The Anthroposophic Movement

CHRONOLOGY OF RUDOLF STEINER'S LIFE

1861 Rudolf Steiner born in Kraljevec (then located in Austria), 27 February.

1879    Student in Vienna with interests in mathematics and science as well as literature and philosophy.

1882‒1897 Active in teaching and writing, including the editing of Goethe's natural-scientific writings, and work at the Goethe-Schiller Archive in Weimar.

1882    Involved widely in literary and cultural circles.

1886    Publishes Goethe's Theory of Knowledge.

1891    PhD in Philosophy.

1894    Publishes The Philosophy of Freedom — Steiner's main philosophical work.

1897    Extensive writing and philosophical discussions.

1899‒1904    Teacher at the Workers' Educational College in Berlin. Married Anna Eunicke (1899; she died 1911).

1900    Beginning of Rudolf Steiner's anthroposophical lecturing activity, at the invitation of the Theosophical Society in Berlin.

1904    Publishes Theosophy: An Introduction to the Supersensible Knowledge of Man and the World also Knowledge of the Higher Worlds: How is it Achieved?

1910    Publishes Occult Science: An Outline.

1910‒1913    Rudolf Steiner's Mystery Plays produced in Munich. Work with Marie von Sivers in the artistic domain, including the development of the new art of movement, Eurythmy (1912).

1913    Anthroposophical Society founded independently of the Theosophical Society. Extensive travelling and lecturing throughout Europe, including a visit to London (1914). Building of the First Goetheanum, a carved wooden edifice, on a donated site in Dornach, Switzerland. Helping in the development of new styles and techniques in painting, sculpture, architecture, etc.

1914    Married Marie von Sivers.

1919    Ideas on the ‘threefold social order’ presented in lectures and books such as The Inner Aspect of the Social Question. Founding of the first Waldorf (Steiner) School, in Stuttgart. Speaks widely on education.

1922‒1923    The First Goetheanum burnt down (New Year's Eve). Plans for the Second Goetheanum, to be built in concrete, begun (opened 1928).

1923    Major new beginnings in medicine, agriculture, pedagogy, religion and science. Participates in the founding of Societies in European countries, including England, prior to the refounding of the General Anthroposophical Society in Dornach, Christmas 1923.

1924‒1925    Outer activity curtailed by illness, but continues writing and working on his autobiography. Also Fundamentals of Therapy (with Dr. Ita Wegman) (1925).

1925    Died 30 March at Dornach.