Regarding a new series of publications by the General Anthroposophical Section.
Under the series title “The 19 Class Lessons: Studies on the Foundations of the School of Spiritual Science,” works are published that arise out of engagement with the Lessons of the “First Class,” a path of Schooling which Rudolf Steiner developed for the School of Spiritual Science and its specialist areas (Sections). The book series is issued by the leadership of the General Anthroposophical Section at the Goetheanum; responsibility for the content of the individual contributions lies with the respective authors.
At the Christmas Conference of the Anthroposophical Society in 1923/24, Rudolf Steiner, on December 2, 1923, presented the paragraph of the new Society statutes in which the future publication of the “Publications of the School of Spiritual Science” was mentioned, with the note: “printed as manuscript for the members of the School of Spiritual Science, Goetheanum.” The spirit of the age, Rudolf Steiner emphasized, could not tolerate the “outer secret,” but it could tolerate the “inner secret.”1 Steiner wished his lecture courses, including those already printed, to be provided with this note and henceforth to be published; they were to become “public,” appear at the Philosophisch-Anthroposophischer Verlag in Dornach, and be available through the book trade.
Asked whether one might recommend the reading of the courses also to someone who was not yet a member of the School and of its intended three Classes, Rudolf Steiner replied that “no general directives” could be given in that regard.2
The further dissemination—or even the acquisition—of Rudolf Steiner’s specialist courses for certain professional groups (such as his medical or agricultural lectures) was, after the Christmas Conference, placed under the responsibility of the Section leaders of the School. These Lessons, Steiner said, were given only “under [certain) conditions,” [unter Klauseln] before a specific audience possessing the relevant professional prerequisites.3
Therefore, individual decisions about further distribution had to be made —and the specialist courses were, for the time being, not available through the book trade. The esoteric Class Lessons, whose stenographic transcripts likewise existed, were, on the other hand, not printed at all during Steiner’s lifetime nor in the decades immediately following. Rudolf Steiner had consented to the stenographic recording of the Lessons and their typewritten transcription by Helene Finckh, but he did not want the texts to circulate; rather, he wished the mantric material to be lived with meditatively, as heard and passed on within the School itself. “He wanted […] a kind of independent working with the mantras, on the basis of the wisdom content received, of course. But above all, the experiencing of the mantras themselves” (Marie Steiner-von Sivers)4
The first “private manuscript printing” of the Class Lessons, based on Helene Finckh’s verbatim stenogram, appeared only more than half a century after Steiner’s death, in 1977, as numbered copies bearing the notice: “Property of the Rudolf Steiner Nachlassverwaltung [estate administration]. This copy is handed over only personally, and upon incapacity or after the death of the recipient, it is to be returned to the Rudolf Steiner Nachlassverwaltung, CH-4143 Dornach.”
In 1992, however, the first edition within the Rudolf Steiner Gesamtausgabe (GA) appeared on the book market, with “Preliminary remarks on the publication of the contents of the First Class of the School of Spiritual Science,” signed by members of the Rudolf Steiner Nachlassverwaltung and by board members of the Anthroposophical Society. The statement of both bodies emphasized that the mantras of the Class Lessons had already become known outside the School in 1925 and that Albert Steffen, faced with this fact, had even then advocated for the publication of the texts. Now, shortly before the expiry of the author’s copyright protection on Steiner’s writings, the decision was made to issue a complete edition of the Lessons in four large-format volumes, including the blackboard drawings and earlier textual versions of the mantras, since the circulation of the texts outside the School—sometimes with incorrect wording—had increased. In 1999 and 2008, further revised and supplemented editions appeared on the book market (GA 270).5 Thus, the textual foundations of the Class Lessons became fully public.
Within the School, however, there has continued to exist the agreement that the mantric content should primarily be worked with in the spoken and heard form and, in essence, be approached meditatively. On the other hand, there grew an awareness of the necessity to understand more deeply the Class Lessons in their overall composition and intention—in their structure, their mantric content, and their relation to the specialist tasks of the various Sections. The insights thus gained were also to be communicated, among other ways, in written form. The School, its leadership, and many of its members feel a commitment to undertake such studies and to move forward as a School. This commitment arises not least from the need to work in the various fields of life on the basis of spiritual Schooling.
On the occasion of the 100th anniversary of Rudolf Steiner’s death, the leadership of the General Anthroposophical Section therefore decided to initiate, with Verlag am Goetheanum, a book series entitled “The 19 Class Lessons. Studies on the Foundations of the School of Spiritual Science,” in which further studies on the Class Lessons will appear at irregular intervals. These publications are the expression of individual work of reception and are made accessible to interested persons—without “general directives.”
Literature6
- Uli Molsen, Die Rhythmen der Mantren in den Klassenstunden [The rhythms of the mantras in the class lessons]. Dornach: Verlag am Goetheanum, 2025. 98 pages. Hardcover.
- Constanza Kaliks, Peter Selg (eds.), Die 19 Klassenstunden. Studien zu Intention, Komposition, Mantren [The 19 class lessons. Studies on intention, composition, mantras]. Dornach: Verlag am Goetheanum, 2025. 248 pages. Hardcover, with color illustrations.
- Matthias Girke, Die drei Tafeln in der Michaelschule [The three tablets in the Michael School]. Dornach: Verlag am Goetheanum, 2025. 116 pages. Hardcover, with illustrations.
This article was originally published in the Newsletter for Members of the School of Spiritual Science, No. 9, Michaelmas 2025.
Translation Nicolas Criblez
Footnotes
- Rudolf Steiner, GA 260 (1994). Die Weihnachtstagung zur Begründung der Allgemeinen Anthroposophischen Gesellschaft 1923/24. Dornach: Rudolf Steiner Verlag, p. 150.
- Ibid., p. 114.
- Ibid., 113.
- Marie Steiner-von Sivers, Notizbuch Nr. 20. Zit. n. GA 270. (208), p. 16.
- Rudolf Steiner, GA 270 I–IV (2020). Bilingual Edition. Esoteric Lessons for the First Class of the School of Spiritual Science at the Goetheanum. Esoterische Unterweisungen für die Erste Klasse der freien Hochschule für Geisteswissenschaft am Goetheanum. Forest Row: Rudolf Steiner Press; Dornach: Verlag am Goetheanum.
- English translations forthcoming
