Supplements to Member Lectures

GA 246 — 16 July 1924, Wrocław

85. Final Words at the Raout in the Matthias Art in Wroclaw

Count Keyserlingk has just rejected the thanks that I and others have expressed to him and his entire house from the bottom of our hearts. But this gratitude will nevertheless remain; and it will also remain firm in the hearts of those who are now leaving the Breslau friends after these beautiful Whitsun weekdays. It will also remain deeply inscribed in my heart as a beautiful memory of these Whitsun days. You see, I would like to explain to you how strong this gratitude must be, a little from the history of these moments, so to speak, or rather, from a symptom of the recent history of the anthroposophical society, which I have encountered here in the last two days.

Pardon me if, at the end of our beautiful days, I begin to present what I actually mean objectively in the light of the seemingly personal. Over the last two nights, as is now the case every week, I have had two essays to write here in Koberwitz, as I usually write them in various places, mostly in Dornach. One was intended for the Goetheanum magazine, the other for the newsletter. In the “Goetheanum” magazine I had to describe a few steps in the course of my life from the year 1889; and in the newsletter I had to describe what we experienced here in these days of Pentecost. There are just 35 years in between, a beautiful period of time, but for me it represents a kind of rise of our anthroposophical movement.

At that time, it wasn't Pentecost, it was Christmas. I traveled from Vienna to Sibiu in Transylvania to give lectures there. So even then, giving lectures was something that was part of my spiritual profession, so to speak. I made this long journey in order to give two lectures over an even longer period of time, one to the public and one to a smaller circle in Sibiu. Those were wonderful days, wonderful Christmas days. But I have to accept what these two reports - the report about something that happened 35 years ago and the report about what has now happened - tell me, I have to accept what has happened in the meantime. Back then it was certainly very nice in a small circle. But now I have to let that which at that time had, I would like to say, not very extensive content - it was difficult to approach the world with what one was allowed to say - I must always, always let it run through my soul and think of how difficult it was at that time to bring even a small part of the spiritual content to the world. I was only able to report on two lectures that were held in a town that was quite lost to the world. When the second night came, the last one, which immediately preceded today, I had to report - I didn't know where my head was, what I should say in a few columns. There were so many lectures, so many events, so many things crowding into these days.

Let's just briefly review everything that happened. We have the two poles of spiritual activity, the inner intimate activity that leads directly into the shaping of the spiritual, just as this spiritual is present on earth itself. There we have the other pole, which - I would like to say - in this case, to the deep satisfaction of the anthroposophists, has just in these days of Pentecost placed itself next to the first pole, there we have that which could be brought from the spiritual world for an eminently practical life activity, for agriculture. Every day, so to speak, this path could be traversed in the soul from the spiritually practical in the morning to the purely spiritual in the afternoon and evening, which is, however, the source of everything practical. And what else was placed between these two poles!

The events that, to my deep satisfaction, were there for the youth and out of the youth. What could be brought out of the source of the esoteric in the class lessons was introduced into this time. Yesterday, this was given a deeply satisfying addition when the enthusiastic Kugelmann group presented “Iphigenia” to us, as it emerged from the suggestions of the language course, or rather a course on the artistic understanding of language, which was held by Dr. Steiner. We could actually get the mental image that it always went on like this, as sometimes from exam to exam, that there were no breaks in between. But there were plenty of pauses in between, pauses that were filled, even if they were rejected in a certain form, in order to frame - I would almost like to say frame - all the work that was presented during these days in the most loving care, which took on the broadest, widest scope. Even if Count Keyserlingk refused, I have to ask - because you get the truth through such questions: How would this whole event have gone if Koberwitz were not near Breslau and if Countess Keyserlingk and Count Keyserlingk were not there in Koberwitz as nurturers of anthroposophy and anthroposophists? It is precisely when one juxtaposes things in the way I have juxtaposed them - from which one can now see how, in the course of 35 years, the possibility of working for the content from the spiritual world has been able to deepen and expand - that one can also appreciate what significance it has had for anthroposophy, what significance it has for the development of anthroposophical life to work for the anthroposophical movement so heartily, so willingly and, above all, so purposefully and unerringly, as the whole House of Keyserlingk did so extensively and with such love. And I hope that Count Keyserlingk does not want us, who have seen his manifestation of love, to develop a grateful counter-love for this manifestation of love - I hope that Count Keyserlingk does not want us to go away now with the feeling of rejected, offended love. That really isn't possible either. We have all felt this love gratefully; and he has to let us have it, he can't take it away from us. Rejected love in such things is really not possible.

But then again, when I think of the years that have passed since the age of 35, many things rise up. For example, what rises up in these 35 years is precisely when we began to live and work with the anthroposophical movement. There were many things that could be called “echoes of the world”. In the beginning, this echo of the world was not particularly strong. After all, those who make this echo sound so loud and so discordant today only started at a certain point in time. In the beginning, it was still the case that those who sought anthroposophy were concerned with it. Those who are so strongly involved with it today, especially in the disharmonious tones, were not there yet. When I remember how we started. You see, Count Keyserlingk, both in the introduction and in the closing speech, pointed out an inconvenience that really should not be considered at all. But I have to think now, when I let the years pass me by, how I once had to give a public lecture in a fairly large city - the movement was just then at the stage where it was less considered by the opponents, because they thought, well, that's something of a few lateral thinkers, it's not worth bothering about - in a fairly large city. I was speaking - and suddenly the room, which already had the difficulty of having to be careful, became restless. It wasn't like here, it wasn't like in Koberwitz either, you had to be careful in this case that you were always stepping into these holes because of the many holes in the floor. I had to talk in halls like that for many years. But on one occasion, it got really restless, a commotion broke out and there were several loud screams. A rat had come through one of these holes. Yes, you see, it's a long way from the effects of vermin [to those] that our friend Werbeck has recently described in such detail, in a way that is already becoming dangerous for us. And yet this long road was paved with some very beautiful events.

For you see, among many pleasant and unpleasant things, while this path had to be trodden, almost from its anthroposophical beginning, a voice from Wroclaw came again and again, which always came in the form of the printed word, a voice from Wroclaw that spoke out, so to speak, in the most intense, insightful, well-founded way about everything, from the “philosophy of freedom” to the deeply anthroposophical, to social matters. And this voice was always that of our dear friend Bartsch. And anthroposophy can say to our friend Bartsch: In him you have a friend, you won't find a better one. - That is what I really feel the most heartfelt need to express to you at this deeply satisfying event. And believe me, I appreciate the fact that Count Keyserlingk was able to speak of all the helpers who had to participate in a selfless, dedicated way so that what has just happened could come about, that the anthroposophical word could be proclaimed to such a wide circle, but one that is so closely devoted to anthroposophy, that everything could happen in Breslau, that there could be such faithful helpers, that the one who himself helped so unerringly could point to such faithful helpers - all of this can be attributed to an exceedingly large extent here in this city to what our friend Bartsch has done for anthroposophy from this place in an equally unerring manner, but also in an understanding and warmly devoted manner. And I believe I may make a request, since this is the last time we are together. You see, anthroposophy has the task of going before the world, of working in the world. This is first of all, in all its parts and in its centers, that which comes directly from the revelations of the spiritual world. That this is the case should be particularly confirmed by the impulses that have permeated the work of anthroposophy since the Dornach Conference at Christmas. What is there in terms of spiritual content is, I would like to say, only there in heaven. But there on earth it is supposed to work. That is why anthroposophy only takes on its true value when people's hearts beat towards it. And have I seen that what can now be proclaimed as the anthroposophical word, that its application to the various fields is to become visible - if all this, when it is founded in itself, has a heavenly value, then it only has a value in the fullest sense of the word here on earth when it receives it through the hearts of a faithfully devoted audience. And yet I have seen how these anthroposophical words were met by the faithful anthroposophical hearts here in this city and by those who came to our event, some of them from far away. Believe me, I understand that it is precisely out of the spirit of anthroposophy that I should also respond with a special kind of gratitude to those who want to work together on what is to be done for anthroposophy, and that I fully appreciate every nuance in this cooperation.

But let us ask ourselves how the possibility could have been brought about if a man who was so deeply involved in the spiritual with his whole heart and with his whole person had not led the anthroposophical movement here, as our friend Bartsch is, and so it really is through the stones, and stones are not always things that are merely hard and that merely break people's skulls, stones are also monuments - the anthroposophical movement owes an extraordinary amount to these stones with which its path has been paved from here. That is what, I would like to say, has been paved from here in really hard stone material, but with iron words, into the path of the anthroposophical movement. We cannot be grateful enough for this. And now this warm-hearted firmness in representing anthroposophy, the firmness of our friend Bartsch's sword, which the enemies all around fear, has now been joined by what is certainly very good for many of us, that mild love which is combined with complete energy for unerring work and which now works from the house in Koberwitz that has become so dear to us. I am particularly aware of all this now that I have had to juxtapose a period of 35 years of work with the documents I have written over the last two nights. And so, after the warm words of the individual personalities who have spoken this evening, allow me to thank him for what has happened for anthroposophy in the last few days. I would now like to express to him, even if it is not the Father's business, the revelation of heartfelt love and gratitude for what he is doing.

And you see, let me throw away a basket at the very end. You usually only get baskets for what you have already done. Now I'm throwing the basket away right from the start. But this basket, I throw it away and still say and know that some people, if not all in this hall, will agree with me in the most heartfelt way when I say that we have to thank you, seriously and deeply, for the fact that through the energy and the loving willingness to sacrifice, through the skillful work of Countess and Count Keyserlingk and everything that helped in the Koberwitz house, this Whitsun conference could come about for the innermost satisfaction of the anthroposophists alone. It was beautiful what was granted to us, above all that which surrounded and permeated this Pentecostal work of anthroposophy like a festival and a festive atmosphere. And for all this beauty, for all this dedication, let us all express our heartfelt thanks at the end: Thank you for all this beauty!