The Life and Work of Rudolf Steiner
1919
The craving of the Goetheanists of the nineteenth century had been to understand the world as a totality, and to form the practical life on the basis of such a world-picture. This was now achieved in the pedagogical field through the founding of the Waldorf School, one of the largest private schools in Europe; in the world of art through public programs of Eurythmy and the presentation of Faust; in science through the first comprehensive Course in Natural Science, given in December 1919; in the social life through the public presentation of the idea of the threefold social order.
An intensification of this process will later be experienced. During the first three months and a half, Dr. Steiner made his preparations in Dornach, strengthened the foundations in knowledge, gave the first challenge for the coming action. His lecture of January 1 again established the fact that the new revelation for the spiritual guidance of man and of humanity had existed since the beginning of the century; that it only needed to be accepted; that it was necessary only to overcome the resistance:
“The fact that human beings resist the acceptance of such a revelation obviously does not remove from the world the fact that such a revelation has come. This revelation is streaming like a new spiritual wave through all that is occurring in which man himself is involved. This spiritual wave cannot, as it were, be thrust back by man from the earth. It is streaming over the earth. This is one fact. In other words, I mean to say that for a certain length of time—especially since the beginning of the twentieth century or, to be more exact, since the year 1899 approximately—while we as human beings move about in the world, we are within a new wave of the spiritual life, which is streaming into the rest of the life of humanity. And the only spiritual researcher today is a human being who admits this: that is, one who observes that something like this has broken in upon the life of humanity. This is one fact.
“The other fact is that human beings, precisely according to their contemporary attitude of mind, need to energize themselves, need a certain activity, in order to observe that such a wave is streaming into the life of the world. It is for this reason, you must understand, that the strange thing could occur that this wave has, on the one hand, actually streamed into life and is present here and that, on the other hand, human beings will not observe the fact; that they resist it. These facts must not be observed in a merely abstract way. For the centers, in a certain sense, the middle points into which this wave is emptying—somewhat as an electrical current empties into a coherer in the case of wireless telegraphy—the coherers in this realm, in other words, the middle points into which this wave empties, are actually the souls of human beings themselves. And do not let yourselves be deceived in regard to this; such is actually the fact. While human beings live upon the earth, because of the mere fact that they are human beings of the twentieth century, they are the receiving apparatus for what is streaming into life in the manner I have described. The human being may resist accepting this in his consciousness. But he cannot, nevertheless, prevent his soul from receiving the thrust of this wave; the fact that the thrust of the wave is within him.”
This renovating wave of the stream out of the spiritual world, from the sphere of supersensible Beings, which is received in the deeper regions of the unconscious in man, must be taken with complete clarity into the waking consciousness and transformed into an organizing force and impulse for action. Referring once more to the mood of expectation of such great personalities as Plato and Goethe, to the transformation of spiritual revelation into social activity by personalities such as Niklaus von der Flüe, Rudolf Steiner declared that the situation created by the end of the World War placed humanity before the necessity to undertake a solution for the social question on the basis of spiritual-scientific conceptions of life and in accordance with reality.
Before an expansive activity in behalf of this impulse, Rudolf Steiner again gave an example of helpfulness for the victims of the World War just ended. On January 16, 1919, he arranged for the presentation of scenes from the Second Part of Goethe's Faust at the Goetheanum for seriously wounded Germans still remaining in Switzerland. Moreover, an extra edition of his work Through the Spirit to a Knowledge of the Human Riddle in Keeping with Reality was printed for the bookshop of the German prisoners of war, and it aided many of them in grievous hours. Still further, a special Eurythmy program was given on August 11 in Dornach for children from Munich vacationing in Switzerland in order to receive better nourishment.
At the beginning of February, Dr. Steiner addressed his well known challenge To the German People and the Cultural World, in which was brought into a clear light the historical development which had led to the contemporary tragedy. In this serious situation, the appeal was addressed to those in positions of responsibility and possessing insight:
“Instead of the petty thinking about the very next requirements of the moment, a broader conception of life must now take place which will strive with strong thinking to comprehend the evolutionary forces of modern humanity and to devote oneself with courageous determination to these forces."
This was followed by a brief presentation of the fundamental ideas underlying the threefold conception of the social organism, showing how the natural forces of evolution at the present time are striving toward a new molding of the relations among the spiritual life, the life of the state, and the economic life. With the help of friends, this writing was undersigned within a brief time by a great number of well-known personalities and also published in many of the greater newspapers.
At the same time, working at the foundations in knowledge of all this undertaking was continued intensely. After the important lectures of January 24-26 in Dornach on the threefold nature of man and of the social structure, Dr. Steiner then gave public lectures in February in Zurich, Bern, Basel, and Winterthur under the title The Social Question. On February 25 he gave a lecture to students in Zurich on the subject of The Social Will. A number of lectures followed in various cities during March and April dealing with the question: What Meaning Has the Work of the Modern Proletaria? and similar themes. In these lectures he gave manifold glimpses into the efforts for a solution of the social question as demanded by reality. Very important also was the expansion of this area in cognition and in activity into the international sphere. Thus on March 11 Dr. Steiner gave a public lecture in Bern on the occasion of the meeting of the League of Nations on The True Foundations for a Union of Peoples in the Economic, Political, and Spiritual Forces of the Peoples. The manner in which these various types of knowledge resulted organically out of his spiritual research with regard to man himself comes to light in the following statement:
“I do not believe that we should have arrived at a true understanding of the idea of the threefold nature of the social organism if I had not beforehand carried out my research in the human organism itself: that research in the human organism regarding which I have spoken, at least with certain indications, in my book Riddles of the Soul. There I showed that the ordinary natural human organism is of a threefold nature; that this natural human organism is threefold in its differentiation into an organism of nerves and senses, a rhythmical organism, and a metabolic organism. To recognize these three members of the natural human organism is of the utmost importance for the present-day thinking of humanity. And by means of this cognizing which the human being exercises in connection with this view of the threefold natural human organism one arrives also at a true cognition of the social organism in its threefold nature."
After decades of research had brought to him the resulting knowledge based upon the being of man, the solution of the social question could now be organically deduced from this and transmitted to others.
Activity in the field of art during these months—public presentations of Eurythmy and of parts of Faust—provided a valuable counter influence against the chaotic emotional forces of the period. Here again there was revealed the living organic seven-year rhythm. Rudolf Steiner had given the first suggestions in relation to Eurythmy in 1912; by 1919 this had developed to such an extent that it was possible to give the first public programs for larger audiences in a number of Swiss and German cities. After seven years of development, Eurythmy could pursue its own path of life in the world. In the work of discipline for the spiritual, artistic, and social tasks of the times, the following lectures given in Dornach clarified the historical perspectives and their application to problems of the present. To this end, Dr. Steiner gave a presentation of the historical development of the Middle European citizenry from the Middle Ages up to the time of Goetheanism; described the decadence of the ancient forces of the Nibelungs, and the irruption of alien elements into the original culture—for instance, the permeation of the spiritual life with Greek culture, and the life of the state and of economics with the Roman conception of rights. He spoke of the significant tasks of Switzerland, which had to a great extent remained free of the Roman conception of rights. He showed the way to a reorganization of the European situation and a healing of the social life of humanity through the impulses innate in the social organism.
In the first weeks of April 1919, his work The Threefold Commonwealth was published in book form. This volume, issued by the Trustees of the Goetheanum, Dornach, and issued at the same time in Dornach, Stuttgart, and Vienna, reached in its first year a total of eighty thousand copies, and it has since been spread over the whole world in many translations. It presented what he knew well as "the path of a social will toward a known goal"; described the laws of evolution and the inherent facts in the economic and the spiritual life and the life of the state; and prescribed the steps required for bringing about a "sound organization of these three realms of life within the social order.”
On April 19, after this fundamental preparation in Dornach, Rudolf Steiner entered upon a notable journey into Germany, where a great number of active collaborators within the Society and also in the outer world impatiently awaited him, with the determination to represent his new impulses and to struggle to bring them to realization. On April 22 there occurred a meeting of a committee in Stuttgart together with persons who came together from elsewhere as representatives of Dr. Steiner's challenge to the German people and the cultural world, and in the evening a public lecture by Dr. Steiner before a gathering of those who had undersigned his challenge. Large numbers of very active persons interested in this new impulse shared in that meeting. The following weeks were devoted to an intensive training of collaborators within the circles of the Society, a number of public lectures resulting from invitations received from labor unions connected with numerous industries and deeply concerned with social problems; and conferences with personalities in public life.
For those cooperating with him he gave to the Stuttgart branch of the Society between April 21 and June 22 a cycle of lectures entitled Spiritual-Scientific Treatment of Social and Pedagogical Questions. The first three lectures gave an introduction to the conception of the threefold social order, which he designated as an "esoteric prelude to an exoteric treatment of the social question." Four additional lectures dealt with Cultural History in Relation to Pedagogy and three special lectures dealt with Elementary Pedagogy. For a solution of the social question bearing within it the seeds of the future required that pedagogy be now placed at the very center of measures to be undertaken within the coming months, in order that on the basis of true knowledge true actions might become facts of evolution. During these first weeks of training for the collaborators in Stuttgart, Rudolf Steiner himself was under tremendous pressure every day by reason of the overwhelming events in the external world. To understand this, the existing situation must be clearly viewed.
The German Chancellor of the moment, Prince Max of Baden, was a personality of good intentions but without the capacity to meet the overwhelming demands of the period. Since Dr. Steiner never neglected any opportunity of possible assistance to responsible statesmen, if such a request came to him, copies of the lecture series on the nature of the Folk Souk, as described by Rudolf Steiner before the war, and also the content of the memorandum of 1917 on the threefold nature of the social order, were both presented to the Chancellor. Count Arthur Polzer-Hoditz, former Cabinet Minister of Austria, reports in his memoirs regarding this effort to provide Prince Max with orientation with reference to the threefold social organism:
“I was told that Kühlmann was familiarized with the idea and also that the later German Chancellor, Prince Max of Baden, became interested and discussed these matters with Dr. Steiner. Neither the one nor the other came forward with this idea. I can very well understand this. But I was personally of the impression that precisely that period was capable of accepting great ideas, and that it would not have been disadvantageous if such an idea had been thrust upon the world even without any intermediation. It probably would have been violently assaulted, bitterly judged, and torn to pieces. Yet it would have been there. The world would have been compelled to take cognizance of it; and, if it was good, it would in the end have won its way. It would have been an experiment well worth making."
But, in spite of all friendly interest, and in spite of the judgment of some statesmen that the time was capable of accepting a great idea, the last Chancellor of the old German regime did not take the risk of such a challenge to the world. And those now entering into the responsibility of rulership in the chaos and revolution of the year 1919 had fallen into a blind and hopeless intellectual Marxism, declared long before by Rudolf Steiner to be anti-social. There was no hope for any help from these circles to save the situation.
Rudolf Steiner turned, therefore, to those persons who, in the very midst of concrete anxieties and suffering, were struggling with the catastrophic condition of the world; who, representing a living force arising from the depths of the people themselves, might be capable of becoming the recipients of a new message and of its realization in practice. The masses of the people, stirred to the depths of their souls by the experiences by recent months, left in the lurch by the old holders of power, surfeited with the phrases and passwords of political agitators, driven to despair by food problems, had been brought to the very boiling point of revolution. Any one at that time who was not simply grieving over the past in complete inactivity, or, on the contrary, eagerly heeding the passwords of innumerable wildly struggling demagogues, any one who was seeking for a clear and true direction toward a systematic reconstruction of the social order, was in a position of the utmost need. It required courage to address one5s questions and requests for help to an "outsider" who had nothing whatever to do with all the dominating mass movements of the times. Some employers and a greater number of workers who had heard of the ideas of Rudolf Steiner achieved this courage, and urged him to give lectures before the labor unions of the great industries. It required far greater courage at that time to venture among these storm waves of excited human beings and to speak about something which so completely contradicted all the theories and all the powers of the moment. Rudolf Steiner possessed this unique courage. When in his quiet, full-toned voice, shaping his words out of the utmost self control, he spoke to the stormy sea of such meetings of laborers, the aroused waves of excitement changed into quiet and listening reflection; the representatives of emotional passwords and phrases had gradually to step into the background. In the hearts of the best in these great gatherings there developed an affirmative answer or at least the earnest desire for further clarification of the new ideas, which he gave to them patiently, understandingly, basing his answers upon solid reality, demanding an effort for knowledge and leading toward right action. He could not be influenced by any evil word of his opponents, any excited interruption, any impatience of those too indolent to think or prisoners of phrases, any hesitancy of those willing to think, any diverting argument in the midst of the discussion, any effort at disturbance. Step by step, he continued to develop before his hearers the elementary foundations of his ideas looking to the solution of the burning questions of the moment. He spoke in this way during those days before the employees of the great Stuttgart industries, those of the Waldorf-Astoria Factory, the Bosch Works, the factory of J. del Monte, the Daimler Works, and also in other cities. He spoke upon invitation during discussion evenings in the Labor Union House with committees representing the workers of the great industries of Stuttgart. He spoke with leading industrialists—for instance, with Robert Bosch, to the employers who were willing to listen to him or to discuss these questions with him in the Industrial Council, and also to those persons who were involved with their problems between the employers and the employees, to the technicians; on July 1, for instance, at sessions of the commission of the “Union of Technical Associations”; on July 19 before the Union of Younger Teachers.
Simultaneously with these numerous lectures, discussions, and conferences, preliminary work was proceeding toward the founding of a uGultural Council,” so that on May 30 and June 7 meetings took place for discussion in regard to the founding of this cultural council. This institution was to create for the free spiritual life—cultural activity, the universities, technical schools and pedagogy in general, and for art—a sphere within which this might freely develop. In these months Rudolf Steiner spoke also for great numbers of persons in public lectures on The Threefold Commonwealth on Ways Out of the Social Need and to a Practicable Goal. He spoke in the large auditorium of the Siegle House in Stuttgart under the title The Impulse Toward a Threefold Organism, No Mere Idealism but the Immediate Practical Demand of the Moment; The Social Element in the Institutions of Law and of the Economic Life and the Freedom of the Human Spirit; Freedom for the Spirit, Equality in Rights, Brotherhood in the Economic Life. But he spoke also on the fundamentals of his research and knowledge: The Supersensible Being of Man and the Development of Humanity; Knowledge of the Supersensible Being of Man and the Task of the Present Time. Within the circle of his active collaborators, and also in a broader environment, he dealt with the tasks of elementary education. In the midst of this manifold labor, having to do with knowledge and clarification, he gave opportunity also for art to contribute its healing force. On May 25 and June 19, 24, and 27, on the occasions of public Eurythmy programs, he gave introductory addresses regarding the nature and the goal of the new direction of art.
All of this he supplemented still further with a comprehensive literary activity. One asks inevitably when he found the time to write all of these fundamental illuminating articles, but even in the first volume of the weekly founded at that time in Stuttgart, Dreigliederung des sozialen Organismus, one finds thirty-six detailed contributions by Rudolf Steiner. This magazine, the first number of which was published on July 8, 1919, became under the able leadership of Ernst Uehli a valuable organ within the social movement. In the course of the same months a monthly publication was founded by the "Swiss Union for the Threefold Social Order” under the competent leadership of Dr. Roman Boos, of Zurich. AU of these magazines published also numerous articles by Rudolf Steiner dealing with the social questions.
The "Union for the Threefold Social Order," founded in Stuttgart in May 1919, arranged, in addition to lectures by Rudolf Steiner, also addresses by many other speakers capable of contributing toward the right guidance and practical application in the movement. For instance there were "student evenings” during which the manifold problems were discussed and clarified in open forums. We have already indicated by a few examples how much was involved in this tremendous spiritual and physical achievement under the leadership of a single human being. Thousands of persons will still remember how in these tense months, characterized by daily new situations of turbulence, under the shattering influence of revolutions and of explosive uprisings of masses of men, Rudolf Steiner placed before the world, with a clarity and certitude of direction based upon profoundest inner calm and self-mastery, his ideas and helpful proposals.
What was still obviously the most essential thing for him in this time of tension was the continuation of his spiritual scientific research and work, which he himself never interrupted. But, wherever he was called upon, approached with a genuine desire to receive such helpful spiritual insight, he never failed, but always maintained the contact between spiritual knowledge and the active transformation of the world. When, however, at that time and later in periods of tension there was an excited tendency for constant action amid these daily struggles, he pointed out the due limits of such activity or left people to learn their lessons.
The mastery of Rudolf Steiner lay precisely in the balance he maintained between extremes. He never withdrew from the world but also never permitted his course to be determined by the pressure of contemporary events.
When, after all the events described above, Dr. Steiner had once more given a lecture on August 2 in Stuttgart for technicians and had concluded on the 3rd his series of lectures regarding Spiritual-scientific Treatment of Social and Pedagogical Questions for the training of his collaborators in that place, he returned again to Dornach to continue here his foundation-laying creative work. He made known at once in introductory lectures on August 9 and 10 his decision to bring his pedagogical ideas to realization in a school to be founded by the industrialist Emil Molt. This will be discussed in detail later. In the following Dornach lectures, he made it clear that the problem of education is primarily a problem of the training of teachers and spoke about his ideas and plans for carrying out this difficult task. He made it clear that the life-epochs and the threefold structure of the human being constitute the sound foundation for a pedagogy based upon the actual nature of the developing child. He pointed out the possibilities and also the hindrances existing in the spiritual and political situation, and differentiated the social question as it exists in the East, the Middle, and the West.
The Eurythmy program for children on vacation from Munich, already mentioned, occurred at this time, as well as presentations for a more extensive public. All such presentations were the result of important new information given by Rudolf Steiner, who himself at that time drew all the forms which the artists carried out in the presentation of musical works or poetry through Eurythmy. Many of these forms he drew during rehearsals with chalk upon the floor of the stage; most of them, however, on a sheet of paper. Many of these sketches and drawings for the forms of Eurythmy have been preserved from the earliest years and are still rendering service to artists both for purposes of teaching and also for actual programs.
In the course of time, there arose also special compositions for use in Eurythmy and for teaching this art. Rudolf Steiner himself wrote at that time a preface for such first contributions by various artists connected with the Goetheanum.
Now that war was over, the constructional, plastic, and painting work on the Goetheanum could be continued more intensity with a larger corps of cooperators. Every hour that was not occupied by lectures or conferences was spent by Dr. Steiner himself at the building, in the great workshop, with the sculptors where they were working, or on the scaffold at the top of which the two mighty domes of the building were being painted, giving directions, correcting mistakes, helping, himself active with the chisel or with the brush.
Once this work at Dornach was progressing rapidly and safely, he again began lecture tours at the end of August in order to bring to realization in actual work the social impulses imparted in the early part of the year in Germany. Before the founding of the Waldorf School at the beginning of September, he gave a cycle of lectures between August 21 and September 5 under the title The General Knowledge of Man as the Basis for Pedagogy. Thus the fundamental directions made known in his early pedagogical lectures and publications in the years 1903 and 1906 could be brought to realization in 1919. The pedagogy represented by him, as he had always emphasized, was never to be based upon theories or maxims for instruction applied to the child from without, but was to be developed out of an insight into the human being himself, the facts of his evolution, the rhythms in his development, and the organically resulting stages in his transformation and unfolding. The content of his teaching in this field must be discovered in his many pedagogical lectures of this time and of later periods. In the course of this cycle of lectures, there were sometimes evenings devoted to a “pedagogical seminar,” in which the training of the teacher took on a concrete form. Here there was something new, not only in the content of the lectures and the instruction, but also in the fact that Rudolf Steiner chose for this training not only professional teachers but also other persons who, by reason of their previous education and their human qualities, might be suited for this talk. Naturally, these first beginnings have gone through many transformations, but there was now for the first time a body of teachers gathered together which rendered it possible to found a school based upon the fundamental principles of a new pedagogy.
The founding of the Waldorf School in Stuttgart came out of the initiative of Emil Molt, owner of the well known Waldorf-Astoria factory, who combined with his business abilities and gifts for organization also a profound understanding of social questions. His plan at first was to provide for the children of the workers and employees of his factory a new and sound education, and he knew that the most valuable advice and help could be obtained from Rudolf Steiner. He turned, therefore, to Dr. Steiner with the request that he take responsibility for the organization of the school and the direction of his pedagogy. In regard to this he wrote later:
“The original idea which led to the founding of this school was a social one, to provide for the children of workmen and employees the same teaching and education enjoyed by children of families with means. The insight was involved that the social chasm might begin to close if the problem of education were no longer dependent upon money, and that our cultural, economic, and political advancement would be possible only if all children, without distinction of the class to which their parents belonged, were permitted to share in the same educational system.
“In that period of revolutionary change at the end of 1918 and the beginning of 1919, and in the midst of the universal helplessness, no progress whatever was to be expected unless the social question should be grasped and understood as primarily a question of soul and spirit, and this is still true. There was much talk at this time about the so-called unitary school. But to us it seemed more important to found such a school than to talk about it. At first we thought only of a factory school, as an annex to the Waldorf factory, whose workers at that time already had at their disposal a sort of continuation school. Later, when it became known that Dr. Steiner had accepted the leadership of the school, the children of certain friends and acquaintances were added to the factory children so that on September 7, 1919, there could be a festive opening of the school with two hundred children and about fifteen teachers...
“Looking back, one can well say that it was a great experiment: to bring together children out of all schools, from the lowest grades in the elementary school, from the secondary schools, the technical schools, the technical gymnasiums, and gymnasiums, boys and girls, of all religious creeds. From the very beginning, all of these came together in the Waldorf School, children out of every stratum of the population. The teachers had to be drawn together from various regions and then prepared in advance by Dr. Steiner. There was no building available—no organization—no school bank—no book. There was available only a decidedly modest amount of money for the beginning. The school had to come into existence out of absolutely nothing. But, as actual assets, there were present the firm determination to help in the ascent of humanity and the inestimable good fortune to have won Rudolf Steiner as founder of a new pedagogy based upon his spiritual-scientific knowledge.”
Emil Molt now acquired a building, which he caused to be remodeled in a splendid manner. In the forenoon of September 7, the hall of the building was filled with teachers, children, parents, relatives and friends, all in a mood of festivity. In his opening address Rudolf Steiner said among other things:
From the words of Herr Molt you will have understood out of what spirit he has taken the initiative to found this Waldorf School of his. You will have seen from his words that this founding of a school has not arisen out of any ordinary motive, but because of the call which resounds so clearly out of the evolution of humanity in just our time, and which is, nevertheless, so little understood. Whereas much which resounds out of this evolution of humanity can be included within the framework of the social organizing of human history, the social reconstruction, there is something else in this call which should not be overlooked: beyond everything else,—there is in this call the question of education. One can be quite certain that the only persons who rightly heed this call for a social renovation amidst the confusing chaos of the demands of the present time are those who follow the effect of this chaos all the way into the problems of education...
“For me, it was a sacred duty to take upon me what was included in the purposes of our friend Herr Molt in the founding of this Waldorf School in such a way that the school might take form out of what it is permitted to believe has been achieved at the present time through spiritual science. This school is really to be integrated into that which is demanded by the evolution of humanity precisely in our time and for the immediate future.”
He described in detail the threefold task of the teacher: to awaken in the growing human being “a science which is becoming alive, an art becoming alive, a religion becoming alive.”
“The conviction that the call coming to us out of the evolution of humanity demands a new spirit for the present time, and that we must carry this new spirit most of all into the system of education,—it is this conviction which underlies the endeavors of this Waldorf School, which is to become a model in this direction."
He then discussed the most essential principles of education which were to be realized in the school, emphasizing also what was not included in its purposes:
“Thus we desire to give form to this Waldorf School out of a new spirit. And you will have observed also what this is not to become. Under no circumstances is it to become a school representing a world view. Any one who may say that Anthroposophically oriented spiritual science founds the Waldorf School and intends to introduce its world view into the school—this I say now on the opening day—will not be telling the truth. We have not the least desire to introduce to the growing human being our so-called 'dogmas； our principles, the content of our view of the world. We are not seeking to bring about a dogmatic kind of education. What we seek to bring about is that the gains we have made through spiritual science shall become a living deed in the field of education...
“To you, who are parents of the first children sent to this school, it is permissible to say that you are pioneers not only for a human personal purpose but for the cultural demands of our time, and that you will rightly understand what is now to occur in relation to the Waldorf School only if you feel yourselves to be such pioneers...
“Whereas we seek for the basis and the fountainhead in all the essentials of education in the whole human being, and endeavor to build on the basis of the whole human being, we desire to blend the social question of education within the total question of our time. Unitary school—this is what our time says. Into no other kind of school will that art of instruction and education enter which will derive its competence, as has been indicated, out of the total human being. If humanity is to live in the future in a socially right way, humanity must educate its children in a socially right way. In order that this may be done we desire to make a small contribution through the Waldorf School.
“May that which we shall achieve—perhaps only partially, even with the best will we are able to bring to bear—not exhaust its powers within our feeble attempt. May it find successors! For we are convinced that, even if our feeble effort is defeated through opposition and lack of understanding, that which constitutes the inner essence of this endeavor must find successors. For, when once a right social art of instruction and education enters into the consciousness of the whole of humanity, then will the school stand in the right way in the midst of social life.
“May the Waldorf School succeed in making a small contribution toward this great goal.”
Within a few years the school had grown to an enrollment of 1,100 pupils and 76 teachers, and—most regrettably—many hundreds of children applying for entrance had to be rejected. During these years teachers and educators have come from all parts of the world to visit the Waldorf School in order to acquaint themselves with the content of the widely known pedagogical writings of Rudolf Steiner as practically realized. The concept of the Waldorf School has become worldwide and other schools have been founded on the same basis in various lands.
On the opening day a children's program of Eurythmy rendered visible the wholesome application of this art in education. As Rudolf Steiner mingled in the afternoon in all the further occurrences of the opening day with teachers and parents, one could observe how open-hearted the children were toward him. Children generally had a direct feeling of confidence in the loving understanding, goodness of heart, and helpfulness which came to meet them out of his nature.
The following weeks of September were occupied with a lecture tour to German cities. After a final Stuttgart lecture on The Necessity for New Methods of Spiritual Cognition: a Demand of the Present Time, he spoke during September 12-16 in Berlin on The Riddles of Our Time and the Threefold Commonwealth, but gave an introductory address also upon the occasion of a public program of Eurythmy, and on September 12 formally opened the new rooms of the Berlin Branch. In Dresden he spoke during September 18-20, on the occasion of a program of elementary public schools on the threefold nature of the social organism, and before the Schopenhauer Society on the philosophical justification of Anthroposophy. On September 25 there occurred in Stuttgart one of the conferences, now very frequent, with the faculty of the Waldorf School, and a further conference regarding the Cultural Council which was to be established.
After these eventful months, during which so much could be transferred to the realm of action and practice of life which had been developed during decades of work, he returned at the beginning of October to his place of labor in Dornach. Here there was growing up in the building itself a symbol of the totality of all this manifold activity. The spiritual work of the following weeks led here to the important lectures of November 1919 on The Mission of Michael, lectures prepared beforehand through concentrated creative work in knowledge and spiritual discipline, and through the living application of all the arts in the organism of the building, and the further elaboration of the social impulse for the future.
By way of preliminary introduction, Rudolf Steiner spoke on October 4 on the stages in cognition—imagination, inspiration, and intuition—in their relation to the seven-year epochs in the life of man, and regarding the significance of such stages in development within the practice of teaching. A historical retrospect then led from that ancient time in which the initiates still gave form to the destiny of the people, past the epochs of the rulership of the "priestly" type, and down to the present epoch of mastery by the “economic" type. These lectures also provide important information regarding the activity of the Luciferic and the Ahrimanic Powers; regarding the incarnation of Lucifer in the pre-Christian Orient and the present preparations of Ahriman for his future incarnation on earth; regarding the influence of such Beings upon the poles of intelligence and will in man; the separation and specialization of the primeval wisdom according to the territories of the earth. He pointed out the peril of an Ahrimanizing of the entire culture of humanity in our time which only a spiritual training leading to a spiritual world consciousness can successfully oppose.
Together with this internal work of training at Dornach, he gave during these weeks a series of public lectures in Bern, Basel, and Zurich on The Spiritual-Scientific Basis of the Social Question and on The Social Future. During this period Eurythmy also unfolded into an intensified activity; within eight weeks, fifteen artistic programs were presented in Dornach and in the cities just mentioned. As a culmination of the work of training in Dornach, Dr. Steiner gave during November 21—30 the foundation-laying cycle of lectures on The Michael Impulse under the title The Mission of Michael, the Revelation of the Real Mysteries of Man's Being.
When Dr. Steiner had decided in the spring of 1913 to erect the Goetheanum building on the Dornach hill, he gave immediately after communicating this decision several lectures on the theme From Gabriel to Michael, as we have already mentioned. Under the influence of the being and the activity of Gabriel, there had been embodied in history a definite attitude of consciousness and mold of thinking in the human being. It is the attitude related to revelation received and accepted passively. Under the influence of Michael are those epochs in history when man himself, through his own activity, achieves a new relation to liis earthly and spiritual environment. Every epoch in history bears in its nature something from the impression of one of the Archangels mentioned in the Gospels. There have been times in history and also centers of spiritual radiation where the passively received revelations became the dominant thing in the attitude of the human being. There have been other times and other centers of out-streaming influence where the active spirit of Michael, who conquers the Dragon, became dominant in thinking and action. For example, it is certainly no accident that, in so many of the places where the messengers from the North, especially from the Irish centers, established Christianity, sanctuaries dedicated to Michael were erected. Gabriel had been the Announcer of the corporeal-earthly birth of Christ. Michael the path-breaker for the spiritual comprehension of the Being of Christ. These facts of human evolution had been presented by Rudolf Steiner from the very beginning of his work and in many aspects. What he now placed in the forefront of these Dornach lectures was the declaration of the necessity of a "Michael thinking55 as the basic substance of the spiritual-scientific knowledge and social activity of our age.
The attitude of consciousness of the Middle Ages and up to the nineteenth century was permeated by a spirit taking a receptive attitude toward nature. The sense organs were the doors through which nature manifested her being; but, of course, only her corporeal-sensible being. This fact led man to a reflection about nature and himself which, in the last analysis, gives credence only to the corporeal-material element, which causes man himself to appear a result of an evolution similar to that of the animal and plant. Such an attitude had naturally to end in materialism, which looked upon any active penetration into the realm of the spiritual-supersensible world as unreal, indeed impossible. Whatever was not manifest to the bodily senses was for this epoch alien, unconscious, unreal. This phase in human thinking was bom in the fifteenth century; and by the nineteenth century, in spite of the continued confidence its representatives had in it, was on the way to dying out. Yet these methods of thinking have continued until the present time to exercise their evil influence. The passive slipping into the World War and into social chaos had been their accomplishment; yet human beings did not yet realize that this phase in the evolution of human thinking had run its course.
In relating the events of the year 1912—that is, seven years before the present time—we called attention to the manner in which Rudolf Steiner explained that turning point which had brought about in the year 1879 a new point of departure for future evolution, and which can be characterized as standing under the sign of "Michael's victory over the Dragon.” What Rudolf Steiner had brought to bear upon human consciousness at that time was now, seven years later, placed at the center of reflection and of discipline. This is the fact of the dawn of a new phase in evolution, which is called upon to develop in this spirit of Michael a living, active thinking, which brings with it out of the free will of man once more the power to penetrate into the supersensible realms of the world. He said in regard to this:
“We are now living in the time of the Michael revelation. It is actually present like the other revelations. But it no longer presses upon man, because he has entered into the evolution of his freedom. We must move forward to meet the revelation of Michael; we must prepare ourselves in such a way that He sends into us the strongest forces so that we become conscious of the supersensible in the immediate environment of the earth.”
What had been freely given to the human being as revelation in earlier stages of evolution, what he had lost in the last preceding stage,—this he must again bring within the sphere of his own consciousness through his own active entrance upon the next stage of his evolution. The spiritual, the supersensible must be recognized through this active, living thinking and research even to its last effects in the kingdoms of nature. But man must also learn again to find the supersensible-spiritual in the realms of the Beings and Powers above him; must find as the loftiest the Being and the work of Christ in the evolution of cosmos, earth, and man:
“This points out two things to us toward which we must advance. First: to recognize the supersensible in immediate presence in the sense world—that is, in the world of the human being, the animal, and the plant. This is the Michael way. And the continuance of this: to find within this world, which we thus recognize as supersensible, the Impulse of Christ.”
He admonished those who wished to advance on this path of the requirements, and of the results which come from this advance for a reformation of the present and the future:
“Do not fail to recognize what would be bestowed upon humanity for the present and the future through this Michael revelation, if human beings should draw near to it in freedom. Do not fail to recognize that human beings are striving today to solve the social problem by means of the residues from ancient states of consciousness. Everything that could have been solved by means of ancient states of consciousness has been solved. The earth is on the descending curve in its evolution. By means of that kind of revelation which has come down from ancient times the demands arising today cannot be met. These will be met only by human beings with a new attitude of soul. The task which belongs to us is this: to work toward the goal of bringing this new attitude of soul among human beings.”
To surmount the corpse of thinking of past centuries by means of a living spiritual research, under the guidance and with the forces of Spiritual Powers of a new epoch, was by no means a mere ideal or figure of speech. It was characteristic of such words of Rudolf Steiner that they bore no mark of sermonizing. He gave support to his statements on the basis of history and of current phenomena. From these Dornach lectures of the autumn of 1919 a direct path leads to the courses in natural science, astronomy, pedagogy, medicine, and theology of the following year.
These perspectives and directives were further developed in the Dornach lectures of December 12-15 on The Mysteries of Light, of Space, of the Earthy and Their Reflection in the Three Currents of Materialistic Civilization. His point of departure here was the relation of the Dornach building to the inner thread running through the evolution of humanity. He called attention to the changes in spiritual history during the periods of the Greek temple, the Gothic cathedral, the Grail temple of the Middle Ages; described the awakening of man out of group consciousness to individual consciousness; pointed to the necessity for fructifying natural science and art by means of the science of initiation. The human being of the present is a seeker for a balance between two poles of force which seek to lay hold upon him, out of the world of Spirit and out of nature. When thinking and willing are fortified through spiritual discipline, they overcome the opposing forces; they recognize instead of this dualism the Trinity, in which Christ gives to man the power of balance between the one-sidednesses of Lucifer and Ahriman. The Mysteries of the past can no longer help. For the Mysteries of the Inner Light which once arose in the Orient, the power of thinking, have become decadent in contemporary "intelligence." The once existing Mysteries of Space in Egypt with their theocratic control of life, after passing through Roman civilization, have been petrified in our age as "jurisprudence." The once living and wholesome formation of the social existence in the Mysteries of the Earth in northern Europe has been lost in the present economic relations and have fallen into chaos. Endeavors to save the situation, as these appeared in the nineteenth century in the ideas of Goethe, of Wilhelm von Humboldt, were not grasped by that period. Spiritual science must today provide the clear understanding of the manner in which the wholesome functioning of all these realms in human life may again be achieved for the social organism.
After the last of these Dornach lectures, Dr. Steiner went in the middle of December to Stuttgart, where there took place first of all a series of scientific and pedagogical courses, intended to place the newly founded Waldorf School upon a firm basis in its knowledge and its work.
Once more, it was altogether logical that the first comprehensive natural-scientific course given by Rudolf Steiner, comprising ten lectures, during the period of December 23, 1919-January 3, 1920, was devoted to the nature and the activity of light. He could present here something altogether extraordinary, since there came together in his knowledge three currents which otherwise flowed side by side without strengthening and fructifying one another: first, a thorough knowledge of the modern natural-scientific conceptions of light—including the experimental findings in the field of optics as well as modem theories regarding the nature and action of light—which he had achieved during his studies in Vienna and his constant current orientation since that time; secondly, an especially intimate knowledge of Goethe5s theory of color, which he had edited with his own comments in the edition of the natural-scientific writings of Goethe published by the Weimar Goethe Archives; thirdly, the results of spiritual-scientific research, possessed uniquely by him. Thus he was able to draw upon a comprehensive fund of all pertinent knowledge in his lectures. But he could also at the proper moment provide numerous new perspectives and directives for further work in spite of the fact that he had no possibility whatever for special preparation before giving this course; for, as he stated in his introduction to the assembly of teachers, “Only after I had arrived here was I informed of the purpose to hold such a course.55 The only experiments which could accompany the ten lectures were those that it was possible to arrange quickly for just this purpose.
By way of introduction, he provided the cognitional foundations out of the fields of arithmetic, geometry, and phoronomy, out of the initial stages of natural science, the pertinent conceptions in mechanics and optics, the antithesis between the views of Newton and those of Goethe. He then presented his own views regarding the nature of light, based upon both spiritual science and natural science, both in the area of cognition and also in that of experiment. Here we find interwoven numerous important statements applicable to the history of natural science, to the world of cosmic forces, to the human organism, to the rest of the realms of nature, to an understanding of the entities of space and time, etc. These lectures to the teachers were intended first to give a new direction to their thinking and to stimulate them to undertake research and further working out of knowledge for themselves. He said, therefore, expressly:
“I wish to present something to you which, as teachers, you will not find so useful, perhaps, for direct application in its content in your task of instruction as toward the goal of having it permeate your life as a certain fundamental direction in the field of science.”
These stimulations will provide an abundance of research material for the present generation and those of the future.
Parallel with this natural-scientific course there proceeded between December 26, 1919 and January 3, 1920—sometimes on the same days—a course in the science of speech under the title Spiritual-Scientific Reflections on Language, which has later appeared in book form. Here, as “a stimulation for teachers,” he gave an introductory perspective of the course of development of language, then suggestions for an organic conception of the life of language, a description of the speech forces, their genesis, their effect in the human organism, in the development of peoples, in the transformation of stages of consciousness, in their relation to the elements of thinking and of will.
Here also the request for this course on the science of language was presented to him only after his arrival a few days previously, so that he had to draw the content of these lectures also, without previous preparation, out of his comprehensive fund of knowledge. Moreover, during these days he had to hold numerous conferences with teachers and parents between the series of lectures; in addition, to converse with individuals among his students and collaborators regarding various problems, including problems of work within the Society, the activity of lecturing, scientific research, discipline in the spiritual life.
The impression of such conversations remains vivid in my mind as they occurred in the midst of his manifold burden of work. After one had waited in the anteroom of his place of residence together with other friends more or less patiently for the opportunity of a personal conversation, when he himself opened the door with a friendly invitation to enter, it would have seemed perfectly natural to many persons if there had been in the expression of friendliness, the gesture, the conduct of the conversation on the part of this person so overburdened, so terribly under the pressure of events, any symptom of weariness, of reduced attentiveness in conversation, or of an early inclination to shorten the interview. For many were still waiting outside; in the next hour he had to give a lecture, to take part in conferences, or arrive at important decisions. Nevertheless, nothing of weariness, disinclination, impatience was to be discovered; on the contrary, in this atmosphere of calm, goodness of heart, patiently listening understanding, which radiated out from Rudolf Steiner, one became free from the excitement and inner restlessness with which one had entered the room. And what senseless and unclarified things were often brought to him in such conversations. When one sat before him in the quiet room and presented one's questions, while he directed upon the visitor his large, kindly, luminous, and penetrating eyes, or closed them in reflection, testing the spiritual being of the questioner, directed them now and again in agreement or in friendly sternness or even humor upon the questioner, and listened to what was said, one came under the spell of this atmosphere of calmness and composure, courage and firmness, inner concentration and sdf-mastcry, and was strengthened by it. Much of what one had eagerly intended beforehand to say was recognized now in the realm of this conversation as unimportant and was omitted; germs of new ideas came to birth in one's inner being; what had been unclear was clarified; the inner core of one5s self, released and lifted by him, became manifest as if visible and audible to one's consciousness, deciding between the true and the untrue, the genuine and the spurious; demanding unveiled sincerity. These were moments of greatest concentration, true experience of oneself, the appearance within of new sources for thinking and willing for reaching one's decisions. When one then left the room where the conversation had occurred, inwardly calm, firm, thankful, joyful, capable of action and again entered the antechamber where others were waiting who would now have a similar experience, one then began to understand for the first time how it was possible for the personality with whom one had just spoken, in the midst of his innumerable lectures, programs, journeys, conferences, and personal conversations, to be in himself always a center of calm and composure and at the same time a point from which radiated never-wearying inspiration and bestowal for others.
Amid all the activities just mentioned, Rudolf Steiner found time during these days for a talk at the children's Christmas festivity, gave in the evenings a series of lectures to members, and delivered also public lectures in the crowded large auditorium of the Siegle House, on Spiritual Science, Freedom of Thought, and Social Forces; The World Balance in the Life of the Spirit and of the Soul in the Present Time; Spirit Knowledge as the Basis for Action; Ethics in the Force of Knowledge; Human Hope Out of the Power of the Spirit.
He closed the activity of this year on the evening of December 31 with a reflection on Cosmic New Year's Eve and Thoughts for the New Year, for it was not only one year that was ending but at the same time a cosmic hour which had seemed to bring to an end, with the so-called peace treaty, a dark tragic chapter of history, but which had actually brought about shattering human and social crises and no new light into a better future. Instead, the old had been replaced in the surrounding world only by the old.
The theme of the final public lecture of the year designated the way which Rudolf Steiner laid open and illuminated in the midst of a dying world: Spirit Knowledge as the Basis for Action.