Supplements to Member Lectures

GA 246 — 4 June 1923, Dornach

82. Words on the Occasion of the Wedding of Ilona Bögel with Joseph Polzer-Hoditz

My dear fellow celebrators and especially you, dear friends, who at this moment have decided on your communion of life, these words are spoken to you from the circle of anthroposophical thought and the anthroposophical community. Now that your community of life has been blessed by the priest authorized to do so, it is time to speak from the midst of the anthroposophical community. For in a very significant way your community has grown up on the ground of anthroposophical life. And at such an important moment in our lives, it is fitting that a few words of self-reflection, self-reflection of the circle involved in this celebration, should be practiced.

At this moment, I would like to pay special tribute to a significant event that has come before me in the course of my anthroposophical work. When I began to give anthroposophical lectures in Vienna, the dear grandfather of the person who has decided on this life community today was always among the personalities who particularly caught my attention from the audience. And I must confess that the particularly kind, benevolent manner, the extraordinarily distinguished attitude of that personality many years ago, when you were both still very young children, made an extraordinarily deep impression.

I found that the old Baron Polzer, your grandfather, was deeply connected with the entire spiritual life to which my soul is devoted, and the words that I was sometimes allowed to speak to him after the lecture testified to his deep attachment to the cause on whose ground you also stood.

What I experienced with this old gentleman, who has now been in spiritual life for a long time, is one of the most beautiful memories of my anthroposophical life. I have often been able to express this to your father and mother, who are united with you here today for your festivity, and I would like to emphasize it today on this solemn occasion, because I am of the opinion, of the certainty, with what intimate love and what heartfelt benevolence the soul of the old, old gentleman is looking down today on the festive act that we have celebrated.

After some time, Joseph Polzer's parents found themselves within the anthroposophical movement, and they brought their two sons to me in Vienna quite a long time ago. I must also remember this moment, and from this moment I must look at the way in which the sons grew more and more into this anthroposophical direction. I must remember the beautiful, faithful, devoted attitude of Joseph Polzer's parents today, which has always shone like a pearl within the anthroposophical movement; it has shone through its faithful, devoted and understanding view of the anthroposophical cause. All this must be connected today with that which - I would like to say - writes itself into the human heart, into the human soul and also into the human spirit with such luminous clarity from an anthroposophical point of view. You have found yourselves on anthroposophical ground. We know how that which takes place on earth is the final realization of that which has long been prepared from pre-earthly existence.

But I must remember in particular the fateful way in which the bride and groom of today have grown into the anthroposophical movement. For example, I must remember the conversations I had with Joseph Polzer's parents when he left secondary school. And it is undoubtedly a significant word that was spoken by Joseph Polzer's father at that time, which I would like to summarize as meaning that he expected much more if his sons could learn everything that was to be learned here during the construction of the Goetheanum than everything that they would be able to learn at another secondary school today. And it may be said here that the devoted loyalty with which Count Polzer's sons have worked here has fully confirmed what he predicted in that conversation. And so what has happened here on the part of the Polzer family is like a profound coming of age in accordance with destiny.

On the other hand, after she first joined our circle in Stuttgart and listened to the anthroposophical lectures, Ilona Bögel found her way into the artistic side of our movement as well as the anthroposophical side. And since that which takes place artistically takes place in a somewhat more visible way, many could also see in what a faithful, devoted, artistically understanding way Ilona Bögel has grown into our movement. This can now be summarized in words: She has ultimately become a favorite of those with whom she worked on the ground of artistic eurythmy, a favorite of an extraordinarily large audience on anthroposophical ground.

Those who find themselves in some kind of life community on earth have been preparing this step for a long time. And it has often been emphasized within our anthroposophical discussions, especially in recent times, how even the first step that a person takes in life points in the direction that later becomes a decisive, meaningful event of destiny within life on earth.

And as this destiny in all its gigantic greatness stands before my soul at this moment, I must connect it with the outer events that have taken place. I look at the circle of the Polzer family, from which the wonderful soul of the old man, which shone so wonderfully from his eyes, always shines out at me. I look at this circle. I look at the old Austrianism that really did manifest itself in such a noble way in this old gentleman, that lived on in the Polzer family in such a beautiful way, that the sons grew into in such a faithful way. I look at this whole circle - I would like to say - in its Austrian isolation. And I look at the other circle, from which Ilona Bögel has grown out, already spatially distant from that Austrian circle. I see a wide space between these two circles. And from a purely earthly point of view, the question may well be raised, because it is justified: If there had been no anthroposophical movement, does it seem likely by earthly standards that these two personalities would have found each other in life?

Everyone's heart will speak in such a way that it must be said: If there had been no anthroposophical movement, the earth orientation could not have been found through which these two personalities would have come to a community of life. They were looking for each other, certainly before they both became anthroposophists. But they found each other by first going their own way through the anthroposophical movement. And so it is precisely from the circle of the anthroposophical movement that the word may be spoken today: You have sought your paths in life within the anthroposophical movement, sought the point where they meet. Within the anthroposophical movement, everything is such that people within its [boundaries] must to a certain extent also wake up about ordinary life, that is, they must look with a deeper understanding, with a stronger consciousness at what otherwise takes place in life - I would like to say - in a dreamlike way.

Aren't the most incisive events in life, quite rightly of course, played out from the depths of human hearts as if in a dream? But life loses none of the splendor of the dreamlike and thus of that which is immersed in the night of divinity when it is viewed in the spirit of anthroposophical understanding. And so it may well be said: By placing today's festive event in your anthroposophical life, something has reached a certain conclusion. You have found yourselves in the anthroposophical way. Through this something has occurred that establishes a new life between you. Something has occurred that you could only have found, it seems to me, on anthroposophical ground.

But with this, my dears, the question has come to you as to how you will continue to prove yourselves on this ground now that you have reached a great goal. For it is not only the past that must be looked at in important moments of life, but also the future. And by concluding in a certain way every path of life with the fact that they have met, we will have to look today, if not with our minds, then with our hearts, at what you will continue to gain for your life on earth in terms of strengthening and invigoration from the anthroposophical sources.

Of course, this can only be indicated in a vague way. If it were done in a definite way, man's freedom would be taken away from him. But this is his highest good and must never be taken away from him. But in a certain way, the question will have to enter your souls and hearts today: How will you be able to prove yourselves in the further pursuit of your path of life, on the anthroposophical ground that is sacred to us all? We will certainly understand your every step, we will follow your every step with love. We will be with you with all that our blessed thoughts can be. But it behoves us, at such an important moment, to join together in our hearts past, present and future.

That, my dears, is what I have wanted to speak to you in this hour today, to speak out of all the love that has always been yours as long as you have walked within our anthroposophical community, that has been yours in communion with your grandfather now looking down upon us, who was so dear to me, which has been with you in communion with those who brought you into the world here, who ensured the strong development of your youth, and which will remain with you for all times in which we will be able to follow your life with a heartfelt interest.