Memories of Rudolf Steiner
by Ludwig Graf Polzer-Hoditz
Chapter XV
We remained at Stuttgart from April 15th to May 6th. The public as well as the members’ lectures which Rudolf Steiner gave on the Threefold Commonwealth idea were always well attended. The large Hall of the Sieglehaus and the Liederhalle were crowded. The discussions which followed the public lectures showed that one had to fight against tremendously deep-rooted and preconceived opinions and ideas. We were all filled with the great spiritual impulse we were attempting to carry to the public and were keyed up for much activity. Besides the ordinary public lectures Rudolf Steiner gave some exclusively for workmen, especially those of the Bosch Factory. The first were very well attended but the workmen soon began to stay away at their leaders’ advice, although the lectures were adapted to the mentality of the audience and could have satisfied what they really desired. It was obvious that the leaders did not want the workmen to get a real grasp of the situation; in common with political circles they feared the awakening of true knowledge. It was easy to see through the methods of procedure adopted by the two great parties. The leaders were anxious to keep - their voters badly informed and in subservience. Both parties were really autocratic, in spite of their democratic jargon. It became obvious that the proletarian leaders were ruling quite unscrupulously at the workers’ expense and were aiming at highly paid offices. Rudolf Steiner told me repeatedly how while lecturing years ago at a workers’ school founded by Liebknecht, on the history of the Middle Ages, he had tried to encourage the forming of free opinions and judgment and that even then the leaders blockaded the door with the remark that they did not want freedom but only reasonable compulsion. Before my departure I had another discussion with Rudolf Steiner about the work of the Threefold Commonwealth idea in Vienna and I asked him whether he would consider it a good thing to ask Dr. W. J. Stein to help me. This proposal was put into practice. I realized that in order to remain well informed, it was necessary to keep in constant touch with all the events in Stuttgart and in this way I learned a very great deal of value for my own life. The way in which Rudolf Steiner was able to accommodate himself to any given circumstance, without abandoning the goal or making spiritual compromises, how he taught one mobility of mind — all this was a great lesson to those of us who participated in this work, a lesson to be learnt nowhere else in the world. The Union for the Threefold Social Order then began to publish a weekly paper. I took part in this work, and wrote articles which were collected later on and brought out by the publishing house, Der Kommende Tag, in book form, under the title: Politische Betrachtungen.
We worked most strenuously in Vienna, holding lectures and giving interviews; many Anthroposophists volunteered their services for the various tasks. We also tried to extend the work to Wiener-Neustadt. Herr Emil Hamburger, Dr. W. J. Stein and I went there and had fruitless interviews with various Government officials. Dr. Stein even went to Oedenburg in Hungary, trying to introduce Dr. Steiner’s ideas, but he soon came back, not without difficulty, and very depressed. Before long, attempts to introduce to these circles social work based on a spiritual foundation proved quite hopeless, for they were just men of a party and not free individuals.
Soon after this, an industrial association was founded in Stuttgart, named Der Kommende Tag. This foundation was a first attempt to do something in the economic life of the social organism, to be representative of it. But it was also necessary to do something on the side of the spiritual life. On June 1st, Dr. Steiner, Dr. Unger, Herr Leinhas, Herr Kiihn and myself went to Tübingen to discuss the matter with various professors at the University. Dr. Steiner took me with him in his car and said to me during the journey: “If we cannot achieve something on the spiritual side of the social organism, we shall have to stop the economic undertakings, for the two must complement each other.” This first attempt at Tübingen was a failure. I had the same feeling then as a year before at Munich at the parliamentary session. "Mummified science!" The professors were Philistines without any inclination to learn lessons from the catastrophe of the war and only anxious not to be disturbed in the positions they had secured.
At the beginning, the Government of Württemberg showed some understanding for the idea of associations among various branches of economic and industrial life. I remember hearing too that the Berlin Government was interested. But this again roused the Powers of Darkness, and their tools, the bankers and the politicians and economists connected with them opposed this so ruthlessly that there was no possibility for any work on a large scale. On one occasion when this was being discussed, Rudolf Steiner said: “Without a spiritual revolution, all political risings are doomed to collapse.”
After the revolution at Prague, Herr Jaroslaw Klima was so persecuted by the Socialist-Communist party that he had temporarily to leave his post. He bought a little farmhouse in a village called Vsesim, near Prague. I often visited him there and spent many pleasant days of stimulating conversations within his family circle. Naturally, I also worked in Prague, gave lectures on the Threefold Commonwealth and interviewed leading people in order to interest them in it. The Threefold Commonwealth idea was not concerned with one State, but one could work from its basis in every country individually for the welfare of humanity. It could have served as a common basis of work for all States.
During that year my wife published her poems, mostly written at Dornach, under the title Ausschau-Einschau. The poem called The Threshold was recited at Stuttgart on January 2, 1920, in the Kuppelsaal of the Kunsthaus, during a well-attended performance of Eurhythmy. A red figure represented the portal of Love, a green figure the portal of Wisdom, a yellow figure the Guardian of the Threshold, and a blue figure the Soul.
In the year 1919 many activities were founded in Stuttgart. The most important foundation was that of the Waldorf School. Rudolf Steiner loved this school very dearly and cared for it to the very end of his life. Every child adored him and whenever he visited a classroom it was a great moment for both children and teachers. Herr Kommerzienrat Emil Molt, a faithful Anthroposophist, made the undertaking possible by an act of great generosity. The children of his Astoria Cigarette Factory and the children of the Anthroposophists in Stuttgart enabled the School to start, but the number of children soon rose to 1,000 and additional buildings were necessary. Rudolf Steiner trained the teachers in a Teachers’ Seminary. Young Anthroposophists from all kinds of professions volunteered as teachers and attended these training courses. In the following year Rudolf Steiner held similar courses in other towns and the teachers were given further instruction. The art of education was entirely based on spiritual-scientific knowledge of the being and development of man. It was not experimental, but a discernment of the growing powers of soul in the child. This science of teaching was not built on hypotheses, but on facts spiritually perceived. The Waldorf School was in no sense a school aiming at the promulgation of a special view of the world. The principles of education arose from the spiritual-scientific knowledge born of Anthroposophy. Anthroposophy was not, of course, a subject in the curriculum. The children were given religious instruction by representatives of the various faiths, in accordance with their parents’ wishes. My wife and I were present at the opening of the School on September 7th, and I realized the importance of that event just as I had realized the importance of the laying of the foundation of the first Goetheanum at Dornach, in June, 1913. Dr. W. J. Stein had also volunteered as a teacher and so, to my very great regret, I lost him as my helper in Vienna.
When we arrived at Stuttgart, the first acquaintance whom we met, quite by chance, was Rudolf Steiner. He told me that Dr. Stein had come to the Teachers’ Course on his own initiative and he added that he would have been glad if I had also been able to join the course. "Although you would not have tried for a teacher’s post." This remark made me realize that Rudolf Steiner would have liked me to be present at all his undertakings, for, as a rule, admission was granted only to those who desired actually to become teachers.
In November I paid a visit to the Duke of Brunswick and his wife, the Kaiser’s daughter, at Gmunden. During this visit I spoke quite openly about the end of the war, Anthroposophy and the Threefold Commonwealth idea. The hours I spent with them were very pleasant and it seemed to me that they both listened with a good deal of understanding, for their questions and objections were kindly and reasonable. In December, I attended the first course of lectures given by Dr. Steiner on Natural Science. I spent, Christmas and New Year at Stuttgart and only returned to Tannbach in the middle of January, 1920. Again I have to mention some friends whom I often visited during this time. Mr. and Mrs. Del Monte were keen Anthroposophists and did a great deal for the movement. I always was very happy with them and think of them with gratitude.
In February I went to Stuttgart again and from there to Dornach. I had not seen the Goetheanum since 1917 and the building, now partly finished, made a tremendous impression on me. From that time onwards I was often Rudolf Steiner’s guest for the midday meal at Villa Hansi. During the meals Rudolf Steiner often talked a good deal, made many jokes, and my wife and I were very happy to be near him.
It would be beyond the scope of these memoirs to mention all the courses and lectures I attended during 1920 and the following years. I shall only mention episodes where I learnt something personally and directly from Rudolf Steiner and which, on the other hand, were of some significance for my life and work in the Anthroposophical movement.
A deep and lasting impression was made upon me by a remark of Rudolf Steiner’s after a meeting of the workers belonging to the Union of the Threefold Commonwealth. To give these workers an opportunity to speak to Rudolf Steiner more intimately, a board of workers, who were Anthroposophists, was started within the Union. Besides the leading people in the union only those who had volunteered as actual workers were admitted to the meetings. I have forgotten the actual date when Rudolf Steiner seemed very dissatisfied at one of the meetings and he said, most severely, that it was useless to go on working in this way if the workers could not free themselves from their proletarian leaders. My heart was heavy when I left this meeting with Rudolf Steiner and I remarked to him that it seemed to me that some of the workers had, nevertheless, the best intentions. Rudolf Steiner answered seriously and definitely: “If this is going on I cannot save the workers.” Unemployment on a large scale had not yet set in. I often remembered this remark in later years. Innumerable livelihoods could have been saved if Rudolf Steiner had been more listened to and if people had had more courage. But the Powers of Darkness did not wish anyone to listen and so everything was systematically hushed up and ignored. Rudolf Steiner’s words in Berlin, in July, 1917: “One must be strong enough to see even nations ruined,” still echo in me. My father, who always had a very clear mind, lived during the last days of his life, in July, 1912, while there was still prosperity, just as if he was already in the other world and could look into the future. He often said to us: “Have you still anything to eat? They will take everything from you, they will not even leave you your beds.”