To the Members of the German Section of The Theosophical Society

Dear Friends!

Certain events that are currently taking place within the Theosophical Society make it necessary for the following lines to be addressed to the members of the German Section. These events have not played a role within the German Section so far, and rightly so. Now, however, they are stirring up a lot of dust within other sections – unfortunately to the detriment of the Society – and it is inevitable that the matter will also be brought into our section from outside and will disturb minds here. That is why this letter is necessary.

The relevant procedures relate to the election of a successor to our dear and revered President-Founder H.S. Olcott. According to the statutes of our Society, the election of a new President could have been the easiest, smoothest thing in the world.

Now it is being made confusing for no good reason.

The statutes state:

“The President-Founder, Colonel H.S. Olcott, holds the office of President for life and has the right to propose his successor. This proposal is subject to the approval of the Society. The vote shall be taken in the manner provided.”

“The President shall be elected for seven years.”

"Six months before the expiry of the term of office of a President, his successor shall be proposed by the General Council at a meeting to be held by the latter. And the proposal shall be communicated to the General Secretaries and the General Secretary of the Society. Each General Secretary shall collect the votes of his Section in accordance with its statutes. The General Secretary shall collect those of the other members of the Society. A two-thirds majority of the votes cast shall be required for the election.

It is clear from this that the president-founder was granted special rights, which will no longer apply in the future.

We must now vote in accordance with these rights. This means that the Secretary General of a section must announce to the members which proposal the President-Founder has made regarding his successor. Furthermore, the Secretary General must hand over or send a ballot paper to each member of his section, which the member fills out at his or her own discretion.

Of course, no member is obliged to follow the proposal of the President-Founder, but may put the name of his or her choice on the ballot paper. The completed ballot paper is then to be returned to the Secretary General.

For the German section, everything necessary in terms of the statutes has basically already been done, except for the election itself. And this must be done in accordance with the instructions of the Vice-President, who is to perform all the functions of the President until a new President takes office. The current Vice-President is Mr. Sinnett. The election in our Section will be carried out properly at the right time.

So far, then, everything is in perfect order.

But disorder is brought into the matter by the following.

Before his passing away, our revered President-Founder sent to the General Secretaries and to others all kinds of circulars in which he announced that he had received instructions from higher worlds to appoint a certain personality, namely Mrs. Besant, as his successor.

The president-founder claims that certain masters, who are referred to in Theosophical circles as M. and K.H., appeared to him and gave him the aforementioned instructions.

Whether or not these instructions are genuine is a matter for esotericism. It would have been necessary to completely ignore this whole matter in the administration. For it is no one's business but Olcott's from whom Olcott accepts advice regarding his successor. It does not matter whether Olcott has taken advice from an ordinary person or a supernatural power.

One can be of the opinion that Olcott should not have communicated the whole thing. But this communication can be attributed to a weakness of his last seriously ill times. It is also due to this weakness that he said, contrary to the statutes, that he was appointing his successor. Because the statutes do not give him the right to appoint, but only the right to propose.

It would therefore have been right to extract the right thing from Olcott's circular and ignore everything else.

This has not been done in various sections.

There is a lot of discussion about what does not belong to the election matter. This carries the risk that a purely administrative matter will be mixed up with esoteric matters. Especially if one takes the correct esoteric point of view that our teachings go back to supersensible sources, then one should carefully avoid bringing a purely social matter like the presidential election into any connection with supersensible powers. It would contradict all esoteric principles to draw the supersensible into the discussion, which can always arise in a presidential election. It should be emphasized here that it would not actually be necessary in principle to say the following, and that it is only said here to prevent misunderstandings that may be caused by discussions in which the leadership of the German Section is innocent, but which have unfortunately arisen.

None of the individualities that we can recognize in supersensible vision will ever interfere in a matter such as the current presidential election. That would be to bind our will, but these individualities want to free our will through the way they relate to us, so that it can make the right decision in each individual case. That is why currents of spiritual life never come to us from them in a form that could impair our free choice. I am saying something that goes beyond the powers of the General Secretary, but I must say it as a friend of the members.

There will also come a time when I will be able to say how the statements made by Adyar are actually worded. It would not be appropriate for me to talk about this now.

I would just like to ask the members, especially at the present time, to carefully distinguish between official statements and unofficial ones. A completely private message, for example, is the one Mr. Mead has now sent to the branches. It is to be understood as nothing other than Mr. Mead's personal view. All official communications to the members can only come through the General Secretary of a section. The Deputy President, Mr. Sinnett, will also only pass on all communications to me, and I will duly pass everything on to the members.

This is to clarify the situation.

Other matters as soon as possible.

With theosophical greetings,
Dr. Rudolf Steiner
General Secretary of the German Section
of the Theosophical Society.