POSTSCRIPT

A dense cloud hangs over European civilization, and truly it is only in a way surprising how little people in general are willing to allow themselves ... to feel and to be aware of this dense cloud.

Rudolf Steiner, 1924

When Rudolf Steiner died, little more than the foundations of the second Goetheanum existed. What the master had devised and planned, his apprentices and journeymen had to execute without his aid.

At the moment when all had been set on track once again but nothing had been brought to a conclusion, the Society and the School of Spiritual Science had lost their leader. It was often more than the ‘pupils’ could cope with; the work that the ‘teacher’ had planned, and that was to span the world, was too vast in scale.

It is the nature of the person studying anthroposophy and seeking to live by it, his personality, that gives it individuality and determines the face that it presents to the world. Working to a set pattern negates the aims of anthroposophy. No wonder that shortly after the death of Rudolf Steiner the Anthroposophical Society passed through a series of crises. To make matters worse, for ten years under Hitler it was banned in Germany, the land of its birth. But in all these trials it has proved itself extremely viable and has to a great extent overcome its initial difficulties. After the death of Rudolf Steiner, Albert Steffen became president of the Society. The original executive members have since died: Ita Wegman and Elisabeth Vreede in 1943, Marie Steiner in 1948, Guenther Wachsmuth and Albert Steffen in 1963.

Every year, thousands of members, and others who are interested, visit the Goetheanum, the main object being to see the performances of the four Mystery Plays, the plays of Albert Steffen, and the production of Goethe’s Faust. (The Goetheanum is today the only place on earth where one can see both parts of Faust presented unabridged.) The annual reports of the Goetheanum contain references to an abundance of lectures, seminars, and artistic events. The clinic at Arlesheim with the Institute for Cancer Research and the factories of Weleda AG have been extended. Every year the number of schools and of establishments for therapeutic education increases throughout the world. A staff is engaged in studying the literary remains, with the principal object of publishing the complete works of Rudolf Steiner.

Looking at the life and work of Rudolf Steiner, one is tempted to ask the present generation, which knows that it is on the edge of an abyss: Who and what do you seek? Do you wish to conquer materialism? To solve the social question? Do you aim at the rebirth of science, art, and religion? Rudolf Steiner has given his answers to all these questions. Events have not turned out as expected. Is this sufficient reason for rejecting his answers? Because the language he uses is so unusual? Because many of his followers fail to carry conviction? In the old days, did the great prophets and leaders of humanity fare any differently? Has our generation taken the trouble to give him and his work a fair test? Has it given a fair hearing to what he had to say, or taken up and tested his many suggestions? A monograph on Rudolf Steiner, written in the second half of the twentieth century, cannot but end by asking some severely searching questions.