Part Two: The Proceedings of
the Conference
Rudolf Steiner's
Opening Lecture and Reading of the Statutes
24 December, 11.15 a.m.
My dear friends!
We begin our
Christmas Conference for the founding of the Anthroposophical
Society in a new form with a view of a stark contrast. We
have had to invite you, dear friends, to pay a visit to a
heap of ruins. As you climbed up the Goetheanum hill here in
Dornach your eyes fell on our place of work, but what you saw
were the ruins of the Goetheanum which perished a year ago.
In the truest sense of the word this sight is a symbol that
speaks profoundly to our hearts, a symbol not only of the
external manifestation of our work and endeavour on
anthroposophical ground both here and in the world, but also
of many symptoms manifesting in the world as a whole.
Over the last
few days, a smaller group of us have also had to take stock
of another heap of ruins. This too, dear friends, you should
regard as something resembling the ruins of the Goetheanum,
which had become so very dear to us during the preceding ten
years. We could say that a large proportion of the impulses,
the anthroposophical impulses, which have spread out into the
world over the course of the last twenty years made their
initial appearance in the books — perhaps there were
too many of them — of our publishing company, the
Philosophisch-Anthroposophischer Verlag
in Berlin. You will understand, since twenty
years of work are indeed tied up in all that can be gathered
under the heading
‘Philosophisch-Anthroposophischer Verlag,’
that all those who toiled
to found and carry on the work of this publishing company
gave of the substance of their hearts. As in the case of the
Goetheanum, so also as far as the external aspect of this
Philosophisch-Anthroposophischer Verlag
is concerned, we are faced with a heap of ruins.
[ Note 24 ]
In this case it came about as a consequence of the terrible economic
situation prevailing in the country where it has hitherto had
its home. All possible work was prevented by a tax situation
which exceeded any measures which might have been taken and
by the rolling waves — quite literally — of
current events which simply engulfed the publishing company.
Frau Dr
Steiner has been busy over the last few weeks preparing
everything anchored in this
Philosophisch-Anthroposophischer Verlag
for its journey here to the Goetheanum in
Dornach. You can already see a small building
[ Note 25 ]
coming into being lower down
the hill between the Boiler House and the Glass House. This
will become the home of the
Philosophisch-Anthroposophischer Verlag,
or rather of its stock of books, which in
itself externally also resembles a heap of ruins.
What can we
do, dear friends, but link the causes of these heaps of
rubble with world events which are currently running their
course? The picture we see at first seems grim. It can surely
be said that the flames which our physical eyes saw a year
ago on New Year's Eve blazed heavenwards before the eyes of
our soul. And in spirit we see that in fact these flames glow
over much of what we have been building up during the last
twenty years.
This, at
first, is the picture with which our souls are faced. But it
has to be said that nothing else at present can so clearly
show us the truth of the ancient oriental view that the
external world is maya and illusion. We shall, dear friends,
establish a mood of soul appropriate for this our Christmas
Foundation Conference if we can bring to life in our hearts
the sense that the heap of ruins with which we are faced is
maya and illusion, and that much of what immediately
surrounds us here is maya and illusion.
Let us take
our start from the immediate situation here. We have had to
invite you to take your places in this wooden shed.
[ Note 26 ]
It is a temporary structure
we have hurriedly put up over the last two days after it
became clear how very many of our friends were expected to
arrive. Temporary wooden partitions had to be put up next
door. I have no hesitation in saying that the outer shelter
for our gathering resembles nothing more than a shack erected
amongst the ruins, a poor, a terribly poor shack of a home.
Our initial introduction to these circumstances showed us
yesterday that our friends felt the cold dreadfully in this
shed, which is the best we can offer. But dear friends, let
us count this frost, too, among the many other things which
may be regarded as maya and illusion in what has come to meet
you here. The more we can find our way into a mood which
feels the external circumstances surrounding us to be maya
and illusion, the more shall we develop that mood of active
doing which we shall need here over the next few days, a mood
which may not be negative in any way, a mood which must be
positive in every detail. Now, a year after the moment when
the flames of fire blazed skywards out of the dome of our
Goetheanum, now everything which has been built up in the
spiritual realm in the twenty years of the Anthroposophical
Movement may appear before our hearts and before the eyes of
our soul not as devouring flames but as creative flames. For
everywhere out of the spiritual content of the
Anthroposophical Movement warmth comes to give us courage,
warmth which can be capable of bringing to life countless
seeds for the spiritual life of the future which lie hidden
here in the very soil of Dornach and all that belongs to it.
Countless seeds for the future can begin to unfold their
ripeness through this warmth which can surround us here, so
that one day they may stand before the world as fully matured
fruits as a result of what we want to do for them.
Now more than
ever before we may call to mind that a spiritual movement
such as that encompassed by the name of Anthroposophy, with
which we have endowed it, is not born out of any earthly or
arbitrary consideration. At the very beginning of our
Conference I therefore want to start by reminding you that it
was in the last third of the nineteenth century that on the
one hand the waves of materialism were rising while out of
the other side of the world a great revelation struck down
into these waves, a revelation of the spirit which those
whose mind and soul are in a receptive state can receive from
the powers of spiritual life. A revelation of the spirit was
opened up for mankind. Not from any arbitrary earthly
consideration, but in obedience to a call resounding from the
spiritual world; not from any arbitrary earthly
consideration, but through a vision of the sublime pictures
given out of the spiritual world as a modern revelation for
the spiritual life of mankind, from this flowed the impulse
for the Anthroposophical Movement.
[ Note 27 ]
This Anthroposophical
Movement is not an act of service to the earth. This
Anthroposophical Movement in its totality and in all its
details is a service to the divine beings, a service to God.
We create the right mood for it when we see it in all its
wholeness as a service to God. As a service to God let us
take it into our hearts at the beginning of our Conference.
Let us inscribe deeply within our hearts the knowledge that
this Anthroposophical Movement desires to link the soul of
every individual devoted to it with the primeval sources of
all that is human in the spiritual world, that this
Anthroposophical Movement desires to lead the human being to
that final enlightenment — that enlightenment which
meanwhile in human earthly evolution is the last which gives
satisfaction to man — which can clothe the newly
beginning revelation in the words: Yes, this am I as a human
being, as a God-willed human being on the earth, as a
God-willed human being in the universe.
We shall take
our starting point today from something we would so gladly
have seen as our starting point years ago in 1913.
[ Note 28 ]
This is where we take up the
thread, my dear friends, inscribing into our souls the
foremost principle of the Anthroposophical Movement, which is
to find its home in the Anthroposophical Society, namely,
that everything in it is willed by the spirit, that this
Movement desires to be a fulfilment of what the signs of the
times speak in a shining script to the hearts of human
beings.
The
Anthroposophical Society will only endure if within ourselves
we make of the Anthroposophical Movement the profoundest
concern of our hearts. If we fail, the Society will not
endure. The most important deed to be accomplished during the
coming days must be accomplished within all your hearts, my
dear friends. Whatever we say and hear will only become a
starting point for the cause of Anthroposophy in the right
way if our heart's blood is capable of beating for it. My
friends, for this reason we have brought you all together
here: to call forth a harmony of hearts in a truly
anthroposophical sense. And we allow ourselves to hope that
this is an appeal which can be rightly understood.
My dear
friends, call to mind the manner in which the
Anthroposophical Movement came into being. In many and varied
ways there worked in it what was to be a revelation of the
spirit for the approaching twentieth century. In contrast to
so much that is negative, it is surely permissible to point
emphatically here to the positive side: to the way in which
the many and varied forms of spiritual life, which flowed in
one way or another into the inner circles of outer society,
genuinely entered into the hearts of our dear
anthroposophical friends. Thus at a certain point we were
able to advance far enough to show in the Mystery Dramas how
intimate affairs of the human heart and soul are linked to
the grand sweep of historical events in human evolution. I do
believe that during those four or five years — a time
much loved and dear to our hearts — when the Mystery
Dramas were performed in Munich,
[ Note 29 ]
a good deal of all that is
involved in this link between the individual human soul and
the divine working of the cosmos in the realms of soul and
spirit did indeed make its way through the souls of our
friends.
Then came
something of which the horrific consequences are known to
every one of you: the event we call the World War. During
those difficult times, all efforts had to be concentrated on
conducting the affairs of Anthroposophy in a way which would
bring it unscathed through all the difficulties and obstacles
which were necessarily the consequence of that World War.
It cannot be
denied that some of the things which had necessarily to be
done out of the situation arising at the time were
misunderstood, even in the circles of our anthroposophical
friends. Not until some future time will it be possible for
more than a few people to form a judgment on those moods
which caused mankind to be split into so many groups over the
last decade, on those moods which led to the World War. As
yet there exists no proper judgment about the enormity which
lives among us all as a consequence of that World War. Thus
it can be said that the Anthroposophical Society — not
the Movement — has emerged riven from the War.
Our dear
friend Herr Steffen has already pointed out a number of
matters which then entered into our Anthroposophical Society
and in no less a manner also led to misunderstandings. Today,
however, I want to dwell mainly on all that is positive. I
want to tell you that if this gathering runs its course in
the right way, if this gathering really reaches an awareness
of how something spiritual and esoteric must be the
foundation for all our work and existence, then those
spiritual seeds which are everywhere present will be enabled
to germinate through being warmed by your mood and your
enthusiasm. Today we want to generate a mood which can accept
in full earnestness that external things are maya and
illusion but that out of this maya and illusion there
germinates to our great joy — not a joy for our
weakness but a joy for our strength and for the will we now
want to unfold — something that can live invisibly
among us, something that can live in innumerable seeds
invisibly among us. Prepare your souls, dear friends, so that
they may receive these seeds; for your souls are the true
ground and soil in which these seeds of the spirit may
germinate, unfold and develop. They are the truth. They shine
forth as though with the shining of the sun, bathing in light
all the seeming ruins encountered by our external eyes.
Today, of all days, let us allow the profoundest call of
Anthroposophy, indeed of everything spiritual, to shine into
our souls: Outwardly all is maya and illusion; inwardly there
unfolds the fullness of truth, the fullness of divine and
spiritual life. Anthroposophy shall bring into life all that
is recognized as truth within it.
Where do we
bring into life the teaching of maya and of the light of
truth? Let us bring it into life above all during this our
Christmas Conference. Let us during this our Christmas
Conference make the shining forth of the universal light
— as it shone before the shepherds, who bore within
them only the simplicity of their hearts, and before the
kingly magi, who bore within them the wisdom of all the
universe — let us make this flaming Christmas light,
this universal light of Christmas into a symbol for what is
to come to pass through our own hearts and souls!
All else that
is to be said I shall say tomorrow when what we shall call
the laying of the Foundation Stone of the Anthroposophical
Society takes place. Now I wish to say this, my dear friends.
In recent weeks I have pondered deeply in my soul the
question: What should be the starting point for this
Christmas Conference, and what lessons have we learnt from
the experiences of the past ten years since the founding of
the Anthroposophical Society?
Out of all
this, my dear friends, two alternative questions arose. In
1912, 1913 I said for good reasons that the Anthroposophical
Society would now have to run itself, that it would have to
manage its own affairs, and that I would have to withdraw
into a position of an adviser who did not participate
directly in any actions. Since then things have changed.
After grave efforts in the past weeks to overcome my inner
resistance I have now reached the realization that it would
become impossible for me to continue to lead the
Anthroposophical Movement within the Anthroposophical Society
if this Christmas Conference were not to agree that I should
once more take on in every way the leadership, that is the
presidency, of the Anthroposophical Society to be founded
here in Dornach at the Goetheanum.
As you know,
during a conference in Stuttgart
[ Note 30 ]
it became necessary for me
to make the difficult decision to advise the Society in
Germany to split into two Societies, one which would be the
continuation of the old Society and one in which the young
members would chiefly be represented, the Free
Anthroposophical Society.
Let me tell
you, my dear friends, that the decision to give this advice
was difficult indeed. It was so grave because fundamentally
such advice was a contradiction of the very foundations of
the Anthroposophical Society. For if this was not the Society
in which today's youth could feel fully at home, then what
other association of human beings in the earthly world of
today was there that could give them this feeling! Such
advice was an anomaly. This occasion was perhaps one of the
most important symptoms contributing to my decision to tell
you here that I can only continue to lead the
Anthroposophical Movement within the Anthroposophical Society
if I myself can take on the presidency of the
Anthroposophical Society, which is to be newly founded. You
see, at the turn of the century something took place very
deeply indeed within spiritual events, and the effects of
this are showing in the external events in the midst of which
human beings stand here on earth.
One of the
greatest possible changes took place in the spiritual realm.
Preparation for it began at the end of the 1870s, and it
reached its culmination just at the turn of the century.
Ancient Indian wisdom pointed to it, calling it the end of
Kali Yuga. Much, very much, my dear friends, is meant by
this. And when in recent times I have met in all kinds of
ways with young people in all the countries of the world
accessible to me, I have had to say to myself over and over
again: Everything that beats in these youthful hearts,
everything which glows towards spiritual activity in such a
beautiful and often such an indeterminate way, this is the
external expression for what came to completion in the depths
of spiritual world-weaving during the last third of the
nineteenth century leading up to the twentieth century. My
dear friends, what I now want to say is not something
negative but something positive so far as I am concerned: I
have frequently found, when I have gone to meet young people,
that their endeavours to join one organization or another
encountered difficulties because again and again the form of
the association did not fit whatever it was that they
themselves wanted. There was always some condition or other
as to what sort of a person you had to be or what you had to
do if you wanted to join any of these organizations.
This is the
kind of thing that was involved in the feeling that the chief
disadvantage of the Theosophical Society — out of which
the Anthroposophical Society grew, as you know — lay in
the formulation of its three tenets.
[ Note 31 ]
You had to profess
something. The way in which you had to sign a form, which
made it look as though you had to make some dogmatic
assertion, is something which nowadays simply no longer
agrees with the fundamental mood of human souls. The human
soul today feels that anything dogmatic is foreign to it; to
carry on in any kind of a sectarian way is fundamentally
foreign to it. And it cannot be denied that within the
Anthroposophical Society it is proving difficult to cast off
this sectarian way of carrying on. But cast it off we must.
Not a shred must be allowed to remain within the new
Anthroposophical Society which shall be founded. This must
become a true world society. Anyone joining it must feel:
Yes, here I have found what moves me. An old person must
feel: Here I have found something for which I have striven
all my life together with other people. The young person must
feel: Here I have found something which comes out to meet my
youth. When the Free Anthroposophical Society was founded I
longed dearly to reply to young people who enquired after the
conditions for joining it with the answer which I now want to
give: The only condition is to be truly young in the sense
that one is young when one's youthful soul is filled with all
the impulses of the present time.
And, dear
friends, how do you go about being old in the proper sense in
the Anthroposophical Society? You are old in the proper sense
if you have a heart for what is welling up into mankind today
both for young and old out of spiritual depths by way of a
universal youthfulness, renewing every aspect of our
lives.
By hinting at
moods of soul I am indicating what it was that moved me to
take on the task of being President of the Anthroposophical
Society myself. This Anthroposophical Society — such
things can often happen — has been called by a good
many names. Thus, for example, it has been called the
‘International Anthroposophical Society’. Dear
friends, it is to be neither an international nor a national
society. I beg you heartily never to use the word
‘international society’ but always to speak
simply of a ‘General Anthroposophical Society’
which wants to have its centre here at the Goetheanum in
Dornach.
You will see
that the Statutes are formulated in a way that excludes
anything administrative, anything that could ever of its own
accord turn into bureaucracy. These Statutes are tuned to
whatever is purely human. They are not tuned to principles or
to dogmas. What these Statutes say is taken from what is
actual and what is human. These Statutes say: Here in Dornach
is the Goetheanum. This Goetheanum is run in a particular
way. In this Goetheanum work of this kind and of that kind is
undertaken. In this Goetheanum endeavours are made to promote
human evolution in this way or in that way. Whether these
things are ‘right’ or ‘not right’ is
something that must not be stated in statutes which are
intended to be truly modern. All that is stated is the fact
that a Goetheanum exists, that human beings are connected
with this Goetheanum, and that these human beings do certain
things in this Goetheanum in the belief that through doing so
they are working for human evolution.
Those who
wish to join this Society are not expected to adhere to any
principle. No religious confession, no scientific conviction,
no artistic intention is set up in any dogmatic way. The only
thing that is required is that those who join should feel at
home in being linked to what is going on at the
Goetheanum.
In the
formulation of these Statutes the endeavour has been made to
avoid establishing principles, so that what is here founded
may rest on all that is purely human. Look carefully at the
people who will make suggestions with regard to what is to be
founded here over the next few days. Ask yourselves whether
you can trust them or not. And if at this Foundation Meeting
you declare yourselves satisfied with what wants to be
brought about in Dornach, then you will have declared
yourselves for something that is a fact; then you will have
declared yourselves to be in tune with something that is a
fact. If this is possible, everything else will follow on.
Yes, everything will run its course. Then it will not be
necessary for the centre at Dornach to designate or nominate
a whole host of trustees; then the Anthroposophical Society
will be what I have often pointed to when to my deep
satisfaction I have been permitted to be present at the
founding of the individual national Societies.
[ Note 32 ]
Then the Anthroposophical
Society will be something that can arise independently on the
foundation of all that has come into being in these national
Societies. If this can come about, then these national
Societies will be truly autonomous too. Then every group
which comes into being within this Anthroposophical Society
will be truly autonomous.
In order to
reach this truly human standpoint, my dear friends, we must
realize that especially in the case of a Society which is
built on spiritual foundations, in the way I have described,
we shall come up against two difficulties. We must overcome
these difficulties here, so that in future they will no
longer exist in the way they existed in the past history of
the Anthroposophical Society.
One of these
difficulties is the following: Everyone who understands the
consciousness of today will, I believe, agree that this
present-day consciousness demands that whatever takes place
should do so in full public view. A Society built on firm
foundations must above all else not offend this demand of our
time. It is not at all difficult to prefer secrecy, even in
the external form, in one case or another. But whenever a
Society like ours, built on a foundation of truth, seriously
desires secrecy, it will surely find itself in conflict with
contemporary consciousness, and the most dire obstacles for
its continuing existence will ensue. Therefore, dear friends,
for the General Anthroposophical Society which is to be
founded we cannot but lay claim to absolute openness.
As I pointed
out in one of my very first essays in
Luzifer-Gnosis,
[ Note 33 ]
the Anthroposophical Society
must stand before the world just like any other society that
may be founded for, let us say, scientific or similar
purposes. It must differ from all these other societies
solely on account of the content that flows through its
veins. The form in which people come together in it can, in
future, no longer be different from that of any other
society. Picture to yourselves what we can shovel out of the
way if we declare from the start that the Anthroposophical
Society is to be entirely open.
It is
essential for us to stand firmly on a foundation of reality,
that is on the foundation of present-day consciousness. This
will mean, dear friends, that in future we shall have to
handle our lecture cycles in a manner that differs greatly
from that to which we have been accustomed in the past. The
history of these lecture cycles represents a tragic chapter
within the development of our Anthroposophical Society. They
were first published in the belief that they could be
retained within a given circle; they were printed for the
members of the Anthroposophical Society. But we have long
been in a situation in which our opponents, so far as the
public declaration of the content is concerned, are far more
interested in the cycles than are the members of the Society
themselves. Do not misunderstand me; I do not mean that the
members of our Society do not work inwardly with the lecture
cycles, for they do. But their work is inward, it remains
egoistic, a nice Society egoism. The interest which sends its
waves out into the world, the interest which gives our
Society its particular stamp in the world, this interest
comes towards the cycles from our opponents. It has been
known to happen that as little as three weeks after its
publication a lecture cycle is already being quoted in the
worst kind of publication brought out by the opposition. To
continue in our old ways as regards the lecture cycles would
be to hide our head in the sand, believing that because
everything is dark for us everything must be dark in the
outside world too.
That is why I
have been asking myself for years what can be done about the
cycles. We now have no alternative but to put up a moral
barrier in place of the physical barrier we tried to erect
earlier on, which has meanwhile been breached at all manner
of points.
In the draft
of the Statutes I have endeavoured to do just this. In future
all the cycles, without exception, are to be sold publicly,
just like any other books. But suppose, dear friends, there
was a book about the integration of partial differential
equations. For a great many people such a book is very
esoteric indeed. I am probably not wrong in assuming that
among those of you gathered here in these two rooms today
there is only an extremely small esoteric circle of
individuals who might fruitfully concern themselves with the
integration of partial differential equations, or of linear
differential equations. The book, however, may be sold to
anybody. But supposing someone who knows nothing of partial
differential equations and is incapable of differentiating or
integrating anything at all, someone who knows nothing about
logarithms, were to find a textbook on the subject belonging
to one of his sons. He would look inside it, see rows and
rows of figures but not understand a thing. Then suppose his
sons were to tell him that all these figures were the street
numbers of the houses in every city in the world. He might
well think to himself: What a useful thing to learn; now if I
go to Paris I shall know the street number of all the
different houses.
As you see,
there is no harm in the judgment of someone who understands
nothing of the matter, for he is a dilettante, an amateur. In
this instance life itself draws the line between the capacity
to judge and the lack of capacity to judge.
Thus as
regards anthroposophical knowledge we can at least try to
draw the line morally and no longer physically. We sell the
cycles to all who wish to have them but declare from the
start who can be considered competent to form a valid
judgment on them, a judgment by which we can set some store.
Everybody else is an amateur as far as the cycles are
concerned. And we also declare that in future we shall no
longer take any account of judgments passed on the cycles by
those who are amateurs. This is the only moral protection
available to us. If only we carry it out properly, we shall
bring about a situation in which the matters with which we
are concerned are treated just as are books about the
integration of partial differential equations. People will
gradually come to agree that it is just as absurd for
someone, however learned in other spheres, to pass a judgment
about a lecture cycle as it is for someone who knows nothing
of logarithms to say: This book about partial differential
equations is stuff and nonsense! We must bring about a
situation in which the distinction between an amateur and an
expert can be drawn in the right way.
Another very
great difficulty, dear friends, is the fact that the impulses
of the Anthroposophical Movement are not everywhere
thoroughly assessed in the right way. Judgments are heard
here and there which absolutely deny the Anthroposophical
Movement by seeing it as something that is parallel to the
very things it is supposed to replace in human evolution.
Only a few days ago somebody once again said to me: If you
speak to such and such a group of people about what
Anthroposophy has to offer, even those who work only in the
practical realm accept it so long as you don't mention
Anthroposophy or the threefold social order by name; you have
to disown them. This is something that has been done by a
great many people for many years, and it could not be more
false. Whatever the realm, we must stand in the world under
the sign of the full truth as representatives of the essence
of Anthroposophy. We must be aware that if we are incapable
of doing so we cannot actually further the aims of the
Anthroposophical Movement. Any veiled representation of the
Anthroposophical Movement leads in the end to no good.
Of course
everything is individual in such matters. Not everything can
be made to conform to a single pattern. Let me give you a few
examples of what I mean.
Take
eurythmy. As I said yesterday before the performance,
eurythmy is drawn and cultivated from the very depths of
Anthroposophy. We have to be aware that, imperfect though it
still is, it places something in the world which is entirely
new, something original which can in no way be compared with
anything else that may seem to resemble it in the world
today. We have to muster enough enthusiasm for our cause to
enable us to exclude any external, superficial comparisons. I
know how a sentence like this can be misunderstood, but
nevertheless I say it to you in this circle, my dear friends,
for it expresses one of the fundamental conditions required
for the prospering of the Anthroposophical Movement within
the Anthroposophical Society.
Similarly, I
have sweated much blood lately — I speak symbolically,
of course — over the new form of recitation and
declamation which Frau Dr Steiner has developed in our
Society. As with eurythmy, the nerve-centre of this form of
declaiming or reciting is what is drawn and cultivated from
the very depths of Anthroposophy, and it is with this
nerve-centre that we must concern ourselves. This
nerve-centre is what we have to recognize and there is no
point in believing that the result can be improved by taking
on board any bits and pieces which might also be good, or
even better, belonging to similar methods elsewhere. It is of
this absolutely new, this primary quality that we must be
aware in all the realms of Anthroposophy.
Now a third
example: A realm in which Anthroposophy can be especially
fruitful is that of medicine. Yet Anthroposophy will quite
definitely remain unfruitful in the realm of medicine,
especially therapy, if the tendency persists to represent
matters within the field of medicine in the Anthroposophical
Movement in a manner which meets with the approval of those
who represent medicine in the ordinary way today. We must
carry Anthroposophy courageously into every realm, including
medicine. Only then will we make progress in what eurythmy
ought to be, in what recitation and declamation ought to be,
in what medicine ought to be, not to mention many other
different fields living within our Anthroposophical Society,
just as we must make progress with Anthroposophy itself in
the strict sense of the term.
Herewith I
have at least hinted at the fundamental conditions which must
be placed before our hearts at the beginning of our
Conference for the founding of the General Anthroposophical
Society. In the manner indicated it must become a Society of
attitudes and not a Society of statutes. The Statutes are to
express externally what is alive within every soul.
So now I
would like to proceed to the reading
[ Note 34 ]
of the draft of the Statutes
[ See
footnote A. ]
which go in the direction I have thus far mentioned in brief.
‘STATUTES OF THE
ANTHROPOSOPHICAL SOCIETY’
‘1. The
Anthroposophical Society is to be an association of people
whose will it is to nurture the life of the soul, both in
the individual and in human society, on the basis of a true
knowledge of the spiritual world.’
‘2. The persons
gathered at the Goetheanum in Dornach at Christmas, 1923,
both the individuals and the groups represented, form the
nucleus of the Society. They are convinced that there
exists in our time a genuine science of the spiritual world
and that the civilization of today is lacking the
cultivation of such a science. This cultivation is to be
the task of the Anthroposophical Society. It will endeavour
to fulfil this task by making the anthroposophical
spiritual science cultivated at the Goetheanum in Dornach
the centre of its activities, together with all that
results from this for brotherhood in human relationships
and for the moral and religious as well as the artistic and
cultural life in the human being.’
Note, my
dear friends, how we are thus building not on principles
but on human beings, on those human beings who are gathered
together here. And what will those who join later declare?
That they are essentially in agreement with these people as
regards what is stated here. So all abstractions are
avoided and the Anthroposophical Society is built on human
beings.
‘3. The persons
gathered in Dornach as the nucleus of the
Society’— you see how it is the individual
people who are important — ‘recognize and
endorse the view of the leadership at the Goetheanum:
“Anthroposophy, as fostered at the Goetheanum, leads
to results which can serve every human being as a stimulus
to spiritual life, whatever his nation, social standing or
religion. They can lead to a social life genuinely built on
brotherly love. No special degree of academic learning is
required to make them one's own and to found one's life
upon them, but only an open-minded human nature.”
’
This means
that the results can be understood by all human beings who
approach with an open-minded soul.
The matter
is different — this is expressed next — as
regards the research which leads to the results in
question. A strict distinction must be made as regards this
research. So the text continues:
‘
“Research into these results, however, as well as
competent evaluation of them, depends upon
spiritual-scientific training, which is to be acquired step
by step. These results are in their own way as exact as the
results of genuine natural science. When they attain
general recognition in the same way as these, they will
bring about comparable progress in all spheres of life, not
only in the spiritual but also in the practical
realm.” ’
‘4. The
Anthroposophical Society is in no sense a secret society,
but is entirely public. Anyone can become a member, without
regard to nationality, social standing, religion,
scientific or artistic conviction, who considers as
justified the existence of an institution such as the
Goetheanum in Dornach, in its capacity as a School of
Spiritual Science.’
As you see,
even here, where the requirements for becoming a member are
exactly defined, we have been careful to make it clear that
someone desiring to become a member must consider as
justified the existence not of the Goetheanum, but merely
‘of an institution such as the Goetheanum in Dornach,
in its capacity as a School of Spiritual Science.’
You must thoroughly consider every turn of phrase in these
draft Statutes. They are brief. Statutes ought to be brief,
and not fill a whole tome. But you will see that the effort
has been made to phrase every sentence in a manner which
speaks out of direct consciousness.
‘The
Anthroposophical Society rejects any kind of sectarian
activity. Party politics it considers not to be within its
task.’
We need
this sentence because numerous misunderstandings were
brought about during the years when we were promoting the
idea of the threefold social order. The misunderstandings
arose out of a lack of clarity in the attitude of many of
our members. The impression was frequently given that
Anthroposophy wanted to become involved in the political
affairs of the world — something that has never been
and never can be the case — because many of our
friends approached the political parties regarding the
threefold idea. This was an error on their part right from
the start.
‘5. The
Anthroposophical Society sees the School of Spiritual
Science in Dornach as a centre for its activity. The School
will be composed of three classes.’
Please do
not be alarmed by these three classes, my dear friends.
These three classes existed originally in the
Anthroposophical Society,
[ Note 35 ]
though in a different form, up to the year 1914.
‘Members of the Society will be admitted to the
School on their own application after a period of
membership to be determined by the leadership at the
Goetheanum. They enter in this way the First Class of the
School of Spiritual Science. Admission to the Second or
Third Class takes place when the person requesting this is
deemed eligible by the leadership at the
Goetheanum.’
‘6. Every member
of the Anthroposophical Society has the right to attend all
lectures, performances and meetings arranged by the
Society, under conditions to be announced by the
Vorstand.’
‘7. The
organizing of the School of Spiritual Science is, to begin
with, the responsibility of Rudolf Steiner, who will
appoint his collaborators and his possible
successor.’
I can tell
you now that I intend in future to divide this School of
Spiritual Science into separate Sections under the
leadership of suitable persons whom I shall appoint. These
suitable persons, who will be the leaders of the Sections
of the School of Spiritual Science, will at the same time
be advisory members of the Vorstand which is to be formed
and about which I shall be speaking shortly.
‘8. All
publications of the Society shall be public, in the same
sense as are those of other public societies. The
publications of the School of Spiritual Science will form
no exception as regards this public character;’
— in future, the lecture cycles will be entitled:
Publications of the School of Spiritual Science —
‘however, the leadership of the School reserves the
right to deny in advance the validity of any judgment on
these publications
which is not based on the same training from which they
have been derived. Consequently they will regard as
justified no judgment which is not based on an appropriate
preliminary training, as is also the common practice in the
recognized scientific world. Thus the publications of the
School of Spiritual Science’ — this is what the
cycles will be in future — ‘will bear the
following note: “Printed as manuscript for members of
the School of Spiritual Science, Goetheanum, ...
Class.” No one is considered competent to judge the
content, who has not acquired — through the School
itself or in a manner recognized by the School as
equivalent — the requisite preliminary knowledge.
Other opinions will be disregarded, to the extent that the
authors of such works will not enter into a discussion
about them.’
Everyone
can buy the works. But valid judgments can only be made by
those who belong to the Class mentioned in the note
‘Printed as manuscript for members of the School of
Spiritual Science, Goetheanum, ... Class’.
‘9. The purpose
of the Anthroposophical Society will be the furtherance of
spiritual research; that of the School of Spiritual Science
will be this research itself. A dogmatic stand in any field
whatsoever is to be excluded from the Anthroposophical
Society.’
‘10. The
Anthroposophical Society shall hold a regular General
Meeting at the Goetheanum at the beginning of each year, at
which time the Vorstand shall present a full report with
accounting. The agenda for this meeting shall be
communicated by the Vorstand to all members, together with
the invitation, three weeks before the meeting.’
Resolutions
can of course be made about this.
‘The
Vorstand may call special meetings and fix the agenda for
them. Invitations to such meetings shall be sent to members
three weeks in advance. Motions proposed by individual
members or groups of members shall be submitted one week
before the General Meeting.’
We shall
have to add a passage here stating that special meetings
may also be called at the request of the membership.
‘11. Members may
join together in smaller or larger groups on any basis of
locality or subject.’
From the
point of view of the General Society this paragraph
encompasses every group, including each national group. The
General Society is neither international nor national but
simply human in the widest sense; all the subdivisions are
therefore groups. By this means we can bring into the
Anthroposophical Society a life that is genuinely based on
freedom, and also, wherever it wants to come into being, a
life that is autonomous. We cannot make progress in any
other way.
‘The
headquarters of the Anthroposophical Society is at the
Goetheanum. From there the Vorstand shall bring to the
attention of the members or groups of members what it
considers to be the task of the Society.’
My dear
friends, this sentence is especially important because it
expresses what the Vorstand considers itself to be. It does
not consider itself to be an elected body. It considers
itself to be a group of people which says: Here at the
Goetheanum we want to do something and we shall communicate
about the different things we do with those who so wish,
either individuals or groups; we shall recognize as a
member every individual or every group who can accept these
Statutes and be in agreement with them.
In doing
this, the Vorstand declares that it places itself within
the Society in the freest manner possible: it wants nothing
else but to be a group of people with initiative for the
cause of Anthroposophy. To live fully in initiative for the
cause of Anthroposophy will have to be the heart's blood of
this Vorstand. It is not a representative of people in the
abstract; it is a representative of the anthroposophical
cause here at the Goetheanum. Its task is to represent the
cause of Anthroposophy here at the Goetheanum. And to
declare one's membership of a society for which this
Vorstand wants to have meaning means to join in the
promotion of the cause of Anthroposophy. The membership and
the Vorstand, and their relationship with one another, is
thought of as being quite generally human in an entirely
free way in the future. We have not achieved this as yet;
we must make it obvious to all the world. Then there will
be no more criticisms like that expressed by Leisegang
[ Note 36 ]
to the effect that a self-appointed Vorstand, not accountable
to anybody, not elected anywhere, has been in existence for
the last ten years. From the start we must stress
forcefully that an election as such is impossible in the
Anthroposophical Society and that only initiative is
possible. Let us return to the Vorstand:
‘The
Vorstand communicates with officials elected or appointed
by the various groups.’
How these
come into being is a matter for the statutes of the
different groups. For us here it will merely be a matter
that on a basis we shall create we shall want to
communicate with trust with these officials.
‘Admission of members will be the concern of the
individual groups; the certificate of membership shall,
however, be placed before the Vorstand in Dornach, and
shall be signed by them out of their confidence in the
officials of the groups. In general, every member should
join a group. Only those for whom it is quite impossible to
find entry to a group should apply directly to Dornach for
membership.’
‘12. Membership
dues shall be fixed by the individual groups; each group
shall, however, submit ... for each of its members to the
central leadership of the Society at the
Goetheanum.’
I have put
dots here, though I already have an opinion which I may
well voice if it comes to it. But for the moment I have put
dots so that the matter may be as broadly considered as
possible before tomorrow's discussions. For money is
something we shall need here too. I have often indicated
that idealism cannot take the form of saying: Oh, horrible
ahrimanic money; let us not contaminate our ideals with it;
our ideals should be as free from it as they possibly can
be! The left fist clutches the purse-strings while the
right hand is raised on high for the ideals. Alas, the
uncomfortable gesture of putting that right hand into the
left pocket is sometimes necessary; if the ideals are to be
upheld, small sacrifices are necessary.
‘13. Each
working group formulates its own statutes, but these must
not be incompatible with the Statutes of the
Anthroposophical Society.’
‘14. The organ
of the Society is
Das Goetheanum,
which for this purpose is provided with
a Supplement containing the official communications of the
Society. This enlarged edition of
Das Goetheanum
will be supplied to members of the Anthroposophical Society
only.’
This
paragraph is of particular concern to me because wherever I
go members with a good capacity to judge have been saying to
me: We never seem to hear what is going on in the
Anthroposophical Society. By instituting this journal we
shall be able to conduct a careful correspondence which will
more and more come to be a correspondence belonging to each
one of you, and through it you will be able to live right in
the midst of the Anthroposophical Society.
Now, my dear
friends, in case after due consideration you should indeed
come to agree with my appointment as President of the
Anthroposophical Society, I still have to make my suggestions
as to the membership of the Vorstand with whom I should
actually be able to fulfil the tasks which I have indicated
very briefly here.
So that the
affairs of Anthroposophy can be truly and properly
administered, members of the Vorstand must be people who
reside here in Dornach. So far as my estimation of the
Society is concerned, the Vorstand cannot consist of
individuals who are situated all over the place. This will
not prevent the individual groups from electing their own
officials autonomously. And when these officials come to
Dornach, they will be taken into the meetings of the Vorstand
as advisory members while they are here. We must make the
whole thing come to life. Instead of a bureaucratic Vorstand
scattered all over the world there will be officials
responsible for the individual groups, officials arising from
amongst the membership of the groups; they will always have
the opportunity to feel themselves equal members of the
Vorstand which, however, will be located in Dornach. The work
itself will have to be taken care of by the Vorstand in
Dornach.
Moreover, the
members of the Vorstand must without question be people who
have devoted their lives entirely, both outwardly and
inwardly, to the cause of Anthroposophy. So now after long
deliberations over the past weeks I shall take the liberty of
presenting to you my suggestions for the membership of the
Vorstand:
I believe
there will nowhere arise even the faintest hint of dissension
but that on the contrary there will be in all your hearts the
most unanimous and fullest agreement to the suggestion that
Herr Albert Steffen
be appointed as Vice-president. (Lively applause)
This being
the case, we have in the Vorstand itself an expression of
something I have already mentioned today: our links, as the
Anthroposophical Society, with Switzerland. I cannot express
my conviction more emphatically than by saying to you: If it
is a matter of having a Swiss citizen who will give all his
strength as a member of the Vorstand and as Vice-president,
then there is no better Swiss citizen to be found.
Next we shall
have in the Vorstand an individual who has been united with
the Anthroposophical Society from the very beginning, who has
for the greater part built up the Anthroposophical Society
and who is today active in an anthroposophical way in one of
the most important fields:
Frau Dr Steiner. (Lively
applause)
With your
applause you have said everything and clearly shown that we
need have no fear that our choice in this direction might not
have been quite appropriate.
A further
member of the Vorstand I have to suggest on the basis of
facts arising here over recent weeks. This is the person with
whom I at present have the opportunity to test
anthroposophical enthusiasm to its limits in the right way by
working with her on the elaboration of the anthroposophical
system of medicine:
Frau Dr Ita Wegman. (Lively applause)
Through her
work — and especially through her understanding of her
work — she has shown that in this specialized field she
can assert the effectiveness of Anthroposophy in the right
way. I know that the effects of this work will be beneficial.
That is why I have taken it upon myself to work immediately
with Frau Dr Wegman on developing the anthroposophical system
of medicine.
[ Note 37 ]
It will appear before the eyes of the world and then we shall see
that particularly in members who work in this way we have the
real friends of the Anthroposophical Society.
Another
member I have to suggest is one who has been tried and tested
in the utmost degree for the work in Dornach both in general
and down to the very last detail, one who has ever proved
herself to be a faithful member. I do believe — without
intending to sound boastful — that the members of the
Vorstand have indeed been rightly selected. Albert Steffen
was an anthroposophist before he was even born, and this
ought to be duly recognized. Frau Dr Steiner has of course
always been an anthroposophist ever since an Anthroposophical
Society has existed. Frau Dr Wegman was one of the very first
members who joined in the work just after we did in the very
early days. She has been a member of the Anthroposophical
Movement for over twenty years. Apart from us, she is the
longest standing member in this room. And another member of
very long standing is the person I now mean, who has been
tried and tested down to the very last detail as a most
faithful colleague; you may indeed be satisfied with her down
to the very last detail:
Fräulein Dr Lili Vreede.
(Applause)
We need
furthermore in the anthroposophical Vorstand an individual
who will take many cares off our shoulders, cares which
cannot all be borne by us because of course the initiatives
have to be kept separate. This is someone who will have to
think on everyone's behalf, for this is necessary even when
the others — again without intending to sound boastful
— also make the effort to use their heads intelligently
in anthroposophical matters. What is needed is someone who,
so to speak, does not knock heads together but does hold them
together. This is an individual who many will feel still
needs to be tried and tested, but I believe that he will
master every trial. This will be our dear Dr Guenther
Wachsmuth who in everything he is obliged to do for us here
has already shown his mastery of a good many trials which
have made it obvious that he is capable of working with
others in a most harmonious manner. As time goes on we shall
find ourselves much satisfied with him. I hope, then, that
you will agree to the appointment of
Dr Guenther Wachsmuth,
not as the cashier — which he does not want to be —
but as the secretary and treasurer. (Applause)
The Vorstand
must be kept small, and so my list is now exhausted, my dear
friends. And the time allotted for our morning meeting has
also run out. I just want to call once more on all our
efforts to bring into this gathering above all the
appropriate mood of soul, more and yet more mood of soul. Out
of this anthroposophical mood of soul will arise what we need
for the next few days. And if we have it for the next few
days we shall also have it for the future times we are about
to enter for the Anthroposophical Society. I have appealed to
your hearts; I have appealed to the wisdom in you which your
hearts can fill with glowing warmth and enthusiasm. May we
sustain this glowing warmth and this enthusiasm throughout
the coming meetings and thus achieve something truly fruitful
over the next few days.
There are two
more announcements to be made: This afternoon there will be
two performances of one of the Christmas Plays, the Paradise
Play. The first will take place at 4.30. Those who cannot
find a seat then will be able to see it at 6 o'clock.
Everybody will have a chance to see this play today.
Our next
meeting is at 8 o'clock this evening when my first lecture on
world history in the light of Anthroposophy will take
place.
Tomorrow,
Tuesday, at 10 o'clock we shall gather here for the laying of
the Foundation Stone of the Anthroposophical Society, and,
following straight on from that will be the Foundation
Meeting of the Anthroposophical Society.
The meeting
of General Secretaries and delegates planned for this
afternoon will not take place because it will be better to
hold it after the Foundation Meeting has taken place. It will
be tomorrow at 2.30 in the Glass House lower down the hill,
in the Architects' Office. That will be the meeting of the
Vorstand, the General Secretaries and those who are their
secretaries.
If Herr Abels
could now come up here, I would request you to collect your
meal tickets from him. To avoid chaos down at the canteen
there will be different sittings and we hope that everything
will proceed in an orderly fashion.
Footnotes:
A.
See facsimiles of the manuscript draft and also
the printed Statutes given to each participant
[ See
facsimile 1,
facsimile 2,
pages I–VIII ].
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