The Cosmic New Year
GA 195
1 January 1920, Stuttgart
V. The Dogma of Revelation and the Dogma of Experience
Meeting you today with New Year Greetings, I should like to express the wish that each one of you may realize in the depth of his soul how great and insistent are the demands of the present moment as regards the evolution of mankind, and that, as a result of this realization, each one in his own place may co-operate as far as he can, in bringing to fulfilment that of which mankind stands in such need. At this time of year, expressing as it does symbolically the meeting of past and future, I should like, by way of introduction to our New Year contemplation, which rightly is also a contemplation of the whole course of time, to recall some passages from essays which I wrote more than thirty years ago and which are shortly to be published. Although connected with personal experiences, these essays have a definite significance if we want to look into the whole spiritual condition of the present day. My purpose in writing them was, as you will notice, to rouse the conscience of the German people, to give expression to that which could be perceived even then, as fundamentally lacking in the spiritual life of the German nation. I will read to you some passages from one of these essays entitled “The Spiritual Mark of the Present Day”. These passages refer to what was taking place more than thirty years ago, to a past which was then the present. I wrote in the very midst of the spiritual life prevailing at that time, amid symptoms which showed themselves most markedly in the life of thought of the German nation. I wrote: “It is with a shrug of the shoulders that our generation recalls the period when a philosophic current ran through the whole spiritual life of the German people. The mighty impulse of the times, seizing men's minds at the end of last century (i.e., the eighteenth century) and the beginning of this one, and boldly facing the highest imaginable tasks, is now looked upon as a regrettable aberration. If anyone dares to raise an objection when the conversation turns upon Fichte's fantasies, or Hegel's insubstantial play of thoughts and words, he is regarded by his listeners as a mere amateur, who has as slight an idea of the spirit of modern scientific investigation, as he has of the thoroughness and seriousness of philosophic methods. Kant and Schopenhauer at best are tolerated by our contemporaries. It is apparently possible to trace back to Kant the somewhat scanty philosophic crumbs used by modern science as foundational; and Schopenhauer, besides his strictly scientific works, also wrote a few things in a light style, on subjects accessible to people with a limited spiritual horizon. An open mind for that striving towards the loftiest heights of the world of thought, an understanding for that soaring of the spirit which in the realms of science went parallel with our classic period of culture—this is lacking now. The serious side of this phenomenon only appears when we take into consideration that a persistent turning away from that spiritual goal implies for the German people the loss of their own Self, a breaking away from the Spirit of the Nation. For that striving sprang from a deep need in the German nature. It does not enter our mind to wish to deny the manifold mistakes and one-sided fallacies which Fichte, Hegel, Schelling, Oken, and others, committed in their bold inroads into the kingdom of idealism. But the impulse which in all its grandeur inspired them should not be misunderstood. It is the impulse most fitting for a nation of thinkers. The German nation is not characterized by that living sense for immediate reality, or the outward aspect of Nature, which enabled the Greeks to create their wonderful and imperishable works of art. Among the Germans there is instead, an unceasing urge of the spirit toward the cause of things, toward the apparently hidden, deeper origins of the Nature which surrounds us. Just as the Greek spirit found expression in its wonderful world of plastic forms, so the German, more concentrated within himself, less open to Nature but on that account more with his own heart, cherishing intercourse with his own inner world, sought his conquests in the world of pure thought. The way, therefore, in which Fichte and his successors looked upon the world and life was truly German. This is why their teachings were so enthusiastically received; this is why, for a time, they held the whole life of the nation enthralled. This is why we must not break with their spiritual leading. Our solution of the difficulty should be to overcome mistakes, while continuing the natural course of development on the lines laid down at that time. Not what these spirits found or thought to find, is of lasting value, but how they faced the problems.”
At the time when this essay was written the German nation had to be shown these truths, which were threatening to disappear from their field of vision. We were living then in another age than the present, an age in which, had we willed it, it might still have been possible for certain circles to unite with the spirit, then at the beginning of its decline, and thus to prepare the way for an all-pervading and lasting development of the human impulse. Indeed, at that time it ought to have been possible to find such people, amongst those who called themselves leaders of the nation, amongst those who prepared the younger generation for later life. There were no experiments, then, of the kind now coming to the fore in Russia. At that time (in Germany) those who educated the young, still had the chance of turning back to the aims and intentions of the old spiritual life, causing it to rise again in the new form. But no one was willing to listen in the least to any voice urging that a real, spiritual striving should rise to life again amongst men. Every opinion that had taken firm hold amongst the lower or higher ranks of the nation's teachers during the preceding thirty years, was an attack directed against the aims and intentions of a spiritual world-conception.
I should recall that when I wrote this essay, I had already published my views on Goethe's World Conception, on Goethe's scientific ideas. I had pointed out two great dangers in the domain of thought, in the field of active scientific investigation. I coined at that time two expressions defining the two great foes of human spiritual progress. On the one hand I spoke of the “Dogma of Revelation”, and on the other hand of the “Dogma of mere Experience”. I wished to show that the one-sided cultivation of the dogma of revelation, as it had developed in the religious confessions, was just as pernicious as the continual hammering upon the so-called dogmas of experience, i.e., continually insisting only upon all that the external sense-world, the world of material facts, offers to scientists and sociologists. In the course of time the task arose of rendering these thoughts more concrete, of pointing out the real forces behind this or that phenomenon.
What, then, lies behind in everything brought to our notice when the dogma of revelation is mentioned? Today, in an all-embracing sense, all that lies behind what we term Luciferic influences in the course of mankind's evolution. And behind the dogma of experience, lies everything that we term, again in an all-embracing sense, the Ahrimanic influences in human evolution. In the present age, he who wishes to lead men only under the influence of the dogma of revelation, leads them in the Luciferic direction; he who wishes instead to lead men, as scientists would do, only according to the dogma of external sense-experience, leads them in the Ahrimanic direction. Is it not a fitting New Year's contemplation in these serious times of ours, to review the last thirty or forty years, and to point out how necessary it still is today to repeat the call of that time, to raise it anew, but far more strongly? The outward course of events during these last thirty or forty years has shown clearly the justification of that call; for he who without prejudice looks at what has happened, must say to himself: “There would not be today's misery and want, had that call become a reality in the hearts of the people of Central Europe at that time.” At that time it sounded in vain. Today the Holy Roman Congregation meets it with the Decree of the 18th July, 1919, and the chief clergy announce from their pulpits that Anthroposophy is not to be read in my books because the Pope forbids it. Information concerning it can be obtained from the writings of my opponents. This pronouncement takes place simultaneously with negotiations for the establishment of a Roman Catholic Nuntiate in Berlin under the auspices of a Berlin Government with socialistic leanings! Here, again, is something that shows the spiritual mark of the age. Would that today one could really appeal to the innermost heart-forces of those who are still capable of feeling something of the spiritual impulses in human evolution, so that they may wake up, so that they may see how things really stand. The all-important thing today is that man should be able to find himself. But to find our own Self requires confidence in our own strength of soul. Little is attained amongst men today, by appealing to this confidence in their own strength of soul. People want, on the one hand, the support of something which constrains them from within to think and to will what is right, or, on the other hand, the support of something which constrains them from without to think and to will what is right. In some way we always find these two extremes in men; they never wish to pull themselves together, to strive with active forces towards the balance between these two extremes.
Let us reconsider this spiritual mark of the present day, about to become the social and material mark. Let us reconsider it to some extent. We hear the old Marxist call rising in the East of Europe: “A social order must be established among men, where everyone can live according to his individual capacities and needs; a social order must be evolved where the individual capacities of each man can be taken into full consideration and where the justifiable needs of every single person can be satisfied.” Taken in the abstract, no objection whatever can be raised against this saying. But on the other hand, we hear a personality like Lenin saying: “Among people of today such a social order cannot be founded; it is only possible to establish a transitory social order; it is only possible to establish something which is injustice”—of course in the widest sense of the word. Injustice is indeed present to an absurd extent in everything that Lenin and his followers establish. For Lenin and his followers believe that only by passing through a transitory social order, can a new human race be produced, a race not yet in existence; only when the race is there, will it be possible to introduce the social order where everyone will be able to employ his capacities, where everyone will be able to live according to his needs. This, then, is what they are aiming at: the formation of a race of men not yet in existence, in order to realize an ideal which, as I have said, can be justified in the abstract.
Ought not enough people, when they hear of such a thing as this, be able to find themselves, and to grasp the whole seriousness of the present world-situation? Is it not time for this drowsiness to cease, when something of this kind appears before us pointing most significantly to the mark of the present day—this drowsiness which causes us to close our eyes a little, so that we do not grasp the whole significance of such a matter? Nothing will help us to reach a concrete insight into these things, except to abandon the paths of abstraction in the Spiritual life. And for this we must first really acquire the feeling that where there is only a flow of words and phrases about spirit and soul, there the talk is mere abstraction. We must be able to feel when spirit and soul are spoken of as reality. For example, speaking of human capacities: These arise as manifestations from out of man's inner being as the individual grows up. Through some of its leaders, mankind feels itself induced to develop accordingly these capacities and forces, which come to light in the growing human being. But in this domain our feelings are to be trusted only if we definitely perceive in the manifestation of these forces and capacities, a manifestation of the Divine; if we can say to ourselves: Man has come into this World of sense-realities out of a spirit-soul World of Being, and that which externalizes as human forces and capacities, and which we develop in ourselves and in others, comes from a spiritual world and is now placed in a physical human body. Now, consider the spiritual meaning of that which has been explained in this place for decades; it will show you that with the incorporation of human capacities and forces in the physical human body, Luciferic beings were given the possibility of approaching these human capacities and forces. No work whatsoever can be done in the sphere of human capacities and forces, be it in the form of self-activity or in the teaching of others, or in the furtherance of general culture, without coming into contact with the Luciferic forces. In that region which man has to go through before he enters physical existence through birth or conception, the Luciferic Power cannot directly approach the human capacities and forces. Embodiment in a physical human frame, is the means by which the Luciferic Powers are able to reach human capacities and forces. It is only if, without prejudice we look this fact in the face, that we assume a right attitude in life towards everything that surges up from human nature as individual capacities and forces. If we close our eyes to what is Luciferic, if we deny that it exists, then we succumb to it. Then the soul falls into that mood which desires above all to deliver itself up to some coercion from within, so that through all kinds of mystic or religious forces it can unburden itself of the necessity of calling upon its own free Self, or of seeking for the Divine in the world, within the development of its own free Self. Men do not want to think for themselves, they want some indefinite force from within to manifest itself, according to which they can argue logically. They do not want to experience truth; they only want to experience that inner force compelling them from within, manifesting itself in proof which does not appeal to experience, but appeals instead to a Spiritual Power which over-rules man, which compels him to think in this or in that way about Nature or about mankind himself. Men deliver themselves over to the Luciferic Powers, by calling up within themselves this inner compulsion, this inner power.
The means which can be used so that man shall appeal to this inner compulsion, so that he shall not rise to the free, upright position in the spiritual world, is to force him to think that there are no such three members of human nature as Body, Soul and Spirit; to forbid him, as actually happened in the Eighth Ecumenical Council in Constantinople, to think that man consists of Body, Soul and Spirit, and bid him to put away all thoughts concerning the Spirit. These are inner connections which may not be overlooked any longer. We must face them today clearly and without prejudice. In the year 869 A.D., it was decided to forbid the belief in the Spirit in man. It was in that year that the downward slope towards Lucifer began in European civilization. And today we have the full result. Long enough has mankind yielded to the inclination not to experience truth, but to allow the compulsion of argument, of impersonal argument, to work upon him. As a result, mankind has fallen into the other extreme. There has been no real comprehension of human capacities and forces, no one wanted to own that, as I have just explained, Luciferic forces live in human capacities and forces, when these are embodied in a physical human frame. That false point of view—the ruling one in humanity today, concerning individual capacities and forces in human nature—has been the outcome.
Human needs, needs arising first out of his purely physical nature, constitute the other pole of man. In his Letters on aesthetics, Schiller has characterized these needs very finely, contrasting them with man's abstract logical power. He calls them the basic needs (“Notdurft”), whereas he characterizes logical compulsion as the other power, a power straying into spiritual regions. During that great period of German evolution, a personality such as Schiller, was on the point of grasping rightly the polaric contrasts in man. The time was not yet ripe for saying more than what Schiller, Goethe, and others like-minded had said. The necessity of building further upon this beginning has been laid upon our present age. If we continue to build, Anthroposophical Spiritual Science will arise. He who is only acquainted with the one-sided power of proof in the spiritual sphere, only learns to know in life the one-sided power of natural instincts in human needs. It is easy to imagine that when man with his capacities and powers enters the physical sense-world through conception or birth, and Lucifer hovers over him and from that which man himself ought to possess takes something on one side, the head-side of the man's being, there remains in man an inferior kind of power for the exercise of his independence in the sphere of his needs. Through that which Lucifer on the one hand takes for his own, Ahriman on the other hand attains the possibility of making his own that which works in the needs of human nature. The dogma of mere external sense-experience has paved the way for the complete Ahrimanization of mankind's sense-life of instinct during the last third of the nineteenth century. Modern man stands before a terrible fact today because he does not recognize that salvation lies in the state of balance between the two extremes, between capacities on the one side, and needs on the other side. The materialistic spirit in man makes him look on the body alone as that which produces capacities i.e., man looks merely on the Luciferic primal force of capacities. The capacities become Luciferic owing to their entrance into a human body. If man believes that capacities spring from the body, then man believes in Lucifer, and if man believes that needs spring from the human body, then man believes only in the Ahrimanic side of such needs.
And what experiment is being made in the East of Europe today under the guidance of the West? (This guidance is not only evident through the fact that Lenin and Trotsky are the spiritual disciples of the West, but also through the fact that Lenin was dispatched into Russia in a sealed railway carriage by Dr. Helphand, the German official who accompanied him. So that what is termed Bolshevism, is an article transported into Russia by a German Administration and the German military command.) What are they trying to attain in the civilization of Eastern Europe? An attempt is being made to do away with everything human, with everything embodied in a human body as human, and to harness together Lucifer and Ahriman, with the civilization they represent. Were this to be realized in the East, then the Manufacturing Company of Lucifer and Ahriman would create a world excluding everything beneficial to the individual human being, and man himself would be dovetailed into this Luciferic-Ahrimanic civilization as part of a machine in the complete working of the machine. But the parts of a machine are lifeless and allow themselves to be fitted in, whereas human nature is inwardly alive, permeated by soul, permeated by spirit. It cannot fit into a merely Luciferic-Ahrimanic organization, but will perish in it. Only an understanding of Spiritual Science can grasp what is really taking place today in this materialistic world which has but the haziest notions of spirit. It is only the insight of Spiritual Science and its living earnestness which can explain what the fact implies that, during the last thirty to forty years, the essential nature of the German people would not turn back to that German spirituality pointed out in my essay, but that in this German world of culture, we have at last come to this, that men of authority have felt it to be the right thing to send to Russia (in a sealed railway carriage), through a man who stood in their service, the inaugurators of Lucifer and Ahriman. In our days, it will not do simply to look around and then go to sleep peacefully, in the presence of what is actually taking place in the depths of the spirit of the present time. We ought to feel that we must say: “We have forsaken and trodden under foot that which in the age of Schiller and of Goethe was created within the Spiritual life of Germany. And we have the task of beginning where they left off and of building on further.” No better New Year's thought can enter our souls than the resolution to make this our starting point.
I told you the following some years ago: In the sixties and seventies of last century an educationist, Heinrich Deinhardt, lived in Vienna, the place where my essays were put together. This man's spirit led him from the standpoint of Schiller's Letters on Aesthetics to take an active part in pedagogics, a science that was then under full sail, following the materialistic lead of his day. In some fine letters, printed at the time, explanatory of Schiller's Letters on Aesthetics, Deinhardt wrote that man should be educated to recognize the compelling necessity of logic, and of the basic needs (“Notdurft”), which only live in instinct. Deinhardt was one of those who raised the warning cry: “We must prevent by means of education what is bound to happen otherwise.” He could not yet speak with the concepts of Spiritual Science, but he did point out in his own words the inevitable coming of the Luciferic-Ahrimanic culture if the Science of Education, the Art of Education were not determined by this balance. Heinrich Deinhardt had the misfortune to be knocked down in the street and to break his leg. Quite a simple operation might have put it right again, but the doctors found he was so undernourished that the injured parts would not heal. So this man, who could look so deeply into the events of his day, died owing to a slight accident. Yes, in Central Europe, men whose will was directed to bring forth something out of the spiritual, were left to starve! This example could be multiplied many times. Those who write like the Jesuit, Father Zimmermann, whom I mentioned yesterday, will probably not die of hunger. Those will not die of hunger who wrote the following: “In No. 6 of the weekly paper, Dreigliederung des Sozialen Orgaeismus (The Threefold Social Organism) it is boasted that the ‘new impulse’ (a pet phrase of the Anthroposophists and of the Dreigliederung people) rests upon the fullness of Steiner's spiritual knowledge. The head of the Waldorf-Astoria cigarette factory in Stuttgart founded the ‘Free Waldorf School’ for the children of employees and managers, a school founded on the impulses of all the thoughts that had come from Dr. Steiner's Anthroposophical Spiritual Science. In that school ‘Anthroposophy is to be the artistic method of education’.” Those who mock and tread into the dust what is being willed out of the spirit will surely not die of hunger, even in these hard days.
But it is indeed necessary to receive into our souls New Year impulses that prevent us from passing by sleepily and heedlessly, what is actually going on, impulses that make us accept sternly the stern intention of Anthroposophical Spiritual Science. In our own ranks, too, I see many who would like to doze over things that reveal themselves out of full compassion, out of compassion for that which is happening in our times and which, left to itself, must lead to downfall! There are persons lacking courage who join the Anthroposophical Society and then say: “Yes, Spiritual Science is something I like, but I do not want to have anything to do with social activity; it has no place in it.” Such members might take an example from our adversaries. The Jesuit, Father Zimmermann, follows everything we do. He concludes the article mentioned above, with the sentence, “The weekly paper, The Threefold Social Organism—e.g., No. 8, of course holds the opinion that the ‘Church is conspiring’ against the historical task of the self-determination of the individual.” In other articles, too, the Jesuit, Father Zimmermann, shows how seriously he takes all we do.
It would be well if those who are in our Society would also take things seriously, in the right way. The spies who are on the outlook for any weak spot which they can expose in Anthroposophical Spiritual Science, and in all that proceeds from it, are not few in number. I think you know that I am not so foolish as to tell you what follows, out of mere vanity, and so I venture to refer to it. On the side of our adversaries the wish naturally arises to find a point of attack here or there. It is well, therefore, to read the following passage in Dr. Rittelmeyer's essay: ‘Steiner, War and Revolution’: “I happened to have a talk recently with a young Swedish scientist in economics, who had had the strict schooling of the economists of Cassel. He told me that he had read Steiner's book very carefully, from end to end, with the expectation of unmasking him as an amateur; but he had been unable to find any mistake.” In our circles we ought to consider such matters more seriously. The foundation on which we ought to build is the knowledge: Here something is willed, something that has nothing to do with the rambling talk of Theosophy, current elsewhere. Here we build upon the same strict insight into things as is demanded from any other accepted science. Were this really felt, then we should understand why the event took place which Father Zimmermann terms a defection. You know that it was no defection, but that we were thrown out because it was impossible to bring any earnestness into that society of mystic wishy-washy talk, no real earnestness was wanted there. They only wished to go on chattering in the same way they had chattered for years, particularly in connection with subjects about which all possible things can be said with no knowledge of the spiritual world. What our age most sorely needs is the greatest earnestness in the sphere of Spiritual life.
Today, New Year's day, with my visit drawing to an end, I wished to speak to you again of this deep earnestness. My most heartfelt desire is that into our ranks may come the New Year wish—it is a wish each one can shape for himself—that through the souls and hearts of our friends, eyes may in some degree be opened to that which is needed so sorely, to that which, out of the Spirit alone, is able to help humanity. No salvation is to be found in any external organization. Something new must be stamped upon human evolution. These facts must become known, and to feel that these facts must become known is indeed the most worthy New Year's thought that could rise in your hearts. This year, 1920, will hold in store many an important decision, if enough people can be found who are able to recognize the needs of mankind, as I have pointed them out today. 1920 will bring misery and suffering if such men cannot be found, if those only take the lead who wish to work on in the old way.
Fünfter Vortrag
Heute möchte ich vor Ihnen erscheinen mit jenen Neujahrsgrüßen, welche dasjenige enthalten, was ich Ihnen hineinwünschen möchte in Ihre Seelen, damit Sie in unserer Zeit, die so sehr dessen bedarf, die großen dringenden Forderungen sehen für die Entwickelung der Menschheit, und damit Sie, jeder an seinem Platze, mitwirken mögen, soviel Sie eben können, zu der Erfüllung dessen, was in unserer Gegenwart der Menschheit so sehr nötig ist. In einer solchen Zeit, die symbolisch ausdrückt den Zusammenfluß von Vergangenheit und Zukunft, wird es vielleicht gestattet sein, daß ich anknüpfe an etwas, von dem ich, obzwar es mit persönlichen Erlebnissen zusammenhängt, doch glaube, daß es eine gewisse Bedeutung hat für das Hineinschauen in die ganze geistige Gestaltung der Gegenwart. Meine lieben Freunde, in der nächsten Zeit sollen Aufsätze von mir erscheinen, die vor langer Zeit - einige davon vor mehr als dreißig Jahren - von mir geschrieben worden sind. Diejenigen Aufsätze, die ich vor mehr als dreißig Jahren, damals noch in Österreich, geschrieben habe, sind gesammelt worden durch die Liebe, mit der sich dieser Sammlung unser Freund Dr. Kolisko unterzogen hat, und ich darf heute in dieser Neujahrsbetrachtung, die ja eben als solche mit Recht eine Zeitbetrachtung ist, einleitend auf einiges hinweisen, was von mir vor mehr als dreißig Jahren geschrieben worden ist; was damals geschrieben worden ist, wie Sie gleich erkennen werden, um dem deutschen Volke, man kann schon sagen, ins Gewissen zu reden, um Ausdruck zu geben dem, was man dazumal wahrnehmen konnte als einen Grundmangel in dem geistigen Leben dieses deutschen Volkes. Gestatten Sie, daß ich ein paar von diesen, nunmehr mehr als dreißig Jahre alten Sätzen vorlese. Sie stehen in dem Artikel, den ich überschrieben habe «Die geistige Signatur der Gegenwart». Also, sie weisen auf eine mehr als dreißig Jahre alte Vergangenheit jetzt hin, die dazumal Gegenwart war. Ich schrieb dazumal, drinnenstehend in jenen Symptomen des allgemeinen geistigen Lebens, das sich mehr im Gedankenleben der Nation offenbarte: «Achselzuckend gedenkt unser heutiges Geschlecht jener Zeit, in der ein philosophischer Zug durch das ganze deutsche Geistesleben ging. Die gewaltige Zeitströmung, die am Ende des vorigen und am Anfang dieses Jahrhunderts die Geister ergriff und kühn sich die denkbar höchsten Aufgaben stellte, gilt gegenwärtig als eine bedauerliche Verirrung. Wer es wagt, zu widersprechen, wenn von den «Phantastereien Fichtes», von den «wesenlosen Gedanken- und Wortspielen» Hegels die Rede ist, wird einfach als Dilettant hingestellt, «der von dem Geiste der heutigen Naturforschung ebenso wenig wie von der Gediegenheit und Strenge der philosophischen Methode eine Ahnung hat». Höchstens Kant und Schopenhauer finden Gnade bei unseren Zeitgenossen. Bei dem ersteren gelingt es nämlich, die etwas spärlichen philosophischen Brocken, die sich die moderne Forschung zugrunde legt, scheinbar aus seinen Lehren abzuleiten; der letztere hat neben seinen streng wissenschaftlichen Leistungen auch Arbeiten im leichten Stile und über Dinge geschrieben, die auch dem Menschen mit dem bescheidensten geistigen Horizonte nicht zu entlegen zu sein brauchen. Für jenes Streben nach den höchsten Spitzen der Gedankenwelt aber, für jenen Schwung des Geistes, der auf wissenschaftlichem Gebiet unserer klassischen Kulturepoche parallel ging, fehlt jetzt der Sinn und das Verständnis. Das Bedenkliche dieser Erscheinung tritt erst hervor, wenn man in Erwägung zieht, daß ein dauerndes Abwenden von jener Geistesrichtung für die Deutschen ein Verlieren ihres Selbsts, ein Bruch mit dem Volksgeiste wäre. Denn jenes Streben entsprang einem tiefen Bedürfnisse des deutschen Wesens. Es fällt uns nicht ein, die mannigfachen Irrtümer und Einseitigkeiten, die Fichte, Hegel, Schelling, Oken u. a. auf ihren kühnen Unternehmungen im Reiche des Idealismus begangen haben, leugnen zu wollen; aber die Tendenz, von der sie beseelt waren, sollte in ihrer Großartigkeit nicht verkannt werden. Sie ist so recht dem Volk der Denker angemessen. Nicht der lebendige Sinn für die unmitelbare Wirklichkeit, für die Außenseite der Natur, der die Griechen zu ihren herrlichen, unvergänglichen Schöpfungen befähigte, eignet dem Deutschen, dafür aber ein unablässiges Drängen des Geistes nach dem Grund der Dinge, nach den scheinbar verborgenen tieferen Ursachen der uns umgebenden Natur. Lebte sich der griechische Geist in seiner wunderbaren Welt von Formen und Gestalten aus, so mußte der auf sich selbst zurückgezogene Deutsche, der weniger mit der Natur, dafür aber mehr mit seinem Herzen, mit seinem eigenen Inneren Umgang pflegt, auch seine Eroberungen auf dem Gebiet der reinen Gedankenwelt suchen. Und darum war es deutsche Art, wie sich Fichte und seine Nachfolger der Welt und dem Leben gegenüberstellten, darum fanden ihre Lehren so begeisterte Aufnahme, darum wurde eine Zeitlang das ganze Leben der Nation davon ergriffen. Darum aber auch dürfen wir mit dieser Richtung des Geistes nicht brechen. Überwindung der Fehler, aber naturgemäße Entwickelung auf dem Grunde, der damals gelegt wurde, muß unsere Losung werden. Nicht was diese Geister fanden oder zu finden glaubten, aber wie sie sich den Aufgaben der Forschung gegenüberstellten, das ist das bleibende Wertvolle.»
Es sollte dazumal dieses deutsche Volk hingewiesen werden auf das, was eben drohte aus dem Gesichtskreis dieses Volkes zu verschwinden. Man lebte damals noch in einer anderen Zeit als heute; man lebte in der Zeit, in welcher, wenn man gewollt hätte, für gewisse Kreise es noch möglich gewesen wäre, sich mit dem im Beginne seines Niederganges befindlichen Geiste zu verbinden und Durchgreifendes für eine Neuentwickelung menschlicher Impulse anzubahnen. Allerdings, dazumal hätten sich finden müssen Menschen unter denen, die sich Führer des Volkes nannten, Menschen unter denen, die die Jugend anleiteten für das spätere Leben. Damals gab es noch nicht Experimente solcher Art, wie sie jetzt in Rußland hervortreten; damals hätten diejenigen, welche die Bildner der Jugend waren, noch die Möglichkeit gehabt, zu den Intentionen dieses alten Geisteslebens zurückzukehren und es im neuen Sinne wiederum auferstehen zu lassen. Damals aber wollte man nicht im geringsten auf irgendeine Stimme hören, welche sich erhob für dieses Wiederauferstehenlassen eines wirklich spirituellen Strebens der Menschheit. Und alles, was insbesondere in den Kreisen der niederen oder höheren Volkserzieher sich in diesen letzten dreißig Jahren festgelegt hat, war ein Sturmlaufen gegen die Intentionen spiritueller Weltanschauung. Ich muß heute gedenken, daß damals, als ich diese Worte schrieb, von mir ja bereits meine Interpretationen zu Goethes Weltanschauung, zu Goethes naturwissenschaftlichen Ideen veröffentlicht waren; ich muß gedenken, wie ich dazumal gerade die.auf dem Gebiete des Gedankens, des wissenschaftlichen Forschens Tätigen aufmerksam gemacht habe auf zwei große Gefahren. Ich habe dazumal zwei Ausdrücke geprägt, die hinweisen sollten auf die beiden großen Feinde menschlichen Geistesfortschrittes. Ich sprach auf der einen Seite von dem Dogma der Offenbarung und ich sprach auf der anderen Seite von dem Dogma der bloßen Erfahrung. Und ich wollte zeigen, daß die einseitige Pflege des Dogmas der Offenbarung, wie sie sich heraufentwickelte in den Bekenntniskreisen, ebenso schädlich ist, wie das Pochen auf die sogenannten Dogmen der Erfahrung, das heißt auf alles das, was nur die äußere Sinneswelt und die materielle Tatsachenwelt bei den Naturforschern und Soziologen liefert. Es war dann die Aufgabe im Laufe der Zeit, diese Ideen, ich möchte sagen, konkreter zu fassen, hinzuweisen auf die realen Kräfte, die hinter der einen und hinter der anderen Erscheinung stecken.
Was steckt hinter all dem, worauf man hinweist, wenn man von dem Dogma der Offenbarung spricht? Darinnen steckt alles das, was wir heute im umfassenden Sinn als die luziferischen Einflüsse auf den Gang der Menschheitsentwickelung nennen. Und hinter dem Dogma der Erfahrung steckt alles das, was wir, wiederum in umfassendem Sinne, die ahrimanischen Einflüsse auf die Menschheitsentwickelung nennen. Derjenige, der in unserer heutigen Zeit die Menschheit bloß führen will unter dem Einflusse des Dogmas der Offenbarung, der leitet sie im luziferischen Sinne; wer sie, wie etwa die Naturforscher, nur leiten möchte im Sinne des Dogmas der äußeren sinnlichen Erfahrung, der leitet sie im ahrimanischen Sinne. Darf es nicht heute in unserer ernsten Zeit eine Neujahrsbetrachtung sein, diese letzten drei bis vier Jahrzehnte zu überblicken, hinzuweisen darauf, wie man heute ebenso noch notwendig har, den damals erhobenen Ruf wieder zu erheben, nur in vielfach verstärkter Art?
Meine lieben Freunde, diese dreißig bis vierzig Jahre, sie haben durch den Verlauf der äußeren Tatsachen klar gezeigt, wie berechtigt jener Ruf dazumal war; denn wer unbefangen durchblickt, was geschehen ist, der muß sich sagen: Wäre dazumal ein solcher Ruf etwas Reales geworden in den Gemütern der Menschen von Mitteleuropa: das, was wir heute als Elend und Not erleben, es wäre nicht gekommen. Dazumal verhallte jener Ruf; jetzt begegnet man ihm von Seite der römischen heiligen Kongregation mit dem Dekret vom 18. Juli 1919; und die Domkapitulare verkündigen, daß dasjenige, was Anthroposophie ist, nicht aus meinen Schriften gelesen werden darf, weil der Papst es verboten hat, sondern daß man sich unterrichten müsse aus den Schriften der Gegner. Die Domkapitulare weisen also zu der Erkenntnis der Anthroposophie nicht auf meine Schriften, sondern auf Seiling und Genossen hin. Das geschieht in derselben Zeit, wo unter den Auspizien einer sich sozialistisch aufspielenden Berliner Regierung über die Errichtung einer römisch-katholischen Nuntiatur in Berlin verhandelt wird. Das ist auch etwas, was hinweist auf die geistige Signatur der jetzigen Gegenwart. Und heute möchte man schon wirklich appellieren an die tiefsten Herzenskräfte derjenigen, die noch fähig sind, etwas von geistigen Impulsen innerhalb der Menschheitsentwickelung zu fühlen, damit sie aufwachen, um doch einmal zu sehen, wie die Dinge eigentlich gehen. Denn sehen Sie, heute handelt es sich vor allen Dingen darum, daß die Menschen die Möglichkeit finden, zu ihrem Selbst zu kommen. Und zum Selbst zu kommen, dazu bedarf es des Vertrauens in die eigene Seelenkraft. Gerade mit dem Appell an dieses Vertrauen in die eigene Seelenkraft kommt man den Menschen heute nicht recht bei. Die Menschen möchten auf der einen Seite sich anlehnen an irgend etwas, was sie von innen heraus zwingt, das Richtige zu denken und zu wollen, und sie möchten auf der anderen Seite sich anlehnen an irgend etwas, was sie von außen her zwingt, das Richtige zu denken und zu wollen.
Immer weisen die Menschen irgendwie auf zwei solche Pole hin und niemals möchten sie sich aufraffen, nach dem Gleichgewicht zwischen den von diesen zwei Polen aus wirkenden Kräften zu streben. Führen wir uns noch einmal etwas von der geistigen Signatur der Gegenwart, die aber heute im Begriffe ist soziale und materielle Signatur zu werden, führen wir uns wiederum etwas davon vor Augen! Da hören wir im Osten Europas den alten marxistischen Ruf sich erheben, es müsse eine soziale Ordnung unter den Menschen eintreten, in der jeder Mensch leben könne nach seinen Fähigkeiten und nach seinen Bedürfnissen; es müsse eine soziale Ordnung entwickelt sein, in welcher die individuellen Fähigkeiten jedes einzelnen Menschen zur Geltung kommen können, und in welcher befriedigt werden können die berechtigten Bedürfnisse jedes einzelnen Menschen. So wie das abstrakt ausgesprochen wird, kann nicht das Allergeringste gegen diese Abstraktion eingewendet werden; auf der anderen Seite aber wiederum hören wir eine Persönlichkeit wie Lenin sagen: Mit den Menschen der Gegenwart läßt sich eine solche soziale Ordnung nicht begründen, mit ihnen kann man nur eine Übergangs-Sozial-Ordnung begründen. - Man kann nur begründen irgend etwas, was Ungerechtigkeit im weitesten Sinne selbstverständlich in sich schließt. Sie ist ja auch in lächerlichem Maße in alle dem vorhanden, was Lenin und seine Anhänger begründen; denn er und seine Anhänger meinen, man könne nur durch den Durchgang durch dieses Übergangsstadium eine neue Menschenrasse erzeugen, die jetzt noch nicht da ist; und wenn sie kommt, dann wird man in ihr jene soziale Ordnung einführen können, in der jeder seine Fähigkeiten wird verwenden können, in der jeder nach seinen Bedürfnissen wird leben können. Also die Erfindung einer nicht vorhandenen Menschenrasse, um eine Idee zu verwirklichen, die ja, wie ich gesagt habe, im abstrakten Sinne sogar berechtigt ist.
Sollten nicht doch genügend Menschen sich finden können, welche den ganzen Ernst dieser gegenwärtigen Weltsituation erfassen, wenn sie so etwas vernehmen? Sollte es nicht an der Zeit sein, daß aufhöre jene Schläfrigkeit, die sich, wenn so etwas auftritt, was gerade im tiefsten Sinne hinweist auf die Signatur der Gegenwart, sich ein wenig die Augen zumacht, um ja nicht die ganze Bedeutung einer solchen Sache ins Auge zu fassen? Es hilft nichts anderes, um zur konkreten Einsicht über diese Dinge zu kommen, als die Wege der Abstraktion ins geistige Leben hinein zu verlassen. Aber dazu muß man erst wirklich ein Gefühl dafür erhalten, wo Abstraktion vorhanden ist, wo nur geredet wird im Sinne einer Phraseologie vom Geiste und von der Seele, und man muß fühlen, wo vom Geist und von der Seele als von einer Wirklichkeit geredet wird. Sehen Sie, wenn man spricht von den menschlichen Fähigkeiten: sie treten auf als die Offenbarungen aus des Menschen innerer Wesenheit, wenn der Mensch heranwächst. Die Menschheit fühlt sich durch eine Anzahl ihrer Vertreter veranlaßt, diese Fähigkeiten und Kräfte, die in dem werdenden Menschen zutage treten, in entsprechender Weise zu entwickeln. Richtig empfindet man auf diesem Gebiete nur, wenn man in einer gewissen Weise eine Offenbarung des Göttlichen in der Offenbarung dieser Kräfte und Fähigkeiten wahrnimmt, wenn man sich sagt: Der Mensch ist hereingekommen aus einer geistig-seelischen Wesenswelt in diese sinnlich-wirkliche Welt, und was sich da als seine Kräfte und Fähigkeiten äußert, was wir selber entwickelt haben in uns und anderen, das rührt aus einer geistigen Welt her, das ist, indem es aus einer geistigen Welt heruntergestiegen ist in diesen physischen Menschenleib, nunmehr in diesen physischen Menschenleib hineingestellt. Aber nehmen Sie den Geist und Sinn dessen, was hier seit Jahrzehnten auseinandergesetzt wird: dieser Geist und Sinn weist Sie darauf hin, daß mit der Einkörperung der menschlichen Fähigkeiten und Kräfte in den physischen Menschenleib den luziferischen Wesenheiten die Möglichkeit gegeben wird, an diese Fähigkeiten und Kräfte heranzukommen.
Man kann nicht irgend etwas in Selbsttätigkeit oder in erzieherischer oder in kulturfördernder Tätigkeit in den menschlichen individuellen Fähigkeiten und Kräften tun, ohne daß man mit den luziferischen Kräften in Berührung kommt. In denjenigen Regionen, die der Mensch durchlaufen hat, bevor er durch die Geburt oder Empfängnis ins physische Dasein eingetreten ist, da konnte die luziferische Macht nicht an die menschlichen Fähigkeiten und Kräfte unmittelbar heran. Die Einkörperung in die physische menschliche Leiblichkeit, das ist das Mittel, durch das die luziferischen Mächte an die menschlichen Fähigkeiten und Kräfte herankommen können. Nur dadurch, daß man dieser Tatsache unbefangen ins Auge schaut, kommt man zu einer richtigen Stellung im Leben zu all dem, was als individuelle Fähigkeiten und Kräfte aus der menschlichen Natur hervorquillt. Wenn man das Luziferische nicht sehen will, wenn man es ableugnet, dann verfällt man ihm. Dann aber gerät man gerade in jene Seelenstimmung, welche sich durchaus an etwas Zwingendes im Innern überliefern möchte, um da durch allerlei mystische oder religiöse Kräfte sich zu entlasten von der Notwendigkeit, an das freie Selbst des Menschen zu appellieren und in der Entfaltung des eigenen freien Selbstes in der Welt das Göttliche zu suchen. Die Menschen möchten nicht selber denken, sie möchten, daß eine unbestimmte Kraft in ihrem Innern sich äußere, nach der sie logisch beweisen können. Sie möchten die Wahrheit nicht erleben, sie möchten sich nicht aufraffen zu jenem inneren freien Erleben, das auch die Wahrheit erlebt; sie möchten jenen inneren Zwang erleben, der von innen heraus sie zwingt und sich ausdrückt in dem Beweise, der nicht an das Erlebnis appelliert, sondern an die Macht eines Geistigen, das den Menschen überwältigen, zwingen soll, so oder so zu denken über die Natur und über den Menschen selber. Damit aber, daß die Menschen an diesen inneren Zwang appellieren, an diese innere Macht, damit liefern sich die Menschen den luziferischen Mächten aus. Das Mittel, das man ergreifen kann, damit die Menschen also an diesen Zwang appellieren, damit sie sich nicht erheben zum freien Drinnenstehen in der geistigen Welt, das ist, daß man sie zwingt, zu denken, daß es keine drei Glieder der menschlichen Natur gibt: Leib, Seele und Geist, sondern wenn man ihnen, wie das auf dem achten allgemeinen Konstantinopeler Konzil geschehen ist, verbietet zu denken, daß der Mensch aus Leib, Seele und Geist bestehe, wenn man es abschafft, sich mit dem Geiste zu beschäftigen. Das sind innere Zusammenhänge, die heute nicht mehr übersehen werden dürfen, die heute klar und unbefangen ins Auge gefaßt werden müssen. Damals, im Jahre 869, als bestimmt wurde, daß man an den Geist im Menschen nicht glauben dürfe, damals zog der luziferische Hang in die europäische Zivilisation ein. Und heute haben wir die Erfüllung davon. Die Menschen haben sich lange genug hingegeben dem Hang, nicht die Wahrheit zu erleben, sondern den Zwang des Beweises, des unpersönlichen Beweises auf sich wirken zu lassen. Das hat sie hinübergeworfen nach dem anderen Extrem. Man hat sich nicht in sachgemäßer Weise zu beschäftigen verstanden mit den menschlichen Fähigkeiten und Kräften, man hat sich nicht zugeben wollen, daß auf die Art, wie ich es eben auseinandergesetzt habe, in den menschlichen Fähigkeiten und Kräften, wenn diese im physischen Leibe verkörpert sind, luziferische Mächte leben. Dadurch hat man erfahren jene schiefe Stellung, in die die moderne Menschheit zu den individuellen Fähigkeiten und Kräften in der menschlichen Natur gekommen ist, die heute an der Tagesordnung ist.
Der andere Pol des Menschen, das sind seine Bedürfnisse, diese Bedürfnisse, die sich zuerst in der rein physischen Natur aussprechen. Diese Bedürfnisse, die Schiller in seinen «Ästhetischen Briefen» so schön gegenübergestellt hat der abstrakt logischen Macht und die er genannt hat die Notdurft, während er den logischen Zwang als die andere Macht, als die ins Geistige abirrende Macht charakterisiert hat. Damals war während der großen Periode der deutschen Entwickelung eine solche Persönlichkeit wie Schiller auf dem Wege, den polarischen Gegensatz des Menschen richtig zu erfassen. Die Zeit war damals noch nicht reif, mehr zu sagen, als Schiller und Goethe und die ihnen Gleichgesinnten gesagt haben. Unsere neue Zeit ist in die Notwendigkeit versetzt, diese Dinge weiterzubauen. Baut man weiter, dann wird anthroposophisch orientierte Geisteswissenschaft daraus. Derjenige, der nur die einseitige Macht des Beweisens auf dem geistigen Gebiet kennt, der lernt im Leben auch nur kennen die einseitige Naturtriebmacht der menschlichen Bedürfnisse. Sie können sich leicht vorstellen: Wenn der Mensch mit seinen Fähigkeiten und Kräften in die physisch-sinnliche Welt eintritt durch Konzeption oder Geburt, und Luzifer über ihn kommt und von dem, was der Mensch selbst haben sollte, auf der einen Seite, auf der Kopfseite gewissermaßen des menschlichen Wesens etwas nimmt, dann bleibt auch im Menschen selbst eine geringere Macht, um seine Selbständigkeit auf dem Gebiete der Bedürfnisse geltend zu ‚machen. Durch das, was sich Luzifer auf der einen Seite aneignet, erlangt Ahriman auf der anderen Seite die Möglichkeit, sich anzueignen, was in den Bedürfnissen der menschlichen Natur wirkt. Und so ist eingezogen auf der anderen Seite mit dem Dogma der bloß äußeren sinnlichen Erfahrung die Durch-Ahrimanisierung des sinnlichen Trieblebens der Menschheit im letzten Drittel des 19. Jahrhunderts. Und so steht die moderne Menschheit, indem sie verkennt, daß in der Gleichgewichtslage zwischen den beiden Extremen, zwischen den Fähigkeiten einerseits und den Bedürfnissen auf der anderen Seite, das Heil liegt, heute einer furchtbaren Tatsache gegenüber. Sie sieht nur hin aus ihrem materialistischen Geiste heraus auf den Leib, der die Fähigkeiten erzeugt, daß heißt bloß auf die luziferische Urkraft der Fähigkeiten; denn dadurch, daß die Fähigkeiten in den Leib einziehen, dadurch werden sie luziferisch, und wenn man glaubt, aus dem Leib entspringen die Fähigkeiten, so glaubt man an Luzifer. Und wenn man glaubt, aus dem menschlichen Leibe heraus entspringen die Bedürfnisse, so glaubt man nur an das Ahrimanische dieser Bedürfnisse.
Und welches Experiment wird gegenwärtig drüben im Osten Europas unter der Anleitung des Westens gemacht? Diese Anleitung des Westens tritt so handgreiflich nicht nur dadurch hervor, daß Lenin und Trotzki die Geistesschüler des Westens sind, sondern auch dadurch, daß Lenin im plombierten Wagen durch den Dr. Helphand, der ihn begleitete, nach Rußland hineinspediert worden ist, so daß dasjenige, was Bolschewismus genannt wird, als eine Importware besorgt wurde durch die deutsche Regierung und die deutsche Heeresleitung. Was wird da versucht in der osteuropäischen Kultur? Da wird versucht, alles, was Menschliches ist, was als Menschliches sich in der menschlichen Leiblichkeit verkörpert, auszuschalten, und Luzifer mit Ahriman in ihrer Reinkultur zusammenzuspannen. Würde dies heute verwirklicht im Osten, so würde eine Schöpfung aus der Kompanie-Arbeit von Luzifer und Ahriman auftreten, mit Ausschluß alles dessen, was dem individuellen Menschen frommt; und dieser würde in diese luziferisch-ahrimanische Kultur hineingespannt wie das Glied einer Maschine in den ganzen Gang dieser Maschine, nur daß das Glied einer Maschine leblos ist und sich daher einspannen läßt, während die menschliche Natur innerlich lebendig, durchseelt, durchgeistigt ist und in eine bloß luziferischahrimanische Organisation nicht hineinpaßt, sondern dabei zugrunde gehen muß.
Nur aus demjenigen heraus, was Geisteswissenschaft begreifen kann, kann auch begriffen werden, was heute in dieser geistig nebulosesten materialistischen Welt eigentlich geschieht. Nur aus dieser geisteswissenschaftlichen Anschauung und aus dem in ihr lebenden Ernst kann aber auch begriffen werden, was es heißt, daß man in den letzten dreißig bis vierzig Jahren nicht sich zurückwenden wollte innerhalb des deutschen Wesens zu der deutschen Geistigkeit, auf die hier in meinem Aufsatze hingedeutet ist, sondern daß man endlich in dieser deutschen Kulturwelt soweit gekommen ist, daß diejenigen maßgebend geworden sind, die als das Richtige befunden haben, die Inauguratoren Luzifers und Ahrimans im plombierten Wagen nach Rußland befördern zu lassen; und zwar durch einen Menschen, der in ihrem Dienste stand und der dadurch von einem armen Schlucker, der er war, durch all die Dienste, die er geleistet hat, um in solcher Weise zwischen dem Osten und Westen zu vermitteln, ein Mensch geworden ist, der sich in dieser Zeit eine Villa in Konstantinopel, eine andere in der Schweiz, eine dritte in Kopenhagen gebaut hat. Es geht heute nicht, mit dem Blick nur so herumzuschweifen, um beruhigt schlafen zu können gegenüber dem, was in den Tiefen dieses heutigen Zeitwesens eigentlich geschieht. Es sollte heute empfunden werden, wie notwendig es ist zu sagen: Wir haben verleugnet und mit Füßen getreten, was in der Zeit Schillers und Goethes geschaffen worden ist an deutschem Geistesleben. Und wir haben die Aufgabe, dort zu beginnen und weiter aufzubauen. Wir können keine besseren Neujahrsgedanken in unsere Seelen hereinergießen, als den Vorsatz, an das wieder anzuknüpfen.
An derjenigen Stätte - und ich habe es auch hier schon erzählt vor Jahren -, wo jetzt unser Freund Dr. Kolisko meine Aufsätze gesammelt hat, da lebte in den siebziger und sechziger Jahren ein Mensch, der hieß Heinrich Deinhardt, der war ein Wiener Pädagoge. Er hatte in sich den Geist, von dem Standpunkt der Schillerschen Ästhetischen Briefe aus in seinem in den Materialismus hineinsegelnden Zeitalter in die Pädagogik einzugreifen. Er hat schöne Erklärungsbriefe geschrieben über Schillers Ästhetische Briefe, die dazumal gedruckt worden sind, darüber, wie der Mensch erzogen werden solle, sich von der zwingenden logischen Notwendigkeit und der Nortdurft, die nur in den Trieben lebt, zu befreien. Der war einer der Warner, die gesagt haben: Auf den Erziehungswegen muß verhindert werden, was sonst kommen muß. Er hat nicht schon mit geisteswissenschaftlichen Begriffen reden können, aber er hat dazumal darauf hingewiesen mit seinen Worten, wie die luziferisch-ahrimanische Kultur kommen müsse, wenn man nicht in dieser Gleichgewichtslage die Erziehungswissenschaft gestalte, die Erziehungskunst gestalte. Dieser Mann, Heinrich Deinhardt, hatte dazumal in Wien den Unfall, auf der Straße umgestoßen zu werden und sich das Bein zu brechen, eine Sache, die mit einer leichten Operation hätte geheilt werden können; aber dieser Mann war nach der Aussage seiner Ärzte so schlecht ernährt, daß der Heilungsprozeß sich nicht vollziehen konnte. Und so starb an dem kleinen Unfall dieser eine Mann, der in das Getriebe der Zeit schon ganz tief hineingeschaut hat. Ja, so behandelte man in Mitteleuropa diejenigen, die aus der Spiritualität heraus etwas wollten. Dieses Beispiel, es könnte vervielfältigt werden.
Nun, diejenigen werden wahrscheinlich nicht Hungers sterben, die so schreiben, wie der Ihnen gestern genannte Jesuitenpater Zimmermann: «Auch wird gerühmt z.B. in dem Wochenblatt ‹Dreigliederung des sozialen Organismus›, Nr. 6, daß der «neue Impuls» (ein Lieblingswort der Anthroposophen und der ‹Dreigliederungsleute›) sich auf der ‹Fülle der Steinerschen Geist-Erkenntnis› aufbaue. Der Leiter der Waldorf-Astoria-Zigarettenfabrik zu Stuttgart hat für die Kinder der Angestellten und Arbeiter des Unternehmens ‹die freie Waldorfschule› begründet, ‹impulsiert von all dem, was ihm ertlossen ist aus den Gedanken der anthroposophisch orientierten Geisteswissenschaft Dr. Steiners›. Dort soll ‹Anthroposophie künstlerische Erziehungsmethode sein.› » Diejenigen, die spotten und in den Staub treten möchten, was aus dem Geist der Zeit heraus gewollt wird, die werden auch in unserer heutigen harten Zeit nicht Hungers sterben. Aber es wird gar sehr notwendig sein, daß wir uns solche Neujahrsimpulse in die Seele hineinschreiben, die bewirken, daß wir nicht schläfrig und unachtsam an dem vorübergehen, was wirklich geschieht: daß wir vor allen Dingen stark aufnehmen das stark Gemeinte der anthroposophisch orientierten Geisteswissenschaft. Oh, ich sehe gar manchen gerade in unseren Reihen, der am liebsten gerade diejenigen Dinge verschlafen möchte, die aus dem vollen Mitleid heraus sich offenbaren, aus dem Mitleid mit demjenigen in unserer Zeit, was, wenn es sich selbst überlassen bleibt, dem Untergange zuführen muß! Es gibt Schwachmütige, die sich einschreiben lassen in diese Anthroposophische Gesellschaft und die da sagen: Ja, Geisteswissenschaft, das mag ich; aber von der sozialen Tätigkeit will ich nichts wissen, die gehört da nicht herein. Die könnten sich ein Beispiel nehmen an den Gegnern. Der Jesuitenpater Zimmermann, der verfolgt alles, was bei uns geschieht! Er endet seinen Artikel damit, daß er sagt: «Das Wochenblatt «Dreigliederung des sozialen Organismus meint freilich (Nr. 8), daß hier ein «Attentat der Kirche gegen die geschichtliche Aufgabe der Selbstbestimmung des Individuums vorliege.» Und auch in anderen Artikeln hat der Jesuitenpater Zimmermann gezeigt, wie er sich um alles kümmert, was bei uns vorgeht.
So möchte man wünschen, daß auch diejenigen, die in unseren Reihen stehen, sich in gutem Sinne um die Dinge kümmern. Sehen Sie, ich möchte sagen, der Aufpasser, die da sehen, wie sie nur irgendeine Schwäche auf dem Gebiet der anthroposophisch orientierten Geisteswissenschaft und dessen, was aus ihr hervorgeht, entdecken können, dieser Aufpasser sind gar nicht wenige; aber ich glaube, Sie wissen, daß ich nicht so albern bin, um auf so etwas, wie ich es jetzt anführen werde, aus einer gewissen Eitelkeit hinzuweisen, und daher kann ich auch diesen Hinweis auch wagen. Man möchte natürlich sehr leicht auf gegnerischer Seite, daß man da und dort einen Angriffspunkt finden könnte. Da ist es doch gut, wenn in dem Aufsatz, den Dr. Rittelmeyer geschrieben hat über «Steiner, Krieg und Revolution», zu lesen ist: «Ich habe auch gerade in diesen Tagen mit einem jungen schwedischen volkswirtschaftlichen Gelehrten gesprochen aus der Schule des strengen Nationalökonomen Cassel, der mir sagte, er habe das Buch Steiners durchgelesen von Seite zu Seite mit der Erwartung, er werde ihn als Dilettanten entlarven können; es sei ihm aber nicht gelungen, ihm einen Fehler nachzuweisen.» Ja, es sollten solche Dinge besser berücksichtigt werden in unseren Kreisen, es sollte gebaut werden auf der Grundlage der Erkenntnis, daß hier etwas gewollt wird, was nichts zu tun hat mit dem landläufigen Gewäsche von Theosophie, das da und dort herrscht, sondern das auf ebenso strenge Einsicht in die Dinge baut, wie nur irgendeine Wissenschaft, die sich je einmal geltend gemacht hat. Würde so etwas gründlich gefühlt werden, so würde man auch wissen, warum das erfolgt ist, was jetzt der Pater Zimmermann als einen Abfall bezeichnet. Sie wissen, daß es das nicht war, sondern daß wir herausgeworfen worden sind, weil es nicht gelungen ist, in diese Gesellschaft des mystischen Wischi-waschi-Herumredens wirklichen Ernst hineinzutragen; weil man wirklichen Ernst dort nicht wollte, weil man dort fortschwätzen wollte in derselben Art, wie man geschwätzt hat durch Jahre hindurch höchstens in Anknüpfung an irgend etwas, worüber man ohne Erkenntnis der geistigen Welt alles mögliche sagen kann. Das, was unserer Zeit so nötig ist, das ist voller Ernst auf dem Gebiete des Geisteslebens. Von diesem vollen Ernst wollte ich Ihnen heute, da ja mein diesmaliges Hiersein in diesen Tagen zu Ende geht, am Neujahrstage nochmals sprechen, und ich hätte recht sehr den Wunsch, daß in unsere Reihen einziehe der Neujahrswunsch, den sich jeder einzelne nur selber von sich gestalten könnte: daß durch die Seelen und die Herzen unserer Freunde etwas geöffnet würde der Blick für das, was nottut, geöffnet würde für das, was aus dem Geiste heraus einzig und allein der Menschheit helfen kann. Wir können heute nicht aus demjenigen, was außen an Einrichtungen erhalten ist, etwas Heilsames bilden, wir müssen ein Neues einprägen dieser Menschheitsentwickelung. Das muß erkannt werden. Und das zu fühlen, daß es erkannt werden müsse, das ist wohl der würdigste Neujahrsgedanke, der in Ihren Herzen entstehen kann heute, im Beginne des Jahres 1920, das manche wichtige Entscheidung bringen wird, wenn sich Menschen finden, die das für die Menschheit Notwendige, so wie es heute angedeutet wurde, erkennen. Erkannt muß werden, daß das Jahr 1920 Not und Elend bringen wird, wenn solche Menschen sich nicht finden, und einzig und allein diejenigen den Ton angeben, die im Alten so weiterwirken möchten.
Fifth Lecture
Today I would like to appear before you with those New Year's greetings that contain what I would like to wish for you in your souls, so that in our time, which so urgently needs it, you may see the great urgent demands for the development of humanity, and so that you, each in your own place, may contribute as much as you can to the fulfillment of what is so urgently needed for humanity in our present time. In such a time, which symbolically expresses the confluence of past and future, it may be permitted that I take up something that, although it is related to personal experiences, I believe has a certain significance for looking into the whole spiritual formation of the present. My dear friends, in the near future some of my essays will be published that were written a long time ago – some of them more than thirty years ago. The essays that I wrote more than thirty years ago, when I was still in Austria, have been collected by our friend Dr. Kolisko, and today, in this New Year's reflection, which, as such, is rightly a reflection on the times, I am able to to some of my writings from more than thirty years ago; as you will soon recognize, they were written to appeal to the conscience of the German people, to express what could be perceived at the time as a fundamental defect in the spiritual life of this German people. Allow me to read a few of these sentences, which are now more than thirty years old. They are in the article I have entitled “The Spiritual Signature of the Present”. So, they point to a past that is more than thirty years old, which was the present at the time. I wrote at the time, as can be seen from those symptoms of general intellectual life, which were more evident in the intellectual life of the nation: “Our present generation shrugs off the memory of that time when a philosophical trend ran through the whole of German intellectual life. The mighty current of thought that seized minds at the end of the last and the beginning of this century and boldly set itself the highest conceivable tasks is currently regarded as a regrettable aberration. Anyone who dares to contradict this view, when the talk is of 'Fichte's fantasies' or Hegel's 'insubstantial games of words and ideas', is simply dismissed as an amateur 'who has as little idea of the spirit of today's natural science as of the solidity and rigour of the philosophical method'. At most, Kant and Schopenhauer find favor with our contemporaries. In the case of the former, it is possible to derive the somewhat scant philosophical fragments on which modern research is based from his teachings; the latter, in addition to his strictly scientific achievements, has also written works in a light style and on subjects that need not be too remote even for people with the most modest intellectual horizons. But for that striving after the highest peaks of the world of thought, for that sweep of the spirit, which in the scientific field ran parallel to our classical cultural epoch, there is now a lack of meaning and understanding. The seriousness of this phenomenon only becomes apparent when one considers that a lasting turning away from that school of thought would be for the Germans a loss of their self, a break with the national spirit. For that striving arose out of a deep need of the German soul. It does not occur to us to want to deny the manifold errors and one-sidedness which Fichte, Hegel, Schelling, Oken and others committed in their bold undertakings in the realm of idealism; but the tendency which inspired them should not be misunderstood in its greatness. It is truly befitting for the nation of thinkers. Not the lively sense of immediate reality, of the external aspect of nature, which enabled the Greeks to create their magnificent, immortal works, is characteristic of the German, but rather an unceasing urge of the spirit to the bottom of things, to the seemingly hidden deeper causes of the nature that surrounds us. While the Greek spirit lived out its marvelous world of forms and shapes, the German, withdrawn into himself, who has less contact with nature but more with his heart, with his own inner being, must also seek his conquests in the realm of pure thought. And so it was in the German character that Fichte and his followers faced the world and life, that is why their teachings were so enthusiastically received, and why the whole life of the nation was seized by them for a time. But that is why we must not break with this direction of the spirit. Overcoming the mistakes, but developing naturally on the basis that was laid at that time, must become our motto. Not what these minds found or thought they found, but how they faced the tasks of research, that is the lasting value.
At that time, the German people should be made aware of what was in danger of disappearing from their field of vision. At that time, people still lived in a different time than today; they lived in a time when, if they had wanted to, it would still have been possible for certain circles to connect with the spirit that was beginning to decline and to pave the way for a new development of human impulses. Of course, at that time there should have been people among those who called themselves the leaders of the people, people among those who guided the youth for their later life. At that time there were no experiments of the kind that are now emerging in Russia; at that time those who were educating the youth would still have had the opportunity to return to the intentions of this old spiritual life and to resurrect it in a new sense. But at that time no one was willing to listen to any voice that spoke out in favor of this resurrection of a truly spiritual striving for humanity. And everything that has been established in the last thirty years, especially in the circles of lower or higher popular educators, has been a storming against the intentions of a spiritual worldview. Today I must remember that at the time I wrote these words, my interpretations of Goethe's worldview and Goethe's scientific ideas had already been published; I must remember how I drew the attention of those working in the field of thought and scientific research to two great dangers. I coined two expressions at the time that were intended to point to the two great enemies of human intellectual progress. On the one hand, I spoke of the dogma of revelation and, on the other hand, I spoke of the dogma of mere experience. And I wanted to show that the one-sided cultivation of the dogma of revelation, as it developed in the confessional circles, is just as harmful as the insistence on the so-called dogmas of experience, that is, on everything that only the outer world of the senses and the material world of facts provides for natural scientists and sociologists. Over time, it was then the task to, I would say, formulate these ideas more concretely, to point to the real forces behind the one and the other phenomenon.
What is behind all that is pointed out when one speaks of the dogma of revelation? Behind it lies everything that we today call, in the broadest sense, the luciferic influences on the course of human development. And behind the dogma of experience lies everything that we call, again in the broadest sense, the ahrimanic influences on human development. Those who, in our time, merely want to lead humanity under the influence of the dogma of revelation, lead them in the Luciferic sense; those who, like natural scientists, merely want to lead them in the sense of the dogma of outer sensory experience, lead them in the Ahrimanic sense. In our serious times, may it not be a New Year's reflection to survey these last three to four decades, to point out how necessary it is to raise the call again today, only in a much stronger way?
My dear friends, these thirty to forty years have clearly shown, through the course of external events, how justified that call was at the time; for anyone who looks impartially at what has happened must say to themselves: If such a call had become a reality in the minds of the people of Central Europe at that time, the misery and hardship that we are experiencing today would not have come about. At that time, the call went unheeded; now it is met with a decree from the Sacred Congregation of Roman Rites dated July 18, 1919; and the canons proclaim that what anthroposophy is must not be read from my writings because the Pope has forbidden it, but that one must educate oneself from the writings of the opponents. The canons refer not to my writings for an understanding of Anthroposophy, but to Seiling and his associates. This happens at the same time that a Berlin government with socialist pretensions is negotiating the establishment of a Roman Catholic nunciature in Berlin. That too is indicative of the spiritual signature of the present time. And today one would really like to appeal to the deepest forces of the heart of those who are still able to feel something of spiritual impulses within the development of humanity, so that they awaken to see how things actually are. For you see, today it is above all a matter of people finding the opportunity to come to their true selves. And to come to the self, for that they need trust in the own soul power. Especially with the appeal to this trust in the own soul power, one does not get through to people today. On the one hand, people want to lean on something that forces them from within to think and want what is right, and on the other hand, they want to lean on something that forces them from without to think and want what is right.
People always somehow point to two such poles and never want to strive for a balance between the forces acting from these two poles. Let us once again visualize something of the spiritual signature of the present, which is now in the process of becoming a social and material signature! In Eastern Europe we hear the old Marxist call to rise up, that a social order must come about among people in which every person can live according to their abilities and needs; a social order must be developed in which the individual abilities of each person can be realized and in which the legitimate needs of each person can be satisfied. When this is stated in the abstract, not the slightest objection can be raised against this abstraction; on the other hand, however, we hear a personality like Lenin say: “With the people of the present day, such a social order cannot be established; with them, only a transitional social order can be established.” One can only establish something that, in the broadest sense, of course, includes injustice. It is present, to a ridiculous extent, in all that Lenin and his followers establish; for he and his followers believe that only by passing through this transitional stage can a new human race be created, which is not yet here; and when it comes, it will be possible to introduce into it that social order in which everyone will be able to use their abilities and live according to their needs. So the invention of a non-existent human race to realize an idea, which, as I said, is even justified in the abstract sense.
Should there not be enough people who grasp the full seriousness of the present world situation when they hear something like this? Should it not be time to stop that drowsiness that, when something like this occurs, which in the deepest sense points to the signature of the present, closes its eyes a little so as not to grasp the full significance of such a thing? There is no other way to arrive at a concrete understanding of these things than to leave the paths of abstraction into spiritual life. But to do that, one must first really get a feeling for where abstraction is present, where people only talk in terms of a phraseology of spirit and soul, and one must feel where people talk about spirit and soul as a reality. You see, when one speaks of human abilities, they arise as revelations from man's inner being as he grows up. Humanity feels impelled, through a number of its representatives, to develop these abilities and powers, which arise in the developing human being, in an appropriate way. In this field, one can only have the right intuitive perception if one perceives in a certain way a manifestation of the divine in the manifestation of these powers and abilities, if one says to oneself: the human being has come out of a spiritual-soul world of being into this sensually real world, and what expresses itself there as his powers and abilities, what we ourselves have developed in ourselves and in others, that comes from a spiritual world, that is, having descended from a spiritual world into this physical human body, is now placed in this physical human body. But take the spirit and meaning of what has been discussed here for decades: this spirit and meaning points out to you that with the embodiment of human abilities and powers in the physical human body, the possibility is given to the luciferic beings to get at these abilities and powers.
One cannot do anything in self-activity or in educational or culture-promoting activity in one's individual human abilities and powers without coming into contact with the luciferic forces. In those regions that man has passed through before entering physical existence through birth or conception, the luciferic power could not directly approach the human abilities and powers. The embodiment in the physical human body is the means by which the luciferic powers can approach human abilities and strengths. Only by looking this fact in the eye without bias can one come to a right position in life with regard to all that wells up from human nature as individual abilities and strengths. If one refuses to see the Luciferic, if one denies it, then one falls prey to it. But then one falls precisely into that state of mind which would like to surrender to something compelling within, in order to relieve itself through all kinds of mystical or religious forces from the necessity of appealing to the free self of the human being and to seek the divine in the unfolding of one's own free self in the world. People do not want to think for themselves; they want some vague power within them to express itself, according to which they can reason logically. They do not want to experience the truth, they do not want to rouse themselves to that inner free experience that also experiences the truth; they want to experience that inner compulsion that forces them from within and expresses itself in the proof that does not appeal to the experience, but to the power of a spiritual that is supposed to overwhelm people, to force them to think one way or another about nature and about man himself. But by appealing to this inner compulsion, to this inner power, people surrender themselves to the luciferic powers. The means that can be used to make people appeal to this compulsion, so that they do not rise to freely stand in the spiritual world, is to force them to think that there are no three parts to human nature: body, soul and spirit, but when, as happened at the Eighth General Council of Constantinople, they are forbidden to think that man consists of body, soul and spirit, when they are forbidden to occupy themselves with the spirit. These are inner connections that must no longer be overlooked today, that must be clearly and impartially faced today. In 869, when it was decreed that one should not believe in the spirit in man, the Luciferic tendency entered into European civilization. And today we have the fulfillment of it. For a long time people have given themselves over to this tendency, not to experience the truth, but to let the compulsion of proof, of impersonal proof, take effect on them. This has thrown them over to the other extreme. They did not know how to deal with human abilities and powers in an appropriate way, they did not want to admit that, in the way I have just explained, in human abilities and powers, when these are embodied in the physical body, Luciferic powers live. This is the source of the distorted relationship that modern humanity has to the individual abilities and powers in human nature, which is the order of the day today.
The other pole of the human being is his needs, those needs that first express themselves in the purely physical nature. These needs, which Schiller so beautifully contrasted in his “Aesthetic Letters” with abstract logical power, he called “necessity”, while he characterized logical compulsion as the other power, as the power that strays into the spiritual. At that time, during the great period of German development, a personality like Schiller was on the way to correctly grasping the polar opposite of the human being. At that time the time was not yet ripe to say more than Schiller and Goethe and their like-minded contemporaries said. Our time is now called upon to continue these things. If we continue, then anthroposophically oriented spiritual science will result. He who is familiar only with the one-sided power of proof in the spiritual realm also comes to know in life only the one-sided, natural-instinctual power of human needs. You can easily form a mental image of When the human being, with his abilities and powers, enters the physical-sensual world through conception or birth, and Lucifer takes hold of him and, on the one hand, on the side of the head, so to speak, of the human being, takes something from what the human being should have himself, then a lesser power remains in the human being himself to assert his independence in the realm of needs. Through what Lucifer appropriates on the one hand, Ahriman on the other hand acquires the possibility of appropriating what works in the needs of human nature. And so, on the other hand, with the dogma of purely external sensory experience, the thorough Ahrimanization of the sensory-instinctual life of humanity took place in the last third of the 19th century. And so modern humanity, by failing to recognize that salvation lies in the balance between the two extremes, between abilities on the one hand and needs on the other, is now facing a terrible fact. It sees only out of its materialistic spirit the body that produces abilities, that is, only the luciferic elemental power of abilities; for it is through abilities entering into the body that they become luciferic, and if one believes that abilities arise out of the body, then one believes in Lucifer. And if one believes that needs arise out of the human body, then one believes only in the Ahrimanic nature of these needs.
And what experiment is currently being carried out in Eastern Europe under the guidance of the West? This guidance from the West is evident not only from the fact that Lenin and Trotsky are the spiritual disciples of the West, but also from the fact that Lenin was transported in a sealed carriage to Russia by Dr. Helphand, who accompanied him, so that what is called Bolshevism was procured as an imported product by the German government and the German army command. What is being attempted in Eastern European culture? Everything human, everything that is embodied in the human body as human, is being eliminated, and Lucifer is being joined with Ahriman in their pure culture. If this were realized in the East today, a creation from the collaboration of Lucifer and Ahriman would arise, to the exclusion of everything that benefits the individual human being; and the latter would be harnessed into this Luciferic-Ahrimanic culture like the link of a machine into whole course of the machine, except that the link of a machine is inanimate and can therefore be harnessed, whereas human nature is inwardly alive, ensouled, spiritualized, and does not fit into a merely Luciferic-Ahrimanic organization, but must perish in it.
Only on the basis of spiritual science can we comprehend what is actually taking place in this most nebulous, materialistic world today. But only from this spiritual-scientific point of view and from the seriousness with which it is lived can it be understood what it means that in the last thirty to forty years, instead of turning back within German nature to German spirituality, as indicated here in my essay, , but that one has finally come so far in this German cultural world that those who have been found to be the right ones have become decisive, those who have had the inaugurators of Lucifer and Ahriman transported in a sealed carriage to Russia; and this has been done by a person who was in their service and who, through all the services he has rendered in order to mediate in such a way between the East and the West, has thereby risen from being a poor wretch to become a person who, in this time, has built himself a villa in Constantinople, another in Switzerland, and a third in Copenhagen. Today, it is not enough to simply gaze around in order to be able to sleep peacefully in the face of what is actually happening in the depths of this present-day world. Today, it should be felt how necessary it is to say: We have denied and trampled underfoot what was created in the time of Schiller and Goethe in terms of German intellectual life. And we have the task of starting there and building on it. We cannot instill any better New Year's resolution into our souls than the intention to reconnect with this.
At the place – and I have already told this here years ago – where our friend Dr. Kolisko has now collected my essays, there lived in the 1970s and 1960s a man named Heinrich Deinhardt, who was a Viennese pedagogue. He had the spirit within him to intervene in education from the standpoint of Schiller's Aesthetic Letters in his materialistic age. He wrote beautiful explanatory letters about Schiller's Aesthetic Letters, which were printed at the time, about how man should be educated to free himself from compelling logical necessity and necessity, which lives only in the drives. He was one of the warning voices that said: Through education, we must prevent what would otherwise come to pass. He was not yet able to speak in spiritual scientific terms, but he pointed out at the time, with his words, how the Luciferic-Ahrimanic culture would have to come if we did not shape education science, shape the art of education, in this state of equilibrium. This man, Heinrich Deinhardt, had an accident in Vienna at the time, being knocked over in the street and breaking his leg, an injury that could have been cured with a simple operation; but according to his doctors, this man was so poorly nourished that the healing process could not take place. And so this man, who had already looked very deeply into the workings of time, died from this minor accident. Yes, that is how they treated those in Central Europe who wanted something out of spirituality. This example could be multiplied.
Well, those who write as the Jesuit Father Zimmermann, whom I mentioned to you yesterday, probably will not starve: “For example, the weekly journal ‘Threefold Social Organism’ , No. 6, that the 'new impulse' (a favorite word of the anthroposophists and the 'three-folding people') is based on the 'fullness of Steiner's spiritual knowledge'. The director of the Waldorf-Astoria cigarette factory in Stuttgart founded the independent Waldorf School for the children of the company's employees and workers, 'inspired by everything that he has learned from the thoughts of Dr. Steiner's anthroposophically oriented spiritual science'. There, 'anthroposophy is to be an artistic educational method'. Those who scoff and would trample what is desired in the spirit of the times will not starve even in our hard times. But it will be very necessary for us to inscribe such New Year impulses in our souls, which will cause us not to pass sleepily and carelessly by what is really happening: that above all we strongly absorb what is strongly meant by anthroposophically oriented spiritual science. Oh, I see many in our ranks who would prefer to sleep through the things that reveal themselves out of full compassion, out of compassion for that in our time which, if left to its own devices, must lead to destruction! There are weak-minded people who let themselves be enrolled in this Anthroposophical Society and who say: Yes, spiritual science, I like that; but I want nothing to do with social activity, that does not belong there. They could take an example from the opponents. The Jesuit priest Zimmermann follows everything that happens with us! He ends his article by saying: “The weekly ‘Threefolding of the Social Organism’ (No. 8) believes that this is an ‘attack by the Church on the historical task of self-determination of the individual’.” And in other articles, the Jesuit Father Zimmermann has shown how he is concerned about everything that is going on in our country.
So one would like to see those in our ranks also taking a good interest in things. You see, I would like to say that there are plenty of watchdogs who see only how they can discover some weakness in the field of anthroposophically oriented spiritual science and its outcomes. are quite a few; but I think you know that I am not so foolish as to point out something like what I am going to mention now out of a certain vanity, and so I can also dare to make this reference. It would be very easy for the opponents to find a point of attack here and there. So it is good to read in the essay that Dr. Rittelmeyer wrote about 'Steiner, War and Revolution': “Just a few days ago I spoke with a young Swedish scholar of political economy from the school of the strict economist Cassel, who told me that he had read Steiner's book from cover to cover, expecting to be able to expose him as a dilettante, but was unable to find a single mistake in it.” Yes, such things should be better taken into account in our circles, it should be built on the basis of the realization that here something is wanted, which has nothing to do with the popular belief of Theosophy, which prevails here and there, but which builds on equally strict insight into things, as only any science that has ever asserted itself. If this were thoroughly understood, it would also be known why what Father Zimmermann now describes as a falling away has occurred. They know that it was not that, but that we were thrown out because we did not succeed in bringing real seriousness into this society of mystical wishy-washy talk; because they did not want real seriousness was not wanted there, because they wanted to carry on the same kind of chattering that they had been doing for years, at most in connection with something about which one can say anything without any knowledge of the spiritual world. What our time so urgently needs is seriousness in the field of spiritual life. On New Year's Day, as my time here comes to an end, I wanted to speak to you again about this seriousness, and I would very much like the New Year's wish that each of us could only shape for ourselves: that through the souls and hearts of our friends, something would be opened, the view for what is needed, would be opened for what can only help humanity from the spirit. Today we cannot create something beneficial from the institutions that have been preserved, we must imprint something new on this development of humanity. This must be recognized. And to feel that this must be recognized is truly the most worthy New Year's thought that can arise in your hearts today, at the beginning of the year 1920, which will bring many important decisions if people can be found who recognize what is necessary for humanity, as has been indicated today. It must be recognized that the year 1920 will bring need and misery if such people do not come together, and that only those who wish to continue working in the old way will set the tone.
Fifth Lecture
Today I would like to appear before you with those New Year's greetings that contain what I would like to wish for you in your souls, so that you may see in our time, which so urgently needs it, the great urgent demands for the development of humanity, and so that you, each in your own place, may contribute as much as you can to the fulfillment of what is so urgently needed by humanity in our time. At such a time, which symbolically expresses the confluence of past and future, it may be permitted that I take up something that, although it is related to personal experiences, I believe has a certain significance for looking into the whole spiritual formation of the present. My dear friends, in the near future some of my essays will be published that were written a long time ago – some of them more than thirty years ago. The essays that I wrote more than thirty years ago, when I was still in Austria, have been collected by our friend Dr. Kolisko, and today, in this New Year's reflection, which, as such, is rightly a reflection on the times, I am able to refer to some of my writings from more than thirty years ago; as you will soon recognize, they were written to appeal to the conscience of the German people, to express what could be perceived at the time as a fundamental defect in the spiritual life of this German people. Allow me to read a few of these sentences, which are now more than thirty years old. They are in the article I have entitled “The Spiritual Signature of the Present”. So, they point to a past that is more than thirty years old, which was the present at the time. I wrote at the time, as can be seen from those symptoms of general intellectual life, which were more evident in the intellectual life of the nation: “Our present generation shrugs off the memory of that time when a philosophical trend ran through the whole of German intellectual life. The mighty current of thought that seized minds at the end of the last and the beginning of this century and boldly set itself the highest conceivable tasks is currently regarded as a regrettable aberration. Anyone who dares to contradict this view, when the talk is of 'Fichte's fantasies' or Hegel's 'insubstantial games of words and ideas', is simply dismissed as an amateur 'who has as little idea of the spirit of today's natural science as of the solidity and rigour of the philosophical method'. At most, Kant and Schopenhauer find favor with our contemporaries. In the case of the former, it is possible to derive the somewhat scant philosophical fragments on which modern research is based from his teachings; the latter, in addition to his strictly scientific achievements, has also written works in a light style and on subjects that need not be too remote even for people with the most modest intellectual horizons. But for that striving after the highest peaks of the world of thought, for that sweep of the spirit, which in the scientific field ran parallel to our classical cultural epoch, there is now a lack of meaning and understanding. The seriousness of this phenomenon only becomes apparent when one considers that a lasting turning away from that school of thought would be for the Germans a loss of their self, a break with the national spirit. For that striving arose out of a deep need of the German soul. It does not occur to us to want to deny the manifold errors and one-sidedness which Fichte, Hegel, Schelling, Oken and others committed in their bold undertakings in the realm of idealism; but the tendency which inspired them should not be misunderstood in its greatness. It is truly befitting for the nation of thinkers. Not the lively sense of immediate reality, of the external aspect of nature, which enabled the Greeks to create their magnificent, immortal works, is characteristic of the German, but rather an unceasing urge of the spirit to the bottom of things, to the seemingly hidden deeper causes of the nature that surrounds us. While the Greek spirit lived out its marvelous world of forms and shapes, the German, withdrawn into himself, who has less contact with nature but more with his heart, with his own inner being, must also seek his conquests in the realm of pure thought. And so it was in the German character that Fichte and his followers faced the world and life, that is why their teachings were so enthusiastically received, and why the whole life of the nation was seized by them for a time. But that is why we must not break with this direction of the spirit. Overcoming the mistakes, but developing naturally on the basis that was laid at that time, must become our motto. Not what these minds found or thought they found, but how they faced the tasks of research, that is the lasting value.
At that time, the German people should be made aware of what was in danger of disappearing from their field of vision. At that time, people still lived in a different time than today; they lived in a time when, if they had wanted to, it would still have been possible for certain circles to connect with the spirit that was beginning to decline and to pave the way for a new development of human impulses. Of course, at that time there should have been people among those who called themselves the leaders of the people, people among those who guided the youth for their later life. At that time there were no experiments of the kind that are now emerging in Russia; at that time those who were educating the youth would still have had the opportunity to return to the intentions of this old spiritual life and to resurrect it in a new sense. But at that time no one was willing to listen to any voice that spoke out in favor of this resurrection of a truly spiritual striving for humanity. And everything that has been established in the last thirty years, especially in the circles of lower or higher popular educators, has been a storming against the intentions of a spiritual worldview. Today I must remember that at the time I wrote these words, my interpretations of Goethe's worldview and Goethe's scientific ideas had already been published; I must remember how I drew the attention of those working in the field of thought and scientific research to two great dangers. I coined two expressions at the time that were intended to point to the two great enemies of human intellectual progress. On the one hand, I spoke of the dogma of revelation and, on the other hand, I spoke of the dogma of mere experience. And I wanted to show that the one-sided cultivation of the dogma of revelation, as it developed in the confessional circles, is just as harmful as the insistence on the so-called dogmas of experience, that is, on everything that only the outer world of the senses and the material world of facts provides for natural scientists and sociologists. Over time, it was then the task to, I would say, formulate these ideas more concretely, to point to the real forces behind the one and the other phenomenon.
What is behind all that is pointed out when one speaks of the dogma of revelation? Behind it lies everything that we today call, in the broadest sense, the luciferic influences on the course of human development. And behind the dogma of experience lies everything that we call, again in the broadest sense, the ahrimanic influences on human development. Those who, in our time, merely want to lead humanity under the influence of the dogma of revelation, lead them in the Luciferic sense; those who, like natural scientists, merely want to lead them in the sense of the dogma of outer sensory experience, lead them in the Ahrimanic sense. In our serious times, may it not be a New Year's reflection to survey these last three to four decades, to point out how necessary it is to raise the call again today, only in a much stronger way?
My dear friends, these thirty to forty years have clearly shown, through the course of external events, how justified that call was at the time; for anyone who looks impartially at what has happened must say to themselves: If such a call had become a reality in the minds of the people of Central Europe at that time, the misery and hardship that we are experiencing today would not have come about. At that time, the call went unheeded; now it is met with a decree from the Sacred Congregation of Roman Rites dated July 18, 1919; and the canons proclaim that what anthroposophy is must not be read from my writings because the Pope has forbidden it, but that one must educate oneself from the writings of the opponents. The canons refer not to my writings for an understanding of Anthroposophy, but to Seiling and his associates. This happens at the same time that a Berlin government with socialist pretensions is negotiating the establishment of a Roman Catholic nunciature in Berlin. That too is indicative of the spiritual signature of the present time. And today one would really like to appeal to the deepest forces of the heart of those who are still able to feel something of spiritual impulses within the development of humanity, so that they awaken to see how things actually are. For you see, today it is above all a matter of people finding the opportunity to come to their true selves. And to come to the self, for that they need trust in the own soul power. Especially with the appeal to this trust in the own soul power, one does not get through to people today. On the one hand, people want to lean on something that forces them from within to think and want what is right, and on the other hand, they want to lean on something that forces them from without to think and want what is right.
People always somehow point to two such poles and never want to strive for a balance between the forces acting from these two poles. Let us once again visualize something of the spiritual signature of the present, which is now in the process of becoming a social and material signature! In Eastern Europe we hear the old Marxist call to rise up, that a social order must come about among people in which every person can live according to their abilities and needs; a social order must be developed in which the individual abilities of each person can be realized and in which the legitimate needs of each person can be satisfied. When this is stated in the abstract, not the slightest objection can be raised against this abstraction; on the other hand, however, we hear a personality like Lenin say: “With the people of the present day, such a social order cannot be established; with them, only a transitional social order can be established.” One can only establish something that, in the broadest sense, of course, includes injustice. It is present, to a ridiculous extent, in all that Lenin and his followers establish; for he and his followers believe that only by passing through this transitional stage can a new human race be created, which is not yet here; and when it comes, it will be possible to introduce into it that social order in which everyone will be able to use their abilities and live according to their needs. So the invention of a non-existent human race to realize an idea, which, as I said, is even justified in the abstract sense.
Should there not be enough people who grasp the full seriousness of the present world situation when they hear something like this? Should it not be time to stop that drowsiness that, when something like this occurs, which in the deepest sense points to the signature of the present, closes its eyes a little so as not to grasp the full significance of such a thing? There is no other way to arrive at a concrete understanding of these things than to leave the paths of abstraction into spiritual life. But to do that, one must first really get a feeling for where abstraction is present, where people only talk in terms of a phraseology of spirit and soul, and one must feel where people talk about spirit and soul as a reality. You see, when one speaks of human abilities, they arise as revelations from man's inner being as he grows up. Humanity feels impelled, through a number of its representatives, to develop these abilities and powers, which arise in the developing human being, in an appropriate way. In this field, one can only have the right intuitive perception if one perceives in a certain way a manifestation of the divine in the manifestation of these powers and abilities, if one says to oneself: the human being has come out of a spiritual-soul world of being into this sens , and what expresses itself there as his powers and abilities, what we ourselves have developed in ourselves and in others, that comes from a spiritual world, that is, having descended from a spiritual world into this physical human body, is now placed in this physical human body. But take the spirit and meaning of what has been discussed here for decades: this spirit and meaning points out to you that with the embodiment of human abilities and powers in the physical human body, the possibility is given to the luciferic beings to get at these abilities and powers.
One cannot do anything in self-activity or in educational or culture-promoting activity in one's individual human abilities and powers without coming into contact with the luciferic forces. In those regions that man has passed through before entering physical existence through birth or conception, the luciferic power could not directly approach the human abilities and powers. The embodiment in the physical human body is the means by which the luciferic powers can approach human abilities and strengths. Only by looking this fact in the eye without bias can one come to a right position in life with regard to all that wells up from human nature as individual abilities and strengths. If one refuses to see the Luciferic, if one denies it, then one falls prey to it. But then one falls precisely into that state of mind which would like to surrender to something compelling within, in order to relieve itself through all kinds of mystical or religious forces from the necessity of appealing to the free self of the human being and to seek the divine in the unfolding of one's own free self in the world. People do not want to think for themselves; they want some vague power within them to express itself, according to which they can reason logically. They do not want to experience the truth, they do not want to rouse themselves to that inner free experience that also experiences the truth; they want to experience that inner compulsion that forces them from within and expresses itself in the proof that does not appeal to the experience, but to the power of a spiritual that is supposed to overwhelm people, to force them to think one way or another about nature and about man himself. But by appealing to this inner compulsion, to this inner power, people surrender themselves to the luciferic powers. The means that can be used to make people appeal to this compulsion, so that they do not rise to freely stand in the spiritual world, is to force them to think that there are no three parts to human nature: body, soul and spirit, but when, as happened at the Eighth General Council of Constantinople, they are forbidden to think that man consists of body, soul and spirit, when they are forbidden to occupy themselves with the spirit. These are inner connections that must no longer be overlooked today, that must be clearly and impartially faced today. In 869, when it was decreed that one should not believe in the spirit in man, the Luciferic tendency entered into European civilization. And today we have the fulfillment of it. For a long time people have given themselves over to this tendency, not to experience the truth, but to let the compulsion of proof, of impersonal proof, take effect on them. This has thrown them over to the other extreme. They did not know how to deal with human abilities and powers in an appropriate way, they did not want to admit that, in the way I have just explained, in human abilities and powers, when these are embodied in the physical body, Luciferic powers live. This is the source of the distorted relationship that modern humanity has to the individual abilities and powers in human nature, which is the order of the day today.
The other pole of the human being is his needs, those needs that first express themselves in the purely physical nature. These needs, which Schiller so beautifully contrasted in his “Aesthetic Letters” with abstract logical power, he called “necessity”, while he characterized logical compulsion as the other power, as the power that strays into the spiritual. At that time, during the great period of German development, a personality like Schiller was on the way to correctly grasping the polar opposite of the human being. At that time the time was not yet ripe to say more than Schiller and Goethe and their like-minded contemporaries said. Our time is now called upon to continue these things. If we continue, then anthroposophically oriented spiritual science will result. He who is familiar only with the one-sided power of proof in the spiritual realm also comes to know in life only the one-sided, natural-instinctual power of human needs. You can easily form a mental image of When the human being, with his abilities and powers, enters the physical-sensual world through conception or birth, and Lucifer takes hold of him and, on the one hand, on the side of the head, so to speak, of the human being, takes something from what the human being should have himself, then a lesser power remains in the human being himself to assert his independence in the realm of needs. Through what Lucifer appropriates on the one hand, Ahriman on the other hand acquires the possibility of appropriating what works in the needs of human nature. And so, on the other hand, with the dogma of purely external sensory experience, the thorough Ahrimanization of the sensory-instinctual life of humanity took place in the last third of the 19th century. And so modern humanity, by failing to recognize that salvation lies in the balance between the two extremes, between abilities on the one hand and needs on the other, is now facing a terrible fact. It sees only out of its materialistic spirit the body that produces abilities, that is, only the luciferic elemental power of abilities; for it is through abilities entering into the body that they become luciferic, and if one believes that abilities arise out of the body, then one believes in Lucifer. And if one believes that needs arise out of the human body, then one believes only in the Ahrimanic nature of these needs.
And what experiment is currently being carried out in Eastern Europe under the guidance of the West? This guidance from the West is evident not only from the fact that Lenin and Trotsky are the spiritual disciples of the West, but also from the fact that Lenin was transported in a sealed carriage to Russia by Dr. Helphand, who accompanied him, so that what is called Bolshevism was procured as an imported product by the German government and the German army command. What is being attempted in Eastern European culture? Everything human, everything that is embodied in the human body as human, is being eliminated, and Lucifer is being joined with Ahriman in their pure culture. If this were realized in the East today, a creation from the collaboration of Lucifer and Ahriman would arise, to the exclusion of everything that benefits the individual human being; and the latter would be harnessed into this Luciferic-Ahrimanic culture like the link of a machine into whole course of the machine, except that the link of a machine is inanimate and can therefore be harnessed, whereas human nature is inwardly alive, ensouled, spiritualized, and does not fit into a merely Luciferic-Ahrimanic organization, but must perish in it.
Only on the basis of spiritual science can we comprehend what is actually taking place in this most nebulous, materialistic world today. But only from this spiritual-scientific point of view and from the seriousness with which it is lived can it be understood what it means that in the last thirty to forty years, instead of turning back within German nature to German spirituality, as indicated here in my essay, but that one has finally come so far in this German cultural world that those who have been found to be the right ones have become decisive, those who have had the inaugurators of Lucifer and Ahriman transported in a sealed carriage to Russia; and this was done by a person who was in their service and who, through all the services he has rendered in order to mediate in such a way between the East and the West, has thereby become a person from a poor wretch, who has built himself a villa in Constantinople, another in Switzerland and a third in Copenhagen. Today, we cannot afford to simply cast our eyes around in order to sleep peacefully in the face of what is actually happening in the depths of this present-day world. Today, we should feel how necessary it is to say: We have denied and trampled underfoot what was created in the time of Schiller and Goethe in terms of German intellectual life. And we have the task of starting there and continuing to build. We cannot pour any better New Year's thoughts into our souls than the resolution to pick up where we left off.
At the place – and I have already told this here years ago – where our friend Dr. Kolisko has now collected my essays, there lived in the 1960s and 1970s a man named Heinrich Deinhardt, who was a Viennese pedagogue. He had the spirit within him to intervene in education from the standpoint of Schiller's Aesthetic Letters in his materialistic age. He wrote beautiful explanatory letters about Schiller's Aesthetic Letters, which were printed at the time, about how man should be educated to free himself from compelling logical necessity and necessity, which lives only in the drives. He was one of the warning voices that said: Through education, we must prevent what would otherwise come to pass. He was not yet able to speak in spiritual scientific terms, but he pointed out at the time, with his words, how the Luciferic-Ahrimanic culture would have to come if we did not shape education science, shape the art of education, in this state of equilibrium. This man, Heinrich Deinhardt, had an accident in Vienna at the time, being knocked over in the street and breaking his leg, an injury that could have been cured with a simple operation; but according to his doctors, this man was so poorly nourished that the healing process could not take place. And so this man, who had already looked very deeply into the workings of time, died from this minor accident. Yes, that is how they treated those in Central Europe who wanted something out of spirituality. This example could be multiplied.
Well, those who write like the Jesuit Father Zimmermann, whom I mentioned to you yesterday, will probably not die of hunger: “For example, the weekly journal ‘Threefold Social Organism’ , No. 6, that the 'new impulse' (a favorite word of the anthroposophists and the 'three-folding people') is based on the 'fullness of Steiner's spiritual knowledge'. The director of the Waldorf-Astoria cigarette factory in Stuttgart founded the independent Waldorf School for the children of the company's employees and workers, 'inspired by everything that he had learned from the thoughts of Dr. Steiner's anthroposophically oriented spiritual science'. There, 'anthroposophy is to be an artistic educational method'. Those who scoff and would trample what is desired in the spirit of the times will not starve, even in our hard times. But it will be very necessary for us to inscribe such New Year impulses in our souls, which will cause us not to pass sleepily and carelessly by what is really happening: that above all we strongly absorb what is strongly meant by anthroposophically oriented spiritual science. Oh, I see many in our ranks who would prefer to sleep through the things that reveal themselves out of full compassion, out of compassion for that in our time which, if left to its own devices, must lead to destruction! There are weak-minded people who let themselves be enrolled in this Anthroposophical Society and who say: Yes, spiritual science, I like that; but I want nothing to do with social activity, that does not belong there. They could take an example from the opponents. The Jesuit priest Zimmermann follows everything that happens with us! He ends his article by saying: “The weekly ‘Threefolding of the Social Organism’ (No. 8) certainly believes that this is an ‘attack by the Church on the historical task of self-determination of the individual’.” And in other articles, the Jesuit Father Zimmermann has shown how he is concerned about everything that is going on in our country.
So one would like to see those in our ranks also taking a good interest in things. You see, I would like to say that there are plenty of watchdogs who only see how they can discover some weakness in the field of anthroposophically oriented spiritual science and its outcomes. There are quite a few; but I think you know that I am not so foolish as to point out something like what I am going to mention now out of a certain vanity, and so I can also dare to make this reference. It is of course very tempting for the opposing side to find a point of attack here or there. So it is good to read in the article that Dr. Rittelmeyer wrote about 'Steiner, War and Revolution': 'Just a few days ago I spoke to a young Swedish scholar of economics from the school of the strict economist Cassel, who told me that he had read Steiner's book from cover to cover, expecting to be able to expose him as a dilettante, but that he had not succeeded in proving a single mistake. Yes, such things should be better taken into account in our circles, it should be built on the basis of the realization that here something is wanted, which has nothing to do with the popular belief of Theosophy, which prevails here and there, but which builds on equally strict insight into things, as only any science that has ever asserted itself. If this were thoroughly understood, it would also be known why what Father Zimmermann now describes as a falling away has occurred. They know that it was not that, but that we were thrown out because we did not succeed in bringing real seriousness into this society of mystical wishy-washy talk; because they did not want real seriousness was not wanted there, because they wanted to carry on the same kind of chattering that they had been doing for years, at most in connection with something about which one can say anything without any knowledge of the spiritual world. What our time so urgently needs is seriousness in the field of spiritual life. On New Year's Day, as my time here comes to an end, I wanted to speak to you again about this seriousness, and I would very much like the New Year's wish that each of us could only shape for ourselves: that through the souls and hearts of our friends, something would be opened, the view for what is needed, would be opened for what can only help humanity from the spirit. Today we cannot create something beneficial from the institutions that have been preserved, we must imprint something new on this development of humanity. This must be recognized. And to feel that this must be recognized is truly the most worthy New Year's thought that can arise in your hearts today, at the beginning of the year 1920, which will bring many important decisions if people can be found who recognize what is necessary for humanity, as has been indicated today. It must be recognized that the year 1920 will bring hardship and misery if such people do not come forward, and that those who want to continue working in the old way will set the tone.