The Rudolf Steiner Archive

63

To Marie von Sivers in Berlin
Friday, January 17, 1908, from Munich

My darling!

Today, too, I'm afraid I can't manage more than a few lines. Why can't you ever get quite fresh again? I can only make the correction of the messages ¹ after all on the way to Budapest. The express train from Leipzig to St. Gallen caused me a lot of trouble. It was delayed. I missed the connection in Munich, and I only just managed to arrive in St. Gallen shortly before the public lecture. But there was a lot to do here this time.

So I'm off to Budapest this evening. Maybe my darling will write a few lines from there. That would be better than just the naive handwriting of the dear weasel.

If only it were possible to relieve you through Wollisch ² possible to relieve you. Our Munich ladies see the matter quite well, without any subjective feelings, and they have probably also had a quite good effect on Wollisch here. I myself could only talk to her a little about this, and in the end I didn't think it was necessary. But I did discuss Wollisch's report with the ladies, and I will tell you everything about it, as it's not really possible to do so in writing.

For the time being, only the warmest greetings, yours Rudolf

• 1. Refers to No. VI of the Scholl messages, which appeared in February 1908.
• 2. Vittoria Wollisch, member since 1906 in Stuttgart, later in Florence. The assistance in Berlin mentioned in this letter did not materialize.

85

To Marie von Sivers in Berlin
Sunday, February 12, 1911, from Munich

M. l. M. Sunday evening. Warmest thoughts and greetings to you!

Thanks for your letters. But you didn't send the Selanders' letters.

Here in Munich, things are as usual. Some have left their old coteries and joined others, etc. Sprengel ¹⁰ hat das Signum fertig gehabt; ich habe es gestern in Deinem Namen der Gräfin K. [Kalckreuth] gegeben.

Allerherzlichst Ralf.

Vergiss Dienstag die Ameisensäure nicht!

• 10. Alice Sprengel, a member of the T.G. before 1902, then lived in Munich. Following Rudolf Steiner's advice, she made symbolic jewelry and other items for members of the Society. In 1915, due to her unstable character, she triggered a crisis; for more details, see GA 253.

103

To Marie von Sivers in Berlin
Wednesday, January 10, 1912

Munich, January 10, 1912

My dear Mausichen, I send you my warmest greetings first and my heartfelt thanks for your kind words. I will still be here in Munich tomorrow; I will have to telegraph the addresses in St. Gallen and Winterthur because I don't have an address book at the moment. The manuscript for the “Mitteilungen” ¹ will be ready tomorrow. And so is your translation. Now it says on my list for February for Stuttgart as lecture days: February 19, 20, 21, and 22 (Frau Kinkel also says that this is correct), then February 23 would be free and for Munich I have in the hectographed list February 24: Munich public, 25: Lodge, 26: Munich open, 27: laying of the foundation stone.² And that is how it was agreed, claims Miss Stinde. So nothing can be considered for Munich in March. But it will probably have to remain with the February days. The two ladies ³ are looking forward to seeing you again here, my dear Mausichen, at the laying of the foundation stone.

In Basel, ⁴ seems to be getting up to a bit of mischief; he and some of his friends have founded a special lodge “on higher spiritual instruction”. So now there are three lodges there.⁵

I will write to you tomorrow about what I can think of for upcoming lectures. There is a rush of people coming, and I would like you to have this greeting from me tomorrow morning. Let me know how you are.

With warmest regards, Rdlf.

• 1. Minutes of the General Assembly of December 10, 1911.
• 2. Did not take place. Due to lengthy delays on the part of the authorities, the central building planned for Munich was moved a year later to Dornach near Basel.
• 3. Countess Kalckreuth and Sophie Stinde, Munich.
• 4. Eduard Suter (1875-1963), a member in Basel since September 1906.
• 5. Basel I, Paracelsus branch, founded in October 1906; the Basel II branch was Emil Grosheintz pro forma in order to bring the number of branches in German-speaking Switzerland to 7, since Adyar required that the German-Swiss branches establish their own section, for which 7 branches were necessary. Although an application for the Basel III branch was submitted on January 6, 1912, it does not appear to have actually come into existence.

105

To Rudolf Steiner in Berlin, c. Monday, March 4, 1912

Letterhead: Munich, Adalbertstr. 55

Mieta Waller informs me that this Nudelchen, Mrs. Vollrath ⁷ is trying to worm its way into our midst. “A piece of pasta” was the term Ms. Wolfram used for her, and I think it is very apt. She certainly knows how to stir the men and get them to follow her.⁸ (Martyrdom and hypocrisy, the infallible [he tel! I would now, if I only knew that E. had not ordered anything to the contrary, inform Berlin that as long as I am 2nd chairwoman of the Besant branch, she is not allowed over the threshold of the lodge. She should practice her arts elsewhere. - If we don't carry Vollrath's books, we can't patronize his wife either. I hope that E. has not let himself be talked into it and has already granted her his protection and would like to know.

The following letters touch on the difficulties that arose increasingly from around 1909 onwards, when the well-known and equally proud and ambitious president Annie Besant felt that her authority in the T.G. was being threatened by Rudolf Steiner's activities, although he behaved loyally towards her in every possible way. In addition to the strong growth of the German section, the fact that many members from other European countries came to Germany to hear his lectures, even switched to the German Esoteric School, and that he was asked to lecture in their countries as well, certainly contributed to this. — In 1909 C. W. Leadbeater, the éminence grise behind A. Besant, discovered the Hindu boy Krishnamurti and had the order “Star of the East” founded for him, in which the expected return of the world savior was propagated, and which Edouard Schuré considered “Adyar's answer to the rebirth of Christian esotericism in the West” (GA 264). In any case, he became the instrument for getting rid of Rudolf Steiner. Then, in the Theosophical journals, Besant's tendentious and disparaging remarks about the work and teachings in the German Section became more frequent, including untrue assertions. At the end of 1910, she tried, albeit in vain, to remove the Swiss lodges from the German section in a coup: a small group of members in Geneva, who belonged to the French section, organized a Swiss section behind the back of the existing five German-speaking branches, with a constitution that was supposed to ensure the supremacy of the artificial seven Geneva branches for all time. And then those five branches were asked to join the new section, but they refused point-blank; at best they were willing to form a second Swiss section. (It was the custom in the Theosophical Society that lectures within the T.G. could only be given abroad with the permission of the responsible General Secretary. If the maneuver had succeeded, the Geneva leadership could have blocked Steiner's activities in Switzerland. Finally, in 1911, A. Besant began to organize a hostile opposition to Rudolf Steiner's work in Germany through Hübbe-Schleiden, her representative for the Star Order, and a certain Cordes, accompanied by endless lip service to tolerance, brotherly love and freedom of teaching. Rudolf Steiner consistently remained silent about all this for as long as possible, only trying to correct false assertions in a few letters to A. Besant to set the record straight, apparently initially believing that this might be of some use. When the board of the German Section had finally had enough, it decided – without Rudolf Steiner – to officially demand the resignation of the president from the General Council of the T.G. on December 8, 1912 for abuse of office. The initiative for an “immediate protest against the way in which the president is counteracting our work” did not come from Rudolf Steiner, but from Mathilde Scholl. The response to this was the exclusion of the German Section, the third largest after India and America, from the Theosophical Society at the end of December 1912, without the complaints being addressed.

• 7. Clara Vollrath, née Ortlepp, wife of Hugo Vollrath, who was expelled from the German Section in 1908. She had since divorced Vollrath and in June 1920, as Mrs. Alwes, she found her way back into the Anthroposophical Society in Breslau.
• 8. Austro-South German dialect expression for “to ingratiate”.

107

Rudolf Steiner's draft of Marie von Sivers' will, 10 July 1912.

Last Will and Testament

I hereby declare with my own handwritten signature that after my death all property and ownership rights to the Philosophisch-Theosophischen Verlag, Berlin W Motzstraße 17, which is legally registered in my name, shall pass to Dr. Rudolf Steiner, residing at Berlin W Motzstraße 17.

Written in Munich, July 10, 1912

108

To Rudolf Steiner in Munich
Tuesday, November 26, 1912, from Berlin

Tuesday

Dear E.

Here is the mail, – the report ¹⁶ You probably have not yet been able to write – but Scholl has received everything else. Perhaps it is better that you still add Friday for audiences in Munich, than to rush around so much during these “days”. I can already see in my mind's eye the building meetings, the Peiperskranken meetings when he asks again that I have no work for him.¹⁷ and all the visitors, so please expect me to arrive on Saturday morning at the earliest. Please just tell Polman-Mooy ¹⁸ – unless he wants to type and is sitting in the reading room. Many greetings to Sophie, Pauline and Oda.¹⁹

Thinking of you always, M.

• 16. for the No. XIV Scholl messages, December 1912. Building meetings: meetings of the Johannes-Bau-Verein.
• 17. Felix Peipers had set up a clinic in Munich and asked Rudolf Steiner for advice on how to treat his patients.
• 18. J. Polman-Mooy, banker, who transferred from the Dutch section to the Berlin branch in February 1909.
• 19. Sophie Stinde, Countess Kalckreuth, Oda Waller.
  Oda Waller (d. 1913), sister of Mieta Waller, joined the Berlin branch in October 1910.

109

To Marie von Sivers in Berlin
Thursday, November 28, 1912, from Munich

Enclosed is the report on the “Mitteilungen”.²⁰ I finished writing it this evening. It is terrible to have to keep ²¹ think about these things over and over again.

Penzig writes a letter: ²² truly a classic example of how this “oriental method (!)” can even deprive a professor of the opportunity to even read sentences in his mother tongue.

The letters that Hübbe-Schleiden wrote to Sellin and Deinhard surpass even everything he has done so far.

Here, everyone is in a state of agitation about the things I did on Tuesday in the branch, which are identical to the Berlin, Hamburg and Hanover reports.²³

Things seem to be moving around a lot tonight!

Kind regards,

I arrive on Saturday morning.

• 20. “A letter from Mrs. Besant and Dr. Steiner's reply” in Scholl-Mitteilungen No. XIV, December 1912. This is Rudolf Steiner's first quasi-public written statement in response to the attacks by A. Besani.
• 21. On November 14, 1912, he had already had to do this once before the members of the General Council in response to an indictment addressed to the Council by A. Besant.
• 22. Otto Penzig from Germany, professor of botany at the University of Genoa, General Secretary for Italy and thus a member of the General Council, replied on November 23 to Rudolf Steiner's letter of November 14, see No. XV of the Scholl-Mitteilungen, January 1913.
• 23. These were not written down, but some of the content of the “reply” in the Scholl reports will have been included.

132

Telegram to Marie von Sivers in Dornach
Monday, September 14, 1914, from Munich

I am in Zurich at 5 o'clock today, then I will continue my journey.

Steiner

143

Telegram to Marie von Sivers in Dornach
Thursday, December 3, 1914, from Munich

All is well, will arrive in Dornach around Monday. Must return to Berlin. Greetings Rudolf Steiner

144

Telegrams to Marie von Sivers in Dornach
Wednesday, December 9, 1914, from Munich

Arrived in Basel today at 4:25. Steiner