Rudolf Steiner

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Lore & Background

Steiner was born on 27 or 25 February 1861 in what is now Donji Kraljevec in the Međimurje region of the Kingdom of Hungary, Austrian Empire. His father, Johann(es) Steiner, was a telegraph operator on the Southern Austrian Railway. The family moved twice in Steiner's first two years, first to Mödling, then to Pottschach. In 1869, when Steiner was eight, they moved to Neudörfl, and in October 1872 he entered the realschule in Wiener Neustadt. In 1879 the family moved to Inzersdorf so Steiner could attend the Vienna Institute of Technology on an academic scholarship from 1879 to 1883, where he studied mathematics, physics, chemistry, botany, zoology, and mineralogy, and audited courses in literature and philosophy. In 1882, his teacher Karl Julius Schröer recommended him to Joseph Kürschner to become the natural science editor of a new edition of Goethe's works—an astonishing opportunity for a young student without academic credentials or previous publications. Steiner completed his studies and the requirements of the Ghega scholarship satisfactorily. Before attending the Institute, he had studied Immanuel Kant, Fichte, and F. W. J. Schelling. According to Gary Lachman, 'the general consensus on Goethe’s scientific musings as this point was that they were useless as science and dreary as literature; in truth, no one else wanted the job of editing them.'

Steiner reported early spiritual experiences: at age nine he believed he saw the spirit of an aunt who had died in a far-off town, asking him to help her at a time when neither he nor his family knew of her death. He later related that as a child he felt 'that one must carry the knowledge of the spiritual world within oneself after the fashion of geometry ... [for here] one is permitted to know something which the mind alone, through its own power, experiences.' He believed that at age 15 he had gained a complete understanding of the concept of time, which he considered the precondition of spiritual clairvoyance. At 21, on a train, he met an herb gatherer, Felix Kogutzki, who spoke about the spiritual world 'as one who had his own experience therein.' As a young man, Steiner emerged as an individualist, positivist, and freethinker, contemptuous of religion and faith, and lectured at workers' colleges and the Giordano Bruno Union (a rationalist, anti-religious organisation) on the history of philosophy. In 1888, invited to work as an editor at the Goethe archives in Weimar, he remained there until 1896, a low-paid and boring job. He wrote two books about Goethe's philosophy: *The Theory of Knowledge Implicit in Goethe's World-Conception* (1886) and *Goethe's Conception of the World* (1897). In 1891, Steiner received a doctorate in philosophy at the University of Rostock for a dissertation on Fichte's concept of the ego, later published as *Truth and Knowledge: Prelude to a Philosophy of Freedom*. In 1894, he published *Die Philosophie der Freiheit* (*The Philosophy of Freedom*), an exploration of epistemology and ethics. He hoped the book would gain him a professorship, but it was not well received. In 1896, he declined an offer from Elisabeth Förster-Nietzsche to help organize the Nietzsche archive, though hoping for a job he did not get, he accepted the invitation immediately and was introduced to the catatonic Friedrich Nietzsche. He later wrote *Friedrich Nietzsche, Fighter for Freedom*. In 1897, Steiner left Weimar for Berlin, becoming part owner and chief editor of the literary journal *Magazin für Literatur*, where he alienated subscribers by supporting Émile Zola in the Dreyfus Affair and publishing extracts from his correspondence with anarchist John Henry Mackay. In 1899, he married Anna Eunicke; the couple separated several years later, and Anna died in 1911. Steiner's marriage to Anna 'was clearly a marriage of convenience.' Despite his fame as a teacher of esotericism, Steiner was culturally and academically isolated.

Reader's Guide

Steiner's significance lies in his founding of anthroposophy, an esoteric spiritual movement with roots in German idealist philosophy and theosophy. His work evolved through three phases: an early philosophical period seeking to synthesize science and spirituality by developing 'spiritual science,' intending to apply the clarity of Western philosophy to spiritual questions; a second phase beginning around 1907 focused on artistic media including drama, dance, and architecture, culminating in the building of the Goetheanum, a cultural centre to house all the arts; and a third phase after World War I working on applied projects including Waldorf education, biodynamic agriculture, and anthroposophical medicine. Steiner advocated ethical individualism, to which he later brought a more explicitly spiritual approach. He based his epistemology on Goethe's world view in which 'thinking...is no more and no less an organ of perception than the eye or ear. Just as the eye perceives colours and the ear sounds, so thinking perceives ideas.' A consistent thread through his work is the goal of demonstrating that there are no limits to human knowledge. Almost all biographies of Steiner are hagiography, except the books by Gebhardt, Ullrich, and Zander. Many of his ideas are pseudoscientific, and he was prone to pseudohistory. His teachings are influenced by (Christian) Gnosticism or neognosticism.

Did You Know?

• Steiner's father was a telegraph operator on the Southern Austrian Railway, and the family moved twice in Steiner's first two years.
• At age nine, Steiner believed he saw the spirit of an aunt who had died in a far-off town, asking him to help her, before his family knew of her death.
• In 1882, as a young student without academic credentials, Steiner was recommended to become the natural science editor of a new edition of Goethe's works.
• Steiner earned a doctorate in philosophy from the University of Rostock in 1891 for a dissertation on Fichte's concept of the ego.
• Almost all biographies of Steiner are hagiography, except the books by Gebhardt, Ullrich, and Zander.