Our Dead

GA 261 — 3 October 1919, Dornach

Eulogy for Anna Ziegler

During the last few weeks, while we were in Germany, as you know, our dear Miss Anna Ziegler left the physical plane. Most of you knew Anna Ziegler, and I do not need to say to those who knew her what a valuable personality she was in our midst. But now that she has passed over into other realms of existence and we will no longer see her here in the physical world, we feel the need to recall today how she was among us. You are familiar with her truly quiet existence, which meant that she was often hardly noticed by her fellow human beings. But there are people who were able to notice this existence in a very strong sense and then notice it in such a way that they experienced Anna Ziegler as a personality who is a real blessing of existence to experience. As quiet as she was, she spoke loudly and meaningfully through her deeds for many people, through her deeds of love and benevolence, through which she was able to do things that could truly make the existence of the people she touched more satisfying than it would have been without Anna Ziegler.

Those who have received such information from her will know how true the words are that I am now speaking to you in this way about the departed from the physical plane. And the fact that I am allowed to speak them is well established from the fact that Anna Ziegler was our own housemate for a long time and we have everything to say about our own lives that many others have experienced with her.

But there is also much more to be said about the deceased. Above all, it is to be emphasized that she was truly highly esteemed in that the power to be convinced in an exemplary manner of what we call spiritual science lived in her soul. Her soul was completely filled with this power, to be thoroughly convinced of all details that come into consideration in the field of spiritual science. And this power of conviction was so effective in her that it may be said: If many people who have the opportunity to work more externally could carry such power of conviction within them as she did, our spiritual movement would benefit greatly.

And it may be said that such a soul with such power within means something very special even after her death. One can feel united with such a soul, so that one knows that she will be present as a soul in our midst when we have to fight for everything that needs to be fought for, if spiritual science is to gain the position in the world that it deserves.

In this sense, my dear friends, we will think of our friend Anna Ziegler again and again. Those who knew her will feel the necessity to turn their thoughts to her again and again. She also had the special quality of putting everything that happened around her, that she experienced in life, that she had to intervene in life, into the perspective of spiritual scientific observation. If she had to say anything about anything, and it was important from the point of view of spiritual science and especially from the point of view of the spiritual scientific movement, there was no doubt in her mind that everything must be done to carry through such a matter in such a way that it corresponded to her truly pure spiritual scientific perception. And that is what I believe we may recall today, and what I believe can be the starting point for many of us who knew Anna Ziegler to turn our thoughts to her again and again. These directed thoughts will not only be those that are most certainly received by the soul of Anna Ziegler in such a way that they are thoughts that awaken and generate love in her, that they are received with full love, but they will also be thoughts that, in coming back from the dead, can be strengthening for those who turn these thoughts to this dear soul.

Remembering her and feeling united with her, we rise from our seats and will often think of her, my dear friends, as we do at this moment.