The Second Goetheanum
Introduction
During the re-founding of the Anthroposophical Society at
Christmas 1923, Rudolf Steiner also reconstituted the
“Esoteric School” which had originally functioned
in Germany from 1904 until 1914, when the outset of the First
World War made its continuance impossible.
However, the original school was only for a relatively few
selected individuals, whereas the new school was incorporated
into the School for Spiritual Science at the Goetheanum
in Dornach, Switzerland.
Rudolf Steiner was only able to give nineteen lessons — plus
seven “recapitulation” lessons — for the First
Class before his illness and death. His intention had been to
develop three classes. After his death, the Anthroposophical
Society's Executive Council was faced with the dilemma of what
to do about the Esoteric School — to try to continue it without
Rudolf Steiner, or not. He had not designated a successor. And
what to do with the stenographic records of the Class
lectures.
Rudolf Steiner had always insisted that the lectures were not
to be published. In fact, the members of the School were only
permitted to copy the mantra — and not the text of the lectures
— for their own personal contemplation. The dilemma was further
complicated by the dispute between Marie Steiner — Rudolf
Steiner's legal heir — and the rest of the Executive council,
which claimed all of Steiner's lectures for the Society.
(The dispute was eventually settled by the Swiss courts in
favor of Mrs. Steiner.)
The
Anthroposophical Society was permitted to hand out manuscripts
of the lectures to its so-called designated
“readers,” who read each lecture to the members of
the school in their particular area or country. This system is
still practiced.
Marie Steiner wrote:
“How can we preserve the treasure with which we have been
entrusted? Not by hiding it away, thereby simply giving our
enemies the opportunity to do with it what they will, but by
trusting in the good spiritual powers and thereby giving new
generations the possibility of receiving a stimulus in their
souls that will kindle the spiritual light slumbering there, a
light that will awaken in their souls what the powers of
destiny have sown in them.”
Marie
Steiner, letter of January 4, 1948
The
lectures were published in German in manuscript book form in
1977 by the Rudolf Steiner Estate (Nachlassverwaltung — Marie
Steiner's legal successor) in a limited edition and sold only
upon written request to anthroposophists.
However, pirated editions containing errors and falsifications
occurred to the extent that the Rudolf Steiner Estate decided
to make the printed volumes in German generally available in
1992.
The
Anthroposophical Society in Great Britain published the
lectures in English translation in 1994.
Frank
Thomas Smith — Editor, Southern Cross Review
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