A popular lecturer in his day, Rudolf Steiner created the philosophy of anthroposophy and stressed the importance of creativity in children's education.
Background
Rudolf Steiner was born on 25 February 1861 in Kraljevec in Austria, to Johannes Steiner, who left his ancestral gamekeeper position in the service of Count Hoyos in Geras in Northeast Austria to marry Franziska Blie, one of the Hoyos’ household maids. The Count had raised objections for the marriage. Rudolf was born when Johannes was working as a telegraph operator in Kraljevec in Murazok, which was then a part of the Austrian empire. Soon after his birth, Rudolf’s family relocated to Molding near Vienna and then moved to Pottschach near East Austrian Alps in Lower Austria as his father was promoted as a stationmaster.
Education
Though Steiner joined the village school, he discontinued it and was educated in his house, following a disagreement between his father and the schoolmaster. As a boy of nine years, he also had a strange experience of seeing the spirit of an aunt who passed away in a distant town, who sought his help. Neither he nor his family was aware of her death during this time. In 1869, his family relocated to Neudorf and again to Inzersdorf in 1879. The later move was to facilitate Steiner’s entry into Vienna Institute of Technology where he studied mathematics, physics, natural science and philosophy through an academic scholarship. During his term in the university, he attended to the lectures of philosophers like Robert Zimmerman and Franz Brentano.
Career
In 1882, Steiner’s teacher, Joseph Kurschner referred his name to the editor of a magazine (Deutschen National Literature edition), which published the works of Goethe, and thus, he was appointed as the natural science editor of the edition. He was entrusted with the task of publishing the natural scientific works of Goethe, who was a prominent 19th century figure in German literature and culture. When he was 25, he published ‘A Theory of Knowledge Implicit in Goethe’s World Conception’ as part of his job. From 1884 to 1890, he worked as a private teacher in the family of a rich Viennese businessman. He also authored articles on geology and mineralogy for Pierer’s Encyclopedia during this time. In 1890, he was invited to the Goethe and Schiller archives in Weimer and was provided the task of editing the natural scientific works of Goethe. Meanwhile, Steiner earned a doctorate degree in philosophy from the University of Rostock in Germany in 1891 by submitting a thesis on Fitchte’s concept of ego, which was later published as ‘Truth and Knowledge’.
While in Weimer, he also edited and published the works of Schopenhauer in 12 volumes and the works of Jean Paul in 8 volumes. He also introduced the audience to the works of Wieland and Uhland through the series ‘Classical Berliner Editions’. In 1893, he published ‘Philosophy of Freedom’, which was later published as ‘Intuitive Thinking as a Spiritual Leader’. This work laid the basic philosophical foundation for his later works and was a revelation on epistemology and ethics, which suggested a path through which the human beings can become morally free beings. In the same year, Steiner was invited to organize the Nietzsche archive in Naumberg by Elizabeth Forster Nietzsche. He was introduced to the philosopher Frederick Nietzsche, as a result of which, an impressed and moved Steiner wrote a book ‘Friedrich Nietzsche, Fighter For Freedom’. Once he completed his tasks in Weimer, he relocated to Berlin in 1897.
Association with Theosophical society
From 1897 to 1900, he partly owned, published and edited the Magazine for Literature and Dramaturgical Papers, which is a part of German State Organisation. While at the helm of the magazine, Steiner authored an article, which titled ‘Goethe’s Secret Revolution’, which led to an invitation by Count and Countess Brockdorff to address a gathering of theosophists on Nietzsche. During this time span, he also engaged himself in lecturing and teaching activities. In June 1900, at the fifth centennial of the birth of Gutenberg, he gave a festive address at the Circus Stadium in Berlin. However, his stint with the magazine did not last long. He joined the magazine hoping to get a sympathetic audience to his philosophies. However, his articles did not go well with the subscribers. Dissatisfied by Steiner’s unpopular support of Emily Zola, most of the subscribers stayed away from the journal. This eventually resulted in him leaving the magazine.
From 1899 to 1904, he worked as a lecturer in history, literature and the art of speaking at Berlin Workers Training School. In 1899, he got married to Anna Eunicke, though he divorced her a few years later. Anna Eunicke passed way in 1911. In the meantime, his association with theosophical society made him the head of its newly developed German section in 1902. He gave a prerequisite that he would speak only about whatever he developed through his own spiritual investigations. This society worked as a catalyst for the meeting of Rudolf Steiner and Mary Von Sievers who became his second life partner in 1914. In 1904, he was appointed as the head of Theosophical Esoteric Society for Austria and Germany. His fame was on a rise from 1900 onwards, even crossed the borders of Germany and became prominent as a scholar and cultural personality.
Transformation into a Spiritual Researcher
The twentieth century witnessed a new turn of events in Rudolf Steiner’s life. He founded a movement named ‘Anthroposophical Spiritual Science’ based on the idealistic tradition of philosophy, which rooted on the ideas of Aristotle, Plato and Thomas Aquinas. His transformation from a traditional scholar to a public spiritual research figure came as a shock to many who knew him only as an intellectual and educational personality.
Marie Von Sievers, who was his close associate until 1902, helped him to realize his artistic strivings. In Munich, he staged two dramas written by Edouard Schure and translated by Mary Steiner in 1907 and 1909. This marked the beginning of mystery dramas by Steiner, which were staged in Munich in 1910, 1911, 1912 and 1913.
Anthroposophical Society
In 1912-13, differences in opinions with Annie Besant led to a formal split in theosophical society, which led to the emergence of a new society known as Anthroposophical Society. The society, desperate to find a new home for their annual conferences, which included plays written by Steiner and Eduard Schure, initiated the construction of a building in Dornach in Switzerland. Designed by Steiner, a significant part of the building was built by the volunteers. As the building ‘Goetheanum’ was developed as a religious center, it was shockingly burned to the ground in 1922-23. Steiner started designing the second building made of concrete in place of wood, the construction of which was completed in 1928, three years after his death.
Though Steiner continued his lectures on spiritual science, neither did he hold any office in Anthroposophical society nor was he a member of it. In 1918, when a revolution rocked Russia and Germany, threatening to break up the social fabric, Steiner suggested for a conscious three-fold differentiation of society as a model path for the future. It concentrated on developing freedom in cultural stages, equality in political and legislative arenas and international oriented brotherhood in economy.
A Broad Range of Activities
Rudolf Steiner always had in him a path-breaking artist as he designed 17 buildings, which include first and second Goetheanum in Switzerland. They are regarded as exemplary works in modern architecture. His prominent sculptural work known as ‘Representative of Humanity’ was a nine-meter wood sculpture is now on permanent display at Goetheanum. Steiner also developed the art of eurythmy along with Marie Steiner, which is often known as “visible speech and visible song”. As per the principles of eurythmy, there are gestures or archetypal movements that have correspondence to every aspect of speech.
Steiner developed a system of biodynamic agriculture, which became significant to the formation of modern organic farming. He was also instrumental in developing a wide range of medications and biographic therapies despite constructing homes for children and adults with developmental disabilities.
Carved a Niche in Education
In 1919, he founded the Free Waldorf School in Stuttgart, with the initiative of Emily Molt, who is the CEO of Waldorf-Astoria Cigarette factory. The school later became a model for Waldorf movement, which constructed and developed thousands of kindergartens and schools, which offers free educational programs from childhood to high school and to adults in some cases. In the years of 1923-1924, he initiated a general Anthroposophical Society and in 1923, Steiner found ‘School of Spiritual Science’, which was regarded as the soul of Anthroposophical Society. The school included a general course of study in meditative exercises and in education, medicine, art social science, natural science, agriculture, art and literature.
After the First World War, Steiner was isolated as a traitor to Germany as he put forward a suggestion that Upper Silesia be given independence. Moreover, when the political theorist of Nationalist Socialist Movement incorrectly claimed that Steiner is a Jew, he was targeted by Adolf Hitler who called on other extremists to declare a war against Steiner. This led to the deterioration of his health. In 1924, his public lectures reached a climax, when he gave 330 lectures from the beginning of the year to September and got exhausted and stopped all public activities. After six months, Steiner passed away on March 30, 1925, in Dornach.
Achievements
In a career, which saw the transformation of a traditional scholar to a spiritual researcher, Steiner’s literary contributions include lectures, articles, books and an autobiography and innovative ideas in spirituality, arts, education, agriculture, architecture, medicine and so on.
Rudolf Steiner left a legacy in education. His education philosophy made him a prominent figure and Waldorf Schools are still respected by many. He developed bioorganic agriculture, which later paved the way to modern organic farming.
"This spiritual science is not trying to found either a new religion or a new religious sect of any kind. It hopes to be able to fulfill the tasks required spiritually of our contemporary culture."
Rudolf Steiner. Anthroposophy and Christianity. Spring Valley, NY: Anthroposophical Press, 1985. Page 1. (G. A. 155 lecture of July 13th 1914.)
Rudolf Steiner:
"Spiritual science does not want to usurp the place of Christianity; on the contrary it would like to be the instrument in making Christianity understood."
Rudolf Steiner. Anthroposophy and Christianity. Spring Valley, NY: Anthroposophical Press, 1985. Page 17. (G. A. 155 lecture of July 13th 1914.)
Rudolf Steiner:
"May I be allowed to draw attention once again to the fact that spiritual science has no desire to found a religion of any kind..."
Rudolf Steiner. Anthroposophy and Christianity. Spring Valley, NY: Anthroposophical Press, 1985. Page 25. (G. A. 155 lecture of July 13th 1914.)
Rudolf Steiner:
"Another question is also asked – and it is even considered a rather obvious one – as to how spiritual science or Anthroposophy stands in relation to the religious life of man. Its very nature, however, altogether prevents it from intervening directly in any religious confession, in any sphere of religious life.... We observe spiritual circumstances. Spiritual science endeavors to penetrate behind the mysteries of the spiritual circumstances in the world. Religions are facts in the historical life of humanity. Spiritual science can, of course, go so far as to consider the spiritual phenomena which have appeared as religions in the course of war of the world's evolution. But spiritual science can never desire to create a religion... Hence the most various religious confessions will be able to live together in the profoundest peace and in complete harmony within the circle of the Anthroposophical view of the world, and will be able to strive together after knowledge of the spiritual – so to strive that the religious convictions of individuals will not thereby be in any way encroached upon. Neither need intensity in the exercises of a religious belief or in attending services in any way lessened by what is found in spiritual science."
Rudolf Steiner. "Approaches to Anthroposophy." Sussex: Rudolf Steiner Press, 1992. Pages 18-19.
Rudolf Steiner:
"Increasing numbers of people will recognize what is today still widely disputed, that spiritual science does not in the least degree detract from religious sensibility, from the religious life of man, but on the contrary seeks to form a bond that will again unite scientific man with the mysteries that are accessible to him through religious revelation. True spiritual science is not in any sense opposed to natural science, nor can it estrange anyone from religious life.”
Rudolf Steiner. "Approaches to Anthroposophy." Sussex: Rudolf Steiner Press, 1992. Page 55.
Politics
Steiner developed a social philosophy, which centres on the idea of ‘three-foldness’: he says that the human soul consists of thinking, feeling, and willing, and that this is reflected in the activities of the head, the nervous-circulatory system, and the metabolic-limb system of the physical organism. Consequently only a social order which reflects this physical and spiritual three-foldness will serve humankind aright. In society, the ‘head’ is the sphere of culture and creativity, where the freedom of the individual is paramount; the circulatory system is the political sphere, where recognition of everyone’s rights is paramount; and the metabolic system is the economic sphere, where production of wealth is carried on – though for the common good, not for individual gain.
Views
The underlying principle in all of Steiner’s writings is ‘anthroposophy’, or ‘wisdom about man', which for Steiner signifies ‘awareness of one's humanity'. He was dedicated to a belief that humanity’s most important task is to cultivate its evolving spiritual perceptions. There were three stages to his work.
From 1900 to 1909 he developed a ‘science of the spirit' based on the reappraisal of the human consciousness of Christ. From 1910 to 1917 he applied this new approach to diverse areas of scientific, artistic, educational and medical life, working from the new Anthroposophical Centre in Domach. From 1917 until his death this work was consolidated with emphasis on the need to bring spiritual knowledge into daily activity, and to invoke the support of the twin concepts of karma and what Steiner called the 'Christ impulse’.
Such wide-ranging work required philosophical forays into many different areas. Primarily an esoteric, religious philosophy, Steiner’s ideas begin and end with the assertion that Christ's resurrection ‘marked the central upward turning point in human evolution’, and that all spiritual activity is directed towards understanding and, ultimately, knowledge. He held that illness is potentially positive, and connected to the whole person.
And that agriculture and husbandry must be understood in both physical and cosmic terms. The arts, he maintained, have suffered from their separation from science and religion: art takes scientific forms, and the connection with religion is in the realm of the artistic manifestation of ‘spiritual realities experienced before birth'. His educational theories, practised in Waldorf Schools, posit three sevenyear cycles: willing.
Feeling; and ‘clear, informed, integrated thinking’. Steiner was hugely influential in his own lifetime, and since his death his doctrines have been kept alive by the proselytizing zeal of converted philanthropic interests. Intellectually, his work suffers from all the drawbacks of thinly disguised, though well-argued, esoteric, 'mystical' preaching.
His ideas are of the kind that are apt to fuel the continuing debate about where the borders of philosophy lie.
Personality
Most critics of Steiner find him to have been a decent and admirable man, even if prone to beliefs in his own clairvoyance and in things like astrology. Unlike many other "spiritual" gurus, Steiner seems to have been a truly moral man who didn't try to seduce his followers and who remained faithful to his wife.
Quotes from others about the person
James Hindes: "The general public, following the lead of the scientific establishment, reserves the word 'science' for the exploration and mastery of the physical world. It believes that the only real sciences are the 'hard sciences.' Steiner pointed out that this unconscious and unjustified assumption is as wrong as it is widespread. As any philosopher of science will admit, it is the method, not the subject matter that determines whether any given investigation is scientific.
Steiner's research into higher spiritual worlds was scientific in method, repeatable and verifiable. However, the exercises required to develop the faculties needed for spiritual investigations are rigorous, demanding and require years of consistent application before one can verify or contest Steiner's results with modern clairvoyance. Those who have made those efforts have begun to verify Steiner's work. Those who do not possess such faculties naturally tend not to believe in their existence. At the same time much of Steiner's work has yielded results eminently practical in the earthly realm, in agriculture, medicine and in education to name just a few.
The results of Steiner's investigations are consistent internally and also when placed alongside the actual facts presented to us by the physical world. Of course, Steiner's descriptions do not always harmonize with the theories of modern science. And since we do not always realize the extent to which our 'facts' about the physical world have actually been created by our theories, there is sometimes an apparent conflict. "
Otto Fränkel-Lundbourg: "The one they encounter the word Anthroposophy in the most varied relationships of cultural life without being able to form the right idea of what it means. An attempt at the clarification is being made herein. Actually, three aspects are to be understood by the word Anthroposophy:
1. The exact the scientific method of research into the supersensible world founded by Rudolf Steiner (1861-1925).
2. The results of this research. These are also known as "Spiritual Science" and are the necessary complement to Natural Science. They are the science of the supersensible constitution of man, of the spiritual beings in the nature and the cosmos, and they are also the extension of historical and other sciences, e.g., a scientific answer to the question: who was and is the Christ?
3. The application of the results gained through spiritual science in the practical life of the individual or of the community, for example, in education, medicine, curative education, pharmacy, agriculture, sociology, as well as the diverse branches of the arts."
Otto Fränkel-Lundbourg. What is Anthroposophy? Trans: Joseph Wetzl. St. George Publications: Spring Valley NY, 1979. Page 9.
James Hindes: "Another facet of Rudolf Steiner which is of fundamental importance for understanding his views on Christianity ought to be mentioned at the outset. He was a thoroughly modern man. This is made evident by two personal needs which accompanied his life and work as recurring themes. The first was his need for spiritual autonomy, that is, the need to decide for himself about the truth of reality and not be told by any external authority, be it a book, tradition or institution. His writings and lectures were the results of his own direct spiritual investigations and not any eclectic synthesis of wisdom traditions from ancient or modern sources. Secondly, he needed to understand through thinking the things that presented themselves to him in life. As modern human beings we orient ourselves today primarily through our thinking.
From one point of view, Rudolf Steiner had a relationship to religion similar to that of many contemporaries. He received religious instruction at school and attended church as a child but his connection with the church ended before his fourteenth birthday. His religious teachers could not answer his deepest questions concerning the meaning of life and human existence. He turned to natural science, a field in which he found people who appeared unafraid to ask questions. In the religion of his time he saw resigned devotion to revelations of the past and inappropriate claims to power. He read and listened to theologians but to him they seemed lost in a fabric of abstractions, separated from the everyday experience of living human beings. But from another point of view Steiner's relationship to religion was quite unique. For already as a small child he had a living experience of spiritual beings in a spiritual world. Belief in God or a higher world was never a question of faith for Steiner."
Emil Molt: "Dr Steiner was not only the creator of new architectural forms, producing the models, but also the inventor of completely new technical possibilities. He developed a particular sizing for the ground of the paintings on the cupolas, and gave directions for the preparation of the plant colours used to paint the two domes. Later, he also painted half of the small cupola himself, and carved the wooden statue of the Representative of Humanity - after having made the model for it with his own hands. He also designed the large glass windows in the main hall, for which he specified the machinery needed to carve them, as well as designing the "Glashaus" in which to make them. Amidst the building activity, he strode through the ranks of artists and workers in long boots like a youth, animating and encouraging them all.
Besides the regular, infinitely varied lectures which Rudolf Steiner gave, we had the good fortune to experience the growth of the building. The adjacent carpentry shop doubled as lecture hall; later, a temporary stage was built in it. Work proceeded incessantly, always with Rudolf Steiner in the lead. Whoever couldn't carve helped in sharpening chisels.
The building supervision lay in the hands of the engineer Englert, the former director of the Basel building association that had produced the special concrete base for the building. Dr Steiner gave Englert the task of anchoring the two cupolas at their section in such a way that they would mutually support each other. At first, Englert declared the problem insoluble according to his calculations. He was given some directions by Dr Steiner and, to and behold, a few days later he had solved what he had at first thought impossible."
Emil Molt. Emil Molt and the beginnings of the Waldorf School movement: Sketches from an autobiography. Edinburgh: Floris Books, 1991. Page 114.
Margarita Voloschin: "Then I asked why he had the drama by Eduard Schuré performed in Munich. 'It seems to me inartistic, like a poor reproduction.' 'I am glad you find it inartistic; so do I. But I can not allow the naturalistic dramas of Gerhard Hauptmann to be played!' He considered Hauptmann to be a very gifted dramatist, '… but his plays are not what people need in their present situation.' 'Couldn't one then perform Aeschylus or Sophocles?' I 'instructed' Rudolf Steiner. 'With these players? Oh no! I have too much respect for those great spirits to dare to attempt it with the persons available to me. You see,' he continued, 'you are a contemplative nature, but I must be active. And I must work with the material I have at hand.' He looked at me 'Are you dissatisfied?' (Ist es Ihnen unsympatisch?') – 'Yes,' I confessed, and thought with consternation: perhaps he gives us also in other spheres only that which we need, and not the absolute!'"
Belyi, Andrei, Turgenieff, Aasya, Voloschin, Margarita. Reminiscences of Rudolf Steiner. Ghent, NY: Adonis Press, 1987. Page 131-1322. (Margarita Voloschin, written around 1950).
Marie Steiner: "His life, consecrated wholly to the sacrificial service of humanity, was requited with unspeakable hostility; his way of knowledge was transformed into a path of thorns. But he walked the whole way, and mastered it for all humanity. He broke through the limits of knowledge; they are no longer there. (...) In this he achieved the greatest human deed. The greatest deed of the Gods he taught us to understand; the greatest human deed he achieved. How could he escape being hated with all the demonic power of which Hell is capable?"
Marie Steiner, Rudolf Steiner: The Story of My Life, Conclusion by Marie Steiner, 1925.
Benjamin Creme: "Rudolf Steiner was a Theosophist who broke away to found anthroposophy. He was a remarkable man, 2.2 degrees initiate, with fascinating and valuable insights into many areas, such as agricultural husbandry, education and medicine. However, about the Reappearance of the Christ he had, I believe, a blind spot. Although he was a Theosophist and would claim to be an esotericist, he is not to my mind a true esotericist but a Christian mystic. Somehow, his Christian mysticism got in the way of his understanding of the relationship of the Christ to the Hierarchy. Although theoretically he must have known that the Christ is the head of our Hierarchy, he still saw the Christ in rather mystical terms and maintained that the Christ cannot return in a physical body, but only on the etheric plane (which he called the spiritual realm).... Gradually, he wrote, humanity will develop etheric vision in this coming age (which is true)..."
Benjamin Creme in Maitreya's Mission Vol. 2, Share International Foundation, 1993 p. 555
Interests
Metaphysics, epistemology, philosophy of science, esotericism, Christianity
Philosophers & Thinkers
Schroer, Goethe, Kant
Connections
Steiner married Anna Eunike in 1899, but the marriage later ended in divorce.
Father:
Johann Baptist Steiner
Mother:
Franziska Steiner
Wife; Colleague:
Marie Steiner-von Sivers
First met Rudolf Steiner at one of his early lectures in 1900. Made a great contribution to the development of anthroposophy, particularly in her work on the renewal of the performing arts (eurythmy, speech and drama), and the editing and publishing of Rudolf Steiner's literary estate.
Wife:
Anna Emilie Emma Eunike
Steiner married Anna Eunicke in 1899; the couple separated several years later. Anna died in 1911.
Brother:
Leopoldine Steiner
Brother:
Gustav Steiner
Friend:
Albert Schweitzer
From the memoirs of Albert Schweitzer (1875 – 1965):
"My first encounter with Rudolf Steiner took place on the occasion of a Theosophical conference in Strasbourg. If I'm not mistaken, it was in 1902 or 1903. Annie Besant, with whom I was acquainted through Strasbourg friends, introduced us.
"At that time Rudolf Steiner acted in connection with the Theosophical Society, not so much because he shared its convictions, but because he found in its members the possibility to find understanding and interest for the spiritual truths which he had to make known.
"I knew that he had completed a study of Goethe’s works in Weimar. He of course knew nothing of the young Strasbourg University instructor [Schweitzer] who was occupied with Kant’s philosophy and the problems of research into the life of Jesus. He was fourteen years older than I.
"The language mostly used at that Theosophical conference was French. So they counted on me, because I spoke German, to take care of the Austrian guest, which I gladly did. I arranged it so we were neighbors at meals during the conference. From the beginning, he was the talker and I the listener and questioner during our conversations.
"Before we had consumed the soup, a discussion spontaneously arose about his studies of Goethe in Weimar and about Goethe’s Weltanschauung (or world view). I immediately became aware that my companion had extensive knowledge of natural science. It was a great surprise to me that he spoke of the need to recognize the importance of Goethe’s knowledge of nature. He had been able to penetrate from a superficial knowledge of the sense world to a more profound knowledge of spiritual being. I knew something about Goethe’s natural scientific writing and the places where he sought a perceptual knowledge. My table partner realized that he had an attentive listener beside him. He gave a lecture. We forgot that we were supposed to be eating. In the afternoon we stood around together, not paying much attention to what was happening at the Theosophical conference.
"When the discussion turned to Plato, I could participate more. Steiner surprised me here as well, in that he revealed hidden aspects of Plato’s knowledge that I had not yet appreciated.
When Steiner asked me what concerned me especially in theology, I answered that it was research into the historical Jesus. Well, I felt the moment to have come in which I could take the conversation in hand and began to lecture him about research into the life of Jesus and about which Gospel contained the oldest tradition. To my astonishment, he did not discuss this subject. He let me lecture on without saying a word. I had the impression that he was mentally yawning. I got off my theological social-scientific high horse and put it in the stable, and waited for what would come.
"Then something remarkable happened. One of us, I don’t remember which, began to speak of the spiritual decline of culture as the fundamental, unnoticed problem of our time. Thus we realized that we were both preoccupied with it. We had not expected that of each other.
A lively discussion resulted. We learned from each other that we had both taken on a lifetime mission of working for the emergence of a true culture enlivened by the ideal of encouraging people to become truly thinking beings. We parted with this consciousness of belonging together without arranging for another meeting. But the consciousness of togetherness remained. We each followed the activities of the other.
"I never took part in Rudolf Steiner’s flights of thought in the spiritual sciences. But I know that he elevated many people through those flights and made new human beings of them. His disciples have made excellent contributions in many fields. I have followed Rudolf Steiner’s life and activities with heartfelt participation. Notable were his successes until World War I, the problems and hardships that accompanied them, his courageous efforts in the postwar confusion to create order through teaching about the Threefold Social Organism, his founding of the Goetheanum in Dornach, where his thought-world found a home, the pain caused by its destruction by fire on New Year’s Eve 1922-3, the courage with which he went about its reconstruction, and finally the spiritual greatness of his tireless teaching and activity during the suffering of the last months of his life on earth.
"Neither did he lose sight of me. He took note of the 1923 publication of my Verfall und Wiederaufbau der Kultur and Kultur und Ethik. In a lecture, he appreciated the analysis of the cultural problems those books offered but made no secret of his regret that I tried to solve the problems with ethical thinking alone, without the help of spiritual science. During my meeting with him, his face with his wonderful eyes made an unforgettable impression on me."
Albert Schweitzer also reported on this meeting to the composer-conductor Bruno Walter:
"I continually occupied myself with Steiner and was always conscious of his importance. What we had in common was that we both wanted culture to stand in place of its lack. This bond arose in Strasburg. He expected culture from ethical thinking and the knowledge of spiritual science. According to my nature, I had to stay with letting it arise through concentration on the essence of the ethical. In this way I came to the ethics of Reverence for Life and hoped for the emergence of culture from it. I know that Rudolf Steiner regretted my remaining in the old way of thinking. But we had both experienced the same responsibility to lead men to true culture again."
Albert Schweitzer reported to Camille Schneider in Strasburg in 1951:
"Our goals are the same. Our paths are apparently different. Whereas Rudolf Steiner as spiritual researcher advances towards the experience of Christ by means of exercises, thinking, and mysticism, I have attempted to encounter Christ Jesus through thoughtful knowledge of the eschatological content of his teachings. And I encounter him daily in my work with the blacks of Africa. From this twofold experience, I derive the foundation of my life’s ethic. That is what matters to me."
In 1922, after the First World War, Albert Schweitzer visited Rudolf Steiner in Dornach. Camille Schneider reports:
"Albert Schweitzer informed me that he once visited Rudolf Steiner in Dornach. He couldn’t say exactly in what year. He spoke with him about the necessity, after World War I, for a new penetration of cultural life with religious impulses and said that he recognized him to be a great man, who with comprehensive knowledge and astounding wisdom transforms all the information and opinions we hear or read daily without always understanding their deeper meanings. 'An initiate in the sense of Edouard Schuré', Dr. Schweitzer added, because shortly before we had spoken about Schuré and his book The Great Initiates."
Emil Bock dates this meeting in autumn, 1922:
"Many years ago – it was 1922 – we were in preparation for the founding of the Christian Community in Dornach, and I went to Dr. Steiner in order to ask him something. He received me with glowing eyes: 'Just think! Albert Schweitzer was with me today. He is really an important personality.'"
Several months before his death, Schweitzer again emphasized what was most meaningful in his encounters with Rudolf Steiner. He wrote in a letter from Lambarene to the composer Karl von Balz on June 14, 1965:
"Perhaps it will interest you to know that Rudolf Steiner and I were friends, although we didn’t have the same ideas. It was a deep friendship. We were happy about every meeting."
