The Close
of the Year and The Turn of the Year 1923/1924
Foreword by Marie Steiner
to
the first German Edition in 1944
IN THE BOOK
Rudolf Steiner und die Zivilisationsaufgaben der Anthroposophie
(Rudolf Steiner and the Tasks of Anthroposophy for Civilization),
[ Note 2 ]
published at Christmas, an attempt was made to depict through
Rudolf Steiner's words and through his work in Spiritual
Science how immense was the energy and how selfless the
sacrifice of his endeavour to give to mankind the new
spiritual impetus for which there is such dire need at this
turning point of time. His influence on the public at large
had reached its climax in 1922 when Wolff's concert
agency
[ Note 3 ]
had applied for
the organization of his lectures within Germany and when even
the largest auditorium in many towns was too small to contain
the crowds wanting to attend. Köthener Strasse in
Berlin, which leads to the philharmonic concert hall, had
even had to be cordoned off by the police because the
congestion was so great. People from all around stood there
with their luggage, unable to enter. This externally visible
success fanned the flames of the opposition's will for
destruction. Circles connected with the Pan-German
movement
[ Note 4 ]
at that time had no scruples about instigating riots or indeed resorting
to ambush or murder, as is shown in the cases of Erzberger,
[ Note 5 ]
Rathenau
[ Note 6 ]
and a good
many others. Groups otherwise at loggerheads with each other
joined forces in order to do away with a growing spiritual
movement which appeared to threaten their own goals. So it
was not difficult to stir up rowdy scenes. These were
particularly violent on the occasion of Dr Steiner's lectures
in Munich and Elberfeld.
[ Note 7 ]
The Wolff Agency was confident
that it possessed sufficient personnel to organize and
implement, all the more energetically, the arrangements for
the lectures, in which it had a financial interest. It
considered itself capable of reconnoitring the situation
beforehand and felt it could then take preventative measures
sufficient to cope with any disturbances. However, after
further investigation, it had to admit that the enemy
organizations were so powerful that it would unfortunately
not be possible to guarantee the safety of the lecturer or
even to ensure the smooth running of the event. It advised
cancellation. Thus Dr Steiner's public lecturing was cut
short by force at the very moment when it was at its most
effective. Feeble and insignificant, but all the more
unscrupulous, General G von G
[ Note 8 ]
now took the stage as a
disseminator of propaganda. His hatred was inflamed by
private family quarrels and personal intrigues. The hate
campaign set in motion by the opposition from far and wide
was at its height in 1922, the year which culminated in the
burning of the Goetheanum, and in 1923.
Rudolf
Steiner strove all the more strongly to imbue the
Anthroposophical Society with its task for mankind and for
the culture of mankind, doing everything he could to make it
morally sound. It was to become the instrument through which,
despite immense efforts on the part of the opposing powers,
the spiritual renewal of mankind would have to be attempted.
The book
Rudolf Steiner und die Zivilisationsaufgabe der Anthroposophie
describes this through his words and deeds. It is also revealed in
lectures given in 1923 and published in booklet form.
[ Note 9 ]
The events described in the book lead to the point when it became
possible to re-constitute the Anthroposophical Society as the
General Anthroposophical Society, with its centre in Dornach,
resting on the foundation of the newly-founded national
groups. Before this could take place, the old connections
linking us with Berlin as the earlier centre of activity had
to be dissolved. It was my destiny to carry this out.
As the year
1923 drew to a close, inflation in Germany reached its nadir.
A billion Reichsmark were now worth one pre-war mark. Ever
since 1920, the strain of keeping up with the increasing
speed of this avalanche had been making devastating demands
on the nervous energy of anyone who had a business to run,
especially when not only material values but above all
spiritual treasures were involved. Official regulations which
could not be ignored were changed every few days to take
account of the shifting situation, and merely keeping abreast
of the requirements devoured time and strength. If in
addition you had taken upon yourself the burden of other
people's affairs and had to make sure their rent and
taxes were paid, you found yourself drowning in noughts when
trying to work out what they owed — for taxes included
not only the usual things but in addition items for the war,
for the army, for the Ruhr, and all kinds of special funds.
And next day everything would have changed once more. To send
out a bill required a postage stamp which within quite a
short time came to be worth much more than the payment
requested. There was no lack of comical incidents, and the
gallows humour evolved in their recounting did a little to
lighten the burden of the depressing situation. Thus when the
multiplication factor was a ‘mere’ few hundred
thousand, a dear old member was heard to exclaim: ‘Good
gracious me, when you are seventy thousand years old you
can't be expected to understand these sums any longer!’
And the urchins in the streets of Berlin adopted boastful
attitudes: ‘Did you say that star was four hundred
billion miles away from that one? What's in a few billion?
That's nothing!’ Such concepts of dwindling values must
have had a decidedly negative influence on the strength of
morals of the rising generation.
All over
Germany things were being dismantled! We, too, could no
longer maintain our dwelling in Berlin. And the
Philosophisch-Anthroposophischer Verlag had to be transferred
to Dornach to ensure its continuing existence. Even
Fräulein Johanna Mücke,
[ Note 10 ]
stubborn and resilient
Berliner though she was, could see no other solution. She was
driven almost to despair in her isolation. We were forever
either on tour or working feverishly in Dornach, while she
waited in vain for replies to urgent letters, often facing
decisions for which she felt unable to shoulder the
responsibility alone. Dr Steiner was overburdened to the
limit of his strength and now had to make preparations for
the Christmas Foundation Conference and settle all the
arrangements for international understanding and the
reconstitution of the Society. Yet Fräulein Mücke
could not be left without help any longer. Our worries on her
account and about the continuing existence of the publishing
company meant that we would have to divide the work between
us. It was now my duty to hasten to Berlin in order to wind
up our work and our home there.
So
immediately after the Dutch conference
[ Note 11 ]
I traveled directly to
Berlin. We had already given notice of our intention to
relinquish our apartment. Now I had to rescue from Dr
Steiner's library whatever we wanted to keep for the future.
It was necessary to sift through all his papers in order to
extract the important items from among the mountains of old
letters and also manuscripts and newspapers which had become
worthless. The last night before every lecture tour had been
devoted to this job and each time several baskets full of
torn-up papers had been the result. And yet an endless amount
still awaited destruction on an even larger scale. It became
our evening occupation for several weeks. Fräulein
Vreede, who had come to Berlin to help, joined me and
Fräulein Mücke. Whatever we wanted to keep was sent
to Stuttgart. Permits for the transfer of the publishing
company to Dornach had to be applied for, and everything had
to be packed in accordance with border and customs
regulations: Dr Steiner had given Dr Wachsmuth the task of
helping us in this. He came from Stuttgart to Berlin to
inspect the crates, now packed, and to arrange for their
dispatch across the border. His visit was short. On their
return, both our guests gave Dr Steiner quite dramatic
descriptions of their impressions of Berlin.
We completed
our work. Finally homes had to be found for the paintings and
pictures; and the furniture from the Berlin group room, the
Stuttgart Eurythmeum and our apartment in the Landhausstrasse
had to be distributed. A last word to friends and we bade
farewell to this place where we had worked and with which we
had been connected for twenty-one years. Five hundred crates
of books together with all the cupboards and shelves were
transported to Switzerland. Fräulein Mücke herself
had had to show the packers how to tackle the task with
verve. Now she stayed on in Berlin for a while. But at least
she had been relieved of the great burden and had the comfort
of knowing that she had saved the publishing company. We owe
it to her exemplary loyalty that in Dornach it has been able
to flourish once more.
Thus I did
not return to Dornach until shortly before the Christmas
Foundation Conference, once the task of winding up everything
in Berlin had been fully completed. It was as a matter of
course that this part of the work should have fallen on me.
The old form had to be dissolved before the Society, newly
constituted in Dornach, could find its own form, taking into
account the growth of the Movement and also the fields of
work which corresponded to its new cultural tasks.
Dissolution is always tinged with sadness, though joyful
anticipation of coming educational and artistic tasks was
undiminished. The past that had to be dismantled was
infinitely significant, and anchored in it was the guarantee
of fruitful new development.
Therefore I
was astonished when during his introductory lecture, at the
opening of the Christmas Foundation Conference, Dr Steiner
conjured up before our souls a deeply moving image of the
ruins of the Goetheanum, and then extended this image to
include the publishing company. For the crates, packed to the
brim, had resembled ruins merely externally, and this picture
created an inaccurate impression among the listeners. When I
later pointed this out to Dr Steiner and asked what he had
meant, it turned out that he had received a report which had
given him the impression that the devaluation of currency in
Germany had brought about too great a dissipation of
resources. When some months later Fräulein Mücke
was able to show him the account books herself, he was
delighted and said: ‘But this gives quite another
picture and shows that everything is alright.’ He
congratulated her on having rescued the publishing company
out of that complicated situation.
To give a
description of the Christmas Foundation Conference is perhaps
one of the most difficult tasks one can set oneself. It is
barely possible, with our limited insight, to gain an overall
view of the impulse and power behind that event. It
represents the most mighty endeavour of a teacher of mankind
to lift his contemporaries out of their own small selves and
awaken in them a conscious will to be allowed to become tools
serving the wise guides of the universe. Yet at the same time
this Christmas Foundation Conference is also bound up with
something infinitely tragic. For we cannot but admit: We were
called, but we were not chosen. We were incapable of
responding to the call, as further developments showed.
At first
every participant was as though lifted above him or herself,
inwardly warmed through and through and at the same time
deeply moved. But a destiny held sway over the whole
situation, a destiny which has had to run its course in other
spheres of existence. The outcome revealed what it meant for
Dr. Steiner to take our karma upon himself.
Herein lies
the deeply esoteric nature of that deed of sacrifice. This is
not the usual interpretation of the designation
‘esoteric Vorstand’. What could have been deeply
esoteric would have been to bring diverging earlier spiritual
streams to a harmonious balance in the persons of some of
their present representatives. This would have been an
esoteric task that could have been achieved together with Dr
Steiner through his superior insight, strength and capacity
for love. But our human karma and that of the Society burst
upon him the very minute the Christmas Foundation Conference
had been brought to a close. On that last day, 1 January
1924, he suddenly fell seriously ill. At the social gathering
with tea and refreshments, described as a ‘Rout’
on the programme, he was struck down as though by a sword
aimed at his very life. Yet he continued without intermission
and with boundless energy to be active until 28 September,
the day on which he spoke to us for the last time.
[ Note 12 ]
His failing physical forces
were nourished by spiritual fire, indeed they were borne by
this fire and grew beyond themselves. But at the last, after
superhuman achievements during the month of September, the
power of this inner flame finally devoured him too.
For those who
have the possibility of viewing events as a whole, the
Christmas Foundation Conference is bathed in this tragic
light. We have no right to turn our thoughts away from the
gravity and suffering of these events. For insight is born of
suffering and of pain. This pain must lead us to take hold of
our tasks with a will that is all the greater.
There is much
to be learnt from the discussions and events of the
Conference, which were recorded in shorthand. If we follow
them day by day just as they took place, we arrive at a
picture that at first remained unclear to us because the
excessive burden of work, and the bombardment of wishes from
the members arriving from every direction, made it impossible
to realize straight away the totality of the prospect that
had been given. With time, what Dr Steiner had sketched along
general lines by way of intentions for the future would have
gained clearer contours. And a gradual putting into practice
of his intentions would have enabled us to gain a complete
picture. For this, a period of time was needed. First the
spiritual foundation had to be deepened and strengthened.
This was done through the cycle of lectures on the Mystery
centres of the Middle Ages
[ Note 13 ]
and also the cycle
Anthroposophy
[ Note 14 ]
which led up to the
moment when the first lesson of the First Class was given. At
the same time, the lecture tours could not be allowed to
cease. These took Dr Steiner to France, Holland and England,
as well as German-speaking and eastern regions. Wherever he
went, the demands made on his strength were immense. In
September he would have been ready to begin the Second Class.
But the throng of members coming to Dornach was such that
account had to be taken of it, as well as of the spiritual
needs and receptivity of the new arrivals. In addition to the
four separate lecture courses running every day,
[ Note 15 ]
so many personal wishes had
to be met that the total physical exhaustion of the teacher
and bestower became inevitable. From 28 September onwards, Dr
Steiner had to give up any further work amongst the members.
He was confined to his atelier, which had been transformed
into a sick-room, and as far as the lecture tours were
concerned, he had to ask us to go in his place. On his
sick-bed he continued to write further letters to the members
[ Note 16 ]
and also the essays
on the course of his life.
[ Note 17 ]
Now it is our
task to let the Christmas Foundation Conference speak for
itself through the talks and lectures given by Rudolf Steiner
and preserved for us in shorthand reports. What was said by
the different officials or individual members, if extant,
would overburden the book. Their questions are revealed by
the answers given. The meetings and discussions in their
totality represent for us a path of training in how to
conduct meetings and deal with problems within the Society.
All this is bathed in the atmosphere of most lofty
spirituality, an offering, to the higher powers, of
supplication and gratitude. The dominant endeavour is to
conduct matters of this world in a practical and sensible
manner while yet ensuring that they remain subordinate to the
will of a wise universal guidance. The details of daily life
are thus raised up to the sphere of spiritual goals and
higher necessity.
Members from
all the national Societies had gathered in large numbers. The
lecture room in the old carpentry workshop
[ Note 18 ]
had to be extended by
opening up the adjoining rooms, and the walls leading to the
foyer, which still served as a workshop or, during
performances, as a cloakroom, had to be taken down. Outside,
the scant remains of the burnt Goetheanum building stuck up
out of the snow-covered landscape.
For those
arriving and settling in on 23 December a eurythmy
performance was offered at 4.30 in the afternoon. The words
with which Dr Steiner greeted the guests and introduced the
performance contained the first indication of some of the
fundamental motifs which were to run through all the lectures
of the Conference. That evening brought the final lecture in
the pre-Christmas cycle on
Mystery Knowledge and Mystery Centres.
[ Note 19 ]
The opening of the Conference itself took place on the morning
of 24 December. There now follows the address with which Rudolf
Steiner greeted the guests on the occasion of the eurythmy
performance on 23 December.
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