Address
On the Occasion of the General Meeting
of the Berlin Branch
Berlin, September 17, 1920
After a
relatively long period of time, I am able to speak to you
again today. It came about because of the importance of the
General Meeting convening today, and the opportunity of my
current brief presence in Germany. It has certainly already
occurred to you that there must be a connection between my
long absence and the nature of the time in which we find
ourselves. The relationship between the events of the times
and the very slight activity — if it is even possible
to speak of such — that I can afford, particularly for
the Berlin Branch, must be obvious to you.
Before entering
into the order of business for today's session, I would like
to make a few preliminary remarks. First, I wish to remind
you of certain words I spoke in the early spring of 1914 in a
lecture cycle in Vienna, which were intended to point to what
then ensued. It was then that I spoke words which have since
been printed. The words I uttered at the time indicated that
civilized humanity lives in a kind of social sickness, in a
sort of social carcinoma or cancer; that the' whole way in
which cultural, political, and economic matters are handled
is such that it will undoubtedly lead to an outbreak of this
creeping cancer, and that it will be bound to change from a
chronic condition into an acute one. Of course, many clever
people at that time took this statement, which I made out of
a grief-stricken heart with regard to the immediate future,
to be mere fantasy, an empty paraphrase of a pessimistic
mood. At that time, the majority of people the world over
naturally preferred listening to the sound of voices like the
one, for example, of an official personage in the German
Reichstag a short time after, who said that the relationships
of the Central European governments to those of the other
European countries were absolutely satisfactory, and that one
could count on general lessening of tension in the near
future. You may remember another remark made here in Berlin
at a public session of the Reichstag — that the
friendly, neighborly relations with the court at Petersburg
were becoming more and more favorable, and that good
relations with London existed as well, and so on. These were
the words of “practical men,” while those who
spoke of the spiritual world had to speak of a sickness, of a
slowly growing carcinoma. Actually those who Claim to be
practical men still speak the same way today, in absolutely
the same way, although the results of their practicality have
brought about the events of the most recent years. Such
speaking continues, while what is brought forth from
spiritual research and from social insight is either thrown
to the winds or, as is the case in Germany, attacked.
Furthermore, the worst is that what comes from spiritual
research is being secretly persecuted and defamed, defamed in
the worst way possible. Thus, anthroposophical spiritual
science and everything connected with it today belongs among
the most defamed matters in the world. Nevertheless, it can
be assumed that today there already are a great number of
souls who, out of the totality of the principles of spiritual
science, have gained a feeling that only out of this science
can arise what can save us from general disaster. One must
say this today, even if foolish or malevolent people accuse
one of vanity or ambition for saying such things.
I can say
— and I wish to keep these introductory words brief
— that the whole attitude, the whole manner of
discussions that I had to take part in during the actual
wartime has not been understood. With the year 1914, a time
came when considerations in the ordinary sense had to cease
and what was supposed to occur through words had to turn into
actions. Humanity, however, is used to taking words in the
sense of the journalistic style, not in the style that should
enter into mankind particularly through spiritual science.
Thus, many things have been misunderstood during the so
called war years. Something that was of eminent importance to
me was overlooked. It was probably known to most of you that
before the first year of the war was over, I had a small book
published,
Gedanken waehrend der Zeit des Krieges
(Thoughts During the Time of War).
[ Translator's Note A ]
It sold out rather quickly. If one would have
considered the matter from the viewpoint from which,
unfortunately, things are still considered today, despite the
fact that the distress has become so great, it would have
been a matter of course to publish a new edition. I opposed
the printing of a new edition for the simple reason that the
pamphlet had not fulfilled its task. This pamphlet — you
can get hold of it again insofar as it is still
available — was a question addressed to the German
nation. It was not intended to be received in such a way as
to lead one to assume the same tone which a great many
members of the Central European countries had adopted during
the war, and which is common today where surreptitious,
poisonous defamations are leveled against anthroposophy.
Nothing at all materialized of the expectation that I had
concerning this pamphlet, the understanding that I had
expected. A new edition would have been meaningful only if my
expectation had been realized. So, it did not appear, but
disappeared from public life, and in my opinion had to
disappear. The proof of the lack of understanding given by
this fact had to be taken very, very seriously. This was
misunderstood in the same way many other utterances have been
thoroughly misunderstood, utterances that were meant to
elevate and ignite people's spirit in order to bring about
what should have been made to prevail directly in Central
Europe, namely, a re-enlivening of the spiritual life that
had been manifest around the turn of the eighteenth century.
Spiritual science is basically the revitalization of this
spiritual life in the form it must take in modern
humanity.
Take everything
that is written in the different kinds of newspapers today,
in popular literature and even scientific popular writings;
take what is written in Koenigsberg or in Berlin, Vienna or
in Graz, in Munich or in Stuttgart, and compare it with what
is written today in Paris, Rome, London, Chicago or New York
— you will find a great similarity. You will find the
same keynote in it, the same spirit that must be overcome. On
the other hand, if we seek another similarity and compare
what is written today in Berlin, Vienna, Dresden, Leipzig,
Stuttgart, Munich, Hamburg, or Bremen with what such great
minds as Herder, Goethe, Fichte and Schiller once proclaimed,
then we must say that it is fundamentally different. All the
declamations using quotations of sentences by Fichte or even
Goethe that have taken effect, all that has been produced in
this manner, resembles more what has been written in Chicago,
New York, London, Paris and Rome than the spirit of Herder,
Fichte, Schiller and Goethe. The tidal wave that has flooded
Central European life from the West has also swept away what
should have lived an in us. Nothing of the old spirit could
be detected in what was prevalent in the last decades. This
had to be shown to the world when the catastrophe fell upon
Central Europe, and wrenched itself from my soul in the form
of my “Appeal to the German Nation and the Civilized
World” which I wrote then. What was connected with this
could not simply be continued, as it was in the earlier form
familiar to you, up till 1914.
At that time I
could not appeal on the basis of something which one had to
believe one could appeal to after 1918. One could not appeal
to what is the proof of the decline of the general
civilization — distress. Since 1918, one had to believe
that the distress which had come over Central Europe would
awaken the souls and make them receptive to the language
intended in my “Appeal to the German People and the
Civilized World.” Certainly, the fostering of the
Anthroposophical Movement could not go on as before. Earlier,
one had to render the service which, naturally, always has to
be rendered in the Anthroposophical Movement, and which has
to be rendered today as well as in all future time: to foster
the eternal in the human soul, the eternal which goes beyond
birth and death and points beyond the merely sensory world
into the supersensory world. Now one had to wait and see
whether, from among the sleeping souls of the new
civilization, souls would emerge here and there who really
would have some understanding of what is meant by spiritual
science. One could not yet appeal on the basis of
circumstances brought about by the distress. Now, however,
after 1918, the time had come when a quite different
prerequisite had to be placed before the spiritual eye.
Mankind could have realized where it had been led by the
prevalence of materialism. For what we have experienced, what
we continue to experience and will experience with more
impact in the future, is the external karma of materialism in
the cultural, political, and economic field. It is the
consequence of neglect, because people do not wish to
discover in themselves the active strength to foster the
spiritual life in their souls. After the publication of the
Appeal to the German People,
the time came when it
was, above all, important to work in a positive manner
towards something factual. This arose purely out of the
possibilities of life. I had to grasp the first hands
reaching out to me, for each moment was precious. The first
to reach out to me were from Stuttgart. It was a question of
protecting and nurturing what could be fostered based on the
initiative of some friends there. If mankind had understood
at that time what was at stake, had it not failed even under
the lesson taught by distress, it would have been enough to
do something like this from one center, for it could have had
an exemplary effect. But what happened?
In order that
you can see how these matters must be understood, I would
like to touch upon something else. Before I traveled in the
spring of 1919 from Switzerland to Stuttgart for the first
lecture tour, a well known pacifist came to me. Although he
was willing to sign my
Appeal to the German People,
he hesitated and asked for more information about it. He
asked me, “What are you counting on in Germany?”
I believe he put it like this, “You are counting on the
second revolution.” This was in the spring of 1919 and
people in many quarters in Germany reckoned with a second
revolution after the first one in the autumn of 1918. He
believed that what was supposed to come into being in the
world through the Threefold Social Organism was only a kind
of vehicle, a stepping stone, for the impulses of the second
revolution. I said, “No! This is not at all my opinion.
First, because I do not believe that those people who might
bring about a second revolution in Germany will be able to
develop the slightest understanding for the true meaning of
the Threefold Social Organism, as long as the old leaders are
still active. Secondly, because I do not at all believe in a
second revolution. Rather, I believe that this second
revolution will consist of a kind of chronic infirmity and
will not reach an acute outbreak. What I am simply and solely
counting upon is that as many souls as possible will
associate themselves with what is born out of spiritual
depths, souls who will accept it impartially out of the
necessity of the times, quite part from the intentions of the
old leaders.” So, I did not reckon with those things
that many people thought I was counting on. When I then
arrived in Stuttgart, it stood to reason in a certain sense
that the broad masses of people were addressed first. The
broad masses of the people, though also partly paralyzed by
the events of the war, were those who initially wished to
hear something. In my innermost soul I knew how matters
stood. For I knew that as long as the leaders who remain from
the old days have the party leadership and the people firmly
in hand — be they leaders of the parties to the right
or the left, even those of the extreme left — nothing can
be done with the people. But imagine what would have happened
if I would have said that I was not in favor of addressing
the masses. Nobody had to believe me, but if I had not
addressed them, one would have said afterwards, “If
only Steiner would have turned to the broad masses,
everything would have turned out differently!” When one
is dealing with realities, one must also give proof by means
of realities. It had first to be proven by realities that out
of all the left-wing parties, defamers and phrase-mongers
would rise up against what was just beginning by means of the
concept of three-foldness to be comprehended by the masses of
the people. We were well on the way. One could say that
within a few days we had won thousands of people. But it was
just this comprehension of three-foldness by the great masses
of people that drove the old leaders to their defamations and
phrase-mongering. So it came about that from this side,
seemingly at first, the ground was pulled from under our
feet.
What could be
hoped for from the other side? Well, it serves no purpose in
regard to these matters to cling to illusions; the one and
only thing that can help us in the present is to speak the
truth. A leading personality who had come up in the party
that called itself, by a strange interpretation of the words,
"German Democratic Party," a person who had appeared at one
of the meetings held at that time, said to me, “You
know, if we were in a Position to let more people capable of
explaining matters in this manner speak to the broad masses,
then well and good — one could go along with it. But
one pair of hands is not enough and we therefore rely
temporarily more on firearms, on force. For the next fifteen
to twenty years, it will still be necessary to keep the
masses down.” This was essentially the predominant
attitude of the Bourgeoisie; the other was the activity of
the proletariat.
So there really
remains nothing else but to take what can be drawn out of the
spiritual foundations and to represent it in such a way that
more and more people can be found who will receive it into
their minds. Back of this, we must have something that was
born out of this insight and should have been fostered.
Before the war, this building was set up on the border of
Switzerland, France and Germany in order to look out from
Central Europe into the wide world, in particular towards the
West, and received the name it must rightfully have, the name
Goetheanum. For, in regard to spiritual matters, we are
facing worldwide tasks! Today, we cannot face spiritual
matters as we would merely personal matters. To do that would
lead us into ruin. This is the reason I had to limit my
activity during recent times to southern Germany and
Switzerland. Truly, I am longing for times when the horizon
of my activity can widen again, but this does not depend on
myself alone. It depends, above all, on the understanding
that people will show toward this activity. I may perhaps
find the opportunity in the next few days to point to a
number of things which pretend to be
“understanding” and which proceed from certain
quarters, which work more in an underground manner by means
of counterfeiting of letters, falsifying interviews, by
defamations and lies.
For the moment,
what I have said was merely mentioned in order to point out
the reasons why it was necessary for us to abandon our
activity in Berlin temporarily; to indicate the circumstances
that made it necessary to appeal also in regard to Berlin to
what must be appealed to in this age. Have we not been active
anthroposophically for almost two decades over a large
territory? Were we not justified in hoping that people would
be found that could carry on the work independently? Well,
they were found. They were found here in Berlin, too. And
with the help of these friends the attempt must be made,
first of all, to continue the work in Berlin. For this
purpose we have gathered together here. In the General
Meeting, we shall have to decide how to continue the work
here in Berlin.
Translator's Notes:
A.
Contained in
Aufsaetze ueber die Dreigliederung des
Sozialen Organismus und zur Zeitlage;
GA #24, Rudolf Steiner Verlag, Dornach.
|