in the following lines:
In the realm of dreams and ghosts
It seems I have moved in,
And those waves whisper
whisper many a secret to me.
And the sounds of life billow
From the bosom of nature,
I see the veils of mist fall away
From the eternal traces of the world's secret.
[ 27 ] One need only go to meet longings and find the way to the longing human heart! We can look from this simple journeyman, who is even a strange fellow, as I said, who tried to make his way from recognition to seeing - one can look to the man I have already mentioned, Christian von Ehrenfels, who is a professor at the University of Prague and of whom I said that in his “Cosmogony” he attempts to form a concept of “backward imagining”, where we see the yearning leaning toward the path that is to be achieved, that is to be striven for, precisely through spiritual deepening in backward looking.
[ 28 ] The darkness of the present so-called philosophy naturally allows such minds to see only to a limited extent, but sometimes allows longings to spring up in them. But the stupidizing of the times keeps them from understanding spiritual science. And so it remains with their longings. But these longings are sometimes quite remarkable. And this “Cosmogony” by Christian von Ehrenfels, it concludes in a strange way. He sought in his own way, this professor, to look at the world and the course of the world, sought to make clear the needs of the present from the course of history; and what does he say in the end:
[ 29 ] "In this sense and from this perspective, I have tried to understand human history and have come to the following conclusion – which, however, I am only now able to share without the tools of scientific argument, as mere anticipation: In God, with the elevation of the human intellect (and probably with similar processes on other heavenly bodies), self-awareness has awakened and a phase of internalization of his work has begun. In and with man, God seeks a guiding idea that would be capable of directing his previous impulsive creativity into channels of purposefulness. This idea has not yet been found.
[ 30 ] Such a person, of course, calls the next spirit, which he still senses, his God, as people generally do in more recent times. But he has understood enough of history to know that he is living in a time in which this spirit, which is closest to him, has something planned with humanity, is at a decisive turning point. So he says to himself: “In God himself, a phase of internalization of his work has begun.” He feels that, after all. “In and with man,” he continues, “God seeks a guiding idea.” As a human being, he does not feel powerful enough, strong enough in thought, to arrive at a leading idea, a leading goal; but he senses a God who is searching for a leading idea “that would be capable of guiding his hitherto instinctive creative activity,” the creative activity of God, “along the paths of purpose. This idea has not yet been found.” The book ends with this. So may a god, hovering somewhere, find a guiding idea out of the impulsive will. This is how a philosophical book written in the immediate present ends.
[ 31 ] Wherever we look — the two examples I have given, that of a journeyman carpenter and that of a university professor, could be multiplied a hundredfold, a thousandfold — we would see the longings that are to be realized through what is to be expressed by our structure. When people realize how this building had to be kept far removed from everything conventional and how only that which flows from the spiritual-scientific world view as an impulse of feeling is to be embodied in it in this way – when people realize how we had to keep far removed from the kind of external symbolization that occurs in dull, occurs in dull, outwardly occult societies and in societies striving for occultism - when one will understand how the truth in building thought had to be sought between the conventional and the stale symbolism of modern times, then one will also find out from this architectural monument which fruitful seeds and productive impulses want to be in spiritual science.
[ 32 ] Let us, whatever the future may bring, take such volition, such feeling into our soul, then the building, even in what it is today after three years, can be for us what we sensed as a beginning when we laid the foundation stone three years ago, filled with our spiritual ideals. Let us feel this, especially in the midst of a time when completely different impulses are leading themselves ad absurdum; let us try to feel how the one is connected to the other. You will see that you can feel it if you want. Much of this feeling has not yet been realized, but in many of our souls lives honest, genuine will; and this honest, genuine will, if it remains true to itself, will add understanding to the honesty of the will, and then in all our souls the other foundation stone will be able to form, which, in manifold diversity, will carry into the world that which our idea sought to erect above the physical foundation stone that we solemnly entrusted to the earth here on this hill three years ago.