The Fateful Year of 1923

GA 259 — 15 August 1923, Dornach

Appeal for the German Goetheanum Fund

Dear anthroposophical friends in Germany!

On New Year's Eve 1922/23, a tremendous fire lit up the world as a harrowing symbol of a world-historical moment. The Goetheanum, the School of Spiritual Science in Dornach, burned down to its foundations that night. An unknown person had insidiously placed the igniting spark in the sanctuary of thousands of human hearts.

This event could evoke the memory of another crime recorded in human history. On February 6, 356 BC, Herostratus hurled a torch into the sanctuary of Diana of Ephesus. He wanted to achieve immortality for himself through this act. Treasures of ancient wisdom sank into oblivion; the name Herostratus was engraved on the memory of posterity.

If the burning of Ephesus is a symbol in world history that ancient and holy wisdom had to perish so that the human personality could unfold, then the burning of the Goetheanum, which wanted to be a place of love that now wants to come to the peoples of the earth in a new form, can be a sign of how this coming of love in our time is opposed by criminal forces.

In the spirit of love, while the world war raged and the flames of ethnic hatred were raging all around, anthroposophists from 17 nationalities built the Goetheanum under the leadership of their teacher. The work of ten years of dedicated work and sacrificial love was destroyed by a senseless crime in a few fateful hours.

Immediately after the disaster, donations were also made in Germany for the reconstruction of the Goetheanum to the collection point that had been set up in Stuttgart at the time as the “Dr. Rudolf Steiner Disposition Account”. In the meantime, our friends abroad have taken steps to secure the financial means for the reconstruction. The necessary guarantees were provided by the International Assembly of Delegates in Dornach, which met from July 20 to 22 this year. Once again, people from all over the world will work together to rebuild the Goetheanum. We German Anthroposophists initially found ourselves unable to provide financial assistance. Not because we are poor; anyone who loves something as we love this building – which does not belong to us Anthroposophists, but is intended to serve all of humanity – has something to give, no matter how poor they are. But we had to be clear about the fact that money and monetary value must not cross our national border. That, dear friends, was our great sorrow: to experience that the sacrifice we wanted to make for our beloved cause was to be made impossible by fate.

But the moral power that lives in anthroposophy has shown us the way in which our sacrifice can still be effective. All the material gifts we were able to contribute out of love and a spirit of sacrifice to the construction of the first Goetheanum were destroyed by the crime of New Year's Eve. The new Goetheanum will largely have to be built from the insurance money, which will not be offered by generous friends. And we German anthroposophists had to see ourselves excluded from the material sacrifices that our friends made for the reconstruction. But the spirit of sacrifice was aroused among our friends. Therefore, we decided that all donations from Germany for the Goetheanum should be combined into a “German Goetheanum Fund”. This fund is to be used within German borders for purposes that are in line with the Goetheanum's endeavors. For example, it is planned to use this fund to support German intellectual workers within the borders of our country in their spiritual scientific work and research in the spirit of the School of Spiritual Science. Dr. Rudolf Steiner himself will have the exclusive and sole right of disposal over the funds of this foundation.

In this way, we could hope that our sacrifice, which could not be used for the reconstruction of the Goetheanum itself in material form, would nevertheless have an effect beyond the borders of our country through its inherent moral power. What we were denied by fate in the material realm should be compensated for by the spirit in which we wanted to make our sacrifice.

We presented our intention to our foreign friends at the international delegates' meeting in Dornach. Our friends have honored the spirit of our Goetheanum offering in the most beautiful way. Their delegates declared that they were determined to add to what they were already willing to do for the reconstruction of the Goetheanum, however much the amount collected in Germany for the German Goetheanum Fund and remaining there would account for. And they would do this from funds that would never have flowed into Germany. This makes it possible for our gift to remain within Germany and for its equivalent value to be used for the reconstruction of the Goetheanum.

Each of us wants to make a sacrifice for the Goetheanum. A sacrifice that he is able to make only for this purpose, out of a clear insight into the world-historical necessity of this building. This sacrifice should have an inherent moral power, as a counterweight to the tragic facts that will affect the emerging Goetheanum.

This sacrifice should be a one-time sacrifice, so that such undertakings in our own country, such as the Waldorf School, for example, should not be deprived of the regular support that is so indispensable for these undertakings at this time.

It is with this in mind that we are turning to our German anthroposophical friends today with a request for donations to the German Goetheanum Fund. This fund will serve the reconstruction of the Goetheanum without depriving our people of anything. Just as during the world war the nations that were at war with each other worked together in Dornach to rebuild the Goetheanum, so now, while Germany is economically collapsing, anthroposophists from other nations are economically supporting us in the reconstruction process.

This fact proves that, beyond the hatred of nations, anthroposophy is able to pave the way to humanity. Because this is so, we are allowed to build again. Let us build, friends, the strength of morality, the strength of love, into this building, so that the strong building may have a strong society behind it!

May the behavior of anthroposophical friends in countries outside of Germany towards German anthroposophists set an example for nations! Then the new building in Dornach could mark the beginning of an era of understanding between peoples. In this sense, may the rebuilding of the Goetheanum be embraced by the whole world!

Stuttgart, August 1923. The Executive Council of the Anthroposophical Society in Germany: Jürgen von Grone, Dr. Eugen Kolisko, Emil Leinhas, Johanna Mücke, Dr. Otto Palmer, Dr. Friedrich Rittelmeyer, Dr. Walter Johannes Stein, Dr. Carl Unger, Wolfgang Wachsmuth, Louis Werbeck. The committee of the Free Anthroposophical Society in Germany: Moritz Bartsch, Dr. Hans Büchenbacher, Jürgen von Grone, Dr. Ernst Lehrs, Ren& Maikowski, Wilhelm Rath, Dr. Maria Röschl, J. G. W. Schröder. The German members of the Executive Council of the Association of the Goetheanum, the School of Spiritual Science: Graf Otto Lerchenfeld, Gräfin Pauline Kalckreuth, Dr. Felix Peipers. All donations are to be made out to the Treuhandgesellschaft des Goetheanum in Stuttgart, in favor of the “Verfügungskonto Dr. Rudolf Steiner” and sent to Bankhaus Hans Stammer & Co., Stuttgart, Rotestr. 4.