The Fateful Year of 1923

GA 259 — 23 December 1923, Dornach

Administrative Instructions for the Christmas Conference and Reiteration of Proposal Regarding the Future Leadership of the Society

Introductory words before the evening lecture

My dear friends!¹ Before the lecture, I too would like to raise the issues that I have already raised to some extent, but which I would like to raise again, since friends are happily arriving every day.

The first thing has already been arranged: due to the gratifyingly large number of visitors, we had to expand our premises by adding this lecture villa here, and I would like to ask that the friends who would otherwise be able to listen to lectures here please take a seat in the adjoining room if possible, so that the main room here remains free for those friends who have come from out of town and are only rarely able to attend our events. But it would be interesting to hear whether it is possible, with this arrangement, to hear what is being said here outside. (Answered in the affirmative from the adjoining room.

The second thing is that we would have to ask our friends to bear in mind that we can only open the rooms here half an hour before the start of an event and that we have to close them again half an hour after an event. Otherwise, we will not be able to maintain order with so many visitors, especially with regard to ventilation and the like. So I would ask you not to arrive earlier than half an hour before the start of a meeting, and not to stay longer than half an hour afterwards. Furthermore, we would ask you to always bring your membership cards to each individual event, even the older members — otherwise there is no distinction between older and younger members. We have to have strict control for obvious reasons. Those friends – I do believe that there will be none, because, as I said, one does not forget among anthroposophists – but those friends who nevertheless forget their membership card are asked to have an interim card issued to them at Haus Friedwart.

Then, today, I would like to ask once again that every chair be left exactly where it is, so that all aisles and rows of seats remain in the order in which they have been set up. Otherwise we cannot manage, not even in terms of the police regulations. You see, we need the aisles to be free.

Then I would like to ask you to accept the unusualness of eating in series. I will give you more details tomorrow. You get numbers from 1-113, let's say, that's the first series; they can go down to the cafeteria together and get their food there. But those with 114 who are not in the series that ends with 113 can only come in the second series. Then there will be a third series. It must be adhered to in this way in order to cope. It is also still possible to make individual changes. The cards will only be numbered, so one person can exchange his card for a card from another. You won't be able to tell from the card 125 whether it has been exchanged or not. But nobody is allowed to issue a 125 to themselves in order to get the second instead of the third series.

Then I have to announce that the tickets for all Christmas plays that are given will always be available before and after each performance at the table where tickets for eurythmy and other plays are usually available. It will be good to stock up on these tickets so that an overview can be created of how to organize visits to these events.

Then, from the abundance of what will have to be negotiated tomorrow, I have to report again what I reported at the end yesterday, because it is connected with the whole arrangement of our delegates' meeting, which of course had to be prepared and which also has to be administered, so to speak, before it begins. I should also mention that I have recently given the matter a great deal of thought and have come to the conclusion that if the Anthroposophical Society is to fulfill its task, it will need to be organized differently in the future.

I have repeatedly emphasized in various places that the Anthroposophical Society should take on a certain form here at Christmas, which can arise on the basis of what has come about in the individual national societies. I never thought, my dear friends, of a mere synthetic summary of the national societies. We would then arrive at an abstraction. We must here — if anything is to come about at all still with this Anthroposophical Society — we must here actually form a society that carries its own forces of existence within itself. After the various experiences I have had, after all that I have come to know, I have decided not just to work on the formation of the Society in the way that was done in the early days, but to work intensively and centrally on the formation of this Society. I will therefore present a draft of the statutes to my colleagues tomorrow, which has emerged from the closest circle of my colleagues here in Dornach; and I would like to announce today – as I did yesterday – that, however heavy my heart may be, I have no choice but to make the following proposal to you, in view of the way in which the affairs of the Anthroposophical Society have developed: that in future the leadership of the Society be formed in such a way that I myself have this leadership as the chairman of the Society, which is formed here in Dornach. And then it will be necessary for me to have at my side, in the closest circle, precisely those co-workers who have so far actually participated in the work at Dornach in the way that I will describe tomorrow, so that I can expect the right development of the Anthroposophical Society from the continuation of this work.

And so I myself have the suggestion to make that I myself should exercise the presidency of the Anthroposophical Society, which is being founded here; that Mr. Steffen should then stand by my side as deputy chairman. Then there would be further members of this board: Dr. Steiner; then Dr. Wegman as secretary. Furthermore, Dr. Vreede and Dr. Guenther Wachsmuth would be part of this inner working committee. This would be my working committee, and tomorrow in my opening lecture I would explain why it is necessary to think of me in this way regarding the establishment and progress of the Anthroposophical Society.

It is indeed the case that at present things must be taken very, very seriously, bitterly seriously. Otherwise, what I have often spoken of would actually have to happen, that I would have to withdraw from the Anthroposophical Society.