The Fateful Year of 1923
GA 259 — 3 August 1923
Meeting of the Circle of Thirty (without Rudolf Steiner)
Before the meeting, I received a letter from Miss Völker, delivered to me by1. She explained to me that she was asking to be released from the circle. At the beginning of the meeting I handed it to Dr. Unger, who read it aloud. In it she says that she does not believe that the step of bringing the group out into the open will effectively protect Dr. Steiner and that she cannot take on the shared responsibility as long as there are no deeds and no change of attitude behind the words. The letter was met with general disapproval. Unger repeatedly called it “pharisaical” and “clerical”. Fri. Völker said: “Thank God I am not like these ‘thirties’!” The admonitions it contained were empty phrases. Stein said it was due to the insult that Miss Völker received from Dr. Steiner on July 11. In the further discussion, resignation was described as “shirking responsibility” and it was decided without objection to dispense with the further collaboration of Miss Völker.
Arenson and Stein reported on it afterwards.2.
When it came to signing the appeal and providing names and addresses, it became clear how little organized the group's membership is. It was proposed that a secretary be elected for the group, which in the future will be called the “Vertrauenskreis der Stuttgarter Institutionen” (Circle of Trust of Stuttgart Institutions). I was proposed from two sides, but I shook my head each time, whereupon Arenson encouraged me: “Don't shake your head, say yes!” I replied that I did not have enough experience, whereupon Stein replied: “Just wait, you will gain experience!”
Afterwards, the following was discussed: Dr. Husemann on the Goesch case, the project of the Kennenburg insane asylum (to which Stein remarked that the Anthroposophical Society could not exist without an insane asylum, since, according to a saying of Dr. Steiner, mental illnesses will occur epidemically in the near future, if only due to malnutrition), the problem of Dr. Noll and the Vademecum, and then the meeting was adjourned until Sunday.
On parting, there was still talk of the separatism of the Rhinelanders and a letter from the editor of the “Kölner Mittagsblatts”, H. Blume, to Dr. Büchenbacher was read out, in which Blume complains about the local board and announces that he will resign his position because the newspaper is not doing well. Sigismund von Gleich is expected to be his successor. Thereupon they met again and decided to notify Kretzschmar immediately that under no circumstances should von Gleich be employed, since he would not be allowed to work for the movement in any official capacity. In this context, a statement by Dr. Steiner was mentioned, that he would not enter a house in which von Gleich was staying.