The Fateful Year of 1923

GA 259 — 31 May 1923, Dornach

Rudolf Steiner's Open Letter Regarding his Resignation as Chairman of the Supervisory Board of “Kommende Tag AG”

published in the German weekly journal “Anthroposophie”, No. 48 of May 31, and in the Swiss weekly journal “Das Goetheanum” of June 17, 1923. Also sent as a circular letter.

To the members of the Anthroposophical and the Free Anthroposophical Societies in Germany.

My dear friends!

The development and reception of anthroposophical endeavors in the present makes a change in my working method necessary. On the one hand, anthroposophy has emerged as a soul need for an ever-increasing number of people; on the other hand, it is increasingly confronted with misunderstandings and incorrect assessments by many.

This requires that I meet the increased demands for the cultivation of the anthroposophical need more than has been possible since the time when practical institutions of various kinds were formed by the objectives of the friends of our cause. These institutions have arisen in a thoroughly justified way from the intentions of these friends on the basis of the anthroposophical movement. And it was also understandable that when these friends strove to realize such practical ideas, they wished to see me personally involved in the administration of the corresponding institutions. I accommodated this wish, although I was aware that this accommodation, which was a natural obligation, would draw me away from my actual task of caring for the center of anthroposophical work for some time.

For a relatively short period of time, I had to comply with the wishes of my friends. But now I must also take the position that I may continue to work only within this center of anthroposophical life with its artistic and educational implications. I must belong entirely to anthroposophy as such, as well as to its artistic and educational endeavors and the like, and to institutions such as “Kommender Tag” etc. only to the extent that the spiritual impulses of anthroposophy flow into them. In the interest of the anthroposophical cause, I must withdraw from all administrative matters of these institutions. Only in this way will it be possible for me to work as intensively as is necessary in view of their own demands and the rapidly growing opposition.

These are the reasons that move me to resign from the office of chairman of the supervisory board of “Kommenden Tages” now. I ask the friends of the anthroposophical cause not to take this as a sign that the intensive, appropriate and ideal work of “Kommenden Tages” will change. This work is in good hands; and I ask that no degree of trust be withdrawn from it in the future. I am convinced that everything will go better if I now formally place this work in the hands of those who will do it well, and devote myself to the cause to which I have been assigned by fate. Whatever intellectual stimulus I can give to the Clinical-Therapeutic Institute, the KommendenTag publishing house, the research institutes, the journals, etc., will flow better to them if I am removed from the actual administration. Practically speaking, nothing essential will change within the organization, since I have been obliged, even in recent times, to grow into the situation described as necessary for the future as a result of the circumstances I have explained. So it is only the situation that has actually arisen that will be officially established.

I therefore hope that my resignation from the supervisory board of the “Kommenden Tages” will be seen as an expression of my trust in its leadership and that it will become such among the members of the Anthroposophical Societies as well. It should strengthen, not weaken, trust. If there were any reason to weaken it, I would have to stay. But the fact is that I am unnecessary to the knowledgeable, prudent leadership and therefore obliged to return to the anthroposophical cause in the narrower sense.

I ask you to take this as the reason for the step that is now necessary.