The Life and Work of Rudolf Steiner
1911
After the final lecture, on January 1, of the historical cycle referred to in the foregoing chapter, Rudolf Steiner carried out the laying of the foundation stone for the first building to be owned by a Group in the Society, rendered possible through donations of friends in Stuttgart. We shall enter more closely into the details of its external and internal arrangements in connection with the dedication ceremony in October.
A lecture tour in West and South Germany served principally to elaborate in various places those themes dealt with in the previous year, while the lectures in the Berlin Architektenhaus in the first months of 1911 served to cast light upon the Turning Points in Spiritual Life, through the presentation of great spiritual figures of the pre-Christian leaders of humanity, such as Buddha, Zarathustra, and Hermes.
Through the spiritual-scientific view of history, it became manifest that “in truth, not the lower but the higher stands at the starting point of each evolution in time.” The history of mankind displays laws different from those of natural history. At the beginning of each cultural development there stands the figure of an outstanding personality, developed above the common humanity of that age, whose influence is recognized and developed in the course of the following epoch. At the beginning stands a human being as the leading spiritual personality. He gradually lifts mankind to his level; he is not the product but the initiator of historical development. But he also receives his initiation and his knowledge from Higher Powers who precede him.
In this connection also it was shown that knowledge of reincarnation, for example, was not, as is generally supposed today, a fruit of Buddhism but was already a treasure of knowledge of earlier stages of initiation, closer to the spirit, which in later times fell into decadence, darkening, and oblivion through man’s severance from the spiritual. But even this severance lay in the plan of the world, in order that the freedom of self-determination might be possible for the human being. Thus the modem intellect is not the zenith of evolution, but rather a nadir, a stage of transition, at the end of which primeval wisdom is not to be received as a gift but must be regained in freedom. In connection with this, there is a guiding impulse for a new beginning—the appearance of Christ. And it is the task of esoteric Christianity to bring the external truths to maturity for birth at a higher stage in every single man. This knowledge of truth will make him free and leave him free.
Other lectures in February and March dealt more especially with the natural-historical aspect, the other side of the process of coming into existence: What Has Geology to Say about the Origin of the World? and What Has Astronomy to Say about the Origin of the World? In the field of geology further research works have been produced by students of Rudolf Steiner on the basis of information and guiding principles given by him. During a lecture tour in Switzerland at the end of February, Dr. Steiner spoke in Basel on the theme: Endowment, Talent, and Education of the Human Being in the Light of Spiritual Science. Here also a Rudolf Steiner school was later opened in which his manifold indications on education could be introduced into practice. In Zurich and St. Gallen he took up again spiritual-historical questions in a lecture on Spiritual Science and the Future of Man.
The following more extensive journey led to Austria, where eight lectures were given in Prague between March 20 and 28, as an introduction to the knowledge of the human bodily structure, its organs, its sensible and supersensible processes, under the title An Occult Physiology. He attached particular value to the phenomena of the action of “systems of force” in the human bodily organization, and the differentiation of conscious and subconscious processes in the various systems of organs. These lectures bore the motto: “To remain ignorant is a sin against the divine intention.” In long-past ages spirit nature alone was known to the human being, and his bodily nature was hidden from him—“occult.” Indeed, he had during certain periods looked down upon it as base and sinful. Then came the evolutionary phase of the modem age, which has been interested principally in the physiological bodily aspect only, and to which consequently the spiritual and soul aspect has grown incomprehensible—“occult.” A new physiology was now to do justice to both aspects of these phenomena and to exhibit wisdom-filled interaction of sensible and supersensible processes in the human bodily structure.
In connection with these lectures, new in their character and difficult, which took place in a rented hall in Prague, there was a delightful experience for the audience which it may be well to mention. For some unknown reason, a government regulation required at that time the presence of a police officer at all private lectures. The listeners were treated, therefore, to the amusing spectacle of a gendarme obviously taking his job very seriously, who stood throughout all the lectures beside the speaker’s desk at which Rudolf Steiner was lecturing on physiology. From the point of view of the gendarme, the lectures were doubtless recognized as harmless, most likely not understood at all. But he performed his difficult duty to the very end efficiently. A policeman in a lecture hall was in those days still a rare occurrence, and this was taken by the listeners, therefore, as an entertaining experience. Yet in the body of this man of the law also there were at work in meaningful interaction consciousness and unconsciousness, forces and substances, just as was being daily explained from the speaker’s desk.
An important event of the year 1911 was initiated on April 8 by the fourth International Philosophical Congress, in Bologna, at which Rudolf Steiner had been invited to lecture. In Section V, which dealt with the philosophy of religion, he gave a lecture, the first part of which bore the title A Spiritual-Scientific Point of View on the Basis of Certain Psychologically Possible Facts, and the second part The Experience of the Spiritual Researcher and the Theory of Knowledge. The content of this lecture was published in the official journal of that international society and a translation into German appeared independently, which has since appeared in English translation under the title The Psychological Foundations of Anthroposophy.
During this trip into Italy, Dr. Steiner visited other famous historical and artistic centers in that country, as was his constant practice. There was always later evidence that he had observed great historical centers and artistic collections of the past, not only in the manner of intelligent travelers, but also from the point of view accessible only to one with the gift of extraordinary spiritual vision. For such experiences Ravenna proved to be especially significant, with its wonderful architectural monuments, statuary, and mosaics. In Ravenna were to be seen by one with the necessary gift innumerable secrets of history and of the development of art. Padua, likewise beautiful and impressive for all sensitive visitors, must have been in very special degree interesting to such a person as Rudolf Steiner.
Characteristically, a touch of playful humor was introduced by him while he and his friends were being conducted in Padua. When the guide had repeated from memory the names of all the famous personalities whose tombs were being visited, Dr. Steiner had him questioned in Italian as to the location of the grave of “Signor Schwertlein.” The diligent guide—uninformed as to Goethe’s Faust and Mephisto’s statement that Frau Schwertlein’s husband had been “buried in Padua”—searched his memory long and in vain and finally admitted that he did not know the location of that tomb. His honest exactitude as a guide aided the friendly humor and appreciation at the leave-taking.
For a period of recuperation from very strenuous activity and in order that Frl. von Sivers, who was accompanying Dr. Steiner, might recover from the results of an accident of many years earlier, a villa was rented for a period in Portorose, a health resort in the general area of Trieste. Here there were magnificent views in various directions and the possibility of excursions into the country and of a visit by a short steamer trip to Trieste, where Dr. Steiner could supply himself with books, and had the opportunity to inspect an extraordinary arrangement of the skeletons of the whole animal kingdom in the Museum of Natural History, a rare opportunity for visualizing the metamorphoses in evolution, to which he had many times referred.
Another source of special local scientific interest was the so-called “salt gardens,” into which ocean water was admitted, to evaporate rapidly in the heat of the sun, leaving behind ocean salt. Dr. Steiner later referred physicians many times to the healing power of this Adriatic salt. There were visits to Pirano, home of the famous composer and violinist Tartini, and to Aquileia, an ancient central point of Christian culture. Alexander Strakosch has reported very interestingly about this visit to Aquileia. He wrote:
“First we visited the Basilica, but the mosaics, a work of art of outstanding interest even by reason of its huge size of 20 by 40 meters, had not as yet been uncovered. After a short pause before the gigantic christening font in front of the church, in which the christening was still performed by complete immersion, we went to the museum. Naturally, we were concerned to distract Dr. Steiner’s attention as little as possible, but he beckoned me to him and pointed out a marble head of Socrates in a glass case. It is not a stylized presentation but quite natural. ‘Just see how like Tolstoi he looks,’ Dr. Steiner said. On the way to the station, which lay somewhat apart from the little town, the road runs through an open field; and, as we walked in a northward direction, the view opened upon the broad plain and the mountains, over which storm clouds gathered with the speed characteristic of the south. It was the hour of home-coming for man and beast after the day’s labors. Peasants came toward us, some with their tools over their shoulders, others driving homeward the weary oxen, harnessed to the yoke today exactly as in the Roman times. The people greeted Dr. Steiner out of a natural feeling of respect which the country people have not yet lost, and he returned friendly acknowledgment.”
Rudolf Steiner, in spite of his unusual external appearance—he was mostly clad in black and unconsciously stood out in the common run of persons through the measured dignity and confidence of his movements and gait and the marked character of his features—yet remained in constant friendly relation with all who came into contact with him, with peasants and philosophers, workmen and authors, simple people and scientists. Every one felt at once that this was a man who respected not only the outer but the inner worth of every person, who could establish contact with any one without the need that either person should have to surrender or veil his individuality. In the atmosphere created by him there was an element of such kindliness and ease of approach that one laid aside quite unconsciously in intercourse with him the spiritual armor that must so often be kept ready in dealing with other human beings, and felt at once completely at ease, no matter what one’s disposition. Seldom can a person of our time have called forth so much natural affection and respect and also such frankness, merely through his presence.
During the several weeks of sojourn in Portorose, Dr. Steiner was invited to lecture in Trieste, where he spoke on May 19 on The Secret of Death as Key to the Riddle of Life. This lecture took place in the hall of the Schiller Verein, which had been founded by the Austrian poet Robert Hamerling. Hamerling’s home had been in the same district, the so-called “Waldviertel” of Lower Austria, from which Rudolf Steiner’s parents also came. It was a work of Robert Hamerling whose perfection and imperfections helped to determine Rudolf Steiner’s decision as he was reflecting on the nature of artistic creation and of beauty and wrote his brochure Goethe as Father of a New Aesthetics in Vienna in 1888—89. He refers to this in The Course of My Life. He continued always to regard Hamerling’s writings with affectionate interest, and it would have been highly gratifying for the poet and his interpreters if they could have lived to experience how one of Hamerling’s works was staged thirty years later in the Goetheanum under Rudolf Steiner’s artistic direction.
At the end of May, the decision was made to pause for a time in a moderate climate before returning from the southern latitude to the north. A villa was rented for several weeks at Veldes (Bled), on the Lake of Veldes, situated amid the beautiful mountain landscape between the Karawanken Range and the Julian Alps. From the house and garden, surrounded by meadows, a view opened across the lake toward the mighty mountain range, a landscape combining vast expanses with charm in unique degree.
Just at that time Rudolf Steiner was working at his second Mystery Drama, The Soul's Probation, which, in its medieval scenes, is set in the period and the country of knights’ castles and monastic orders, and he told us later that the underlying experiences had been derived from spiritual impressions and history of the district of the Wcchsel Mountains, situated in Styria. This is the district where the knightly orders, the Moravian Brotherhoods, and the monastic orders confronted one another and where also those primitive antimony mines were located which play a role in that part of the drama. The mountain landscape of the Karawanken Range, in the midst of which he was now spending a few weeks in May 1911, must undoubtedly have awakened the memory of that other mountain region so familiar to him, and this fact assumed importance for the writing of the second Mystery Drama and its approaching first production in the following August.
At the end of May the trip was continued from Veldes to Carinthia, Styria, and Upper Austria for the purpose of visits, and to give lectures at Klagenfurt, Graz, and Linz. In the region of Klagenfurt was Margeregg Castle, owned by Ritter von Rainer, a member of the Society. He was especially interested in new ideas in agriculture, and had made many experiments in the effort to obtain wholesome bread, for which Rudolf Steiner had given advice on the occasion of such visits. The agricultural movement which Dr. Steiner initiated on a large scale in 1921-24, and which has spread to various parts of the world, was at that time still unborn, and another decade had to pass before the knowledge required had ripened sufficiently to impart a decisive impulse in this area of human life.
After lecturing in Graz on his work, Knowledge of the Higher World and Its Attainment and on Evolution of the World and of Man, and in Linz on Karma and Reincarnation, he transferred his activity to northern Europe. Lectures in Copenhagen, from June 5 to 8, on The Spiritual Guidance of Man and of Mankind contained weighty indications regarding the laws of evolution and events in spiritual history. In the preface to the printed edition of these lectures, which had been given only to a circle of members, Rudolf Steiner pointed to the need for the readers to possess the same knowledge of other spiritual-scientific works as was to be presumed on the part of the listeners, but he added that “he had reasons for allowing this work to appear just at this point in time.” The lectures proceeded from a description of the spiritual potentialities which man brings with him at birth, and show how these potentialities in successive world epochs have brought to the earth, through reincarnation, new impulses and forces out of man’s cosmic spiritual home. The planned spiritual guidance of the whole of mankind thus becomes visible. The intervention of the Hierarchical Beings and even that of the highest, the Christ Himself, effect in this way in the course of history even the changes that come about in the earthly constitution of the human race. This working of the spiritual even down into the earthly processes will in future have to be explored by humanity. Guidance along this path is available; only, man must have the will to follow it consciously. From Copenhagen Rudolf Steiner returned to the south by way of Berlin and Vienna, lecturing once in each of these cities, to spend some further time at the house on Veldes Lake, whence he returned early in May to Munich.
Here, during the first half of July, the rehearsals went forward for the three artistic festival performances announced for August. We have already described the painstaking and enthusiastic preparations on the occasion of the previous year’s performances. On this occasion, two of the Mystery Dramas were studied together, new actors joined in the work, and, on the basis of earlier experience, much could be supplemented and improved. Again the actors often received the final portions of their text from Rudolf Steiner during the rehearsal, while he was still completing the second play at night. Many voluntary helpers worked day and night to complete the costumes and scenery. Then, near the middle of August, some 800 visitors from many countries arrived in Munich. On August 13, the festival dramas at the Munich Gartnerplatz Theater began, with Schuré's Sacred Drama of Eleusis by way of introduction. On August 13, Rudolf Steiner’s first Mystery Drama, The Portal of Initiation, was performed; and on August 17, the second, The Soul's Probation. In this second Mystery Drama the fact of repeated lives on earth is brought to expression on the stage, uniting scenes of medieval times with events of the present through the action of certain characters in both periods.
It was, indeed, a strange experience for the whole audience, after the performances had ended, to emerge from this entirely new kind of world, filled with Spiritual Beings, into the every-day life of the city. All were conscious that there was spiritual significance in the fact that a large number of persons for the first time since the ancient Greek Mysteries again went out into the world to unite a knowledge of the reality of the Spiritual Beings and Powers with the practical life of the century. In these Mystery Dramas, moreover, there appeared not only as formerly the remote, unfamiliar spiritual worlds; nor were these dramas to serve merely for the purpose of catharsis, but they were to awaken in the beholder the realization that, within us, these Spirit Powers are in a conflict every moment of the day. It was with a new attitude of mind, therefore, new aims, that one consciously confronted one’s fellowmen, every ordinary phenomenon, and every ordinary task.
Through the repeated presentation of these Mystery Dramas during the succeeding four decades, such experiences have been mediated to thousands of spectators from almost all parts of the world, and such a fact is not without influence in the earthly realm. In immediate succession after the festival, Dr. Steiner gave a series of lectures in Munich between August 18 and 27 under the title Wonders of the World, Trials of the Soul, Spirit Revelations.
During the conference, the plan for erecting a building in Munich was again the subject of lively discussion, since the Gartnerplatz Theater had proved inadequate for the new artistic demands made upon it. Dr. Peipers was able to exhibit lantern slides illustrating some parts of the outline of the proposed building, while Count Lerchenfeld brought home to his listeners by means of concrete details the fact that bold plans require also large means. Rudolf Steiner arranged on August 22 for a conducted tour of Frau Strakosch-Giesler’s exhibition of paintings. For in the realm of painting, as well, he made new suggestions that had been taken up by some of his students.
In the midst of all these arrangements, Dr. Steiner was in constant demand also for private individual conversations. Thus Thekla von Reden reports in regard to that general period: “At the end of a lecture, he could be seen almost always holding a tablet of paper in his hand, standing for a long while in the foyer of the hall, in order to fix the days and hours for conversations with a truly endless multitude of people waiting around him.”
On Goethe’s birthday, August 28, Dr. Steiner spoke on Our Age and Goethe. In this lecture he stressed Goethe’s relation to his own teaching, saying: “Much of what one may call true illumination of our progress in the spiritual world, of our whole spiritual science, indeed, may take as its point of departure the contemplation of Goethe; because in Goethe everything is sound. ... Goethe is to be counted among those spirits best able to stimulate us in an Anthroposophical sense.”
To Goethe was dedicated the building begun two years later at Dornach, since the Munich plan could not be carried out.
During the second week in September, Dr. Steiner once more went to Switzerland, making a side trip from Zurich to Einsiedeln, the seat of the famous Benedictine Monastery. It happened to be just the day— September 14—of the Grand Pilgrimage, with its festival of the “Angelic Consecration” (Engelweihe), so that he made the acquaintance of Einsiedeln in the moment of its most intensive activity due to the numberless pilgrims. The principal goal of his visit was Etzel, nearby, where the great reviver of the art of healing, Theophrastus Paracelsus of Hohenheim was born in 1493. The spiritual figure of Paracelsus was, indeed, one of the prototypes of Goethe’s work on Faust. For Rudolf Steiner, who liked to seek out such historic places, it was of importance to come into contact here at the birthplace of Paracelsus with the actual earthly starting point for so unique a life. The action of spiritual and cosmic forces and Powers in nature and in man was the subject of very profound study by Paracelsus and of his teaching. He spoke of spheres of beings and of life; of the ens naturale et veneni, ens astrale, ens spirituale and ens dei in the human being, and he was a brave fighter against the rigid scientific dogmas of his age. For a time he was town physician and teacher at the University of Basel, where he was consulted by many persons, including Erasmus. But his nature, his zeal for learning, and his opponents drove him—learning, teaching, and fighting—through the world during his whole life. Constantly scoffed at and persecuted by magistrates and colleagues, he none the less remained true to his spiritual insight; and only today, after more than four hundred years, has his true significance been discovered and celebrated by the descendants of his persecutors. Thus he suffered to the full the tragic lot of all great renewers of the spiritual life. It was Goethe who first recognized in him the primal Faustian element. What arose in the soul of Rudolf Steiner during his visit to the birthplace of Paracelsus was set forth by him a few weeks later in the lecture, From Paracelsus to Goethe.
Dr. Steiner extended his Swiss journey in September to Lugano and Locarno, lecturing in both places, and then on to Milan, for a lecture on Buddha and Christ. The Sphere of the Bodhisattvas. Upon returning to Switzerland, he initiated a new Group at Neuchatel on September 27 and 28, which was named at the suggestion of its members in honor of Christian Rosenkreuz. At the opening ceremony, he spoke in detail on this great figure in the history of the spiritual life, to whom we have already referred. At Michaelmas Dr. Steiner spoke at the home of Professor Burgi in Berne to a more intimate circle. On October 1 he delivered an esoteric lecture at Basel, in which he dealt with The Etherization of the Blood and The Intervention of the Etheric Christ in World Evolution, as a development pointing to the future. With ever growing comprehensiveness and clarity there arose a new Christology, encompassing world, earth, and man, and open to the Spirit.
In September, the Congress of the European Federations, long since announced, should have taken place in Genoa; but, for obscure reasons, this had been cancelled at the last moment by Mrs. Besant. This was probably a result of the discussions previously described on the occasion of the 1909 Congress. Rudolf Steiner was not disconcerted, since much clearer and better work could be done in the absence of interference from the circle which had become victims of the ancient Orient. It was thus that he was able to deliver in Milan during the intended period of the Congress the lecture mentioned above.
Through sheer spiritual necessity, he was now compelled to defend in two different directions his conception of the Christ Being, as presented by him since 1902 in his writings, lectures, and Gospel cycles— a conception which constitutes for many persons a gift of supreme importance in their whole Eves. From both these directions the danger threatened that the true facts and spiritual impulses might become hidden or even entirely driven from human consciousness. Those two opposing streams can be characterized thus: The one threatened to bring the conception of Christ one-sidedly into an Oriental mode of thinking; the other into a too Western intellectual thinking. The one direction gave a picture of Christ that was too alien to the earth; the other a picture much too earthly. The Oriental current, shared by the Theosophists, saw in Christ not God who had become man and through His deed on earth had redeemed all mankind. This view represented Him as one of the Bodhisattvas of Oriental teaching, one of those initiates who, after numberless earthly incarnations, finally release themselves from earthly life by means of their increasing perfection. This conception Rudolf Steiner had rejected absolutely on the strength of his research and knowledge; since, for him, Christ was the God who, as the most perfect Being, had descended to earth for its salvation, and for that reason was incarnated once only in an earthly body in order, after this event—which gave the impulse for a fundamental change in cosmos, earth, and man—to remain forever united with all these spheres as a spiritual Being.
The other trend, which particularly in Western thought threatened to conceal the truth and to overwhelm it, was derived from the intellectualism that has developed in the West since the fifteenth century. It has led to materialism in natural science and to a banal and earthly conception of Christ in religion, until finally even many so-called liberal theologians speak only of “the simple man of Nazareth,” whose nature and activity are placed on a level with those of the prominent citizen of the world, capable of being interpreted by the intellectual thinking of the nineteenth century. The Christ Being had been supplanted by one-sided emphasis on the figure of Jesus. This whole trend of thinking, however, had already originated hundreds of years ago in the West, deriving in particular from the will nature of a Spaniard, Ignatius of Loyola. Even the designation Jesuitism betrays the one-sided emphasis placed on the Jesus principle within Christianity. Though not frankly admitted, it has often been the conception of the simple man of Nazareth that has prevailed in the West.
Rudolf Steiner in characterizing the tendency of a spiritual stream as well as its false currents, always first made plain its spiritual source and then the influx of other historical areas leading to the broadening of such a stream. Thus he did not simply reject what had come about, but characterized the origin and development in order that in this way others might be able to recognize for themselves where the aberrations in thought, the stoppage in development, or the pollution of a once pure source had set in. In this way humanity might be led to turn back to the beginning and choose through free insight the path to be followed.
A lecture cycle given between October 4 and 14 at Carlsruhe, From Jesus to Christ, conveyed weighty insights of this character. He showed how, on the one hand, an “inner Orient,” so to speak, had intruded into the West without being sufficiently recognized; how, on the other hand, “a dangerous over-emphasis on the Jesus principle” had come about since the Middle Ages. Between these two extremes, what had now to be done was to regain in the strength of the middle way a knowledge of the Christ Being.
The Theosophists, with their tendency to revel in sentimentality and in an Oriental flavor of thought, opposed Rudolf Steiner from their extreme point of view, and it is a grotesque example of what nonsense and contradiction an untruthful method of attack can descend to that these opponents sought to brand him as a protege of the Jesuits, whereas for many years and especially during these very months he had been pointing out the dangers of the Jesuitical esoteric exercises and the exaggeration of the one-sided will-forces contained in them, and had very definitely opposed them. This brought upon him—about this he was quite clear—the enmity of those circles which are connected with Jesuitism and which represent consciously or unconsciously similar views. Hence from that time onward there issued from the feeling and the will spheres of certain circles an attack upon a personality who endeavored to teach humanity to avoid through strengthened thinking and the truths of spiritual-scientific knowledge every one-sidedness and to guard against a dulling of consciousness by those opposing forces. Later on, he often declared that, since those lectures of 1911, hostility toward him and his work had increased, and that he simply had to face and accept this destiny.
A third accusation which some theologians, ignorant of his work, were wont to level at him, when all other weapons had become blunt, he also factually refuted in that 1911 lecture cycle. It has already been mentioned in connection with the year 1907 that this group liked to assert that Rudolf Steiner left no place for redemption and grace by the side of freedom and destiny. Precisely the opposite is the case, as may readily be discovered in a study of his works. In that very lecture cycle, he carries his presentation of the picture of the Christ to the following insight:
“If we think thus, there will come to the center of our feeling also the thought: You may be able to attain to human dignity, but one thing you must not forget, that what you are you owe to Him who restored to you your human prototype through the salvation brought about on Golgotha. To grasp the idea of freedom without the idea of salvation by Christ ought not to be found possible by mankind; on that condition alone is the idea of freedom justified. If we wish to be free, we must be ready to bring to Christ as thank offering the acknowledgment that we owe our freedom to Him. Only then can we really perceive it. And persons who believe their human dignity limited by owing it to Christ ought to recognize that human opinions do not count in comparison with cosmic facts. . . .
“In this lecture cycle we have, perhaps, had to speak much of the ‘idea of salvation’ without having used this expression often. This idea of salvation should be experienced by the seeker after the Spirit in the same way as a great forerunner of our Western Anthroposophy experienced it: that is, in such a manner that it becomes something fundamentally related and familiar to our soul as a result of our striving for the highest aims of knowing, feeling, and willing. And just as that great forerunner expressed the thought which unites the word salvation with the word striving in the saying, ‘Whoever ceases not to strive, Him can we give redemption,’ so should the Anthroposophist always feel that only he is able to conceive and to feel the true salvation— and to will it within its own sphere—who endeavors, in constant striving. . . . Salvation which is not merely to be a release from the lower earthly life and earthly destiny, but which is to be a release also from all which constitutes an obstacle for the human being, so that he may attain to his human dignity.”
On October 15, 1911, the new Group building which friends had erected in Stuttgart was solemnly dedicated. The foundation stone had been laid on January 3, and the house itself, which was in future to serve as the Stuttgart home for all programs in that city, was now finished according to the guiding principles of Rudolf Steiner under the direction of the architect Dr. Schmid-Curtius, as a first attempt to adapt spatial form to inner activity. Although this was at first possible only within a relatively limited framework, yet this building showed in many details how form and content may be brought into harmony with one another on the basis of new points of view.
In the dedication address on October 15, Dr. Steiner called to mind the historical significance of the land of Swabia for the spiritual life of Europe; that in the eighteenth century the true “Theosophy” had there been striven for by personalities such as Oettinger and others. He said that “great philosophers had been sent to us out of the same spiritual substance of this region.” In the opening address he made clear on what principle the new hall had been painted in a uniform shade of blue:
“In this hall we are surrounded for the most part by a tone of color which has been used for its decoration. The fact that in many respects we attach importance to color shadings you will have observed from the manner in which we endeavored to clothe the Mystery Dramas, and also from the coloration of other rooms to which we have been able to give attention. Now, it is by no means a matter of indifference by what tone of color a person in his varying soul moods is surrounded in an enclosed space. Neither is it unimportant what tone of color primarily exerts its influence upon a person of this or that temperament, intellectuality, or character. Again, it is not unimportant for the totality of the human organization whether a tone of color exerts its effect for a long period in frequently recurring repetition or whether its effect is merely passing. You will recall that we decorated that hall which served us for the 1907 Congress with a certain shade of red; from that must not be deduced the idea that we swear by red as the correct spatial color environment. The hall here has been covered with a different color; and, if the ground for this is questioned, the answer must be given that the hall in Munich served for a particular festival occasion of a few days, a passing event, and was intended to call up a mood suited to such an occasion. Here we have to do with a space for work. Its purpose is to provide a place where our Stuttgart friends can, again and again, from week to week, carry on their Anthroposophical reflections and work. Essentially, we have here to do with a space for recurring meetings for reflection.”
Goethe had emphasized the “sensible-ethical” effect of color, attributing to it not only a physical but also a qualitative soul value. Rudolf Steiner, on the basis of his spiritual-scientific research, now explained that the sensible-supersensible organization of a human being, in its more subtle structure of forces, enters into an interrelation with the separate color effects of light, and is able with the help of spiritual training even to attain to the perception of the reality of beings operative in light, darkness, and color. “In a red environment other beings become visible than in a blue one if one penetrates to them through the influence of color.” But through sensitive observation even the non-clairvoyant person is influenced and stimulated quite definitely by the realm of color surrounding him:
“Thus we see that, for a constantly repeated activity and one based upon a certain peace of mind, the choice must fall upon just this environment (blue). Let us suppose that at some time something especially serious is to be dealt with, but only temporarily. If we pay regard to spiritual law, it is then of great advantage—not only in order to achieve a mood of festivity, but for an inward strengthening—to be surrounded by walls that are colored red.”
He also pointed to the effect of the blue of the enveloping sky and the stimulation of the life of the soul by other experiences of color. In his later lectures on The Nature of the Colors he gave a comprehensive survey of such phenomena. We have already mentioned statements of his in this regard. Today, several decades later, the qualitative effect of colors, even in their therapeutic application, is recognized in some quarters. At that time, however, there was given the initial impulse which is still pregnant with the most varied possibilities of development.
He explained on that occasion also the use of certain motifs, figures, and forms in those rooms which could affect in their way within the etheric texture of the room, so to speak, the inner life-forces and life-rhythms of the beholder even to the extent of the living quality of the thought-forms evolved. But this, he said, must always be of such a character as to be grasped in full consciousness, without prejudice to the “inviolate sanctuary” of man’s free individuality, invoking this in its own creative forces. Above all, a grasp of the law of metamorphosis was to be fructified by artistic means through the fact, for instance, that the architraves and capitals of the columns were made to pass one into the other in a rhythmic manner. At that time this was the first germ of a new plastic art, and we shall refer later on to its large-scale realization in the Goetheanum building.
On October 16, before the lecture by Dr. Steiner, an address was given by Frl. von Sivers—as we learn from a report by Mathilde Scholl—in which was stressed: “that we must greet with glad satisfaction the founding of such a home as Stuttgart now possesses, resulting from the most splendid impulses and made possible by generous donations from friends; but that we must never let the special interest of single Groups cause us to lose sight of the exemplary aim which the erection in Munich of a unique fostering center of spiritual science constitutes for us. On the contrary, we should learn all the better to understand that such a university, intended to extend its influence beyond a small radius to the widest possible circles, has become for us a necessity of life. ... For us, it cannot be a question primarily of founding local centers, but rather of concentrating our aim upon establishing a stronghold which alone—commanding a view far and wide into the country—can give to our spiritual perspective the true central point of vantage, kindling a beacon for all near and far who, obedient to a deep yearning, long to satisfy this at this unique source. A model, too, for local centers yet to come is this building at Munich to be for us in its design, in the same way as the Mystery Dramas at Munich were a model in the realm of art.”
Instead of the Munich plans, the erection of the Dornach building was soon undertaken, this also through the understanding and energetic initiative of all the friends.
In the winter season of 1911, the Berlin public lectures, given partly in the Architektenhaus and partly in the Philharmonic Building, began on October 19, with the theme Man in Relation to the Supersensible Worlds. A lecture followed on Death and Immortality in the Light of Spiritual Science. Simultaneously there began a cycle of lectures for members on Evolution from the Point of View of the True, in which a description of the primordial beginnings of the cosmic evolution could now be ventured upon, not only in regard to substances and forces, but also as regards spiritual essence. Rudolf Steiner presented in magnificent pictures, astonishingly concrete, the primordial beginnings of the cosmic evolution, so difficult to be conceived by our present-day consciousness. What is presented by the natural science of the present time as a vague theory of the nebular origin of the universe; what is described by John the Evangelist from a religious standpoint as the deed of the Logos,— this was presented here out of spiritual-scientific research as content of knowledge, as a work of art of Creative Powers, and as substance of religious experience, capable of being grasped by human consciousness in its harmonious synthesis.
The General Meeting on December 10 presented a vivid picture of the numerous problems confronting the Society. Rudolf Steiner pointed out that a Society such as this was not merely a sum total of individuals but that “the forces of good will flowing from the hearts of many members also result in a supersensible way in a stream which flows into the evolution of humanity.” He recalled how the Munich festival performance, for example, had awakened much response in the outside world, but also the misunderstanding with which such a Movement has inevitably to contend.
The membership had grown to 2,400. A few, no longer to be traced, were stricken from the list. In the case of Dr. Vollrath, already mentioned, a discussion brought out the fact that he had been appointed from Adyau (India) as representative of the so-called “Star of the East,” an association which made itself responsible for the grotesque announcement by Mrs. Besant that the Hindu youth Krishnamurti was to be the coming Christ, an assertion it was impossible for the Society under Dr. Steiner’s leadership to countenance. Mention may be made in this connection of a few words spoken by Michael Bauer, who by reason of his kind and spirit-imbued personality contributed so much that was of value in the history of the Society. In this debate he remarked: “There is much in the world that cannot be altered by words. As to this, there are attitudes of mind which are helpful—for example, humor.” He recommended the use of this against the theories of Dr. Vollrath, and reminded his hearers at the same time of the immeasurable positive values they had received from Rudolf Steiner, whom Dr. Vollrath had attacked. “What pains me most of all is quite a different matter. Suppose you were to banish from mind and consciousness all the clarification, upliftment, and strengthening which you have received from spiritual science as given to us by Dr. Steiner. Imagine that your library contained only books which you had previously been familiar with. Then ponder for a moment upon the amount of joy and elevation, strength of knowledge, and fructification you have experienced in the course of the years, and compare this with your previous experiences. This will give you a picture of what the Society used to be and what it is now. ... This we have experienced, but we have also had the experience that there were people in our midst who poisoned and polluted those sources. ... Today we still have, perhaps, the opportunity to infuse health into the organism of our Society, and I appeal to you to make energetic efforts today to prevent similar things from confronting us at a future General Meeting.”
Rudolf Steiner allowed the debate to run its course without taking part, in order to let members form their own judgment. At the close, however, he made a distinction between “exclusion” and a decision “no longer to regard a person as a member of the Society,” of which he preferred the latter. He said in regard to it:
“What a tyranny would come into the world if every one could compel a society to have him as a member. If tyranny were to go so far that everybody were in a position to force himself upon a society which did not wish to work with him, where should we be?”
He said that to indulge in further argument on the absurd ideas of Mrs. Besant and her representatives in the Society would be senseless. It would be for him “impossible to defend the President [Mrs. Besant].” For agreement was no longer possible regarding the absurdities of the Orientalizing Theosophists if the Society wished to maintain the purity of its spiritual heritage. The causes for the final break, which was to occur in the following year, were already plain to see.
In connection, therefore, with this General Meeting a step was now taken which was to lead to the independent existence of the Anthroposophical Society: first, the founding of an association on December 14 which, in its statutes, “had nothing whatever to do with the Theosophical Society either in form or content,” and which was provisionally to unite those who were active on the basis of Rudolf Steiner’s work. Measures were also taken to promote and guarantee the artistic endeavors so important in the Movement. The meeting ended with a lecture by Dr. Steiner and a program of artistic recitation by Frl. von Sivers.
On December 12 there was a General Meeting of the Johannes Building Association, which had undertaken to promote the erection of a building for the Society, for which friends had tentatively adopted the name “Johannes Building.” This name alluded not only to the central figure in the Mystery Dramas but also to that spiritual stream which Rudolf Steiner had described in the lectures on the Gospel of St. John.
During the days following, from December 12 to 16, Dr. Steiner gave a course on Pneumatosophy, which carried the spring lectures on Psychosophy from the realm of the psychic to that of the spiritual. He began with the fact that in Aristotle the wisdom of antiquity had reached a certain termination, a wisdom which continued, indeed, to nourish for a few centuries longer a humanity growing ever more estranged from the Spirit. In this historical process humanity had lost the earlier knowledge of reincarnation and the reality of the spiritual nature of man, for which a new point of departure now exists for our age:
“As regards the doctrine of the Spirit we stand at a turning point. It will be possible through spiritual science to pass beyond Aristotle only if one provides a scientific basis for reincarnation. Such a scientific basis, however, has never been provided up to the present time. Thus we stand basically, in regard to the doctrine of the Spirit, at a critical point at which, by means of spiritual-scientific research, we are able to go beyond Aristotle in a true and basic fashion and provide a scientific foundation for reincarnation.”
Building upon the results of modem science, he now went more deeply during these lectures into spiritual impulses and forces which are at work in the process of humanity’s conceptual and perceptual life, feeling, and willing, and described the stages of knowledge of present-day imagination, inspiration, and intuition which lead to these findings of spiritual research.
This exposition was supplemented by the lecture cycle following in Hannover between December 27, 1911, and January 1, 1912, on The World of the Senses and the World of Spirit. Here he gave the guiding principles of a new theory of the senses which recognizes the differentiation between the human physical and spiritual organs and senses. This sphere of research was developed by him in the years following in a systematic scientific manner, particularly after 1916. To this we shall later revert. Modern science takes account only of the increasingly decadent bodily senses. If it desires to expand its sphere of perception, the accurate development of new organs of knowledge must be included which are potentially inherent in man:
“The relation of the world of the senses to the world of Spirit is such that the world of the senses is indicated by organs that are in process of decay, the world of Spirit by those in process of ascent.”
Every kind of human sensible and supersensible perception was consistently investigated after the methods of natural science and spiritual science by Rudolf Steiner in its genesis and its premisses, and also its functioning even into its psycho-spiritual as well as physiological effects. Thus is man able to discover the measure and direction of his future evolution in himself, in “Anthropos.” The cosmic age demanded an Anthroposophy, and the basis of knowledge and method of schooling were provided for this, step by step.