In the west stairwell of the Goetheanum stands a stone figure whose face seems to be speaking both inwardly and outwardly. The sculpture is a focal point during guided tours because it explains without words what Rudolf Steiner wrote in 1924 about the hope of the anthroposophical movement: “to combine genuine, true esotericism with the greatest possible public openness.” This is also reflected in the name of the Public Secrets initiative, founded in 2023 by Elke Schmitter, Christiane Leiste, Maike Meyer-Oldenburg, Daniel Häni, Bodo v. Plato, and Stephan Nussbaum. This independent association organizes meditation days for invited guests in Berlin, Witten, and Basel. What membership in the School of Spiritual Science promises in terms of commitment and spiritual seriousness in an anthroposophically organized life creates a bond of friendship here. Many of Public Secrets’ members are at home in both arenas—anthroposophical life in experimental play and in its formed and structured paths.
In the early days of anthroposophical development, student groups formed around individuals. For example, a group of young people gathered around Jörgen Smit, the educator and Goetheanum Executive Council member. This circle of now 70-year-olds met recently at the Goetheanum. Today, one or two generations later, a gathering of equals is taking place, forming its threads of destiny more fluidly. In the 1980s, Jörgen Smit and his circle within the Youth Section at the Goetheanum cultivated a new approach to Rudolf Steiner’s mantras during study weekends with 100 to 150 participants. The intention was to bring Rudolf Steiner’s esoteric class lessons to life by holding them freely, discussing them, and expanding on them artistically. What irritated quite a few people at the time is now common practice at the School of Spiritual Science. In 1990, after the Youth Section group had completed all nineteen so-called class lessons, Rembert Biemond, a member of Jörgen Smit’s group and his secretary at the time, suggested covering the entire sequence of class lessons at a conference. Jörgen Smit agreed and recommended finding a conference venue other than the Goetheanum for this experiment.
They chose the cultural center in Järna, which was under construction at the time, as the venue for this summer conference in 1991. It was quickly booked up with 450 participants. But Jörgen Smit passed away on May 10 of that year. When he realized that his end was near, he asked Michaela Glöckler, Sergej Prokofieff, Arne Klingborg, and Paul Mackay, who were registered for the conference, to lead the esoteric sessions in his place. According to Rembert Biemond, the handover at Jörgen’s bedside took four minutes.
If the Christmas Conference denotes a birth for anthroposophy, then this conference in Järna, 70 years later, was perhaps a youth initiation into anthroposophical-esoteric life. It is interesting that the event drew its impetus from human closeness and, at the same time, institutional distance from the Goetheanum. This reflects the image of fertilization, in which the inner and outer, the near and far, enhance each other. With the reconstitution of the General Anthroposophical Section (see the conversation with Constanza Kaliks and Peter Selg[note]Constanza Kaliks, Peter Selg, “Lived Commitment”, Das Goetheanum Weekly 49/2025.[/note]), the School weeks covering all 19 class lessons held at the Goetheanum by the Goetheanum Leadership, and now the “Red Series” books, what began in the 1980s is growing into a field of life. The Public Secrets initiative reunites form and play, because those responsible for organized anthroposophy and those who work freely within it are both active. The initiative is thus one of the strides that anthroposophy is taking toward maturity. Perhaps it is not unlike our own biography, when we suddenly discover that we have long since grown up and are beginning to fulfill our maturation.
Translation Laura Liska
Photo Sofia Lismont, Philipp Tok; Montage: Fabian Roschka
