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The educational philosophy of Rudolf Steiner

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The educational philosophy of Rudolf Steiner

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Content THE EDUCATIONAL PHILOSOPHY OF RUDOLF STEINER
by
Herbert Luft
A Dissertation Presented to the
FACULTY OF THE SCHOOL OF EDUCATION
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
In Partial Fulfillment of the
Requirements for the Degree
DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY
(Education)
June 1976
UMI Number: DP24140
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a .
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
THE GRADUATE SCHOOL
UNIVERSITY PARK
LOS ANGELES. CALIFORNIA 90007
This dissertation, w ritte n by
HERBERT LUFT
under the direction of A .3 :.? .... Dissertation Com
mittee, and approved by a ll its members, has
been presented to and accepted by The Graduate
School, in p a rtia l fu lfillm e n t of requirements of
the degree of
D O C T O R O F P H I L O S O P H Y
Dean
TABLE OF CONTENTS
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.....................................
Chapter
I. INTRODUCTION .....................................
Significance of the Topic
Purpose of the Study
Methodology
Definitions of Terms
Assumptions
Delimitations
Organization of the Study
II. REVIEW OF LITERATURE ............................
Introduction
Rudolf Steiner's Writings
Biographical Literature
Dissertations on Waldorf Education
Secondary Literature
Conclusion
III. THE LIFE AND WORK OF RUDOLF STEINER...........
Youth and Early Education
Higher Education in Vienna
Weimar 189 0-1897
Berlin 1897-1900
Theosophy 1900-1912
Anthroposophy 1913-1919: The Years
of Foundation
Anthroposophy 1919-1925: The Years
of Implementation
IV. STEINER'S PHILOSOPHY: AN OVERVIEW ...........
The Knowledge of Man
The Epistemology of Objective Idealism
Occult Epistemology
Chapter
The Nature of Man
The Three Bodies of Man
Reincarnation
The Law of Karma
The Development of Man
The Three Stages of Growth
The Four Temperaments
V. FROM PHILOSOPHY TO PEDAGOGY................
The Social Philosophy of Education
Education as an Art
Education as a Higher Synthesis of
Art and Science
Artistic Education and the Stages
of Growth
Tools of Art-Centered Education
Teaching and the Temperaments
Curriculum and the Content of Learning
The Anthroposophical Educator
VI. SUMMARY, CONCLUSIONS, RECOMMENDATIONS. . .
Summary
Conclusions
Recommendations for Further Research
BIBLIOGRAPHY
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
Figure
1. Steiner’s Stages of Human Growth and
Development....................................... 10 8
2. Steiner's Reaction Model .......................... 124
3. Arrangement in the Waldorf School of Periods
per Week for the Different Subjects............ 131
iv
Rudolf Steiner on his fiftieth birthday
Rudolf Steiner
1861 - 1925
THE OLD GOETHEANUM
THE NEW GOETHEANUM
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
In 1919, at the conclusion of World War I, the
Austrian-born philosopher and founder of Anthroposophy,
Rudolf Steiner (1861-1925), established his first private
school (Grades 1-12) in Stuttgart, Germany. To the philoso
pher Steiner, who claimed clairvoyant insights into the
nature of man and reality, this venture in education was a
by-product of his prodigious work in many fields. Today,
50 years after his death, the Rudolf Steiner, or Waldorf,
Schools have grown into the largest nonparochial private
school system in the world (Ogletree, 1974a, p. 344) .^
Significance of the Topic
Despite the success of his school work, Rudolf
Steiner has largely remained an "unknown educator." His
"''Lindenberg (1975, p. 186) reported 37 schools in
Western Germany in 1974 with an enrollment of 19,000 stu
dents. A leaflet issued by the Bund der Freien Waldorf-
schulen reflecting statistics of February 1975 accounts for
40 schools in Western Germany and 112 such institutions
worldwide, 11 of them in the United States.
1
pedagogical contributions have hardly been recognized by the
international educational community. Recent authors have
rightly pointed out that Neill's Summerhill, with no more
than 40 or 50 students, or, more recently, Ivan Illich's
ideas, are internationally noted and discussed, while
Steiner and his schools have remained relatively unknown to
educators. Other than Steiner's own work— he was a prolific
writer and lecturer on a variety of subjects (including
mathematics, physics, biology, astronomy, medicine, theol-
ogy, philosophy, art, drama, economics, social theory, agri
culture, and education)--there is very little literature by
Waldorf educators and virtually none by writers outside the
movement. Waldorf teachers believe that they are practical
educators, too busy to engage in publicizing their work. In
the words of one recent author, the Waldorf School movement
is a "silent movement of practitioners" (Lindenberg, 1975,
p. 9) .
Such a worldwide and growing school system should
not, however, be ignored by educationists nor be excluded
from discussions of alternate and improved methods of
schooling. The subject under investigation is especially
relevant at a time when traditional public education is
questioned and attacked from many quarters. It was the
2
larger purpose of this work to contribute to the discussion
of alternatives in education by closing a gap in the pro
fessional literature.
Purpose of the Study
It was the purpose of this study to determine and
analyze the educational philosophy of Rudolf Steiner, and
the role that this philosopher played in initiating and
sustaining the Waldorf School movement. It is hoped that
the study will promote among educationists a better under
standing of this largely unknown, yet unique and successful
school system. Furthermore, it is believed that such under
standing can enrich the current search for improved ways of
educating children.
Methodology
For this study, the methods of historical research
were applied with reference to source criticism and data-
gathering. The data thus ascertained were then subjected
to a semantic analysis, i.e., an examination of the meaning
of Steiner's terminology in the context of his teachings,
and a logical analysis in order to test the internal
coherence and consistency of his thought.
3
Because virtually all secondary literature dealing
with Rudolf Steiner and the Waldorf School movement was
written by authors associated with the Anthroposophical
Society--exceptions are noted in Chapter II--an unbiased and
critical treatment of these subjects is appropriate. Every
attempt was made to escape the commonly experienced phenome
non of becoming imprisoned in the mind-frame of a thinker or
a system of thought with which one shares an intellectual
association. Therefore, the investigator tried to maintain
the highest degree of objectivity throughout the study.
Steiner wrote and lectured in German. The Rudolf
Steiner Estate Administration (Nachlassverwaltung) in
Dornach, Switzerland, at the world headquarters of the
Anthroposophical Society, catalogued all of his publica
tions, including his 6,000 lectures, and to date has re
published approximately 300 of the projected 350 titles of
the collected works. The major philosophical writings and
practically all materials dealing with education have been
reprinted and were readily available for this investiga
tion. A few of the major works of Steiner— though not nec
essarily those addressing themselves to education— were
translated into English and are published by the Anthropos
ophical Press in Spring Valley, New York, or London.
4
All quotations or citations from Steiner's works
which appear in this monograph are original translations by
the investigator, unless the bibliographical reference
indicates use of an English translation. Generally,
Steiner's writings were examined in the original German.
In some instances, and primarily for the reader's benefit,
English translations were used.
With the exception of one short publication in
1907, all of Steiner's pronouncements on education were made
in the form of approximately 200 addresses and lectures. In
his lecturing, Steiner used no manuscripts or formal out
lines. The existing note-cards of some of these lectures
contain only cue-words or key phrases and are of no help in
reconstructing his lectures. It was necessary to rely on
the published stenographic transcripts of these lectures,
and they were used with the reservations noted below.
The legacy of Steiner's thought is preserved in two
types of primary sources, between which a careful distinc
tion must be made. First are his major philosophical works
published in book form during his lifetime. They have sub
sequently been reprinted and, in some instances, translated
by the various presses of the Anthroposophical Society.
The published transcripts of his speeches and
5
lecture courses are the second category of primary sources.
Originally these transcripts from unofficial stenographic
recordings were circulated as private editions among the
members of the Theosophical and, later, Anthroposophical
Societies. Steiner claimed that lack of time prevented him
from editing these transcripts. Because certain opponents
quoted him out of context from these private editions, he
finally released these manuscripts for open publication
through his own presses. Presumably to reduce his liability
for transcription errors and to make allowance for his
mostly extemporaneous and often rambling mode of lecturing,
he prefaced these publications with a cover statement:
"Transcribed from shorthand reports unrevised by the lec
turer" (Steiner, 296). During his later years, Steiner
employed a stenographer, who traveled with him to the vari
ous cities of Europe where he was lecturing. The education
lectures belong to this later period.
The transcribed speeches show a marked difference in
style, clarity, and precision of expression from that found
in his books. These publications then, about which the
author felt compelled to add a disclaimer, have limited
value as a primary source. Any reference to one of Steiner's
lectures must therefore be viewed with this source-critical
reservation in mind.
6
In addition to the limitations of some of the
primary sources noted above, a further difficulty in inter
preting Steiner texts arises from the imprecision with which
he selected his terminology. Conventional terms find a new
and unique use in Steiner and often are defined only in the
larger, overall context of his writings. This often
resulted in vague and ambiguous statements subject to mis
understanding and misinterpretation. Steiner, well aware of
his unconventional use of language, excused it with the need
to clothe his "nameless visions" into words in order to
impart them to others. He wrote:
I later sought in older presentations of the Spiritual
to find words to express the wordless. I used these
verbal descriptions freely and hardly any of them find
the same use which they had where I found them.
(Steiner, 1909, p. XV)
Tracing Steiner's ideas is further complicated by
his almost total lack of documentation. In his writings
and speeches he often made reference to other thinkers,
ancient and modern, Eastern and Western, without any attempt
to cite his sources. This lack of documentation was also
noted in the secondary Anthroposophical literature dealing
with Steiner's philosophy or with the Waldorf School move
ment. Other students of Steiner have also rightly observed
that the symbolic and picturesque expressions of Anthro-
7
posophical thought, as well as the frequent use of analogies
in the presentation of his "intuitive thinking," severely
impede the control of his ideas (Oppholzer, 1959, p. 14).
In the preparation of this study, the most easily
accessible edition of a Steiner publication has been uti
lized. The date of the original publication or the year of
origin of a particular lecture— other than educational lec
tures which are treated differently--was referenced through
out the text, followed by the publication date of the edi
tion actually used. The referencing in the text by original
publication date was made in an effort to detect the pro
gression of Steiner's thought and to make the relationship
between the advancement of an idea and Steiner's development
as outlined in the biographical sketch more transparent.
To make a clear distinction between citations from
education lectures as opposed to other speeches and writ
ings, the serial number of the Wiesberger (1961) Biblio-
graphical Survey of collected works have been used through
out the study when reference is made to pedagogical ad
dresses. The Wiesberger bibliography was published in con
nection with the efforts of the Anthroposophical Society to
prepare a complete edition of Steiner's works. It is the
most recent and complete of the three indices which have
appeared, listing writings and lectures chronologically and
topically, as well as chronologically within a topical
arrangement. Thus the researcher is able to identify a par
ticular book, article, speech, or lecture cycle by date of
origin and to locate it quickly in whatever edition, collec
tion, or translation he has available.
Wiesberger numbered Steiner's collected works con
secutively from 1 to 354. The educational lectures, for
instance, are listed and reprinted as Vols. 293 to 311 in
the new Steiner Gesamtausgabe (Collected Works). His first
lecture cycle on education, held prior to the opening of the
first Waldorf School, entitled Allgemeine Menschenkunde als
Grundlage der Padagogik (General Anthropology as a Basis of
Pedagogy), is indexed and reprinted as Vol. 293 in the re
cent edition of the collected works (1961, p. 119). Any
reference to this or other educational lectures has been
made by giving the Wiesberger index number, followed by the
page citation of the particular edition used. In the bib
liography, the listing of Steiner's works is preceded by a
separate listing of his educational lectures according to
the Wiesberger index number as utilized throughout the text
of the study.
This practice was adopted for three principal
reasons. First, it clearly indicates to the reader that a
particular reference originated with one of the educational
lectures. Secondly, it emphasizes the fact that the infor
mation comes from the type of primary source the total accu
racy of which cannot be assumed. Finally, it simplifies
source identification which, if conventional style had been
followed, could have become bewilderingly complex due to
the sheer number of lectures given on any one subject in any
one year. This method should also aid the interested reader
in locating sources with greater ease when confronted with
the countless reprints, editions, translations, and differ
ently arranged collections of speeches from various lecture
cycles that have appeared throughout the years.
Definitions of Terms
It has been stated: "To be translated is to be
betrayed." The terminology used by Steiner and its approxi
mation into conventional philosophical and educational
nomenclature is subject to the danger of a dual betrayal:
that of attempting to translate a translation. In fact, one
of the problems to be solved by the investigator was the
clarification and definition of Steinerian terminology.
Therefore, no attempt was made at the outset to provide the
reader with a comprehensive definition of terms. Inasmuch
10
as most definitions may be considered an essential part of
the study, terms and their meanings have been explained in
the contexts in which they appear. However, a few general
terms are defined below.
Anthroposophy is Steiner's name for his philosophy,
method of inquiry, and school of thought. The term is
derived from the Greek words anthropos, "man," and sophia,
"wisdom"; hence, the Study of Wisdom of Man. Steiner, when
referring to his method of occult epistemology, used the
terms Anthroposophy and Spiritual Science (Geisteswissen-
schaft) interchangeably. The Anthroposophical Society
founded by Steiner sees its purpose in promoting the results
of his "Spiritual Research," in experimenting along the
lines of his teachings, and in carrying on the practical
enterprises (medicine, education, agriculture, etc.) which
he founded.
Waldorf Schools and Rudolf Steiner Schools, used
synonymously throughout the text, denote the schools orga
nized and teaching according to Steiner's ideas. The schools
often assume the name Waldorf School, dating back to the
first experimental school in Stuttgart which was founded
under that name for the children of the employees of the
Waldorf-Astoria Cigaret Manufactory. Although the schools
11
more often than not go by Steiner's name throughout the
world, the entire movement perhaps is better known (espe
cially in Europe where it is strongest) as the Waldorf
School system or Waldorf pedagogy.
The term philosophy is used as defined by Alfred
North Whitehead's well-known statement "as a coherent, logi
cal, necessary system of general ideas in terms of which
every element of our existence can be interpreted" (1960,
pp. 4-5).
Educational philosophy is defined as the explicitly
or implicitly stated theoretical rationale for the pedagogi
cal practices which a philosopher and/or educator espouses
or adheres to.
Assumptions
The following assumptions have been postulated for
this study:
1. Rudolf Steiner's educational philosophy is
either stated or capable of being logically inferred from
his writings.
2. The roots of his philosophy— at least to some
extent— can be traced to other thinkers and philosophical
systems.
3. Although his ideas may ultimately be grounded in
the nonrational, they are amenable to philosophical analysis
and definition.
4. A comprehension of Steiner's philosophical pos
tulates is indispensable to the understanding of his peda
gogy and a meaningful discussion of the Waldorf School move
ment .
5. Public education in America and Europe can gain
valuable insights from a better knowledge and understanding
of Steiner's educational ideas and their application in the
Waldorf Schools.
Delimitations
The investigation was delimited to a descriptive
analysis of the educational philosophy of Rudolf Steiner as
it is reflected in the relevant literature on the Waldorf
Schools. No attempt has been made to go beyond the Waldorf
School system. Steiner's contributions to education for the
handicapped ("curative education") have been deliberately
excluded from consideration. The didactic and curricular
practices have been treated only insofar as they provided
necessary illustrations for a discussion of the more philo
sophical questions under investigation. While work in the
philosophical-theoretical area of Waldorf education is
13
lacking, a number of publications describing the more prac
tical aspects of the Steiner Schools have recently appeared.
Organization of the Study
The remainder of the study was organized as follows:
Chapter II reviews the pertinent literature: (1) the
most important works by Rudolf Steiner, (2) the literature
by Anthroposophical writers and educators, and (3) the writ
ings by authors outside the Steiner movement.
Chapter III provides a biographical sketch of the
life and work of Rudolf Steiner, giving special emphasis to
intellectual influences, formative experiences, and stages
of development as philosopher and educator.
Chapter IV presents an analysis of Steiner's
thoughts as they reflect on education.
Chapter V examines how his philosophy found expres
sion in the pedagogical practices of the Waldorf Schools.
An exposition of Steiner's anthropology, developmental the
ory, curricular organization, didactic methodology, teacher
selection, teacher training, and school organization is
provided to illustrate the close interaction between the
theory and its application in the Waldorf Schools.
Chapter VI offers various conclusions about
Steiner's educational philosophy and its implementation
14
in the Waldorf Schools. In addition, a number of recom-
imendations are advanced on the potential influence and
I '
impact of the Steiner pedagogy on public education, followed
by suggestions of specific areas in which additional
research could be particularly profitable.
CHAPTER II
REVIEW OF LITERATURE
Introduction
An investigation into the educational philosophy of
Rudolf Steiner must rely primarily on Steiner's own writings
on the subject of education. In the first part of this
chapter, a survey of those philosophical writings which are
basic to his educational ideas is presented. As an analysis
of their contents was an essential purpose of the present
study, a detailed examination of his basic philosophical
position was reserved for succeeding chapters in this mono
graph. A listing and brief characterization of Steiner's
writings and lecture cycles which address themselves di
rectly to the theoretical rationale and practical applica
tion of Waldorf education follows the section dealing with
his basic philosophy. The introduction to Steiner's writ
ings is followed by a review of dissertations and other
scholarly writings on the subject of Waldorf education.
The final part of the chapter provides an overview of the
secondary literature.
16
Rudolf Steiner's Writings
Rudolf Steiner was a prodigious writer and an
untiring lecturer. More than 6,000 of his lectures on a
variety of topics are available in print. His total liter
ary work fills approximately 350 volumes. A listing of his
total bibliographical information fills nearly 300 pages
(Wiesberger, 1961). Most of his writings and lectures have
been reprinted or published by the Anthroposophical
Society.
Only a limited number of Steiner's writings were
relevant to the present investigation, primarily his major
philosophical works and his unfinished autobiography, The
Course of My Life (1925). Especially important to an under
standing of his thought was his major philosophical work,
The Philosophy of Freedom (1894), which was consulted in its
expanded and enlarged second edition of 1918. The work is
an exposition of his philosophy of "objective realism." It
provides an epistemological and phenomenological analysis of
thinking as the prerequisite of true knowledge. Steiner
maintained that the limits of human cognition in principle
are boundless and that the systematic observation of one's
thinking can lead to a perception of higher and pure spir
itual reality (Steiner, 1918/1973, chap. VII). Cognition of
spiritual reality will result in a life of voluntary com
pliance with the laws governing the world, thus providing
true freedom to the individual. An ethical individualism
is the postulate of Steiner's philosophy of freedom
(Steiner, 1918/1973, chap. XIV).
The occult foundations of Steiner's Erkenntnistheo-
rie are found in his Theosophy (1904). In this book he
developed his ideas of the threefold division of man into
body, soul, and spirit, as well as his theories of the
three spiritual realms: the world of senses, Seelenwelt,
and Geisterland (Steiner, 1904/1973, pp. 33-60; 90-128). In
An Outline of Occult Science (1910) , these ideas are more
precisely defined and further developed. The book in its
final revision of 1925--as used in this study— serves as the
most systematic and comprehensive outline of the major
tenets of Anthroposophy.
A less theoretical exposition of the Anthroposophi-
cal research method into higher and supersensible cognition
is given in his book How to Gain Knowledge of Higher
Worlds(1904). In this work, Steiner maintained that an
increase in the accuracy of observing physical phenomena,
intuitive elements of one's thinking, and the development
of certain moral qualities can result in transcendental and
18
supersensible perceptions. In this handbook for esoteric
training of the occult pupil, Steiner outlined the precise
steps (Preparation, Enlightenment, and Initiation) that
lead to the attainment of supersensory cognition (Steiner,
1918/1972, pp. 42-89). An exposition of the differences
between anthropology and Anthroposophy is found in the
book Of Soul Riddles (1917). In this book, Steiner devel
oped an anthroposophical anthropology which is central to
his educational ideas. The work explicates his trichoto-
mous view of the human organism and his theory of the three
basic stages of human growth.
The social rationale for an innovative school system
is found in his widely disseminated book, published at about
the same time, The Essence of the Social Question (1919) .
In this work he propagated the concept of "Threefold Social
Commonwealth." The establishment of the first Waldorf
School came in response to this sociopolitical reform model
and was its first experimental implementation in the limited
sphere of education.
The roots of Anthroposophical education can be
traced to Steiner's pamphlet The Education of the Child from
the Standpoint of Spiritual Science (1906). This early out
line contains all the essential elements of what was to
19
become Waldorf education after 1919. This sketch of an
Anthroposophical pedagogy found its more precise definition
in the various lecture courses which preceded the foundation
of the Waldorf School. With the exception of the 1906 pam
phlet and a number of articles, all statements on education
originated orally at teaching-training seminars and lecture
cycles. Steiner's educational lectures given to different
audiences in various locations contain a great many dupli
cations and overlappings. However, his continued "spiritual
research" and the practical experience gained after the
establishment of the Waldorf School led to significant new
insights which are presented even in his last speeches of
1924.
Steiner's lectures often were given in series,
called "cycles," and therefore lend themselves to classifi
cation by grouping. The first group of lectures originated
with his teacher-training seminars prior to the opening of
the first Waldorf School. In courses entitled "General
Anthropology as a Basis of Pedagogy," "Education as an Art:
Methodological-Didactical Principles," and "Seminar Discus
sions with Teachers" (Steiner, 293, 294, 295), he laid the
groundwork for the educational work of the school and the
self-development of the educator.
20
The theoretical justification for an overhauled
educational structure is presented in his six lectures given
at Dornach in August 1919, entitled "Education as a Social
Problem" (Steiner, 296). A general introduction to the new
pedagogy is contained in a volume of collected speeches
given in various cities concurrent with the founding work
for the Waldorf School. The speeches are published under
the title "The Spirit of the Waldorf School" (Steiner, 297).
A strengthening of the theoretical and practical
foundations of Waldorf pedagogy is the subject of his eight
lectures to Waldorf educators in 1921, entitled Menschener-
kenntnis und Unterrichtsgestaltung (Steiner, 302) . They form
a unity with the 1921 "Christmas Course for Teachers" in
Dornbach (Steiner, 303).
The strong influence of Waldorf pedagogy in the pub
lic schools of the Swiss canton of Bern can be traced to a
great extent to his five lectures in Bern in April 1924
(Steiner, 309). A further explication of the anthroposophi
cal implications for educational practices is found in the
1923 Dornach cycle Die Padagogische Praxis vom Gesicht-
spunkte Geisteswissenschaftlicher Menschenerkenntnis
(Steiner, 306).
The three educational courses given in England in
the years 1922, 1923, and 1924 can also be seen as a unit.
21
In addition to reviewing previous ideas, Steiner provided
some significant new insights at the Ilkley, Oxford, and
Torquay educational conferences (Steiner, 305, 307, 311).
Unlike on the Continent, Steiner was enthusiastically
received by British educators, including some professors of
education. His ideas were widely acclaimed and his appear
ances received excellent press reviews.
One of the last cycles of educational lectures was
given in Arnheim, Holland, in July 1924. Entitled Human
Values in Education, it strongly reflects his views on karma
and reincarnation, as well as on medical considerations in
education (Steiner, 310).
Biographical Literature
A number of biographical accounts on the life and
work of Rudolf Steiner were published by early associates
and close co-workers of the philosopher. Without exception,
these publications indulge in hero worship and had to be
consulted with care. Nevertheless, if utilized critically,
a fairly accurate picture of Steiner's life can emerge.
Many of these reminiscences describe the particular author's
association with Steiner in one sphere or another of his
activities. Grosse (1968), a Waldorf pupil of the original
Stuttgart school, provided many glimpses of the early stages
22
of the school work and Dr. Steiner's visits at the school.
Having served as director of the educational section at the
headquarters of the Anthroposophical Society for many years
he presently serves as a member of the governing board of
the Society. Rittelmeyer (1963) , founder and first head of
the Christian Community, a church established along the
guidelines of Steiner, described his conversion to Steiner'
world view in his recollections, which emphasize the philos
opher's theological interests and occult faculties. The
physician Zeylman van Emmichhoven (1961), first chairman of
the Anthroposophical Society in the Netherlands, furnished
some biographical data and summarized a number of Steiner's
more important teachings, specifically those dealing with
reincarnation, karma, and the Anthroposophical concept of
man. Bock (1961), who succeeded Rittelmeyer as head of the
Christian Community, published a series of lectures on
little-known episodes from the early life of Steiner, based
on original research. The book illuminates a number of
important occurrences in Steiner's life prior to 1900 on
which other literature gave little or no information. The
standard work of Steiner's public years (1900-1925) is
Wachsmuth (1964). The author, a Swiss holding a doctorate
in natural science, served as Steiner's secretary for many
years, accompanying him on all journeys. His detailed
account is an indispensable source of information on the
important foundation years of the Anthroposophical Society,
especially in view of the fact that Steiner's autobiography
ends with a discussion of events in 1907. Wachsmuth fig
ured prominently in the movement after Steiner's death. A
collection of centennial essays by important pupils of
Steiner, edited by Kruck v. Porturzyn (1963), provides rec
ollections of the beginnings of a number of Steiner's
enterprises such as agriculture, medicine, education, and
eurythmy, as well as a number of anecdotes illustrating
Steiner's charisma and capturing the atmosphere which
existed between him and his closest pupils and co-workers.
Two biographies by late contemporaries (Hemleben,
1963; Shepherd, 1971) furnish little additional information
but are characterized by the same hagiographic style and
content as the above cited primary literature. No truly
critical biographies of Steiner were found.
Dissertations on Waldorf Education
The first scholarly treatment of Steiner's pedagogy
is found in Karl Hovels' (1925) dissertation for the Uni
versity of Bonn. The author, who has a strong Catholic
background, critiqued the Waldorf Schools from a Thomistic
24
point of view, concluding that they are concealed
Weitanschauungsschulen "of the purest water," which, in
teaching method and subject matter, operate in the service
of the Anthroposophical world view (Hovels, 1925, p. 67).
The weakness of Hovels' study lies in its premises. In ana
lyzing and evaluating Steiner's educational philosophy,
Hovels postulated Christianity and contemporary science,
with their disbelief in supersensible cognition, as norma
tive and absolute truths, thereby dismissing Steiner's edu
cational ideas as unworthy of serious consideration. Hovels'
biased assumptions and the underlying polemic nature of his
study, as well as inadequate access to primary sources, make
this early study of little importance.
Use Staedtke's Jena dissertation, Schiller und
die Waldorfpadagogik (1929), considered German Idealism as
the principal root of Steiner philosophy and education. She
viewed Schiller's Letters About the Aesthetic Education of
Man as the ideational antecedent, even foundation, of Wal
dorf pedagogy (Staedtke, 1929, p. 14). The close focus on
Schiller lessens the value of Staedtke1s work. In addition,
as Oppholzer (1959, p. 7) pointed out, she is guilty of mis
interpreting Schiller, whose dualistic concept of man does
not harmonize with Steiner's monism. Thus, the study
25
distorts as much as it illuminates the roots of Steiner's
educational philosophy.
The reestablishment of Waldorf Schools after the
Nazi era focused new scholarly attention on the educational
ideas of Steiner. Anthroposopher Johannes Schneider sub
mitted a dissertation to the University of Kiel, Germany,
in which he attempted a systematic and comprehensive treat
ment of Waldorf education, its history, organization, prac
tices, and theoretical rationales. The study, rather broad
in scope, provides only a general introduction. It con
cludes that the practice of Waldorf pedagogy presupposes the
acceptance of Steiner's world view, and therefore is of lim
ited value to educationists (Schneider, 1953, p. 257).
Schneider deliberately excluded an analysis of the educa
tional philosophy of Steiner, a task he considered "beyond
the scope of an education dissertation" and expressly
reserved for students of philosophy (Schneider, 1953, p. 64).
Uta Koop's (1958) dissertation, Die Padagogik der
Waldorfschulen, attempted to demonstrate how Waldorf Schools
were part of the general reformatory education movement of
the twenties, speculating that some of Steiner's practical
ideas had to be borrowed from these movements after they
had been brought to his attention by faculty members of
26
the original Waldorf School. Waldorf educators reject this
conjectural conclusion as unwarranted. Rittersbacher (1969,
p. 57) wrote: "From personal acquaintance with the original
faculty and after in-depth study of their training courses,
it must be affirmed that these assertions are objectively
false." In her work, Koop paid little attention to the
theoretical framework of Waldorf education. She drew her
conclusions about the Steiner Schools primarily from an
examination of their organization, curricula, and teaching
methodology without consideration of their proper theoreti
cal contexts.
The most devastating criticism of Steiner's peda
gogy is found in Siegfried Oppholzer's dissertation (1959)
for the University of Munster. The study, more than any
other, deals with the theoretical base of Waldorf education,
concluding that "Steiner did not introduce a single new
thought into educational history" (Oppholzer, 1959, pp. 162-
163). The charge of unoriginality--even implied plagiarism
— is unwarranted, because the author was often unable to
establish a satisfactory causal relationship between
Steiner's assertions and the partial similarities found in
ideas of other thinkers. Using Oppholzer's criteria,
hardly any thinker could claim originality. Isolated older
27
antecedents can be found for most, if not all, new ideas.
Steiner's educational theory is much too organic to be con
sidered simply a conglomerate of borrowed ideas. Oppholzer
dissertation more specifically investigated the anthropolog
ical element in Steiner's pedagogy. In so doing, he was
able to point out more precisely than any previous writer
the central importance of Steiner's human-growth theory to
his educational practices.
The only doctoral-level inquiry into Steiner educa
tion found in English is Earl J. Ogletree's (1967) study
about creativity among Waldorf-School and state-school
pupils. In this quasi-experimental and descriptive study,
Ogletree measured and compared creativity of state-school
and Steiner-School pupils in Scotland, England, and Germany
The cross-cultural comparison between the Steiner Schools'
"wholistic" and the state schools' "intellectual" approach
and its effect upon creativity as measured by the Torrance
Tests of Creative Thinking revealed that pupils in the Wal
dorf Schools scored significantly higher in creativity than
their state-school counterparts in the three countries
studied. The findings supported the hypothesis "that open
systems of education which are characterized by few pres
sures and are in accordance with the developmental process
of the child [such as Waldorf Schools], constitute the pro
pitious environment for creativity" (Ogletree, 1967, p. 219).
Ogletree made no attempt to treat the philosophical founda
tions of Waldorf education in his 196 7 study.
Ogletree, who holds membership in the Anthroposoph
ical Society and the Waldorf School Association of Chicago,
has followed up his dissertation with additional research
into Steiner pedagogy. A number of articles— besides those
disseminating the findings of his dissertation research
(Ogletree, 1971, 1972)— have appeared in a variety of
scholarly magazines, introducing further aspects of Waldorf
education. Ogletree may be regarded as the only English-
speaking scholar conducting and publishing research on the
Waldorf Schools. A few of his more important publications
include a series of articles describing the teaching of
arithmetic and multiplication tables following Steiner's
action-centered teaching method employing psychomotor activ
ities (Ogletree, 1964, 1965, 1970). His recent articles
have explored the relationship between school readiness and
bioplasmic energy. The latest theories of bioplasmic
forces coming out of Russia seem to support Steiner's
earlier contention that premature intellectual development
may sacrifice the physiological development of the child,
resulting eventually in stunted physical and intellectual
growth. Ogletree tried to demonstrate in these articles
how Steiner's stages of development have been verified by
convergent findings of Piaget, Gesell, and, more recently,
the investigators of the theory of bioplasmic forces (197 3,
1974a, 1974b, 1975).
Secondary Literature
Literature on Waldorf pedagogy by Anthroposophical
educators is of rather recent origin. Some of these publi
cations are only short and rudimentary introductions to the
Steiner method, others emphasize various aspects of Waldorf
education. General, short, and rather superficial accounts
were written by Baravalle (1960), Kiersch (1970), Tautz
(1972), and Edmunds (1975). A more detailed but less than
definitive work treating educational practices from the
viewpoint of Steiner's developmental theory is Harwood's
The Recovery of Man in Childhood (1958), while Heydebrand
(1972) outlined the curriculum. Carlgren's (1973) illus
trated book on the Steiner Schools is primarily noteworthy
for its colorful reproduction of art work by Waldorf pupils.
Kloss (1955) tried to show how Waldorf Schools fit
into the overall pattern of European reform pedagogy, con
cluding that "Waldorf pedagogy is separated equidistantly
30
from classical as well as from reform pedagogy" (p. 136).
An attempt at refuting erroneous conclusions and correcting
rash judgments about Waldorf pedagogy among educationists
was the declared purpose of Rittersbacher's (1969) short
publication. Rittersbacher pointed to the origins of some
of these misconceptions and spent as much time on the crit
ics as he did on the Waldorf Schools. His statements about
Steiner's educational ideas, however, will convince only the
already persuaded.
Lindenberg's recent paperback, Waldorfschulen (1975),
was published in the hope of promoting a dialogue between
Waldorf- and public-school educators. To date it is perhaps
the most serious Anthroposophical attempt to communicate
with educators and to invite public debate about the move
ment. The theoretical foundations of Waldorf education,
however, are treated very lightly.
Only one work by a non-Anthroposophical author on
Waldorf education was found. Schrey's (1968) sympathetic
treatment compares Waldorf pedagogy with the public-school
system of West Germany, seeking to identify those aspects of
Waldorf practices that lend themselves to incorporation in
the state schools. Schrey deliberately excluded an analysis
of Steiner's educational philosophy on the basis that one
cannot argue with an epistemology rooted in "scientific
clairvoyance" (1968, pp. 19-20). Therefore, his approach to
Waldorf education is pragmatic, arguing that educators
should not overlook the positive results of the Steiner
method just because the origins of Steiner's thought are
founded in the nonrational (Schrey, 1968, p. 23). Schrey,
an official of the ministry of culture of Germany's state of
Northrhine-Westphalia, based his study on observation, dis
cussions with Waldorf educators, and an analysis of some of
Steiner's lectures, especially the Ilkley Lectures of 1923.
As the subtitle of Schrey's book indicates, it was an
"attempt at a dialogue."
Conclusion
The review of literature indicates that very little
work has been done investigating the Steiner movement, and,
with the exception of some dissertations, virtually none by
educators outside the Waldorf School system. Most of what
has been published is characterized by a lack of a system
atic and comprehensive treatment of Steiner's educational
philosophy. The secondary literature deals primarily with
the practical aspects of Waldorf education and, with one
exception, was written by Anthroposophical educators.
32
CHAPTER III
THE LIFE AND WORK OF RUDOLF STEINER
For a number of reasons, the presentation of a
biographical sketch of Rudolf Steiner is necessary to an
understanding of the Waldorf pedagogy. Besides revealing
the formative intellectual influences that provide valuable
insights into the origin of some of his ideas, such a bio
graphical account helps to relate his educational contribu
tions to the overall context of his life's work.
Even though Steiner wrote and lectured prolifically
during his lifetime, he revealed very little of a personal
nature about himself. The main source of information is his
unfinished autobiography, which describes events up to the
years 1906-1907. The Course of My Life was written and pub
lished between 1923 and 1925 in regular installments in the
weekly organ of the Anthroposophical Society, Das Goetheanum.
In the preface to this autobiographical account, he ex
plained how he undertook this task reluctantly and upon the
urging of friends in order to counter charges of intellec
tual dishonesty leveled against him by opponents. The
33
latter accused him of changing his philosophical direction
several times during his life. The autobiography was an
attempt to show a continuous and organic development of his
philosophy and the consistency between his earlier and later
pronouncements. In his autobiography— virtually the only
source of information on the years prior to his becoming a
public figure--Steiner was very reticent about his private
life and provided only clues and hints about personal mat
ters. He tried primarily to describe his intellectual and
spiritual growth and the congruence of his ideas at a par
ticular time, relating these to the overall development of
his Spiritual Science, or Anthroposophy.
Devoted followers subsequently attempted to decipher
and further explore certain allusions to events described in
The Course of My Life. In some instances, investigations
carried on in detective-like fashion were able to shed addi
tional light on certain key events in his life (Bock, 1961).
During his lifetime, Steiner forbade his disciples to dis
close anything of a personal nature, and the nature of the
illness resulting in his death is shrouded in mystery to
this day ("Scientific Seer," 1969).
It was necessary to gather data covering the years
between 1907 and his death in 1925 from the reminiscences of
34
close associates (Rittelmeyer, 1963; Bock, 1961; Zeylmans
van Emmichoven, 1961; Wachsmuth, 1964; Grosse, 1968). These
accounts are closer to hagiography than to biography and had
to be consulted with discrimination.
Youth and Early Education
Rudolf Steiner was born on February 27, 1861, the
oldest of three children, in Kraljevec (on the border of
German-speaking Austria, Hungary, and Croatia) in the
Austro-Hungarian Empire. His father, a minor railroad offi
cial, was transferred soon after his son's birth to the
stationmaster position at the small village of Pottschach
in the beautiful Alpine foothills of Lower Austria. Here
Steiner entered the one-class village school. After a dis
agreement with the schoolmaster of the town, whom the senior
Steiner considered an incompetent pedagogue, Steiner's
father took the education of his son into his own hands
(Steiner, 1925/1967, p. 11). On a desk in the station
office, Rudolf was to read and write as his father carried
on with his official duties. His father's teaching efforts
left something to be desired and the boy learned largely
autodidactically (Steiner, 1925/1967, p. 11). At age 8,
Steiner and his family moved to Neudorfl in Hungary, just
across the Austrian border. Steiner then attended the
primitive village school, taught by the assistant of the
village teacher, from whom he also received some private
tutoring. From this teacher's library he was able to bor
row a number of books, among them a geometry text in which
he discovered patterns and forms which for some time had
been part of intuitive reflections and daydreams. For the
first time he felt that he had discovered an outer link to
his private "unseen world" (Steiner, 1925, pp. 15-19;
Shepherd, 1971, p. 30).
As Steiner told an audience in Berlin (1913), he had
his first clairvoyant experience as an 8-year-old boy in
1868. While in the railroad waiting-room at Pottschach, the
door opened and the figure of a woman spoke to him, asking
him for help. The figure then vanished. A few days later
it was discovered that at the precise time of this encoun
ter, a family relative had committed suicide at a distant
place. There was no doubt in Steiner's mind that the appa
rition he had encountered was the spirit of the deceased
relative. He did not share this discovered gift of clair
voyance with his family and friends (Hemleben, 1965, pp.
23-24) . His autobiography— written 10 years after the
initial disclosure of this occurrence in the Berlin speech—
alluded to early clairvoyant experiences, but did not
36
relate this specific incident. The motives for this later
silence in a publication whose expressed purpose it was to
shed light on the development of his theories are open to
conjecture.
The growing national tension between Germans and
Hungarians in the Hapsburg Empire added to the growing
isolation of young Steiner from the village children of his
age. As a lonely child, he had time for introspective
reflections on the phenomena he observed— mainly the natural
beauty of the country and the complexity of "modern" rail
road technology. Some biographers interpret these circum
stances as decisive in the development of Steiner's organs
of spiritual perception (Shepherd, 1971, pp. 28-29).
Until his tenth year, he served as altar boy in the
church at Neudorfl. The mysteries of the Catholic liturgy
made a far greater impression on him than the catechistical
instructions the Church provided. To him, the priest was
the mediator between the material and the spiritual world
(Steiner, 1925/1967, p. 21). In his freethinking family,
the youngster's religious feelings found no understanding
and little encouragement.
Steiner's father hoped that his oldest son would
become a railway civil engineer, and in 1872 he enrolled the
37
11-year-old lad in the technical high school (rather than
the classical Gymnasium) in the regional metropolis Wiener
Neustadt. Rudolf commuted to secondary school by train.
When trains were delayed or not running, he had to under
take an hour's walk across the countryside, oftentimes in
knee-deep snow.
Although Steiner's aptitude had impressed the
entrance committee of the school, the limitations of his
primary education left him weak in reading and orthography
(Shepherd, 1971, p. 31). Only at the end of the second year
did his marks improve and was he considered a "good student"
(Steiner, 1925/1967, p. 25). The dreamy country boy found
the bustling city life quite bewildering. The showcases of
the bookstores drew him magnetically, and in one of them he
chanced to see Kant's Critique of Pure Reason in an inexpen
sive paper-bound edition. He scraped together enough money
to buy this work whose title held out the promise of telling
him to what extent human reason is capable of penetrating
into the "nature of things" (Steiner, 1925/1967, p. 28).
The 15-year-old Steiner read and re-read Kant, of whose
place in philosophy he was initially quite ignorant. In
studying Kant, Steiner hoped to find some ideas that would
help him uncover the relationship between human thought and
the operations of nature. He admittedly read Kant uncriti
cally, yet found no answers to his pressing questions
(Steiner, 1925/1967, p. 29). His reflections upon the
problem made him form three conclusions as to the nature
of thought which Shepherd (1971, p. 32) summarized as fol
lows :
1. Each thought must aim at the standard of complete
accuracy.
2. There must be a harmony between the conclusions of
thought and those of religion.
3. Nothing can be excluded from the realm and range
of thought.
If these conclusions were indeed formed at this early age,
the epistemological parameter of his later Anthropology is
set here.
To help defray some of his educational expenses,
the 15-year-old Steiner started tutoring. His teachers
recommended him to pupils in need of help, some of whom were
his own classmates. These activities provided him with his
first teaching experience and he "learned the difficulties
of the development of the human soul" from these students
(Steiner, 1925/1967, p. 32).
Autodidactically he learned Greek and Latin, trigo
nometry, analytical geometry, and calculus (Steiner, 1925/
1967, pp. 32; 34). A physican in Wiener Neustadt, whose
39
acquaintance he had made at the station in Neudorfl, invited
the pupil into his home, allowed him to use his library and
introduced him to the writings of the German classics,
especially Lessing. In his final years of secondary school,
Steiner read Herbart, whose philosophy was much in vogue in
Austria at that time.
Autodidactic acquisition of learning remained char
acteristic of Rudolf Steiner throughout his life. It is
undoubtedly responsible for certain unorthodoxies in his
writing and speaking style. Contemporary critics castigated
him for his muddled style and false grammar, accusing him of
using barbarous German (Leisegang, 1922, pp. 26, 58). These
charges are not unfounded. His style does not allow easy
comprehension of his ideas, but neither does it disqualify
him as a thinker worthy of serious consideration. The un
conventional and unsystematic manner in which he gained his
traditional knowledge is also, in all likelihood, one of the
roots of his unusual originality and creativity.
In 1879 he graduated from the technical high school
at Wiener Neustadt with honors (Hemleben, 1965, p. 21).
Higher Education in Vienna
In 1879 the railroad company made good a promise
given to Steiner's father for a transfer to a station on
40
the outskirts of Vienna, in order that his son could attend
college in that city. Being a graduate of a technical high
school (Realschule), Steiner was barred from the University
of Vienna, but could enroll in the Technical College. His
vocational aim was high-school teaching in the subjects of
mathematics and geometry (Steiner, 1925/1967, pp. 37-38).
In the fall semester of 1879 the 18-year-old Steiner matric
ulated at the Technical College in Vienna in mathematics,
natural history, and chemistry.
The Vienna years in many ways provided the decisive
impulses for the rest of his life. In addition to his
scientific studies, he immersed himself in the writings of
the German Idealists— Fichte, Hegel, Schelling— and audited
courses in philosophy at the University of Vienna. The ten
sion engendered by his scientific and philosophical studies
characterizes this period of formal education and is prob
ably the foundation for his later attempts to synthesize
empirical science and speculative philosophy in his
Anthroposophy.
While commuting home by train, Steiner became
acquainted with a medicinal herb-gatherer who regularly
peddled his dried plants to the apothecaries of Vienna.
He was the first person with whom Steiner "could speak about
41
the Spiritual World as with someone who had experiences in
it" (Steiner, 1925/1967, p. 43). His autobiography shrouds
the identity of the herb-gatherer, Felix, in mystery. Emil
Bock (1961, pp. 17-38), following the scant references to
Felix given in Steiner's autobiography and a few of his
speeches, traced the descendants of the herb-gatherer after
World War II and identified him as Felix Koguzki, from a
small village near Vienna. The literate though uneducated
peasant was remembered by the villagers as an occultist.
Remnants of his occult library were found, including a diary
that verified at least one visit of Steiner to his home.
Koguzki— whom Steiner memorialized in the figure of Felix
Balde in one of his Mystery Dramas--must be regarded as the
first occultist whom Steiner encountered.
Soon after the association with the herb-collector,
Steiner met his occult master in Vienna; his identity has
never been revealed. In the outwardly humble figure of this
person, Steiner perceived an "initiated one" in the eso
teric tradition whose pupil he became. The nameless person
directed him toward his life's task: the fight against the
materialistic world-concept of modern science. Steiner
related this encounter to Edouard Schure, the French writer
and student of ancient mysteries, during a visit in 1906.
According to Schure, the master outlined the pupil's course
of action in the fight against materialism as follows:
If you want to conquer the enemy, start by fully under
standing him. You will only be victorious against the
dragon, if you first slip into his skin. . . . I have
shown you who you are. Now go hence and act accord
ingly. (Bock, 1961, p. 43)
Steiner decided that he had to master the scientific think
ing of his age to fully understand its limitations before
being able to develop a spiritual conception of the nature
of things. The materialistic bias of the natural sciences
of the late 19th century left no room for occult experi
ences, which had now been a phenomenological reality in his
life for some time. He also reacted against the prevalent
mood in contemporary philosophy, as epitomized by Kant's
assertion that human cognition had definite boundaries."*"
At this junction, Steiner came in close contact with
perhaps the single most important personality of his life--
Karl Julius Schroer, professor of German literature at the
Technical College. In the last of his lectures in the
Karma Series of 1924 (the year before his death), Steiner
revealed to a select audience that he considered Schroer
the reincarnation of Plato (Bock, 1961, p. 49) .
"*"It is well to recall Kant's attack on Emanuel
Swedenborg in his Dreams of a Spirit Seer, 1776.
43
From Schroer, Steiner took courses on the literature
of Goethe and Schiller. An unswerving Goethe enthusiast,
Schroer deepened the effect of his lectures in private con
versation with the 19-year-old student. Steiner wrote:
When I was sitting alone with Schroer [in his library],
I always had the feeling as if a third one was present:
Goethe's spirit. Schroer lived so much in Goethe's
being and works, that at every perception or idea
which appeared before his soul, he intuitively asked:
Would Goethe have perceived and thought in the same
manner? (Steiner, 1925/1967, p. 65)
Through Schroer he was also led to Schiller's Letters on
Aesthetics, which deeply affected him. He wondered if
Schiller's concept of consciousness of Beauty (a condition
in the human soul which leads to cognition and creation of
Beauty) could be transposed into general consciousness, an
awareness of the true nature of things (Steiner, 1925/1967,
pp. 4 9-50).
With his background in the sciences and his inter
est in Goethe awakened, Steiner turned to the largely dis
regarded scientific writings of the poet in the hope of
reconciling his own philosophical and scientific studies.
Whereas Schroer did not venture beyond Goethe's idealism,
Steiner sensed spiritual reality not behind but in ideas
whose perception to him were shadows of an existing spiri
tual reality. This conception he termed "objective
44
idealism," the soul of man being the subject upon which
objective reality is cast (Steiner, 1925/1967, pp. 65, 67).
Upon Schroer1s recommendation, the 23-year-old
Steiner, having just been graduated, was invited by the pub
lisher Kuerschner to edit Goethe's scientific writings for
a popular anthology of German classics. In his annotations
and introduction, Steiner tried to establish the link
between Goethe's scientism and his total world view
(Steiner, 1925/1967, pp. 79-80).
Goethe maintained that nature cannot be understood
atomistically-mechanically as spatial arrangement of physi
cal substance and force. Neither can it be explained
causally-mechanistically, as a chemical-physical evolution
from a prior and "lower" material substance (Kloss, 1955,
pp. 98-99). For Goethe, both the inorganic and the organic
(the latter including man and the renditions of the human
spirit) originate from one root, namely, the eternal forces
of nature (Steiner, 1923, p. 166). All manifestations of
nature are archetypal and hence spiritual in nature. As
Steiner wrote: "Human spirit to Goethe is wholly nature
because nature is wholly spirit" (1923, p. 11).
In his commentaries on the first of his five vol
umes of Goethe's scientific writings, Steiner stressed the
45
manner in which Goethe's view of nature traces the gradual
metamorphosis from plant to animal life and thus to the
human organism as the highest evolution of the organic
sample, being both receptacle and embodiment of Spirit
(Geist). In this way, Steiner noted, Goethe's organic con
cept of nature leads natural science (Naturwissenschaft)
over into spiritual science (Geisteswissenschaft) (Steiner,
1925/1967, p. 81). Just as Goethe, through his studies on
plant morphology, conceived the Urpflanze (primeval plant)
as one aspect of archetypal reality, so Steiner later "ex
perienced" internalized nature perception as spirit percep
tion, the latter representing simply a metamorphosis of the
former (Steiner, 1925/1967, p. 125). The principle of meta
morphosis is crucial to an understanding of Steiner's
thought, as he applied it to all spheres of life. It sup
ports, perhaps more than any other central idea, his later
concepts about education (Harwood, 1958, p. 11).
In 1884, having completed his course of studies and
while engaged with his editorial work, Steiner found employ
ment as resident tutor in the house of the Jewish industri
alist Specht. He lived with the Specht family until he
moved to Weimar six years later. His main occupation was
the teaching of a 10-year-old hydrocephalic boy. Steiner
judged the boy capable of a normal intellectual development,
but considered it his task
to find access to his soul which was in a sleeplike
condition and which had to be brought gradually to
gain ascendancy over his faculties. In a sense one
had to join and integrate his soul with his body.
(1925/1967, p. 73)
Within two years the boy's hydrocephaly had largely
disappeared. After passing the entrance examination to the
Gymnasium, he eventually became a medical doctor. The years
as private teacher and tutor of this handicapped child pro
vided Steiner with some of the insights and experiences that
proved valuable to him as he developed his Waldorf pedagogy
and helped him outline his plans for instruction of the
handicapped ("curative education"). He wrote:
My teaching practices gave me insight into the con
nection between spirit-soul and body in man. This
was my true study of physiology and psychology. I
experienced that education and teaching to become an
art, founded upon a true perception of man (Menschen-
Erkenntnis). (Steiner, 1925/1967, p. 74)
Steiner's social life in the Vienna of the 1880s was
rich and varied. Describing himself as a gregarious person,
he participated in the intellectual and artistic life of the
city (Steiner, 1925/1967, p. 52). Among the groups he came
in contact with were such contraries as the friends sur
rounding the poetess Marie Eugenie delle Grazie (1864-1931),
who espoused a fin de siecle pessimism as reflected in the
47
writings of Schopenhauer and Nietzsche, and the Vienna
Theosophists who met in the house of Marie Lang (Steiner,
1925/1967, chap. VII). Marie Lang, an early women's libera-
tionist, had been introduced to Theosophy through the writ
ings of the Russian-born Helena Petrowna Blavatzky as well
as through Franz Hartmann, who penned a whole library of
theosophical works for German-speaking audiences. Hartmann
was also important in establishing a German branch of the
Theosophical Society, which had been founded in America in
1875 by Mme. Blavatzky and Colonel Henry Steel Olcott (Bock,
1961, pp. 78-79). In his autobiography, Steiner emphasized,
however, that his conviction in reincarnation had been
formed before this association with Theosophy and also prior
to his reading of A. P. Sinnet's Esoteric Buddhism (Steiner,
1925/1967, p. 96). Incidents and occurrences during the
Vienna period that led to his belief in reincarnation are
not described in The Course of My Life, but they are re
lated in Bock's published lecture series on Steiner's life
(1961, pp. 58-59).
In 1886, before the appearance of the remaining
three volumes of Goethe's annotated scientific writings,
Steiner published his first book, entitled Die Grundlinien
einer Erkenntnistheorie der Goetheanischen Weltanschauung
48
mit besonderer Riicksicht auf Schiller (The Basis of an Epis-
temology of Goethe's World View with Particular Considera
tion of Schiller). In this Erstlingswerk, Steiner pointed
out the inability of physical science to explain phenomena
beyond the inorganic. In Goethe's epistemology he found the
type of methodological disposition (primarily the concept of
spiritual metamorphosis) necessary to an understanding of
the inorganic as an extension of the organic.
In his first Kuerschner volume, Steiner enthusias
tically called Goethe the scientist "the Copernicus and
Kepler of the organic realm" (Hemleben, 1965, p. 39). In
his Epistemology of Goethe, Steiner presented his own en
largement of Goethe's theory of knowledge, maintaining that
Goethe failed "to think about his thinking," that is, to
reflect upon his theory of knowledge. Steiner felt this
needed to be done in order to verify the scientific nature
of Goethe's scientific methodology. The short work of about
140 pages was appended to the Goethe section in Kuerschner's
anthology. In this work, one of the roots of Anthroposophy
and, by extension, the Waldorf pedagogy is to be found.
In 1888 the 27-year-old Steiner became editor of
the Duetsche Wochenzeitschrift, a reputable weekly magazine
which commented on political and social issues in the
49
Austrian Empire. During his short interlude as editor,
Steiner came in contact with some of the Austrian Socialist
leaders. This period marks the beginning of his interest
in social issues and social theory, to which he was to
return later. Stimulated by these contacts, he read Marx
and Engels and rejected dialectical materialism as the prime
moving force in human historical development (Steiner,
1925/1967, pp. 102-104). The great significance of the
"social question" became evident to him and influenced his
own social theory; the Threefold Human Commonwealth (1919)
probably goes back to this encounter. The establishment of
the first Waldorf School in the same year was conceived as
the first step toward the realization of this social theory.
Differences between the owner and the founder over editorial
policy soon ended Steiner's first, short-lived journalistic
experience.
Steiner's school and university years must be
regarded as the truly formative ones in his life. Most of
the essential themes of his later work appear in abbreviated
form during the first 30 years of his life. During the next
10 or 12 years, Steiner synthesized his scientific, philo
sophical, and occult interests and formulated a theory of
knowledge.
50
Weimar 1890-1897
Upon the recommendation of Professor Schroer, the
Goethe and Schiller Archives in Weimar interviewed the young
Goethe scholar and offered him the editorship of Goethe's
scientific writings for the great Sophien edition. His
scientific studies and his editorial experience in the
Kuerschner edition made him uniquely qualified for the
preparation of Goethe's scientific papers— some of which
had never been published— in definite form. In the autumn
of 1890, the 29-year-old Steiner moved to Weimar to work
side-by-side with some of the most distinguished Goethe
scholars of his age.
Having attended a technical high school rather than
a classical prep school in his youth, Steiner was barred
from doctoral studies in an Austrian university. During
his last years in Vienna, he had read Heinrich von Stein's
Sieben Bucher Platonismus, which had impressed him. In
Weimar he decided to write a philosophical treatise and sub
mit it to Professor von Stein, who was teaching philosophy
at the University of Rostock, as a dissertation. It was not
uncommon for a German university in the 19th century to
award a doctorate for a scholarly thesis or publication if
a professor or a committee would accept and sign the
research project, course work being no prerequisite to
earning the degree. Von Stein, whom Steiner saw only twice,
once during his dissertation orals, accepted the manuscript
but added:
Your dissertation is not quite as expected; it shows
that it was not written under a professor's super
vision. What it contains, however, makes it possible
for me to gladly accept it. (Steiner, 1925/1967, p.
141)
The 46-page dissertation, entitled "The Basic Questions of
Epistemology with Special Considerations to Fichte's Scien
tific Teachings," contrasts the scientific epistemology of
Kant with that of Goethe. One of Steiner's opponents later
qualified it as an "average little doctoral dissertation"
(Leisegang, 1922, p. 32). In 1892, a year after receiving
his doctorate, his dissertation was published as Wahrheit
und Wissenschaft and, together with his first book, Goethe's
Epistemology, became the prelude to his major philosophical
work, the Philosophie der Freiheit (1894/1973), translated
as The Philosophy of Freedom, in which an epistemological
phenomenology characterized his approach to knowledge.
In this book I tried to show that an unknown does not
rest behind but in the world of senses. I tried to
show that the human world of ideas has its existence
in this spiritual world. To the human consciousness
the essential nature of the world of the senses is
only concealed so long as the soul only perceives
through the senses. Cognition is not a reflection of
true essence but a penetration (sich-hinein-Leben) of
52
the soul into this essence. . . . The world of senses
remains a phenomenon only as long as consciousness
has not totally managed it. The purpose of the knowl
edge process is the conscious experiencing of the spir
itual world at the view of which all resolves into
Spirit. (Steiner, 1925/1967, pp. 172-173)
For most of his seven years in Weimar, Steiner
boarded in the house of Anna Eunike, a widow with five chil
dren. Friends had introduced him to the family, and Steiner
claimed to have followed the deceased husband's soul into
the spirit world. (A similar clairvoyant experience had
occurred to him with a family in Vienna [Steiner, 1925/1967,
pp. 201-207].) In the Eunike house, Steiner had access to
the late husband's library, and Frau Eunike hosted his
friends and visitors; he was treated as a member of the
family (Steiner, 1925/1967, p. 207). In 1899 Steiner mar
ried Anna Eunike, eight years his senior, in Berlin. She
died in 1911, having lived in separation from Steiner during
the last years of her life (Hemleben, 1965, p. 52). The
reason for the couple's estrangement could not be deter
mined from the biographical literature.
Into the Weimar period also falls Steiner's meeting
with some of the important personalities of German intel
lectual life. Among them was the Berlin philosopher, Eduard
von Hartmann (1842-1916). Steiner had read von Hartmann's
"Epistemology" and "Phenomenology of Ethical Consciousness."
53
At that time von Hartmann's transcendental realism, which
did not attempt to speculate beyond phenomena, fascinated
him. Steiner dedicated his published dissertation to the
philosopher.
In 1894, after many years of correspondence, Steiner
finally met Ernst Haeckel (1934-1919). Haeckel was Ger
many's leading advocate of Darwinism and the chief exponent
of a materialistic monism. Steiner's subsequent support of
the controversial Haeckel, whom "philosophers considered a
dilettante and the scientists a dreamer" has been the source
of much criticism (Leisegang, 1922, p. 43; Oppholzer, 1961,
pp. 21-22) . Haeckel, in his widely discussed book, Welt-
ratsel (World Riddle) (1899) , based a naive philosophy upon
a primitive materialism and proclaimed: "There is no God,
no immortality, and no freedom of the human soul" (Hemleben,
1965, p. 55). Steiner entered the partisan debate with his
pamphlet, "Haeckel and His Opponents" (1900). His two-
volume Welt- und Lebensanschauungen im neunzehnten
Jahrhundert (1900-01) is dedicated to the controversial Jena
scientist. In the preface he wrote: "My views are in full
harmony with the results of the greatest contemporary natu
ral scientist Ernst Haeckel." Various articles written by
Steiner during this period place him squarely into the
Haeckelian camp.
54
Haeckel's materialistic monism is diametrically
opposed to Steiner's spiritual monism. Steiner and his
well-meaning biographers have expended much effort to
explain this contradiction away, stating that he merely
defended the notion of evolution and sought to protect a
scientist from unfair attacks by philosophers (Hemleben,
1965, pp. 54-57; Zeylmann van Emmichoven, 1961, p. 33;
Steiner, 1925/1967, pp. 286-288). Steiner's contemporary
critics accused him of intellectual opportunism and dis
honesty (Leisegang, 1922, pp. 47-54; Oppholzer, 1961, pp.
21-22). There seems to be indeed an unexplained disconti
nuity in his thinking, which stands in contrast to his
avowed uninterrupted progression of ideas.
Among the most prominent of the intellectual elite
with whom Steiner came in contact during the Weimar years
were the widely acclaimed Heinrich von Treitzschke, Ger
many's "national historian," the literary historian Herman
Grimm (1828-1902), and the novelist and influential feminist
Gabriele Reuter (1859-1942).
The majority of his Goethe research completed,
Steiner was drawn for a period into the intellectual orbit
of Friedrich Nietzsche. The philosopher was ill at his home
in Naumburg, and his sister, Elisabeth Forster-Nietzsche,
55
was planning the establishment of a Nietzsche Archive. She
met Steiner during one of her visits to the Goethe Archives
where she had come for assistance, and invited him to Naum-
burg. On one of his first visits he was led into the room
where Nietzsche rested, apathetic and unreachable by the
outside world. This encounter with the insane philosopher
made a deep impression on Steiner. Soon afterwards he
entered into the current debate over Nietzsche by publishing
his book, Nietzsche as the Adversary of His Age (1895).
Upon publication of the book, Steiner became a regular, wel
come guest at the Nietzsche home. At one time he spent sev
eral weeks in Naumburg organizing the philosopher's library.
It gave him an opportunity to read Nietzsche's books and
study his marginal annotations. In Weimar many regarded him
now as a follower of Nietzsche, and at one time Frau
Forster-Nietzsche offered him the position of editor of the
Nietzsche papers (Steiner, 1925/1967, pp. 176-181). In a
letter to Frau Specht in Vienna, Steiner wrote enthusias
tically :
Nietzsche's Antichrist is one of the most significant
books ever written. I have been able to find my own
feelings reflected in each sentence. For the time
being I am at a loss for words to describe the kind
of satisfaction which this work has kindled in me.
(Bock, 1961, p. Ill)
56
Steiner maintained that Nietzsche's spirit had been broken
because he was unable to find spirit (Geist) in an age of
materialistic science:
He searched in this age but could not find anything
in it. My experience with and through him only for
tified my opinion that all searching in the discov
eries of natural science cannot reveal anything of
essence. It must be found through science interpreted
in a spiritual manner. (Steiner, 1925/1967, p. 181)
A disagreement between Steiner and Frau Forster-
Nietzsche ended all possibilities of an official position
for Steiner at the Nietzsche Archives. Sources in sympathy
with Steiner maintained that the conflict arose over
attempts of Nietzsche's sister to forge or alter passages
in the philosopher's papers and letters (Bock, 1961, pp.
114-128). Steiner's passionate embrace of the atheist
Nietzsche's philosophy may well have been brought about in
large part by his desire for the editor position in the
Nietzsche Archives. Otherwise, as in the case with Haeckel,
his zeal for Nietzsche can only be explained "by his capac
ity for sympathy with and understanding of those with whose
ultimate conclusions he was completely at variance" (Shep
herd, 1971, p. 51). The partisan biographers of Steiner
uncritically accept the statements in his autobiography
that address themselves to these discrepancies, namely his
ability to understand and see the justification of every
57
position from its own vantage point (Steiner, 1925/1967,
pp. 164-166).
This interpretation is not wholly convincing, how
ever; it seems more designed to cover up the embarrassment
over the inconsistencies of the early writings which con
temporary opponents of Steiner widely publicized. Through
out his autobiography, Steiner attempted to give proof of a
continuous development of his ideas. Steiner may have
believed his efforts were necessary to explain away incon
sistencies in order to dissipate any incipient doubt of his
supersensible abilities among his followers.
It seems unreasonable to measure a thinker’s sea
soned philosophy by his early, sometimes contradictory, and
often groping attempts to achieve clarity and insight.
Steiner began the public teaching of his major ideas at
age 40, after they had coalesced into the semblance of a
system.
During the Weimar period, Steiner also wrote intro
ductions to the works of Schopenhauer and Jean Paul, which
were published in the Cottaschen Bibliothek der Weltlitera-
tur. This phase of his life closed out with the publication
of Goethes Weltanschauung (1897/1963). During his seven
years in Weimar, he published 95 books and articles, includ
58
ing his edited works (Hemleben, 1965, p. 61). As an aspir
ing philosopher, however, he was not able to gain the recog
nition of the intellectual circles of Weimar. Since the
publication of his Philosophy of Freedom, he had remained
relatively isolated. Feeling misunderstood and ignored, he
complained about the sterile atmosphere of the "graveyard
Weimar" in many letters (Bock, 1961, pp. 112-113; Hemleben,
1965, p. 47).
Berlin 1897-1900
After his editorial work at the Goethe Archives was
completed in 1897, the 36-year-old Steiner explored new
career opportunities. A much-coveted teaching post at the
University of Jena did not materialize because of a negative
recommendation by Professor Suphan, the director of the
Archives (Bock, 1961, p. 112). Finally, Steiner purchased
the Magazin fur Literatur, the official paper of the Free
Literary Society, a revolutionary counterpart to the tradi
tional Literary Society (Hembleben, 1965, pp. 68-69), and
moved to Berlin to assume the editorship. To ensure the
continued financial viability of the magazine, Steiner was
under contractual obligation to name the controversial
writer, Erich Hartleben, as co-publisher. Hartleben was
renowned in Berlin for his dissolute life-style and had
59
gained notoriety for publishing his erotic exploits. Anyone
associating with him was considered unpresentable in the
bourgeois society of Berlin. For a while, Steiner was drawn
into the circle of Bohemians surrounding Hartleben. "From
an extreme, almost monkish ascetic element the pendulum
swung to an exuberant and unrestrained life" (Bock, 1961,
p. 139). The next two years were spent in this counter
bourgeois milieu, and the association with Hartleben made
any contacts with acquaintances at the University of Berlin,
such as Professor Hermann Grimm, impossible. Steiner's
autobiography provides no details of these years. He
alludes to them as years of great testing in which the kar
mic obstacles had to be surmounted by the spirit (Steiner,
1925/1967, p. 257). His life became more settled again
when in 1899 he married Anna Eunike.
During his work as editor and publisher of the
magazine, Steiner was constantly plagued by financial wor
ries. While looking for sources to augment his income, he
was offered a teaching position by the Berlin Workers
School, an evening academy founded for the proletariat by
Wilhelm Liebknecht, Sr., and a school with decidedly Marxist
leanings. Steiner accepted a teaching position in history
and speech, with the understanding that he would have
academic freedom. His experience in adult education lasted
until 1905, when his antimaterialistic and un-Marxian inter
pretations of history forced him to resign (Steiner, 1925/
1967, chap. XXVIII). His interest in the education of the
proletariat found renewal in 1919, with the establishment of
the Waldorf School.
During this period he also associated with a group
of bourgeois social revolutionaries known as "the Fried-
richshagener." The group gathered informally in Fried-
richshagen, one of Berlin's eastern suburbs, and was fre
quented by such socialist sympathizers as playwright Gerhard
Hauptmann (The Weavers); Scottish writer John Henry Mackay
(1864-1933), advocate of an individual anarchism; Jewish-
Polish poet Ludwig Jacobowski (1868-1900), and genial hobo
poet Peter Hille (Hembleben, 1965, pp. 71-76; Bock, 1961,
pp. 153-165). To propound their social and political views,
a "Free University" was founded, in which Steiner also pre
sented some lectures. His experience with the Free Uni
versity quite possibly influenced him in the later estab
lishment of the Freie Hochschule fur Geisteswissenschaft
(Free University for Spiritual Science), Steiner's Anthro-
posophical teaching and research center in Dornach,
Switzerland.
The Friedrichhageners also launched the Giordano-
2
Bruno Bund, founded for the purpose of furthering a monis
tic world view. In October 1902, Steiner presented his lec
ture, "Monism and Theosophy," before this forum. It led to a
break with this Society and marked the beginning of his
open activities as a Theosophist (Steiner, 1925/1967, p.
274). Between 1899 and 1902, his lectures at the Workers
School, the Giordano-Bruno Society, the Free University, and
various other societies and clubs totaled almost 800.
Theosophy 1900-1912
After the Magazin fur Literatur folded because of
his admitted radical and revolutionary views, and his teach
ing activities at the Workers School started to meet with
growing opposition, Steiner quietly began to lecture to
members of Berlin's Theosophical circles in 1900.
In the first years of the 20th century, when a num
ber of divergent elements in his life overlapped, Steiner
experienced a personal religious conversion. In his earlier
days he had been known as a ardent and fiery opponent of
The association was named after the Italian
Dominican burned in 1600 by the Inquisition for his monis
tic and pantheistic views. He also claimed clairvoyant
experiences.
62
Christianity, but concurrent with his interest in Theosophy,
unspecified "spiritual experiences" turned him into a
believer in Christianity. This conversion, however, was the
result of his own revelatory insights. "The evolution of
my soul," he wrote, "rested upon the fact that I stood
before the mystery of Golgotha in a most inward, most solemn
festival of knowledge" (Steiner, 1925/1967, p. 259). Much
of his Anthroposophical teachings hinged upon the "central
mystery of Golgotha" and its impact on the evolutionary
process of the earth and man. His views on Christianity
later resulted in a new theology which regarded the Gospels
and the Apocalypse as esoteric documents, and subsequently it
led to the establishment of the Christengemeinschaft
(Christian Community) under the leadership of the renowned
Berlin pastor, Dr. Friedrich Rittelmeyer (Rittelmeyer,
1963) .
Steiner used the term "Anthroposophy" for the first
time in the lecture cycle of 1903, entitled "From Zara-
thustra to Nietzsche; Developmental History of Man as Evi
denced in the World Views from Oldest Times to the Present,
or Anthroposophy." Immanuel Fichte, Johann Gottlieb
Fichte's son, had employed the term originally. One of
Steiner's philosophy professors in Vienna, Robert Zimmerman,
also used the term in his major work on aesthetics. Whereas
in Fichte and Zimmermann Anthroposophy, or the Wisdom of
Man simply connoted man's self-knowledge, Steiner defined
the term differently. Anthroposophy to Steiner meant that
wisdom is to be found in the knowledge of man's spiritual
reality and his relation to the spirituality of the uni
verse. Man, as a "hieroglyphic of the cosmos," as micro-
cosmic being, is capable of deciphering himself and the uni
verse through cultivation and exercise of his spiritual fac
ulties. Thus he can gain supersensible perception and
achieve cognition of the fundamental realities of the uni
verse (Steiner, 1918/1973; 1904/1973; 1909/1972; 1918/1972).
Steiner's Anthroposophy can be defined as trying to bring
the spirituality in man in harmony with the spirituality in
the universe. A further meaning of Anthroposophy was sug
gested by Shepherd (1954, p. 73):
There is also . . . the connotation that, whereas
formerly the divine wisdom was imparted by the divine
world itself to man, now man himself, by divine grace
must transmute his earth-born thinking to the higher
level of divine wisdom, by the true understanding of
himself.
On October 20, 1902, two years after his first lec
ture activities before Theosophical audiences, Steiner was
appointed by Annie Besant as general secretary of the yet-
to-be-established German section of the Society. He was
64
also initiated into the Esoteric School of the Theosophical
Society. For seven years, Steiner held the position of
chairman, which allegedly paid him the generous salary of
30,000 reichsmark per year (Leisegang, 1922, p. 48). One
reichsmark was equal to the pre-World War I gold dollar.
Marie von Sievers, a Baltic aristocrat and ardent admirer
of Steiner, served as his chief administrative assistant
and life-long co-worker. After his first wife died in 1911,
Steiner married Marie von Sievers in 1914.
In 1902, the year of his installment as head of the
German Theosophical Society, Steiner attended the Society's
world congress in London. Here he met other leaders of the
movement, among them Mme. Blavatsky and A. P. Sinnet, and
was well received (Steiner, 1925/1967, p. 280). When
Steiner started to work for the Theosophical Society, he did
so on the condition of freedom of teaching and independence
of inquiry. He wrote in his memoirs that he "left no one in
the dark" that in his lectures and publications he would
present nothing other than "the result of his own spiritual
research and vision" (Steiner, 1925/1967, p. 280).
The remainder of Steiner's life was devoted to dis
seminating his insights into various fields of human en
deavor, which he gained as an occult seer. A more
6 5
harmonious and continuous development of his ideas was dis
cernible, culminating in highly mystical assertions during
his later years. These activities can be conveniently
divided into three distinct phases. In the years from 1902
to 1912— as a member of the Theosophical Society— he devel
oped his own esoteric knowledge (Steiner, 1925/1967, p. 30).
The years 1913 to 1919 can be called the foundation years of
the Anthroposophical Society with its distinct world out
look. During the turmoil-filled post-war years from 1919
to 1925, Steiner feverishly applied the insights of his
"spiritual science" to a variety of fields and disciplines.
The major publications of the Theosophical phase are
his books, Theosophy (1904), How to Obtain Knowledge of
Higher Worlds (19 04) , and Occult Science--An Outline (1910) .
In these works, Steiner outlined a methodology that leads to
spiritual cognition. Through successive stages of mediation
called Imagination, Inspiration, and Intuition, the facul
ties of spiritual perception could be developed, resulting
in insights into the supersensible nature of physical phe
nomena, observations of the interaction between man's phy
sical and spiritual natures, and finally to knowledge of
previous ages in human development (Shepherd, 19 71, pp. 6 3-
65). In his lectures and writings of this period, even
6 6
though he used Theosophical terminology, Steiner did not
draw his insights primarily from ancient and Oriental
sources; rather, he tried to harmonize and synthesize
Oriental and Occidental occult knowledge.
Concurrent with the establishment of the German
branch of the Theosophical Society, Steiner and Marie von
Sievers established the monthly, Lucifer, which, after a
merger with a similar journal, appeared as Lucifer-Gnosis.
The successful magazine was discontinued after a few years,
due to the time demands on Steiner, who traveled extensively
in connection with his lecture activities (Steiner, 1925/
1967, pp. 299-301). A concert agency arranged these lec
ture series in the major cities of Europe. In his lecture
"The Education of the Child in the Light of Anthroposophy"
(1907), Steiner first addressed himself to education. In
the lecture, which was published as a booklet, a preliminary
sketch, an unrefined outline, of his pedagogical ideas is
found. This early lecture, however, included all the essen
tial elements of what was to become Waldorf education
(Steiner, 1907/1975).
In 1906 the first tension between Steiner and the
international Theosophical Society developed. Annie Besant
attempted to introduce the Indian youth Krishnamurti as a
67
contemporary reincarnation of Christ. Steiner, who had
become convinced of the uniqueness of Christ in history,
refused entrance of the Krishnamurti cult into the German
section of the Theosophical Society. Various scandals had
previously rocked the Theosophical Society— among them the
affair of the so-called Mahatma Letters, which the invisible
Initiated (Mahatmas) ostensibly deposited at night in Mad
ras, India, the world center of the movement. The Society
of Psychical Research in London, after an investigation in
India, had pronounced these "revelations" as fraudulent
(Bock, 1961, p. 178). The report following the investiga
tion charged Mme. Blavatsky with fraud, forgery, and being
"one of the most accomplished, ingenious and interesting
imposters in history" (quoted in Leisegang, 1922, p. 98) .
History justified Steiner's stance. The Krishnamurti scheme
ended in another scandal for the Theosophical Society. In
1930 the Indian himself repudiated Besant and Blavatzky's
claims regarding his person.
Steiner broke entirely with the Theosophical Society
in 1913 over the fundamental differences that existed in
the approach to spiritual knowledge. The leaders of Theos
ophy relied on Indian mysticism and Eastern methods of eso
teric training. Many Theosophists also experimented with
mediumistic spiritualism which Steiner rejected as unscien
tific and often fraudulent. Steiner declared the Eastern
Way unfit to appeal to the Western mind and unable to
answer Western problems. In his lectures of the period, he
pointed to the Western occult and esoteric tradition that
had surfaced from time to time in Occidental thinkers and
mystics, and that had found its most precise definition in
Rosecrucianism (Steiner, 1907/1955). Steiner maintained
that the primitive Western esoteric tradition never dis
associated itself from the physical world; on the contrary,
it had always tried to find spiritual reality in physical
and material phenomena. It therefore embodied a predispo
sition toward the scientific spirit. Steiner made it his
task to reconcile science with occult spirit perception in
the body of teachings he called Spiritual Science or
Anthroposophy.
To Steiner, the Krishnamurti issue was the touch
stone on which his fundamental differences with Theosophy
surfaced most clearly. In February 1913, it led to his
expulsion from the Theosophical Society and the foundation
of his Anthroposophical Society. The majority of the German
Theosophical Lodges followed Steiner into his newly created
movement (Galbreath, 1970, p. 37). Steiner's unfinished
69
autobiography does not describe the details of this rupture,
nor does it depict events following the break.
During his active years as a Theosophist, Steiner
published more than a dozen books, most of them dealing with
occult epistemology. He repudiated none of them, although
he did regret having relied too heavily on Theosophical
terminology in outlining his own occultism.
Anthroposophy 1913-1919:
The Years of Foundation
Despite the flood of denunciations from Theosophist
circles, Steiner soon became Europe's most prominent lec
turer on the occult ("Scientific Seer," 1969, p. 247). His
speaking activities in the major northern European cities
showed untiring activity and immense energy.
After his 1909 Berlin lecture, "Das Wesen der
Kunste" (The Nature of the Arts) , an artistic element domi
nated Steiner's life and work for a while. Rich, artistic
creativity characterized his next few years, and artistic
expressions and exercises later became an important part of
the elementary curriculum in the Waldorf Schools. Many
stages in Steiner's life show him preoccupied with certain
subjects or fields of inquiry, none of which, however,
totally absorbed his energies. These phases of intense
70
interest in a discipline usually resulted in the advancement
of novel ideas or the experimentation with new practices.
In 1909 Steiner staged and directed the performance
of Edouard Schure's recreation of the ancient Eleusinian
mystery play, The Holy Drama of Eleusis. In 1910 Steiner
wrote and staged the first of his four "mystery plays,"
i.e., dramas illuminating life's secret truths. The play
was entitled The Portal of Initiation. In the three suc
cessive years he added a new mystery play (The Soul's Proba
tion, 1911; The Guardian of the Threshold, 1912; The Soul's
Awakening, 1913), all dealing with the initiation of con
temporary man into higher knowledge. The dialogues were
often written the night before rehearsals, or in Shakespear
ean fashion, on stage. The dramas were performed for the
most part by lay actors and directed by Steiner. The out
break of World War I thwarted plans for a fifth drama.
The dramatic festival of 1913 was enriched by the
first performance of a new art form created by Steiner in
collaboration with Marie von Sievers. Eurythmy, or "vis
ible speech," was an attempt to express the inner forces of
man in movement and sound. Eurythmy can perhaps be visual
ized best as a combination of ballet and gymnastics accom
panied by speech and tone. It also found entrance as a
71
regular subject in the Waldorf curriculum.
The drama productions each year had been staged in
vacant Munich theatres during the month of August. The
growing success of the dramatic festivals prompted the idea
of erecting a theatre and congress center, the design and
decoration of which would help to express the message of
these plays. Opposition to the plans for a theatre in
Munich arose, and neither a suitable site nor a building
permit could be secured. When Swiss friends offered some
property on a hill overlooking the town of Dornach, a few
miles outside of Basel, Switzerland, Steiner accepted the
property on first sight and started at once to design the
structure, a two-domed temple-like building. Resting on a
concrete base, the future "Goetheanum" was to be constructed
entirely of wood. It was to mark the beginning of Anthro-
posophical architecture and embody and express the Zeitgeist
of the dawning spiritual age (Hemleben, 1965, p. 112). The
mathematical and technical solutions of the two domes cov
ering the stage and an auditorium holding 1,000 spectators
have been acclaimed by experts as little short of an archi
tectural miracle. Though unique in its construction, the
building, characterized by its irregular round forms, seemed
stylistically inspired by art nouveau. The cornerstone was
laid in September 1913 and the shell construction was
72
completed in April 1914.
With the advent of World War I, Steiner's lecture
tours practically ceased. The selection of a location in
neutral Switzerland proved to be a fortunate choice. Not
only did it allow construction to go on during the war, but
it also spared the center of Anthroposophy from certain
destruction later, during the Nazi era. Artists and arti
sans from 17 warring nations sculptured, painted, and fur
nished the interior of the building after the designs, with
the collaboration of and under the constant supervision of
Steiner. Under the guidance of an English sculptress, he
carved his over-proportioned wooden Christ statue and per
sonally painted the pictures in the smaller dome. The
Goetheanum was inaugurated in 1920. The impressive struc
ture had cost more than seven million Swiss francs, which
had been raised entirely by donations.
World War I prevented the continuation of Steiner's
lecture activities on an international scale; only a few
speeches and lectures were delivered in Germany, Austria,
and neutral Sweden, other than those constantly given at
Dornach. Among the statements he made with reference to
contemporary events, his address "For the Germans and Those '
That Do Not Believe They Have to Hate Them" (1915) makes a
73
case for Germany by pointing to its cultural achievements.
Though biased as to the superiority of German culture,
Steiner was no narrow chauvinist. With pride he could point
to the peaceful cooperation of workers and artisans at
Dornach as exemplifying the spirit of Anthroposophy.
The war years were the most tranquil period of his
public career, in strong contrast to the remaining six years
of his life, during which he sought, in a burst of frenzied
activity, to spread his message and apply his insights.
Anthroposophy 1919-1925:
The Years of Implementation
With the end of World War I, political and social
issues— especially in the autocratic countries of Europe—
broke open. Steiner proposed his solutions to the social,
economic, and political problems in his manifesto, "To the
German Nation and the Civilized World," in which he intro
duced his theory of the Threefold Social Order. The mani
festo, issued as a pamphlet, reprinted by many newspapers,
and endorsed by a number of prominent intellectuals who had
no ties to Anthroposophy, was widely discussed. In the
proclamation and a host of subsequent writings and publica
tions, Steiner suggested a threefold social, political, and
economic organization under the heading of the slogan of the
74
French Revolution: "Liberty-Equality-Fraternity." Steiner
proposed "Freedom" in the cultural-spiritual sphere,
"Equality" in the judicial-political sphere, and "Frater
nity" in the social-economic sphere of human endeavor
(Steiner, 1919/1961). In May 1919, a movement in support of
these ideas, the Dreigliedrigkeitsbewegung (Threefold Move
ment), was founded, in whose behalf Steiner lectured before
many audiences, including workers of entire factories. To
the social reformer Steiner, the source of the contemporary
social malaise could in the final analysis be traced to a
failure of the educational system:
It is anti-social to have our youth educated and
instructed by people who promote alienation, by
imposing upon them from the outside the direction
and contents of their actions. (Steiner, 1919/1961,
p. 9)
Among those who had endorsed Steiner's Threefold
proclamation was the director of the Waldorf-Astoria Ciga
rette Manufactory, Emil Molt. An industrialist keenly in
terested in the problems of the working class, Molt was
later awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of
Tubingen in recognition of his contributions to the improve
ment of society. He approached Steiner in the spring of
1919 about the establishment of a school for the children of
his employees. Concerning his motivations, Molt wrote:
75
The original idea which led to the foundation of this
school was primarily a social one: to provide for
children of blue and white collar workers the same
type of education and training that children of
wealthy parents receive. (Quoted in Wachsmuth, 1964,
pp. 385-386)
The new school was to be an experiment in Steiner's
idea of fraternity in the social sphere and freedom in the
cultural sphere. He agreed to select and train a faculty,
draw up a curriculum, and personally direct the school.
Emil Molt agreed to finance the experiment. A building on
a three-acre lot overlooking Stuttgart was purchased and
hastily converted for school purposes. The total initial
cost amounted to 500,000 reichsmark (Grosse, 1968, p. 49).
Steiner quickly recruited a teaching staff. Many of
the original faculty held doctorates, but had no prior
teaching experience. In an intensive two-week training
seminar, he taught them the rudiments of his didactic meth
odology and theory of human growth (Steiner, 293, 294).
On September 7, 1919, the Free Waldorf School
opened its doors to 200 children of Molt1s employees. The
faculty consisted of 15 teachers (Wachsmuth, 1964, p. 386).
The school was a novelty for its time. It represented the
first comprehensive, continuous-progress, nongraded school
in Germany (Carlgren, 1973, p. 17). Its early successes
and innovative teaching approach made the school attractive
76
to many parents. Upon popular demand, the enrollment soon
was opened to the public, and in a few years it had reached
its capacity, with 1,10 0 pupils and 76 teachers (Wachsmuth,
1964, p. 338).
In the years 1919-1924, Steiner presented 15 lecture
cycles on education, which directly or indirectly led to the
establishment of Rudolf Steiner Schools in other parts of
Germany, The Netherlands, Switzerland, England, and Scandi
navia. During these years he frequently traveled to Stutt
gart to direct the affairs of the Waldorf School and to
provide further instruction and guidance. On these occa
sions, he often visited with the students, who loved and
respected him greatly. Sometimes he addressed the student
body during the Monatsfeier, a monthly all-school celebra
tion. He became famous for his speech on such occasions
with the question: "Do you love your teachers?" and receiv
ing a resounding "Yes!" from the students (Grosse, 1968,
p. 92) .
The year 1920 marked the formal inauguration of the
Free University of Spiritual Science at the Goetheanum. The
purpose of the school was to provide a "synthesis of all
sciences" along the path of knowledge that had arisen from
the "concrete phenomenology of the sensible as well as the
77
supersensible in nature and man" (Wachsmuth, 1964 , p. 396) .
Persons from many European countries who were interested in
Anthroposophy flocked to Dornach to participate in the
announced lectures and training courses conducted at the
Goetheanum. Invitations to lecture courses in The Nether
lands, France, England, and Scandinavia followed, often
resulting in the formation of Anthroposophical Societies
and Steiner Schools in these countries.
The economic theories of the Threefold Social Com
monwealth movement were subjected to the practical test with
the establishment of a stock corporation, Per Kommende Tag
(The Coming Day), in 1920. All enterprises working in be
half or along the guidelines of Steiner's teachings, such as
the Waldorf Schools, clinics, farms, publishing houses, and
pharmaceutical productions, were combined in this novel eco
nomic experiment. Most of these enterprises were located in
Germany. The corporation— like many other firms in Germany
— collapsed during the inflation of 1923.
The year 1920 also marked the first of Steiner's
series of medical lectures. They laid the foundation for
an Anthroposophical medicine. The establishment of clinics,
the development of medications, and the founding of insti
tutions for the handicapped grew out of these successive
medical lectures. He considered many ailments of psychoso
matic nature caused by an imbalance between spirit and body
in man. Anthroposophical medicine, like his pedagogy,
largely hinged on his theories of man, which will be dis
cussed in greater detail in succeeding chapters. Steiner
possessed an astounding medical knowledge, and his suggested
treatments in individual cases worked near-miracles. He
wanted his medical pronouncements to be treated merely as
hypotheses by the practicing physician, but nevertheless
those doctors who followed his general diagnostic and thera
peutic approach produced many positive results (Kriick v.
Portuzyn, 1967, pp. 256-265; Wachsmuth, 1964, p. 403). His
wealth of medical recommendations has not been fully tested
by science to the present.
Steiner's attention was never totally absorbed by
any one subject. Lectures with innovative ideas in theol-
ogy, pedagogy, and natural science always ran parallel to
newer endeavors. For example, the development of the per
forming and applied arts and experimentation with new the
ories in physics and agriculture were continuous pursuits at
the Goetheanum.
With the end of World War I, Steiner and the Anthro
posophical movement became much more visible. His ideas
79
enjoyed a degree of popularity brought on, undoubtedly in
no small measure, by the general European spiritual, intel
lectual, and political disorientation in the cataclysmic
events of the war and its aftermath. This increased pub
licity made the Anthroposophical Society more conspicuous
and thus more vulnerable to critical attacks. Often the
man, not the issue, was confronted. Untruths and half-
truths— often based on rumors or dubious sources— were
spread in the printed media. Steiner had to spend a con
siderable portion of his time and energy in 1920 and 1921
in countering these assaults, which had started to damage
his causes (Wachsmuth, 1964, pp. 423-424, 437-440).
The year 1921, however, was more than a period of
defense of Anthroposophy. A medical clinic in Arlesheim,
Switzerland, and a research laboratory in Dornach were es
tablished, and two lecture courses in theology laid the
groundwork for the founding of a Christian church, the
"Free Christian Community."
As in the case of education, the initiative for the
establishment of a church along Anthroposophical ideas was
brought to Steiner from the outside. Dr. Friedrich Rittel-
meyer, a prominent evangelical pastor from Berlin and long
standing follower of Steiner, described the foundation as
follows:
80
In the year 1921, a number of young men went to Dr.
Steiner and asked what advice he could give for reli
gious work, not in the sense of the Churches hitherto
in existence, but of a new spiritual teaching. At
their Universities they had not found what they were
seeking and now came with confidence and hope to
Anthroposophy. After brief deliberation Dr. Steiner
entered willingly and actively into their wishes. He
had always emphasised that the Anthroposophical
Society is not a Church, and could have no desire to
found a new Church. Anthroposophy leaves everyone
perfect freedom to cultivate his religious life in his
own way. And so the impulse to activity in the reli
gious sphere and the responsibility for instituting
something new must rest elsewhere. But then he could
help. He could not ignore a request made to him on
grounds like these, and forthwith proceeded to give
most effective help, and enabled good will to become
deed. (1963, p. 135)
In September 1922, following a series of lectures,
the Christian Community was inaugurated by Steiner in Dor-
nach. Besides laying the foundation of its theology,
Steiner wrote its constitution, appointed its leadership,
and developed its rites and liturgical practices. Rittel-
meyer became its first head.
The year 1922 brought the 61-year-old Steiner to the
zenith of his public career. Undertaking 22 foreign jour
neys, he addressed tens of thousands of people during the
year. In a two-week speaking tour of German cities in
January 1922, he spoke to more than 20,000 persons (Rittel-
meyer, 1963, p. 135). These public addresses, designed to
spread the message of a spiritual dimension in man, nature,
81
and the cosmos, reached a climax in June 1922, when he lec
tured to more than 24,000 people in Vienna during a 12-day
congress (Wachsmuth, 1964, p. 459). Eurythmy performances
by the Dornach ensemble under the direction of Marie von
Sievers Steiner in the cities where he spoke rounded out
this large-scale introduction of Anthroposophy in Europe.
As his reputation as a clairvoyant seer grew, many
people attended his lectures in the hope of sensational
revelations, only to be disappointed. Only in private lec
tures before members of the Society or its subsidiary move
ments, or at courses in Dornach, did he appear willing to
expound on his immediate visionary experiences. Rittel-
meyer described such occasions in his recollections:
Rudolf Steiner stood on the rostrum in the small,
beautifully decorated premises of the Anthroposophical
Society and spoke.— I realised then how a man in the
very Presence of Christ speaks of Christ.
In freedom and reverence a man was looking up to
Christ Whose Presence was quite near. . . . The lec
ture had nothing of the style of a sermon or a prayer.
It was spiritual scientific communication of facts of
a higher world as they had revealed themselves to
research. (1963, pp. 90-91)
Steiner's clairvoyance was an undisputed fact to
those who associated and worked with him closely, for he had
provided them with samples of his visionary gifts on many
occasions. The highly respected Rittelmeyer, for instance,
only joined the movement after soliciting and critically
82
observing Steiner's predictions for almost a decade and
after verifying his methodology for gaining higher knowledge
in his own life. While admitting that no Anthroposophist
following his method had been able to develop supersensory
perceptions of the quality that Steiner claimed, "there are
many Anthroposophists who know from actual experience the
first elements of which Steiner speaks," and, continued
Rittelmeyer, "I myself was one of their number. All doubt
as to the truth of higher faculties was banished more and
more by what I experienced as the years went by" (1963,
pp. 84-86). A number of instances of astounding foresight
in everyday affairs are documented. They provided his stu
dents with the necessary "evidence" of his supersensible
abilities and created a disposition toward a more or less
uncritical acceptance of his other teachings and directives.
His growing reputation as a seer, to whose vision
the spiritual world lay open, brought on a constant stream
of advice seekers to his lodgings, wherever he went. At
times several hundred people lined up outside his hotel or
apartment, to have a short interview with him. The stream
of visitors often did not abate until late at night. When
he came to Stuttgart, the German center of the movement,
representatives of the Waldorf School, the publishing
company, the commercial enterprises, and editorial boards of
various magazines all stood before his doors, requesting
advice and guidance (Grosse, 1968, p. 117; Rittelmeyer,
1963, pp. 144, 149; Wachsmuth, 1964, p. 477). The lights in
Steiner's quarters often burned into the early morning
hours. He was not only a voracious reader, but during the
later years he wrote his articles for various publications
mostly at night. His friends marveled at his tremendous
energy and productive capacity. Throughout that time, a
steady stream of new revelations appeared in his lectures.
Steiner's growing popularity brought on more vicious
attacks by his enemies, however. The poisoned atmosphere of
the Weimar Republic was carried over into the cultural and
intellectual arena. It became vividly apparent that he and
his movement had unscrupulous enemies when the Goetheanum
became victim of an arsonist on New Year's Eve 1922/23.
Despite heroic efforts by the firefighters, the wooden
structure burned to its concrete foundation. Steiner's
Christ statue was one of the few art pieces saved from the
fire. It now adorns the new Goetheanum, built after
Steiner's design in reinforced concrete. The building was
completed in 1928, three years after his death. The archi
tecture of the second Goetheanum resembles no architectural
style of its time, but its influence on later architecture
has been noted. The building, using straight lines and soft
curves but almost totally shunning right angles, is a much
more imposing and pleasing structure than its burned fore
runner. The interior, however, is not nearly so well
appointed with paintings, wood carvings, and colored win
dows. The absence of Steiner's creative genius and inspir
ing leadership at the time the inside of the new structure
was being completed is noticeable.
The year 1923 was a turning point for the Anthro
posophical Society. The ruins of the Goetheanum were in
many ways a symbol of the condition of the movement. The
years of rapid expansion had drawn into the movement a num
ber of scientists and intellectuals who tried to profit by
Steiner's insights without being moored in the Anthropo
sophical world view. Their superficial acquaintance with
the roots of spiritual science led to many errors in the
application of its theories and tended to discredit the
movement. Incompetence and personal aggrandizement by
various section leaders also hurt the Society. During a
Congress of Deputies in February 1923 in Stuttgart, Steiner
called for a self-critical retrospective and prospective
analysis. He emphasized that Anthroposophical activity must
85
always grow out of esoteric and not exoteric wellsprings.
He deplored the condition of the mother Society, which had
been weakened by the daughter movements; the Waldorf Schools,
the Threefold Commonwealth, the Coming Day enterprises,
etc., so preoccupied the ablest minds that little energy was
left for a constructive building of the Anthroposophical
Society proper.
The Stuttgart Congress was the beginning of a puri
fication process which culminated in the reconstitution of
the Society during the Christmas Conference at Dornach in
1923. The reconstitution was preceded by tours to Norway,
Austria, England, and Holland, where Steiner explained the
need for a reorganization and presided over the establish
ment of national Societies (Wachsmuth, 1964, pp. 564-568).
At the Christmas Conference, in the presence of 800 dele
gates, the International Anthroposophical Society was in
augurated. The new statutes vested the leadership in an
executive board presided over by Steiner. He had never
been formally a member of the first Society, considering
himself only its advisor. The reorganization brought
greater organizational control and concentration of effort
to the movement. The remaining two active years of his life
were spent mainly in strengthening the esoteric foundations
of Anthrophosophy and in providing special esoteric training
to an inner circle of potential leaders. The work of the
Free University of Spiritual Science also became better de
fined with the creation of various departments. Besides a
general Anthroposophical section, sections for rhetorical
and musical arts, humanities, medicine, natural science,
mathematics and astronomy, and performing arts were created
(Wachsmuth, 1964, p. 561).
Despite Steiner's failing health, he continued his
lecture activities in many parts of Europe, giving fresh
impulses to the field of music (he developed a Harmonielehre
and gave instructions for the development of new musical
instruments), mathematics, astronomy, physics, medicine,
pedagogy, and religion.
His two last great practical contributions were in
the fields of agriculture and education for the handicapped.
Since 1921 an experimental farm had been testing certain of
Steiner's suggestions. A number of farmers had approached
him over a period of time about an agricultural course, but
overcommitments in other areas had made this impossible. In
the spring of 1924, the Silesian Count Keyserlingk invited
Steiner to hold such a course at his estate near Breslau.
His nephew bringing the invitation had been instructed to
87
camp at Steiner's doorstep in Dornach until he received an
affirmative reply. This determined effort resulted in the
lecture cycle on agriculture to farmers in June 1924.
Steiner gave suggestions for crop rotation and natural fer
tilization designed to restore the ecological balance of
nature. From this series of lectures, the biodynamic move
ment in agriculture was founded. A number of farms imple
menting Steiner's suggestions began to operate at once. The
biodynamic movement is still very much alive today, and its
health-food products are popular among Anthroposophists.
Steiner's suggestions for a spirit-conforming life included
dietary directives which favor semi-vegetarianism and advo
cate the consumption of seasonal produce during special
times of the year.
A group of medical students and early childhood edu
cators had requested Steiner's guidance on the treatment of
the handicapped. On his return from the agricultural course
in Breslau, he stopped in Jena to help inaugurate an insti
tute for handicapped children. A series of lectures in
Dornach shortly thereafter provided the basis for the Cura
tive Education Movement. Steiner's success as tutor of a
hydrocephalic child in Vienna over 30 years previously had
given him some first-hand experience in special education.
Curative education presupposes an imbalance between body and
spirit in the handicapped child, and the soul is the primary
target of therapy.
The Jena Institut and the Sonnenhof sanatorium con
nected to the Clinical-Therapeutical Institut at Arlesheim
were the cradles of a worldwide movement. Curative educa
tion is now practiced in over 100 institutions, and the suc
cess of its methodology is acknowledged by many (Hemleben,
1965, pp. 134-144) .
Frequent and strenuous travels in connection with
the lectures of 1922-23 finally took their toll on Steiner's
health. An unspecified disturbance of the metabolic system
caused him to suffer increasing discomfort and pain (Wachs
muth, 1964, p. 605). After returning from the educational
conferences at Torquay, England, in September 1924, in a
last burst of energy, despite constant pain, he held four
lecture courses simultaneously, among them the last of his
important Karma Lectures. In three short weeks he delivered
70 lectures. During the same time he granted personal in
terviews to hundreds of people each day; one day the door
keeper counted more than 400 visitors. Many had traveled
great distances and waited long hours to speak to him for a
few minutes and get his advice on some problem. Ignoring
the counsel of his physicians for more rest, he felt that he
could turn no one away. Recollections of various friends
and associates rarely fail to mention his great kindness and
considerateness during the last years of his life.
In late September his health failed him, and he had
to cancel the last lectures in his series. He was confined
to bed during the remaining six months of his life. The
nature of his illness was never disclosed, though it has
been suggested that he suffered from a form of anemia
("Scientific Seer," 1969, p. 246). Suffering quietly and
constantly growing weaker, he died peacefully on March 30,
1925.
90
CHAPTER IV
STEINER'S PHILOSOPHY: AN OVERVIEW
The Knowledge of Man
Waldorf education is both caused and affected by
Rudolf Steiner's theory of knowledge and can be properly
understood only within that context. At the outset, there
fore, his epistemological presuppositions must be examined.
The Epistemology of
"Objective Idealism"
Steiner's epistemology, as formulated in his basic
philosophical work, The Philosophy of Freedom (1894), is
rooted in Goethe's view of nature (see chap. Ill, pp. 44-49
of this study) and must be regarded as a definite develop
ment of the poet's ideas. In his earliest publication, An
Epistemology of Goethe's World View (Steiner, 1886/1924),
and his published dissertation, Truth and Knowledge (Steiner,
1892/1961), Steiner used Goethe's spiritualized view of
nature mainly as a point of departure in search for his own
theory of knowledge. Steiner ventured beyond Goethe, who
regarded all sense perceptions as manifestations of ideas,
91
in affirming that human thinking in itself is a form of per
ception rather than one of mere reflection. To Steiner, the
human spirit is "not a vessel of ideas but an organ of per
ception like an eye and an ear" (Steiner, 1886/1961, p. 59).
"Thinking is the human 'organ1 appointed to observe higher
things than senses can reveal" (Steiner, 1886/1961, p. 48).
Goethe's thinking, Steiner maintained, always grew out of
the perception of physical objects. His failure "to think
about his thinking . . . never allowed him to look behind
the external scenery of human cognition." Therefore, he
never experienced the idea of world essence in its arche
typal form, its highest metamorphosis (Steiner, 1897/1963,
pp. 85-86). To Steiner, thinking was more than a subjective
abstraction of external perception; it possessed reality in
itself. In thinking, man experiences immediate, rather than
intermediate reality (Steiner, 1886/1961, p. 34). Thus in
the thinking process Steiner dissolved the distinction be
tween object and subject, equating the idea with reality
(Steiner, 1894/1973, p. 29). In thinking, "the core of the
world," "the world essence," is experientially revealed
(Steiner, 1886/1961, pp. 60-61). Cognition is man's imme
diate communion with archreality. The ontological extension
of Steiner's monistic theory of knowledge is to consider
thinking and being as identical.
92
This philosophical monism stands opposed to the
dualistic notion of two separate realms of reality, each
governed by its own laws. Reality, he concluded in his
major philosophical work, The Philosophy of Freedom, is to
be found in the duality of perception and thinking. Only in
fusing these two elements of reality can true cognition be
achieved. The Cartesian dualism between living and dead
matter not only separates philosophy from science, but ends
fatally for philosophy. It climaxes in the Kantean asser
tion that man's perception can never lead to a knowledge of
the Ding an sich (the thing-in-itself). The dualistic
thinker, Steiner maintained, is unable to fill this hypo
thetical world principle called the Ding an sich with mean
ing. Other than the knowledge that it exists, the Ding an
sich cannot be grasped. Thus a dualistic world concept by
its own definitions raises definite barriers to human cog
nition (Steiner, 1894/1973, pp. 112-114).
Steiner asserted that a follower of a monistic world
view, on the other hand, knows that the explanation of all
phenomena rests in_ these phenomena themselves, and that only
the individual limitations of one's organs of perception can
restrict cognition. Steiner's basic epistemological posi
tion was that the limits of human cognition are boundless
93
in principle (Steiner, 1894/1973, p. 115).
Steiner called this position the "philosophy of
objective idealism," in contrast to Hegel's metaphysical
idealism which is based on an absolute world dialectic
rather than a subjective cognition process within man
(Steiner, 1886/1961, p. 115). The "inward road" is strongly
reminiscent of the romantic thinkers and shows Steiner's
proximity to German Idealism.
The key to "higher cognition" rests in the observa
tion of one's own thinking, which, according to Steiner, is
within the reach of "every normally organized human being"
(1894/1973, p. 46). In the observation of one's thinking,
man becomes an immediate participant of the essence that
moves the world (Weltgeschehen) (Steiner, 1894/1973, p. 49).
The world is a riddle to us only so long as we simply
reflect on the world as it appears to our senses. In our
own thinking, however, we can become participants of its
accomplishment (Zustandekommen) (Steiner, 1894/1973, pp.
49-50) . Steiner believed that world cognition grows out of
self-cognition.
In The Philosophy of Freedom, Steiner argued that
"experienced thinking" is already "experienced spiritual
ity." It ends with cognition through "intuitive thinking"
94
but stops short of occult insight, which forms the second
element of Steiner's epistemology (1894/1973, pp. 256-257).
Occult Epistemology
In 1902, Steiner joined the Theosophical Society and
started to engage in esoteric studies. An epistemology
rooted in the occult was the result of these studies. In
his publications of the period, he described in Theosophical
Eastern terminology his occult knowledge theory.
According to Steiner, supersensible cognition rests
on the dual premises
that behind the visible world is an invisible one
hidden at the outset to the senses and that it is
possible for man to develop skills to enter into
this concealed world. (Steiner, 1910/1972, p. 33)
Steiner continued by affirming that the spirit of man is an
organ for spirit perception, just as eye and ear are the
organs for sight and sound perception. The implication of
the eye as an organ given by nature is sight perception.
It follows that the human spirit is given for spirit percep
tion. As a man refusing to see experiences a dark world and
one refusing to hear, a mute one, so does one failing to
cultivate his spiritual organ experience a spiritless world.
The fact that most men do not possess a vision of higher
spiritual things does not disprove their existence, but only
95
that he has not developed his higher organs. Steiner went
on to affirm that the evolution of mankind is not completed
at any stage of evolution, but is continuously on the
ascendance (1904/1973, pp. 91-94).
The path to higher knowledge "dormant in every human
being" is outlined in the esoteric handbook, How to Gain
Knowledge of Higher Worlds (1904), in which Steiner pre
scribed exercises for the occult student, which were de
signed to help the student achieve successive levels of
spiritual perception. The stages on the path of knowledge
are entitled Preparation, Enlightenment, and Initiation.
Detailed exercises and a description of the accompanying
perceptual changes are spelled out for the first two stages
of esoteric training. Experiences on the highest level are
only alluded to, because they defy the traditional means of
communication (Steiner, 1904/1972, pp. 43-57, 75-89).
Devotion, or reverence, must be the basic disposi
tion of the occult student (Steiner, 1904/1972, pp. 29, 25).
The cultivation of inner tranquility leads to meditation
from which the first level of insight, that of imaginative
cognition, is gained (Steiner, 1910/1972, p. 235). The con
tinuous moral perfection of the occult student is an insep
arable condition of progress. Only ethical purification,
96
Steiner argued, allows an adequate control of extrasensory
phenomena. Only total truthfulness allows the beginning
student to separate real experiences from the products of
psychological imagination (Steiner, 1910/1972, pp. 241-243).
While at the stage of Preparation, "imaginative
(from perceiving spiritual images) cognition" can be
achieved (Steiner, 1910/1972, p. 235); at the stage of
Enlightenment, cognition can be gained through inspiration.
Steiner wrote:
Observation in the world of inspiration is comparable
only to reading. The [spiritual] beings (Wesen) in
this world appear to the observers as written symbols
. . . as a supersensible form of writing. Spiritual
Science, therefore, can compare the cognition through
inspiration with the "reading of the concealed scrip
tures." (Steiner, 1910/1973, p. 261)
At the level of Initiation, cognition becomes intu
itive and the world of pure thought is open to human per
ception (Steiner, 1904/1972, pp. 75-89; 1910/1972, pp. 264-
266). Steiner defined intuitive cognition as "the highest,
most luminuous clearness or transparency," as a merging into
oneness with essence and spiritual beings (Steiner, 1910/
1972, p. 265). The development of various spiritual organs
(the so-called "lotus flowers") radiates from the physical
body and a change of an individual’s "aura" accompanies the
attainment of higher levels of knowledge. These phenomena
97
are visible to the trained eye of an occultist (Steiner,
1904/1973, p. 47; 1910/1972, pp. 258-260).
Eastern, gnostic, and pantheistic concepts blend
into one, but, as Hiebel (1965) demonstrated, form a unique
synthesis that essentially is rooted in Occidental rather
than Oriental thinking. Although relying heavily on Eastern
terminology, Steiner insisted that he was outlining a West
ern, a scientific occultism. In his opinion, it justified
the appellation "scientific" because it fulfilled all the
prerequisites of the scientific method, namely a phenome
nological reality which can be achieved methodologically and
is accessible to almost everyone. The insights of this
higher view can be verified by ordinary logic and can be
harmonized with traditional science. The "spiritual re
searcher" is able to read in the "Akasha Chronicle" the
imperishable record of world events.
These imperishable traces of spiritual activity in
the earth's history (in contrast to the perishable
forms), once having been researched by Spiritual
Science, are available to scrutiny by ordinary think
ing. A faulty analysis of this view can lead to
errors in interpretation, which are correctable, how
ever, by the rigorous application of ordinary logic.
The spiritual view of the seer must therefore always
be controlled by logical thought. (Steiner, 1910/
1972, p. 106)
However, Steiner's followers have thus far been
unable to achieve the level and quality of spiritual
98
perception that their mentor described. In the words of an
Anthroposopher, Shepherd (1971):
In regard to Steiner's followers, it is clear that
none of them has developed a clairvoyant knowledge
comparable to his own. At the same time, many regu
larly follow the path of self-development which Steiner
taught and have reached varying stages of higher knowl
edge, at which they have verified for themselves the
facts revealed up to that level. (p. 206)
In summary it can be stated that Steiner's Spiritual
Science, or Anthroposophy, grew out of the dual roots of a
Goethe-inspired phenomenology of thinking and an occult-
ontological source of knowledge. The supersensible view of
man and the cosmos that Steiner claimed for himself on the
basis of this epistemology provides the foundation for his
educational ideas and is inseparably linked to it.
The Nature of Man
Steiner's affirmations as to the nature of man were
more than theories to him. In his publications, he insisted
repeatedly that all his statements were the result of his
spiritual research. His "view" of the nature of man and of
human growth provide the basis of his pedagogy.
The Three Bodies of Man
To Steiner, man is a trichotomous being composed of
Body, Soul, and Spirit. The "body" of man is again sub-
divided into three entities. The first is man's physical
body, composed of the "inorganic substances of the mineral
kingdom" and subject to the laws of the physical world
(Steiner,1904/1973, pp. 33-42). Those powers that promote
the growth of the physical body reside in the so-called
etheric body, also referred to as the body of life forces
or formative forces (Lebenskrafteleib Bildekrafteleib).
The sentient forces, such as consciousness and emotion, rest
in the so-called astral body (Steiner, 1904/1973, pp. 33-
42; 1907/1975, pp. 10-13). Steiner used the term "body"
not in the sense of a physical form, but as a quality of
spiritual perception (Steiner, 1904/1973, p. 39). Bridging
the three "bodies" and giving man his individuality is the
ego. The ego to Steiner is the immortal core of individual
existence (Steiner, 1904/1973, pp. 59-60). Steiner
declared:
This Ego is man himself. Man is allowed to view this
Ego as his true essence. Therefore, he can describe
his body and soul as the sheath inside of which he
lives and view them as the corporeal conditions through
which he finds expression. In the course of his evo
lution he learns to make these tools increasingly the
servants of his Ego. (Steiner, 1904/1973, p. 49)
The physical body is the "substratum of the soul"
(Steiner, 1904/1973, pp. 30-31). The activities of the soul
are thinking, feeling, and willing. These soul functions
100
distinguish man from all other organic life (Steiner, 293,
p. 78; 1904/1973, p. 31). Their locus is the astral body;
from there they influence the physical and etheric body.
The spirit of man, however, can be understood only in con
nection with the eternal ego of which it is an integral
part. The individual ego-spirit as part of the spirit-
world, Steiner affirmed, must seek a metamorphosis to a
higher spiritual cognition in this life and in so doing pre
pare an individual for an existence on a higher spiritual
level in future lives (Steiner, 1904/1973, pp. 51-56; 1907/
1975, pp. 16-18; 1914/1968, p. 622).
Reincarnation
Reincarnation is a central theme in Steiner's
thought and basic to his educational theory. The Eastern
concept of reincarnation is based on the belief that all
life is cyclical. Steiner took the Eastern notion of
repeated lives but interpreted it in connection with the
Western intellectual tradition. Hiebel (1965, chap. IV)
considered Steiner's ideas on reincarnation as a linear
development of the Aristotelian concept of entelechy and
Goethe's notion of an entelechial life monad, also found in
suggestive form by such Romantic German thinkers as Leibnitz,
Fichte, Lessing, and Novalis.
101
According to Steiner, reincarnation is a progressive
evolutionary process of the human soul over the millenia.
The alternation between earthly and spiritual existences and
the reminiscences of their accompanying experiences results
in a spiral of evolution. Reincarnation, therefore, is
nothing less than a series of metamorphoses of the human
soul to greater spiritual height:
The passing through ever new reincarnations signifies
the higher development of the human spirit. This
higher development finds expression in the fact that
the world in which the spirit's reincarnation takes
place becomes more and more transparent to that spirit.
(Steiner, 1965, Vol. Ill, pp. 97-103)
The Law of Karma
Steiner's principle of reincarnation has its sig
nificance for education through the law of karma, or fate.
In an earthly life "the human spirit manifests itself as
its own repetition laden with the fruits of the experiences
from previous lives" (Steiner, 1904/1973, p. 79). Yet
earthly existence is not solely predestined. The incarnat
ing ego is free to choose its physical parents, from whom
it then receives certain hereditary traits. Its own selec
tion of parents also places it into a certain social and
intellectual environment. The new earthly life is an
opportunity to change one's karma for future incarnations
102
(Steiner, 1904/1973, pp. 79-87). The ego, one's immortal
core of individual existence, by exercising its free choice
of parental heredity and social environment, can lead a more
spirit-conforming life and thus participate in the meta
morphosis to a higher level of spiritual existence. "Fate
does not act," wrote Steiner, "but we act according to the
laws of fate" (1965, Vol. Ill, p. 102). The karma of
others influences one's own life and therefore can also
result in a change of karmic destiny.
The task of the educator, therefore, must be seen in
the light of reincarnation and karma: he must aid the in
carnating spirit's integration into the new physical body
and influence the moral and spiritual development of the
reincarnating child (Steiner, 311, p. 19). The teacher's
karma crossing that of the pupils can become a significant
developmental factor in the growth of man and the evolution
of his soul. The characteristics of the teacher become a
most important factor in Steiner's pedagogy and is discussed
in greater detail later in this study.
The Development of Man
Steiner's developmental theory is an outgrowth of
his perceptions of the nature of man, which delineate a
tertiary sequence of seven-year growth periods, each
103
precipitated by the "birth" of one of these "bodies"
(Steiner, 1907/1975, p. 19).
The Three Stages of Growth
The first period of growth embraces ages 1-7. In
physical birth the human organism loses the protective shell
or sheath of the mother womb. During the first seven years
of life, man is primarily a physical being. Growth emanates
from the physical body and is dominated by the metabolic
system. Steiner called this the period of will activity, in
which learning occurs unconsciously and imitatively. Will
ing , to Steiner, is not a conscious intellectual process but
an involuntary physical one dominated by the metabolic sys
tem. This stage is akin to Piaget's "sensory-motor" and
Bruner's "enactive stage of development" (Steiner, 1907/
1975, p. 21; 301, pp. 29-30).
The second growth period starts with age 7 and lasts
until puberty at about age 14. With the second dentition
(the hardest physical substance in man), the physical body
breaks through the "etheric shell" which hitherto had envel
oped and protected the physical body (Steiner, 1907/1975,
p. 19; 302a, p. 64). With the "pressing out" of the second
teeth, the physical body gives "birth" to the etheric body
or body of life forces which until age 14 guides the further
104
growth of the child. In this process, intelligence emanci
pates itself from the confines of the physical body
(Steiner, 302a, p. 54). The growth powers of the life-
forces body are located in the cardiorespiratory or "rhyth
mic" system of man. Steiner maintained that the rhythmic
functions of the body are the organic basis of man's emo
tional life. For example, an emotion such as love or fear
will result in an increase of the heartbeat. Hence, during
the period in which the etheric body provides the impulses
for growth, learning occurs largely unconsciously on an emo
tional level and is best induced through rhythmic activity.
The second growth cycle is therefore the age of feeling.
Thought grows out of an emotion-packed, rhythmically ori
ented type of instruction (Steiner, 301, p. 30; 302, p. 29;
307, pp. 77-82).
The third seven-year growth period starts at about
age 14 and ends at age 21, coinciding with the (previous)
age of formal adulthood. As the second teething signifies
the "birth" of the etheric body, so is puberty the symptom
that the etheric body has given "birth" to the astral body.
The independence of the reproductive organs is the outward
sign of the emancipated astral body (Steiner, 1907/1975,
p. 2 0).
105
During the third growth period, the brain and ner
vous system dominate the organism. In this stage, thinking,
or intellectual activity, is the motivating force of man
(Steiner, 301, pp. 29-30; 302, p. 29; 307, pp. 82-84). The
introduction of abstract thought leading to creative think
ing must characterize the educational approach in adoles
cence. Learning becomes a conscious activity. The full
development of thought during this period concludes with the
emancipation of the ego at about age 21 (Steiner, 307, pp.
82-89).
In summary, Steiner's theory of human growth is
built upon the idea of metamorphoses at approximately ages
7, 14, and 21. At about age 7, thought is unshackled from
the protective confines of the physical body and is trans
formed into a soul function. At the coming of puberty,
thought, as dominated by feeling, "is gradually released
from its connection to the body [i.e., the rhythmic sys
tem] and becomes a soul-function" (Steiner, 307, p. 83).
When one reaches full adulthood, abstract thinking can
become detached from the soul functions and be metamor
phosed into stages of higher spiritual cognition. The
total self-actualization of man as a spiritual being is
possible.
106
The purpose of the educator in this entire growth-
and transformation-process is
to help the development to independence of this being
of soul and spirit which lies hidden in the depths of
the organism up to the seventh or eighth year and then
gradually— for the process is successive— frees itself.
It is this gradual process of detachment that we must
assist. (Steiner, 307, p. 85)
Steiner's theory of human growth is not without its
ambiguities and hermeneutic difficulties. It is amended by
new details up to the last of his educational lectures and
an investigation of all its complex subtleties would be
beyond the scope of the present study. The foregoing expli
cations of Steiner's stages of growth are represented in
Figure 1.
The Four Temperaments
Important to an understanding of Steiner's educa
tional practices is his developmental psychology, embodied
in his teachings on the four temperaments of man. Steiner
went back to the prescientific Greek and medieval typology
of choleric, sanguinic, phlegmatic, and melancholic tempera
ments (Steiner, 295, p. 11; 1967). Steiner developed a
reaction model for each of these types and made it the basis
for many of his didactic practices (Steiner, 295, pp. 11-
62). Steiner maintained that one of the four temperaments
107
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00
predominates in the organism of a child. He linked this to
the four entities of man:
If the ego is preponderant, that is, if the ego is
already very strongly developed in a child, then we
find in him the melancholic temperament.
If the astral body preponderates, we have the choleric
temperament.
If the etheric body preponderates, we have the sanguine
temperament.
If the physical body preponderates, we have the phleg
matic temperament. (Steiner, 295, p. 12)
In an ideal man, the cosmic harmony between the four tem
peraments would exist. But no person living on a physical
plane can achieve complete harmony. Therefore, "education
and teaching must bring about the [greater] harmonizing of
these four principles" (Steiner, 295, p. 12).
Waldorf pedagogy finds not only its theoretical
justification, but most of the rationales for its practices
in the Anthroposophical view of man. The insights of Spir
itual Science into the totality of man's nature made a new
pedagogy imperative (Steiner, 301, p. 16).
In summary, man is a multistructural being composed
of a physical-, etheric-, and astral-body as well as an ego.
His physical body connects him to the natural world, which
he transcends with his ego. The ego is part of cosmic
spirituality, destined to move upward in an evolutionary
109
spiral, subject to the laws of karma and reincarnation.
Man is not totally determined, because earthly existences
provide an opportunity to transmute one's ego to a higher
moral and spiritual level. It is the purpose of education
to carefully guide the metamorphoses that lead from one
earthly stage of growth to the next. Imbalances that occur
through the predominance of one of the " soul-conditions,1 1
as manifested in the four temperaments, must be harmonized
in the educational process.
110
CHAPTER V
FROM PHILOSOPHY TO PEDAGOGY
In the aftermath of World War I and its subsequent
social and political turmoil, Steiner introduced his theory
of a new social order, the Threefold Human Commonwealth
(see chap. Ill, pp. 74-76). Taking the position in his
important booklet, Die Kernpunkte der Sozialen Frage (The
Essence of the Social Question), that "the social question
will never be solved if we do not consider the educational
and spiritual as an essential component of it" (Steiner,
1920a, p. 9), Steiner argued for a disentanglement of the
three major elements governing societal and individual life,
calling for a separation of governmental, cultural, and eco
nomic activities into restricted spheres. The activities in
each sphere were to be dominated by a guiding idea. Govern
ment was to be dominated by the principle of equality, the
economic life by the principle of fraternity, and the cul-
tural life by that of freedom. Freedom in the cultural
sphere was— among other things--to find expression in a
school system liberated from governmental interference on
111
one side, and the needs of industry on the other (Steiner,
1920a). The first Waldorf School was founded in 1919 in
response to his widely publicized social theory when philan
thropist and Anthroposopher Emil Molt supplied the necessary
funds, challenging Steiner to establish an experimental
school for the children of the employees of his factory (see
chap. Ill, pp. 76-77).
The Social Philosophy of Education
From its beginning, Waldorf education was influenced
by both the Anthroposophical view of man and its social
theory. In justifying the founding of a "free school,"
Steiner established himself as a radical critic of public
education, utilizing arguments found in such contemporary
critics as Illich, Reimer, and Fromm. While Steiner's
critique of education in an industrial society was based on
observations similar to those of present-day commentators,
he found different causes and offered different solutions.
Steiner aimed at nothing less than the reconstruction of
man and society through education.
To Steiner, the public school educates man primarily
for the needs of the state and of industry. Schools are
only tools of the state to create a subservient citizenry
and exploitable "human work-machines." A materialistic
112
world outlook promoting the scientific materialism of the
industrial era is responsible for the degradation of man
to an economic animal. Under the present system, Steiner
insisted, the good of the state and the good of industry are
interdependent (Steiner, 1969, p. 7). In the bourgeois
society of the industrial era, the main purpose of education
has become
to make man useful for the outer life in state and
industry. That man should primarily find fulfillment
as a spiritual being and, in the true consciousness of
this, provide meaning to state and enterprise is con
sidered less and less. What goes on in the minds fol
lows less the spiritual world order but more the neces
sities of economic production. (Steiner, 1969, p. 11)
To Steiner, man as the slave of his machines is both
a cause and a symptom of the spiritless materialism of the
industrial age. Capitalism and its economic antithesis,
Communism, both foster submission to a fatalistic material
ism (Steiner, 296, p. 19). The total nonspirituality of the
machines "drips into the souls" of those who operate them,
which "makes contact with machines . . . disastrous for
mankind. This is what sucks out the human heart and soul,
making man dry and inhuman" (Steiner, 296, p. 9). The
forces of materialism which have "robbed men of their human
ness" caused Steiner to characterize his contemporary world
as follows:
113
Look to America, the climax of mechanization of the
human spirit! Look toward the European East, toward
Russia, the wild and frightful impulses and instincts
that run riot there--the animalization of the body.
In the middle, in Europe, the sleepiness of the soul.
Mechanization of the spirit, vegetization of the soul,
animalization of the body--this is what we have to
face without deceiving ourselves. (Steiner, 296, pp.
10-11)
Hope for mankind lies only in looking to the super
sensible and in establishing a "social organism" following
the threefold order of socialism^ in economic life, democ
racy in political life, and individualism in cultural-
spiritual life (Steiner, 296, p. 11). Steiner's Threefold
Movement strove for a complete separation of all cultural
activity from political and economic life. Only a free
cultural life would unshackle education from its bureau
cratic restrictions and its political-economical goal
orientation, returning it to practicing educators, where
it properly belongs (Steiner, 1969, p. 12). Productive
educational work can come only from a free, and
The term "socialism" in Steiner is defined as a co
operative approach in business and industry between manage
ment and labor. Steiner also tried to implement his eco
nomic model in his Anthroposophical enterprises (see chap.
Ill, p. 78). This approach also characterizes the organiza
tion of the Waldorf Schools. Being cooperatively adminis
tered by the teachers, the schools operate without a prin
cipal. Salaries are determined by the faculty according to
the needs of an individual teacher without respect to rank,
teaching experience, or educational background. See Linden-
berg, 1975, pp. 118-130.
114
therefore creative, teacher treating his pupils according to
their individualities and personal needs. Not governmental
regulations, but knowledge of the nature of the social orga
nism and of human nature should be the Waldorf educator's
sole guidelines in the process of education (Steiner, 1969,
p. 11).
The establishment of the original Waldorf School in
1919 was as much a social experiment as it was an attempt
at organizing a pedagogy along the insights of Anthroposo-
phy. Historically, the first Waldorf School in Stuttgart
was primarily designed to be a school for the working class
(Steiner, 304, p. 27), but soon opened its enrollment to
children from all social classes. Steiner's social theory
was easily able to accommodate the change in social composi
tion of the student body. Whereas the school was originally
founded in response to the demand for freedom in the cul
tural sphere, the nongraded, comprehensive nature of the
school allowed it to be broadened into an implementation
model for the principles of equality and fraternity, the
respective ideals for economic and social-political relations.
The Anthroposophical social theory as advanced by
Steiner at the end of World War I, though briefly capturing
the imaginations of his contemporaries, never did become the
115
widespread and broad-based movement its founder envisioned.
Inasmuch as its concepts provide the theoretical rationale
for the organizational pattern of the Waldorf School Move
ment, the Steiner Schools may, however, be regarded as a
successful testing of his social theory in the limited
sphere of education. Beyond providing the basic justifica
tion for the establishment of a "free school," the ideal of
freedom in cultural life was extended to the pedagogical
practices of the Waldorf Schools. One of the most note
worthy features of these schools is the creative indepen
dence granted to its teachers within the basic framework of
Anthroposophical postulates and its basic world view.
Education as an Art
The deplorable chaos of the times, Steiner said in
1920, is the work of man, who is largely the product of his
education. The great educationists of the 19th century
such as Pestalozzi and Herbart created a "science of educa
tion" (Erziehungswissenschaft). Yet all the great educa
tional principles that have been advanced, noted Steiner,
have failed to improve man.
More than in any other field of human endeavor, the
science of education must be developed into an art. Peda
gogical practice must never be permitted to grow out of dead
116
theory, but should arise from the spontaneous creativity of
the educator. The purpose of Anthroposophical education,
Steiner stated, must be the transformation of pedagogical
knowledge into educational practice. The practice of edu
cation, however, must be nothing less than a creative,
artistic enterprise (Steiner, 301, pp. 12-14).
The art of educating is the result of an educational
attitude drawing on a thorough knowledge of man (Steiner,
307, p. 11). Therefore the didactic practices of Waldorf
education can never be built on abstract principles of edu
cation. The teacher acting upon his intuition and insight
into the nature of man will develop such a relationship with
the children
that in each individual child a whole world is revealed
to him, and not only a human world, but a divine-
spiritual world manifested on earth. In other words
the teacher perceives as many aspects of the world as
he has children in his charge. Through every child
he looks into the wide world. His education becomes
art. It is imbued with the consciousness that what
is done has a direct effect on the evolution of the
world. Teaching in the sense meant here leads the
teacher, in his task of educating, of developing,
human beings, to a lofty conception of the world.
Such a teacher is one who becomes able to play a lead
ing part in the great questions that face civilization.
(Steiner, 310, p. 26)
Steiner employed the analogy of an artist who cannot create
a painting or a sculpture by following the guidelines of an
art textbook, advocating that teaching can never be
117
effective if it merely tries to follow an instruction man
ual (Steiner, 312, pp. 12-13). Therefore, in his teacher-
training courses and educational lecture cycles, Steiner
never tried to provide a comprehensive and systematic teach
ing methodology. Instead he insisted that the teacher de
velop creatively his instructional strategy out of a given
situation, within the overall framework of the basic peda
gogical postulates of Anthroposophy. True Waldorf educa
tion, therefore, is characterized by creative diversity,
where each teacher within the wide framework of "essential
matters . . . does what he deems to be best suited to the
individualities of the children and his [the teacher's] own
individuality" (Steiner, 310, pp. 109-110).
Not only must the teacher view himself as an artist,
but all education in the Waldorf Schools needs to be per
meated by the artistic (Steiner, 301, p. 81). Steiner gave
various rationales for demanding an artistically oriented
education.
Education as a Higher Synthesis
of Art and Science
Steiner's perception of man's cultural history is
one of the reasons given for an artistic education. Early
in man's evolution, according to Steiner, science, art,
118
religion, and the moral life formed a unity. At this stage
of human development, man's intellect had not yet developed
the ability of abstraction. He perceived the spiritual con
tent of the universe in a clairvoyant, pictorial fashion
(Steiner, 307, pp. 28, 34). The patterns that man's "in
stinctive imagination" caught from the cosmos were trans-
formed--utilizing earthly matter--into his works of archi
tecture, sculpture, painting, music, and the other arts.
"With his human faculties man copied divine creation, giving
visible form to all that has first flowed into him as
science and knowledge" (Steiner, 307, p. 29). To Steiner,
therefore, both science and art are essentially "two aspects
of one and the same truth" (Steiner, 307, p. 30). In the
modern world, intellectual abstraction and the resultant
scientific systematization of knowledge have destroyed this
unity of knowledge. Hence, science alone cannot provide the
answers to the "riddle of man." Evolved man, wrote Steiner,
is an "artistic creation of nature," and science itself must
become art if we are to understand the secrets of man's
existence (Steiner, 307, pp. 28-30). The Anthroposophical
path to knowledge and higher reality can help man regain the
spiritual imagery and thus bridge
the gulf between knowledge and art in such a way that
at a higher level, suited to modern life and the
119
present age, the unity of science and art which human
ity has abandoned can enter civilization once again.
(Steiner, 307, p. 33)
In utilizing an artistic approach to education,
Steiner sought to promote a modern, higher synthesis between
art and science. The aim of education at the present stage
of human evolution must help man to regain this clairvoyant
intimacy with the universe, although on a level of intellec
tual awareness.
Artistic Education and the
Stages of Growth
Steiner found an additional justification for art-
centered education in his developmental theory (Steiner,
1923, pp. 1-2). During the second growth cycle (approxi
mately ages 7-14; see chap. IV, p. 108), the child's orga
nism is dominated by the rhythmic system, his thinking is
concrete and pictorial. The teaching approach at this age
level must take account of the child's organic and intellec
tual stage of growth. Rhythm and imagery must dominate
classroom instruction during the primary school years
(Steiner, 307, p. 121). According to Steiner, artistic
activity is a product of the rhythmic system. Therefore
artistic, rather than intellectual, training is to be empha
sized during the first years of school life. Steiner wrote:
120
The teaching is at first pictorial, non-intellectual:
the relation of the teacher to the child is pervaded
by a musical, rhythmic quality, and by such methods
we achieve the degree of intellectual development that
the child needs. (Steiner, 307, pp. 123-124)
From the artistic foundations of the primary years,
the intellectual faculties will emerge unstrained when the
organism is ready. In gauging the educational process to
the natural sequence of growth, the physical, emotional,
and spiritual elements within man will be balanced at a
crucial age. The artistic education of the child will lead
simultaneously to a longing for intellectual work and a
craving for bodily activity (Steiner, 307, p. 126). Artis
tic education thus aids the integration of the ego into the
physical-, etheric-, and astral-body of the child. If the
ego becomes too absorbed by any one of these entities of the
human organism, Steiner saw the danger of a dysfunctional or
imbalanced individual. An ego too absorbed by the physical
body leads to an overly materialistic life; one not suffi
ciently integrated with the body will produce a daydreamer,
an enthusiast, a person unfit for a life of usefulness.
Only in an artistically oriented education can the process
of ego integration be "balanced artfully" (Steiner, 302a,
pp. 5 6-57).
121
Didactic Tools of
Art-Centered Education
In the Steiner Schools, much rhythmic and artistic
activity accompanies learning in the primary years. Intel
lectual activity is not stressed until about the third and
fourth grades. Story telling (fairy tales, fables) de
signed to conjure up vivid imagery in the mind of the child
is the medium by which many subjects are introduced in the
primary years. Chanting, group recitation, and foot
stomping by the children are utilized in an effort to capi
talize on the rhythmic dominance of the child's organism.
Subjects such as arithmetic, for instance, are taught by
rhythmic activity and through the use of patterns and color.
Modeling, painting, singing, instrumental music, and eur-
ythmy exercises occupy a large segment of the school day.
Writing evolves out of drawing pictures (man in his evolu
tion first wrote in pictograms) and tracing patterns. Read
ing and writing are not introduced in earnest until the
second grade, because learning in the first grade is be
lieved to occur primarily through visual, aural, and kines
thetic, rather than intellectual means.
Even the division of the school day follows a rhyth
mic pattern, starting with the Main Lesson, a two-hour pre
sentation of subject matter in the morning, to be followed
122
by art classes (eurythmy, music, modeling, and painting).
The day ends with such physical activities as gymnastics and
gardening. Within the subjects, the teacher introduces a
rhythmic element through his instructional technique,
alternating active student participation with passive stu
dent reception. Thus rhythm, pattern, form, color, and
movement are the principal didactic tools of the art-
centered teaching approach in the Waldorf Schools. Accord
ing to Steiner, art is the pivotal element in education;
emotion is the bridge to a harmonious physical and intel
lectual development.
Teaching and the
Temperaments
Steiner's teaching regarding the temperaments forms
an important theoretical base for instructional practices.
His teachers are advised to study the temperaments of their
pupils and to identify and group them along the lines of the
reaction model shown in Figure 2.
Steiner's circular continuum also determines the
seating arrangements in the classroom. Steiner believed
that temperamental groups exposed to each other have a ten
dency to merge; therefore those temperaments having the most
wholesome effect upon each other are placed next to each
123
(Source:
Attention not easily
aroused, but a very
strong quality present
in the melancholic
temperament
The least
amount of
strength, and
attention least easily
aroused in the
phlegmatic
temperament
The greatest
amount of
strength, and
attention most easily
aroused in the
choleric
temperament
Attention easily
aroused, but little,
strength in the
sanguine temperament
Figure 2. Steiner 1s Reaction Model
Steiner, 295E, p. 17)
124
other, while those that are polar opposites (melancholy and
sanguine; choleric and phlegmatic) are seated opposite each
other. The grouping by temperament, Steiner stated, will
reduce rather than intensify psychological predispositions.
The circularity of his model provides for the gradual bal
ancing of all four temperaments within each child (Steiner,
295, pp. 13-15; 310, p. 135).
Steiner admonished his teachers to study constantly
the temperaments of their pupils because in them the karma
of the class is at work. The accurate recognition and cor
rect treatment of the four temperaments is an "essential
task of the educator," determining largely his teaching
approach and in no small measure his teaching success
(Steiner, 302a, p. 95). Consequently, the teaching approach
should be varied with each class section in order for the
entire class to capitalize on the particular strengths of
any one temperamental group. For instance, Steiner advised
that the participation of the sanguine children should be
sought when material appealing to the senses is shown, while
the melancholic children should be involved in learning sit
uations calling for reflection. Each temperamental type
will thus complement the other, resulting eventually in the
leveling of the temperaments. The teacher must strive for
temperamental harmony within himself and still be able to
approach each temperament with empathy for "the mood of its
soul." Though inwardly balanced, his outward behavior
should portray the temperament of the child he is dealing
with at a particular moment in order to become a mirror in
which the pupil can see his own nature reflected (Steiner,
307, p. 185). In giving this advice, Steiner not only hoped
for sympathetic treatment of the child by the teacher, but
also sought to induce self-corrective action by the child.
In his seminar prior to the establishment of the
first Waldorf School, Steiner gave many detailed— though
fragmentary--instructions and concrete illustrations regard
ing techniques best suited to dealing with various disci
plinary problems and subject matter approaches as these
related to his temperament theory (Steiner, 295). It would
be beyond the limits of the present study to present all
details, which to this investigator's knowledge have never
been systematically collated.
Curriculum and the Content of Learning
Rudolf Steiner personally drew up the curriculum
for the original Waldorf School. It followed closely his
view on the nature of man and his concept of readiness.
Teaching methodology, human-growth theory, and curricular
126
organization and contents blend into a harmonious whole,
rarely to be found in other school systems. The curriculum
can be seen primarily as the organic outgrowth of Steiner's
methodological-didactical theories, which, in turn, orient
themselves to his growth theory (Steiner, 294, p. 172). The
concept of readiness dictates both the introduction of sub
ject matter and that of instructional technique.
Out of a true knowledge of the human being, we have
to plan what is to be accomplished from week to week,
month to month and year to year in the education of
the child. The curriculum must be a copy of what we
observe in the evolutionary process of the child.
(Steiner, transl. in Baravelle, 1960, pp. 33-34)
Steiner divided the curriculum into three parts:
During ages 7-9, conventional knowledge such as reading and
writing is to be taught. In the 10-12 age bracket, conven
tional knowledge is to be transmitted with emphasis on the
subject matters that can be drawn out of the developing
judgmental faculties of the unfolding human being. During
this age period, the curriculum must strike a balance
between intuitive and rational elements of learning. After
the twelfth year, subjects building on intellectual, ratio
nal thought can be introduced. Commencing with age 12, the
educator must try to conquer the "instinctive twilight of
the soul" with the power of rational judgment, gently guid
ing the child through puberty. At age 14, teaching and
127
learning can become abstract and intellectual (Steiner,
294, pp. 189-191).
Fragmentary suggestions concerning curricular con
tent are provided by Steiner in his first teacher-training
courses (Steiner, 293, 294, 295). The actual content, how
ever, was left to the creative impulses of the individual
teacher. Limitation of time was probably as important a
factor for this decision as Steiner's conviction that course
material needed to be developed creatively by the practicing
educator (Steiner, 295G, p. 167). It is, however, consis
tent with his belief that bureaucratic regimentation of edu
cation through prescribed curricula and learning contents
results in a lifeless and therefore ineffective education.
In his brief survey of Waldorf education, Johannes
Kiersch explained that learning content in the Steiner
Schools as suggested by its founder can only be understood
as "a collection of examples, a medium to stimulate the
pedagogical imagination, but neither as a compulsory frame
work nor as a catalog of indispensable minimal demands"
(1970, p. 20). On the other hand, a "classical canon" of
subject matter has been handed down by tradition reaching
back to the foundation years of the original Waldorf School.
Under the constant advisement of Steiner, the unusually
128
gifted faculty of the first Waldorf School developed learn
ing content and materials for the various grades which, sub
ject to certain modifications, have become conventions of
Waldorf pedagogy and still provide the basic guidelines for
the world-wide Steiner School movement. While the teacher
in his preparation may draw inspiration from these proto
types, he nevertheless must constantly strive to create his
own teaching materials and approaches (Kiersch, 1970, pp.
29-30). Curriculum development, therefore, is an ongoing
task at the Waldorf Schools, and Steiner's curricular sug
gestions have never been allowed to become rigid dogma. In
the words of a Waldorf educator, "the typical Waldorf
School" does not exist, and, if it existed, the educational
movement "could not remain the pioneer of a developing and
ever evolving pedagogy" (von Heydebrand, 1970, p. 8).
In general, the curriculum of the Steiner Schools
still bears the imprint of its founder. The Main Lesson,
for instance, a correlated, interdisciplinary teaching
approach, is still a universal practice. Little change has
taken place in subject offering. Eurythmy, bookbinding,
gardening, land surveying, and spinning are among the indis
pensable subjects taught in practically every Steiner School.
A brief but useful survey of the Waldorf School curriculum,
its organization and rationales is provided in von
Heydebrand (1972) and is readily available in English.
Figure 3, reproduced from von Heydebrand's Curriculum of
the First Waldorf School (1972, p. 67), is fairly represen
tative of the curriculum in the Steiner Schools.
The Waldorf School curriculum, still unique in many
of its features today, was revolutionary at the time of its
initial introduction. Steiner had anticipated by several
decades the experiments of more recent innovative curriculum
experts. The introduction of two foreign languages in the
first grade, for example, has been a standard feature of
Waldorf education since 1919. Phoneme-contraction is the
principal reason given by Steiner for teaching foreign lan
guages at an early age. The instructional objectives during
the first three grades, however, are simply to develop a
"feeling for the rhythm and the sound of a foreign lan
guage." The emphasis in these early grades is on conversa
tion, not on grammar (Steiner, 295G, p. 181; 301, pp. 92-
93). In English-speaking countries, German and French are
taught to maintain the principle of introducing one Romance
and one Germanic foreign language to students.
Other subjects incorporated in the Steiner School
curriculum are selected not only for their value in
130
S ubject
Class
1st 2nd 3rd 4 th 5th 6th 7th 8th 9 th 10th 11th 12th
M a in Lesson 12 12 12 12 12 12 12 14 15a 15a 15a 15a
E nglish 3 3 3 3 3 2 2 2 2 2 2 2
French 3 3 3 3 3 2 2 2 2 2 2 2
E u ry th m y 1 1 1 1 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2
G ym nasties
— — 1 1 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2
S inging 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
In stru m e n ta l M u sic lb 2b 2b 2b 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
H a n d w o rk 2 2 2 2 2 1 1 2 1 1 — —
B o o k -b in d in g c c
W o o d w o rk d d d e e e e
G arden in g d d d e e — —
L a tin
— — — — f f f f f 4 4 4
Greek
— — — —
f f f f f 2 2 2
S urve yin g and Tech. M e ch.
— — — — — — — — — g — —
S p in n in g
— — — — — — - — h
— —
T e ch n o lo g y
— - — — — — — - — — 1 1
F irst A id
— — — — — - - —
1
— —
T y p e w ritin g
— — — --- — — — —
1 1
— —
R e lig io n 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2
T o ta l H o u rs 25 26 27 27 31 31 31 34 33j 36j 33j 33j
N o te s :
(a) o f w hieh 1 h o u r is given to m a th e m a tica l re p e titio n .
(b ) Flutes and V io lin . F ro m the 5 th Class o n w a rd s there sho uld be an orchestra fo r the m o re
m ore advanced.
(c) 6 weeks o f 4 x 2 h o u r lessons.
(d ) 2 ho urs in te rch a n g in g a cco rd in g to season ete.
(e) 2 periods o f 2 weeks o f 4 x 2 h o u r lessons.
(f) L a tin and G reek to g e th e r 4 hours.
(g) 4 1 / : weeks o f 4 x 2 h o u r lessons.
(h) 4 weeks o f 4 x 2 h o u r lessons.
(i) 3 weeks o f 4 x 2 h o u r lessons.
( j > e xclu d in g special periods.
Figure 3. Arrangement in the Waldorf School
of Periods per Week for the Different Subjects
(Source: von Heydebrand, 1972, p. 67)
achieving the overall educational objectives, i.e., the
harmonious development and growth of the incarnating human
being, but also for their practical usefulness. Many of the
rationales are given in von Heydebrand1s (1972) publication
on the curriculum in the Steiner Schools.
Whatever the curriculum, however, a crucial role is
assigned to the Steiner School teacher. It is he or she
who must make the subjects evolve gradually, playfully, and
spontaneously. Thus the concept of metamorphosis is applied
to curriculum construction and teaching methodology. Writ
ing, for instance, grows out of drawing and tracing, as does
geometry in the later grades. Arithmetic develops from
rhythmic activity such as jumping and clapping. Eurythmy is
used in the introduction of geometry and music. Steiner's
monism, his fundamental belief in the organic and unitary
nature of all knowledge, helps to overcome the fragmentation
of knowledge in education, as all parts are presented only
as different aspects of the whole.
In summary, Steiner's curricular organization is
based on the following principle: within a broad curriculum
outline, the Waldorf teacher is free to develop subject
matter and teaching materials creatively. His independence
is limited only by his own imagination. In Waldorf
13:2
education, therefore, the educator is perhaps the most crit
ical quantity. No discussion of Steiner's pedagogical ideas
would be complete without an analysis of the nature and the
role of the Anthroposophical educator.
The Anthroposophical Educator
Steiner believed that the educational question is
primarily a question of the educator (Steiner, 301, pp.
109-110; 296, p. 80). The renewal of education lies not so
much in postulating new educational principles as in devel
oping a new teacher mentality: "The question of education
is a question of teacher training, and as long as this fact
is not recognized, nothing fruitful can come into educa
tion" (Steiner, 296, p. 80; 301, p. 113).
Education, Steiner stated, cannot proceed from a
preconceived political notion of what man should be, because
such ideals are only abstractions created by particular
political persuasions. Educational programs that follow
political objectives make the individual child conform to
what a certain political philosophy or ideology prescribes
for all mankind (Steiner, 310, p. 18). Education in the
Waldorf Schools is radically child-centered and rooted only
in the Anthroposophical view of man. Anthropology must
be raised to the higher level of Anthroposophy, however,
133
so that the educator acquires "a feeling for the forms that
express themselves in the three-membered man" (Steiner,
296, pp. 72-73). Steiner stated:
We have no great interest in general theories, but so
much the greater is our interest in impulses coming
from Anthroposophy which can give us a true knowledge
of man, beginning, as here of course it must do, with
the child. (Steiner, 310, p. 22)
The Anthroposophical educator therefore must draw inspira
tion from Spiritual Science in order to "develop a right
sense for what should be brought to the child" (Steiner,
310, p. 22). The Waldorf teacher must not only be familiar
with the precepts of Spiritual Science, but he should also
be a practicing Anthroposopher. As such, he will be able
to draw spiritual powers out of his inner self and come to
an immediate and intuitive understanding of the spiritual
forces that operate within man (Steiner, 301, p. 115).
Since none of Steiner's teachers possessed the type of
supersensible cognition that he claimed for himself, a veri
fication of his educational theories is possible only
through trained observation:
I know that many people will say: if you assert that
the human being, in addition to his physical body,
consists of supersensible members, etheric body,
astral body and ego-organisation, it follows that only
someone who is clairvoyant and able to perceive these
supersensible members of human nature can be a teacher.
But this is not the case. Everything perceived
134
through imagination, inspiration and intuition, as
described in my books, can be examined and assessed
by observing the physical organisation of the child,
because it comes to expression everywhere in his phy
sical organisation. (Steiner, 310, p. 94)
Thus the educator equipped with the Anthroposophical knowl
edge of man, through observation of temperaments, physiog
nomy, and aptitudes, can penetrate the inner soul of his
pupils if he adds a meditative preparation to a purely in
tellectual one (Steiner, 311, p. 68).
To Steiner, the deficiencies of a state-controlled
educational system surface most visibly in teacher training.
Knowledge of educational theories is the objective of
teacher-training colleges, but only the cultivation of a
"soul-attitude" growing out of a knowledge of man's true
nature can lead to fruitful instruction:
There is a great difference between teachers as they
enter a classroom. When one steps through the door
the students feel a certain soul-relationship with
him; when another enters they often feel a chasm be
tween them and are indifferent to him. This expresses
itself in a variety of ways, even to ridiculing and
sneering at him. All these nuances frequently lead
to ruining any real instruction and education.
(Steiner, 296, p. 66)
The Anthroposophical educator is to be permeated by
the reality of man's connection with the supersensible world
(Steiner, 296, pp. 66-67). He must be able to see the evi
dence in the growing child that he has descended from the
135
supersensible world, "has clothed himself with a body and
wishes to acquire here in the physical world what he cannot
acquire in the life between death and a new birth" (Steiner,
296, p. 67). The teacher must approach each human being as
a sacred cosmic riddle and must view the developing child
as the product of his experiences in the prenatal, super
sensible realm (Steiner, 294, p. 33). With each child, the
teacher is entrusted with a "divine gift" through which he
can behold the unfolding of what is "essentially human on
the altar of physical life." In the highest form he can
observe how God creates in the world (Steiner, 310, p. 19).
The teacher's calling is a priestly calling. In guiding the
reincarnated spirit of a child to a higher level, he becomes
a "missionary in the development of mankind" (Steiner, 302,
p. 138). Past, present, and future existence of man as a
spiritual being must be considered by the educator as he
tries to solve the riddle of each individual child. In all
his efforts he must consider:
That which has placed itself in an earthly life is
the continuation of a spiritual existence and it is
our responsibility to guide that which this Spirit
desired through a reincarnation in an earthly exis
tence into the right direction. Only then will we be
overcome by that feeling of holiness, without which
one cannot educate. (Steiner, 301, p. 108)
The teacher must be filled by an awareness that the
136
experiences of man during his physical life will determine
the direction of his continued spiritual existence (Steiner,
301, p. 108). As the teacher participates in a cosmic pro
cess, he participates in the governance of the world
(Steiner, 302a, p. 138). To Steiner, education therefore is
primarily a "drawing out" rather than a "funneling in" pro
cess (Steiner, 294, p. 33; 301, p. 109).
In describing the work of the educator, Steiner also
used the analogy of a gardener. As the teacher recognizes
how something divine is working its way out of a child's
physical nature, he will help the manifested properties of
soul and spirit to grow properly. A gardener might not
understand all the secrets of nature, yet, having an in
stinctive knowledge of them, succeeds in nurturing growth
(Steiner, 310, p. 27). The educator's task is the creation
of a propitious environment for the free unfolding of the
innate forces within the child (Steiner, 303, p. 128).
Added to the functions of priest and gardener, the
educator must also be a healer. To Steiner, all illness is
physically caused, though it may manifest itself in mental
as well as physical illness. The very essence of man, his
soul-spirit-ego composition, acquires sickness as it is re
incarnated in the material body, because man's body is
137
something essentially alien to his higher nature: "With
respect to the higher nature of man, his constant struggle
with the physical forces of the body until death is some
thing pathological" (Steiner, 302a, p. 124). Therefore as
man emerges from his pre-earthly existence/ he is a being in
need of cure, because physical life is a pathological con
dition. Accordingly, all education must be therapeutic. It
is the educator's task to help the integration of the soul
into this alien body, which, during periods of reincarnations
is the necessary vehicle for the higher development of the
human spirit. The balanced integration of the physical with
the spiritual in man can be achieved only if the process of
education is more properly considered as the process of
healing. Steiner returned to the concept of ancient and
medieval man, which held that:
Man born into earthly existence . . . actually stood
on a stage below the human, and he had to be educated,
had to be healed in order to rise and become a true
man. Education was a healing, was of itself a part of
medical practice and hygiene. (Steiner, 310, p. 174)
The teacher, Steiner said, must develop and preserve
an instinct for illness and combat it with the three thera
peutic tools: diet, thermic conditions, and physical activ
ity. A close cooperation between the educator and the
school physician must be developed. The unity of healing
138
and educating needs to be restored through medical knowledge
for teachers and educational knowledge for doctors (Steiner,
303, p. 116; 302a, p. 124; 310, pp. 174-175). Consequently,
most Steiner Schools work closely with a school physician
and, when possible, with one who is in sympathy with the
Anthroposophical medical movement. Steiner's entire cura
tive education movement grows out of the above assumptions.
Finally, the teacher in the Waldorf School is to be
a paradigmatic man. Foremost he must be a truthful person
because any insincerity or falsehood will be reflected in
classroom instruction and can never give birth to truth
(Steiner, 294, p. 193). "In didactics," Steiner declared,
"the morality of education turns into instructional prac
tice" (294, p. 184). The teacher must represent to the
child all that is "good, true, and beautiful" in the world
(Steiner, 302a, p. 139; 309, p. 75; 293, p. 144). Thus he
becomes the axiomatic, ethical, and aesthetic model to the
child, and, as such, will gain both a natural authority and
the love of his pupils.
Steiner believed that the child between the second
dentition and puberty learns in the emotional context of
love and respect for his teacher (Steiner, 302a, p. 139;
310, p. 59). In the Waldorf Schools, the teacher as a
139
Bezugsperson (person of reference for the pupils) moves up
with his class from the first to the eighth grade. Per
sonality conflicts are avoided because the Anthroposophical
educator will constantly strive for a balance of the four
temperaments within himself and constantly seek to deny his
own subjectivity as he lovingly treats the child. His atti
tude toward each pupil must be characterized by a sense of
reverence and awe, out of which emerge love and respect for
the individual in whose destiny he is being permitted to
partake and shape. An outpouring of love must permeate his
entire work as educator (Steiner, 310, pp. 26-27; 294, p.
33; 302, p. 66).
Steiner's definition of the Anthroposophical edu
cator proclaims nothing less than a new professional ethos.
The enthusiasm and dedication that Rudolf Steiner was and is
able to engender among those who have followed this calling
may well be one of the major factors for the success of the
Waldorf School movement. Any student of this unusual school
system, it is believed, will come to acknowledge and respect
the achievements of its practicing educators. The belief
of the Waldorf teachers in their noble calling and their
high mission is probably as responsible for the success of
Rudolf Steiner's pedagogical ideas as the ideas themselves.
14 0
It seems inconceivable to this investigator that Steiner's
educational theories could have come to fruition without the
vital element of transmission, as embodied in the Anthro
posophical educator himself.
141
CHAPTER VI
SUMMARY, CONCLUSIONS, RECOMMENDATIONS
Summary
Rudolf Steiner, son of an Austrian railroad station-
master, was born in 1861 and reared in the rural parts of
the Hapsburg Empire. Upon graduation from technical high
school, he enrolled in the Technical College of Vienna with
a major in science. Additional studies in philosophy and
literature sparked an interest in philosophy and the scien
tific writings of Germany's greatest poet, Goethe. His
fatherly friend, the renowned Goethe authority Professor
Julius Schroer, helped him to gain an appointment as scien
tific editor of the poet's papers at the Goethe Archives in
Weimar. During his seven years in Weimar, he was awarded
his doctorate in philosophy from the University of Rostock.
His dissertation was the prelude to his major philosophical
work, The Philosophy of Freedom (1894). In this work he
postulated an epistemological and phenomenological analysis
of thinking as the prerequisite of true knowledge. He
142
maintained that the limits of human cognition in principle
are boundless and that a systematic observation of one's
thinking can lead to perception of pure spiritual reality.
Such perception, Steiner believed, would result in a life of
voluntary compliance with the laws governing the universe.
An ethical individualism is the postulate of Steiner's
philosophy of freedom. He termed this philosophical posi
tion "objective idealism," in contrast to the metaphysical
idealism of Hegel, which is based on an absolute dialectical
world-process rather than a subjective cognition process
within man. Claiming clairvoyant and extrasensory experi
ences since childhood and convinced of the spiritual reality
of physical phenomena, Steiner saw a mission in liberating
science from the materialistic bias of his age and sought
to interpret physical phenomena in the light of higher
spiritual reality. Steiner's basic philosophy was rooted in
Goethe's view of nature and can be regarded as a major de
velopment of the poet's epistemology.
In 1902 Steiner became a student of the occult and
joined the Theosophical Society in Berlin. He was soon
elected and installed as the General Secretary of the Soci
ety in Germany. Within the organizational framework of the
Society, he continued to explore and develop his gift of
143
clairvoyance in search for higher knowledge. The results of
his insights as an occult seer were disseminated in a series
of publications. In these he asserted that occult vision
could be obtained by a methodological cultivation of man's
innate faculties and were within reach of most normally
organized human beings. Steiner identified the stages
through which the occult student must pass as Preparation,
Enlightenment, and Initiation. He felt that in the evolu
tionary process man had arrived at a junction in his devel
opment where he could live in greater intimacy with cosmic
spirituality— in short, that an occult age was dawning upon
mankind. Claiming that he himself had achieved the level of
Initiation, at which the spiritual world was open to super
sensible inspection and systematic investigation, Steiner
began to advance his occult teachings in the Theosophical
Society under the name of Anthroposophy, or Spiritual
Science. Although relying heavily on traditional Eastern
terminology, Steiner's occultism was essentially a develop
ment of the Occidental, rather than the Oriental, intel
lectual and esoteric tradition. His Anthroposophy (Wisdom
of Man) was to be a science of the spiritual. According to
Steiner, the higher view gained by following his methodology
possessed phenomenological reality, could be induced by a
144
well-defined process of cognitive growth, achieved by almost
anyone, verified by ordinary logic, and was demonstrably in
harmony with the scientific laws known to mankind. Steiner
postulated a monistic universe and a microcosmic man whose
continued existence was subject to the laws of reincarnation
and karma. Steiner's views were fundamentally at variance
with those of the Theosophical Society, whose dogmas and
beliefs were clearly in the Oriental-mystical tradition.
The inevitable breach with the Society occurred in 1913 over
attempts by leading Theosophists to introduce the Indian
boy, Krishnamurti, as a reincarnation of Christ.
In 1913 Steiner founded the Anthroposophical
Society, which established its world headquarters in Dor-
nach, Switzerland. After World War I he continued and
intensified his lecture activities and soon became Europe's
most popular occult lecturer. Soon he began to apply the
insights of his "spiritual research" to many fields. Be
tween 1919 and his death in 1925, medical clinics, pharma
ceutical productions, education of the handicapped, art
forms, an agricultural movement, a commercial enterprise, a
church, and a school movement were inaugurated.
The 1923 destruction by arson of the temple-like
Gotheanum, the prime tangible expression of his occult
145
vision and the spiritual and physical center of the move
ment, was a serious setback for the Society. Concurrent
with the destruction of the headquarters, certain disinte
grative tendencies in the rapidly growing Anthroposophical
movement were checked with the reconstitution of the Society
in 1923. Steiner tightened the organization and exercised
increased central control over the different national sec
tions and the subsidiary movements.
Steiner's increased popularity in the years after
World War I also made him the target of much criticism.
Attempts were made to discredit him and his movement through
slanderous reports of real and invented occurrences. Though
revered and almost worshipped by many, he remained a con
troversial figure on the intellectual scene of his time.
History and the disciplines to which he sought to contribute
have largely ignored him.
During the last years of his life, he strengthened
the esoteric foundation of Anthroposophy and trained an
inner circle of future leaders. A new Goetheanum was under
construction when he died in March 1925 at age 65.
Steiner was a prolific writer and speaker and left
a prodigious literary legacy. Experts in the field--even if
they cannot follow his contentions— have attested to his
146
amazing knowledge in a wide variety of fields. Steiner was
"a university all by himself."
Half a century after Steiner's death, his work has
withstood the test of time remarkably well. The Anthro
posophical Society survived the Nazi persecution in Germany
and occupied Europe spiritually intact, and after World War
II again became a resilient and growing movement. Its
sundry enterprises command increasing attention and respect.
The Waldorf School movement, as one example, has grown into
the largest international school system of its kind.
Waldorf pedagogy, the concern of this investigation,
may be viewed as the application of Steiner's clairvoyant
view to the field of education. As such, it defies in many
ways a meaningful analysis along the classical subdivisions
of philosophy. His educational ideas are more properly seen
in the light of his views regarding the nature of man and
society, and his theory of human growth.
According to Steiner, man is a multistructured being
composed of a physical-, etheric-, and astral-body inte
grated by the ego. Man's physical body is his link to the
natural world, his etheric body provides him with the spir
itual forces of physical and intellectual growth, while the
astral body is the seat of fully developed intellectual
147
consciousness and matured emotions. The various "bodies"
or entities of man are integrated by the ego, the immortal
core of an individual's existence.
The three-membered man of Steiner gains importance
to educational theory in conjunction with his concepts of
reincarnation and karma. To Steiner, reincarnation was
part of a progressive evolutionary process of the human
spirit through the millenia. The alternation between
earthly and spiritual existences issues into a spiral of
evolution to increased spiritual heights. The higher devel
opment of the human soul is possible only during periods of
earthly existence. The aim of education at the present
stage of human evolution, according to Steiner, must be to
help regain man's long-lost clairvoyant intimacy with cosmic
spirituality, although on a level of intellectual awareness.
The new earthly life of a human being is an opportunity to
change one's karma or spiritual destiny for future incarna
tions. The purpose of education, therefore, is to be seen
in the light of Steiner's concepts of reincarnation and
karma. Anthroposophical education must aid the reincarnat
ing spirit's integration into the new physical body. Fur
thermore, after harmonious integration of body, soul, and
spirit, it must draw out the highest possible spirituality
in an attempt to guide man to a higher plane of spiritual
existence in this and future lives. Steiner believed that
man, properly educated, could develop into a totally self
actualized spiritual being, thus fulfilling his innate
potential for supersensible cognition of higher reality.
Steiner's developmental theory is also oriented
around his views on the nature of man and in turn provides
the rationales for curriculum construction and teaching
methodology. Steiner's theory of human growth postulates a
tertiary sequence of seven-year growth periods. During the
first period of growth (ages 1-7), man's organism is domi
nated by the physical body and the metabolic system. Learn
ing occurs unconsciously and is primarily imitative in
nature. The second growth period (ages 7-14) starts with
the second teething, which signifies the emancipation of the
etheric- or life-forces "body," and ends with puberty. The
growth powers of the etheric body are located in the cardio
respiratory, or rhythmic, system of man and dominate this
developmental period. Hence, learning during this phase of
growth occurs largely unconsciously and emotionally. It is
best induced through rhythmic activity.
Puberty, which starts the third growth period
(ages 13-21) , signifies the emancipation of the astral body,
149
and the brain and nervous system dominate the behavior of
the organism. At this stage, education can become intellec
tual, abstract, and creative. Learning becomes a conscious
activity. The full development of thought during this
period is concluded with the emancipation of the ego at
about age 21, coinciding with the age of legal adulthood
at the time Steiner formulated his theory.
The key to an understanding of Steiner's theory of
human growth lies with a series of metamorphoses at approxi
mately ages 7, 14, and 21. At about age 7, thought is un
shackled from the protective confines of the physical body
and is transformed into a soul function. At the coming of
puberty, thought, as dominated by feeling, is gradually dis
connected from the body (i.e., the rhythmic system) and
becomes a soul function. Upon reaching full adulthood, even
abstract thinking can become detached from the soul func
tions and be metamorphosized into stages of higher spiritual
cognition. Man's spirit can transcend the confines of his
physical body and penetrate higher spiritual realms.
Steiner made relatively few statements concerning
education in adolescence, giving most of his attention to
the development of a pedagogy for the crucial years of
growth between ages 7 and 14. Because the child's organism
150
is dominated by the rhythmic system during this period, and
his thinking is pictorial and concrete, Steiner prescribed
an art-centered education for Grades 1 through 7, in which
rhythm, pattern, form, color, and movement are the principal
didactic tools of the educator. A visual, aural, and kines
thetic, rather than an intellectual, teaching approach
characterizes education during the primary school years.
Steiner's developmental psychology, embodied in his
temperamental theory, is an important aspect of the teach
ing methodology in the Waldorf Schools. Following a pre-
scientific typology, he advised his teachers to classify and
group pupils according to a given reaction model into those
with choleric, sanguine, melancholic, and phlegmatic tem
peraments. Many of the classroom dynamics (peer and
student-teacher interaction) in the Waldorf Schools are
based on this temperament theory. The objective of this
methodological approach is to balance all four psychologi
cal dispositions in each child.
Curriculum and learning content closely follow
Steiner's view on the nature of man and his concepts of
readiness. Teaching methodology, human-growth theory, cur
ricular organization and content in the Waldorf Schools
blend into a harmonious whole rarely equaled by other school
151
systems. Although he established the curricular format for
the original Waldorf School, Steiner left it to his teachers
to develop specific learning content and material. Within
the framework of Steinerian educational principles, the
teacher is free to develop subject matter and teaching
approach creatively. Curriculum development is considered
an ongoing task of an ever-evolving pedagogy. The curricu
lum that Steiner drew up almost 60 years ago was revolu
tionary for its time, and is still unique in many ways.
Steiner anticipated by several decades some of the most
recent curriculum innovations. Although adapted to demands
of place and circumstances, the curriculum of the worldwide
Waldorf School movement remains closely tied to its founder's
guidelines.
Steiner's establishment of a comprehensive, non
graded, continuous progress, cooperative model school in
1919 came in response to his once widely publicized social
theory, the Threefold Social Order. According to this
social model, Steiner called for a separation of govern
mental, economic, and cultural activities into restricted
spheres. Each of the three spheres was to be dominated by
a guiding ideal or principle. The dominating ideal for cul
tural life was to be that of freedom. Education as an
152
important aspect of the cultural sphere was to to be lib
erated from the needs of enterprise, governmental regimen
tation, and political ideologies and orientations. Steiner
wanted to overcome the materialism of the industrial and
scientific age with a free and unrestricted educational sys
tem based solely on the pedagogical needs of the individual.
His own school system consequently was characterized by a
radically child-centered approach, aiming at nothing less
than a reconstruction of man— and indirectly society— along
Anthroposophical insights. Consistent with his view that a
pedagogy based on science and governmental regimentation was
lifeless, ineffective, and in no small measure responsible
for the political chaos and social upheaval of his time,
Steiner wanted to return education to the practicing edu
cator. Considering education as an art, rather than a
science, he challenged his teachers to independent and cre
ative work in the classroom.
Steiner's social movement was one of the least suc
cessful of his enterprises. Its concepts, however, deter
mine the organization pattern of the Waldorf Schools. Free
from governmental support and interference (the principle of
freedom in cultural life), the Steiner Schools are coopera
tively administered by the faculty (the principle of
153
equality for governmental activity), with financial re
sources divided among the staff according to individual need
without respect to type and length of training, teaching
experience, or years in service (the principle of fraternity
in the economic sphere). The comprehensive nature of the
school allows for a heterogeneous student body drawn from
all social classes/ an especially attractive feature in
countries with selective school systems which more often
than not reflect and perpetuate class distinctions rather
than aptitudes. Thus Steiner’s social theory, which pro
vided the impetus for the establishment of the Stuttgart
Waldorf School, found its only practical implementation in
the limited sphere of education.
Given the creative independence of an artist, the
Waldorf educator is perhaps the most critical quantity in
Steiner’s pedagogy. To Steiner, the crucial factor in the I
renewal of education was the development of a new teacher
mentality. The Waldorf teacher must not only be familiar
with the precepts of Spiritual Science, but must also be a
‘ ' ’However, the Steiner Schools, as private, tuition-
charging institutions, have tended to attract primarily
children from the intelligentsia and the middle classes (an
average of 67.5 percent, but ranging as high as 77 percent)
(Lindenberg, 1975, p. 186). Granting scholarships to needy
pupils has not offset this social imbalance.
154
practicing Anthroposopher. As such, Steiner believed, the
teacher would be able to draw spiritual powers out of his
inner self and come to an immediate and intuitive under
standing of the spiritual forces that operate within man
kind. The Anthroposophical educator is to be permeated with
the reality of man's connection with the supersensible
world. By assisting the unfolding process of a reincar
nated spirit and by guiding it to a higher level, the
teacher helps determine the direction of an individual1s
continued spiritual existence and thus participates in a
divine cosmic process. Therefore, the teacher's calling is
a priestly calling.
A teacher also has the functions of a gardener who
merely nurtures the miraculous forces of nature by providing
an environment conducive to growth. Added to the teacher's
functions of priest and gardener are those of a healer. All
education, according to Steiner, is therapeutic in nature,
because the physical body, as the vehicle of the soul, is
essentially alien to man's higher nature. By definition,
incarnated life is a pathological condition, and the spir
it's harmonious integration into the physical body requires
a curative treatment. The process of education is more
properly to be considered as an aspect of healing. In the
Waldorf Schools, Steiner attempted to restore this unity of
healing and education. Teachers must be familiar with medi
cine, and attending physicians must be knowledgeable about
education. Consequently, most Steiner Schools work closely
with a school physician and, when possible, with one who is
in sympathy with the Anthroposophical medical movement.
Finally, the Waldorf educator, as Bezugsperson
(a person of reference) must be the paradigmatic man. Rep
resenting all that is true, beautiful, and good in the
world, he must be the axiomatic, ethical, and aesthetic
model for his pupils. In outlining these functions of the
educator, Steiner defined nothing less than a new profes
sional ethos. The enthusiasm and dedication that Rudolf
Steiner was able to engender among those following this
calling may well be one of the secrets for the success of
the Waldorf School movement. The belief of these educators
in their noble calling and their high mission is probably as
responsible for the acknowledged achievements of Steiner's
pedagogical ideas as these ideas themselves.
Conclusions
More than half a century after its initiation, the
worldwide Steiner School movement has grown into the largest
private, nonparochial school system in the world. The
156
demand for Waldorf School education, especially in Europe,
exceeds the ability of the movement to train suitable teach
ers. Lack of teaching staff prevents the opening of new
schools, and those in existence often have long waiting
lists. In Germany, for instance, the Waldorf Schools have
acquired a reputation for dealing successfully with behav-
iorally disturbed children and with those having learning
difficulties.
The controversial nature of many of Steiner's ideas
undoubtedly has been responsible for the lack of serious or
unbiased treatment of Waldorf education in professional
literature. However, those students of the movement who
have suspended judgment long enough to inspect Steiner's
pedagogy closely have generally come to admire many of its
practical achievements, even if they could not appreciate or
wholly agree with the theories underlying these practices.
In this investigator's opinion, Waldorf education has stood
the test of time remarkably well. If survival, popular
demand, public respect, and studied professional opinion can
be regarded as valid rating criteria, the Waldorf School
movement must be considered successful.
Waldorf education could and should more properly be
termed Anthroposophical education. As the Steiner Schools
157
simply try to rear pupils along the insights of Spiritual
Science but not to indoctrinate them with the Anthroposoph
ical world view, a careful distinction must be made between
Anthroposophical education and education in Anthroposophy.
The training of children to become practicing Anthroposo-
phers is clearly not one of the aims of these schools, and
few pupils become associated with the Anthroposophical move
ment upon graduation.
As Anthroposophically inspired education, Waldorf
pedagogy represents the only Western school system growing
out of occult presuppositions. Many of its theories, how
ever, have been translated into successful teaching
approaches and have demonstrated remarkable, practical
results. Certain of the Waldorf School practices could be
utilized in public education. If nothing else, Steiner's
ideas can enrich educational thinking and stimulate fruitful
discussion.
Whether or not Steiner's pronouncements have their
origin in the supernatural or whether these theories should
be regarded as speculative metaphysics is a question that
cannot be answered in an investigation such as this. In
studying Waldorf education, Steiner's ideas, regardless of
of their origins and scientific verifiability, must
158
be accorded the status of legitimate working hypotheses.
In inaugurating the Waldorf School, Steiner
expressed the hope that the success of the school would
offer some tangible proof for the accuracy of the insights
of Anthroposophy. Whether or not Waldorf pedagogy can be
regarded as a valid evidence of its founder's occult vision
or of Anthroposophy in general depends on one's personal
worldview, as the available "evidence" is indirect and, at
best, circumstantial in nature. Unquestionably, his ideas
deserve further inquiry and increased publicity.
Recommendations for Further Research
The present study, as the first of its nature, has
tried to present a basic overview, or general outline, of
Steiner's educational philosophy and pedagogical theory.
Those details that would have required a digression from the
discussion of Steiner's cardinal principles have been
deleted from consideration. At many points in the study,
complexity and comprehensiveness have been sacrificed for
the sake of clarity. Therefore, virtually every aspect of
Waldorf education presented in this investigation merits
further detailed study. Especially profitable would be a
more thorough analysis of the curricular and didactic prac
tices of the Steiner Schools, utilizing Steiner's own
159
writings and the wealth of materials published by Anthro
posophical educators in their newsletters and journals. A
useful index of these materials is available for the years
1927 to 1967 (von Glasow, 1968). Many practical and prac-
ticeable ideas could be gleaned for public education from a
detailed study of teaching approaches in various subject
areas, such as the three R's, foreign-language instruction,
art education, and others. Finally, with the theoretical
foundations clarified, experimental research projects could
help determine the extent to which Waldorf practices could
be integrated into a public school setting. An opportunity
for study and analysis of such experiments--although uncon
trolled— can be found in certain local schools in the Swiss
canton of Bern, in which a number of public-school educators
teach by the Steiner methods.
Steiner's pedagogy has great potential for enriching
contemporary pedagogical debate and practices. Considering
the challenges confronting education in virtually every
nation of the world, and the search for improved ways of
schooling children, the educational profession can hardly
afford to continue to ignore the Waldorf School movement.
160
B I B L I O G R A P H Y
161
BIBLIOGRAPHY
NOTE: The following abbreviations of
frequently reoccuring Anthroposophical
Publishing Houses were used throughout
this Bibliography:
PAV Philosophisch-Anthroposophischer
Verlag, Dornach, Switzerland.
RStP Rudolf Steiner Press, London.
RStNV Rudolf Steiner Nachlassverwaltung,
Dornach, Switzerland.
RStV Rudolf Steiner Verlag, Dornach
Switzerland.
VFG Verlag Freies Geistesleben, Stuttgart
Germany.
Abendroth, W. Rudolf Steiner und die heutige Welt. Ein
Beitrag zur Diskussion um die menschliche Zukunft.
Miinchen: Paul List Verlag, 1 969.
Baravalle, H. v. Rudolf Steiner as Educator (Rev. ed.).
Englewood, New Jersey: St. George Books, 1960.
Bock, E. Rudolf Steiner: Studien zu seinem Lebensgang
und Lebenswerk. Stuttgart: VFG, 1961.
Carlgren, F. Erziehung zur Freiheit. Die Padagogik
Rudolf Steiners. (2nd ed.). Stuttgart: VFG, 1973.
Dessoir, M. Vom Jenseits der Seele. Die Geheimwissen-
schaften in kritischer Betrachtung. (6th ed.).
Stuttgart: Enke Verlag, 19 31.
Edmunds, F. Rudolf Steiner's Gift to Education. The
Waldorf Schools. London: RStP, 19 75.
Freeman, A. Rudolf Steiner's Message to Mankind.
East Grinstead, Sussex: New Knowledge Books, 1963.
Galbreath, R. Traditional and Modern Elements in the
Occultism of Rudolf Steiner. Journal for Anthropo
sophy , 1970, 2, 82-90.
162
I Glasow, G. v. Erziehungskunst. Zur Padagogik Rudolf
! Steiners. Register nach Sachgebieten Jahrgang I-XXXI
: (1927 bis 1967) . Stuttgart: Padagogische Forschungs-
stelle beim Bund der Freien Waldorfschulen e.V., 1968.
Grosse, R. Erlebte Padagogik. Dornach: PAV, 1968.
Grunelius, E. M. Early Childhood Education and the
Waldorf School Plan. Englewood, New J e r s e y : Waldorf
School Monographs, 19 74.
Harwood, A. C. The Recovery of Man in Childhood. A Study
od the Educational Work of Rudolf Steiner. London:
Hodder and Stoughton, 1958.
The Way of a Child. (4th rev. ed.). London:
RStP, 1967.
Hemleben, J. Rudolf Steiner in Selbstzeugnissen und
3ilddokumenten. (6th Printing). Hamburg: Rowohlt
Verlag, 1963.
Heydebrand, C. v. Vom Lehrplan der Freien Waldorfschule.
Stuttgart: Freie Waldorfschule, 1970.
Curriculum of the First Waldorf School.
London: RStP, 19 72.
Hovels, K. Beitrage zur Kritik der anthroposophischen
Welt- und Lebensanschauung und kritischer Beleuchtung
der anthroposophischen Erziehungs- und Unterrichtslehre.
Doctoral dissertation, University of Bonn.
Kaldenkirchen/Rheinland: Steyl, 1926.
Kiersch, J. Die Waldorfpadagogik. Eine Einfiihrung in die
Padagogik Rudolf Steiners. Stuttgart: VFG, 1970.
Kloss, H. Waldorfpadagogik und Staatsschulwesen. Stutt
gart: Ernst Klett Verlag, 1955.
Koop, U. Die Padagogik der Waldorfschulen. Unpublished
doctoral dissertation, University of Hamburg, 1958.
Kriick v. Porturzyn, M. J. (Ed.). Wir erlebten Rudolf
Steiner. Erinnerungen seiner Schuler. (3rd ed.).
Stuttgart: VFG, 1967.
Leisegang, H. Die Grundlagen der Anthroposophie. Hamburg:
Hanseatische Verlagsanstalt, 1922.
16 3
Lindenberg, C. Waldorfschulen; angstfrei lernen, selbst-
bewuBt handeln. Praxis eines verkannten Schulmodells.
Hamburg: Rowohlt Verlag, 19 75.
Ogletree, E. J. Multiplication Table Stresses Relation
ships. Chicago Schools Journal, 1964 , 5_5 (6), 263-266 .
_______. Learning Arithmetic Through the Steiner Method.
Chicago Schools Journal, 196 5 , _46 (4), 149-154.
_______. A Cross-Cultural Exploratory Study of Creativeness
of Steiner and State School Pupils in England, Scotland
and Germany. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Wayne
State University, 1967.
_______. Teaching Number Sense Through Rhythmical Counting.
The Elementary School Journal, 19 70, 7_1_ (1 ) , 11-17.
_______. A Cross-Cultural Examination of the Creative
Thinking Ability of Public and Private School Pupils
in England, Scotland, and Germany. The Journal of
Social Psychology, 1971. 8_4(3), 129-131.
_______. Creative Discontinuities of European Children.
The Journal of Social Psychology, 1972, J38(4), 35-40.
_______. Bioplasmic Forces: A New Concept of Readiness.
Reading Improvement, 1 973, J_0(10), 34-36.
_______. Rudolf Steiner the Unknown Educator. The Elemen
tary School Journal, 19 74a, 7_4 (6), 344-351 .
_______. Intellectual Growth in Children and the Theory of
Bioplasmic Forces. Phi Delta Kappan, 1974b, 55(6) ,
407-412.
_______. Human Development, School Readiness and Social
Deprivation: A Rationale Based on Piaget and a New
Theory of Bioplasmic Forces. Urbana, Illinois:
Educational Resources Information Center, University of
Illinois, 1975. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service
No. ED 100 5 46)
Oppholzer, S. Anthropologie und Padagogik bei Rudolf
Steiner. Doctoral dissertation University Munster, 1959.
Publication Manual of the American Psychological Associa-
tion (Second ed.). Washington, D.C.: American
Psychological Association, 1974.
164
Rittelmeyer, F. Rudolf Steiner Enters My Life (4th ed.).
London: Christian Community Press, 1963.
Rittersbacher, K. Zur Beurteilung der Padagogik Rudolf
Steiners. Basel: Verlag Zbinden, 1969.
Schneider, J. Die Rudolf Steiner-Schulen, ihre theoretische
Begriindung und praktische Gestaltung. Unpublished
doctoral dissertation, University of Kiel, 1953.
Schrey, H. Waldorfpadagogik. Kritische Beschreibung und
Versuch eines Gesprachs. Bad Godesberg: Wissenschaft-
liches Archiv, 1968.
Scientific Seer: Rudolf Steiner. Reprinted article from
MD, the Medical Newsmagazine, Feb. 1969, pp. 245-250.
New York: Anthroposophical Society in America.
Shepherd, A. P. A Scientist of the Invisible. An Intro
duction to the Life and Work of Rudolf Steiner (7th ed.).
London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1971.
Staedtke, I. Schiller und die Waldorfpadagogik. Doctoral
dissertation, University of Jena, 1929.
EDUCATIONAL LECTURES BY RUDOLF STEINER LISTED BY THE
STANDARD NUMBERS OF THE WIESBERGER BIBLIOGRAPHY (1961)
OF COLLECTED WORKS
(29 3, Wiesberger) Allgemeine Menschenkundeals Grundlage
der Padagogik. Vierzehn Vortrage gehalten in Stuttgart
vom 21. August bis 5. September 1919 anlasslich der
Griindung der Freien Waldorfschule. Dornach, RStV, 1973.
(294, Wiesberger) Erziehungskunst Methodisch-Didaktisches.
Vierzehn Vortrage gehalten in Stuttgart vom 21. August
bis 5. September 1919 anlasslich der Griindung der
Freien Waldorfschule. Dornach: RStV, 19 74.
(295 E, Wiesberger) Discussions with Teachers. 15 Dis
cussions with Teachers of the Waldorf School in
Stuttgart, August 21 to Sept. 6, 1919. London:
RStP, 1967.
(295 G, Wiesberger) Erziehungskunst. Seminarbesprechungen.
21.8.-6.9.1919 anlasslich der Griindung der Freien
Waldorfschule. Dornach: RStNV, 1969.
165
(296, Wiesberger) Education as a Social Problem. Six
Lectures, Dornach, Aug. 9-17, 1919. New York:
Anthroposophic Press, 1956.
I (297, Wiesberger) Welche Gesichtspunkte liegen der
Errichtung der Waldorfschule zu Grunde? Vortrag vom
24.8.1919 anlasslich der Griindung der Freien
Waldorfschule. Dornach: PAV, 1932.
(301, Wiesberger) Die Erneuerung der padagogisch-
didaktischen Kunst durch Geisteswissenschaft. 14 Vor
trage gehalten fur Lehrer und Lehrerinnen Easels und
Umgebung. Dornach: RStNV, 1958.
(302, Wiesberger) Menschenerkenntnis und Unterrichtsge-
staltung. 8 Vortrage fur Lehrer der Freien Waldorf-
schule 12.-19. Juli 1921. Dornach: RStNV, 1971.
(302a, Wiesberger) Erziehungs und Unterrichtsgestaltung aus
Menschenerkenntnis. Neun Vortrage gehalten fur Lehrer
der Freien Waldorfschule in Stuttgart. Dornach:
RStV, 1972.
(303, Wiesberger) Der Weihnachtslehrerkurs. 16 Vortrage,
2 3-31-12-1921. Dornach: Verlag am Goetheanum, 1922.
(305, Wiesberger) Die geistig-seelischen Grundkrafte der
Erziehungskunst. Vortragszyklus gehalten in Oxford
vom 16.-25. August 1922. Dornach: RStNV, 1956.
(306, Wiesberger) Die Padagogische Praxis vom Gesichts
punkte Geisteswissenschaftlicher Menschenerkenntnis.
Dornach 15.-22-4-192 3. Bern: Troxler Verlag, 1956.
(307, Wiesberger) A Modern Art of Education. Fourteen
lectures given in Ilkley, Yorkshire 5th-17th August
1923. London: RStP, 1972.
(309, Wiesberger) Anthroposophische Padagogik und ihre
Voraussetzungen. Funf Vortrage Bern 13.-17-4-1924.
Dornach: RStV, 1972.
(310, Wiesberger) Human Values in Education. Ten lectures
given in Arnheim (Holland), July 17-24, 1924.
London: RStP, 1971.
(311, Wiesberger) Die Kunst des Erziehens aus dem
Erfassen der Menschenwesenheit. Sieben Vortrage in
Torquay, 12.-20.3.1924. Dornach: RStNV, 1963.
166
OTHER WORKS BY RUDOLF STEINER LISTED BY PUBLICATION DATE
(1886/1961) Grundlinien einer Erkenntnistheorie der
Goetheschen Weltanschauung mit besonderer Riicksicht auf
Schiller. Stuttgart: VFG, 1961.
(1892/1961) Wahrheit und Wissenschaft. Stuttgart: VFG,
1961 .
(1894/1973) Die Philosophie der Freiheit. (13th ed.).
Dornach: RStV, 1973.
(1897/1963) Goethes Weltanschauung. Dornach: RStNV, 1963.
(1904/1972) W?ie erlangt man Erkenntnisse Hoherer Welten?
(21st ed.). Dornach: RStV, 1972.
(1904/1973) Theosophie. Einfiihrung in iibersinnliche
Welterkenntnis und Menschenbestimmung. (29th ed.).
Dornach: RStV, 19 73.
(1907/1975) Die Erziehung des Kindes vom Gesichtspunkte
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Creator Luft, Herbert (author)

Core Title The educational philosophy of Rudolf Steiner

Contributor Digitized by ProQuest (provenance)

Degree Doctor of Philosophy

Degree Program Education

Publisher University of Southern California (original), University of Southern California. Libraries (digital)

Tag education, philosophy of,OAI-PMH Harvest

Language English

Permanent Link (DOI) https://doi.org/10.25549/usctheses-c26-445112

Unique identifier UC11247222

Identifier usctheses-c26-445112 (legacy record id)

Legacy Identifier DP24140.pdf

Dmrecord 445112

Document Type Dissertation

Rights Luft, Herbert

Type texts

Source University of Southern California (contributing entity), University of Southern California Dissertations and Theses (collection)

Access Conditions The author retains rights to his/her dissertation, thesis or other graduate work according to U.S. copyright law. Electronic access is being provided by the USC Libraries in agreement with the au...

Repository Name University of Southern California Digital Library

Repository Location USC Digital Library, University of Southern California, University Park Campus, Los Angeles, California 90089, USA