Our Dead

GA 261 — 21 May 1922, Berlin

Eulogy for Nelly Lichtenberg

Before I begin my lecture, I have to report that our dear friend Nelly Lichtenberg has left the physical plane. The younger friends may also know her from her participation in our events, but the older participants know her very well and have certainly taken her deep into their hearts – as has her mother, who is left in mourning.

Nelly Lichtenberg, who had recently sought recovery in Stuttgart, left the physical plane there a few days ago. She and her mother, who was there for her care, have been part of our anthroposophical movement since its beginning. And if I am to express in a few words what, in my eyes, perhaps best characterizes the deceased, who has passed away from the physical plane, and also her mother herself, I would like to say: Their souls were made of pure loyalty to the anthroposophical movement, of pure and deep devotion to the cause. When our movement here in Berlin was still extremely small, we all appreciated the heartfelt loyalty and deep understanding with which they both clung to the movement and participated in its development. Baroness Nelly Lichtenberg carried this loyal soul in a body that caused extraordinary difficulties for her outer life. But this soul actually came to terms with everything in a wonderful spirit of endurance, which combined with a certain inner blessed joy in absorbing the spiritual. And this spirit of endurance, combined with this inner joyfulness, warmed by a confidence in the life of the soul, wherever this soul life may unfold in the future, was also present in the now deceased at her last sickbed in Stuttgart, where I found her in this frame of mind and spiritual state during my last visits. It is clear to you all that anyone who can in any way contribute to a person's recovery must do everything in his power to bring about that recovery. But you also all know how karma works, and how it is sometimes simply impossible to bring about such a recovery. It was, so to speak, quite painful just to see the future when you had the sufferer before you in the last few weeks. But her soul, which was also so extraordinarily hopeful for the spiritual world, led her and those who had to do with her even in the last days. And so one may say that just as her soul departed from the physical plane, so did one here on earth, who had taken up anthroposophy in the true sense of the word, so taken it up that this anthroposophy was not just a theoretical world view, a satisfaction of the intellect or even a slight satisfaction of the feelings, but was the whole content of her life, the certainty of her existence. And it was with this content of her life and with this certainty of her soul existence that she also passed away from this physical plane. It is for us, especially for those of us who have shared so many of the hours here in the physical existence that a person has to spend with her in the same spiritual pursuit, to turn our thoughts to her soul existence. And that is what we want to do faithfully! She shall often find our thoughts united with her thoughts in the continuation of her existence in another region, and she will always be a faithful companion of our spiritual striving, even in her further soul existence. We can be sure of that. And that we promise her this, that we want to powerfully direct our thoughts to her, as a sign of honor, we want to rise from our seats.