The Fateful Year of 1923
GA 259 — 25 May 1923, Dornach
Letter from Ada Drury-Lavin to Rudolf Steiner regarding the English Friends' Initiative
[In response to this appeal by Heywood, a general assembly was convened in England on May 23. Rudolf Steiner received the following report in the form of a letter from Ada Drury-Lavin dated May 25:
The Old House, Sonning-on-Thames
May 25, 1923
Dear Dr. Steiner,
You will have received our telegram1 with the expression of the unanimous wish of the participants at a general meeting on the 23rd that the Goetheanum should be rebuilt. A committee was formed with the mandate to work out a plan, which will be presented to you in a few days by Mr. Metaxa. I thought you would like to hear how warmly the participants felt, with what gratitude they all spoke of the tremendous effort that had been made in the past to create the building, and that its loss leaves a heavy gap in our lives.
The meeting was very representative, with members coming from all over England and Scotland, and all of them united in the single thought: the Goetheanum must be rebuilt! In the hope that this general wish will soon be realized, I remain, dear Dr. Steiner,
Your grateful
Ada Drury-Lavin
[Some of the committee delegates travelled to Dornach to discuss the realization of the proposal with Rudolf Steiner. The result was reported at the continuation of the London General Assembly on June 6. On June 8, 1923, the Anthroposophical Society in Great Britain sent a circular letter to the branches in all countries calling for international cooperation in the reconstruction of the Goetheanum and convening an international assembly of delegates for this purpose. The English proposal was immediately taken up by the assembly held in Dornach on June 10, continuing the general assembly of April 22. The date set for the international assembly of delegates was the end of July. The official invitation was to be issued by the Anthroposophical Society in Switzerland. This was done by circular letter dated July 16. See the following documents.
Draft of the letter from the English friends.
[Only the first page of the draft is available; despite extensive efforts, the final version of June 8 could not be found. However, the date “June 8” is certain. See page 553.]
-
The telegram, according to the minutes of the General Assembly, read: “At the meeting of members held to-night it was unanimously desired to have the Goetheanum rebuilt. The meeting appointed a committee to take active steps to that end with international cooperation.” (“At today's meeting, the unanimous wish was expressed that the Goetheanum should be rebuilt. A committee was formed to initiate this goal in the spirit of international cooperation.”) ↩