# The Fateful Year of 1923

## GA 259 — 16 January 1923, Stuttgart

### First Meeting with the Circle of Seven

> [Rudolf Steiner and Marie Steiner arrive in Stuttgart in the evening and are received by the “Circle of Seven” at the Anthroposophical Society's house at Landhausstraße 70. No minutes were kept of the first session, which took place that same evening and lasted all night. Marie Steiner reports in her 1947 edition from memory, adding: “It's a bit awkward to rely only on one's own memory after decades; one should be able to check it against that of others.”:]

The purpose of this first meeting was to present the disagreements that had arisen between the board and the other leading figures, but especially to examine the complaints of the young people. Dr. Steiner angrily rejected the very personal talk about Dr. Unger's shortcomings and wanted to know why his assignment had not been fulfilled and the board had not provided an answer.[^1] Nobody knew anything about it. Uehli had kept quiet, simply forgotten the matter.[^2] Now it became more than serious. Dr. Steiner did not hold back his indignation. He demanded energetically that the board should be clear about its tasks, review the situation and make the expected proposals to him at the next meeting, which would have to be worked out by then. The night would have to be used for this.

*Elsewhere Marie Steiner reports on this meeting as follows:*

The first of the intimate meetings was of crucial importance. It had been requested by a group called the “Circle of Seven” and was intended to dismiss Dr. Unger. Dr. Steiner asked for the list of names and asked in astonishment: But Dr. Unger's name is missing! — He was not invited, they replied. You are not going to bring charges against Dr. Unger, Dr. Steiner replied indignantly, without giving him an opportunity to respond? They acknowledged this with shame. Mr. Uehli was the first speaker; he spoke at length, but without substance. The most serious thing he said was that the youth did not want to work with Dr. Unger; they could not find a relationship with him and wanted to work among themselves as a separate society. Other complaints were that Dr. Unger looked at the newspaper when he spoke to people, and the like. The whole thing had no real basis; one sank into the insubstantial. Dr. Steiner remained silent. I ventured to say, “Oh, Mr. Uehli, would you please restate your complaint?” He did so, and the whole matter suddenly disintegrated like a blown bubble. But Dr. Steiner gave vent to his indignation: I am called upon for something like this, something that is based on gossip, antipathy and competitive envy![^3]

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[^1]: See Rudolf Steiner's lecture in Dornach, February 9, 1923 (in this volume on page 113).

[^2]: Uehli said the following about this in a letter dated January 16, 1948, to Emil Bock: “It is not true that I ‘ignored, overlooked or perhaps overslept’ the task Dr. Steiner gave me at the time. [This refers to Marie Steiner's formulation in her retrospective account, cf. page 21 of this volume.] What is true is that I had to see myself as incapable of executing it. What happened in January-February 1923 in the Thirty Circle, that not one of us, not even I, was able to accomplish even a part of what Dr. Steiner expected and demanded of the Thirty Circle, I had gone through that beforehand in weeks of torment and oppression, and that is why I could not carry out the task in the form given to me. ... In the tragic conflict in which I found myself at the time, I formed the Circle of Seven as a way out, in order to discuss the situation of the Society with Dr. Steiner.

[^3]: The result of this night session was the resignation of Ernst Uehli from the Central Executive Council.