A commemorative conference marking the one hundredth anniversary of Rudolf Steiner’s death took place in Dornach over the weekend of March 28–30. Organizers and participants expressed a wealth of profound thoughts and feelings in gratitude for all the many gifts anthroposophy offers to humanity and the world.
It is a special moment, exactly 100 years ago, the ending of a human being’s 64-year life upon the Earth: a tremendous heartbeat in the spiritual development of humanity. The life that flows since then continues today to circulate in souls all across the Earth, right down into our fingers and toes.
The conference was given the title: Ignited by the Spirit of the Cosmos . . . [Aus des Kosmos Geist entzünden]. In the German title, we really experience the energetic and awakening consonant “S,” ending each of the first five syllables. Eurythmy and speech formation unveil the “S”-sound as an act of igniting and inspiring. Who ignites and inspires whom? Rudolf Steiner, as initiator of spirit and life, ignites the souls of many, directly and indirectly—human hearts, perhaps, only seeking hazily and dreaming longingly for the spirit. Some of these seekers, 230 participants, commemorated the one-hundredth anniversary of Steiner’s death together at the Goetheanum in Dornach, Switzerland. They came not only to give thanks, but also to experience the original heartbeat together, to look back on their meetings and relationships with anthroposophy, and to recognize and renew their own path to the spirit through anthroposophy.
The conference spanned three days, beginning on Friday, March 28 with the opening of the main exhibition “Rudolf Steiner: Life and Work (1861–1925)” that traces the journey of his life from an homage to his birth, through the work of anthroposophy in the West and in the East, and up through today’s hundredth anniversary of his death. Before and after the conference, there were also a large variety of events on the Goetheanum campus, including concerts, lectures, guided tours—all attracting an unending stream of visitors.
Art and Anthroposophy
“Anthroposophy is unthinkable without art!” said Martina Maria Sam during the panel discussion opening the main exhibition with moderator Christiane Haid and three other guests. She continued: “Steiner not only creates works of art, but also new tools, techniques like the grinding technique for glass windows, or eurythmy for speech.” Everyone agreed it’s an interesting riddle: why other schools of thought don’t share the same range and depths of work in the arts as found in anthroposophy. Art is like the air for human beings: it not only surrounds the living organism as atmosphere but penetrates into every blood cell where the will is activated; fire needs air to manifest itself. Walter Kugler asked himself and the audience: “Why does Steiner write ‘intuition’ next to ‘capital’ in his chalkboard drawing? Such a new artistically permeated thinking!”
At the opening of the exhibition, Ueli Hurter traversed two poles in Steiner’s life: from his modest childhood through the days of the First Goetheanum to his final illness, and onward to the spiritual wealth continuing to grow in nearly all fields of knowledge and life. The Goetheanum is intended as a universal school for human-ism (Anthropo-Sophia)! This was quoted again by the Solothurn National Council Member Felix Wettstein1 in his opening address. During his early years studying to become a teacher, he already had an inclination toward the anthroposophical view of the human being. Switzerland’s doubling of military spending and financial cuts in research and education are a great concern for him—but the Goetheanum, as a living, privately-run cultural institution, is a great exemplar and provides great potential for the future. The curator of the exhibition, Pieter van der Ree, shared a new image of Steiner’s life: “To fail and to try.”
The Spiritual Child
On the morning of March 29, a series of short lectures given by the current and former leaders of the Sections of the School of Spiritual Science wove together a drama of the young Steiner that awakened a feeling of how all earthly beings ultimately come from the stars. Oliver Conradt spoke about the astronomical constellation at the time of Steiner’s birth. Peter Selg described the process of descending from the stars in a field of tension between nature and modern technology, between everyday and suprasensible experience. Martina Maria Sam delved into the inner life of the young Steiner and described his feelings of shame in moments of awkwardness and his spiritual joy upon meeting geometry. Constanza Kaliks poetically described the path through education as a second creation, where the star finds its home upon the Earth in a meaningful way. Philipp Reubke invited us into a children’s pure world of fantasy, romping about and enthusiastically screaming. Jan Göschel accompanied his words with rich hand gestures, exploring incarnation as process, as “incarnating through,” where physical and spiritual, past and future, pain and joy all resonate together and find harmony. Christiane Haid and Matthias Rang closed the sequence by building the rainbow bridge—Bifröst in Norse mythology—between the Earth and the heavens. The Earth becomes a star.
A dedication ceremony at the Dornach-Arlesheim train station celebrated a new, permanent installation of Rudolf Steiner’s suitcase, sculpted in bronze. Dr. Steiner always traveled with the original to spread spiritual science from city to city across Europe. A new beeswax-colored hexagonal bee tower now stands in the southeast of the Goetheanum campus. It’s the result of a collaboration between various sections, departments, and dozens of helpers, just like the bees that soak up the nectar from a thousand flowers, who themselves have soaked in a thousand rays of sunlight. The tower offers visitors a multi-sensory experience of communing with the bees. A new preparations pavilion was also inaugurated with the sound of an alphorn and the stirring of water for biodynamic preparations. The architecture is highly expressive, with long outstretched eaves showing the cosmic reach of the anthroposophical garden. Its six spiraling roof supports express the potential force of preparations stored in its small, dark storage room. Is the Goetheanum itself prepared to become a spiritual “preparation pavilion”?
Linda Williams, an African American Waldorf teacher, read a letter to “Brother Steiner” and told the story of the generations from her enslaved ancestors to the present day. She warmly expressed the feeling that she found in anthroposophy an affirmation of her own cultural roots and the power to develop society. Hornfay Cherng, Professor of Waldorf Education from Taiwan, sang two songs, one Western and one Taiwanese. “In music and melodies, despite our cultural differences, we are together—because we are human beings! This is also true in anthroposophy.” He quoted Carl Jung to give voice to the fact that we live in the midst of experience and not just in processes of acquiring facts of knowledge. This speaks to the core of anthroposophy: artistic experience joined with intellectual cognition. Drawing on the chalkboard, he added wings to the heavy, concrete Second Goetheanum, in the style of the new preparation pavilion and reminiscent of ancient Chinese architecture. A symbol of longing: may the Goetheanum, the anthroposophical spirit, be free and travel to all the most diverse cultures of the world, promoting their development! A group of Croatians from the land of Steiner’s birth described how the anthroposophical movement is undergoing a lively development there.
The Next Hundred Years
Human beings moved and inspired by the spirit of anthroposophy and those more deeply involved in anthroposophical practice all gathered together to commemorate the ongoing life of Anthroposophia. The Rudolf Steiner Archive has now condensed the spiritual substance that Rudolf Steiner unfolded in his 64 years of life into the now (nearly) completed Collected Works. In the studies and discussions, applications, and experiments of human beings working today, this preserved knowledge comes alive again. The weekend also served to express new ways for this life to unfold. Looking back frequently alternated with looking forward to the second century of Rudolf Steiner’s work. This second major step will have a completely different character than the first. It leads us to the question: What contribution can anthroposophy make in a world where artificial intelligence is playing an increasingly important role, and the fires of cultural conflict are burning openly and in ways yet unseen? Anthroposophy’s mission is to re-enliven thinking and to shine the light of knowledge into the heart of world culture. Be a new human being every day!
Translation Joshua Kelberman
Images from the festivities in Dornach. Photos: Xue Li
