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Peter Staudenmaier: "A lot of anthroposophists are firmly committed to a series of well-worn myths about Steiner, myths which prevent you from viewing Steiner as a historical figure.
"Part of a historian’s job is to deflate such myths, and that often irritates admirers of Steiner, who think they have been “studying” Steiner for years and years. For better or worse, that is not what “studying” means outside of esoteric circles.
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The repeated occurrence of incidents such as these ought to be of considerable concern to humanists and people who envision a world free of racist ignorance.
Even when approached with skepticism, anthroposophy’s consistent pattern of regressive political stances raises troubling questions about participation in anthroposophist projects and collaboration with anthroposophists on social initiatives.
Those anthroposophists who are actively involved in contemporary environmental and social change movements frequently personify the most reactionary aspects of those movements: they hold technology, science, the enlightenment and abstract thought responsible for environmental destruction and social dislocation; they rail against finance capital and the loss of traditional values, denounce atheism and secularism, and call for renewed spiritual awareness and personal growth as the solution to ecological catastrophe and capitalist alienation.
Conspiracy theory is their coin in trade, esoteric insight their preferred answer, obscurantism their primary function.
With a public face that is seemingly of the left, anthroposophy frequently acts as a magnet for the right. Loyal to an unreconstructed racist and elitist philosophy, built on a foundation of anti-democratic politics and pro-capitalist economics, purveying mystical panaceas rather than social alternatives, Steiner’s ideology offers only disorientation in an already disoriented world.
Anthroposophy’s enduring legacy of collusion with ecofascism makes it plainly unacceptable for those working toward a humane and ecological society.
Notes:
1. See Rudolf Steiner, Die Mission einzelner Volksseelen im Zusammenhang mit der germanisch-nordischen Mythologie, Dornach, Switzerland 1994. These lectures are available in English under the title The Mission of the Individual Folk Souls in Relation to Teutonic Mythology, London 1970, republished 2005. The “Nordic spirit” of Scandinavia continues to fascinate European anthroposophists; see, for example, Hans Mändl, Vom Geist des Nordens, Stuttgart 1966, and Gundula Jäger, Die Bildsprache der Edda: Vergangenheits- und Zukunftsgeheimnisse in der nordisch-germanischen Mythologie (Stuttgart 2004).
2. For more thorough discussion of anthroposophical race doctrines see Sven Ove Hansson, “The Racial Teachings of Rudolf Steiner”: [
www.skepticreport.com] as well as Helmut Zander, “Anthroposophische Rassentheorie: Der Geist auf dem Weg durch die Rassengeschichte” in Stefanie von Schnurbein and Justus Ulbricht, Völkische Religion und Krisen der Moderne, Würzburg 2001, and Peter Staudenmaier, “Race and Redemption: Racial and Ethnic Evolution in Rudolf Steiner’s Anthroposophy” Nova Religio vol. 11 no. 3 (2008), pp. 4-36.
3. One crucial stumbling block for English language readers is the anthroposophical tendency to delete racist and antisemitic passages from translated editions of Steiner’s publications. For examples see www.chaseuk.info and for context see www.easeonline.org
4. See the incisive passages on Steiner and anthroposophy in Bloch, Heritage of Our Times, Berkeley 1991, as well as Adorno’s “Theses against occultism” in Adorno, Minima Moralia, London 1974.
5. Readers of German can now consult a superb account of Steiner’s intellectual development and a comprehensive history of anthroposophy’s early years: Helmut Zander, Anthroposophie in Deutschland: Theosophische Weltanschauung und gesellschaftliche Praxis 1884–1945, Göttingen 2007.
6. On the connections between theosophy and the Nazis, see George Mosse, “The Occult Origins of National Socialism” in Mosse, The Fascist Revolution: Toward a General Theory of Fascism, New York 1999.
7. Stewart Easton, Man and World in the Light of Anthroposophy, New York 1975, p. 164.
8. Steiner’s racial teachings, a crucial element of the anthroposophic worldview, are spread throughout his work. For a concise overview in English see Janet Biehl’s section on Steiner in Biehl and Staudenmaier, Ecofascism: Lessons from the German Experience, San Francisco 1995, pp. 42-43 (Norwegian edition: Økofascisme: Lærdom fra Tysklands erfaringer, Porsgrunn 1997). Major statements by Steiner himself include Rudolf Steiner, Cosmic Memory: Prehistory of Earth and Man, New York 1987; Steiner, Universe, Earth and Man, London 1987; Steiner, “The Manifestation of the Ego in the Different Races of Men” in Steiner, The Being of Man and His Future Evolution, London 1981; Steiner, “Die Grundbegriffe der Theosophie. Menschenrassen” (Basic concepts of Theosophy: The races of humankind) in Steiner, Die Welträtsel und die Anthroposophie, Dornach 1985; Steiner, “Farbe und Menschenrassen” (Color and the races of humankind) in Steiner, Vom Leben des Menschen und der Erde, Dornach 1993. Although this latter book, a collection of Steiner’s lectures from 1923, has been published in English, the translation omits the chapter on race.
9. For background on the notion of an “Aryan race” see Leon Poliakov, The Aryan Myth, New York 1974; Stefan Arvidsson, Aryan Idols: Indo-European Mythology as Ideology and Science, Chicago 2006; and Colin Kidd, “The Aryan Moment: Racialising Religion in the Nineteenth Century” in Kidd, The Forging of Races: Race and Scripture in the Protestant Atlantic World, 1600-2000, Cambridge 2006.
10. Wolfgang Treher makes a compelling case that Steiner’s racial theories, especially the repeated scheme of a small minority evolving further while a large mass declines, bear striking similarities even in detail to Hitler’s own theories. He concludes: “Concentration camps, slave labor and the murder of Jews constitute a praxis whose key is perhaps to be found in the ‘theories’ of Rudolf Steiner.” Wolfgang Treher, Hitler Steiner Schreber, Emmingden 1966, p. 70.
11. Steiner, Vom Leben des Menschen und der Erde, p. 61. Elsewhere Steiner writes that the decimation of American Indians was due to their “racial character” (The Mission of the Folk Souls p. 76).
12. Rudolf Steiner, Cosmic Memory, New York 1987, p. 45.
13. Rudolf Steiner, Faculty Meetings With Rudolf Steiner pp. 58-59; Vom Leben des Menschen und der Erde p. 53; Gesundheit und Krankheit p. 189. Steiner’s typical remarks on Asian mental passivity, French decadence, and Slavic primitiveness are of similar caliber.
14. Steiner, Vom Leben des Menschen und der Erde 59, 62, 67.
15. Anthroposophical race thinking was hardly a personal idiosyncrasy of Rudolf Steiner. Racist theories abound within twentieth-century anthroposophical literature. Among many other examples see the following: Guenther Wachsmuth, editor, Gäa-Sophia: Jahrbuch der Naturwissenschaftlichen Sektion der Freien Hochschule für Geisteswissenschaft am Goetheanum Dornach, Stuttgart 1929, volume III: Völkerkunde; Wolfgang Moldenhauer, “Der Mensch vor und neben den grossen Kulturen”, Das Goetheanum February 13, 1938; Karl Heise, “Ein paar Worte zum Dunkelhaar und Braunauge der Germanen”, Zentralblatt für Okkultismus July-November 1914; Hans Heinrich Frei, “In Vererbung wiederholte Menschenleibes-Form und in Schicksalsgestaltung wiederholte Geisteswesens-Form”, Anthroposophie August 14 1927; Valentin Tomberg, “Mongolentum in Osteuropa”, Anthroposophie February 22 1931; Harry Köhler, “Menschheits-Entwickelung und Völkerschicksale im Spiegel der Historie”, Das Goetheanum August 21 1932; Wolfgang Moldenhauer, “Die Wanderungs-Atlantier und das Gesetz des Manu”, Das Goetheanum June 26 1938; Elise Wolfram, Die germanischen Heldensagen als Entwicklungsgeschichte der Rasse, Stuttgart 1922; Elisabeth Dank, “Die Neger in den Vereinigten Staaten” Die Christengemeinschaft September 1933; Ernst von Hippel, Afrika als Erlebnis des Menschen, Breslau 1938; as well as the substantial works on racial themes by leading anthroposophists Ernst Uehli and Richard Karutz. Italian anthroposophists also made significant contributions to the canon of racist publications; see e.g. Massimo Scaligero, “Razzismo spirituale e razzismo biologico”, La Vita Italiana July 1941; Scaligero, “Per un razzismo integrale” La Vita Italiana May 1942; Ettore Martinoli, “L’importanza di Trieste per l’ebraismo internazionale”, La Porta Orientale December 1942; Ettore Martinoli, “Gli impulsi storici della nuova Europa e l’azione dell’ebraismo internazionale”, La Vita Italiana April 1943.
16. Schnurre quoted in Oliver Geden, Rechte ökologie, Berlin 1996, p. 144.
17. For a fine critical study of Stirner’s influence on Steiner and others see Hans Helms, Die Ideologie der anonymen Gesellschaft, Cologne 1966.
18. On Steiner’s correspondence with Haeckel and his intense commitment to Monism around the turn of the century, see Anthroposophie vol. 16 no. 2 (January 1934), pp. 137-148.
19. First two quotes from Daniel Gasman, The Scientific Origins of National Socialism: Social Darwinism in Ernst Haeckel and the German Monist League, New York 1971, pp. 16-17; third quote from George Mosse, Toward the Final Solution, Madison 1985, p. 87. Haeckel’s virulent racism is also extensively documented in Richard Lerner, Final Solutions: Biology, Prejudice, and Genocide, Philadelphia 1992; cf. also Jürgen Sandmann, Der Bruch mit der humanitären Tradition: die Biologisierung der Ethik bei Ernst Haeckel und anderen Darwinisten seiner Zeit, Stuttgart 1990.
20. Gasman, p. 31 and 23. See also the classic account from an anthroposophist perspective: Johannes Hemleben, Rudolf Steiner und Ernst Haeckel, Stuttgart 1965. For context see Gasman, Haeckel’s Monism and the Birth of Fascist Ideology, New York 1998, and for critical views on Gasman’s work see Richard Evans, “In Search of German Social Darwinism: The History and Historiography of a Concept” in Manfred Berg and Geoffrey Cocks, Medicine and Modernity: Public Health and Medical Care in Nineteenth- and Twentieth-Century Germany, Cambridge 1997.
21. Rudolf Steiner, The Course of my Life, New York 1951, p. 142.
22. Rudolf Steiner, Die geistigen Hintergründe des Ersten Weltkrieges, Dornach 1974, p. 27. For context see Ulrich Linse, “Universale Bruderschaft oder nationaler Rassenkrieg – die deutschen Theosophen im Ersten Weltkrieg” in Heinz-Gerhard Haupt and Dieter Langewiesche, eds., Nation und Religion in der deutschen Geschichte (Frankfurt 2001); and Herman de Tollenaere, The Politics of Divine Wisdom: Theosophy and Labour, National, and Women’s Movements in Indonesia and South Asia, 1875-1947 (Nijmegen 1996), pp. 156-160.
23. Steiner wrote that “the social organism is structured like the natural organism” in his nationalist pamphlet from 1919, “Aufruf an das deutsche Volk und an die Kulturwelt.” The pamphlet is quoted extensively in Walter Abendroth, Rudolf Steiner und die heutige Welt, Munich 1969, pp.122-123. Consider also this passage: “Every person must find the place where his work may be articulated in the most fruitful way into his people’s organism. It must not be left to chance to determine whether he shall find this place. The state constitution has no other goal than to ensure that everyone shall find his appropriate place. The state is the form in which the organism of a people expresses itself.” Steiner, Goethe the Scientist, New York 1950, 164.
24. For background see Ralph Bowen, German Theories of the Corporative State, New York 1947.
25. Quotes from Steiner as cited in Christoph Lindenberg, Rudolf Steiner, Hamburg 1992, pp. 111-112. For a comprehensive critique of ‘social threefolding’ see Ilas Körner-Wellershaus, Sozialer Heilsweg Anthroposophie: eine Studie zur Geschichte der sozialen Dreigliederung Rudolf Steiners unter besonderer Berücksichtigung der anthroposophischen Geisteswissenschaft (Bonn 1993).
26. Abendroth, Rudolf Steiner und die heutige Welt, p. 120.
27. Steiner quoted in Thomas Divis, “Rudolf Steiner und die Anthroposophie” in ÖkoLinx #13 (February 1994), p. 27.
28. From a Steiner lecture manuscript reproduced in Walter Kugler, Rudolf Steiner und die Anthroposophie, Cologne 1978, pp. 199-200.
29. Cited in Peter Bierl, Wurzelrassen, Erzengel und Volksgeister: Die Anthroposophie Rudolf Steiners und die Waldorfpädagogik, Hamburg 1999, p. 107. A revised and expanded edition of Bierl’s excellent book was published in 2005.
30. See Charlotte Rudolph, Waldorf-Erziehung: Wege zur Versteinerung, Darmstadt 1987. Cf. Susanne Lippert, Steiner und die Waldorfpädagogik. Mythos und Wirklichkeit, Berlin 2001; Paul-Albert Wagemann und Martina Kayser: Wie frei ist die Waldorfschule? Munich 1996; Peter Bierl, “Der braune Geist der Waldorfpädagogik” in Ganzheitlich und ohne Sorgen in die Republik von Morgen: Dokumentation zum Kongress gegen Irrationalismus, Esoterik und Antisemitismus, Aschaffenburg 2001; Sybille-Christin Jacob and Detlef Drewes, Aus der Waldorf-Schule geplaudert: Warum die Steiner-Pädagogik keine Alternative ist, Aschaffenburg 2001; Juliane Weibring, Die Waldorfschule und ihr religiöser Meister: Waldorfpädagogik aus feministischer und religionskritischer Perspektive, Oberhausen 1998.
31. From an international Waldorf teachers conference in 1996, cited in Bierl, Wurzelrassen, Erzengel und Volksgeister p. 204.
32. Rudolf Steiner, The Spiritual Ground of Education, London 1947, p. 40.
33. Easton, Man and World in the Light of Anthroposophy, p. 388.
34. For thorough critical studies of Waldorf pedagogy see Heiner Ullrich, Waldorfpädagogik und okkulte Weltanschauung, Munich 1991, and Klaus Prange, Erziehung zur Anthroposophie: Darstellung und Kritik der Waldorfpädagogik, Bad Heilbrunn 2000.
35. Lindenberg, Rudolf Steiner, p. 134.
36. Steiner, Lecture Four from the 1924 Course on Agriculture.
37. Easton, Man and World in the Light of Anthroposophy, p. 444.
38. I have borrowed the phrase “green wing of the NSDAP” (the German acronym for the Nazi party) from Jost Hermand; see his Grüne Utopien in Deutschland, Frankfurt 1991, especially pp. 112-118. The term is not meant to suggest an identifiable faction within the party; rather it refers to a tendency or shared ideological and practical orientation, common to many activists and leading figures in the Nazi movement, the main outlines of which are recognizably environmentalist by today’s standards. For a much fuller treatment of this tendency see my “Fascist Ecology: The “Green Wing” of the Nazi Party and Its Historical Antecedents” in Biehl and Staudenmaier, Ecofascism. For critical discussion of the concept see Franz-Josef Brüggemeier, Mark Cioc, and Thomas Zeller, eds., How Green were the Nazis?: Nature, Environment, and Nation in the Third Reich, Athens 2005; Frank Uekoetter, The Green and the Brown: A History of Conservation in Nazi Germany, Cambridge 2006; Joachim Radkau and Frank Uekötter, eds., Naturschutz und Nationalsozialismus, Frankfurt 2003; and Joachim Wolschke-Bulmahn, “Naturschutz und Nationalsozialismus: Darstellungen im Spannungsfeld von Verdrängung, Verharmlosung und Interpretation” in Gert Gröning and Joachim Wolschke-Bulmahn, eds., Naturschutz und Demokratie, Munich 2006, 91-113.
39. See Bierl, Wurzelrassen, Erzengel und Volksgeister pp. 135-138. For a sympathetic overview of the Italian anthroposophical movement in the Fascist era see Michele Beraldo, “Il movimento antroposofico italiano durante il regime fascista” in Dimensioni e problemi della ricerca storica no. 1, 2002.
40. For extensive examples see [
groups.yahoo.com] and [
groups.yahoo.com] On the collaborationist role of the Secretary of the Anthroposophical Society in Italy and fervent Fascist Ettore Martinoli in antisemitic measures see Michael Wedekind, Nationalsozialistische Besatzungs- und Annexionspolitik in Norditalien 1943 bis 1945, Munich 2003, pp. 358-360, 385-386; and Silva Bon, La persecuzione antiebraica a Trieste (1938-1945), Udine 1972.
41. For examples of Karutz’s anthroposophical racial theories, see Richard Karutz, Rassenfragen, Stuttgart 1934; Karutz, “Zur Rassenkunde” Das Goetheanum January 3, 1932: Karutz, Von Goethe zur Völkerkunde der Zukunft, Stuttgart 1929.
42. Karutz quoted in Bierl, Wurzelrassen, Erzengel und Volksgeister p. 129.
43. Karutz, Von Goethe zur Völkerkunde der Zukunft, p. 57. Steiner himself was ambivalent toward Jews. In an 1897 polemic against zionism he compared antisemites – at the time a well-organized, active and very popular presence in Central Europe – to harmless children, and argued that zionists and “the heartless leaders of the Jews who are tired of Europe” were “much worse” than the antisemites (Steiner, Gesammelte Aufsätze zur Kultur- und Zeitgeschichte p. 199). On the other hand he actively supported the right side in the Dreyfus affair, albeit largely out of hostility toward the French republic. Steiner publicly rejected antisemitism, aligning himself instead with what he called the “idealistic German nationalist tendency” which opposed the “materialist” antisemitism of other pan-German agitators. For a detailed analysis see Peter Staudenmaier, “Rudolf Steiner and the Jewish Question,” Leo Baeck Institute Year Book vol. 50 (2005), pp. 127-147.
44. Darré was himself influenced by Steiner’s ideas; see Heinz Haushofer, Ideengeschichte der Agrarwirtschaft und Agrarpolitik im deutschen Sprachgebiet, volume II, Munich 1958, pp. 269-271.
45. The Wachsmuth interview is reprinted in Dokumente und Briefe zur Geschichte der anthroposophischen Bewegung und Gesellschaft in der Zeit des Nationalsozialismus, edited by Arfst Wagner, Rendsburg 1993, vol. I pp. 40-41.
46. Rascher quoted in Bierl, Wurzelrassen, Erzengel und Volksgeister p. 140.
47. For a partial list of anthroposophists who were members of the Nazi party, the SS, and the SA, see Peter Staudenmaier, “Anthroposophen und Nationalsozialismus – Neue Erkenntnisse” Info3 July 2007, pp. 42-43. The article is available online at: [
www.anthro-net.de] An English version is available at: [
groups.yahoo.com]
48. In an earlier version of this article I characterized Hess as an anthroposophist, based on the extent to which he structured his personal dietary and health choices around anthroposophical beliefs. I now think that description was mistaken. My current view is that Hess’s occult interests were too nebulous to be specifically identified as anthroposophical, and that he is better seen as a sympathizer of anthroposophy and the major sponsor of anthroposophical activities during the Nazi era, but not as an anthroposophist himself.
49. For a detailed overview of Waldorf schools in Nazi Germany see Achim Leschinsky, “Waldorfschulen im Nationalsozialismus,” Neue Sammlung: Zeitschrift für Erziehung und Gesellschaft 23 (1983). For extensive background in English on the history of the Waldorf movement during the Third Reich, see [
www.egoisten.de] and [
groups.yahoo.com]
50. See Geden, p. 140. Weleda maintains that their staff was unaware of how its products were used. This response is plausible, but obscures the more significant fact that Weleda had ongoing business relationships with the SS and the Wehrmacht during the war.
51. On the network of SS biodynamic plantations at various concentration camps, see Wolfgang Jacobeit and Christoph Kopke, Die Biologisch-dynamische Wirtschaftsweise im KZ, Berlin 1999.
52. Uwe Werner, Anthroposophen in der Zeit des Nationalsozialismus 1933-1945, Munich 1999. The book is based in part on internal anthroposophist records not available to other scholars.
53. See, for example, Jesaiah Ben-Aharon, The Spiritual Event of the Twentieth Century, London 1996.
54. The most extensive study of Darré’s support for biodynamic agriculture is the work of historian Anna Bramwell. See Bramwell, Ecology in the 20th Century, London 1989, chapter ten on the green wing of the Nazis, entitled “The Steiner Connection,” as well as her earlier book Blood and Soil: Walther Darré and Hitler’s ‘Green Party’. Both are important sources of material on the topic. Bramwell’s work, however, is often unreliable and always tendentious and should be consulted with caution.
55. In an earlier version of this article, I named two further Nazi officials as supporters of biodynamics: Antony Ludovici and Ludolf Haase. This claim was based on Anna Bramwell’s statements about both men. In addition to archival sources, Bramwell’s work cites her own interviews with unnamed “Anthroposophist members of Darré’s staff” as a source on “relations between followers of Steiner and the regime” (Bramwell, Ecology in the 20th Century, p. 270), and I adopted her claims about Ludovici and Haase despite my expressed reservations about her work. I now think those claims are mistaken. After an extensive search of both archival documents (including those cited by Bramwell) and contemporary published sources from the 1920s, 1930s and 1940s, I have been unable to find any corroboration for sympathies toward biodynamic agriculture on the part of either figure. Bramwell furthermore appears to have confused Ludovici with Nazi agricultural specialist J. W. Ludowici.
56. Carl Grund, for example, an anthroposophist since the 1920s, worked as an official of the biodynamic farmers league throughout the 1930s and was one of the foremost spokesmen for biodynamic agriculture in Nazi Germany. Grund joined the Nazi party in May 1933 and joined the SA in November 1933. In 1942 he was made an SS officer, and was promoted to SS-Obersturmführer in 1943. Within the SS he was a specialist for agricultural questions.
57. On Seifert’s relationship to anthroposophy see especially Charlotte Reitsam, Das Konzept der “bodenständigen Gartenkunst” Alwin Seiferts, Frankfurt 2001.
58. See Robert Pois, National Socialism and the Religion of Nature, London 1985.
59. On the continuing reverberations of this political tradition within North American contexts today see Rajani Bhatia, “Green or Brown? White Nativist Environmental Movements” in Abby Ferber, editor, Home-Grown Hate: Gender and Organized Racism, New York 2004.
60. The fact that the biodynamic movement influenced Nazi agricultural policy is hardly news; it has been recognized in mainstream scholarship for some time. For one example see Judith Baumgartner, Ernährungsreform – Antwort auf Industrialisierung und Ernährungswandel: Ernährungsreform als Teil der Lebensreformbewegung am Beispiel der Siedlung und des Unternehmens Eden seit 1893, Frankfurt 1992, pp. 55-57. Baumgartner’s study is by no means an aggressively critical treatment of the topic; her brief overview of the role of biodynamics in helping to shape the Third Reich’s agricultural policy is measured and matter-of-fact. A much more detailed account can be found in Gunter Vogt’s 2000 study Entstehung und Entwicklung des ökologischen Landbaus im deutschsprachigen Raum. Many anthroposophists are nonetheless taken aback when this history is recounted, an indication of how insulated the latter-day anthroposophical movement often is from its own past.
61. The initiator of the Italian wing of the biodynamic movement, Luigi Chimelli, was an effusive admirer of Mussolini and of Fascism, particularly its environmental and programs. See for example Chimelli’s introduction to his translation of a major work on biodynamic agriculture: Giovanni Schomerus, Il metodo di coltivazione biologico-dinamico, Pergine 1934, particularly pp. xvii-xx.
62. For a perceptive examination of Darré’s evolving relationship to the biodynamic movement, and a compelling counterargument to Bramwell’s work, see Gesine Gerhard, “Richard Walther Darré – Naturschützer oder ‘Rassenzüchter’?” in Radkau and Uekötter, Naturschutz und Nationalsozialismus. Gerhard’s legitimate and welcome critique of Bramwell sometimes leads her to overemphasize Darré’s skepticism toward anthroposophy, and she gives relatively little attention to the extensive support for biodynamics provided by members of Darré’s staff, including not only figures such as Merkel and Halbe but even more powerful Nazi agricultural officials such as Hermann Reischle, Karl August Rust, and Rudi Peuckert.
63. Anna Bramwell, Ecology in the 20th Century, London 1989, p. 204.
64. Ibid., p. 197. The ‘Battle for Production’ was Darré’s state-sponsored program to increase agricultural productivity. Initiated in 1934, its leading principle was “Keep the soil healthy!”
65. Wagner quoted in Bierl, p. 162.
66. Bramwell, Blood and Soil, Bourne End 1985, p. 179.
67. For more extensive discussion of the WSL and ultra-right anthroposophy see Janet Biehl’s “‘Ecology’ and the Modernization of Fascism in the German Ultra-right” in Biehl and Staudenmaier, Ecofascism, pp. 44-48.
68. Further information on Haverbeck and his milieu is available in several fine studies: Jonathan Olsen, Nature and Nationalism: Right-Wing Ecology and the Politics of Identity in Contemporary Germany, New York 1999; Richard Stöss, Vom Nationalismus zum Umweltschutz, Opladen 1980; and Volkmar Wölk, Natur und Mythos: Ökologiekonzeptionen der ‘Neuen’ Rechten im Spannungsfeld zwischen Blut und Boden und New Age, Duisburg 1992.
69. Haverbeck, Rudolf Steiner – Anwalt für Deutschland, Munich 1989.
70. Volkmar Wölk, “Neue Trends im ökofaschistischen Netzwerk” in Raimund Hethey and Peter Kratz, In Bester Gesellschaft, Göttingen 1991, p. 119.
71. Anthroposophist author Henning Köhler quoted in Bierl, p. 9.
72. For Erra’s collected essays on both Steiner and Scaligero see Enzo Erra, Steiner e Scaligero, Rome 2006. On Erra’s role in the post-war neo-fascist movement see Francesco Germinario, Da Salò al governo: Immaginario e cultura politica della destra italiana, Turin 2005, pp. 64, 78, 89-90, 95-96, 99; Daniele Lembo, Fascisti dopo la liberazione: Storia del fascismo e dei fascisti nel dopoguerra in Italia, Pavia 2007, pp. 74, 90-92, 112-16, 125, 129; Giuseppe Parlato, Fascisti senza Mussolini: Le origini del neofascismo in Italia, 1943-1948, Bologna 2006, pp. 177, 238, 298-99, 308; Adalberto Baldoni, La Destra in Italia 1945-1969, Rome 2000, pp. 296-98, 338-44, 361-62, 512-13; Franco Ferraresi, ed., La destra radicale, Milan 1984, 17-19, 27, 43, 194-96; Piero Ignazi, Il polo escluso: Profilo storico del Movimento Sociale Italiano, Bologna 1998, 41-44, 77-78, 116-19; Franco Ferraresi, Threats to Democracy: The Radical Right in Italy after the War, Princeton 1996, pp. 34, 210-13.
73. See e.g. these sympathetic accounts: Arianna Streccioni, A destra della destra, Rome 2000, pp. 63-64, 209; Luciano Lanna and Filippo Rossi, Fascisti immaginari: Tutto quello che c’è da sapere sulla destra, Florence 2003, pp. 20, 153-55; Piero Vassallo, Le culture della destra italiana, Milan 2002, pp. 90-92, 114-15, 128; for further background see Nicola Rao, Neofascisti: La destra italiana da Saloà a Fiuggi nel ricordo dei protagonisti, Rome 1999, pp. 39-43, 50-57, 67-72, 74-75, etc.; Rao, La fiamma e la celtica: Sessant’anni di neofascismo da Salò ai centri sociali di destra, Milan 2006, pp. 49-51, 58-63, 80-87, etc.
74. Wachsmuth, Werdegang der Menschheit, Dornach 1953; Wachsmuth, The Evolution of Mankind, Dornach 1961.
75. See for example Ernst Uehli, Nordisch-Germanische Mythologie als Mysteriengeschichte, Stuttgart 1965; Uehli, Atlantis und das Rätsel der Eiszeitkunst, Stuttgart 1957; Sigismund von Gleich, Der Mensch der Eiszeit und Atlantis, Stuttgart 1990; Gleich, Siebentausend Jahre Urgeschichte der Menschheit, Stuttgart 1987; Fred Poeppig, Das Zeitalter der Atlantis und die Eiszeit, Freiburg 1962.
76. Rudolf Steiner, Die Geschichte der Menschheit und die Weltanschauungen der Kulturvölker, p. 192.
77. Quoted in Bierl, p. 185. Bierl’s chapter on anthroposophist antisemitism includes many more examples of a similar nature.
78. Ludwig Thieben, Das Rätsel des Judentums, Basel 1991, pp. 164 and 174.
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1. Ted Wrinch says:
May 5, 2012 at 3:32 am
Peter claims that there was ”extensive public support by anthroposophists for the nazification of Germany” but it is likely that he believes this due to a selective use and mis-reading of the evidence. Most of the debate on this topic has, for understandable reasons, been conducted in German up to now, which has made it rather difficult for anglophone readers to make sense of the issues. A new PhD dissertation by Karen Priestman has been published that may go some way towards helping rectify this situation: ’Illusion of Coexistence: The Waldorf Schools in the Third Reich, 1933–1941′, [
scholars.wlu.ca] . The dissertation draws extensively on primary sources to paint a picture of the relationship of the Waldorf schools to the Nazi state that is very different from that suggested by Peter. Her study shows that, though one may accuse the Waldorfians of naïveté in their belief that they could co-exist within the Nazi state, the Waldorfians were not collaborators, mostly because the pedagogy, provided to the movement by Steiner, was ideologically opposed to Nazism (“Still, circumstantial evidence, as discussed in chapter four, indicates that contrary to claims made by the detractors of the schools, charges of their supposed collaboration with the regime and alleged shared sentiments of racism and antisemitism are insubstantial and generally highly questionable”, p 6). Peter claims that Hess was simply ‘anthroposophy’s protector’ but Hess no more regarded the Waldorf schools as ideologically compatible with Nazism than anyone else:
“Hess was trying to reconcile the schools’ ideological incompatibility with National Socialism with the value of their educational principles, which Hess could not deny
.…
Hess’ sentiments were echoed by Thies, ironically in a report which sealed the schools’ fate. While explaining that all applicable authorities agreed that the schools had no place in a National Socialist state, he conceded that there was still some value in their educational principles.”
p 152-153
‘Co-opt[ing] the [anthroposophical] movement and its institutions’ to the Nazi state, that Peter presents as an option, was for similar reasons not on the table .
Peter has said elsewhere that he views it as legitimate to see historiography as a blend of polemics and history proper. It maybe for this reason that his article has been famous during the more than a decade of its publication for containing biases similar to that illustrated above. In her study, Ms Priestman further calls doubt on the lack of bias in the work on Anthroposophy of Peter’s favourite academic and colleague Helmut Zander, as well as that of another stalwart reference of his, Peter Biehl. And it maybe these biases that caused Ms Priestman in her dissertation to describe Peter as a ‘staunch anti-Anthroposophist’ and to present a seminar in February this year entitled: “The Waldorf Schools as Modern Havens of Nazism?: The Continuing Debate and the Abuses of History”. Readers wishing to understand more about the complicated issue of the co-existence of institutions ideologically opposed Nazism within the Third Reich could do worse than to consult Ms Priestman’s work.
T.
2. Peter Staudenmaier says:
May 5, 2012 at 9:25 am
Ted Wrinch wrote:
“Readers wishing to understand more about the complicated issue of the co-existence of institutions ideologically opposed Nazism within the Third Reich could do worse than to consult Ms Priestman’s work.”
I heartily agree. Here is what I wrote about Dr. Priestman’s dissertation last week:
“There is a recent dissertation on the history of Waldorf schools in Nazi Germany that is well worth reading:
Karen Priestman, “Illusion of Coexistence: The Waldorf Schools in the Third Reich, 1933–1941″ PhD dissertation, Wilfrid Laurier University, 2009
An abstract and the full text in pdf form can be found here:
[
scholars.wlu.ca]
There is much to disagree with in the dissertation (she uses PLANS and my “Anthroposophy and Ecofascism” article as foils for her argument), and a few errors in detail, but it is full of important historical information based largely on the archives of the German Waldorf school federation. Much of her account focuses on Waldorf efforts to accommodate themselves to the new regime and cooperate with Nazi educational officials in order to maintain Steiner’s pedagogical principles within the context of Nazi rule. Priestman writes:
“This pattern of contradiction and ambiguity on the part of the Nazis and cooperation and naivety on the part of the Waldorf schools, continued throughout their existence in the Third Reich and shaped the strategies the schools adopted while pursuing their illusory attempt at coexistence.” (111)
She concludes: “Their idealism and their belief that the virtue of Rudolf Steiner’s pedagogy could not be denied indefinitely blinded the schools to the true nature of National Socialism and fostered an illusion of coexistence.” (224)
Along with Ida Oberman’s 2008 book The Waldorf Movement in Education from European Cradle to American Crucible, this is the best study available in English from a perspective sympathetic to Waldorf. Readers interested in anthroposophy during the Nazi era can learn much from it.”
Mr. Wrinch is unsurprisingly mistaken about my own work. My conclusions about Waldorf education in Nazi Germany are often quite similar to Dr. Priestman’s. In the chapter on the controversy over Waldorf schools in the Nazi era in my dissertation, I argue that compromise prevailed over collaboration, not the other way around. These sorts of basic misunderstandings, common among anthroposophists, need not deter readers interested in learning more about the history of the Waldorf movement in Nazi Germany. Here is an initial overview based on Waldorf sources:
[
lists.topica.com]
[
bit.ly]
Peter Staudenmaier
3. Nathaniel says:
June 1, 2012 at 8:47 pm
Hi Peter,
I would like to start by confirming that Steiner saw race as something which gave an individual particular strengths and challenges. He did the same with sex. He saw these as external to the core of the individual though, as conditions the individual could work with as one might work with being short, or tall…
I am also sorry to see that you have not given enough time to really understanding the ideas Steiner developed as social three folding. You write-
“Its central axiom is that the modern integration of politics, economy and culture into an ostensibly democratic framework must falter because, according to Steiner, neither the economy nor cultural life can or should be structured democratically.”
It is true that Rudolf Steiner regarded democracy as an unfit principle for the economy and culture. At the root of this thought is the wisdom which we recognize in the saying “too many cooks in the kitchen” which we know leads to a bad meal and spoilt moods. He did not mean that the economy should not have to respect laws created by democratic processes, this he firmly believed in and wrote that just as a regional economy had to accustom itself to the natural resources that it had to work given the realities of various bio regions of the world, it also had to accustom itself to the laws that were created through democracy in those regions. You can read this in his lectures on economy as well as in his book Toward Social Renewal.
On the other hand many Americans believe that culture should not be regulated by democracy, and indeed what Steiner meant by this was all intended in the same spirit which inspired those who founded the USA to make a division between church and state.
You also wrote-
“In the aftermath of the bloody world war, at the very moment of great upheavals against the violence, misery, and exploitation of capitalism, Steiner emerged as an ardent defender of private profit, the concentration of property and wealth, and the unfettered market.”
As I mentioned above, Rudolf Steiner believed the market should be subservient to laws created through democratic processes. He also believed that capital, for the most part, created through industry should be given to charities, schools and other cultural initiatives. He even created an association to work towrd this end called “der Kommende Tag”(The Coming Day). One of Rudolf Steiner’s main concerns was to promote the circulation of wealth for he thought that money which was invested in land, or under the mattress, distorted economic realities. He has some extremely interesting points in this direction. His thoughts inspired one of the most successful local currency projects in the world which is alive and well based on some of his articulations of aging/expiring currency. Here is an article from the guardian about this.
[
www.guardian.co.uk]
I will in no way contest that individual anthroposophists have made great moral blunders. I disagree with your argument that the development of national socialism was nascent in anthroposophy by pointing this out. Your image of Steiner, and his intentions and work, as an individual is extremely skewed. Of course this is only my opinion, but one based on 13 years of studying his work.
4. Peter Staudenmaier says:
June 2, 2012 at 11:59 am
Hi Nathaniel,
Thanks for your comment. You evidently misunderstood the article, as many anthroposophists have; my argument is not that “the development of national socialism was nascent in anthroposophy.” In part because of basic misunderstandings like these, many of Steiner’s admirers believe that what historians report about Steiner and his movement is skewed.
The reason for this is not mysterious; like you, a lot of anthroposophists are firmly committed to a series of well-worn myths about Steiner, myths which prevent you from viewing Steiner as a historical figure. Part of a historian’s job is to deflate such myths, and that often irritates admirers of Steiner, who think they have been “studying” Steiner for years and years. For better or worse, that is not what “studying” means outside of esoteric circles.
Regarding Steiner’s teachings about “social threefolding,” I’m not sure what you meant to disagree with, but if you’re interested you can find a much more detailed discussion here:
[
www.social-ecology.org]
Unlike anthroposophists, social ecologists do not regard democracy as “an unfit principle for the economy and culture.” Social ecologists are fundamentally opposed to capitalism and the state and fundamentally in favor of a thoroughly democratic society, economy, and culture.
Last, on Steiner’s racial teachings, I recommend reading some of the previous comments to this article. Best,
Peter Staudenmaier
5. Nathaniel says:
June 2, 2012 at 10:40 pm
Hi Peter,
I read your other article. Thank you for recommending it. I believe I understand you are saying you take outer historical events to represent the truth of a persons ideas, not a thorough understanding of the ideas themselves. When I see a political cartoon of a person I can tell it is not the actual appearance of the person. When I read your descriptions of Steiner’s thought I can sense a similar situation.
I am not referring to historical events in space and time when I challenge your understanding of his ideas, rather, I am referring to his ideas. In saying this I am not disputing particular historical events you refer to nor the importance of paying attention to them and learning from them, but I am simply indicating they are not the same as a person’s ideas.
If one was to equate an understanding of social- three folding with a review of its history it would be a very poor idea for the future indeed! But it has hardly been developed in practice.
There is nothing “esoteric” about the idea that studying a person’s ideas leads to a knowledge of them. T
This method for understanding people is not particular to anthroposophists! I find confirmation of my suspicion that you see Steiner in a distorted light in the fact that you do not take time to respond to any of the ideas and examples(including historical and contemporary ones) that I mentioned but rather just accused me of various illusions. Your confidence and accusatory tone surely inspire some to think you have solid ground to stand on I hope you can couple these forces with a deeper respect for the truth in your life. Even if you can use the words that Steiner used this does not mean you have taken the time to understand them and despite the fact that I recognize many of the terms and concepts he used when I read your two essays, you have distorted their character. I leave it to others who read these things to investigate for themselves inaccuracies I found in your work.-
Steiner did not first experience spiritual reality after the age of 40 as you state(read the third chapter of his autobiography for example). Despite the fact that I can understand how from an outer perspective you could say he totally changed at the age of 40, when you study his life AND ideas/work you see that his essential inspirations developed through out his life(see the earliest articles in Lucifer/Gnosis from the turn of the last century when he writes about Theosophy and German idealism, the reference to his earlier work and their re-publishing until his death…)
Steiner believed the market and all business leaders should have to follow laws created in democratic processes.(read his book Toward Social Renewal for example and see my previous comment).
Steiner viewed the individual person as an independent and different entity than their sex, race, climate…( see the 14th chapter of his philosophy of freedom for example)
I see very clearly that you think anthroposophy is something that might seem to many as progressive but in reality it is still far from the level of progress you and your co-workers are promoting at your institute. May my comments ignite in you the bugging suspicion that maybe you have not exhausted the issue as much as you think you have!
6. Peter Staudenmaier says:
June 3, 2012 at 2:44 am
Hi Nathaniel,
Thanks for your comment. Many anthroposophists are convinced that they understand Steiner’s ideas. This is perhaps the most common anthroposophical myth, particularly among Steiner’s English-speaking admirers. The problem is an obvious one; in your own words, “you have not exhausted the issue as much as you think you have.” What you have read are snippets of Steiner’s later works available in translation. Quite apart from the quality of the translations themselves, the texts you are familiar with have often been bowdlerized and do not include much of the original racist and antisemitic content, for example.
Beyond that, the only scholarly biographies of Steiner are in German, and much of Steiner’s work, not to mention the rest of the anthroposophical corpus, has not been translated at all.
This situation leaves you unfamiliar with a large proportion of Steiner’s ideas. Let’s look at one of your own chosen examples: You believe, as countless anthroposophists do, that Steiner’s “essential inspirations” remained the same before and after 1900 and that he was already an esotericist and “experienced spiritual reality” before 1900. These beliefs are completely mistaken and are based on ignorance of Steiner’s pre-1900 published works. The edition of “Philosophy of Freedom” you cite, for instance, is a translation of the heavily revised 1918 edition, not the original edition from 1893.
More to the point, Steiner ruthlessly ridiculed esotericism – and particularly theosophy – during the 1890s. If you want to understand Steiner’s ideas, it will mean paying attention to the ways his ideas changed over time.
That is what his followers fail to do. Because you do not view Steiner as a historical figure but as a harbinger of timeless truths, you are oblivious to the development of his ideas and the specific contexts within which they emerged. You say that you are “not referring to historical events,” and that is precisely the problem. Ideas are themselves historical phenomena, and you won’t be able to understand them without recognizing that basic factor. This is not some personal shortcoming of yours, by the way. It is the standard perspective among those who believe in Steiner’s worldview.
As you know, the ISE webmaster has asked that we not overwhelm the ISE site with this discussion, and I think that is a reasonable request. If you would like to continue the discussion, I recommend moving to one of the existing email lists dedicated to anthroposophical topics. One in particular is very willing to host lively and extended exchanges between proponents and critics of Steiner’s ideas; you can find it here:
[
groups.yahoo.com]
Its associated website includes several of my articles as well, and you are more than welcome to offer critical commentary there. Best,
Peter Staudenmaier
7. Nathaniel says:
June 4, 2012 at 9:11 am
Hi Peter,
I am fluent in German. The ideas I referred to are in the first edition. It is online in German thanks to google.
8. Peter Staudenmaier says:
June 4, 2012 at 5:01 pm
Hi Nathaniel,
Thanks for your comment. It seems to me you are repeating the same beliefs. You claimed in a previous message to me that you are fluent in German, for example. (Nathaniel has sent several additional messages aside from the ones posted here, and has declined to discuss them.) Assuming that is true, I’m not sure what it is you mean to object to when I point out that your claims are naïve and based on ignorance. If you read German, you are ignoring a very large body of readily accessible information about Steiner and anthroposophy, topics in which you profess a great interest. This is not likely to help you understand Steiner’s ideas.
The original edition of Steiner’s book The Philosophy of Freedom, for instance, presents a significantly different set of ideas from the ones contained in the edition you cited, a revised edition from two and half decades later. (By the way, the text of the original edition is not available on google books; I’m not sure how you managed to convince yourself of that.)
The same is true for the other works you cited. If you want to know what Steiner’s ideas were about esotericism in 1897, for example, you need to take a look at what Steiner wrote about esotericism in 1897, not in 1924.
Taking that approach would be a fine way to gain a better understanding of Steiner’s ideas. As things stand now, many of your stated beliefs about Steiner and his teachings are simply standard anthroposophical myths. Those myths get in the way of understanding Steiner’s ideas. Best,
Peter Staudenmaier
9. Antroposofía: la secta y su banco (Triodos) « Pensar es gratis says:
December 2, 2012 at 11:30 am
[...] El hecho de que la agricultura biodinámica haya sido adoptada por insignes cabezas de chorlito como Heinrich Himmler y el Príncipe Felipe de Inglaterra (destacado comerciante de vudumedicinas) bastaría para levantar la ceja, conociendo las pocas neuronas y las creencias idiotas de ambos personajes. (El dato sobre el jardín que tenía Himmler en Dachau, atendido por el jardinero de Weleda, vea abajo, es de Peter Staudenmaier en su abundantemente documentado y muy recomendable artículo La antroposofía y el ecofascismo.) [...]
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