Our Dead

GA 261 — 6 February 1917, Berlin

Eulogy for Gertrud Motzkus

Since we last met here, we have had to mourn the loss of our dear Fräulein Morz&us and other dear friends who have left the physical plane as a result of current events. It is particularly painful not to see Fräulein Motzkus among our dear friends who have been attending our spiritual science events here for so many years. She was a member of our movement from the very beginning. From the first day, from the first meeting in the smallest circle, she was always in our midst as a member who was devoted to the heart of our movement and who went through all the phases and trials of our movement with heartfelt sympathy. Above all, through all the events through which we have had to go, she has retained in the deepest sense of the word an invincible loyalty to our cause, a loyalty by which Miss Motzkus was certainly exemplary for those who truly want to be devoted members of the spiritual science movement. And so we look after this dear, good soul in the worlds of spiritual life, to which she has ascended, by preserving the relationship of loyalty that has been developed and strengthened over many years, by knowing that we are connected to her soul forever.

Recently, Miss Motzkus herself had to mourn the loss of her faithful friend, whom she has now so soon found again in the spiritual world, and she accepted this blow in the sense of how one endures such a blow from the consciousness of a true understanding of the spiritual world. It was admirable with what keen interest Miss Motzkus showed a deep sympathy for the great events of the time until her last days. She repeatedly told me herself that she wanted to live here on the physical plane until these significant events, in the midst of which we now stand, had been decided. Now she will be able to follow these events, in which she took such a warm interest, with a clearer vision and a firmer sense of the development of humanity in her present state.

And so let us all take to heart the need to unite our thoughts and our active powers of the soul with this loyal spirit, this dear and loyal member of our movement, so that we may continue to know ourselves as one with her, even though she will be among us in a different form than before, when she was so exemplary in her connection with us in the physical realm.