Translation Verification Tools
August 1, 2024
We invite you to try our new translation tools! Compare existing English translations of Dr. Steiner's teachings to both the original German text as well as a literal translation of the German. With this new feature, one finds missing paragraphs, truncated sections, and varying interpretations. There are also a wide range of works that have never been translated into English at all. It is shocking that nearly 100 years after his death, so much of Rudolf Steiner's work is not yet available in English. We aim to correct this.
Comparison to original German.To assist you with comparisons of English to German, click a button to display them side by side. We have numbered the paragraphs where possible. A second button toggles between the German and a literal translation of it. By displaying the German as well as the translations, we hope to enable readers to more deeply understand the meaning of complex passages.
Focus on the books.We have first implemented these tools in Rudolf Steiner's original books (GA 1-28) since they are his most definitive works. He wrote them with precision for publication in German and are therefore considered the most reliable sources of his teachings. While we offer more than 3,000 lectures, they were transcribed from notes taken by others in German and were not reviewed by Steiner himself.
Making Steiner Searchable. Much of Steiner's work is still not easily searchable in English. By adding automated translations of materials we don't currently have in our collection, people will be able to find this valuable information in search queries. These documents will clearly be marked as “automated” and will always be presented with the ability to compare them to the original German text. There are nearly 2,000 documents that are Not Yet Available on our site or in our search engine. By adding automated translations, we are making them accessible online in English.
Example — Social Threefolding. A prime example of our motivation for offering these tools pertains to one of the most important topic of our time - Social Threefolding. Steiner identified three spheres of society (the cultural, political, and economic) that ought to operate independently of one another for optimal social well-being. This is referred to as Threefolding.
Through our research, we have found an astounding thirty-eight of Steiner's writings on Threefolding that have never been officially published in English.
The only English publication of CW 24, The Renewal of the Social Organism (1985) omits 27 documents originally written by Dr. Steiner and classified in GA 24, Aufsätze über die Dreigliederung des sozialen Organismus. These 27 documents can now be found HERE.
GA 19, Gedanken während der Zeit des Krieges has never been completely translated into English and published. This volume contains 11 articles. Only the first lecture of this volume has been translated into English by Daniel Hafner. See Thoughts During the Time of War. The remaining ten documents can now be found HERE.
To complicate matters, the materials of volumes 19 & 24 were initially combined in the German GA 24, Aufsätze über die Dreigliederung des sozialen Organismus. This are now being separated again into two volumes (GA 19 & GA 24). Such changes make it difficult to track collections in English to the German.
GA 23 is also about Threefolding. One can see by using our comparison tools, however, that the 1972 version, The Threefold Social Order, is so abridged that its paragraphs cannot be directly correlated to those of the original German text written by Dr. Steiner. Fortunately, we have another complete translation of GA 23, Basic Issues of the Social Question, by Frank Thomas Smith.
We hope you find these new tools to be useful. If you value our work to make this content both available and searchable online in English, please consider donating. This small, independent, US-based nonprofit is run by two people out of a cottage in Northern Michigan yet serves nearly 145,000 people each month. We are funded solely by our personal savings, donations, resale book sales, and a few small grants. Thank you for your support.