Supplements to Member Lectures

GA 246 — 30 June 1918, Hamburg

76. About the Photographs of the Construction

I would like to take the liberty, my dear friends, of saying a few words to you today about our Dornach building. I would like to begin my introduction by saying a few things that may help to correct misunderstandings that are linked to this Dornach building, which is what so many things within our movement want to assert. It is not the case that the building as it now stands on this Swiss hill in Dornach was originally there. Perhaps most of you know that the original intention was that the building should be erected in Munich, and a plot of land has already been acquired in Munich. The idea was that the building there in Munich should be surrounded by a number of houses that were to be inhabited by members who wanted to live there, so that it was actually only necessary at that time to build a building with interior architecture. The exterior should be unpretentious, if possible, because it was not effective on the outside, it should be framed by houses, and what came into consideration for us was a corresponding expression of our aspirations in an architectural way through interior architecture.

As I said, the building did not come about because we wanted to build something for our movement, but it actually arose from the idea of friends in Munich who longed to have a location that was appropriate to our cause, because the rooms available in Munich had become far too small, as Munich had also become the city where we performed our Mystery Plays.

The whole idea of the building was born out of this idea of creating a branch in Munich. Then it turned out that although we initially thought of all the ideas that were appropriate to our cause, we didn't [reckon with] the prejudice of the outside artistic community, and you know that building plans for such buildings have to be submitted to all kinds of authorities. We didn't even have to deal with the police or other authorities, we first had to deal with the authorities set up by the Munich artists, who - as you can understand - of course didn't particularly like our building idea. They didn't understand it, of course, and they found all kinds of objections at first. We would actually have had to wait an infinitely long time, three years, if we were to get to it. Well, I want to make a point. [...] It was impossible to find out what they actually wanted, we would have had to keep drawing up new plans, it was impossible to manage.

I would only wish that people would think more about things like this, which are impossible to deal with in our culture today, even though they contain the most important impulses for the future.

[gap in shorthand] Canton Solothurn in Switzerland was made available, and the construction can now be carried out in Dornach near Basel. The canton of Solothurn really does have a characteristic, dear friends, that the other regions of Europe no longer have for the time being, as far as I know, namely it did not have a building code at that time, and it seems to be changing soon. That means a lot. That was very good, you could build there as you wanted, and that [illegible word in shorthand].

Now, of course, you need to be familiar with this brief overview of the historical course of the building if you want to properly assess the building as it is intended to stand. It was originally intended to be a mere interior design. Then they [in Dornach] wanted to achieve it quite quickly and had to rethink it. The corresponding architecture, which was initially intended for Munich, had to be rethought for the building so that it could stand freely on a hill, visible on all sides.

This means, of course - otherwise it would have taken much longer to rethink what had [emerged] from our first attempt to erect a building - that we first had to understand [illegible word in shorthand] that our building was only the beginning, that it was only the first point of reference for doing something like this. We know this just as well as those of us who are working on it, just as [illegible words in shorthand] it is first of all necessary that when new things want to enter world culture, they first enter in an imperfect form. Of course, now I could give long lectures on everything that is wrong with the building. But it's not that [that matters], it's that one day - like Greek architecture, like Gothic architecture - this anthroposophically conceived architecture will be introduced into the entire culture of humanity. In the course of time, other buildings - which will of course no longer be part of this culture - will be built in the direction of this architectural idea. That is the main thing, that in this Munich building, in this root building, we can see what is actually necessary for such buildings of the future. [Gap in the shorthand]

On the basis of this artistic and historical introduction, which I cannot give in more detail, I would now like to develop the building concept for you in a few words. You will see that this building idea differs from other building ideas in that it is much more concrete, not as abstract as other buildings. With other building ideas, you will not be able to avoid realizing that you are dealing with an architectural idea and a decorative half-idea or secondary idea. That is to say, it is based on an architectural [illegible words in shorthand], yes, decorative secondary thoughts. This abstractness of a building should be overcome, especially in our case. The building should be cast from a single thought [illegible word in shorthand], should therefore not be thought, but looked at, should really result from the spiritual world as a revelation; that it is [therefore] not thought, but looked at. This, of course, led to doing things very differently afterwards than we do with older, contemporary building ideas.

First of all, it is important that you focus on the basic idea. This consists of the fact that other architectures are made with the walls in mind; this architecture - because it is in space - is intended to have closures. And that which closes off is the walls. The walls are also so formed in their shapes in the ordinary architectures that they close off, that they make the world of sensation opaque. When one is inside the building, [then this is expressed from the outside] in such a way that a piece of space is closed off. This idea has been broken with us. Our entire architecture is formed in such a way that it is, I would like to say, emotionally transparent. You should be in the room and get the feeling that the forms that make up the walls visibly take hold of you, that these forms cancel themselves out, that they are such that you don't have the feeling that a room is closed off here, but that everything goes out into the distance. In other words, the forms themselves should create walls that dissolve into walls that are transparent to the soul. That is the basic idea in all the forms that have been given.

You have to look at the form itself in such a way - I'll use a trivial comparison, but I think it expresses the matter well - that it is not there for its own sake and yet is completely appropriate to the matter. The form is there for what is to happen in it. What is performed, spoken and listened to should be expressed in the forms. Hence the idea of building, if I may express myself in southern German, a Gugelhupf, a cake tin. With cake pots, it is also important that the cake form determines the shape. The structure is also intended as a cake tin. It's what's inside that counts. Just as, when you have a cake pan, you don't initially focus on the pan, but on the cake inside it.

If you translate this into the spiritual, you get the inside of the building. Now, working on this as an illustration, the following brief sketch resulted. First of all, if I look at the floor plan, the building is made up of two partial circles. The other is an extension. These two partial circles stand on a concrete substructure. This entire building is now oriented from west to east. The two main rooms adjoin each other here. This room is intended for holding meetings for lectures and the like, [here] the architecture is adapted to the purpose. The lectern would be placed here for the large meetings that will hold the audience in this room. Here the two rooms are separated by a curtain. The mystery performances will take place in this room. This room has its gate here, so you go from the west to the east.

Here you will be able to have a passage into the intermediate tract, and here there are seven columns on each side. These seven columns have pedestals and capitals, which [gap in shorthand]

The columns are made of wood. In other words, a concrete substructure on which the wooden structure rises. These columns are carved out of wood - masses of wood - and are crowned at the top by an architrave, which is then connected internally, connected in a vault to the domed roof.

The shape of the columns now offers something quite different to contemporary architecture. As you know, the previous architecture had a repetition of capital motifs. Here there is no such repetition, but each column has its own capitals, so that the shapes of the capitals are in a continuous development of form. Only the right-hand column is always the same as the left-hand column - in relation to the only axis of symmetry that the building has - but a subsequent column is never the same as the previous column; instead, the motif of a column always develops from a previous column. And with this building, you have this development in front of you, i.e. a wooden architecture that actually lies on the border between sculpture and architecture and which brings the overall development of humanity in a natural way.

But it is not symbolic. Symbols are, as expressly emphasized, [gap] everything is real. What matters is that everything that is found is translated into a truly artistic form. And that's the strange thing about these columns - and it's repeated in there, there are six columns on each side, so that there are twelve in total - the most important thing is that these columns are a work of art in their entire formal development. So please note that it is not the form that is the work of art, but the work of art is created by you being in it yourself. You will be compelled to grasp the actual course along the forms. If you try to take in the whole with your gaze, then you will be forced to let your gaze describe certain forms, to give your gaze certain movements. And by going through the evolution, the development, with your eyes, by artistically working through the forms with the preceding [forms], just as one has the form in the melody and grasps a tone together with reference to the preceding one. By experiencing the whole inwardly, you create for this [aspect of the construction] what is present as an artistic construction. [You yourself must be the artistic light. Just as the musical work of art does not consist of trumpets and eardrums and so on, but is actually built up first, it should also be noted here that the work of art in relation to the architecture is actually created in such a way that you form it yourself by generating the artistic form within it. And the pictorial forces in this picture are definitely conditioned in the mysteries of the world.

It's important to realize this first: This is from the bottom to the top.

If we then take the concrete substructure, we will find that everything that is taken out of the concrete according to the sketches or the architecture is also shaped in such a way that we can see it: This is the substructure - it already comes out in the forms - this is the substructure. What emerges from the earth rises up in concrete. So that you have to develop the feeling as if coarse elemental beings growing out of the earth form themselves into shapes and these shapes are such that they support the whole, but also move the whole into its place. So that is the substructure.

The columns then rise above it and the architrave arches above the columns and the dome vault above it. [The two domes, which are actually joined together in a way that domes have never been joined together before, then arch over it. Here is the gate, the domes are interlocked, which is particularly important because two domes interlocked like this have never been made before. Even today, this was a technical feat that could only be accomplished because it was possible to translate the construction idea into mechanics along the path of our cooperation. There were all kinds of forces that had to be overcome. Because I was able to work with [illegible word in shorthand], it was only possible to solve this problem of joining these two domes together.

Now if you consider inside the space - going outwards, from outside to inside - which is between the columns, it's meant to be a window. So here in the windows, which always consist of three windows and only have an axis of symmetry towards the center, these windows here, of course, were only added to the building concept on the way from Munich to Dornach.

When only interior design was planned, these windows were not needed. And besides, the interior architecture had to correspond to the exterior with a kind of decoration. But it was not decoration, it had to be [artistically] combined with the idea of the building, to give it an outward effect [gap in shorthand]

These windows represent, so to speak, the second stage of artistic creation in this building. If you remember what I have just said, that everything that is carved in wood actually provides the basis for the formation of a work of art [illegible passage in shorthand], then you will have the work of art so large in the building in everything that is carved.

This is not the case with windows. Something new was also tried there, namely glass etching. They are not glass windows, as has been done up to now, but simply monochrome glass surfaces have been used, where the layers are scratched out of the monochrome glass with a pencil, so that the whole form of the picture is etched into the glass. This means that the pane of glass in question is not a work of art - only when the sun shines through. So the idea is that the work of art is created from what you have etched with the sunlight shining through. That is where the work of art is created. The glass panes are colored. And there is depicted, again depicted, the whole mystery that is formed in the universe: The dreaming human being, the sleeping human being, the waking human being. You will be able to feel that. So that the artistic [gap in the shorthand]

This is the matter of the spiritual level, which is intended to express what first arises in nature itself as the soul. The pane of glass is therefore not the work of art, but only that which is created by the sun's rays.

Because the colors are arranged in the appropriate way, the colors [shine] again; we then have the color evolution within. By processing this emotionally, a second stage is created.

So that, by continuing the thought - I have told you that the walls are destroyed - what is there is destroyed in these glass windows. One must actually have the sensation in connection with the sunlight. There is also the destruction of the walls. The window pane gives in to the sunlight.

Then the two domes arch over the whole. They are painted. A painting that had to be calculated not for natural light, because there is no outside lighting. But it will have that so well that, while one usually works with dome chandeliers [gap in shorthand]

Very little will be sketched [gap in shorthand]

Here [in the dome painting] the physical element is expressed by looking directly at the walls, but also with the tendency that the wall does not act as a wall in itself, but what is painted is only [illegible words in shorthand] looked at directly, on the [illegible words in shorthand] you have to do it yourself with the [illegible words in shorthand]

With windows, the dome is perceived in connection with the soul of nature. But up there is something that is meant to go out into the distance. You will find everything painted there that you have ever come to know in anthroposophy; but not as an allegory, everything is understood artistically. It is important that there [illegible word in shorthand] is a painting created from the spirit.

The fact is that color itself is first obtained. We only have plant colors, we're still missing two, but that's what the war brought. The plant colors have an inner luminosity, because they are actually painted as a whole. Remember, there is no light surface to paint, but when painting naturalistically, the objects themselves glow, so it is a different kind of painting, you need different colors; and you also have to have the technique so that what is painted does not appear as if it is illuminated, but as if it glows in itself. That requires a completely different painting style and [a different] painting technique. This is how the domes are painted. [gap]

All this has only been possible because a number of friends have dedicated themselves to these things. It was all done in the most dedicated way, carved into the wall, the panes were etched with a tremendous amount of labor, it was painted with dedication. And something like this is only possible if a number of people really can be found to devote all their energy for a while. It is hard to imagine how much actual artistic human energy has gone into this building. This is given far too little consideration.

The center of the whole is now to form a sculptural group, which is to represent the mystery, which is to become the important mystery for the cultural age that is now beginning. This group is meant to be here, so that this sculptural group will stand here, facing directly west. This group initially represents a central figure. I don't think it's right to start from the prosaic, the novellistic, but rather from the artistic. Whoever believes in the central figure what is otherwise [believed] about Christ will be right, but it is a human breast that is depicted, and [illegible word] [gap], but rather to focus on what this representative of humanity directly stands for. So that it now expresses preferably the element of love. He is connected with the Ahrimanic and Luciferic elements [which are depicted to his right and left]. This is actually what will be necessary in the future [illegible word], to understand that by looking at the human, whether in the spiritual-religious or social-economic, we must understand how the normal-human works into the human physique, that the ahrimanic and the luciferic live in the human.

I would have to talk for hours if I were to present the trinity of Christ, Lucifer and Ahriman to you now, but today I will only touch on the form in sketches.

You see, Ahriman is connected with all the downward forces that must be in man instead of the upward forces. Ahriman is actually that in which only the perishing is found, that which brings us humans to death, that which makes us die. But with these forces of death, which ultimately also cause us to die, with these forces we actually think, with these forces we are cunning, mischievous, sly, but also wise with an understanding sense. This is connected with the downward development of man. But it is also connected with the forms in the human head. The head is the deadest [illegible words] thing in man. Now think of the idea of metamorphosis: it is based on a being that is not decisive for the form of the whole human being, but is decisive, as otherwise only the head is formed in the human being.

A being that otherwise has limbs, but is entirely [illegible words], is entirely head gesture, think of a mere head being as a whole being. Man is head, head and limbs. If you think of what is present in the head as image forces expressed as a whole being, then you have an ahrimanic being in the right form. This is repeated twice in the group. So in the middle is the main figure, then down here once this ahrimanic being. This is repeated here once again. And here, in connection with this ahrimanic being, we have a luciferic being, here a second luciferic being. Here this representative of humanity has one arm and [one] hand going downwards in this gesture, the other hand and [the other] arm going upwards in this gesture. It is now seen that the arm and hand are not formed as if an attack were to emanate from the central figure against Ahriman and Lucifer, but only love flows both downwards and upwards. But here Lucifer cannot bear the love flowing towards him. He breaks and falls down. Here is the falling Lucifer. In the same way, the downward hand of Christ, which terrifies Ahriman, is not an attack, but love flows downwards and [Ahriman] cannot bear it. Of course, this would have to be expressed in an artistic [way].

This group should be in the most important place and should express the normal human, the Luciferic, the Ahrimanic.

The Luciferic now arises when all that which otherwise remains unconscious in man [has a formative effect], those organs which express the will, generally the grasping, also all that which is expressed through the productive faculty, The opposite of Ahriman is therefore a borderline being, but only the form as a border: Lucifer is all sprouting, sprouting life. So if you think of the organs of production as transformed into the whole being, then you have something extraordinary. While Ahriman is basically terribly ugly, Lucifer is very beautiful in his forms, but he is that which resounds in human life as the power of [illegible word], as the power of sprouting and sprouting.

And what is life to death lives as allegory, lives of course in spirituality in the future as spiritual life, if you can imagine this [gap in shorthand]

If we only had what Lucifer is, then we would be a being with a glowing hand, but terribly stupid, not clever at all. So this is Lucifer, beautiful and stupid; Ahriman is ugly, but incredibly clever. Lucifer has life, beautiful, flourishing life; Ahriman has death, but is clever, smart, cunning. This should therefore be expressed in this main group.

I will now take the liberty of showing you pictures again, which will give you a little mental image of the thought that is being expressed in this group.

This will now be shown here. First the head of Ahriman. Here you see a head formed in such a way that only the Ahrimanic has a form on it. [illegible or incomprehensible passage in the shorthand diagram]

If you now remove from the human head all that is normal-human, all that is Christ-human, all that is Luciferic, and only the formative powers of the Ahrimanic are emphasized, then you get this Ahrimanic form of the head. Unfortunately, I don't have a picture of the whole Ahriman. He can already be seen in full figure in the group, but this should only show you the head.

I would like to emphasize that all these things actually show their correct form, especially when they are carved from wood. I had not been able to find out the reason, even by occult means, why the Greek motifs, the pagan, the Gothic [figures] were all sculpted in stone instead of wood. Whereas all the things that were sculpted in wood with the Christian development are actually properly expressed. [Illegible words] If it were in wood, it would first show what it should be. She is a Pietä. You can't really make a Christ in stone. The figure of the apostle is suitable for stone. The same goes for the Lateran figure of Christ, which should also be made of wood. That's very interesting, the fact certainly exists for me, but the reasons will perhaps first emerge in occult research. Why, I don't know myself today.

I have already summarized this in books, I would say purely according to the motif. So it is based on the motive of Ahriman. It is quite realistic, spiritually realistic, if you imagine Ahriman like this, then you have a real mental image of Ahriman [gap in shorthand].

So the head is formed on the figure that lies horizontally at the bottom. Ahriman once grows out of the rock; and must work his way out, as is indicated there. For often [illegible words] processing with Ahriman.

Lucifer cannot be modeled without [understanding] from the following image how Lucifer is to be interpreted. I have already told you how he receives his form. [Gap in the shorthand diagram]

So now you see here: If you remove from your upper body and head everything Ahrimanic and normal human, you see here the Luciferic. Here is a kind of arm and hand, but they are not the [illegible words], that around here, growing out of the torso, you can see something of the wings that connect to the torso. The wingtips connect directly to the fuselage. It expands upwards, as if the wings [gap in the shorthand diagram]

Imagine - this is not nice to imagine, you will say, and yet there is the state form - imagine your ears enlarged so that they are quite large, the ears, not Sceleno ears, but very beautifully built, arising from the earlobe. And now imagine the shoulder blades expanded into wings, and the whole as an organ that also contains the larynx, so that you have an organ into which the music of the spheres directly intervenes, so that you have wave formations, a formation from the earlobe - the larynx wings and shoulder wings. The vibration of the universe intervenes in the whole. [This is how Lucifer speaks the world word. I'm sure you know that. Up there is the head. You see the wings overlapping. The head is meant to be open at the top and connected to the wings.

Now you think to yourself - having climbed up a little - you then have this image. So now you have Lucifer below, and then up here you see an elemental being above Lucifer here on the left. With regard to this elemental being, I would say that it actually also became our destiny last year through karma. Six months ago, Mrs. Waller came one day [...] and explained that long after [the scaffolding of the] whole group had been dismantled, she said [that the whole group's] centre of gravity [was] too far to the right. The group was therefore in danger of tipping to the right.

This made it necessary to create a balance on the left. That was an important sign from fate. You have to know that the whole group is eight and a half meters high. So this little creature had to be created. This creature gave me the intuition that comes with such things: it has to be created like this.

Well, there is something here that is captured everywhere, something that is not possible in external naturalistic art as sculpture. In external art, symmetry must prevail. Here there is asymmetry. So it is that which is contained by external physical nature. This must be retained in the spiritual. You will also notice from the physical that your left eye is often different from your right eye; the same applies to your ears, nose and so on. The human being is always somewhat asymmetrical. This being is in fact artistically quite asymmetrical, not created from within, but from this moment of destiny of anthroposophy.

Not [illegible words] this peculiar asymmetry something very strange. If you walk around, it looks different from every point and reveals something different. It is absolutely necessary, if you want to grasp this being, this being in the representation of the mystery of the world, which looks over the rock and passes over with a gesture and a gesture and a state of soul, that you understand it correctly in real occultism, not by [illegible passage], but by surrendering to the spiritual worlds. That one does not bring up pessimism, but hope. [illegible passage]

You also learn from these things, and we have learned a lot. A lot of artistic work has gone into it. The lady who worked on this group in particular has gradually grown in the creation of the form, also in the creation of that which essentially lives in this form. And with this group something is to be put into the world that actually gives the basic impulse of the whole of anthroposophy and also that which is to be linked to anthroposophy as a secondary impulse. No finger, no hand should be anything other than created out of the spiritual. All gestures, all gestures that are artistic forms, are expressive as a whole, as otherwise only facial expressions are. [But here everything is gesture; they are not forms at rest, but moving forms. You had to overcome everything heavy in sculpture, that was very difficult.

The next picture I will show you shows a different view of the same motif. Here you see Lucifer looking over and this being taken from the side above. You see at the same time how peculiar it is, this being here, you see it photographed from the left; and it is interesting to see how the expression is now different through this asymmetry than before in the other view. The asymmetry makes it clear that the form [illegible word] is transformed into gestures, that is the artistic idea of this group. [Gap in the shorthand]

You can also look at the hands, they are also transformed into gestures; it is actually really the case that you have to appreciate, you have to strive for what Schiller once tried out in overcoming the material through the form. /[Illegible passage] So the forms should be transformed into gestures. This makes it possible to express [illegible words] more. It is more difficult with sculpture than with painting. [illegible words in shorthand]

The same group was painted in the dome. I did some painting myself and tried to do all these different things. The pictorial group has only the central figure and a Lucifer and an Ahriman figure. The same thing is expressed there through the color effect that is expressed here through the gestures. And all these secrets of the color effect had to be substantiated.

It's [gap in shorthand]

Most people don't really have a proper concept of painting. To them, it is actually an illustration of reality. But that is not painting. Read in the mystery drama where I said how the form of the color work should be. That is attempted in painting.

Now I have opposite you in the middle of the whole - here below is Ahriman, to the left behind Christ, here then Lucifer - so, the other, great Lucifer who falls, I don't have him here. But there are two more pictures, one is the head of the middle figure. There you will see how this [illegible words in shorthand] one can really feel the essence of Christ.

[When the] sculpture was made, a clergyman told me, when he had long been a [illegible words in shorthand], that the fragility has become particularly perceptible to the human mind. [gap in the shorthand]

The photograph gives the profile of the head of the central figure. The more [one looks down at the] figure, the more it becomes a mere gesture. Nothing realistic has been expressed with bones, no feet. It's all about the spiritual gesture the further down you go. - Perhaps we could now reverse the slide.

You see, if you compare what you see now with what [you] saw earlier, you will see the asymmetry in the reversed image. One side is completely different from the other side. Please keep in mind how it now looks from this side, that is, from this right side. Now let's turn around again and you will see how different it looks from the other side. You only see this [in these two projections] from two aspects, but if you walk around the group, you will see it from all possible sides. This gives life to the asymmetry by bringing out of the form just the subtle way of treating the asymmetry.

And now, as a final image, I have looked at the same head from the front. This is the head seen from the front. It is asymmetrical right down to the hair. You will only understand this later when you see the group. All the asymmetries that are sought here in the forehead, the formation of the eyes and the hair are now in perfect harmony with the gestures of the arms and hands.

The whole is a moment with the different gestures of the arms and hands. [Gap in the shorthand]

Yes, you see, this building now includes what is generally necessary: a little more money. The construction has already cost quite a lot, but it should not be immediately believed that the construction costs too much, that it - the fact should go through you - that actually free work has been done, which has been done as free work by the work of our members. You know that an insurance sum is only insured for what is manual and external work; the insurance company has insured the construction for exactly what it cost without further ado, without contradiction. This is also external proof that nothing was given away. You can see from this that the building is worth what it costs. [There is still money to be raised, which I hope will be raised in the near future. I didn't want to talk to you today about this dark side of the matter, but to give you a true account in artistic terms of what is being done in Dornach. I wanted to show that something is really being attempted here, through which a new artistic element of humanity is to be introduced from our movement.