{"id":64685,"date":"2025-03-27T19:27:00","date_gmt":"2025-03-27T18:27:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/?p=64685"},"modified":"2025-03-27T19:29:30","modified_gmt":"2025-03-27T18:29:30","slug":"where-is-rudolf-steiner-now","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/en\/where-is-rudolf-steiner-now\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cWhere Is Rudolf Steiner\u2014Now?\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Andreas Laudert has written a biography of Rudolf Steiner, Unter den Augen des Himmels<\/em> [Under the eyes of heaven]. He explores the play between closeness and distance, \u201cbeing here and now\u201d and \u201cjourneying to those before and elsewhere\u201d; he seeks pathways to the heavens. Wolfgang Held sat with him for an interview.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Wolfgang Held: Why did you decide to write a biography of Rudolf Steiner?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Andreas Laudert <\/strong>I was commissioned to do it. I probably wouldn\u2019t have done it on my own initiative, out of a sense of modesty. But I asked myself whether, in the depths of my soul, I could find some justification for writing a biography of Rudolf Steiner. There are already quite a few biographies of him. The question was whether I could find my own approach and inner path to the task.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This led you to the poetic title \u201cUnder the Eyes of Heaven\u201d?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I only came up with the title later, after I\u2019d already finished the manuscript. It seemed fitting, with a double perspective: Rudolf Steiner standing under the gaze or protection of a spiritual world that laid great hopes in him, and at the same time, through his work, heaven seems to gaze upon us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWings of destiny\u201d is another poetic phrase in the book.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Steiner didn\u2019t always feel lifted up and \u201cbewinged.\u201d He also had to battle enormous headwinds (to further the metaphor). I was interested in how Steiner inwardly balanced his difficult life situations and the stages in his biography. How did he determine the right step\u2014what is the next step to take now?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You call Rudolf Steiner a \u201clearning teacher\u201d?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s a bold leap, so please don\u2019t misunderstand me. I also come from a theological background, and I\u2019ve always experienced the basic gesture of Christ in the Gospels as him wanting to know his time, wanting to know people. He bore the divine force within him, had a task, and had to constantly see how people reacted to him. He was able to open up in different ways, depending on whether he felt there was a sounding board and whether what he said or did would resonate. I think, in essence, Steiner also tried to do everything he could to fulfill this one task he had: to help people understand the spirit in the human essence. How could this reality appear on the Earth? So, he also had to \u201clearn,\u201d so to speak, how to teach in a way that people would understand him and where he could find a connection. He was very interested in his contemporaries and their motivations and was incredibly generous. It\u2019s always about this resonance\u2014the dialog with life. I\u2019m convinced that Rudolf Steiner \u201clearned\u201d things for his task implicitly from his fellow human beings, whether workers at the Goetheanum, children he tutored, or his professors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s a vivid picture you see throughout his biography.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

He was always in process. Sometimes, when reading his lectures, we can forget that. I think he had a very exact sense of his audience: How far can I go with what I want to communicate? I imagine him saying to \u201chis\u201d anthroposophists today: You must help me to be able to speak more and more precisely and keep up with the times. You must help me through the way that you listen, so that I\u2019m able to open wide the gates and hold them open. The process of translating what comes from the spirit is never-ending, and, especially in the twenty-first century, it\u2019s a highly contentious and dynamic field. We must all help each other, by speaking and listening, by being \u201cscientific\u201d in the broadest sense\u2014meaning, in research, but also artistically\u2014so that we can continue to keep anthroposophy accessible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You\u2019ve also said anthroposophists are in danger of sometimes becoming \u201clobbyists\u201d? What did you mean?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It takes a great deal of attention and honesty with oneself when one tries to speak \u201con behalf\u201d of Rudolf Steiner. I certainly don\u2019t exclude myself from this. For representatives of anthroposophy, just like political or moral interest groups, it\u2019s often a matter of trying to save face, protecting one\u2019s own interests, maintaining a united front, adopting rules of communication, and so forth. These are ways of closing oneself off and no longer being open.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
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Andreas Laudert<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

This openness also has to do with why you invited readers to give Rudolf Steiner the freedom to be more than the founder of anthroposophy.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yes, and I\u2019m obviously not the only one with the question of what it means to meet Rudolf Steiner with both humility and independence, both free and connected. In this moment, as we approach Rudolf Steiner from the point of view of his death, it means, in a certain way, that all the potential is available again and made free. Maybe we need to try to find a way to see Steiner independently of the Anthroposophical Society, to \u201cseparate\u201d him from what\u2019s developed since his death, as a kind of thought experiment; maybe this will lead to ways to then help others not to separate him? A connection could be created directly from the \u2018I\u2019 of the individual. Some people have a tendency to want to decouple the so-called positive achievements from Steiner\u2019s name and ultimately cast him away and everything esoteric along with him. I think, if we try to uncover Steiner\u2019s original impulse, which was universal and human, then this deep connection to his work and to the community of people who spread the work around the Earth can come forward in a new way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That reminds me of Goethe when he says that he can\u2019t say what the character Faust is all about. So, he says that Faust is greater than Goethe himself\u2014yes?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yes, that\u2019s an apt comparison. Anthroposophy had to come down to Earth, and it was necessary to find people who could understand and would support it. This is how forms arise that have meaning and weight to them. At the same time, anthroposophy goes beyond these forms, because anthroposophy is about humanity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You talk about the loneliness of the child who can\u2019t ask anyone his questions and the loneliness of the adult who is constantly being asked questions. Two polar forms of loneliness?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maybe. I think it made him \u201cspiritually\u201d lonely that many people around him didn\u2019t take responsibility for themselves, didn\u2019t become independent, and instead laid all their expectations on him and delegated everything to him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the biography, you cite a variety of voices: Franz Kafka, Bertolt Brecht, and even Monty Python. Did you do this to try to help people resonate?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I find it so tragic, and actually fatal, when social milieus, cultural milieus, and spiritual milieus break themselves off from one another and aren\u2019t able to find a way of making contact\u2014letting concepts, mental pictures, and prejudices get in the way. That\u2019s why I think it\u2019s important to bring in voices that are perhaps surprising and whose language can shed new light on Rudolf Steiner and anthroposophy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The light has many layers: Rudolf Steiner led a bourgeois life and a spiritual life. How did you deal with this complex parallel?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In every situation in his life, I think Rudolf Steiner faced the question: what must I do now to do justice to this spiritual task? As a biographer, my aim was to approach this struggle without presuming to enter or see into his soul. I was asked recently: what would you describe as the new thing your biography adds to what\u2019s already available and perhaps was missing? Well, nothing and everything is missing! I think one must demonstrate a genuine relationship with Steiner\u2019s concerns and have an honest interest in approaching him with a sense of responsibility for oneself. This can inspire others to take responsibility for their own approach, too. If something comes from the source of individuality, if someone enters into a dialog with Steiner\u2019s work in this way, then it is always \u201cnew\u201d and invaluable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, that\u2019s a kind of advice you can offer to everyone, and probably to yourself, as well. Steiner wanted to give examples, not laws or rules. Or do you think he can be taken from too narrow a view sometimes?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

He created many artistic forms in architecture and through eurythmy and the Mystery Dramas. But what is truly artistic is his whole life. What he created are examples and parables of the one, ultimately always the same impulse. I guess it\u2019s all about continuously creating out of the essence, out of the central, spiritual core, out of the spiritual reality, and this creating has to happen in the concrete moments that are arising ever anew. To me, that\u2019s what being an anthroposophist means.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How did you feel when you finished writing the book?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n

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\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

That I remained true to what I see as the essential thing about anthroposophy, the essential thing today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now, let me address the theologian in you. In your devotion to Steiner, do you ever have the feeling you\u2019re standing at an altar?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I feel that everything is completely open and that I\u2019m standing before a nothingness with the question: \u201cWhere is Rudolf Steiner\u2014now?\u201d I don\u2019t feel any answer; I feel only a deep waiting. This powerlessness, this openness must be \u201csacred\u201d to us. To me, it\u2019s sacred. Even in regard to my own relationship, my own history with Steiner as a human being, and his karma. I had a picture of him on my desk for a while when I was writing, and I would often think: what is my history with him? How will he feel about my work? I asked myself silently at the deep altar within. Now, the book is in the world. And now, it goes on its way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Book <\/strong>Andreas Laudert, Unter den Augen des Himmels: Das Leben Rudolf Steiners<\/em> [Under the eyes of heaven: The life of Rudolf Steiner] (Basel: Futurum, 2025).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Translation <\/strong>Joshua Kelberman
Title image <\/strong>Undated note by Rudolf Steiner, Goetheanum documentation:
\u201cIn the name of the Cosmic Christ – thinking together \u2026\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Andreas Laudert has written a biography of Rudolf Steiner, Unter den Augen des Himmels [Under the eyes of heaven]. He explores the play between closeness and distance, \u201cbeing here and now\u201d and \u201cjourneying to those before and elsewhere\u201d; he seeks pathways to the heavens. Wolfgang Held sat with him for an interview. Wolfgang Held: Why did you decide to write a biography of Rudolf Steiner? Andreas Laudert I was commissioned to do it. I probably wouldn\u2019t have done it on my […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9164,"featured_media":64635,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8797,9183,8848],"tags":[11633,8798,11634],"class_list":["post-64685","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-conversation-en","category-general-anthroposophy","category-literature","tag-ausgabe-13-2025-en","tag-deepening","tag-english-issue-13-2025"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64685","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9164"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=64685"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64685\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/64635"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=64685"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=64685"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=64685"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}