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General Anthroposophical Society Anthroposophy Worldwide 5/14

Michaelmas Conference 2014 with re-opening of Goetheanum stage

A culture of peace The Michaelmas Conference 2014 will be guided by a quotation from Rudolf Steiner’s Samaritan Course “Into my questioning soul […] in bond of human brothers”. Together with the Michaelmas Conference 2015 it will form a preparation for the Michaelmas Conference of 2016 with which we will begin the seven annual steps on the way to the centenary of the Christmas Conference of 1923/24.

What contribution can we, as a global anthroposophical society, make today towards a culture of peace? This is the question with which we would like to work at the Michaelmas Conference 2014 – one hundred years after the outbreak of World War I. We should approach our work in a self-critical way – not for the sake of being critical but to help us to move forward. The conference will proceed in three steps. The motto of the first day will be “Into homelessness”. In his lecture cycle on the folk souls, Rudolf Steiner described the detach-ment of the individual from the collective, into which our origin has placed us, as a necessary precondition for gaining the knowledge and ability to live together as nations. How do we achieve this home-lessness today? How do we experience it and how can we live with it? What part of this step is as it always has been and what has changed in the age of globalization, in-stant communication and budget flights?

Anthroposophy and folk culture

Under the motto “You, spirit of my earthly realm”, the second day will open up a wide panorama of peoples and countries, presented by the general secretaries and national representatives. A few words of welcome will resound in various languag-es and allow us to experience what we will set out to explore: how does anthroposo-phy live in the different cultures and how can each folk culture be inspired by anthro-posophy? Or will the variety be replaced by an internationalized anthroposophy?

How will this development manifest in the branches, in schools and on farms?

A mission for all of humanity

On the third day we will try to give a face to the auspicious term “Michaelic Cosmopoli-tanism”. What did Rudolf Steiner mean by it? Do we have authentic experiences in this respect? How can we bring this quality to the way we live anthroposophy today? Rudolf Steiner spoke of the “self-knowledge of peoples” as a precondition for committing freely and

decisively to a joint human mission. What has become of this aspiration over the past hundred years within the global anthropo-sophical community? Can we see a foun-dation on the strength of which we can make an active contribution to a culture of peace, now and in future? The confer-ence will be embedded in the festivities for the reopening of the newly renovated stage in the Main Auditorium. The various events are described in detail in this and other programmes.| Seija Zimmermann, Ueli Hurter, Goetheanum Leadership

Anthroposophy Worldwide 5/2014 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Annual Conference and Annual General Meeting 2014

2 Procedures and contents4 Anthroposophic Medicine5 Emergency Education6 Statement on the Critical Edition of

Steiner’s written work6 Statement on the location of

the Group by the head of the Goetheanum Stage

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1 Michaelmas Conference 20148 Meeting of General Secretaries

and Country Representatives14 Eva Lunde’s 100th birthday15 Membership news

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2 Invitation to the festive re-opening of the Goetheanum’s Main Stage

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9 Germany: Helmut von Kügelgen and 45 years of International Waldorf Kindergarten Association

10 Germany: Conference on Rosicru-cianism in Kassel

11 Russia: The cultural work of the ISIS Foundation

12 India: Review of 2013/201413 China: University founds Waldorf

Teacher College . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Forum

14 Exhibition: “Rudolf Steiner. The Alchemy of Everyday.”

14 The ‘I’ knows itself . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Feature

16 Eurythmeum Stuttgart

■ Goetheanum

Information/registration:goetheanum.org/6175.htmlRecommended readingThe Mission of the Folk Souls, GA 121The Spiritual Guidance of the Individual and Humanity, GA 15 Das Geheimnis der Wunde, Aufzeichnungen zum Samariterkurs, Beiträ-ge zur Rudolf SteinerGesamtausgabe Nr. 108 [These notes on Rudolf Steiner’s Samaritan Course are in the process of being translated into English. The translation is due to be pu-blished by Mercury Press in May 2014]

2 | Anthroposophy Worldwide No. 5/14

■ Goetheanum

Anthroposophy Worldwide is published in Ger-man, English and Spanish ten times a year. It is distributed by the national Anthroposophical So-cieties – in some cases augmented by indepen-dently edited news and articles. It also appears as a supplement to the weekly journal ‹Das Goethea-num›. • Editor: General Anthroposophical Soci-ety represented by Justus Wittich. • Editors: Sebastian Jüngel (responsible for this edition), Michael Kranawetvogl (responsible for the Span-ish edition), Margot M. Saar (responsible for this English edition), Wolfgang Held and Philipp Tok. • German Proofreading: Merle Rüdisser. • Address: Wochenschrift ‹Das Goetheanum›, Postfach, 4143 Dornach, Switzerland, Fax +41 61 706 44 65, [email protected]. • Correspondents/news agency: Jürgen Vater (Sweden), News Network Anthroposophy (NNA). • We expressly wish for active support and collaboration. • Sub-scriptions: To receive ‹Anthroposophy Worldwide› please apply to the Anthroposophical Society in your country. Alternatively, individual subscrip-tions are available at CHF 30.- (EUR/US$ 20.-) per year. An e-mail version is available to members of the Anthroposophical Society only at www.goetheanum.org/630.html?L=1. © 2014 General Anthroposophical Society, Dornach, Switzerland

■ Anthroposophical Society

While the previous Annual General Meeting had remained relaxed in the face of controversy, I experienced a strange ambivalence this year: The Ex-ecutive Council adopted a number of sug-gestions from recent years, responded to the criticism that it had chosen an annual theme which was too philosophical and too restricted to Central Europe by dem-onstrating how closely the theme was re-ally connected with practical life, and al-lowed speakers unlimited speaking time, a concession that was often abused by the same people stepping onto the stage repeatedly and speaking so long that the meeting went overtime. Yet – some of the contributions presented by members reflected that there were issues that had been left unresolved. What was not men-tioned, on the other hand, was what had become of the initiative that a group of members should prepare the annual con-ference. During the preliminary meeting, which was open to all members, someone made a helpful suggestion, “the basis for any change is to define what there is and to say ‘yes, this is how it is.’ And on this basis the next step can be taken.”

Consequences arising from the annual theme

In her introduction to the annual theme (“The ‘I’ knows itself in the light of Michaelic world affirmation”) Constanza Kaliks, leader of the Youth Section, start-ed by looking back to the previous year and by establishing that the General An-

throposophical Society was what people were making of it. When we incarnate each of us has to work on their relation-ship with reality. The first time we say ‘yes’ to the world is when we decide to be born. Children, when they enter school, become part of an organism that has its own history. Constanza Kaliks referred to Rudolf Steiner’s words that we should connect with the world in love. Quot-ing from ‘Cosmic thoughts in the work of Michael and Ahriman’, she said, “We become ever more human by becoming an expression of the world […]” (Anthro-posophical Leading Thoughts, GA 26). Michaelic world affirmation included also the ability to adapt to changing circum-stances. The physician Thomas Breitkreuz elaborated on this theme in the context of Anthroposophic Medicine (page 4) and the teacher Bernd Ruf spoke of the essen-tial contribution of Waldorf (emergency) education in situations that are far from ideal, such as in wars or following natural disasters (page 5). Virginia Sease related the statement “The ‘I’ knows itself” to the evolution of the ‘I’ in the world when she spoke about Palm Sunday and the entry of Christ and his disciples into Jeru-salem. The disciples spread their clothes over an ass’ colt and the crowd scattered their garments on the way – an image for the casting off of old layers to allow for a renewal through the Christ. In ancient Greek, the term for ‘palm tree’ coincides with that for ‘phoenix’, the bird that rises from the ashes to new life, a symbol of

General Anthroposophical Society

Cultivating the art of living togetherThe Goetheanum Leadership explained how the Anthroposophical Society, School of Spiritual Science and the fields of life work together. While the anthroposophical activities in the world were accepted without problems, internal issues such as the Weleda question and tolerance towards initiatives such as the Critical Steiner Edition (SKA) remained unresolved.

Goetheanum Main Stage

Festive Re-OpeningOn Friday, 26 September 2014, be-tween 3 – 4 p .m . we will celebrate the re-opening of the Goetheanum stage with a festive act .

– Welcome and introduction by Dr Seija Zimmermann, Executive Council at the Goetheanum– Address by Councillor Dr Remo An-kli, Department of Education and Cul-ture, Canton of Solothurn– Address by Roger Dahinden, Deputy Mayor of Dornach– Ludwig van Beethoven Fantasia op. 77, Goetheanum Eurythmy Ensemble, Margrethe Solstad, artistic director– Peter Holtz, that hamburg gmbh – on the stage renovation– Margrethe Solstad and Nils Frisch-knecht, Goetheanum Stage: What hap-pens on and behind the stage?– Premiere: Overture for String Sep-tet, composition commissioned for String Septet Heiligenberg; Christian Ginat, musical director

After the festive act refreshments will be served in the Foyer | General An-throposophical Section and Goethea-num Stage

Between 200 and 400 members gathered in the Foundation Stone Auditorium

Anthroposophy Worldwide No. 5/14 | 3

the overcoming of death. Copies of the levels of Christ’s organization are avail-able to advanced human beings: a copy of the ether body to Augustine, for instance, the image of the astral body to St Fran-cis of Assisi and Thomas Aquinas and “in 1459, at the initiation through the Christ with the help of Mani when a copy of the Christ’s I was received by a human ‘I’”. The development of the ‘I’, if seen in relation with the Christ, is therefore a long-term process.

The tasks of the Goetheanum

One aspect of the tasks that rest on the Goetheanum is tangible in the build-ing work that is going on at present. Paul Mackay explained the various plans that address matters of safety (roof and stage) and maintenance (terrace), improvements to the campus and the building structure (planning the course of paths or the con-version in the west of the building by removing the outside stairs in order to create new spaces) as well as extended use (an orchestra pit and the opening up of the Group room for esoteric work). All these activities mean that one contin-ues to build on the Second Goetheanum so that it is better equipped to serve life, also in the spiritual or conceptual sense. These plans were presented on guided tours of the building site and on informa-tion panels, but they were not discussed in any detail. The argument in favour of converting the west part of the build-ing - that the outside stairs were never used - was rejected by the architect and general secretary of the Anthroposophi-cal Society in Japan, Yuji Agematsu, with

the dry comment “hardly surprising, gates closed.” (The project and aspects regard-ing the outside stairs will be presented in one of the next issues of Anthroposophy Worldwide.)

Practical work aspects became most tangible in the Mathematical-Astronom-ical Section’s presentation of an engine which is based on two oloids and could be used to propel boats, for instance. The device was set up above a water basin at the South entrance and demonstrated by Johann Wolfesberger.

Claus-Peter Röh spoke on behalf of the Pedagogical Section on the question of how the training of teachers can keep up with the steady increase in the number of Waldorf schools. Röh pointed out that “we are Strader schools and we have to get down to the mathematical and legal aspects.” If we open up to the outside, he said, it is important that we remain au-thentic inside. Jean-Michel Florin of the Section for Agriculture faces similar deci-sions: high-quality viticulture is no longer possible today without biodynamic meth-ods. Wine of all things! But, as Florin said, “if people ask us if they can treat their soil biodynamically, we cannot say ‘no’!”

Margrethe Solstad of the Performing Arts Section and co-director of the new production of Faust I and II spoke about preparations, planning, auditions and the great joy that comes from this kind of work, especially from young eurythmists. The questions they are asking themselves are, ‘What does one need nowadays for a Faust production? And what do we want to convey with our Faust here at the Goetheanum?’

Low points

These were some of the highlights of this meeting. The low points can be exem-plified in one aspect: The blue conference brochure contained a statement by the Rudolf Steiner Nachlassverwaltung and the Rudolf Steiner Verlag (page 6), refer-ring to the concern regarding the Critical Edition of Rudolf Steiner’s written work. In addition Renatus Ziegler, board member at the Rudolf Steiner Nachlassverwaltung presented a statement during the meet-ing, outlining briefly – due to time pres-sure – what the Rudolf Steiner Nachlass-verwaltung considers to be its task, i.e. the looking after Rudolf Steiner’s physical es-tate. Since the copy right had expired, no restrictions whatsoever could be applied. “Our approach is that of radical publicity: everything will be published.” Ziegler em-phasized that interpretation or contextu-alization was not part of their responsibil-ity. They do not see it as their task to judge the services rendered by third parties or to evaluate the quality of these services. “If something is submitted that meets the editorial requirements that is enough for us.” Ziegler’s presentation evoked an onslaught of hissing and booing from the auditorium.When, on the next day, emotive clapping was again used whilst people were expressing their opinions, Al-exander Overhage called the meeting to order, asking people to respect the prin-ciples of Swiss democracy. In subsequent contributions the way we deal with each other came up repeatedly, which was a new phenomenon. Hartwig Schiller spoke of his perception that members of the audience not only became emotional but

■ Anthroposophical Society

Stages of decision-making: getting information (here on the paths leading to the main entrance), expressing an interest (Youth Section information stand) and sharing views (Haus Haldeck)


■ Goetheanum

deliberately stirred the emotions in the room. He pointed out that in the work group where the Critical Steiner Edition had been discussed, the tone had been more polite, while this had not been the case outside of that group. Bodo von Plato warned that delicate spiritual matters or questions regarding co-workers at the Goetheanum must not be discussed in heated, inflammatory or one-sided ways. He was referring to a member who, speak-ing about the dismissal of a co-worker at the Documentation department, had said, “Ninety years ago, the Goetheanum burnt down because the members were asleep. I have the feeling that the spiritual Goetheanum is burning now and that the members are sleeping again.”

How disconcerting this kind of behav-iour is, especially for people from non-Ger-man speaking countries, was apparent in the address of Joan Sleigh, who has just come to the end of her first year as a mem-ber of the Executive Council. “How are we dealing with one another? We have the possibility, the faculties and the research to know and make true that we are spiri-tual beings.” In his farewell address, after ten years as General Secretary of the An-throposophical Society in Norway, Frode Barkved said, “I often felt homeless in the annual general meetings, like a stranger. There were many clever, and often long-winded, presentations making sure that everything was understood rightly: Ru-dolf Steiner, anthroposophy, the School of Spiritual Science and the byelaws. The astral space of the Main Auditorium was plastered with these deliberations. My in-terest was inversely proportional to this.”

Annual General Meeting

The motions were presented on the first day, followed on the second day by the corresponding debates and decisions. (The motions had been published be-forehand in Anthroposophy Worldwide 3/2014 and in the programme.)

Amending the byelaws: Justus Wittich pointed out that he had not found much support for the concern that work on the statutes should continue. “This cost a lot of time and money. But if it were not pos-sible to put it into practice in general, he would at least like to address the most im-portant points, including the task set from the outside regarding the legal status of the School of Spiritual Science. This was

important for the Weleda to enable them to give donations to the School of Spiritual Science. It was also important in connec-tion with the Swiss University Law (Hoch-schulgesetz), due to become effective in 2015, which will determine whether an institution can call itself an academic in-stitution (Hochschule). Following various procedural motions to defer or remove the concern, the “proposal of the Execu-tive Council” was ultimately accepted with around a dozen votes against and two dozen abstentions.

Motion 1: To appoint a chair within the Executive Council at the Goethea-num .While not excluding the possibility of a change, Bodo von Plato asked not to be forced to make such an appointment since the Executive Council wished to work in a different way. The motion was rejected by the majority of members pres-ent, with a few votes in favour and around a dozen abstentions.

Motion 2: Provisional placement of the Representative of Humanity on the stage: the head of the stage department had published a statement in the blue brochure (page 7). In addition, a letter had been received, dated 7 April 2014, from the Office for the Preservation of Monu-ments and Archaeology in the Canton of Solothurn: a reminder that the “Sculpture Group of the Representative of Human-ity” has been placed under a preservation order on 31 October 2011 by the govern-ing council. This compels the proprietor “to keep the listed historical and cultural monument in a way that guarantees its preservation. There must be no altera-

Goetheanum tasks I: Demonstration of an inver-sion engine made from two oloids

Anthroposophic Medicine

Being open to questions

In the 1970s and 1980s Anthroposoph-ic Medicine was closely linked with anthroposophical cultural impulses such as Waldorf schools. Later it moved more into the public eye when anthro-posophic hospitals where founded and politicians and the media were invited to visit. In the years that followed, An-throposophic Medicine established itself as a “special discipline” within a pluralist system, but this came with the danger of disappearing into a par-ticular niche. Today we are increasingly asked pragmatic questions by GPs and patients who want to know what we have to offer. The Weleda alone has around 1500 anthroposophical medi-cines many of which are produced in small batches, which is not economi-cal. Despite the increase in public in-terest, the number of anthroposophic physicians has not grown. How would it be, if in ten years’ time a third of all GPs in Germany and Switzerland were able to use ten anthroposophical medi-cines, say for dry eyes, hypertension or cancer? A difficult question. Can we entrust non-anthroposophic doctors with our anthroposophic medicines? I suggest that we think in concentric circles: we practise an individualized medicine based on the levels of the human organization (and try to recruit young physicians interested in inner development), whilst making thera-pies available outside of anthroposo-phy with clearly accessible instructions for use. People can take Cardiodoron because it works; they don’t need to know anything about its background nor do they need to become anthro-posophists first. Furthermore, we need to be involved in finding solutions for burning questions, such as the resis-tance to antibiotics that could be re-duced if anthroposophic medicines were used for minor infections. What applies to each of us as individuals is also true for our approach to medicine: a successful biography needs an un-derstanding of one’s own identity and a healthy breathing between the inner contemplation of our ideals and open-ness for the world around from where the future comes towards us. | Thomas Breitkreuz, Bad Liebenzell (DE)


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tions without the express permission of the cantonal department responsible.” According to a statement from the wood expert Ulrich Bucher the taking down and re-assembling of the Group in a different location was possible in principle, but “Mr Bucher states clearly that any interven-tion will cause damage to the sculpture and that – even if all the criteria necessary for the disassembly and reinstallation are being met – the Group could only be moved once. An interim solution or “trial placement” are therefore out of the ques-tion.” Moritz Christoph, the presenter of the motion, withdrew it and presented a new motion suggesting that an indepen-dent work group be formed to continue to discuss the question of location. This new motion was accepted by a majority against a considerable number of nega-tive votes.

Motion 3: House Haldeck (by secret ballot) . Eva Lohmann-Heck said in support of the motion that the strong community in Haus Haldeck would be maintained while this would be dissolved if the plans of the Executive Council were to be carried out. Justus Wittich confirmed that the conversations proposed at the previous AGM had not taken place. The Executive Council, he said, had longer-term plans to avoid enormous repair costs in ten years or so, while the house community took on repairs step by step. Wittich confirmed that “we do not want to dissolve this com-munity.” Of the 351 ballot papers handed in 234 were in favour of Motion 3, while 97 favoured the proposal of the Execu-tive Council. Twenty votes were not valid.

Again, there was a sense of ambivalence around this vote. The Executive Council opened itself to the concern of those who had submitted the motion, asking them to coordinate their self-governance with the Goetheanum’s property administra-tion. The tenants who wished to speak were given a lot of time. Nevertheless, the manner in which the topic had been dealt with recently and the presentation of the proposal of the Executive Council failed to convince the meeting in the end.

Approval: the Executive Council was confirmed by the majority of members present, with a few votes against and two or three dozen abstentions. Paul Mackay’s words of thanks for the “full day” were almost drowned as members began to advance towards the exit. The interest shown in the various parts of the meeting was also reflected in the numbers: an es-timated 400 members attended the part of the AGM when the voting took place, while there were around 300 members on the previous day and 200 on the last, and calmer, day of the Annual Conference.

Communication problems

Another communication problem be-came apparent during the presentation of the annual statements of the members of the Executive Council. When Virginia Sease and Seija Zimmermann had spoken also of their administrative and organizational tasks (which take place invisibly in the back-ground), the presentations of Paul Mackay and Bodo von Plato evoked the question ‘what are you actually doing’? That Paul Mackay, in describing the building work at the Goetheanum, the Weleda and the Goetheanum Leadership, was referring to his work, people could have known. That Bodo von Plato, when speaking about his responsibility for communications, elabo-rated on a thought is characteristic of his way of working. This meeting therefore il-lustrated what Gottfried Caspar expressed when he said that “we are all very differ-ent. It is an achievement that we can dis-cuss issues together. We come from totally different streams and still manage to come together here for meetings.”

The statements of the members of the Executive Council and the address given by the new leader of the Art Section, Mar-ianne Schubert, will be published in the next issue of Anthroposophy Worldwide. | Sebastian Jüngel

Goetheanum tasks II: Publishing research results(stand of the Goetheanum publishers: Verlag am Goetheanum)

Emergency Education

Helping people

I met five-year old Jasmin in the Middle East. She was one of only a few family members to survive a military attack. When I spoke with her I asked, “How did you survive?” - “I have a task.” – “What are you planning to do?” – “I will go to school and learn something. And then I will take my revenge.” How can Waldorf education provide a future for such children and youngsters? When the Friends of Rudolf Steiner’s Educa-tion started with the emergency educa-tion in 2006 in Lebanon, it was my first direct experience of war. I was able to detect the degree of people’s trauma-tization in their eyes and facial expres-sions. Trauma is firstly a wound, not an illness. It is possible to prevent later ef-fects by using relatively simple means, as long as one takes action within the first weeks. A physical wound usually heals within a few days. A wound to the soul needs a bit longer. There can be complications and these can also be fatal. Being traumatized means being thrown out of the stream of life. First one must dissolve the state of frozen-ness before the traumatized person can begin to work through their experi-ences. A trauma is always a near-death experience. Most of the time children are able to return from this threshold, but not always. We differentiate four stages of trauma – each has its own pedagogical measures. Emergency education can activate a person’s own forces of self-healing. Traumatization will become more wide-spread as a re-sult of the human constitution becom-ing looser. We also have to expect more disasters in the future. I reckon that in ten years’ time emergency education will be part of teacher training and that schools will offer emergency edu-cation. Difficult experiences are part of life. People who have overcome a crisis will have different priorities and will be able to distinguish the essential from the inessential; they will value human relationships more highly and be more open for spiritual questions. Crises can-not be prevented. But with the means that Waldorf education has in store we can help people and try to transform crises into biographical opportunities. | Bernd Ruf, Karlsruhe (DE)


■ Annual Conference and Annual General Meeting 2014

In April 2012 the Rudolf Steiner Nachlass-verwaltung [administration of Rudolf Steiner’s estate] was made aware of Chris-tian Clement’s plan for a new edition of Rudolf Steiner’s writing that would col-late the various editions published dur-ing Steiner’s lifetime. Such editions are known among scholars as critical editions because they carefully and comprehen-sively document for the reader the steps that led to the creation of the text and any further work on it. The works that ap-pear in the Rudolf Steiner Gesamtausgabe [Rudolf Steiner’s collected works] are the texts of the final version, i.e., in each case, the form of the text as last worked upon by the author.

Background and intention

As an edition for reading and study, however, the collected works hold no claim to being a comparative-critical edition, and the development of such volumes is seen as less a priority than our primary task of publishing previously unavailable texts, lectures, and artistic works; such a task is an essential research concern. We have denied Clement the use of unpub-lished materials because we wanted to reserve our own right to undertake a his-torical-critical edition that would include Rudolf Steiner’s manuscripts.

With our 1994 volume of documents relating to the Philosophy of Freedom (GA 4a) we produced an edition that took into account all the existing textual evidence; and in 2004 the Rudolf Steiner Verlag pub-lished an edition that documented the textual development of Theosophy in the years between 1904 and 1922.

As the first volume of Clement’s critical edition (Steiner Kritische Ausgabe – SKA) was being published, the director of the Rudolf Steiner Archives and the director of the Rudolf Steiner Verlag had a chance to look at the page proofs and assure them-selves of the quality of the editorial work. As a result, they proposed a business agreement between the lead publisher in the project, frommann-holzboog, and the

Rudolf Steiner Verlag, as publishers tend to do occasionally with such large-scale projects. The governing board of the Ru-dolf Steiner Verlag in cooperation with the board of the Rudolf Steiner Archives then came to an agreement for this coopera-tion. As a charitable cultural institution for the preservation and publication of Rudolf Steiner’s work, the Nachlassverwaltung along with the Rudolf Steiner Archives has a majority vote in neither the annual gen-eral meeting nor the governing board of the Verlag, which is an independent com-mercial enterprise. The organizations and fields of endeavour are separate but serve a common task. The Nachlassverwaltung and the Archives are responsible for the content of the editorial work while the Verlag is responsible for producing and distributing Rudolf Steiner’s works.

The two programmatically and fi-nancially autonomous publishers then entered into this cooperative business agreement because they were convinced that the culture of our time and the an-throposophical movement had an inter-est in a specialized and systematically pre-pared edition of Rudolf Steiner’s works. The Rudolf Steiner Verlag has a number of copies for distribution. Responsibility for the organization of the texts, the intro-duction, the commentary, and the fore-word remain entirely in the hands of the sole editor, Christian Clement, and in the hands of the frommann-holzboog press.

Varied reception for the edition

While interested and positive reviews have appeared in large anthroposophi-cal journals, in blogs, and in well-known newspapers, there have also been con-cerned, generally negative, and polemic reactions elsewhere. Unfortunately, it is the latter that have produced an echo in the anthroposophical movement. The negative reactions were solely concerned with Clement’s foreword, introduction, and commentary, not with the editing of Steiner’s texts themselves. This discus-sion unfortunately included misunder-

standings and errors—even some painful misrepresentations. Much that was unre-lated entered the discussion; it had noth-ing to do with the quality of the edition. In March, 2014, an open letter asked that the Rudolf Steiner Nachlassverwaltung and the Rudolf Steiner Verlag remove Clem-ent’s edition from the Verlag. Since then, a group of concerned anthroposophists has written in support of this letter and its demand; many of them, however, had not looked at the edition.

We are surprised, and we regret this re-action. However, we are also disconcerted by a certain ideological overreaction. Of course, the edition is open to objective discussion and usage. Those interested in understanding or acquiring the basic con-tent in Rudolf Steiner’s writings will often have little interest in philological details, or even be disturbed by them. Those who immerse themselves in such details will be able to discover interesting insights. No one’s freedom is limited here. Thus it is irritating when discussions about the edition are bound up with a witch-hunt against institutions (Nachlassverwaltung, Verlag, etc.). We have taken this long-range edition into the Verlag’s catalogue with the earnest and honest intention of supporting the availability of a systematic comparative edition in addition to the standard edition, the Gesamtausgabe. In his autobiography, Rudolf Steiner himself recommends comparing different ver-sions of his writings in order to reach an understanding of his systematic research efforts (Rudolf Steiner, Mein Lebensgang, GA 28, p. 434).

We have noted with interest (or ques-tions) some provocative points of view (e.g., in the editor’s introduction). Clement himself describes these as “necessarily al-ways one-sided and fragmen- tary…and (I hope) soon made obsolete by more ex-tensive and deeper research” (p. LXI in the introduction). With no intention of some-how diminishing the ideas presented in the edition’s introduction or foreword: they were secondary considerations in ac-cepting the edition into the Verlag’s pro-gramme; the main consideration was the quality of the editorial work with Rudolf Steiner’s texts.

The Rudolf Steiner Nachlassverwal-tung and the Rudolf Steiner Verlag see it as their task to publish the most reliable and correct editions of his work, not in order

Statement of the Rudolf Steiner Nachlassverwaltung and of the Rudolf Steiner Verlag

Critical Edition of Rudolf Steiner’s written works (SKA)


■ Goetheanum

to make themselves somehow arbiters of interpretation, but so that interested readers have the editions at their disposal for an outer and inner study of Rudolf Steiner’s works.

Misunderstood Cooperative Arrangement

Some of the current misunderstand-ings are traceable to our communication and statement about the cooperation between the two publishers. In the book’s front matter, frommann-holzboog and the Rudolf Steiner Verlag stand as equal partners, and in the edition prospectus on the last page of the book there is the state-ment: “Published in cooperation with the Rudolf Steiner Archives and the Rudolf Steiner Verlag.” The latter formulation will be omitted in this form in future editions because there is only a distribution agree-ment between the two businesses. In this type of cooperation, one press is normally the party responsible for communicating with the author, proofreading, and pro-duction, while the other party includes some the press run in its distribution without further involvement in the tasks of proofreading and production. This is also the case with the SKA.

Neither the Rudolf Steiner Verlag nor the Rudolf Steiner Nachlassverwaltung have a role in financing the edition. Thus no donated funds are used for it. The frommann-holzboog press carries the publication risk for the SKA. The note about the publication subvention from Brigham Young University in the front matter represents a contribution typical of the support offered by public universi-ties for publications by their instructors.

An indication of cooperating publish-ers without further differentiation of tasks is a widespread practice in the field of publication, and this is also true in the case of the SKA. But the naming of the Rudolf Steiner Verlag on the title page can, in fact, be misunderstood because it looks like an equal partnership between the presses. In the future we will make a more precise statement about the co-operation between the two presses in the front matter. | For the Rudolf Steiner Nachlassverwaltung Cornelius Bohlen, Chair of the Board. For the Rudolf Steiner Verlag Richard Bhend, Chair of the Admin-istrative Board. English translation by Douglas Miller

The productions of the Mystery Dra-mas and Faust I & II

While the group is temporarily on the stage neither the Mystery dramas nor Faust can be performed. The Mystery drama productions with their scenery and lighting are always designed to take the entire stage area into account. These could also not be performed because of space considerations. The new production of Faust beginning in 2015 is designed based on the sets (preliminary discussions have been going on for about 2 years) and it would be impossible to build these sets with the group on the stage. New discus-sions would be required to take the tem-porary placement of the group into con-sideration. The premieres of Faust I & II would be considerably delayed.

The stage area

The stage requires the space behind the anterior scenery or curtain. Many scenes in the Mystery dramas, eurythmy, and Faust are planned so that they are back-lit (or use rear projection). It is impossible to do this without several meters at the back of the stage; many times the space is already too narrow. The eurythmy stage we are familiar with would have about 6 meters less in depth.

Tours—Everyday Life behind the Scenes

The stage is in use every day for re-hearsals, conferences, construction/tech-nical work, and more. We often have re-hearsals at quarter-hour intervals. Briefly opening the background on the stage could not be allowed because of those re-alities. All of these factors mean that the group would be hidden from public view most of the time.

A viewing would be especially impos-sible during large conferences since the schedule for the stage is closely planned to take technical construction, rehearsals, or lighting placement into account. The sculpture could only be viewed from a dis-tance of about 21 meters since the stage is not accessible to visitors. There are both

liability and technical reasons for that. In addition, the eurythmy cloth cannot be walked on with street shoes.

Protection for the Group on the stage

The group would have to be protected. A placement that is vulnerable to damage is not possible. The following would have to be taken into consideration:

1. Protection from fire: There is always an increased danger of fire on the stage (because of the lighting). A fire-safe loca-tion would be required; e.g, pushing the group on rails into an enclosed niche with a fire door.

2. Protection from dust: There is always a lot of dust and dirt created on the stage. The area would have to be cleaned more frequently. In addition, the dust would penetrate the pores in the wood, and the surface would be dulled.

3. Protection from physical dam-age: When the stage settings are being changed the stage resembles a construc-tion site. That means that the work of art would have to be reasonably protected from physical damage, e.g., through a walled-in niche (see 1).

4. Climate control: The climate is not constant on the stage. We have extreme variations in temperature, and the relative humidity changes quite a bit. Prior to per-formances litres of water are sprayed into the air to raise the relative humidity. The many spotlights cause the temperature to rise sharply during performances.

Further questions:

The group would have to be disas-sembled for transport, and the individual pieces would have to be raised above the roof with a crane.

To do this the roof of the group room would have to opened. The lemniscate window would have to be removed as well as the sky- light above the South Stu-dio that is sloped above it. This would re-quire considerable construction. | For the Goetheanum stage, Nils Frischknecht. English translation by Douglas Miller

Statement from the stage management

Test placement of the Group on the stage


■Anthroposophical Society

One after the other they arrive, ener-getically, to report from the meeting of general secretaries and country repre-sentatives: Paul Mackay, Joan Sleigh and Bodo von Plato of the Executive Council at the Goetheanum and the general sec-retaries Jan Baker-Finch (AU), Nodar Bel-kania (GE), Kristina Lucia Parmentier (BE), Hartwig Schiller (DE) and Eva Vaśnievska (PL). Unlike at former occasions of this kind, they don’t think back so much to what they have discussed but continue their conversation on representation, which has matured by now and been raised to a higher level, culminating in the free recognition of the ‘I’. The lively, aphoristic nature of this spontaneous twenty-minute conversation has been captured in the following documenta-tion.Bodo von Plato: We have asked ourselves what it means to be a representative: when did I become homeless? When did I become an anthroposophist? How did anthroposophy become a new home? And how did I become homeless through becoming an anthroposophist?Hartwig Schiller: I spoke with Yuji Age-matsu (JP) on one of our “walks.” He told me how he discovered his homelessness

in Switzerland. It happened to me when I was in Norway – we were about the same age then, around 21. We discovered our homelessness outside our usual sphere of life. Being far away from home meant that a new light was cast on the question of origin and home.

Feeling at home in the homelessness

Plato: Michael Kranawetvogl (ES) comes from Bavaria and lives in Spain. He found a new home in his homelessness. I dis-covered my ‘Germanness’ in France – and began to feel uncomfortable in my home-lessness. Kristina Lucia Parmentier: I may be homeless with regard to my country, but I do not have to experience homelessness in a place, in a spatial sense. One can also lose one’s family. Joan Sleigh: The sense of having a home depends not so much on a country as on whether one has a task, a context of ac-tivities.Eva Vaśnievska: Homelessness must first be acknowledged, then one can experi-ence it and in the end, one opens up a space within oneself with regard to one’s own roots in a country, in one’s family or task. The sense of homelessness provides

a different angle and one can penetrate to one’s own self.Plato: The question of representation is intimately connected with that of home-lessness. The Anthroposophical Society is seeking to find new forms, step by step.Schiller: According to the statistics, mem-bership numbers are clearly going down. We are called upon to think about new forms of working without negating the old, existing forms. We need to include ev-eryone, every member who is committed.Plato: In this big circle of general secretar-ies, country representatives, section lead-ers and members of the Executive Council we have worked persistently on this ques-tion; calmly but seriously. We allowed ourselves to do this without immediately discussing a new programme. Schiller: We strongly restricted the diversi-ty of topics this time and concentrated on this theme. As a result the conversations we had turned out to be greatly varied.

Being representatives of our ‘I’

Baker-Finch: On two days we went for walks in pairs, not in order to chat but to listen carefully to what the other had to say about a given topic. On the second walk we described to each other what we find is typical of our country and people. I would have liked to sit on top of the Goetheanum and watch all the different paths: the whole world was present, walk-ing deeply preoccupied, like ants, around the Goetheanum Park! I would like to add one aspect to the question of homeless-ness: it happens at an entirely personal level and proceeds in particular stages. But even if I experience myself as home-less, I belong to a culture that colours the way I am and the way I work.Sleigh: Apart from representation and homelessness there was also the aspect of being human in general that shone through.Schiller: And this brings about a certain tension: the general secretaries and coun-try representatives represent a particular culture that they stand for. They cannot and should not represent something that is faceless and general. We all share the sense of homelessness and something generally human which lends us a certain expression. We want to continue working on this phenomenon.Plato: Seija Zimmermann spoke in a very touching way of the mystery of the indi-

Meeting of the General Secretaries and Country Representatives

“That we each be recognized as representatives of our ‘I’”From 7 to 12 April the general secretaries, country representatives, Section leaders and members of the Executive Council at the Goetheanum met to talk about representa-tion. As part of the experimental set-up of this gathering the circa 40 participants met in groups of various sizes and even went on walks together.

Meeting between homelessness and cultural bonds: two who know each other from Brazil sharing their experiences during an interval at the Annual Conference at the Goetheanum.


■Anthroposophical Society ■ Antroposophy Worldwide

vidual. Each of us is a mystery. Each of us is, above all, always a messenger of his or her unique ‘I’. Vaśnievska: And the Goetheanum aims to work towards a situation where each person is recognized as the representative of his or her ‘I’. That is the peace message at the Goetheanum. We have not quite achieved this yet, but it is the image we hold of the future.

Meeting each other the way we are

Baker-Finch: This time I felt as free as never before in this group. The first time I was here, three years ago, I worried a lot: I have to say something in order to break the ice for myself – and I have to say it in German and English. Now I experience – especially in the dialogues during the walks and the group work – that I have met another person. Something has hap-pened. The Goetheanum is on the whole very German-speaking and Swiss. But if we have the opportunity to meet each other as who we are we can feel this deeply! This means that we go back home filled with new life, feeling increasingly how we are connected with other people and countries.Vaśnievska: When we met with the Goetheanum staff members I also experi-enced the variety of soul qualities as in an image of a future human society.Schiller: I experienced this differentiation not just as a state of perfect understand-ing and harmony. There was also a level of not understanding each other. Take the annual theme “The ‘I’ know itself in the light of Michaelic world affirmation”, for instance. Some found it too central-Eu-ropean, others thought it was too philo-sophical. The eastern countries wished for something more Christological. Oth-ers said that Christology could not be dis-cussed in their country. When it comes to thinking, some feel that that is something definitely ‘German’. Sleigh: Having the possibility to identify and discuss this has opened up possibili-ties, however.Vaśnievska: We haven’t finished yet with forming an opinion. We are in a process. And we have experienced that there is a possibility for us to meet each other and to find a way for the future.

On 19 October 1969, Helmut von Kügelgen and a number of experi-enced Waldorf Kindergarten teachers founded the International Association of Waldorf Kindergartens, supported by eminent professionals from the Waldorf School movement and in cooperation with the German Association of Waldorf Schools (Bund der Freien Waldorfschulen). The reason for this foundation was a po-litical one: at the time – as today – the questions that dominated the sphere of education were the ‘schoolification’ of kindergartens, the bringing forward of the age of school entry, a tendency towards an intellectualized education, and the change from mixed age-groups to peer classes. Educational policies that took their clues from mottos such as “the ear-lier, the better” and “the faster, the more economical” needed to be confronted and the unrestricted spread of electronic ap-pliances also needed to be checked. In the age of the rigorous and global economiza-tion of childhood the essential task was, and still is, to practise an education and to apply teaching methods that meet the developmental needs of young children and respect their individualities.

Waldorf teacher seminars and state-recognized colleges were founded that of-fered thorough training opportunities to their students. Annual international con-ferences provided the possibility to meet colleagues, take part in further training and deepen one’s knowledge of spiritual science. Helmut von Kügelgen was an in-spiring and active contributor in this de-velopment.

A master in bringing people togetherFrom 1989, when the Wall came down,

a new intensive phase of international col-laboration began for Helmut von Kügel-gen, myself and many other teachers. From these early beginnings a growing network of international and human co-operation has developed that now spans the whole world. Helmut von Kügelgen

was a master in bringing people together. He was profoundly interested in people and all his thinking and doing was directed towards the tasks of that time. He always took up a clear position, whatever the task at hand. When the question “Waldorf day-centres – yes or no?” came up, he said, “yes, but in the work with very young children the question of quality must have abso-lute priority.” Helmut von Kügelgen was involved in founding the publisher Verlag Freies Geistesleben in 1947, he was chief editor of the education magazine Erziehu-ngskunst, he initiated the youth organiza-tion Freies Jugendseminar in Stuttgart, took part in rebuilding the Anthroposophi-cal Society in Germany and was, until 1975, class teacher at the Uhlandshöhe Waldorf School in Stuttgart. Helmut von Kügelgen always kept in close contact with the Wal-dorf School movement, remaining actively involved in its administration until the end of his life. He saw it as part of his life’s task to ensure that both educational move-ments worked together as closely as pos-sible. It is now up to us to foster, shape and enliven this collaboration and coherence.| Peter Lang, Stuttgart (DE)PS: In 2008, the Helmut-von-Kügelgen-School opened in Fellbach near Stuttgart. It has now 10 classes and in the school year 2013/2014 it has 214 pupils.

Germany: Helmut von Kügelgen and the International Association of Waldorf Kindergartens

Working together as closely as possible45 years ago the International Association of Waldorf Kindergartens was founded, an organization that is closely linked with the name of Helmut von Kügelgen (1916–1998). One of the organization’s long-term co-workers is Peter Lang who was head of the Waldorf kindergarten teacher training at the Freie Fachschule in Stuttgart (DE) for 21 years and who expresses his appreciation for Helmut von Kügelgen.

Documentation: Sebastian Jüngel.

Always actively involved: Helmut von Kügelgen

www.waldorfkindergartenseminar.de


■ Anthroposophy Worldwide

With a touch of lightness and humour Virginia Sease, member of the Exec-utive Council at the Goetheanum, took us on a journey through the new mysteries. Since the Mystery of Golgotha initiation has become possible for all people who seek this path and embark on it indepen-dently. In order to find the new mysteries we need the community of knowledge. The strength of faith that used to prevail can be transformed into powers of knowl-edge. Virginia Sease presented Christian Rosenkreutz as a leader of humanity, as a friend and helper who tells us that the more I get to know him the better he will be able to help me. He is a human being. For me, this was the most profound state-ment I took with me from this conference. Understanding the world order is also an elementary goal and task of our time: bringing order to all fields of life. By experi-encing the being of Christian Rosenkreutz again and again in our thoughts we can find the Rosicrucian principle in the Mi-chael stream.

Attempts at preventing war

Virginia Sease followed Christian Rosenkreutz through various of his incar-nations. She told us of one incarnation in the fourteenth century (1378-1484) when, on a journey through the world known at that time, he learned about the wisdom of the Arab world, including its language, and he was recognized in Fez by the wise men of Damcar. Having gained the insight that a general reformation was necessary, he returned to Europe where he founded the fraternity of the rosy cross. The mem-bers of the fraternity made every effort to gradually bring spiritual wisdom into civilization. In the eighteenth century he appeared as the Count of St Germain at almost all European royal courts, actively working towards a renewal of Europe.

With his lute, Andreas Düker intro-duced us to the music of the Landgrave Maurice of Hesse-Kassel, known as Mau-rice the Learned. Threatened by the inqui-sition, the landgraves used to help and heal people secretly and free of charge

and supported learning and research. Maurice the Learned, at whose court the “Fama” was printed in 1614 and the “Con-fessio” in 1615, had a herb garden that was used to prepare medicines which his wife distributed among the poor.

History as a force that inspires impulses

We know from Rudolf Steiner that, in the early seventeenth century, Christian Rosenkreutz was with Buddha in the spiri-tual world. It was at his request that Bud-dha embarked on his peace-making mis-sion on Mars in 1604. The publication of the “Fama”, which aimed at the “general reformation of the whole wide world”, i.e. the restructuring of Europe, was meant to prevent what did, however, come into the world after all with the Thirty Years’ War. Rudolf Steiner had a similar mission be-fore World War I with his presentation on Christ’s appearance in the etheric and the life of Jesus up to the Baptism in the river Jordan. The publication of the calendar of 1912/1913 was also related with this mission. The disastrous First World War could not be prevented. The aim is clear when it comes to our own independent endeavours.

I was also very interested in Lessing’s “Education of the Human Race” which we discussed in the study group with Peter Guttenhöfer. We were asked to look pri-marily at the method. Like the Jews in Less-ing’s work I looked at what happened and could therefore accept the situation as it is; without evaluating it but by observing it in a way that allowed for an impulse to arise from it for future actions; for a more conscious life; conscious decisions. Can we look at history in this way? As events that are necessary for future development?

Putting knowledge into practice

In the plenum I realized how necessary it is for some individuals to take initiative and to apply and live their knowledge. Eminent personalities from education and science spoke about their paths, as did idealistic young individuals who wished to pursue the Rosicrucian goal. Peter Gutten-höfer and Manfred Schulze spoke about prototypes of educational landscapes, of farms as places of living and learn-ing. Questions were asked as to how this could be achieved: how can the execu-tion of a profession be healing and how can it be practised for free (for instance by introducing the unconditional basic in-come)? Where are new places of learning founded? When can young people take part in ritual acts (such as the making and spreading of preparations)? How can people be found who are willing to apply in practice the ideas and suggestions we heard about? We were asked where these new impulses can be experienced today. In Weimar for instance there is a CSA net-work and a group of people look for new ways in Waldorf education (Independent Kindergarten Weimar Ehringsdorf).

In her lecture on the meaning of eso-teric Rosicrucianism for the 21st century Virginia Sease spoke of overcoming maya by looking after our thinking life and by cul-tivating eurythmy and artistic speech since they further the reception of what radiates out from the ether body of Christian Rosen-kreutz. At the end of her concluding lecture on the collaboration of Rudolf Steiner and Christian Rosenkreutz, Virginia Sease spoke the moving words from the Lecture of 27 September 1911 in Neuchatel, “By being an instrument of Christian Rosenkreutz you can be assured that the smallest work you do in your soul will last for eternity.”| Juliane Pohle, Weimar (DE)

Germany: Conference on Rosicrucianism in Kassel

400 Years Fama FraternitatisInitiated by Gesine Fay, the conference “400 Years Fama Fraternitatis” took place from 7 to 9 March 2014 at Anthroposophisches Zentrum in Kassel. 170 people attended, talk-ing to each other, asking for new ways and discussing possibilities of implementation

Spiritual wisdom: Three flowers grow from the ou-roboros (the tail-devourer, the snake that eats its own tail): framed by the red gold and white silver, the blue flower of wisdom, Novalis’ “Blue Flower”.



During an anthroposophical gathering in Ann Arbor in 2008, I met with Mary Lee Plumb-Mentjes, then a resident of Alaska, and with Galina Fin of Toronto. The three of us agreed that we would work to-gether to ensure the continuing existence of this Foundation. Since 2009 we have travelled three times to Russia, visiting multiple locations: Siberia (Vladivostok), Irkutsk, and Talovka, in the Buriatia region east of Lake Baikal. In each of these places we offered mini conferences on anthro-posophy and Waldorf education.

Fighting for independence

During our stay in Kirov, in August of 2013, Slava, our host, took us to Slobod-skoï, a small town on the edge of the Vy-atka. The city is known for its expertise in leatherworks and furs. During our visit, Slava showed us photographs dating from the beginning of the twentieth century, depicting the family of the owners of a large boot-making factory. With the out-break of the 1917 revolution the owners were forced to flee. One day, Slava’s grand-parents took in a nun who had no place to live following the destruction of her convent. During those years of hardship, Slava’s grandmother was accused of hav-ing traded bread coupons and was sent to the gulag, from which she was never to return. The nun took on the task of raising little Victor (Slava’s father). She continued to say her prayers in secret since religion was forbidden and under communist rule it was quite dangerous for anyone to be known as a practising Christian.

Victor’s father, Slava’s grandfather, was killed in the war. His maternal grand-father was severely injured in the battle of Stalingrad (1942-1943) and had to be hospitalized for several years. He wrote to the members of his family, but the letters never reached them. He remarried, believ-ing that his wife had died. But then, due to a set of quite remarkable circumstances, they discovered they were both still alive. However, the grandfather made the de-

cision to continue living with his second wife. Today, Slava is a prosperous business owner, and his wife runs a new Waldorf kindergarten. Near Lake Baikal there are three anthroposophically-inspired cen-tres for the disabled. These initiatives are often founded and carried by parents who have disabled children themselves. And their work is beginning to be acknowl-edged in this country where the intellec-tually disabled are not considered to be fully human. Indeed, the government is starting to recognize that these institu-tions obtain tangible results and there is still much work to be done to increase public awareness of the benefits of this educational work.

Waldorf Schools

In Irkutsk, in Siberia, a well-established, government-supported Waldorf school offers classes through grade 12, but gov-ernment support does not come without restrictions. For example, during our 2009 visit several inspectors had come by the school, requiring, among other things, that the walls be repainted since they con-sidered the colours too bold. The school’s permit renewal depended on this change being made. It is worth mentioning here that this school had received assistance from several Swiss teachers.

In Kirov, the school called Our School (Nasha Skolje) was founded in the early 1980s and is struggling to remain inde-pendent. It is a private school that re-quires heavy sacrifices on the part of both teachers and parents to be able to survive.

In Yekaterinburg, in the Urals, in spite of the presence of an active anthropo-sophical group and an institution for the disabled, none of the attempts to found a school have met with success. It is in this city that the Bolsheviks assassinated the Czar and his family in 1918At a dis-tance of several kilometres from the city itself, at the site of the quarry where the victims’ remains were buried, an reli-gious complex consisting of chapels and

a training seminary for orthodox priests has been erected with funds donated by Russian billionaires. Portraits of the impe-rial family adorn the chapel façades, since the members of the Czar’s family have been declared saints and are the object of great devotion. That being said, anthro-posophy and Russian orthodoxy do not al-ways live harmoniously side by side. One kindergarten teacher admitted to having been threatened with exclusion from the church if she did not give up anthroposo-phy. And so, she does as do many other Russian anthroposophists: she remains orthodox but in her own individual way!

In each location we visited we met in-dividuals who shared a keen interest in Waldorf education and anthroposophy. Their openness to what we were offer-ing was evident; parents, educators and friends of anthroposophy participated in our workshops with great enthusiasm, and everywhere we were deeply touched by the warmth and unlimited generosity of the people we met.

The growing divide between rich and poor

The Russian people’s remarkable strength lies in their sense of community and their fundamental ability to work together towards a common goal. This is something we were able to observe in all the groups we met. Although living stan-dards have improved since the end of the communist regime, the gap between rich and poor has considerably widened. Busi-ness tycoons, political leaders and heads of church continue to work hand in hand to retain control over the country’s wealth and power.

Yet we must recognize the fact that President Vladimir Putin recently ac-knowledged the relevance of the Waldorf approach in education during a visit to a Moscow school. Although after the fall of the Berlin wall several European countries gave financial support to anthroposophi-cal initiatives in Russia, this financial aid has since been curtailed. ISIS is committed to continue to support local initiatives in that country, though its means are mod-est. | Arie van Ameringen, Renée Cossette, Dunham (CA)

Russia: The ISIS Foundation and its cultural activities

With modest meansThe ISIS Foundation is dedicated to promoting and supporting anthroposophical initiatives in Russia. It was started in 1988 by Monica Gold, a Vancouver anthroposo-phist and art therapist. Especially now that funds from European countries have been reduced, the work that ISIS does for schools, kindergartens and centres for disabled people is particularly important, even if it is done with the most modest means.

Contact: [email protected], [email protected]



The number of members of the An-throposophical Society in India (ASI) is steadily increasing. It has now 73 members. In addition to the three ex-isting branches in Hyderabad, Secun-derabad and Mumbai, there are regular study groups in Chennai, Bangalore, Co-imbatore, Pune, Kolkata and New Delhi. Hans van Florenstein Mulder continues to hold Class Lessons twice a year in Hyder-abad and in Mumbai. Beginning with this year, there will be three local Class Readers too: Nirmala Diaz and Swapna Narendra in Hyderabad, and Aban Bana in Mumbai. The total number of Class members in In-dia is now thirty eight.

In October 2013, there was an All In-dia Festival of Anthroposophy, with the theme “The Healing Impulse of Anthro-posophy”, organised by the ASI and host-ed by Sloka Waldorf School in Hyderabad. (Anthroposophy Worldwide 12/2013)

Waldorf Education

From all the different fields of Anthro-posophical activity in India, the Waldorf School movement is the best-known. On account of the very intellectual and stress-ridden conventional school education system that prevails in our country, an in-creasing number of parents and teachers

are opting for Waldorf Education. A total of nine Waldorf or Steiner schools have been established in some of the major cities in India. This is in addition to many Waldorf-inspired or oriented schools, some of which are in rural settings.

Waldorf pupils generally get good re-sults in their board exams and are well prepared to face the challenges of a com-petitive world once they leave school. The Indian representative in the International Forum of Waldorf Schools (Hague Circle) is Jyotsna Patnaik from Sloka Waldorf School.

Waldorf kindergartens have gained in popularity. There are now twenty in all, and the number is growing. Sucheta Ga-rud, the representative and coordinator of the Waldorf Kindergartens in India has established the Sadhana Indian Waldorf Kindergarten Association (SIWKA), with the support of the executive members of the International Waldorf Kindergarten Association, IASWECE.

Mos Waldorf schools in India run their own teacher training courses throughout the year, as there is a real need for well-trained Waldorf teachers. The residential Waldorf Education Seminar, which I have been conducting each year in the month of May in Khandala since 1999, provides

a good foundation for anthroposophy, Waldorf education and eurythmy. Then at Christmas time, we have the one-week ‘Humanising Education’ course, this year in Mumbai. These Waldorf teacher train-ing courses have faculty members from India and abroad.

Curative Education and Social Therapy

The need for well-trained teachers who can work with children and adults with special needs is increasing. For that reason, Francis and Anantha Aradhya of Friends of Camphill India have provided regular training in this field at the Cam-phill Village in Bangalore. Dr Vasudha Prakash of V-Excel in Chennai, who works mainly with children in their day schools, together with her excellent team of teach-ers, also has on-going courses.

India has about fifteen centres for anthroposophical curative education for children and adults with special needs. Earlier, the joint family system managed to take care of people with special needs within the household, but now with the ever growing nuclear families this facility is decreasing. A plan is underway to es-tablish an association for anthroposophi-cal curative education and social therapy in India.

Biodynamic agriculture

Biodynamic agriculture has spread to many parts of India. Thousands of farm-ers are making use of this unique form of agriculture with amazing results, both for the crops and for the wellbeing of moth-er earth, whom we all revere so deeply. Many of the farmers are also involved in seed production, which will lead up to a seed company in India. Peter Proctor from New Zealand, who was instrumental in bringing Biodynamics to India in 1994, was recently back at the BD conference at Sarvdaman Patel’s farm in Anand, Gujarat.

The Biodynamic Association of India provides a twice yearly, two-week basic BD training at a farm near Kodaikanal in Tamil Nadu. Since July 2012 there is a School of Bio Dynamic Farming, also called the Com-munity College, which was founded by Jakes Jayakaran and his team. Here young people from rural backgrounds are pro-vided free BD training for two years. The present batch has seven students; the next one is expected to have fourteen. Jakes is also invited to other Asian coun-

India: Review of the year 2013/2014

Continual growthThe anthroposophical movement in India is growing every year and it is mostly active in the fields of Waldorf education, curative education and social therapy, biodynamic farming and Anthroposophic Medicine. The training centres are mostly run by lectur-ers from India, but also from other countries.

Kulturaustausch: Lichteurythmieensemble Arlesehim an der Heritage School Kolkata (Januar 2014)


■ Anthroposophy Worldwide ■ Anthroposophy Worldwide

tries to teach BD farming to farmers there.

Anthroposophic Medicine

Each year Dr Michaela Glöckler comes to India to conduct the one week IPMT, which began in February 2004. This year it was in Coimbatore. The training is mainly for doctors, therapists, psychologists and art therapists who are working within the anthroposophical movement. The faculty members at the IPMT are from India and abroad. Eurythmy is an integral part of this course. In the meantime the IPMT has extended its task by providing training in anthroposophical psychology, curative education and social therapy and com-munity building.

Dilnawaz and I were invited to Thailand for the IPMT by Dr Michaela Glöckler.

In June 2013 Dr Veera Panch opened her clinic Malli Mandala in Chennai (An-throposophy Worldwide 7-8/2013). The Anthroposophic Medical Association (AMS) India Chapter has been formed, with Dr Swapna Narendra as its convener.

Eurythmy

Dilnawaz Bana and I continue teaching Eurythmy as a regular course for teachers and committed people at Tridha Rudolf Steiner School in Mumbai. This course is conducted twice a year, with two weeks in each module, where the fundamentals of Speech and Music Eurythmy are taught.

The eleven-member Light Eurythmy Ensemble from Dornach, Switzerland, was in India for over two weeks and per-formed in four major cities (Anthroposo-phy Worldwide 3/2014.

Passed away

Two dear friends of India, Peter Glasby from Australia and Ulrich Roesch from Ger-many, recently passed over the threshold. They both were deeply connected to India.

Anthroposophy in India

Herewith I would like to end my re-port by thanking our revered teacher and bringer of light, Dr Rudolf Steiner, who has given us all a new meaning in life, and without whom all these initiatives would never have been possible. | Aban Bana, Mumbai (IN)

Aban Bana is the country representa-tive for India. The opening address was given by Professor Dr Yang Dongping of the Beijing Institute of Technology, di-rector of the national organization ‘Edu-cation in the 21st Century’, a body that is actively involved in educational legisla-tion in China. Yang is the most important advocate of an independent educational system in China and co-editor of the Chi-nese year-book on the development of the education system. He is well known from his appearance in Erwin Wagenhofer’s film ‘Alphabet’.

In his congratulatory address Marcus Bleinroth, as the representative of the Press and Information Office of the Ger-man Embassy in Beijing, underlined the special role Waldorf Education has to play on China’s path towards a knowledge society and he took the opportunity to mention that the children of two German Federal Chancellors, Helmut Kohl and Gerhard Schröder, had attended Waldorf schools.

The entrepreneur Li Jian from Guang-zhou (Lithium Force, electric cars) spoke about the importance of this founda-tion for the development of the Chinese economy. He described the close affinity between successful Japanese manage-ment methods and Waldorf education, using the example of the high value both of them place on sensory experiences.

The beginning of a civilization of love

Yu Ningyuan gave an account of how Rudolf Steiner founded Waldorf Educa-tion for the children of workers. He partic-ularly stressed the devotion to the earth as the beginning of a future civilization of love. Martin Barkhoff spoke of Waldorf Education in connection with other global movements that go back to Rudolf Steiner, referring to their strong emphasis on in-dividualism. The examples he used were Ibrahim Abouleish, Reijo Wilenius and Tho Ha Vinh. After the unveiling of the col-lege plaque, the founding verse from the Foundation Stone Meditation was spoken

in Chinese, followed by three affirmative hammer blows.

The University of Modern Administra-tion is located to the southwest of Beijing. At present it has 4000 students with plans to expand it to accommodate 7000 stu-dents in the future. Most courses at the, by now, 24 colleges are business and man-agement studies, but there are also cours-es in art, applied sciences, education and nursing. The Waldorf teacher training will initially remain at the Springvale campus near Phoenix Mountain to the northwest of Beijing, but from the autumn of 2016 school leavers will be able to take up their studies also on the University campus.

The Springvale Centre is one of twelve Waldorf-oriented training initiatives in China that work together within the China Waldorf Forum (CWF). Academic courses in Waldorf education have been offered since the year 2000 at the Sichuan Nor-mal University in Chengdu, the city with the first Waldorf School in China. | Martin Barkhoff, Berlin (DE)

China: University establishes Waldorf Teacher College

Three affirmative hammer blowsWith a festive celebration on 18 March 2014, the University of Modern Administration in Beijing, one of the first independent universities in post-revolutionary China, has in-troduced its Waldorf Teacher College in Beijing, Chenzhigu (Springvale), to the public. As head of department, Yu Ningyuan received an official certificate of employment.

The founder of the Springvale Centre for Wal-dorf Education and head of the newly founded College: Yu Ningyuan

Hinweis: Anthroposophie-Festival in Indien ‹Mysterium des Ätherischen›, 31. Oktober bis 2. November 2014, Bangalore.


■ Forum

The exhibition “Rudolf Stei-ner. Alchemy of the Everyday”

The major exhibition “Ru-dolf Steiner. Alchemy of the Everyday” in Espoo (FI) includes an information panel with the title “Colour Theory”. At the end of the description it says, “While Steiner himself often used strong nuances and contrasting colours, the soft transitions in today’s ‘typical’ anthroposophical paintings – most of them are water colours – have become something of a cliché.” As a journalist, art teacher and artist I ask myself how such a sentence comes to be there. […] The exhibition refers to the Colour Theory of the the-osophists Annie Besant and Charles Leadbeater in the book “Thought Forms”. The focus, also in a visual sense, should have been on Goethe’s Theory of Colour, which forms the ba-sis for art teaching at Waldorf Schools.

How can the people visit-ing the exhibition understand that the thoughts Steiner developed with regard to the importance of colours were totally different from those of the theosophists? And why is the question of light and dark not mentioned seeing that it is central to Steiner’s ap-proach to art? […] The exhibi-tion ignores Steiner’s painting sketches, his numerous lec-tures on colour and his whole painting impulse that deals with the essence of colour. Thousands of people all over the world have deepened and developed this painting im-pulse – as artists, teachers and therapists. It is annoying and disconcerting that the Goethe-anum does invite certain painters to Dornach so that they can exhibit their work for their own circle. What is the meaning of this, seeing that they are hidden away when it

comes to such an international exhibition? Why is this so? The arrogant comment that their work has become something of a cliché is not only insulting, but it is born either from mali-cious intentions or blindness, especially if one bears in mind that an increasing number of ‘general’ artists ‘steal’ these ‘soft’ colour moods for their own oil paintings. […] | Marita Karlsson, Ekenäs (FI)

To the article “Liberating Roots” in Anthroposo-phy Worldwide 4/2014

A few interesting, accurate questions are being raised, except for the one […]: what is this activity with which one gets to know the ‘I’? We find the answer to this question in the work of Rudolf Steiner, not least in his epistemologi-cal works “Truth and Knowl-edge” and “The Philosophy of Freedom”. But it is often overlooked or not understood in the right way. This is also apparent in the work of Mieke Mosmüller who quoted Ru-dolf Steiner in this context. In wholly practical terms she described […] the way […] in which the answer to the main question can be found. In one of her last books, Die Kate-gorien des Aristoteles. Die Bu-chstaben des Weltenwortes, she described the thirteenth category as the living experi-ence of “The ‘I’ knows itself”, an experience that each of us ultimately has to have for him- or herself. To achieve this we need to be prepared to firmly stride on the path of thinking about thinking and beyond. Only then can the (world) questions be truly answered out of the moral intuition that has been comprehended. Von Plato is right in saying that “The ‘I’ knows itself” provides the identity of anthroposophy.

“The ‘I’ knows itself” is the central statement in Rudolf Steiner’s work. It is anthropos-ophy and the word of Christ. | Mariette van Rees Vellinga, Zeist (NL)

Celebrating her 100th birth-day

Eva LundeOn 12 April 2014 the Norwe-gian eurythmist Eva Lunde celebrated her one hundredth birthday.

Eva Lunde was born into a large family in Lillehammer as the seventh of ten chil-dren. She was only 15 years old when she was sent to the Friedwart Schule in Dornach. Four years later she entered the eurythmy school. Once she had finished her training she stayed in Dornach for a while, where she became ac-tively involved in stage work. This included performances of Faust, where she was for-tunate enough to work under the direction of Marie Steiner. For Eva Lunde eurythmy was intimately connected with poetry and she found that the poems of the Norwegian po-ets, such as Henrik Ibsen, were a good foundation for the art of eurythmy, as were the Norwegian folktales. Working eurythmy into the Norwegian language grew to be an impor-tant task for Eva Lunde.

During World War II Eva Lunde lived in Sweden and worked at a curative home in Järna. Before the war she had participated – with Elena Zuccoli – in the first eurythmy performance at the Mikael-

■ Membership


■ Menbership News

gården in Järna. In the autumn of 1946 she started work as a eurythmy teacher at the Rudolf Steiner School in Oslo, giving courses for adults after school. With the eurythmist Meta Aukrust and some ama-teurs she organized a number of eurythmy performances. She also taught at several mainstream schools where she was even offered a job as eurythmist. This she had to decline, however, due to her other duties. Speech eurythmy became Eva Lunde’s main

mission. She had a particular love of alliteration and she wrote a book on the subject which was translated into German. Actors from Dornach would come to Oslo from time to time and work on Rudolf Steiner’s Mystery Dramas with a group of amateur ac-tors. Eva Lunde used to play the role of Maria. Ruth Unger continued this work for many years. In her later years, Eva Lunde worked as a eurythmy therapist. Another example of her versatility is her involve-

ment through many years in the puppet shows that were performed at the school’s an-nual Christmas Fair.

After her retirement, Eva Lunde founded the Norwegian College for Eurythmy with Jür-gen Kraft. A few years later,

Margrethe and Trond Sol-stad arrived and took on the direction of the training and much of the teaching, but Eva Lunde continued to give les-sons, especially in alliteration. Her interest and insight into alliteration and in the Edda

meant that she was a sought-after teacher of European stage groups and eurythmy schools. We congratulate Eva Lunde on her birthday and express our deep gratitude for the great and important work that she has done for pedagogical as well as artistic eurythmy. She spent the day surrounded by friends and family.| Nora Aanonsen, Oslo (NO) and Sølvi Sørum (NO)

Dorothea Pucher Boll-Eckwälden (DE) 27 January 2013Ingeborg Grimm Ammerbuch (DE) 22 April 2013Rolf Hamann Aichwald (DE) 12 July 2013Monica Grudin Rosendale/NY (US) 29 September 2013Lászlóné Illyés Budapest (HU) 3 October 2013Louise Ameling Amsterdam (NL) 21 October 2013Siegfried Freund Stuttgart (DE) 18 November 2013Elisabeth Röschenthaler Bad Liebenzell (DE) 23 November 2013Annelies Gentsch Murrhardt (DE) 26 November 2013Paul Stanjer Enfield (GB) 29 November 2013Harry Kretz Ghent/NY (US) 5 December 2013Joan Nielsen Kopenhagen (DK) 11 December 2013Anneliese Krämer Ludwigshafen (DE) 1 January 2014Maria Linnemann Winnipeg (CA) 4 January 2014Wolfgang Dopp Heidelberg (DE) 12 January 2014Gertrud Heintz Bad Dürkheim (DE) 12 January 2014Friedrich Claren Kandern-Riedlingen (DE) 15 January 2014Eva Maria Gorecki Aachen (DE) 19 January 2014Wolfgang Pritzkat Hamburg (DE) 20 January 2014Ingeborg Göldner Erlangen (DE) 26 January 2014Helga Rothenbücher Hamburg (DE) 26 January 2014Pieter van der Meulen Zeist (NL) 28 January 2014Maria van Beuningen Hattem (NL) 29 January 2014Renate Kretschmer Frankfurt a. M. (DE) 31 January 2014Wolfgang König Gernsbach (DE) 2 February 2014Friederieke Woudenberg Nieuwerkerk (NL) 3 February 2014Marianne van der Heide Amsterdam (NL) 5 February 2014Manfred Bauer Heidenheim (DE) 6 February 2014Alfred Hercigonja Winkel bei Bülach (CH) 8 February 2014Geertruida Cleveringa Zutphen (NL) 9 February 2014Martine van Bezeij Den Haag (NL) 10 February 2014Armin Scholter Stuttgart (DE) 10 February 2014

Achim Noschka Ober-Olm (DE) 12 February 2014Zeline Smith East Grinstead (GB) 13 February 2014Peter Denzler Kollbrunn (CH) 14 February 2014Julie Betz Stuttgart (DE) 16 February 2014Brigitta Huth Wiesbaden (DE) 20 February 2014Gertrud Kaufmann Frankfurt a. M. (DE) 20 February 2014Jenny Stockwell Hellingly (GB) 20 February 2014Alison Rose Dipford (GB) 28 February 2014John Antwis Poole (GB) in February 2014Lydia Schäfer Walkringen (CH) 1 March 2014Eva List Dornach (CH) 4 March 2014Jürgen Pfestorf Ahrensburg (DE) 5 March 2014Hedwig Piringer Gmunden (AT) 7 March 2014Max Niederer Engelburg (CH) 11 March 2014Baruch Urieli Callan (IE) 11 March 2014Sigrid Perol Stuttgart (DE) 14 March 2014Siegfried Woitinas Stuttgart (DE) 14 March 2014Annelies Ritter Aarwangen (CH) 16 March 2014Else Scheuthle Niefern-Öschelbronn (DE) 17 March 2014Wilm Brandes Freiburg (DE) 18 March 2014Barbara Friedrich Stuttgart (DE) 19 March 2014Eric Arlin Bois-le-Roi (FR) 21 March 2014Karla Kiniger Edinburgh (GB) 21 March 2014Johannes Kehrer Engelsbrand (DE) 22 March 2014Gisela Stockmar Ahrensburg (DE) 22 March 2014Brigitte Petersen München (DE) 24 March 2014Elisabeth Schneider-von Maltzahn Dornach (CH) 28 March 2014Michael Engel Newham-on-Severn (GB) 30 March 2014Heidrun Trommler Uttenreuth (DE) 31 March 2014Martina Mann East Troy/WI (US) 1 April 2014Martha Reichen Oberwil (CH) 1 April 2014

From 11 March to 7 April 2014 the General Anthroposophical Society welcomed 83 new members and noted 34 resignations.

We have been informed that the following 63 members have crossed the threshold of death . In their remembrance we are providing this information for their friends . | The Membership Office at the Goetheanum


■ Feature

Else Klink – no other name is so intimate-ly linked with the Eurythmeum! Under her leadership the Eurythmeum grew to be quite a special place: countless stu-dents came here from all over the world. Its stage ensemble not only came to be an important part of this city’s cultural life, it also went on to gain international fame. In the 1970s and 1980s the ensemble performed to full houses when they took programmes such as “Peer Gynt” on tour.

But it was not always like this. From 1930 to 1935 the school had to close until Else Klink and Otto Wiemer awakened it to new life despite the Great Depression and the rise of the Nazi Regime. First, Else Klink managed to bravely stand up to the dicta-torship but in 1941 the Eurythmeum was closed down by the Gestapo. After the war a new beginning was attempted in Kön-gen with the support of Martha and Emil Kühn. There, the training first took place in wooden compounds because the building in Stuttgart had been destroyed in the war. But the students were not discouraged by that and ever greater numbers of them continued to flock to Stuttgart. In 1959, the Eurythmeum Association was founded, an undertaking that Theodor and Erika Beltle and many faithful friends supported with great devotion. In 1964 the Eurythmeum moved into its new building next to Rudolf Steiner House in Stuttgart.

A difficult legacy

In 1986, Else Klink received the Ger-man Order of Merit (Bundesverdienst-kreuz) in recognition of her achievements. Thanks to a connection with the Theatre of Friendship of Nations the ensemble was able to tour Russia and Siberia with Alfred Schnittke’s “Concerto for piano and strings” in the early 1990s. This was Else Klink’s last major choreography and her foray into modern music. In 1991 she handed over the direction to the close circle of her students. When she died in 1994, she left behind a great but difficult legacy. An era had come to an end and a new beginning needed to be made.

The late 1990s were a time when new ways were sought in the world of eu-rythmy. The concept of an avant-garde emerged, with hot arguments flaring up when it came to the question of what still deserved to be called eurythmy. There were a great number of independent eu-rythmy groups and soon the oversatura-tion and tiring of the audiences began to manifest in declining numbers.

Student numbers also dropped in all training centres. However, thanks to the help of faithful supporters the Euryth-meum was able to continue its tours. But the awakening, when it finally came, was bitter. During the crisis that followed it looked as if the entire stage ensemble would have to be dissolved due to lack of funding. Again, the support from friends meant that this could be avoided at the very last minute.

Re-orientation without dogmas

The time had come to look back to the sources as well as towards the future, to go on with research and to keep the art of eurythmy alive but free from any dogmas and ready-made recipes. It was neces-sary to find eurythmy out of the middle, to consciously take hold of it in an artistic as well as social process. Benedikt Zwe-ifel took on this task when he became the leader of Else Klink Ensemble which was founded in 1994. This new inner attitude

and search meant that it was possible for Carina Schmidt and Benedikt Zweifel to bring about a happy and meaningful co-operation between the Eurythmeum and the Goetheanum. The impulse to bring eurythmy to big stages and to per

general anthroposophical society anthroposophy worldwide 5/14 … · 2014. 5. 2. · 2 |...

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