The Rudolf Steiner Archive

Dr. Grosheintz opens the meeting, welcomes those present and gives a report on the progress of the construction work. He concludes with the words: “With heartfelt gratitude and reverent wonder, we see how Dr. Steiner, in his tireless work, transmits living forces to us from the inexhaustible source of spiritual knowledge, so that we can make them fruitful in the world.” - Following the technical report, Mr. Hermann Linde speaks about the artistic design of the building. Dr. Steiner then speaks

My dear friends!

You have heard the reports of the Executive Council; the cash report is still to come. And perhaps a few things should be interwoven here so that you are informed about some circumstances just before the cash report is received. I believe that particular significance must be attached to those parts of today's report that point to the connection between the entire Goetheanum building and the general culture of our time. The Executive Council has very commendably emphasized this significance in its report, and it will be good to present this aspect of the Goetheanum to a wider public as well. I will be making a small request along these lines shortly.

Above all, I would ask you to bear in mind that we should not regard the Goetheanum as merely a matter for the Anthroposophical Society or the Building Association, but as a matter for the world. And in this context, it is certainly not only money that is at work in our building. Of course, money is at work first. But today a great deal of the energy that has led to the great public interest that has developed around our Goetheanum is already contained in this money. We must ensure that this interest grows ever greater and greater! It is precisely because of these intentions that something like eurythmy has recently been developed and propagated with such energy here in Dornach.

Eurythmy is something that makes sense to many people purely in itself. And through eurythmy, interest in our general cause is in turn fostered, as is inevitable. That is why things like eurythmy, or the lectures that were recently held here for the public, and those that are yet to come – a longer lecture cycle that we will organize within this year – all these things can no longer be considered separately from the whole building project that is taking place here. All these things should be considered in close connection. And one should realize that by promoting eurythmy here, everything that is connected with the completion of our building is essentially also being promoted.

Even if these things cannot be proved here in detail, the fact remains that it is so. Therefore, our friends will have to direct their attention in all directions and try to make their interest as general as possible.

It was natural that at the beginning of our work in Dornach this radiated; but in the course of time, the necessity will arise more and more that individual activities, I would like to say, associate themselves, that more and more work is done out of the things themselves. And in connection with the report of the board, I would therefore like to mention how this “Association of Goetheanism” is intended, of which has been spoken.

The “Association of Goetheanism” of the School of Spiritual Science is not initially based on the idea of founding a small association, but on a very specific fact. You are all aware of the situation, which is not only present in Dornach: the huge, global world calamity of the housing shortage. It is necessary, for example, if we want to continue working at all, that we build apartments for our employees. It would not be enough for us to buy houses; that would only drive out the other people, which is precisely what we do not want. We can only make progress by creating housing opportunities for our co-workers here, not just for the workers, but for all our friends working on our building project.

A start has been made by a sum of money being entrusted to me personally, which will initially enable the construction of three small houses for friends working with us, in which very modest apartments will be found. This matter will now be left to me personally: I will initially take care of the start of the three small houses with Mr. Bay. And these houses, as I said, are to be built here as my personal affair. To do this, it is necessary to create the “Association of Goetheanism” because such things immediately become a matter for the law and the authorities. This association initially includes the three personalities who have decided to support me in this project, as far as I consider it necessary: Dr. Boos, Mr. Etienne and Mr. Ballmer, who will initially form this association.

This association of Goetheanism is destined to grow gradually. But this must not be done by giving it guidelines for everything, as they have proliferated so much in the old Theosophical Society. They have made peculiar statutes for all kinds of things, made beautiful resolutions, put the statutes in the casket. The committee existed but did nothing more; that was the main activity. But the point is that we are now at a stage in our work where something like that cannot continue, because it would only lead to ruin. What we need now is to gradually bring together the work that has already begun, that really exists.

Consider, on the one hand, we have perhaps more than the people concerned have realized, an extensive activity in the eurythmic arts. And secondly, we have to mark the beginning, through lectures that have been held here by Dr. Boos and others, a beginning, a start to something that is to find expression in the late fall, through a few weeks, not just individual lectures, but larger courses to be held for the general public in front of a larger number of friends, insofar as they are experts in their respective fields. It is necessary that this public should know something about it, that a certain activity should be developed beforehand for these courses. That is the second thing: eurythmy is the first, the courses the second. In the course of time other things will come which will connect with those that are already really there, that have really developed and flourished to a certain stage. These things will join together.

Out of these things will arise what must arise out of this “Association for Goetheanism”, which will always have to work in close harmony with the Goetheanum Construction Association, which will truly have no less work to do as a result, but whose work will grow more and more. But it is necessary that things do not develop peripherally from what already exists, but that things that develop out of themselves come together through the people who work on them. Later, the 'Association for Goetheanism' will include all those people who are already leading some specific activity, so that people are not designated for a specific activity, but that people who are already leading a specific activity join together. In a particular, special field, this is also a way of working from the concrete, from reality. And that must be our particular maxim: to work everywhere from reality, not from theories and programs or from the statute. We have to work with those who emerge as personalities, who have previously developed an activity to a certain degree, and only then join forces. This must be taken into account in particular in such a case: that you simply start with the fact that something is already there. That must become our principle in general. Then it will be possible to represent our endeavors, the nature of our endeavors, to a larger public.

Not that I would call this unjustified, but I have been repeatedly confronted, first by our friends, but then also by people from outside, with the fact that people don't really know enough about what is happening here. As I said, this is justified to a certain extent. Over the past few years, people have had other things to deal with and have not really got around to spreading the word properly. So the first step will be to really make the world aware – I would like to say literally: aware – of what is happening here. Therefore, I would like to submit a request, especially for what is being discussed today, namely for the reports that have already been read, that these things be printed in extenso, and that this time we refrain from distributing these things only among our members, but that they be made known to the world.

I have been working for some time on the print version of what I have now presented here several times about the construction, so that one will get some kind of picture of the artistic intentions of this building. It might not be a bad idea to do this. I ask that this be considered. Wouldn't it be good if we could create a proper publication from these two things: first, this presentation of the building, prepared for the public, in connection with the other reports, which would make a little book that we could also sell to visitors instead of an entrance fee. This would make it possible to really arouse more intimate interest in the larger public.

Then I would like to consider the idea that it would be useful, at least in the main, for the details we can still discuss in the inner circle, if the main figures that you will hear later in the accounts would also be known to the public. Otherwise, we always have the misery of gossip and rumor about the “millions” that the construction costs. We need not be afraid to tell people: We have spent so much on the construction so far, and the completion of the building will cost so much more. I believe we have no need to hide anything from the general public. We are able, to a certain extent, to present a financial statement to the world and to justify the preliminary steps that will be necessary to the world. I am putting this forward for consideration. I believe that incorporating this into a small brochure would not do any harm! It would just be a matter of us deciding on it now. In my opinion, this could help us in the near future in terms of construction.

And I would like to use this, to some extent, as a basis for making the partial request, insofar as I am allowed to do so, that the special work of our esteemed board be recognized and appreciated to the greatest extent possible and that on this occasion today we should not forget to pass a resolution to thank our esteemed board in the most intensive way for its efforts in the last business months and years, the previous years, and to express these thanks in the minutes. That is what I have to say on the matter.

The chairman thanks Dr. Steiner for his words and suggestions and the trust he has placed in him. The cash report is to be given and the question is asked whether anyone has anything to say about the cash report. Dr. Steiner says the following:

Dear Friends, you will find it necessary to study this financial report very carefully, for it contains extremely important information about how we should act in the future, especially with regard to our financial activities here at the building site. You have heard that of all the potential contributors in the future, the Mittelländer almost have to give up! The currency of the Central Europeans has been thoroughly destroyed, and since the conditions for lasting improvement are not at all present, we can of course only expect a significant improvement in the currency of the Central Europeans for the near future if we are illusionists! So that they can no longer contribute.

Furthermore, it is becoming increasingly difficult for the inhabitants of the Midlands to come here to share in the blessings of the construction. Of the other friends, those belonging to neutral countries and those from the United States are best off. They are currently in a currency situation where, if they take care of the construction properly, they will be able to say after some time: at least we have applied our money to a cultural endeavor for humanity! Because you can be quite sure that the illusion is just that, an illusion. The favorable exchange rate conditions in the United States and the neutral countries could remain as they are for a very long time, or rather, they could be left as they are for a long time. This is all connected with the overall development of our international labor and pension conditions. And in this respect, with regard to the financial situation, the United States and the countries that remained neutral during the war will experience a completely different fate, and yet another fate will befall those of the Entente itself.

The former, that is, the citizens of the United States and the neutral territories, will really be able to say to themselves after some time: we have at least contributed to a cultural endeavor before we have spent our money in other ways. Those who are not particularly poor can easily do something like this. But for those in the middle, it will initially be almost impossible to even come here if they cannot be helped. So I don't want to suggest that such things should be done, I don't want to give advice, I just want to say that if such things were to happen with a huge inventiveness, if such things were to happen in the near future with a huge imagination rooted in reality, I would like these things very much!

After some discussion among the members about current affairs, Dr. Steiner announced that Dr. Boos would have some further reports that could be of interest in view of what Dr. Boos himself had said in principle.

Dr. Boos speaks about the work opportunities that need to be created by those who founded and work together in this association of Goetheanism. In contrast to certain other efforts, which fill 72 folio pages with their rules and paragraphs, it contains only four short paragraphs; because he does not want to make rules, but to develop activity so that those who are still sleeping are made to wake up. The association is committed to working in close contact with Dr. Steiner, based on an understanding of the necessity of the cultural impact he has given, and out of a free will to serve this gift. Dr. Steiner, who never demands obedience, is able to convey the insight that in the near future the main work will have to be the preparation of the autumn courses. The tasks of the association include working towards the threefold social order and the beginnings of a healthy economic life. If such forces come into play from all sides, the Goetheanum will surely be able to gather all the healthy forces that want to build something new out of the collapse and counteract the tendencies that are driving Europe to the level of darkest Africa.

Dr. Grosheintz: You have indicated through your applause how much you agree with Dr. Boos' words. I now ask Mr. Molt to speak.

Mr. Emil Molt proposes to continue the negotiations in the afternoon and to further consider the suggestions given by Dr. Boos.

Dear attendees!

It is in a deeply moved and earnest frame of mind that I now speak these first words in this room that are dedicated to spiritual science. The mood must be serious. The need of the time stands in the background and all that which has led out of a negative spiritual life into this need of the time. But before my soul stands today also all that which has been done out of such a time by understanding souls who are enthusiastic for the development of the spiritual future of humanity, so that this building, in which we are now beginning the first college course in spiritual science, could be led at least up to this stage. Our thoughts must arise out of the spirit of the school of thought meant here, with the greatest gratitude for the beautiful attitude and its power, which was present in all the material and spiritual helpers in bringing about what is to come about here. And above all, I would now also like to address those numerous friends of our cause who have come here for this course. Those who have come here for this course are showing that they at least expect something from what is being done here, something that the serious need of our time, the particular state of our spiritual life in the present, demands.

By appearing here and wanting to attend the course, you are, in a sense, announcing how you expect that the powerful call of the time will be heard from these spiritual experiences, and that efforts will be made to serve the tasks to which this call of the time points. In this solemn and serious moment, it cannot be my task, esteemed attendees, to give the first of the lectures that this course is intended to offer. Everything that our anthroposophically oriented spiritual science wants to bring will be presented to those present through the course itself, initially in a preliminary form. I would only like to speak about the intentions and goals that should prevail here.

Those who feel today that a new spirit must be brought to bear on the social ills and the ills of humanity as a whole often think at the same time: Let us take the science that has been cultivated in the lecture halls for a long time , let us popularize it, let us bring it to the people, who, through ignorance, are drifting into chaos, and it will be seen that the spread of intellectual life must result in an ascent of our civilization.

The work that is to be done here is based on a different conviction, the conviction that the science that has prevailed in its direction for three to four centuries, and which has essentially contributed to the decline, will bear no fruit if it is carried out of its narrow spaces into the expanses of folk education centers, folk high schools and the like. Here the conviction is effective that a new spirit of science must be carried into the lecture halls from new spiritual sources of research, into all the individual disciplines. If we did not have this conviction, we could rightly be mistaken for one of the sects that are opening up so numerously in today's confusing times, to put themselves, so to speak, alongside what is otherwise being done in the way of spiritual life. We do not want to be such a sect. And all our efforts are not geared towards being such a sect. All our efforts are geared towards making a contribution to the living spiritual life, to everything that contributes to the development of humanity in a broad sense.

This building is an outward sign of this. It does not stand there as chosen from any of the traditional architectural styles. It stands there in terms of its forms, its artistic language, as an original creature from the spirit of this spiritual research, which is to be carried out in it. And just as the material form surrounding the spoken word is intended to fulfill this purpose, so too should the spoken word have enough living power to penetrate far into all those spheres of life that need to be renewed and transformed if we are to overcome the impending decline and achieve a new spiritual ascent. That is why, in recent times, a broad social endeavor has been driven out of what is called anthroposophically oriented spiritual science here. The aim here is not to strive in theoretical, abstract seclusion, but in harmony with everything that can advance humanity in any field.

This, esteemed attendees, is connected with the tragedy of our time, that such unity has not been sought, that the search for such unity has been gradually lost for centuries, and that this loss has reached its highest peak in the present day. When we consider such things, we must, of necessity, cast our eyes back into the primeval times of human development, when, out of an instinctive, original wisdom, that which now confronts us as a trinity was born: art, science and religion. There were times in the development of humanity – and I hope that the proof of what I am now only hinting at can be provided within the course itself – there were times in the development of humanity when there were no separate educational institutions, no separate churches, no separate art institutions; rather, there was a unified activity that was both artistically discerning and religiously oriented. There were places that can be called mysteries, where an art was cultivated that was both religion and science at the same time, where a religion was cultivated that expressed the artistic striving of the time in its cults , in which a science was cultivated that, out of the spirituality from which it arose, led directly to those divine sources of human and world existence that are to be experienced in religious feeling.

Of all the aspects that were once part of this unity, I would say that art is the one that has most closely adhered to its original form. Until very recently, art remained, I would say, the child of the ancient mysteries that remained young, the child through which our culture seeks to incorporate the spirituality in which the human being can live into external material. All that spirituality that has emerged from the original instincts of mankind had to be paralyzed in the course of cultural development. It must be regained. What mankind once possessed in instincts, what it had to lose in this form, must be regained in freedom and with full consciousness, so that man can strive for it again out of freedom.

Art, in a sense the childlike child of the ancient mysteries, but it was also seized by the gradual paralysis of inner human spirituality in recent times. So that this art gradually had to flee into unreality, while once everything that man had experienced in terms of deep religious feeling and will, everything that man had experienced in terms of deep spiritual knowledge, was incorporated into his artistic creations, so that spiritual reality was revealed to him through his artistic creations. All this, there is nothing more that today's science goes to, nothing more that today's religiosity goes to. Art gradually embodied the spirit, but one no longer had the spirit as a living thing. And so one felt that which art presented as something spiritual, but as something unreal, as something that should arise from mere fantasy. I would like to say, using the Greek word in its sense, that our art gradually turned from cosmism into acosmism, moving away from the beauty of the universe in faith. That people sought a way out for art in naturalism, in the imitation of an external sensual-physical reality, only proves that they had lost access to those sources of spiritual life from which the creative artist must shape in every field of art if art is to be a revelation in spiritual life.

And so we have an acosmic, an unreal art emerging in our most recent age and up to the present. Why did it emerge? Because the original, artistic-religious-cognitive unity has formed the trinity, which gradually lost its connection: art, science, religion. Science, which had separated from the old mystery being, from its siblings religion and art, gradually pushed towards where the one naturalism exists for it, where it can no longer grasp the underlying spirituality of nature from the spirituality in the human soul, where it is only able to grasp the external sensual-physical fact through experiment or observation. This science, it became, out of what once strove out of instincts for knowledge of the spirit behind nature, a science that can be described as agnosticism. And this agnosticism, which actually came about through the observation of nature and through the experiment on nature, only to be able to establish for itself: I am no longer exactly, I am no longer really understanding nature, when I ascend into spiritual regions, this agnosticism cannot give that warmth to the soul, it cannot give that light to the spirit that leads to a real art created from the spirit. Acosmism in art gradually became agnosticism in science.

That which once lived united with art and science as religion in the mysteries became more and more separated and became a mere inward matter of the soul. And if we follow its course – this course is intended to present it – we find that what once offered man such a rich religious content, indeed in an ancient form, a content so rich that the human soul, after it stood there physically born into the world, felt reborn, reborn out of soul and spirit alongside the physical birth, this religious impulse, it lost its content. And that is precisely the tragedy of the present day: that alongside acosmic art and agnostic science, an atheistic religion is becoming more and more prevalent, especially among those who so that what once belonged together, primal art, primal religion and primal science, is now gradually becoming more and more acosmism, agnosticism, atheism in the broadest sense.

What today may be heard only by a few in its full meaning and strength - those who want to establish anthroposophically oriented spiritual science, they feel it strongly. That is why they want to open up the sources of spiritual research that leads, in turn, to the life that man lives with his surroundings, to seeing, to seeing a spirit behind the perception of the sensory world. From this seeing of the supersensible in the sensual, the power to implant a creative power of art will arise again. One would like so much to be able to feel how, however, a first weak attempt has been made in this construction to express the spiritual content of the outer forms through the living comprehension and living observation of the spiritual and supersensible world. And this observation of the supersensible in the sensual should lead to art, to the recognition and comprehension of the supersensible by the human spirit in science. Our science, in turn, should become spiritual, then it will, by recognizing, ignite inwardly in the human soul, so that not abstract ideas arise from this human soul, not abstract laws of nature arise, but that living spiritual experience that expresses itself in ideas, but that is also powerful and capable of shaping itself in art.

Alongside such a seeing art, such a spiritual science, there must arise what may be called a religious mood and feeling, which emerges from all this and unites again with all this in a unified way. Just as art must become a seeing of the supersensible, science a knowing of the supersensible, so religion must become an experiencing of the supersensible. How could a science that aims to lead to the beholding of the supersensible in art and to the comprehension of the supersensible in understanding, act differently than to create a religious mood that leads to the experience of the supersensible? Out of such a religious mood, man will learn anew to comprehend the Mystery of Golgotha, which has placed itself before the development of mankind in order to reveal to man, through the divinity of Christ that appeared on earth, how that which is born sensually must be reborn in the supersensible in order to attain a fully human existence.

We would like to bring three new forces to creative expression from spiritual sources: a seeing art again, a recognition of the supersensible as spiritual science, an experience of the supersensible for the rebirth of soul and spirit in that religion, the mood of which must be formed out of this art and this science. We are not only convinced that what is to be born as a force in this way, but we who work here have an insight into it, so that we can carry it into the individual branches of human cultural life, into all the details of our present-day social life, that which can arise from the new trinity, from the observing art, from spiritually grasping science, from religion newly experiencing rebirth in the supersensible, from all this for the living existence of humanity. This building should be dedicated to this task.

How wonderful it would be if I could say today that this building is complete, that this building could be handed over for its intended purpose, that after seven years of work – because seven years ago we laid the foundation stone for this building here – that after seven years of work this building could be handed over for its intended purpose. I cannot do that. For much remains to be done, many sacrifices will still have to be made before this building can reach its completion. So today we are not opening this building, but we want to present to the world, provisionally at first, in this college course, what we believe from our spiritual stream, even in this unfinished building.

And so those who have come to this course are not led into the finished building, but, I would like to say, are first led in, so that they may perhaps - as we expect, confidently expect - gain the conviction from what they will hear here: Yes, the building must be finished. And so we may hope that those among whom we may find understanding will help us in every possible and necessary way to complete this, our building.

Therefore, and no less gratefully, I thank all those who have brought this building to its present stage from the spirit of our spiritual science. It is out of this gratitude and satisfaction that I turn first to those who, as older or younger members of the Anthroposophical Society, have come here today in such large numbers to work with us on what is to be worked out of a new spirit for the progress of humanity.

But I turn especially to those visitors to our course who belong to the student body in various countries. To them, these students, I would like to say that it gives me the deepest satisfaction to see them here, because I believe that, although it has been a long time since I belonged to the student body, I can still feel among them in the truest and best sense. Because that which strives as has been characterized here, must be striven for primarily out of youthful spirit and youthful zeal. Combine your youthful strength with the seriousness that resides in those who work here for spiritual science out of serious need of the times, and that which the need of the times demands so urgently must succeed. Therefore, above all, welcome!

It has already been shown in practice in many ways how the spirit of spiritual science at work here affects the human mind of our contemporaries. We have often noticed it, and in the last few days it has been noticed here in particular, how those workers who had to do hard work either downstairs in the accommodation building or up here on the building site, so that everything could be completed in time for our friends to be here and for the course to could begin, we have seen how these workers, who have to work hard, want to work harmoniously and fraternally with those who work here spiritually, really working long overtime hours so that what is to begin here today can come about. It is particularly gratifying in our socially troubled times to welcome as a manifestation of the times that such a thing has become possible here, out of the spirit of work.

And so it will be seen that, basically, peace and harmony will spring from all that is drawn from spiritual sources here, if only it is allowed to sprout. We can happily leave it to others to create disharmony and discord.

Another sign of the times, ladies and gentlemen, is that thirty-five personalities have come together to carry our spirit into all the individual sciences, who will pursue spiritual science from the most diverse points of view in our course. Thirty-five lecturers will carry what is to be given here as a spiritual impulse, one may say, into seventeen different branches of human knowledge and feeling and work. We will hear lectures on special parts of spiritual science, we will hear lectures on philosophy, theology, on history, on linguistics, on physics and mathematics, on chemistry and medicine, on Indology, on jurisprudence and pedagogy. We shall hear what artistic natures have to say about the spiritual foundations and the spiritual forces of their art. We shall hear what the creative spirit in poetry has to say about its connection with our spiritual science. Eminent personalities from the field of technology will speak, and, particularly welcome, we shall hear from practitioners of economics and business. And it is one of the advances that we are striving for above all, that life is understood as a unity, that what leads up to philosophical heights forms a unity with what the factory director has to utilize in his factory practice in practical life down to the last detail, that factory practitioners will speak within our course, we welcome it with particular joy.

Because, dear attendees, not the cultural direction is truly spiritual that says one must seek the spirit in cloud heights, far from all materiality, the cultural direction contains real spirit that out of this spirit becomes the power to carry it, this spirit, everywhere into material life, into everyday life, into the difficulties of the machine, into the difficulties of commercial life. Only that is spiritual which knows how to carry the spirit into matter.

Therefore, in addition to philosophical lectures, this course will include something that is to be welcomed with particular joy: “The Industrialist in the Past and Future from the Point of View of Spiritual Science”. It will also include what practitioners have to say from a commercial and economic point of view. If we look through the list of our lectures and our lecturers, we can already say, my dear attendees, that this spiritual scientific endeavor has already borne fruit. It has already had an inspiring effect on a number of personalities who feel the strength within themselves to dare to try not only to show the individual sciences and also practical branches of life in the light of this spiritual science, but to show how the practical becomes even more practical, the cognitive even more powerful through the impulse of spiritual science, which is to be given here.

Of course, it should not be thought immodestly here - that would be against the spirit of spiritual science - but a right volition arises only from a genuine conviction, from a cognizant conviction. Therefore, it is perhaps not immodesty, but only what, I would like to say, flows naturally from the forces gained from spiritual research, when it is said to the one what is the need of the time, to the one what is already being characterized by enlightened minds as necessary currents of decline , which is almost characterized as if it were inevitably leading to the decline of the whole Western civilization. Something should be set against it here, out of the power of artistic, cognitive, religiously intimate and social will, that can lead to the ascent, to the building of a new civilization.

Therefore, out of modesty, but at the same time out of the conviction gained from spiritual science itself, we call upon all those whom we would like to see here today, who want to join us in our work, to express the spirit in which we want to meet here:

To turn to the light
In dark times of need,
To the dawn of the spirit,
Send the soul's gaze:
Let it be the will of man here
And remain so for evermore.

Autoreferat in der Goetheanum-Sondernummer der Waldorf-Nachrichten 3. Jg. Nr. 4/5 (März 1921)

In the following, I will share some of the thoughts that I expressed at the opening of the School of Spiritual Science at the Goetheanum in Dornach.

It is with a heavy heart that I say the first words in this Goetheanum. For before me stands the serious goal that this as yet incomplete building should serve in the future. The spiritual outlook that should be striven for here appears as a challenge of the present and the near future to all those who have made material and spiritual sacrifices for its construction.

This willingness to make sacrifices should be remembered first. The construction of this Goetheanum has been started from their insightful penetration into what is currently needed by humanity. Through them, it has become possible that in the coming weeks, many areas of scientific, artistic and practical life will be discussed here. Through personalities with similar spiritual direction, this Goetheanum will be able to be completed in the future.

These people, willing to make sacrifices, have grasped the idea that has arisen from the realization that the development of humanity has reached a point at which an active orientation towards spiritual knowledge must be striven for.

It was with this thought in mind that the foundation stone of this building was laid seven years ago; and it is with this thought in mind that thirty leading figures will now discuss science, art and practical life here. They want to present their experiments to the public in order to show how the various areas of life can be enriched by the knowledge of the spirit that is being sought here.

In present-day civilization, what we call science exerts an enormous influence. And alongside science, art and religion stand to go their own ways. But today, more than in the recent past, the human soul feels more powerfully the urge for a unity of its experience. This feeling asserts itself more and more irresistibly. It expresses one of the most serious demands of present-day civilization.

Under the influence of this feeling, one must consider those times of human development when science, art and religion had not yet gone their separate ways. Today's recognized science does not want to know much about this form of human civilization. Spiritual science, which will be discussed here in the coming weeks, must present it as a fact based on its insights. There were times when science, art and religion formed a unity. In those times, research was not as conscious as it is today; a more instinctive knowledge was developed. But this knowledge was not expressed in the abstract form of thought that is currently ours. What was intuitively known was expressed in pictorial form. And these pictorial forms could also be presented to the outer senses. One could make knowledge visible to the senses. Before the senses, scientific knowledge arose as a vivid art. And the mind could worship what it had before it as artistically designed knowledge. In religious devotion, wisdom revealed itself as beauty.

Humanity could only progress in its development by separating knowledge, artistic creation, and religious experience. The soul life became richer through this separation. The currents of life had to be given separately to inquiring thinking, artistic feeling, and religious contemplation.

Humanity has arrived at a point in time when these three currents want to merge. Further separation would rob the soul of its health.

Science, which has flourished in modern times, has greatly enriched our external lives; it has provided us with an unlimited service in understanding the external world. It cannot, however, fulfill our striving for a unity of knowledge, art and religion.

Goethe already sensed what must be addressed as the deepest need of humanity in the present and even more so in the near future: that in art, at a higher level than in the instinctive time of the soul, knowledge is to be experienced again. He sensed the unity of science and art by saying that when nature begins to reveal its manifest secret, one feels the deepest longing for its most worthy interpreter, art.

Even if, out of outdated habits of thought, some theorists say that science must keep away from everything artistic, they are blurring the boundaries and confusing human striving. Those who speak in this way cannot be right if it turns out that nature itself creates in artistic forms, and that one remains far from nature's secrets if one only wants to express oneself in a conceptual form.

The anthroposophical spiritual science to be striven for at this Goetheanum wants to be as rigorous and scientific as any recognized science of the present day. But it leads to the realization that forces can be developed in a strictly methodical way from the depths of the human soul, which lead mere thinking to the beholding of a real spiritual world content. In this way a world reveals itself that is not accessible to the senses and ordinary reason. But it is a world through which the sensory realm becomes understandable in a higher sense. Through this insight, a realm of existence is opened up that can be experienced artistically again. What was granted to early humanity through instinct, the possibility of transforming what has been cognitively explored into artistic creation, can be achieved again in full consciousness. This does not mean unartistic symbolism and allegory, but the experiencing of the forces of existence through direct perception, which are sometimes expressed through the idea as spiritual science and sometimes revealed through elementary artistic creation. Those who visualize thoughts of logical or observational knowledge do not work artistically. Those who realize in art what they have experienced through spiritual vision do not create differently than the true artist. For they do not clothe what is seen spiritually in symbols, but as artists they shape that which can reveal itself through its own nature, on the one hand in accordance with ideas and on the other in accordance with images.

Just as Goethe was able to say that art must be turned to when nature begins to reveal its manifest secrets, so too may one who is striving in the Goethean sense say: When nature begins to reveal its manifest secrets through spiritual vision so that he must express them in ideas and shape them artistically, the innermost part of his soul urges him to worship what he has seen and captured in art with a sense of religion. For him, religion becomes the consequential experience of science and art.

Spiritual science, which is to be cultivated in this Goetheanum, permeates the whole human being, the knowing, artistically feeling, religiously attuned human being. Therefore, it can also hope to serve the urgent social needs of the present. These hardships arise from the fact that science, which merely satisfies the intellect, lacks the momentum that man needs if he is to consciously act as a social being. Today there are already so many people who no longer close their minds to the fact that neither state nor economic life can heal itself; rather, new impulses in the spiritual realm must have an effect on the state and the economy. Here at the Goetheanum, this idea is to be thought through to its logical conclusion. We stop halfway if we think that the spiritual impulses needed today can be provided by adult education centers, popular education efforts, etc., that what is cultivated in lecture halls can be carried into the broad masses of the people. Those who believe this do not realize that the small circle of educated people to whom this spiritual fruit has come has driven humanity into a terrible catastrophe. Should that which has led to such results in a few now also work through the widest circles?

The kind of thinking that should be cultivated here at the Goetheanum is based on the conviction that the old spirit of the lecture hall cannot be carried into the broad masses, but that a new stream of knowledge must first be directed into the lecture halls out of knowledge of the spirit. What flows from such knowledge will be a spiritual life that also provides true education for the people and the strength to shape society. It is with this in mind that this Goetheanum was begun seven years ago; it is with this in mind that I may now open our college courses; and may those who have made all this possible be joined by others of the same mind, so that this Goetheanum may soon be visited in its completion.

My dear friends!

What I have to say has been said here in recent years on these occasions, so there is little that I can add today to the proceedings. First of all, I would like to express my heartfelt thanks to all the friends who have contributed artistically, scientifically and in other ways to the realization of the Goetheanum and its work over the past year. Once again this year, the dedicated nature of a large number of friends, especially among the staff, has been evident in an extraordinary way in the completion of this Goetheanum. These thanks arise from an awareness of the importance of this work for our entire present civilization. Those to whom these thanks are addressed know how they are meant and will accept them in the sense in which they arise from an awareness of urgent cultural necessities.

But what I mainly have to say is this: you have heard a financial statement; you have heard reports of other kinds. But if, like me, one has to see above all that what is wanted and what must be wanted with this Goetheanum is accomplished, then one has to deal with the balance sheet in a somewhat different way. Isn't it true that the balance sheet for December 31, 1920, which has now been delivered, is relatively favorable; but that can be of little interest today. We need the financial statement of June 27, 1921; and those who are primarily interested in the continuation of the project are interested in the current balance sheet. I cannot calculate this current balance sheet any differently than by telling you that the Goetheanum's coffers are currently short of around three hundred and eighty to three hundred and ninety thousand francs. If we do not receive these in the coming months, then we will not be able to continue the construction despite all the other good intentions expressed in words or empty feelings. We will be left with an unfinished project and will have to close down the work.

There should be no illusion about this fact, which I have already pointed out several times. I shall therefore repeat it very clearly: for the continuation of the building work – and this does not, of course, mean a hidden deficit – but for the continuation of this building work, that is, for the living work here, the Goetheanum's coffers are almost four hundred thousand francs short; and if these are not raised in the next few months, the completion of the building will have to be abandoned. The restoration of the building must simply be interrupted.

It was said earlier, when the accounts were presented, that the Dornach enterprise resembles an organism in which the blood is gradually becoming sluggish. And, isn't it true, many of the appeals that I have made to the membership and the world over the past year, especially in this direction, that it is necessary to stand up for a broader interest in the realization of the Goetheanum, have fallen on deaf ears. They were not received with interest; and that is what, looking around today at the Goetheanum, gives me the greatest concern. It gives me the greatest concern because there is another fact.

We were able to begin the spiritual work of the Goetheanum. Courses have been held in all fields of science. Attempts have also been made, for example, to broaden the artistic activity that is so beautifully evident at the Goetheanum itself by taking the art of eurythmy out into the world. It has become apparent that an ugly opposition is emerging from certain quarters – it was recently called “vulgar” in the newspaper on threefolding –. I do not want to say now from which side this uncivilized opposition comes. Anyone who wants to see the truth can easily see it. But of course there is no need to fear that the interest in one's own circles will consolidate to the extent that the interest in the opposition grows in the other circles.

But just take, I would say as symptomatic, the following: in other respects it is no different, but take the two courses from September and October of last year and those at Easter this year. We have made significant progress. Of course, this is my subjective judgment; but first of all, the four hundred thousand francs that are missing from the treasury are also my subjective concern. We have these two courses, and we have seen significant progress in the quality of the lectures and in the progress of the content of spiritual science. One can say that what has been done in the main building and here from the podium at Easter 1921 shows significant progress compared to what could be achieved in the fall of 1920. As I said, the same can be seen in artistic terms. We have the potential for external progress in this area. If we look further, it may be mentioned that the spiritual work in the Stuttgart Waldorf School has progressed significantly, that the overall spirit, the activity of the Waldorf School and the permeation of this activity with the spirit that should be inside have made significant progress.

By contrast, let us consider the evening discussions in the fall and at Easter. Well, in the fall they were already at a level that really could not be praised. But at Easter: I must confess, they were something terrible, these evening discussions. They showed quite clearly how the movement can advance as a spiritual one, how a small circle is involved in the advancement of the movement, how the scientific and the artistic grow, and how, by contrast, the general interest among the membership simply fades. This has become apparent from the decline in the level of our discussions from last autumn to this Easter.

If I have to speak from my subjective point of view in these matters, I have to remind you of a certain fact. Those who are sitting here today were probably present when these facts were unfolding. When we spoke here some time ago about all the possible external foundations connected with the anthroposophical movement, I said: the ideas for these foundations are good, are extraordinarily significant, and as far as the ideas and the inner possibilities are concerned, I am not at all worried. But when I look at the human material of the present day, which wants to be active in practical life, when I see how little the so-called practical man is up to the mark today, it worries me when I think of such foundations.

Now, please do not misunderstand me. This is not to say that the things that have been established are bad from their own point of view. They work quite well; and from an external point of view there is no need to worry about them. But from another point of view, these things are nothing more than an increase in my worries, and for the work needed to continue the Goetheanum they are nothing more than a drain on my own energy, strongly detracting me from other necessary tasks because I have too many worries about what has been added without any sign of thought for the further development of the actual center, which is crystallizing here at the Goetheanum.

All the external foundations, too, have ultimately arisen on the basis of the anthroposophical work that is crystallized in the Goetheanum. And what is forming on the periphery is only justified by its emergence from this root; and it would therefore be necessary for all these individual branches to develop a real sense of thinking, feeling and working together. If this lack of empathy and cooperation continues as it has so far, nothing else would be possible but for the actual central work to suffer in the most severe way.

As I said, the spiritual movement has gone. The teaching staff at the Waldorf School, for example, is becoming more and more a real incarnation of the spirit that is to work out of anthroposophy in an educational direction. The same applies to the artistic sphere. And we would also overcome our opponents if the inner consolidation of our own membership really progressed, if something were really done in this direction. Do you see why we had a better external balance sheet last year? It was because we were able to get a few individuals to take charge of improving it. Most of it came about through the personal efforts of a few individuals who traveled around. It would have been a matter of continuing this work for the cause. But that was not done. And that is why we are experiencing what I had to characterize. I would like to give an example of how little my intentions are being addressed. You see, it was at the end of April that someone in Holland is said to have said: Yes, World School Association, you can't make it popular as quickly as you think you can, it takes five to six months.

Now, do the math. I pointed out at the end of the last fall course, I might say, that that was the time to personally stand up for this World School Association. I said that, given the time situation, it would be too late if we did not do so. So take the starting point of the reference back then, let's say October. Then do the math: November, December, January, February, March, April - six months. Six months had passed since I emphasized the necessity. So if we had started in October of last year, we would have had the six months. Instead, after six months, they say we need six months. Yes, if we continue to think and work in this way, then in three to four months we will have fallen asleep in terms of the outer movement, and this just at the moment when we might have the greatest and best prospects in terms of the spiritual and the spiritual.

This is not said merely because one wants to lament these things, but because labor is taken up by them, which should be working in a different direction. Of course, one has to take care of these things when others do not take care of them. And since the manpower is required, it is self-evident that the ideal and spiritual work suffers as a result and cannot reach the level it should actually reach. It is, of course, a hypothesis when I say that we could perhaps reach a peak of our spiritual achievements in three to four months; because this peak depends on the members doing the right thing.

For the near future, not tomorrow, but today, there should be a desire for some kind of energetic action for the administration of our cause. Above all, those foundations that have been able to emerge on the periphery should feel a strong obligation to contribute to the central core, to the whole; they should, despite the fact that they may well stand on their own (no one should misunderstand this), feel the obligation to support and sustain the center of the matter and, above all, to relieve it of external material work.

And as unpleasant as it is for me to say it, it had to be said, and it had to be said again today. It has often been pointed out in recent years, but it has fallen on deaf ears. To the same extent that the mark accounts have understandably declined, to the same extent the prospects of our cause have gradually faded. Now there is a large loss of Swiss franc accounts, after there were no more German mark accounts at all. That is the actual result, which I can only summarize in the words: the Goetheanum treasury is currently short of four hundred thousand francs for the next few months. If there is to be any prospect of continuing the construction and administrative work, these funds must be found.

This is a great concern to me. I said it very clearly last year and regret that I have to say it again at this moment.

My dear friends!

Allow me to say a few words, which are meant to be, so to speak, an interpretation of the moral and financial balance sheet that has been presented to you today. I would like to tie in a few things that I am convinced are intimately connected with this balance sheet, but the connection cannot always be seen immediately if things are not considered thoroughly.

I would like to start from something very obvious, and draw attention to something else here: the fact that the anthroposophical movement, of which the Goetheanum here is the external representative, has recently become very widespread without the movement itself having done very much directly to popularize it. Little by little, anthroposophy has actually become something that is widely taken into account, and this is precisely because people have become aware of it from the outside and have studied it. As a result, it is really already part of all the various efforts and struggles that are being waged within civilization today. This can be seen quite clearly. We couldn't have changed that. For it is precisely in the circles where anthroposophy is widely discussed today that we have basically done nothing, but have endeavored to maintain the original impulses, to work more and more in a positive way towards the given treasure. And of course it would have been different – despite some enmities arising from the movement – it would have been different than it is now, when we are exposed to the broadest public to such an extraordinary degree. But this factor simply has to be reckoned with, and in this respect the recent Congress of Vienna was particularly characteristic. There we were, if I may say so, in full public view, and we were also in public view in front of numerous people who, with regard to what is necessary to build civilization, to rebuild civilization, are also asking themselves questions.

It is quite clear today – and this must also be said in this circle – that one thing is quite clearly noticeable when one observes life on a large scale. It is noticeable today that in Western countries there is a conviction, perhaps not yet very strong, but clearly emerging, that the old cultures that have developed within Central Europe must be ferments for a spiritual reconstruction. The West's antipathy towards the spiritual life in Central Europe will decrease, while political antagonisms are currently still on the increase. Although other symptoms seem to indicate the opposite, political antipathies are steadily increasing. The same is not true – even if it is less noticeable – of the sympathies for that which can become effective in the spiritual realm in Europe for a healthy building up of civilization.

Yes, my dear friends, there are many things to be considered. I will first draw attention to just one detail. I will single out the special reception that the three eurythmy performances have now found in Vienna. If you have an ear for these things, you can distinguish between them. The reception of eurythmy in Vienna was the warmest imaginable, the warmest that has existed so far; even if it was not perhaps the most outwardly striking, it was still the warmest because people were able to see the artistic aspect in general and because did not think of all the things that we ourselves - and I in particular in every introduction to the performances - emphasize; because it did not occur to them, because they were able to take it all in as an artistic disposition of the heart. The reception of eurythmy in Vienna is actually something that marks an epoch-making event within the anthroposophical movement.

And here we must take into account the fact that there is a strong urge today for the artistic element in anthroposophy to be developed. We ourselves cannot exert a direct influence on many things because of our working conditions, because we are absorbed by the things that already need to be done. But when, for example, a number of younger people feel the need to train in the art of recitation and declamation, and also in the elements of dramatic art, when it has become necessary for Dr. Steiner to hold a course here for young people in the art of recitation, declamation and mime, at the request of young people, then it is at least a sign that the striving, however little it may be apparent today, is present.

All these things must be treated with an extraordinarily strong objectivity, because, of course, the impulses that live in such things can also be expressed in a negative way, and in the moment when, for example, the artistic is led only a little on an inclined plane, in that moment all possible luciferic and ahrimanic forces are immediately set loose, and the matter leads into a false channel.

Therefore, it is necessary, especially on this point, to pay attention to the experiences gained so far, as could be gained through the previous operation. These experiences must be carefully considered, and in this area in particular, the always inhibiting criticism and even derogatory discussion, which is very common in our circle, must be avoided, as it leads to nothing but hindrance in the real advancement of the matter. Because, of course, something can be objected to in everything, and the critic can always know better. I don't mean that ironically at all; sometimes it can be better in theory, but it can't be carried out under the conditions that we are given. But it can't be carried out at all because it is mere theory and not really artistic practice.

Such things must certainly be taken into account: that attention is paid to what the personalities have experienced so far and what ideas they have formed [about] how things could proceed, personalities who have so far mainly been involved in the issues. And the others should help them more so that they do not experience inhibitions at every turn due to knowing better and the like, which can always be very easy. These are things that are much more connected with what you have actually encountered here in the balance than is usually believed.

I would like to point out another fact. You see, it is now very natural that when such congresses or university courses and the like are held, as was particularly the case in Vienna, people talk about it everywhere. It is only natural that the education should be discussed, that the principles on which it is based should be expounded, and so on. The Vienna Congress is of such great significance because, if it is properly followed through, the success we have had, first of all with the general public, can indeed prove a great blessing for the anthroposophical movement. 'If it is not capitalized on, it can of course - because it has led to things being so widely publicized - lead to a situation in which all the things that are now coming out of all corners with it will increase the opposition considerably.

You only have to consider the following in this context: in Vienna, despite the fact that such things were not sought – on the contrary, people were somewhat shy about them – outsiders have already published quite objective descriptions of what happened at the congress. But you must not forget that at the moment when something like this occurs on one side, the malicious and harmful opposition in particular makes full use of it.

I will mention just one fact. When I was traveling back, I had a somewhat longer stay in Linz, where I bought a newspaper. You do it in such a way that you go to the kiosk, pick up a newspaper, and you can have the most interesting experiences. There was an article in it called “Steinerism”, and the article was written in such a way that it wanted to show that the congress in Vienna could show the harmful aspects of Steinerism in particular, because if you go to Germany, things are worked a little more tightly there, and then more of the beneficial aspects come out. But when you come to Vienna, everything is immersed in sloppiness, the writer of the article says, and so you perceive the special form of sloppy Steinerism. And so you can see in the sloppy Steinerism just what is really wanted. And then it is peeled out; what is actually striven for in Waldorf school pedagogy, and in fact in the form that is said: the essence of Waldorf school pedagogy consists in homosexuality.

Now, my dear friends, you see, this is carried out in every detail, and so in a relatively widely circulated daily newspaper, people are taught the judgment: Don't make any sacrifices for this Waldorf school movement, because it's just a mask for spreading homosexuality.

Now, my dear friends, these things must of course be carefully observed. I could also illustrate what I am saying to you with other examples. One need only be led, by chance or by one's karma, to become aware of such things. For example, I once had to wait for something to happen in Vienna during the last days, so I went to a coffee house to avoid waiting on the street. As I still find it most useful on such occasions, I took a fair number of newspapers. The Congress had just ended. The newspapers had a lot to say about the conclusion of the Congress. But a large part of what appeared there in the way of reports was not written in such a grotesque style as the article that I then found in Innsbruck – not in an Innsbruck paper, but in a Viennese one. This grotesque style was not achieved, but nevertheless nice things were said from various sides. And some of the newspapers that had previously published objective reports then thundered from a completely different corner.

I emphasize this because it should be understood that the word has a much greater significance; that I always say that one should know how things live in our age, how things work, otherwise one cannot really [be familiar with the realities]. Of course, in anthroposophy the impulses are so strong that one does not need to take out one's earplugs, but can go through the world with them in. But one can no longer do that when the anthroposophical movement has spread so much without our doing. And so we must see to it that we ourselves find the possibility of finding our way, while remaining constantly alert and constantly taking into account everything that is happening. We must simply come to find our way. When you look at the bigger picture, it is quite confronting. That civilization cannot continue as it is today, as many people think, is becoming fully clear to other people. That is why the most beautiful alliances are being formed today, with the most beautiful programs.

Now I have been completely convinced of the following in recent times: We have certainly also found a certain number of people at our Congress of Vienna who, through this Congress of Vienna, have become aware that we are not making any progress with the old way of thinking, that it is necessary for a completely new and spiritual approach to come. It is precisely because of what was done and implemented at the Congress of Vienna that numerous people, certainly enough people for such a congress, have come to this conclusion.

If these people have now come to this conviction and now want to translate this conviction into practical life, then, my dear friends, what has always been there on a small scale also emerges again: these people do not join the Anthroposophical Society, but they do join another of the covenants, whose external leadership, whose external organization, whose external collaboration of members they like better. So that we actually - we can say it, and today I am saying it quite decidedly, because it has come to me so decidedly in recent times - so that we actually now often work in such a way that we thoroughly win people over for the facts, but they do not join us, but enter into the other covenants that are currently being founded. So the material success is actually not lacking. You can't even say that people don't want anthroposophy, because they do want it, and those who enter into the other alliances are sometimes very good anthroposophists, they just don't join us. I'll leave it to you to think about the reasons for this, because that will be the useful thing in working out an opinion for yourself.

But now I would like to start calculating. I believe that a great deal of money is being spent today to stage such alliances, and quite a lot of money is flowing into them. I am convinced that we could have this money if our cause were properly managed. We don't get them. We could very well build the Goetheanum with them and continue to operate it if only we understood that people really join us, and don't join other [societies] after they have been convinced by us.

To do this, however, we must really pay attention to the only specific thing, we must not pass by the single specific thing. And so it must be said: other alliances are relatively successful in raising and collecting sums of money from the broadest circles. If you were to see in detail how we have been offered the opportunity to continue our work at the Goetheanum in recent times, then, apart from the respectable beginnings in raising larger sums from individual smaller contributions, the main thing that has helped us so much comes from a very few individuals, who must be approached again and again, and who have indeed given their all. So we should not be deceived by drawing up statistics according to country and so on. It is individual people who have actually helped us decisively so far. And that is what prompts me to think with an extraordinary feeling of gratitude of those individual personalities who have really understood in an extraordinarily sacrificial way to make possible the continuation of the Goetheanum building and what is connected with it.

But since I am convinced that many people who have worked in this extraordinarily sacrificial way have actually given their all, I also believe that we are currently in a particularly critical and that attention must be drawn to the moral foundations of our balance sheet, in such a way that we should take into account just such things as those I have just mentioned.

You see, my dear friends, the fact of the matter is that, given our membership, it would be absolutely possible for the journal Das Goetheanum, which appears here – and which, of course, viewed from the outside, has emerged quite respectably in relation to how other journals emerge – but that a journal like this, which actually provides an extraordinarily good picture from week to week of what is happening spiritually here, it would be possible, through our membership, for this journal to have ten times more readers than it actually has, if it were sufficiently taken into account. If people were sufficiently aware of what is actually involved in the simple fact that this magazine, Das Goetheanum, exists and is so well managed by our dear friend Steffen, if people were aware of all that is involved for our anthroposophical administration, I would say, then I would be able to do something extraordinarily good through these moral impulses, I would say.

For there is no doubt that someone could easily say that they know better: one article should have been published, the other should not have been published, and so on. I do not disagree with someone who says something like that, of course. But if the necessary support were there, which would simply consist of our being in the thick of it, really making DasiGoaheanam min an extraordinarily widespread magazine, then, in turn, the support that would be provided by that would of course make it possible to do better and better. These are, of course, things that point to the remote, but they are related to what should actually be considered above all: that we now interest the world in our sense, so that people also learn to know what the reality is of something like Waldorf school education and the like.

Do not underestimate this: if – well, I cannot say anything very decisive in this regard – but if, for all I care, a hundred thousand people read after the Congress of Vienna has concluded: It has become quite clear in Vienna that Waldorf school education is based on homosexuality. So it has been read by a hundred thousand people, and it only helps if we do not have these hundred thousand people, but other hundred thousand people who now approach things as they really are. It is much less a matter of repeatedly dealing with people who cannot be convinced, but rather of reaching the others who do not absorb the opposing poison in this way. There is no need to deal so intensively with those who might express such views, unless it is a matter of defense. No one can believe that someone who expresses such views can ever be convinced.

Not true, I have discussed it on a variety of occasions; I have discussed it very clearly when some person has once again spread the nonsense here about my magical effects on the German Kaiser and so on: there is no point in dealing with those people, whose worth is known from the outset, because they have such an immoral basis for their judgment. It is just as necessary, of course, that we spread our good things among people in every direction on the other side. And in this direction, we cannot say that the first condition, an awareness of these things, is present. There is no awareness of what it actually means to have something like the magazine Das Goetheanum. I think it is absolutely necessary to become aware of these things first, then we will really make progress. Our work begins with becoming aware of them.

In Vienna, we discussed with friends from various countries the possibility of financing the construction of the Goetheanum to such an extent that the sum is available annually that is not only necessary for the expansion, but also to to avoid constantly going around with a collection plate for every single thing, such as for eurythmy; so that the Mystery Dramas can be performed again, and so on. In doing so, it is really necessary first of all to consider these things in such a way that one does not say: the Mysteries should be performed. They will be performed as soon as it is possible. But this possibility really also requires that one does not, I would say, always have to worry from eight days to eight days about how to raise what is needed for the construction, or how to stretch and so on.

Rather, it would be necessary for us to find ways of approaching the people who, I might say, are springing up like mushrooms; people are saying: There is nothing to be gained from all the economic chatter and all the politicians are doing; the task today is to create spiritual movements. People who say this are springing up like mushrooms all over the place today. Of course, they may disagree with this or that; they fully recognize the practical work of anthroposophy, but when it comes to whether they join us or somewhere else, they join somewhere else, because, after all, [gap in the text]. Think for yourself about things, how sometimes things approach in such a strange way, how often they are so strangely barricaded, so full of clauses, not in the principles, of course, but in practical application. It is difficult for some people to get through some of the things that come their way when they should approach our movement.

Of course, we really have to pay attention to this if we don't want to have to start the managing director's report last year by saying that last year it was pointed out that the progression is declining and that we can only talk about adding around 290,000 francs to the value of the Goetheanum. Since the construction of the Goetheanum was stopped, we have only had to account for the administration of the remaining funds up to the last few months before the construction of the Goetheanum was stopped, now to those people who are still interested in the past. Please do not take this as an exaggeration. If things are not taken in hand energetically, a report like this may well be the beginning of a new tradition. For the critical moment to which I have referred has certainly arrived. But I have had to point this out in previous years as well, for I would say that the basis of our accounting is more spiritual than material.

I am always extremely reluctant to have to make such a statement, which some might call a diatribe, but it is absolutely necessary, and I am fully convinced that it is fully compatible with my deepest gratitude to those who work with me at the Goetheanum. It is indeed the case in the anthroposophical movement that a group of co-workers has come together in the most dedicated way in all fields, artistic and non-artistic, and now works in the most self-sacrificing way, so that resistance in the work of this group can never be found in earnest. I am often confronted with the fact that whenever I ask why this or that has not been done, the answer is always: We didn't think of that! It will be done the next day; there is always the will to get things done. But it is more important, above all, to consider that things should be done more rationally, more economically.

You see, if I may speak for myself: the corrections for my books are very high! I can't get to them, for the simple reason that there are always other things to be done. It is quite natural that there are other things to be done; but when you look at a lot of things in more detail, the fact is that I am very often not asked at the decisive moment about things that are being conceived somewhere, that are being done somewhere. Then they happen. Then, after some time, they do not go any further, and then one is asked about the details. That is, of course, an endless matter.

I am not at all annoyed when I am asked about all sorts of things, but it must be the main things. It should not be the case that I am not asked about the main issues, and then have to negotiate about the secondary issues in endless meetings, by which I do not just mean those of the “coming day” and the “future”; it is not the case that I am referring to these in particular. Rather, I mean that it is necessary, now that we are really facing such enormous demands from the public, that we now do things with a certain rationale, that they are considered, and that they are done in such a way that they are not just done out of momentary ideas, but that they are really done with a certain overview. Otherwise, the same thing will happen that has already become a calamity within the anthroposophical movement.

You see, something like the Congress of Vienna is particularly evident. The Congress of Vienna is closing; the most urgent requirement is to make it count. This commercialization consists, of course, in evoking a correct judgment in the world as to what the Congress had as its content. And then it is a matter of this being done by people who are collaborators. At the moment when one needs new collaborators, because the old ones have simply been overworked, it is no longer possible. In our case, the matter very often comes to a halt due to the fact that we have a number of exceptionally good workers in a particular field; when their number reaches a certain size, the result is not that the circle expands, but that people overwork, as is the case with such bodies, say, as the Waldorf school teaching staff and the like. People overwork themselves; and of course, overwork does not make a person more resilient, but less so.

Today, of course, there is the very aggravating fact that if it were a matter of founding new Waldorf schools, we would face a major difficulty. If someone were to give me, say, fifty million francs to found new Waldorf schools immediately, then things could be done very well. But if there are constant calls for Waldorf Schools to be founded without the fifty million francs being available, for instance through the establishment of a world school association, then we face the greatest difficulty of all: we cannot find teachers. If you want to found Waldorf schools today, you have to create teachers who are truly capable practically out of thin air. It is even extremely difficult to expand the teaching staff of a Waldorf school in an appropriate way.

My dear friends, I would like to illustrate to you why this is the case: You see, with the current state of the anthroposophical movement, it is simply not possible for me to deal with each individual teacher as much as is necessary to hire a single teacher here or there. It is absolutely impossible. It is not possible. The moment we are in a position to offer a joint course again for, say, a hundred or three hundred teachers, then we can do it again as it was done at the beginning of the founding of the Waldorf School in Stuttgart. Then the matter is settled; then we can move on. But for that to happen, we really need to be able to hold courses that are embedded in the bigger picture. As the movement stands today, it is impossible to fragment our energies in the way that they are fragmented when things go the way they do today.

So if there are fifty million available to found Waldorf schools, then many can be founded; because teachers are available, they just need to be trained first. You need a teacher training background and so on. And those who are the best teachers in the world today need to be trained first. If someone wants to become a teacher today, they say: they want to take the course that was held for the Waldorf school back then. That is all well and good, but it is not the same as three weeks of real teacher training! Then you would have the opportunity to establish a whole series of Waldorf schools. But if you have to do something on the side in the meantime, you face the greatest difficulties, then it simply does not work. And so you will simply end up having to keep replying, “I don't have any teachers,” to these constant small advances.

What is important is not the utopia that I am creating here, but rather my firm conviction that it can be done; but the most important things always fall through, they are rejected. The World School Association was clearly rejected in its founding. They didn't want it. But it could have helped us, because if we had really launched the World School Association as it was meant at the time, we would not have membership fees for the World School Association of fifty francs, but of five or even one franc. If there is the necessary reality behind it, then we can move forward, we can form public opinion, and that is where it must start. That is where the matter lies. We must be able to form a public opinion. Now the matter always comes to a halt because we can, to a certain extent, place personalities in the places where they need to be placed, that they overwork themselves there, and that we cannot draw on forces from outside, because of course that depends on the most diverse circumstances.

But, my dear friends, these conditions also mean that, in each individual case, when you want to bring in this or that personality, you are faced with the question: how do you pay them? And that is where it stops. You simply cannot pay them under the current conditions. You have to let them go. These are the things that must therefore be taken into account.

Marie Steiner: I would like to mention that no one has ever gone around with a collection bag for eurythmy, so as not to cause any misunderstandings. For theologians, for everything possible, one has already gone with the collection bag, just not for eurythmy.

Rudolf Steiner: That is not quite what I meant. When one says “to go with the collection bag”, it does not mean that one actually goes from one person to the next with the collection bag.

Marie Steiner: But it is easy to get that impression. I would like to take this opportunity to mention that teachers are often asked to come to various German cities to teach eurythmy. Everything is agreed, even the rather low remuneration, and then when the time comes, they are told: No, we need the money for the theologians or for the schools or for the lecturers, so please stay at home.

Rudolf Steiner: Going around with the collection bag means that the money is raised from corners that would otherwise not give anything, but which have to be sought in such a way because people do not think about the fact that these things also have to be provided for. By “collection bag” I mean that the funds have to be raised. If, as unfortunately happens time and again, a eurythmist is appointed far away and people realize how much it costs when they see the bills, then the money has to be found somehow if the people are to be sent there. That is how I mean it, that you are constantly worrying about how to get the money together for the most important things.

Marie Steiner: It would be no use at all, because for people everything else is more important than eurythmy. They have even found that something that was already intended for eurythmy has to go into the school!

Rudolf Steiner: It is indeed the case that things have to be done in this way all the time.

Marie Steiner: I have even been told that the clothes are not beautiful enough on the stage.

Rudolf Steiner: But they are very beautiful!

Marie Steiner: I am taking this opportunity to mention this for once.

Rudolf Steiner: Those who grumble are the ones who can pay the bills! Isn't it true that we actually have to go around with the collection bag for the most important things – I don't mean that in a derogatory way – that we have to go around collecting. We have to go around with the collection bag for the most important things. If I express myself in this direction, then the collection bag will also be abolished, but don't think that it offers a very uplifting sight when I now have the collection bag in front of me every time I leave the carpentry workshop! I am not saying that – except in special cases – anything of significance goes into it, it is not really noticeable. But in any case, it is not an uplifting sight. However, I would like to add, when making such a comment, that it should not lead to the elimination of the collection bag at the door or even just for oneself.

Yes, it is the case that recently we have found the courage for everything except for the things on which the anthroposophical movement was built. We have found the courage for many peripheral things, but not for the things on which the anthroposophical movement was built, and of course these are the things that would have to be taken into account in a very decisive way.

I do not have high hopes when I say this, because I have said it here almost every year and people simply do not believe it. They think it is a propaganda speech, like the ones they already hold! But now, the things that are happening are, on the one hand, extremely encouraging, but on the other hand they are really not being seen in the way they should be.

Yesterday, for example, I was confronted with a fact that really speaks volumes. I was confronted with a fact in the most beautiful way, so that I have to acknowledge that it was brought to my attention; but it does have its downsides. It told me yesterday: It would really be appropriate for a pedagogical course to be held for Swiss teachers. This is something that is of the utmost necessity.

Yes, my dear friends, not too long ago I held a pedagogical course for Swiss teachers in Basel. There was almost no one in it. Here, too, such a course was added at Christmas. Everything was there; they just failed to even look at the things, to take into account that they were there! They didn't even bother to look at them. But that's not true, you really can't just think of a pedagogical course for Swiss teachers, where there would certainly be a number of people. But it would still not lead to what I mentioned earlier – that you could really win over teachers and make progress in the Swiss school movement.

There must be an echo, a support within our movement. People must take an interest in what is happening. And this interest is of course lacking, despite everything, it is not there. And that is why, for example, something like this will not be reported, will not become known in the world, that eurythmy in Vienna has had such an elementary success and the like. Our members also go there and are witnesses to such things. But at most they find that the clothes were not beautiful enough, that they could be even more beautiful, but then they do not pay for the expensive clothes. The positive things are not emphasized, which should really be presented to the world, when we are on the other hand obliged to go before the great public.

Of course, it is due to some things that are already connected with our anthroposophical movement! But it must be emphasized again and again, so that something is thought in this direction after all, so that one really understands when something like this is demanded of us, that we have to work under the most unfavorable conditions. We will work. But the damage will become apparent, and the damage will not lie in the matter, but in the fact that we will only ever be able to have a small circle of employees who overwork and ultimately cannot catch their breath. And then we find no interest in the fact that things are like that, but then the criticism sets in, and that this is considered to be in the matter after all, not in the surrounding conditions.

This is what I would like to see propagated, I would like to say, to tell people again and again. Otherwise, we end up with a report like this: After we completed the construction of the Goetheanum so and so many months ago, at this year's annual meeting we can only report on the administration of the last funds. Repairs cannot be carried out because we have no money. We are therefore also faced with the sad fact that what has already been built will fall into disrepair and so on.

Serious thought should be given to how such a report can be avoided! I regret that I have spoken out of turn again this year. But those who have been devoted co-workers in all areas should accept my most heartfelt thanks. Because it is not at all a question of not working extremely hard, but rather of the fact that we see ourselves as being constrained in every way when it comes to really drawing the consequences of what one begins. It is certainly the case that the things that are done are good. But when something arises – I don't want to mention a positive thing – when something arises that is supposed to come out of the anthroposophical movement, then the money for it has to be sought from outside, from those who are outside. But the reasoning is always done in such a way that with each new foundation, the anthroposophists are now being shelled out and thus, of course, have no. have any money for the things the Anthroposophical movement was actually built on.

I don't want to cause misunderstandings by not naming the individual things, but it always comes back to the fact that this or that is justified and that one says: It is an urgent necessity of the time. If it is an urgent necessity of the time, then one should approach those people who are not exactly anthroposophists, but for whom one wants to fulfill an urgent necessity! And when you point out this urgent necessity, people come back and say: No one has given us much, the amounts are quite minimal; but with the anthroposophists, we have repeatedly found the opportunity to get this or that out of it. That has been the order of the day lately. Then it comes about that there is money for everything, but not for what the Anthroposophical movement is actually based on.

We are put before the public and have to fulfill the conditions of the public. We have to get to the point, my dear friends, where those who approach us say: Well, yes, there is so much evil talk about anthroposophy in the world, but actually they are quite nice people, and you can even talk to them, while everyone thinks: They are such arrogant people that you can't talk to them at all. You can see for yourself: It is possible to talk to them.

But as a rule it is not so, rather one hears again and again from the outside: I had the best will to deal with this or that person, I also approached him, but, oh dear! He has done a number on my corns! Yes, that is something with which I hint to you in pictorial form what I find in many cases, namely that people say: Anthroposophists always hold their heads so high, they are so arrogant that they then don't know where they are stepping, and then they usually always step on your corns. We prefer to go where they curtsy and don't step on our corns.

That is, in a very narrow-minded picture, what is repeatedly found. The chapter “The arrogance of anthroposophy” is something that could fill very thick books, not just individual essays. And if I were to tell you more details – I will take good care not to – but if you ask: Who has been arrogant again?, then those are named who, when I speak of arrogance in general here, are terribly astonished at how it can be! That is what one very often experiences.

Please do not consider this address as a diatribe, but as a confidential message that is not given because someone wants to give someone a piece of their mind, but because they would like them to work together in the right way, and it is believed that in the future they will think less about their own interests and many other things, but more about the problems of other people.

Emil Grosheintz: Since no one else has requested the floor, I believe that the meeting can be closed.

My dear friends!

It will be different for me too, and I will have to speak to you today from a different background than I have been able to do in these meetings in past years. For we are still under the impression of the passing of our beloved anthroposophical building, the Goetheanum. I do not need to emphasize again and again what that actually means. The words of the Chairman have brought this home to you today; and I am convinced that these words were spoken from the soul of each of you. It is indeed the case that an accident beyond a certain level can only be revealed in silent language, and that words are really not enough to express what has been lost for us with the Goetheanum.

In the lectures that I had to give at the General Assembly of the Swiss Anthroposophical Society and the General Assembly of the Goetheanum Association in the meantime between the two assemblies and following them, I had to talk about everything that I feel compelled to say at this time.

Much of what I have to say at this time is, of course, said precisely in view of the great stroke of fate that has affected us. It should also not be overlooked how this stroke of fate has shown that there is a great deal of shared feeling among the members of the Anthroposophical Society. But, my dear friends, what I would say came to expression in a way that was self-evident to us at the time, when we were under the immediate and momentary impression of the Goetheanum fire, was that we did not want to give up the continuity of the work of our spiritual life. That must always inspire us. And it is particularly important that we know how to act in the sense of what I said yesterday: to work from the center of our spiritual life and not to be deterred by the most painful or uplifting impressions from the outside world in this actual inner work and attitude that comes from the center. The real perspective of the anthroposophical movement depends on this. It does not depend on how many and what kind of blows of fate come from outside. These must be accepted with the attitude that arises from the anthroposophical view of life. But the question of whether the inner energy needed to work out the center of spiritual life slackens despite all strokes of fate, or despite all favorable strokes of fate, depends on what is to be achieved and can be achieved with the anthroposophical movement.

But we must always remind ourselves of what is necessary for such work, especially in these very difficult times.

I would just like to note that in a spiritual movement of the kind that anthroposophy is, if it is to find the right path, success and failure must be taken as meaningless, and that only that which arises from the inner strength and impulses of the cause itself means anything. But a great deal depends on the consciousness of those united in the Anthroposophical Society.

My dear friends, you only have to consider the following: attitudes and impulses of consciousness do not materialize overnight. We cannot say today what the successes of the impulses of consciousness and attitudes of the day before yesterday are. If you did that, you would end up in a completely different direction than anthroposophy can take. For example, if you were to take the matter in this external way, you would be able to say: We rely on our good luck. But then, if this luck is not there in the way you imagine it, you would also say: We lose our courage, our energy. I might have imagined that at the time when we were struck by the terrible misfortune, there might have been souls, even among anthroposophists, who would have said: Yes, why did the good spiritual powers not protect us in this case? Can one believe in the impact of a movement that is so abandoned by the good spirits?

Such a thought, my dear friends, is linked to appearances, not to that which comes unerringly from the inner center of the matter, through appearances alone. If we want to take it seriously that our attitudes, thoughts and, in particular, our impulses of consciousness are realities, then we must believe in them ourselves, in these impulses of consciousness, in these thoughts, in these feelings, not in the help that they can get from outside, but in their own power. Then one must be sure that what one draws from such impulses will, despite all outward appearances of failure, reach its true goal, the goal prescribed for it in the spiritual world; even if it were to be completely destroyed for the time being by external circumstances in the external world.

He who can ever entertain the belief that a spiritual idea, which is rightly willed, can be completely destroyed by anything in the external world, even if the destruction takes place in the external Maja, does not really believe in the power of spiritual impulses, in the power of spiritual energy. It must still be possible to say at the moment when everything external perishes: Success is certain for that which is willed from within. But then one may only speak of success in the sense of that which lies within the inner impulses, the thoughts, the intentions of consciousness themselves. The things that take place in the outer world usually happen in such a way that they often only become explainable after decades, or perhaps even longer. And to judge the government of the spiritual world by the current constellations, if I may say so, would be to be timid about this spiritual world. The spiritual world must give itself its strength and power. Now there is nothing within the earthly world except human minds in which this power can find a home, can be understood; not organizations, not institutions, however beautiful or ugly they may be, can in any way prove or disprove what is really willed by the spirit.

Those who seek to prove or disprove the truth or falsehood of the spiritual by outward appearances are on the wrong path, for they do not stand within the center of spiritual impulses but outside it. The innermost part of the human soul is the only thing that can be used to judge what is at issue here; external connections can never be decisive. On the other hand, however, this means that people who want to be the leaders of such a spiritual movement must strive more and more for this inner strength and develop an understanding of what it actually means to work from the inner center of a spiritual movement. It seems to me, my dear friends, that it is urgently necessary, especially at this moment, to become fully aware of how difficult this is and how it cannot be sufficiently fulfilled by what is often expressed by saying, “I have the anthroposophical attitude, I have the anthroposophical will.” It cannot be satisfied by that in any way.

And here I would like to mention a word that I have often spoken, often spoken since the Goetheanum fire, and which I would like to see really understood; I have often said it: The first Goetheanum, the form of the first Goetheanum, this home of anthroposophy, as a building, as it stood there, cannot be rebuilt.

You see, my dear friends, when such a word, which is meant in the spirit, is spoken, it must be felt as a reality, one must make the assumption that one can look at it from the most diverse sides, as one can look at realities from the most diverse sides, that one can often only gain the right perspective for such a word from a certain starting point. For such a word was spoken initially out of spiritual obligation. And at the moment when the word is spoken out of spiritual obligation, there is absolutely no need to carry around on one's physical hands all the reasons, the so-called reasons, for such a word.

Today, at this hour, it is less incumbent upon me to speak of the external circumstances, but I would like to speak today particularly about something that is connected with the inner impulse of this word: the first Goetheanum cannot be rebuilt. And please allow me to speak of it with all seriousness; because only this seriousness towards the task of reconstruction can give the friends the right attitude.

You see, we can report an external fact today. This external fact is that the legal investigations that followed the Goetheanum fire have now been concluded; one can say that they have been concluded so that the authorities have now been able to decide to pay us the sum insured of three million and some hundred thousand francs. The payment has been made. These three million are there; and this fact can be recorded for the time being today. So, since June 15, we have had these three million.

Now, my dear friends, it could turn out that souls would breathe a sigh of relief at the fact that we now have these three million for the construction and at most have to raise another three million through the willingness of our friends to make sacrifices. One could characterize the fact in this way. One could now record this June 15 as an extraordinarily joyful event in the development of the anthroposophical movement.

My dear friends, it is not. And if I am to shed light on the matter for you today from a perspective that is wholly in keeping with anthroposophical life, then I must speak differently. For me, for example, this fact, which may be described as extraordinarily joyful by some and extraordinarily sad by others, is extraordinarily painful. And one of the feelings of suffering that I have had since the Goetheanum fire is that I have had to say to myself: what has happened now must be brought about, must be brought about in the best and most energetic way, must happen of necessity; but something must be brought about that actually has nothing to do with the center of the anthroposophical movement, that lies completely outside the center work of this movement.

You see, my dear friends, the saying: The first Goetheanum cannot be rebuilt, has not only an aesthetic, not only an opportunistic, not only an external-historical background, but also an anthroposophical-moral one. And it is this anthroposophical-moral background that I would like to talk about today.

Let us look back to 1913, 1914, and ask ourselves: what were the reasons behind the decision to build the Goetheanum and to start this construction project? What was pursued at that time and in the period leading up to December 31, 1922, or January 1, 1923, was based on the fact that every single franc that was invested in the Goetheanum flowed from the willingness to make sacrifices of those who, in some way, professed their belief in the anthroposophical movement. The Goetheanum was built entirely out of inner understanding. Every franc flowed out of inner understanding for the cause.

My dear friends, the following is truth, is real truth, because reality coincides with the inner core of the matter: at the moment the last lecture was given at the Goetheanum, we had a home for anthroposophy that had been built with the sacrificial pennies and sacrificial cents of those who were wholeheartedly committed to the cause. From the hill in Dornach, the building shimmered, having incorporated anthroposophical will and anthroposophical willingness to sacrifice into every cubic centimeter of wood and stone. This moral substance was built into the first Goetheanum.

My dear friends, now we will begin to build with three million francs, many of which come from the pockets of those who not only have no inner interest in the Goetheanum, but have an interest in this Goetheanum not being there. And when the Goetheanum again shimmers down from the hill of Dornach, it will not only be built with anthroposophical willingness to make sacrifices, but also with what is common outside of anthroposophy in the structure of the present world.

Then, my dear friends, there will be a very different structure, seen from the inner spiritual point of view. There will most certainly be people who will not only not accompany with any deep sympathy, but perhaps even with a kind of curse, what, according to the social context that now exists, comes out of their pockets and is built into the Goetheanum.

I have often said that within a movement such as anthroposophy's, it is a matter of being awake, not sleeping. What I have told you now is not said in a sleeping state, but in a waking one. For us, words such as “blessing of a thing”, “connection of blessing with beautiful qualities of the human mind” must not be a mere phrase; for us they must be a fact. And so the first Goetheanum was built with the inner feeling that we were doing something that, from its right causes, takes the path forward in such a way that this path is the path of the causes themselves. Now we are building the Goetheanum in a tragic direction, my dear friends. A tragically built Goetheanum is different from the Goetheanum that we were able to tackle in 1913, 1914.

You see, my dear friends, anthroposophy is often criticized for being too intellectual. No, it leads through what lies in its real impulses to the deeper feelings of humanity. In 1913, one could begin building with a joyful heart; today, when one begins, it is almost inevitable that one begins in tears. I am giving you just such a description, which comes from the inner center of spiritual thinking; and such thinking differs quite essentially from thinking that takes its impulses from external facts. Thinking that is linked to external facts would probably not express the words I have just spoken; instead, it would be excitedly joyful that June 15 brought us the three million.

My dear friends, I have often spoken, perhaps unjustifiably in the eyes of many of you, about the fact that there is an inner opposition within the Anthroposophical Society to what I sometimes have to represent from the center of anthroposophy; today I do not want to characterize this opposition again; but I would just like to ask the question: Has the feeling that I have just expressed been present everywhere in the course of the last few months, since the Goetheanum fire? If another feeling has been present, it has been an example of inner opposition. It was a feeling that should no longer have been reckoned with, after the anthroposophical movement has gone through the three periods of its existence.

When we stood here on the hill in Dornach, bowed down with grief on the first day after the fire, while the flames were still licking outside, many anthroposophists gathered around the still burning building. One or another said something. In the end, it really did not matter to me what anyone said, because the content of the words is only a symptom for the actual spiritual background; but I would like to say that what was said on that first day after the outbreak of the terrible disaster differed in two respects. Anthroposophists spoke the word, for example: Now we no longer have the Goetheanum, now we want to build it in our hearts. It was an elementary feeling that already had something to do with the center of the movement. But there were other voices that spoke like this: The Goetheanum is insured; will it be possible to rebuild it with the insurance money?

My dear friends, I do not want to lead you into impracticality in any area of life. I have nothing against these things being considered as practically as possible. But it depends on the intentions. It depends on whether one recognizes the difference between what was there before and what will necessarily have to be built now. For no one should say, in the anthroposophical field, that it does not matter what the intentions are, as long as the Goetheanum is rebuilt. Attitudes and thought impulses, especially impulses of consciousness, do not work overnight, but move in the currents of the spiritual world and must not be judged by mere external facts, which are only symptoms for them, not an immediate reality.

Now, in everything that had to be done after the fire – please forgive me for mentioning this too – I tried, as far as it was possible under the influence of the necessary facts, to shape our actions from the center of the matter. Therefore, I calmed the friends who, in the first few days, saw it as the most necessary thing to use all possible means to protect our interests – for example, during the negotiations with the insurance company. I tried as far as possible to remove from our actions everything that did not come from the core of the anthroposophical movement itself.

My dear friends, must we not think that we have to learn to take our affairs into our own hands, that we have to learn not to proceed as we would on unanthroposophical ground? It was certainly not to impose more work on myself that I tried to conduct all negotiations in such a way that they were conducted by us on our own side.

I knew that I was taking on a responsibility towards our friends. Because if the outcome of June 15 had been worse, people would naturally have said: If you had taken the right lawyers at the time, things would have been different. But such responsibilities have to be taken on when it comes to the higher duties arising from the center of anthroposophical work. They have to be taken seriously. And they are no longer taken seriously if one does not, as far as possible, remain within the designated center in specific cases. One immediately describes one's powerlessness when one declares oneself unable to deal with matters that are one's own, from the center of anthroposophical impulses. Of course, we can never set out today to do what should actually be done, I would say, as the most radical thing: to use the three million for some charitable purpose, and to build the Goetheanum again only out of the sacrificial willingness of the friends.

My dear friends, as I said, do not regard me as a person who wants to tempt you not to be practical. But my concern now is not just to focus on the external deeds; my concern is to utter the words that should shape our thinking, to utter them quite openly. If we make them shape our thinking, then they will also, in the nobler sense, have the right results.

Those who say, “So we have to use the three million for charitable purposes and have to wait until the building can be rebuilt out of a willingness to make sacrifices,” would of course be wrong now. They would again be confusing what must be done with what suits their selfish, ambitious intentions. The energy and strength do not lie in choosing the easiest path, even if the easiest path can be described as extraordinarily moral in an egoistic sense; but the energy lies in the fact that, even if the path has to be a tragic one, one plunges, if I may say so, into the tragedy. But this must not be done unconsciously; one must plunge into the tragedy consciously and know that one is in a realm in which one cannot do what is purely anthroposophical; one must know that one must do what one has to do, despite the fact that it is not anthroposophical, but must balance it out with an all the stronger anthroposophical element. When you weigh something, you don't take away from the pan on the side where the weights are too heavy for the other side; you add to the other side.

We will need that. We will have to create the counterweights through an even stronger anthroposophical approach to counteract what we are tragically being led into, as something that, for the most part, perhaps for half of it, must happen un-anthroposophically. I can say that it would perhaps have been easiest for me to say: I will only lend a hand in building the Goetheanum if the three million insurance money is used for charitable purposes and the building fund is created entirely through donations. It would have been easier because it would have caused less pain. But we must not shy away from pain, my dear friends, if we want to work in the realm of reality. But neither should we want to ignore the pain. We should not just keep telling ourselves: we are doing what is most beautiful, what is best. We cannot do that in the earthly world, least of all in the present. Therefore, we should not let our heads sink and say: then I will lose heart altogether. When the gods sometimes seem to fade away, as if they were not there, as if humanity had been abandoned by them, the wisdom of the gods consists in people receiving impulses to seek them out even more in the places where they have hidden, but not to complain about their disappearance and inaction. Wanting the earth only as a soft resting place and only finding it divine when it presents itself in such a way that it always corresponds to what one would like, can never form the attitude of a spiritual movement, because that is not strength, that is powerlessness. And we will not perform the Goetheanum, which is colorfully tragic, out of powerlessness, but only with the development of strength, with the awareness that where the gods seem to have withdrawn, they must be sought all the more by us in their place, where they seem to be hidden.

My dear friends, I wanted to develop thoughts of encouragement. And since it is quite difficult to speak between the lines, today I have added some things to the lines themselves, I would say with a certain clarity. But what I have added to these lines is really necessary if we want to develop the right attitude in the near future for the reconstruction of the Goetheanum and also for other things. It would not help at all to lull ourselves into this or that illusion; but it helps solely and exclusively to face ourselves without a veil with the eyes of truth, in this case the inner truth that flows from the moral side of anthroposophy.

If that can happen, then what should actually happen would happen: that the Anthroposophical Society, in the midst of today's world events, would be a place where people do not indulge in the illusions in which everyone lives today. Because for much of what is happening in the present, you can expose the illusions. Since 1914, people have been living with a certain relish in illusions because they do not have the inner courage to admit the truths. If the Anthroposophical Society, the association of the Goetheanum, could develop awakening soul power in the midst of a world full of illusions, then, my dear friends, the tragic situation in which we now find ourselves, and about which we should not be under any illusion, would be counterbalanced as it is in every real tragedy.

Study the tragedians of all times. You will see that the tragedy consists in the fact that everything external seems to collapse and that only within oneself is the strength to lead beyond the catastrophe. When this occurs in art, some people like to look at it, although today there are not many, because tragedies are no longer very popular. But if it is to happen in reality, then things must happen as I have characterized them. Then something must happen that makes the Anthroposophical Society, the Goetheanum Association, stand out in its inner spiritual attitude like an island formation within a world based on illusions. Then what is a real power can radiate into the world based on illusions.

My dear friends, if we take the words in the right way that I had to speak to you, then there will be much intention, much endeavor, much striving for a different state than the one we are in, in our feeling. Then we will not be blinded by much satisfaction, especially not much self-satisfaction. We will banish from us the thoughts of satisfaction and self-satisfaction and awaken in us those thoughts that can arise from a purely spiritual view of things. Then we will have right thoughts of building up out of the spirit.

My dear friends, it was in all seriousness, but also, I believe, with complete objectivity, that I wanted to speak to you today. And I thank the board of the Goetheanum Association for giving me the opportunity to speak these words at this event about what is so closely linked to the fate of the Goetheanum, the past and the possibly coming Goetheanum.

Dear Friends!

Since there is now a pause, I could at most make a few comments that seem important to me. I hope that it is only a pause that is being filled. After all, it is clear that the discussion on the matter is not over.

I would like to make a few comments as a first interjection, asking that the debates on the matters at hand in this important meeting be brought to precision in the individual points if possible. And even at the risk of being misunderstood, I would like to state as a first point that abstractions, such as that a brochure should be produced, are of no use at all in this abstract form. You really have to think about such things very specifically; you can't characterize something from the outside, but you have to go into the circumstances, especially with such a thing. In the most diverse matters that have affected the anthroposophical movement, the suggestion has come up again and again that a brochure should be written. This is not the first time we have been presented with this suggestion, and I have mostly been extremely reluctant to write a booklet because I knew that, unless the booklet is a very special work of art, arising from the individuality of a single person and justified by the individuality of that single person, it is unlikely to have a real impact. The idea of doing something like this arises because we are accustomed to not thinking reality, but rather to thinking something or other, not even in general outlines, but in general external directions. Therefore, I would ask that if the proposal is to be further considered, it should be discussed in such a way that something can be understood. For the time being, I cannot imagine anything from what is being thought. That is the first thing I would like to note.

Then there is the fact that I do not want misconceptions to arise, especially at the present moment. Misconceptions within a spiritual movement, especially one that is guided by the motto “Wisdom lies only in truth”, are always associated with a destructive impulse, and one must be very careful not to give rise to misconceptions.

Such a false idea would arise if, for example, the opinion were spread that one could say today that the building of the Goetheanum was exiled from Germany by certain powers. If one has such ideas, then they must, of course, be stated very precisely. For outwardly the facts were not such that the building was exiled by powers that can in some way be linked to the fire. Outwardly, the facts were such that a certain building plan had been completed in Munich, and this was not rejected in such a way that one could say: Powers had influenced German law, causing the Bauhaus to be exiled, and the school would have had to move to a place where freer laws prevailed in this regard. But on the surface, the situation was such that it was essentially the Munich art community that had influence over the assessment of such a plan, and that as an art community, really as an art community, simply could not get into the matter, could not say anything right about it. And then one day, after working out a couple of dozen plans, I don't know how many in a row, we were faced with the fact that we still couldn't get a definite opinion from the relevant commission of experts.

In order to build as quickly as possible, the decision was made to build here, where the site was available to us and where there was a very nice view, that in the absence of a building law, it could be built as one wanted at the time. So in such a case, I would not want to say that theories are being spread and ideas are being conjured up today that do not exactly correspond to what happened back then. For it always happens in the anthroposophical movement that strange assertions are made from one side, and then something hostile appears that attributes these assertions to me and actually attacks me because of them. Therefore, in the future I am obliged to explicitly state that assertions I have not made myself have not been made by me.

You can also be quite certain that the opposing comment will reappear somewhere in the future: Dr. Steiner, despite everything, has once again not refrained from pointing to certain powers that were behind the Dornach fire. And I would like to note that from the very beginning, from the night of the fire, I have never pointed to such powers. I would just like to mention this fact and, so to speak, urge caution in this area. We are surrounded by lurking enemies to a much greater extent than we are usually aware of when speaking of such things – I am of course referring more to the way we speak of them. So even with ideas like this one, where there is a suggestion of some background, I would like to note today that I do not want to be identified with it.

I consider it extremely necessary that we try to be precise in our speech here in this assembly, and that we also speak precisely about the impossibility of bringing any valuables from the German borders here. Because the way things stand today, there is the absolute impossibility of bringing any valuables from Germany here. The possibility of accepting lovingly offered work, like so many other things, will arise during the construction process. I am not commenting on that now. But the fact must be clear in all its severity, because otherwise it could have unforeseeable consequences: It must be absolutely clear that whatever is collected in Germany, for my sake, during the reconstruction of the Goetheanum, must also remain within Germany by law, must be spent there, if I want to express myself clearly. So everything that is collected in Germany must also be spent within Germany, or rather, consumed there, within Germany.

For this side, therefore, only moral sacrifices can be considered, a spiritual sacrifice. A material sacrifice, if it is not compensated for in some way, cannot be considered at all. And if things are only expressed as they have been discussed so far, then the floodgates are opened to all sorts of opposing intentions, so that it is said: There it says that Dr. Steiner is the one who carries the result of a certain collection from Germany to other countries! You can be quite sure that this version will appear very soon if the matter is discussed only in the way it has been discussed so far.

We Anthroposophists must be clear about the fact that [material] thinking is not in the first place, but when it comes to practical matters, these must be considered. It must be clearly thought. And on this occasion, my dear friends, I may indeed point out one thing: it is extremely important today that there is the will to make many sacrifices for the reconstruction of a Goetheanum. On the other hand, it is also desirable that this reconstruction of the Goetheanum not be postponed indefinitely, but that it come about as soon as possible. But if we intend to make specific plans, it would be very good if it were borne in mind that this assembly itself is, in a sense, making a kind of proposition for the reconstruction. It should be visible at the end of this assembly how the Goetheanum can be rebuilt.

My dear friends, the Goetheanum can be rebuilt with one million francs, in which case two million francs of the insurance money will still be available for other purposes. It can be rebuilt with two million, with three million, with four million. If it is rebuilt with one million, a concrete barn will stand as a reminder of the old Goetheanum. If two million are used, it will be twice as nice as a barn; but it will be just as it can be built for two million, and so on. And what is necessary in view of the present situation in which we find ourselves, would be this: it should be known as soon as possible how large a sum can be expected. If we know by tomorrow evening that we can count on five million, then a Goetheanum will be built for five million. That is the practical approach we can take now.

And since I naturally assume that every soul has the tendency to want the Goetheanum to be as beautiful as possible, it seems to me that something very considerable can be achieved, even if we take this intention very seriously. But it is necessary that we approach the matter in such a way that by the end of this conference a kind of proposition can be formulated, and that this proposition can be seen as a celebration, and that we can say: in the spirit of this proposition, something will be placed here on the Dornach wing in place of the old Goetheanum. I think the times are much too serious for us to engage in disagreements. It is perhaps necessary for us to orient ourselves directly in the most determined way. My dear friends, it is really not my intention to add a little unpleasantness to so many beautiful things; but if it does not happen from any other side, then I must always do it, so that I am tempted to form a whole out of things. I am terribly sorry!

Now I would like to note that what I have just discussed now, in the first instance, is external, and so comes into consideration for an external structure. But something else also comes into consideration. And that is that in the future, as much thought as possible should also be given to the fact that it is necessary to support the whole anthroposophical activity morally in some way in relation to the world, to make some kind of moral contribution, so to speak. And such moral contributions are now even more necessary! Because ultimately, we will be able to build something here, so the possibility that a spiritual center will be created for anthroposophical matters is a given. But thought should also be given to how moral support could be attempted. And it must be pointed out again and again that an extraordinary amount needs to be done in this regard! If something were to be done by the Anthroposophical Society in an extensive and visible way that would tend to present the Anthroposophical Society itself to the world in such a way that one could not help but take it as something deeply serious, if, I might say, say, would arise here, to create a kind of moral fund to which precisely those who are currently having to leave their valuables within their own four walls, so to speak, could contribute, if a kind of moral fund could be created, then much of what I keep talking about would be fulfilled.

You see, in a sense I would like to see this brochure, which is supposed to be first-class, as was said yesterday, discussed here, because in a sense it also passes judgment on all the productions that have been released so far, and because it passes judgment that all the productions that have been released so far are actually useless! I would very much like to hear in precise and concrete terms how the first-class would relate to the second-class or third-class that has been produced so far.

These things are always hidden in the background. Now you may say that it is very bad to bring such things out from the background. Yes, my dear friends, if we simply say these things thoughtlessly, and do not draw attention to how such things are often said within our ranks, then we should not be surprised when our opponents take them up. The opponents will certainly notice what is at stake in such things. And it is against the whole onslaught of opponents that the building of the Goetheanum must be carried out today! The building of the Goetheanum cannot be carried out with money alone; it must also be carried out with the support of a moral fund of the Anthroposophical Society. There is no other way. This moral fund must be there.

And we must be clear about this: our outward work has already taken on a very strange form today. This too must not remain unconscious. In a certain respect, everything that is connected with Anthroposophy is like a besieged fortress. And think about what ideas people get when you say to them, “Go into a besieged fortress”. The first thing that a person with good will hears about anthroposophy today is what its opponents say. Anyone who approaches anthroposophy with the best of intentions is confronted with the writings, statements and slander of its opponents. And this is something that carries an extremely heavy weight when it comes to something like the construction of the Goetheanum.

Yes, my dear friends, if it were a matter of spreading anthroposophy today, I would say that all that is needed is the good will to stand up for anthroposophy. If it were only a matter of spreading anthroposophy in the world today, then I would, for my part, walk past fifty defamatory brochures and statements by opponents with absolute composure, accept them with absolute indifference, not worry about them, but just continue to work in a positive way. Because anthroposophy is spread only by continuing to work in a positive way. If it were only a spiritual current, then perhaps we would not need such gatherings at all; then we could be indifferent to all opposition. But when it comes to the fact that Anthroposophy is isolating itself today, when just mentioning its name leads to a whole range of external foundations, including of course the building of the Goetheanum, then it must be said: such things cannot be done unless a compact society is formed that is able to counteract the fact that anyone approaching the fortress first takes the opposing writings into their hands. One must make a clear distinction between the individual justifications and what the spiritual movement of anthroposophy is. It is self-sustaining. You can cover it with fifty kilometers of debris today, it can be rendered ineffective for decades for all I care. If the work is done in the right way, it will make its way through the world! But when things are presented to the outside world that are also incomprehensible to it, and all the individual justifications that are based on anthroposophy today are incomprehensible, then the Society must be united and compact.

And that, my dear friends, must be considered above all when making proposals that are to be made to the outside world by the Anthroposophical Society. Really, I can understand it when these things I say are repeatedly ignored. I am terribly sorry to have to mention it, but I want them to be heard! I want people to realize that they are not standing on a concrete floor but on glass when they make proposals for this cause, and that they need to create the moral foundation as well.

You see, here in this hall, I pointed out very recently, to a much smaller number of members than today, as was pointed out in the Journal de Geneve, that the Swiss should also be taken to the cleaners by me for the construction of the Goetheanum. We must not lack the answers that are an effective defense against such attacks. And so it should also be clear that from the moment something like this arises, everyone should be aware that it is not at all a matter of bringing a single centime into Switzerland from the German border. This must be stated unequivocally. Because that is the situation today.

Dear friends, I naturally have the greatest feeling for what enthusiasm is. But today one must really take into account the real possibilities, above all the realities themselves. Not to stop anything, but to ask outright that these real possibilities be taken into account as soon as the words are spoken. That is the only reason I wanted to fill this pause that has arisen. Because it hurt me, so to speak, that things are being discussed by one side that are not immediately taken out of context, so that the other side is not given a handle for their opponents.

End of session

Today, it has been pointed out in an external way that one should carry out an image or something similar from Anthroposophy. Is it not there in its reality? Do we still need an image? But what we need is to become intimate with Anthroposophy through our own inner honesty. Then it penetrates into the innermost fabric of our soul life and soul nature. We should not try to form an image in an external way. But inwardly we should become intimate with this living form, which, as Anthroposophy, should, I would say, go everywhere between our ranks when we are united as people who understand such things.

If we really live with Anthroposophy as a real entity that walks among us in a higher sense, if we are really human beings, if we become intimate with this Anthroposophy, then the impulse will arise in us to really experience what humanity so urgently needs to experience in our age: not just an image for the soul's eye, but a love for the essence of Anthroposophy in our hearts. That is what we need and that will be the greatest impulse of our time.

With this, however, I have tried to add the spiritual perspective to the physical and soul perspectives of anthroposophy. The spiritual perspective is not an external pursuit of the spirit; on the contrary, the spiritual perspective is precisely the experience of anthroposophy in the deepest, most intimate interior of the human soul and human heart. And this deeply intimate experience of anthroposophy in the human soul and in the human heart is the meditation that leads us to an encounter, to a real encounter with anthroposophy.

This is an attempt to characterize the three perspectives that anthroposophy can open up: the physical, the soul and the spiritual perspective. And it is my duty, at the end of this conference, to which many of our friends have come from all over the world for an activity that is so close to their hearts, to express, in the name of this anthroposophy, the deepest satisfaction with what they wanted to negotiate with regard to the construction of the Goetheanum.

It will undoubtedly be a memorable meeting, my dear friends, if the construction of a new Goetheanum can now emerge from it. And it would be wonderful if this new Goetheanum could become such that it could also radiate to us in its forms what is to be said through the word on the basis of anthroposophy to humanity. In doing so, you will have done a great deal for anthroposophy.

In all these matters, I may speak impersonally at this moment. It really does not depend on me, nor do I wish to speak about the decision that has been reached, the content of which is that it should be left to me to make the internal arrangements for the construction. For my request to be allowed to carry out the building work under these conditions if I am to carry it out was made because I can only take responsibility for the new building under these conditions, and all this remains within the realm of the objective.

It is commendable in a completely objective sense that this request has been sympathetically accommodated. The anthroposophical movement as such will benefit from the outcome. And so, as I say a warm farewell to our friends who have come here, I would just like to be the interpreter of the anthroposophical understanding. And the repercussions of this anthroposophical understanding from the spiritual world will not fail to materialize for all who have this understanding. It is truly the case that it was child's play to see the great sacrifice our friends are making for the reconstruction of the Goetheanum. But the feeling has now taken hold in our ranks that the will to realize what stands before the soul's eye as an ideal is impossible without such great sacrifices.

You see, the word was spoken this morning that here or there the question is being asked: Yes, why this building? Well, we want to build it because Dr. Steiner wants it. I have stated very firmly in my report on the Goetheanum situation after the fire in the journal Das Goetheanum that the decision to build it once came from friends of anthroposophy, and that I was, so to speak, only the serving, executing link. And the opinion should not have arisen anywhere that my will was somehow involved. Nor could there be any real blessing in following such a will. For the right blessing will only rest with the Goetheanum if those who make the sacrifices want it to, and if the sacrifices come from a sacred will.

But the beauty, the beautiful sincerity of this will, may I say, be expressed to you by the interpreter of anthroposophy as a warm farewell greeting. It would have given me a certain satisfaction if the discussions about the physical fund had been joined by discussions about the moral fund. For I can assure you of this: now that the sacrifices have been made, the Goetheanum will be built to the best of our ability, in keeping with these sacrifices.

The construction of this second Goetheanum will require stronger, harsher and tougher struggles than the construction of the first one required; and a moral fund in addition to the physical one would be highly necessary. But perhaps opinions on this differ from mine, and therefore you must not believe that I am casting any shadow over what I said last compared to what I said first. If I consider and let speak through me that which Anthroposophy is meant to be in the world, then I am indeed deeply grateful in the name of Anthroposophy to those who have rushed here to negotiate and to do in this important matter. And if it is the case that the right understanding is becoming more and more widespread, then in a sense the blessing cannot fail to come, and then we can look forward calmly to the difficult struggles that this work in particular will entail.

Therefore, today, in a particularly serious but also particularly heartfelt manner, I would like to say farewell to our dear friends who have come here for these negotiations and for these deeds.

Emil Grosheintz opens the General Assembly:

Dear friends and members of the Goetheanum Association! I hereby open the eleventh ordinary General Assembly and ask Dr. Steiner, on behalf of the Executive Council, to take over the chairmanship for the day.

Rudolf Steiner: In response to the kind invitation of the chairman of the Goetheanum Association, I will take the chair of this meeting and will begin immediately with the agenda, since we must first complete the ordinary general assembly, and after a break the important extraordinary general assembly, at which we will decide on changes to the Goetheanum Association , its position in relation to the General Anthroposophical Society, its position in public life and so on, and this assembly is scheduled to begin at 11 a.m., we will now begin to go through the agenda of the ordinary general assembly without further ado, and I may perhaps ask Dr. Grosheintz to give us the chair's report at this point.

Emil Grosheintz: I have to report on the membership movement first. On January 1, 1923, at the beginning of the reporting year, we had 496 extraordinary and 563 contributing members, a total of 1059 members. During 1923, we gained 26 extraordinary and 90 contributing members, for a total of 116 members, so that on December 31, 1923, the number of members consisted of 522 extraordinary and 653 contributing members, for a total of 1175.

Dear friends!

There is actually little to report about the year 1923. For the association at the Goetheanum, 1923 was a year of mourning. On the first day of the year, we stood in front of the ruins of the beloved Goetheanum, deeply saddened by this irreplaceable loss. But our will to continue our work remained unbroken, and we longed to receive a new, second Goetheanum from Dr. Steiner as soon as possible.

Two conditions were necessary for this: one material and one spiritual. The material, financial condition was partially fulfilled by the fact that representatives of all countries in which Anthroposophical Societies exist came together here in July [of] last year and made resolutions, in which the willingness of all members of the Anthroposophical Society to make sacrifices for this new Goetheanum was expressed in a gratifying way. But today, from this place, a strong appeal must also be made to all members of the Anthroposophical Society in the world, in the various countries, to let these funds flow even more abundantly, because if we are to achieve what has been planned and what must come into being for the Anthroposophical Society here in Dornach, we still need a great deal of funds. So I am putting this particularly close to your hearts. May you, those who do not live here, who have come from far away, when you return to the circles in which you work, may you also work especially for the building of a real second Goetheanum in this place. The spiritual prerequisite came through the Christmas Conference.

At this Christmas Conference, a new General Anthroposophical Society was constituted with new statutes, with Dr. Steiner himself at its head, surrounded by an actively working board.

Now Dornach, previously the seat of the Goetheanum Association, had become the central seat of the Anthroposophical Society, and the Goetheanum to be built by Dr. Steiner has thus become a direct concern of the Anthroposophical Society. The reorganization of the Anthroposophical Society also requires, of necessity, a reorganization of the Association of the Goetheanum, and the Association of the Goetheanum may now continue to exist in its new form as a department of the Anthroposophical Society under the direct chairmanship of Dr. Steiner. We will hear more about this at the extraordinary general assembly that is to follow this extraordinary general assembly.

As you know, the plans for the new Goetheanum are already available. As soon as the official approval has been received and the rubble that is still there has been cleared away, the reconstruction will begin with the help of the willingness of the members of the Association of the Goetheanum and the members of the Anthroposophical Society to make sacrifices.

Rudolf Steiner: My dear friends! You have heard the report of the chairman on the past financial year. I ask those friends who have something to say to take the floor. However, I would like to say right away that we will have to discuss all questions related to the further development of the Association of the Goetheanum at the extraordinary general meeting that will follow, so I ask that you limit your comments to the report only.

Is there anyone who wishes to speak on this matter? If not, we will move on to the cash report, and I would like to ask Mr. Binder to present the cash report.

Emil Grosheintz: The third extraordinary General Assembly of the Association of the Goetheanum in Dornach is now in session. I request Dr. Steiner to take the chair for the day.

Rudolf Steiner: Dr. Grosheintz, as chairman of the Goetheanum Association, kindly asks me to take over the chairmanship of this extraordinary general assembly. I hereby accept it with thanks and warmly greet all the friends who have gathered and also the representative of the authorities.

The extraordinary General Assembly is hereby opened, and we will discuss the matters that have become necessary for the organization of the Association of the Goetheanum as a result of last year's Christmas Conference here at the Goetheanum in Dornach.

This Christmas Conference, my dear friends, was intended to bring a new direction into the whole anthroposophical movement, and above all, with this new direction, it should be avoided in the future that things in our movement drift apart, and it should be ensured that in the future they are actually led out of the anthroposophical movement.

As you know, a board of directors was appointed at the Goetheanum during this Christmas Conference, which now, as an initiative board, feels fully responsible for what happens in the Anthroposophical Society. And this intention can only be realized if the Anthroposophical Society in future stands before the whole of public life as the body that really does the work, that really feels fully responsible for everything that exists. This can only be achieved if we now also bring about a unified constitution in the mutual relationship of the individual activities. And so it was agreed between the previous chairman, Dr. Grosheintz, and myself for the Association of the Goetheanum Dornach that, firstly, because the organization of affairs has fallen to me, especially since the painful Goetheanum catastrophe, it must therefore also be possible for me in the future to take full responsibility for what happens here.

I had to lead the negotiations, which lasted almost half a year, about the accident in Dornach, insofar as it was related to the measures of the various insurance companies, with all that interested the authorities in this accident at the time. Then, after that was settled, we had to think about how to rebuild the Goetheanum. Of course, it couldn't be done in a day. It took some time to consider and develop possible plans for the reconstruction. We had to deliberate with ourselves in the most diverse ways.

We are dealing with a completely new material that is being used, because of course we do not want to create the possibility of such an easy fire again. It goes without saying that the building, since it is now to be constructed out of the completely fireproof material of reinforced concrete, must be thought of in a completely different way than it was thought of as a wooden structure. The style, the whole attitude of the building had to change as a result, and when the relevant negotiations with the authorities are concluded, we will indeed have a significantly different building in front of us in the new Goetheanum than the old wooden structure.

But work has continued, and we are now at the stage where, once we have cleared away the rubble on one side, and once we have received the official approval on the other, which will not be long now, and which we hope will be favorable when we have this official approval to build, we will also start building. And it would indeed be my wish to promote this construction as quickly as possible, so that – I am still thinking about it, even if perhaps our architect is overcome by a slight palpitation when I say these words, but despite all that – our architect is a very accommodating man, and he will have to consider how things will turn out, which will then be met by me in the course of the next activity – I am still thinking that meetings could be held in the new building as early as Christmas if the permit comes quickly and we can use the favorable construction period for this.

But please do not take this as a promise, just as a wish on my part, which of course may be opposed by many obstacles, of course. But as a rule, it is primarily the prejudices that are difficult for me in such matters. Then, of course, there may be external obstacles that are sometimes beyond one's control to overcome. But in any case, we will make every effort to overcome the matter.

So you see that there is no other way in the near future than for what has been agreed between Emil Grosheintz and me to actually be carried out, that I myself be entrusted with the presidency of the Goetheanum Association. Of course, I can only do this on condition that Emil Grosheintz, who has led the Goetheanum Association in such a beautiful and self-sacrificing way, is then the second chairperson, and that we can work together. That would be one thing.

But then it will be necessary, out of the whole spirit of the Anthroposophical Society as it now exists, for this Anthroposophical Society to function as the actual registered association, i.e. to be outwardly the institution that represents everything here in Dornach. It will therefore be necessary for the General Anthroposophical Society to exist as a registered association. Within this Anthroposophical Society, four subdivisions will have to be established. These four subdivisions are planned by me in such a way that I take into account only purely real things, and not programmatic matters. We have worked a lot with the programmatic since 1919, but from the moment I took over the chairmanship of the Anthroposophical Society at Christmas, I myself cannot work responsibly with the programmatic, for the simple reason that I am really quite opposed to everything programmatic, everything theoretical, everything that works with paragraphs, not for a personal reason, but for the whole reason of our anthroposophical movement. One can only work from the real.

We have four, I would say four, currents of real institutions that have been active in living, organic activity from the very beginning: firstly, the Anthroposophical Society itself, which, even when the programmatic things began, was was often challenged; so it will continue to exist as the Anthroposophical Society in the narrower sense – I will now proceed historically by listing the facts – as the first subdivision. It is, of course, completely independent of all the programmatic developments since 1919.

Secondly, within our movement, we have the Philosophisch-Anthroposophischer Verlag, which has now moved to Dornach and cannot be treated differently [because] as an integral part of the Anthroposophical movement itself.

Again and again, efforts were made to thwart this view, which is actually the essence of the matter, from here or there. Again and again, the opinion arose that the Philosophical-Anthroposophical Publishing House was the institution that needed help most of all because it was not being properly managed, and the like. But when I wanted to substantiate one thing or another in the field of political economy with something that was actually working, and not something programmatic, I could only ever cite the Philosophisch-Anthroposophischer Verlag, which did not develop from a grand program but from small beginnings, starting with two books and then working very slowly, so that it was always grounded in reality and never received any subsidy from any quarter other than that which arose from the matter at hand and which had absolutely real possibilities for covering costs. So that in terms of economic leadership, this Philosophical-Anthroposophical Publishing House could even be cited as an example to follow if one wants to base economics on life. That would be the second subdivision.

The third subdivision – as I said, I am listing historically – would be the Association of the Goetheanum in Dornach itself, which emerged as the third institution and also worked only out of anthroposophical principles, untouched by any side currents. It would therefore also be able to form a subdivision of the General Anthroposophical Society.

And fourthly, the Clinical Therapeutic Institute, which was founded by Dr. Ita Wegman on the basis of anthroposophical principles, would then be integrated. And since I have to justify what it is all about - that it is really a real anthroposophical thing - if I want to explain it, I have to do it in the following way. I have to explain to you that there is an enormous difference between this Clinical Therapeutic Institute and other similar institutes. Many things have come into being since 1919 under the influence of the fact that at that time it was possible, more or less justifiably, to believe that certain things could be carried from some side into our movement, carried better than they could be carried from within the anthroposophical movement itself.

If we consider some institutions, we can say that they would not be there today if it were not for these movements, which emerged at the time in connection with the threefold social order movement, and if these movements had not emerged, the institutions would have been created by them. This is not the case with Dr. Wegman's Clinical Therapeutic Institute. One could say, and this is absolutely correct, that if none of the programmatic institutions had come into being – this Clinical Therapeutic Institute, which emerged from the intentions of anthroposophy, and of course from medical intentions – this Clinical Therapeutic Institute would then be there.

Let us imagine away everything that has been created since 1919. Not only has the Clinical Therapeutic Institute never had any need to take any of this into account, but on the contrary, it has even filled in for the other things to a very considerable extent at a crucial moment, so that here we have an institution that differs in its entire development and in its entire existence, also in the way it presents itself. It is a fruitful institution, one that is self-supporting, economically viable in itself, and promisingly economically viable.

So this institution definitely belongs to those that are now to be subdivisions of the General Anthroposophical Society. Therefore, the clinic is being acquired by the Anthroposophical Society through the Association of the Goetheanum in Dornach, and will form an integral part of the general Anthroposophical movement in the future.

These are the facts that arise purely from the matter itself. I would like to say that one cannot think differently about the further development of things here if one wants to put the matter on a healthy footing for the future. All other measures arise as necessary consequences.

We will have to negotiate the further composition of the Executive Council of the Goetheanum Association; we will have to negotiate the minor changes to the statutes that are necessary. All of this will arise as a consequence of the conditions just stated.

It is still the case that, if this reconstitution occurs, the board of the Anthroposophical Society will of course be on the board of the Goetheanum Association in the future: The President of the General Anthroposophical Society will also be President of the Association of the Goetheanum, the Secretary of the General Anthroposophical Society will also be Secretary of the Association of the Goetheanum, and the entire Executive Council of the Anthroposophical Society will be part of the Executive Council of the Association of the Goetheanum. This is a rough outline of what should form the basis for the organization of this extraordinary General Assembly. Perhaps Mr. Emil Grosheintz would like to say something?

Emil Grosheintz: I would just like to add that the Executive Council of the Goetheanum Society had a meeting this morning and that at this meeting Dr. Steiner was asked to take over the chairmanship of the Goetheanum Society and the previous Executive Council resigned. This board, the previous board, is therefore resigning, and the new board will be constituted in such a way that the new members of the board of the Goetheanum Association will be chosen by cooption by the chair.

Rudolf Steiner: So the previous board has decided to resign as such, and the composition of the board would result from what will be laid down in the statutes immediately afterwards – should it be done beforehand? [Representative of the authority:] No. That the Executive Council of the General Anthroposophical Society, as I have stated, is on the Executive Council of the Goetheanum Association, and that then – Dr. Grosheintz will work by my side as the second chairperson – the remaining members of the Executive Council are appointed by this Executive Council. And it will be a matter of course that the previous members of the board of the Goetheanum Association will be re-admitted to the new board. I believe that all of you who are concerned will agree that the previous members of the board should be re-admitted to the board as such. Should it then become necessary to supplement the board in some other direction, this addition could be made over time.

We would then have a board consisting of the board of the General Anthroposophical Society, which includes the chair and the secretary, and then the other board members of this General Anthroposophical Society, as well as Dr. Grosheintz as second chair, [in addition to] the personalities Mr. Molt, Dr. Peipers, Count Lerchenfeld, Mr. Geering, Dr. Unger, Mrs. Schieb, Mrs. Hirter, and Professor Bürgi. These would then be the board members who should be there in the future.

I think that those personalities I have proposed will agree. I then ask to open their opinions.

If that is not the case, I would like to open the discussion about what I have set out. But I would like to proceed with the adoption of the new statutes, which, after all, show no changes other than those that have become necessary as a result of the proposals made. Perhaps Mr. Emil Grosheintz could read out the original paragraph, and I will then read the amended one.

So we have: “Association of the Goetheanum of the Free University for Spiritual Science in Dornach (Switzerland), registered in the commercial register of the Canton of Solothurn.”

[1. Typescript:]

This would be changed to read at the top: General Anthroposophical Society, sub-division Association of the Goetheanum of the Free University for Spiritual Science in Dornach (Switzerland).

[2. Handwritten entry by Rudolf Steiner:]

Strikethrough: That would... would be above... Sub-division of the Goetheanum of the School of Spiritual Science.

Added: Its name would be changed to

[3rd reconstruction of the altered text:] Its name would be changed to “General Anthroposophical Society in Dornach [schaft in] (Switzerland).”

The following would be omitted: “registered in the commercial register of the Canton of Solothurn”, because the Anthroposophical Society is [then already] registered. Then would come: “Articles of Incorporation of June 26, 1924”.

Emil Grosheintz: Now §1: “Under the name 'Verein des Goetheanum, der Freien Hochschule für Geisteswissenschafo, there exists an association in the sense of Art. 6Off. of the Swiss Civil Code; the seat of the association is Dornach (Canton Solothurn, Switzerland).”

[1st typescript:]

Rudolf Steiner: The amended paragraph would read: “Under the name Verein des Goetheanum, der Freien Hochschule für Geisteswissenschaft, there exists an association as a member of the General Anthroposophical Society with its seat in Dornach, Canton Solothurn, Switzerland.”

[2. handwritten entry by Rudolf Steiner:]

Strikethrough: the Goetheanum; the School of Spiritual Science

Added in the margin: the General Anthroposophical Society has an association in the sense of [with reference arrow]

3. Reconstruction of the handwritten amended paragraph:] “Under the name of the General Anthroposophical Society, there exists an association in the sense of Art. 60ff. of the Swiss Civil Code. The seat of the association is Dornach (Canton Solothurn, Switzerland).”

[4. Official Protocol:] An association exists under the name “Association of the Goetheanum, the School of Spiritual Science” as a member of the General Anthroposophical Society. The registered office of the association is Dornach (Canton Solothurn, Switzerland).

Emil Grosheintz: [§2:] “The purpose of the association is to cultivate artistic and scientific endeavors.

Rudolf Steiner: Unchanged.

Emil Grosheintz: “§3: The organs of the association are: a) the association assembly (general assembly of members), b) the board, c) the auditors”

Rudolf Steiner: To be changed to read: “The organs of the association are: a) the board of directors, which includes the entire board of directors of the General Anthroposophical Society.

[Official protocol] b) the board, which includes the entire board of the Anthroposophical Society.

Emil Grosheintz: “§4: The members of the association are: a) ordinary, b) extraordinary, c) contributing members”

Rudolf Steiner: Remains unchanged.

Emil Grosheintz: “§ 5: Ordinary membership is acquired by appointment by the board. §6: The application for admission as an extraordinary or contributing member must be submitted in writing to one of the two chairpersons. Admission is granted by resolution of the board.

Rudolf Steiner: Remains unchanged.

Emil Grosheintz: Ҥ7: A member's resignation must be submitted in writing to one of the two chairpersons. The resignation must be submitted at least three months before the end of the financial year. The board of directors may decide to expel a member from the association without giving reasons.

Rudolf Steiner: No changes.

[Official protocol:] Resignation can only be made to the [protocol incomplete]

Emil Grosheintz: §8: “Ordinary and extraordinary members shall pay an annual contribution of at least 100 Swiss francs at the beginning of the financial year, and contributing members shall pay at least 50 Swiss francs or, upon application and with the approval of the board, the same number of units of the corresponding national currency.”

Rudolf Steiner: Unchanged.

Emil Grosheintz: Ҥ9: The Association Assembly is the supreme body of the Association. The ordinary Association Assembly (the General Assembly) is to be convened each time after the end of the financial year in the following first half of the year. Extraordinary Association Assemblies may be convened by decision of the Board.

The General Assembly is convened by written invitation from one of the two chairpersons to the members. The invitation must include the agenda for the General Assembly. The invitation must be posted at least five days before the scheduled date of the General Assembly.

Rudolf Steiner: Unchanged.

Emil Grosheintz: Ҥ10: Only full and associate members are entitled to participate in the association meetings. The associate members have an advisory vote at these meetings. The resolutions are passed by the full members. One of the two chairpersons chairs the association meeting. He has the casting vote in the event of a tie.

Rudolf Steiner: Unchanged.

Emil Grosheintz: “§11: Requests for items to be added to the agenda of the General Assembly must be submitted in writing to one of the chairpersons at least 14 days before the General Assembly.”

Rudolf Steiner: Unchanged.

Emil Grosheintz: “§12: The Executive Council shall be elected by the General Assembly of full members from among the full members for a term of seven years. If a member of the Executive Council resigns during his term of office, the full members shall hold a by-election for the remainder of the term of office of the resigning member.”

Rudolf Steiner: §12 will be amended to include a sentence. It will read: “The Executive Council, with the exception of the Executive Council of the Anthroposophical Society – which is included by default – is elected by the Assembly of Full Members for a period of seven years. Should a member of the executive council resign during his term of office, the full members shall elect a replacement for the remainder of the term of office of the resigning member.

Emil Grosheintz: Ҥ13: The members' meeting shall elect two auditors to examine the accounts and cash management. These may not be taken from among the full members.

Rudolf Steiner: Unchanged.

Emil Grosheintz: “§14: The Executive Council elects two of its members to serve as co-chairs, one to serve as secretary, and also hires the executive director.”

Rudolf Steiner: This §14 will be worded as follows: “The Executive Council constitutes the office in such a way that the chairperson and secretary of the General Anthroposophical Society are at the same time the chairperson and secretary of the Association of the Goetheanum. The second chairperson is elected by the first chairperson.

[Official Protocol] “The Executive Council constitutes the office in the sense that the chairperson and secretary of the General Anthroposophical Society also serve as chairperson and secretary of the Goetheanum Association. The second chairperson is designated by the first chairperson.”

Emil Grosheintz: “§15: The two chairmen are each individually authorized to represent the association independently.”

Rudolf Steiner: No change.

Emil Grosheintz: “§16: The management of the executive council is regulated by the council itself.”

Rudolf Steiner: Unchanged.

Emil Grosheintz: “§17: At the regular association meeting, the board of directors must report on the past administrative period and present the accounts. The auditors' report must be enclosed with this report and the accounts. The association's administrative period is set at one year; it runs from January 1 to December 31.”

Rudolf Steiner: Unchanged.

Emil Grosheintz: Ҥ18: The association's liabilities are covered by its assets. Personal liability of members is excluded.

Rudolf Steiner: Unchanged.

Emil Grosheintz: “§19: The association is to be entered in the commercial register in accordance with Art. 61 of the Swiss Civil Code.”

Rudolf Steiner: Deleted.

Official protocol: “§19: The association is to be entered in the commercial register in accordance with Art. 61 of the Z.G.B.”

Emil Grosheintz: Ҥ20: In the event of the dissolution of the association, the general meeting must decide on the use of the association's assets and the method of liquidation. The association's assets are to be used in line with the purpose of the association.

Rudolf Steiner: Remains unchanged.

These would be the amended statutes. I would like to make one further comment, to avoid any misunderstanding regarding the Philosophisch-Anthroposophischer Verlag. When I said that it had never received a subsidy that was not derived from the matter itself, this means that it has never received any subsidy from outside at all, but that when work began on the two books, a small Schiller work and the Philosophy of Freedom, it was supported only by Dr. Steiner herself, and that everything that happened economically happened within the publishing house itself. So this publishing house has never received any external funding and has never been supported by capital from outside.

I would now like to open the discussion about what has been presented to you here.

Of course, it is also possible for friends who are not full members of the Goetheanum Association to take part in the discussion. Does anyone wish to speak?

Dr. Unger believes that we can be extremely grateful that the Executive Council of the Goetheanum Association and the new council have undertaken the regulation of the matter in this way, which is desirable and gratifying from all points of view, and would like to recommend that the amended statutes and everything connected with them be accepted en bloc.

Rudolf Steiner: A proposal has been made to accept the amended statutes and everything related to them en bloc. Does anyone wish to speak?

Since no one does, we will proceed to the vote. I would ask those members of the Goetheanum Association who are entitled to vote and who are in favor of this proposal to raise their hands.

It has been unanimously adopted.

It would then only be a matter of leaving the execution of the whole matter, which I believe is clear, to the future board of the Goetheanum Association. Is there anything to be said about this?

Then I also ask those members who are entitled to vote and who are in favor of leaving the execution of what has been decided to the future board to raise their hands.

This is also adopted.

Does anyone have anything to say about anything else?

In this case, we have reached the end of our extraordinary general assembly. I would like to thank the representative of the authority for attending our meeting.

Do you [the representative of the authority] have anything to add regarding the election of the board?

Representative of the authority: No.

Then we have come to the end of the proceedings, and I declare the third extraordinary general meeting closed.

For the correctness of the protocol
The 1st Chairman:
The 2nd Chairman:

Note on the Back of the Typescript with the Minutes of the Meetings of June 29, 1924