Record: mixed sources The volume draws on more than one kind of record; its own notes say which a text is. Evidence: «Briefe, Rundbriefe, Dokumente und Vorträge … Nachschriften und Notizen von Vorträgen und Ansprachen» (Letters, circulars, documents and lectures … transcripts and notes of lectures and addresses)
The History of the Esoteric School 1904–1914, Volume One
GA 264 — 27 August 1904, Berlin
To Mathilde Scholl in Cologne
Berlin, August 27, 1904
Dear, dear Miss Scholl!
I would like to respond to your letter very quickly for the time being.1 If Mr. Keightley comes to Germany, we can only approach the matter as dispassionately as possible. Those who know Mrs. Besant are aware of her attitude in such a case. She lets things happen and trusts in the spiritual forces that are with her. And I do no differently. Diplomatic thinking must be quite foreign to us, who follow the masters, not human reasoning. Therefore, we do not ask “why” in such a case. Mrs. Besant wrote only once to Miss v. Sivers that she “expects to meet Mr. Keightley” in Hamburg. That is all. And I am not asking for anything else. But, dear Miss Scholl: it is necessary that we, Mrs. Besant's entourage, stand together firmly and closely in the near future. What we will do will arise in each individual case. I also ask you not to stay away from Miss Link's presence at the moment out of any considerations for K. Link absent during K's presence, but to act as you would have done regardless of him, and to regard his presence as nothing particularly remarkable.2
Please regard these lines as a matter of trust. They must be brief if they are to meet with you tomorrow morning. In the arrangements for the date etc., nothing is decisive except what has been agreed between you and Miss Sivers.
More tomorrow. I have to navigate these lines to board the Cologne train.
With warm regards,
Dr. Rudolf Steiner
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On August 26, Mathilde Scholl had written about how concerned she was to learn from England that Keightley would accompany Annie Besant on her trip to Germany and translate her lectures; this also appears in Rudolf Steiner's letter to Marie von Sivers of August 27, 1904 (in GA 262). There was evidently a certain mistrust of Keightley, presumably because at that time, in his capacity as General Secretary of the English (formerly European) Section, he supported an effort to split off an independent southern German section from the German Section (as can be seen from his letter to Rudolf Steiner dated March 7, 1904). ↩
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According to the letter from Mathilde Scholl dated August 26, Miss Link was friends with Keightley and registered as a guest with her. ↩