Anthoposophy Worldwide 1999 (4)

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Conversation – a Meeting of BeingsHuman conversation is a social occurence which, inits ideal form, is an encounter between two egobeings. As with other sense experiences, in conversa-tion we turn outward. Our sense experiences thenconvey to us an impression of entering into con-sciousness and memory.

When meeting another person in conversation,one possible experience is that we can mutuallyencompass one another with our consciousness. Thisis the closest we can be to one another. Another possi-bility is to speak past one another, each one occupiedwith her or his own thoughts. Yet even here, a sparkof understanding may spring over to the other person.However, if we remain entirely within our own spaceof consciousness, the words of the other person aredebased into mere interruptions of our own talk.

In true conversation we feel that we want to lis-ten, just as we want to express our own sentiments.Then we are active with our whole soul: in our think-ing, feeling and willing. Social will – love of action –is transformed here into pure human love, into com-prehending love. Socially transformed feeling – moralimagination – creates pictures while we listen. Andmoral intuition is present as our spiritual awarenesswithin the ego encounter. It is the ego of the otherperson that seeks to be realized in conversation: I cango to meet it; I can experience its reality within me.This is a metamorphosis of my love of action. Andthis meeting, this merging of our thought processes, ismediated by the stream of speech. My conversationpartner expresses herself or himself through a multi-tude of speech forms, and I move along with her orhim, perceiving.

It can happen, however, that I lose myself in thiswhole orientation toward someone else. One way ofworking against this is to try to become ever moreawake to the soul-spiritual side of the other person.In this way a spiritual striving for love can develop,creating a solid bridge from one person to the other.

Elisabeth Møller-Hansen, Denmark

Nr. 4 • May 1999

Finding Hidden Treasures –Goetheanum Art Collection

page 12

Gabriella Randazzo:Compassionthrough the Arts

page 6

From the Work of theGeneral Secretaries andCountry Representatives

page 8

ForumAnthroposophy around the WorldPortraitAnthroposophical SocietySchool of Spiritual ScienceFeature

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1112 Translated from the German

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Anthroposophy Worldwide“Life in the Anthroposophical Society –Anthroposophy Worldwide” is publishedmonthly. It is distributed by the regionalAnthroposophical Societies – in some casesaugmented with independently edited newsand articles. It also appears as a supplementto the weekly paper “Das Goetheanum”.

Publisher:General Anthroposophical Society, repre-sented by Paul Mackay

Editors:Carol Brousseau (responsible for the Eng-lish-Language Edition), Sebastian Jüngel(responsible for this issue), Dietrich Rapp,Ursula Remund Fink, Michaela Spaar,Stephan Stockmar, Justus Wittich

Correspondents:Jürgen Vater (Sweden)Marianne Møller-Nielsen (Denmark)Andrew Wolpert (Great Britain)

We expressly wish for active support andcollaboration. The process of building a teamof editors and correspondents has not yetbeen completed.

To receive Anthroposophy Worldwide,please apply to the Anthroposophical Societyin your country. If questions with the distri-bution arise, only the subscribers to “DasGoetheanum” should contact the addressbelow. For all others the address is theaddress of the Anthroposophical Society inyour country.

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“Waldorf” Trademark

You describe some current difficultiesin dealing with the term “Waldorf” inthe U.S. This problem exists to a less-er extent in Germany as well, wherethe term has been protected since1983. It was registered internationallyin 1993.

Protection of the term makessense if one does not consider Waldorfeducation to be an educational quarryfrom which one can help oneself atwill. In the 80 years since it began,Waldorf education has become aneducational concept which includes

Letter regarding the performance ofRudolf Steiner’s Mystery Dramas inFrenchNearly every year, scenes from RudolfSteiner’s Mystery Dramas are per-formed during the public anthropo-sophical conference in Laboissière-en-Thelle. This year we will do scenesthree and seven from the Portal of Ini-tiation in a new translation. The newtranslation by Gaensburger stays closeto the rhythm of the original Germantext, creating a mood similar to theoriginal. The Soul’s Probation hasalready been translated in this way.The new translation of The Portal ofInitiation is not yet quite complete.

We also have translations ofAlbert Steffen’s Barrabas and Lin,which are similarly faithful to theiroriginal rhythms. These we have alsoperformed in Laboissière. Finally, wehave a translation of the Soul Calen-dar in the same spirit. It is out ofprint, but a new edition is planned.

Jean-Louis Gaensburger, France

of speaking. This is indeed why Wal-dorf schools are envied in currentpublic discussion. They already haveeverything which the other schoolswant in terms of an unmistakable pro-file.

Rudolf Steiner did not want theoriginal Waldorf school to be a soli-tary model, he wanted it to multiplyand go beyond national boundaries, tobecome a world association. Hisintention is clear: a “Waldorf” schoolis not merely a few children withsome color, wool and block lessons. If

Anthroposophy Worldwide 4/1999

In Anthroposophy Worldwide Nr. 3/99 we reported on how elements of Wal-dorf education are increasingly entering public schools in the U.S., mentioning thecontroversy surrounding this phenomenon. In the following letter, HansjörgHofrichter, who is active in Waldorf education in Bayern, Germany, explainshow the term “Waldorf” has been handled there.

Faithful to Original RhythmsDramas Translated into French

The trade marks“Waldorf” and“Rudolf Steiner”were registeredwith the GermanPatent Office on May 26, 1983,with identicaldescriptions.On April 1, 1993they were alsoregistered inter-nationally.

Forum

unrenounceable essentials, offeringsomething to children from kinder-garten through class twelve. The pub-lic expects something of Waldorf edu-cation. Unprejudiced people associatecertain things with the concept. Ifthese expectations are not fulfilled,people are disappointed, and thetrademark pales. This is what lead tothe question of securing quality.

A Waldorf school has a corporateidentity. It has a philosophy based onan unmistakable picture of the humanbeing, to which all parties concernedfeel an obligation. This leads to every-thing else: the didactics, method, allvisual forms (corporate design) suchas architecture, typeface, logo, etc. Itincludes non-visual forms such as theway people behave with one other, theway they greet each other, their way

public schools take up one thing oranother in their search for improve-ments, we may feel honored, but thisdoes not make them into “public Wal-dorf schools”. The pluralism of publiceducation has always tried to take“the best” of all alternative education-al methods – instead of subjectingitself to the discipline of an education-al “diet”. Perhaps this unappetizingmethod is part of the true reason forthe wretched state of affairs in publicschools.

Hasjörg Hofrichter, Germany

Information, offers of help, contact: St. Peters-burg Biodynamic Project, Suvorovskij Prospekt,17/24, 193036 St. Petersburg, Russia, Tel./Fax+7/812/274 65 18. Email: [email protected](English, German, Russian).


Anthroposophy around the World

Russ ia

Yugos lav ia

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More or Less Cut OffAnthroposophical Efforts before the War

Creating New Perspectives in Difficult Times – Agriculture as an Impulse for DevelopmentThe St. Petersburg Biodynamic Project

In addition to cultivating biodynamicagriculture and a responsible attitudetowards nature, the St. PetersburgBiodynamic Project has set itself thetask of developing new perspectives inthese difficult times. To do this, wefirst had to lay the ground.

A center in Rel, near St. Peters-burg, has been developing since 1995.The future infrastructure is to includea school, a kindergarten, a trainingcenter for 40 people, agriculturalbuildings, and living space. Work-shops and talks, supported by recog-nized experts, have been going on forseveral years. The first buildings are inpreparation.

In close collaboration with thelocal people of Rel, an initial agree-ment has been reached to lease 5hectares of land and share the groundsand technology.

Gradually we hope to extend ourefforts to include animal, fruit andvegetable farming, and a waste-watersystem that would substitute all

chemicals with reed, iris,mint and other plants.

We also plan to supplythe population with ourown anthroposophic andhomeopathic medicines.Connected to this will be aplace where children withhandicaps will be able to liveand feel integrated into thewhole. This will be led by adoctor and an educator.

The beauty of the land-scape, with its many lakesand stretches of dense for-est, encourages us in ourwish to invite friends andbenefactors to visit, givingthem the chance to get toknow the Russian summerand Russian every-day life.In addition to the efforts ofour co-workers, we needfinancial, technical and pro-fessional help.

Irina Beljakova, Russia

possible for 10 to 20 people to cometogether daily for a week (in two sepa-rate private homes) to study the influ-ence of Michael in our times, and inparticular to go deeper into RudolfSteiner’s Study of Man as a basis foreducation, because they hope to be ableto create something in this field one day.

About 80 to 100 people attendedeach of two public lectures. Held in acommunity college, one lecture themewas: “Education towards Freedomfrom an Anthroposophic Perspec-tive”. The other, held in a lecture hallof a university hospital, was “Over-coming Fears, Uneasiness and Ner-

vousness through Spiritual Develop-ment”. In spite of the military mobi-lization which had already takenplace, and the threatening situation,people followed the lectures withinterest, and asked questions.

Now our contact with this coun-try has more or less been cut off bythe tragic events. For how long? Whatwill happen next? These anxious ques-tions accompany them, accompany us.

Some of our friends in Yugoslaviahad hoped to attend the Faust Festivalat the Goetheanum this summer. Theyhad already begun to prepare, theywere looking forward to their visit toSwitzerland. This is now far out ofreach.

It is good to remember that the ter-rible events which are reported daily inthe media do nothing to create a newfuture. What are needed are our activeideas and vibrant feelings, to accompa-ny them. They are still there, peoplewho are striving to prepare a futuresociety based on spiritual perspectives.

Heinrich Schneider, Switzerland

Thanks to the efforts of OliveraTodorovic, who has been workingtowards founding a private kinder-garten for years, a few friends fromthe Belgrade area have met regularlyto study anthroposophy. Several ofRudolf Steiner’s books and otheranthroposophical literature have beentranslated into Serbian. Some of theinterested people understand Englishor, less often, German. In 1995 theyfounded an association for Waldorfeducation and art.

Shortly before the war broke out inYugoslavia at the end of February,beginning of March 1999, it was still

In Anthroposophy Worldwide Nr. 1/1999 we reported on the initiative to foundan “Anthroposophical Society in Serbia”. Here, Heinrich Schneider describes thework just before and during the military mobilization, reminding us of ourfriends who are still “striving to prepare a future society based on spiritual per-spectives”.

In St. Petersburg, the Biodynamic Project is trying to encourage responsible waysof dealing with nature, while helping to create new perspectives in Russia. Theproject is collaborating closely with the local Waldorf schools and anthroposophi-cal institutions, thus their plans cover a broad spectrum.

Maria Thun’s seed calendar for 1999, in Russian

4 Anthroposophy Worldwide 4/1999

Organic Market Expands – Biodynamics Needs to Catch Up

Since the early 1990’s, organic prod-ucts have been available almost every-where in Denmark, including ordi-nary supermarkets. Consumer interesthas been so great that the total salesincreased by 29% in 1998 alone. Thelatest surveys show that 80% of thepopulation buys organic products,and 10% of Danish households spendmore than 10% of their purchasingbudget on ecological goods. Whereorganic food is eaten, people also tendto buy other ecological projects.

The largest increase lies with milkproducts, where sales of cheeseincreased by 121% and milk by 36%.Organic milk now makes up 20% oftotal milk consumption, and organiccheese 2%. There is increasing variety.All this shows that consumer awarenessis growing.

A steady number of farms areconverting to organic methods. Cur-rently there are 2228 farms with100,000 hectares of land. This year,1050 farms with 50,000 hectares willbe added. Then organic agriculturewill make up about 5% of the totalagricultural acreage. Animal produc-tion is expected to increase, which willcreate a challenge. Experts speak of aneed for large growth because withoutsufficient land for plant refinement, itwill become difficult to obtain enoughorganic seed and feed. Then it wouldhardly be possible to demand a sepa-ration of genetically modified prod-ucts from non-modified ones.

Two large dairies merged at theend of March (MD Foods and KloverMælk). This has created the fifthlargest dairy in Europe. Both firmsalready have organic departmentswhich sell milk and cheese under thelabel Harmonie. They hold 73% ofthe milk product market (150 millionkilograms in 1998). Among the small-er organic dairies, there is ThiseMéjeri, which has an annual milk vol-ume of 18 million kilograms. On theircartons we find: “The philosophy ofThise Méjeri is to produce as well aspossible, rather than as much as possi-ble. We base this policy on the princi-ple that milk never becomes betterthan the cow made it. So productionneeds to be as gentle as possible.”There are also six other small dairies.With the fusion of MD Foods andKlover Mælk, which waged a pricewar beforehand, prices have returnedto normal.

Consequences for BiodynamicsThe situation is different for bio-dynamic agriculture. Production hadbeen cut back over the years, leadingto fewer farms and fewer members inthe Biodynamic Association, withsome farms reverting to organic agri-culture. Today there are 40 farms withabout 1000 hectares of land.

In spite of the fact that there arefewer biodynamic farmers thanorganic ones, biodynamics is verywell represented in ecology-orientedcommittees, such as the EcologicalNational Center, Organic FoodsBoard, and Ecological House (inArhus), where the Demeter and Bio-dynamic Associations have their ownoffice. The government contributed 6million krones to the house and 11million to ecological projects in gen-eral. It has also committed an annual5 million krones for four years toadvisory and information programs.

This money comes from pesticidestaxes!

The need for biodynamic researchled to the founding of the Associationfor Biodynamic Research in 1997. Theinitiators come from biodynamic agri-culture, research, social education andconsumer protection. The initiativearose from the annual inspections ofthe Demeter Association.

At the end of 1997, the ResearchAssociation was awarded 300,000krones to study of the effect of thebiodynamic silica preparation on thequality of carrots and white cabbage(which was carried out in 1998). TheResearch Association was also able toset up a laboratory for bio-crystalliza-tion at Hertha, a curative communitynear Arhus. Within a few years theyhope to be able to make routine testsof biodynamic harvests. They plan toimprove the technique of regulatingtemperature and humidity, and devel-op computer analysis of the bio-crys-tallizations, while continuing theirresearch on carrots. The BiodynamicAgriculture Association hopes tointerest organic farmers in thisresearch.

Marianne Møller-Nielsen, Denmark

Denmark

Kenya

The demand for organic food is growing steadily in Denmark. In order to be ableto ensure a sufficient supply of alternatives to balance genetically modified seedand animal feed additives, a lot of organically farmed land will be needed. Thebiodynamic movement needs to catch up, and it is already taking steps to do so.

In March 1999, the Nairobi RudolfSteiner School participated in the Edu-cation 2000 exhibition in the Kenyancapital, where it won the best stall andthe most unusual school award. Theexhibition was attended by many visi-tors with questions about education,and the school used the opportunity topublicize the upcoming internationalconference and attract more pupils tothe school.

Founded in 1989, the school nowhas just over 60 children, with com-bined classes 1/2, 3/4, 5/6, 7/8 and akindergarten. It is situated on 20 acresof Maasai plains, with animals in theNairobi National Park as its neigh-bors.

While some of the children walklong distances to school, others ride onthe school bus, and some from furtherafield stay at school as weekly or full-time boarders. Each morning, the chil-dren and teachers work together onthe school farm or do other practicalthings. The language of instruction isEnglish, with Kiswahili and Germanoffered in subject lessons.

An international conference onSteiner education in Africa, “Learning

with Love”, was held at the schoolMarch 28 – April 3. It included guestspeakers Brien Masters (Britain),Troels Ussing (Denmark), and Petervan Alphen and Ann Sharfinan (SouthAfrica's Center for Creative Educa-tion). The first three days of the con-ference were for Waldorf teachers andtrainees, the following three days wereopen to the public.

The conference was followed by atwo week teacher training module.When they have had two weeks oftraining in each term, and have donecourse work over a period of approxi-mately three years, successful studentswill be awarded a diploma in SteinerEducation. Peter van Alphen and AnnSharfinan began this project at theHekima Waldorf School in Dar esSalaam, Tanzania. The course hassince been moved to the Nairobischool. Deborah Fletcher

The school is currently seeking a class oneteacher for January 2000 and a full time adminis-trator. It would also welcome a eurythmist and aGerman teacher. Contact: Rudolf Steiner School,P.O. Box 15609, Nairobi, Kenya, Fax +254/2/89 14 44, Tel. +254/303/233 00.© News Network Anthroposophy (NNA)

Waldorf Education in Nairobi

5Anthroposophy Worldwide 4/1999

Anthroposophy Meets Unique Peruvian ConditionsThe Instituto Schiller-Goethe, for Teacher Training in Lima

Anthroposophical work is influenced by the conditions and history of the particu-lar country where it is done. Carmela Villafana spoke of modern life’s hindrancesto human development (in Anthroposophy Worldwide Nr. 2 /1999). Here,Andrea and Martin Errenst report on the work of the training center InstitutoSchiller-Goethe and its background in Peruvian society.

Peru ates deliberate opportunities to meet. Itdraws students from Peru’s various re-gions and social groups.

In Peru, people graduate fromsecondary school relatively early, sothe students tend to start their train-ings quite young. The Waldorf teachertraining lasts five years, in accordancewith the state system. It is a thoroughtraining that cultivates capacities forobservation and thinking throughexcursions and Goethean observationof nature and art. Studies of the devel-oping human being, along with practi-cal and artistic courses, prepare thefinal phase of the course, which coversStudy of Man and other books byRudolf Steiner, practical teachingexperience in public schools, and anindependent project.

above is covered by a gray coastal fogfor half the year. Into this gray thepeoples of all Peru bring their color-fulness. They are seeking better livingconditions, education, a connection tothe world of the twentieth, soon twen-ty-first century. But many can justbarely manage to secure their survival.

Europeans may perhaps think of Peruas a typical country of the Andes, thatit had a mysterious past and hiddengold deposits, and now is a thirdworld country. Geographically, it is acountry of contrasts, covering notonly the highlands of the 4,000-meterAndes, but also a stretch of Amazon-ian virgin forest, and the desert-likecoastline, with rich fish reserves offthe coast.

Besides a relatively small group ofPeruvians who have European ances-tors (about 10 percent), a large part ofthe population reflects a mixture ofcultures. A similarly large group inthe highlands is indigenous, havingancestors going back to the timebefore the Spanish conquest. Twentyyears ago it was thought that this eth-nic group was disappearing into therest of the population through migra-tion and assimilation. But recent gen-erations tend to maintain a consciousconnection to their roots, while par-ticipating in today’s modern worldculture.

Destroyed by ExpulsionNevertheless, a process that had beenintroduced by the Spanish conquerorsis continuing: the expulsion of thepopulation from their homeland. Thisis destroying the intensive highlandagriculture, so that today, only 50%of the land that had been pioneered bythe Inca culture is still being used foragriculture. People are still migratingfrom the highlands to the capital Lima(population of 8 million), which isreally a conglomeration of manycities.

Not only the local desert land-scape of Lima is gray. Also the sky

They do it with strength, persistence andcheerfulness. Opposite this extremepoverty stands the world of capitaland consumption, with skyscrapers,banks and everything related to it.Between the two, there is hardly anymediating culture at all.

Assimilating EuropeanAnthroposophyPeru has anthroposophical institu-tions: a branch, a Waldorf school, acurative institution, a Christian Com-munity, and the Instituto Schiller-Goethe, which was founded in 1991to train teachers in Waldorf education

and anthropo-sophy.The anthropo-sophical move-ment on theSouth Americancontinent used tobe a mainly Euro-pean or even Ger-man matter. In re-cent years it hasbegun to connectwith actual SouthAmerican life.

Instituto isa place which cre-

Two events were particularly sig-nificant in 1998. In December, the firststudents completed the accreditedcourse. Also, for six months, about 20instructors from educational collegesin El Salvador studied there, in orderto learn the basics of Waldorf educa-tion and take them back to their owncountry. This is a big step for theInstituto. People trained there arenow carrying the work beyond theborders of Peru.

Most of the lessons are taught byguest instructors from South andNorth America and Europe. The per-manent staff is small. It really needs tobe enlarged, which is a financial ques-tion. The Instituto receives no finan-cial support from the government.This is the other side of their relativefreedom. A school fee is charged, butmany cannot pay it. So the Institutodepends on financial support frompeople in Europe who think anthro-posophically and globally.Andrea and Martin Errenst, Germany

Help can take many forms, for example one cansponsor a student. This is always encouraging, inaddition to being a material support.Contact: Friends of Rudolf Steiner’s Education,Köpenickerstr. 175, D–10997 Berlin, Tel. +49/30/6170 26 30, Fax 6 33.


PortraitCompassion through the Arts – a Conversation with Gabriella Randazzo

You collaborate with other people onyour projects. How do you come intocontact with them?Sometimes it is very uncanny. Manyof the people I work with are alsoworking out of the School of SpiritualScience. With others, we either have achance meeting, or they come becausethey have a similar interest. So in away, they are also of the Michaelicschool, and we are trying to make apartnership. And maybe we are drawnfrom different poles, but we have asimilar goal. For instance, for a verylong time I worked with other artistson a project called the NuclearGuardianship Project. We tried toreally meet and find each other. And Ibrought eurythmy to them at all ofthe meetings, which were about whatwould happen if the nuclear wastewould be buried in the earth. So weshared a wider heart space that wasconcerned about unborn children andfuture generations. Oftentimes it isthat visionary striving that brings metogether with people with whom Inormally wouldn’t have a relation-ship.

Years and years ago, I noticed thatthe best in me came out when I wasn’tso self-absorbed. There is also anempathetic part of me naturally. So Ifound that my best work came when Iwas serving. I use the arts to serve.Each time I choose what I will workon, it is like I am working on my ownesoteric path, but it just happens totake the content of Ursela LeGuin’sstory, A Wizard of Earthsea. Or itmight take the content of the Quartetfor the End of Time by OlivierMessiean.

Then it began to develop, and Isaw that when the children realizedthat their work was going to help oth-er children, there was a totally differ-ent mood in the room. I saw the shin-

ing of these children, who also wantedsomething that had meaning for them,outside of their own small lives. Theyeither heard stories of the other chil-dren, or actually met some of the chil-dren that they raised funds for. I haveto say that I was deeply moved by thenobleness that arose from the childrenin such a moment.

That is when I began to cultivatethis possibility for children to bedoing performance work, where theywould do an excellent performance,and encode themselves with some-thing which they would then be ableto keep making reference to in theirlives. But they knew their actual goalwas to build something for a betterworld through art, tangibly. And usu-ally it is art programs that we fund. Itis not like we raise a lot of money, atall. Sometimes maybe 800 dollars. Butit has this meaning for the children.

How is the art useful for the children?Just recently I worked with the Sum-merfield high school students on theissue of the atrocities in Uganda. AndI know that if I had just gone and helda conversation, and didn’t have themdo eurythmy, didn’t have them dosinging and drumming, and makepeace flags, that it wouldn’t have pen-etrated all the way down through. Iinvited them to create in some way, ina way that was meaningful, so theydidn’t go into hopelessness, whichwas a concern. I didn’t want to pre-sent them with this ugly and horrible,inhuman situation, without findingsome tiny, tiny way they could feelyes, I can do an act of will, and make adifference. Then I say to them, thereare other ways. What else can we do?And they were excited by the visionof this. They are now trying to getother schools to join in. They wentwith me to public high schools, and

spoke so eloquently before theirpeers, I was moved. So for me it wentthrough the arts. I don’t feel it couldhave happened with just my speakingabout it alone.

Are your performances for adults orchildren, or both?Because I am working with children, Iam of course always choosing materialand content that is their interest. Butour performances are open to thepublic, held in public theaters. Wehave had people come who have noth-ing to do with Waldorf schools. Theway I’ve been working with bringingmy love of eurythmy, is encapsulatingit in a story, where there’s beautifultone eurythmy that emerges in a con-text. And then people ask, “O, thatVivaldi, what was it that people weredoing?” Or it emerges in a contextthat is humorous.

In this recent production, I haveeveryone on stage, actors and actress-es, sixty children, and at one momentthey are all doing the same eurythmygesture together. So there they are,engaging with something that is total-ly new, but in a kind of homeopathicremedy way that helps them go intothis other world.

I am interested in serving in someway so that maybe other people willbe inspired and will find ways tobring what they love to their families.That’s the biggest thing. Talking tomom and dad about eurythmy.There’s the litmus test.

How can I keep bringing it insuch a way that something in theirfaces becomes rosier because they’vegotten a moment of wonder. Amoment in this jaundiced world welive in, where it can seem that nothingis ever going to change, to say, yes! itcan! even if I have to tickle it out ofyou, it will change!

During the conference of the Section for the Arts of Eurythmy, Speech, Dramaand Music, we had the opportunity of meeting Gabriella Randazzo, the dynamicdirector of The Innocence Project and Visionary Artists for Children’s Rights. Theaim of the Innocence Project is to bring relief to children in Uganda. More than12,000 Ugandan children have been abducted and forced to become child soldiersor sexual slaves. The Innocence Project is collaborating with Amnesty Internation-al, Human Rights Watch, and the US Campaign to Stop the Use of Child Soldiersto bring an end to the atrocities and help the children who manage to escape.

A eurythmist based in Northern California, Gabriella Randazzo formed theChildren’s Theater of All Possibilities, which has been working with innovativeways to cultivate compassion through the arts. Their goal is to empower childrento help other children. Gabriella Randazzo has already staged a number of largetheater productions involving children from several schools, plus actors and musi-cians. Their current production of The Elephant’s Child has a cast of sixty chil-dren and will be performed in June 1999. The proceeds will go towards funding atherapeutic, community-based arts program in Uganda for trauma relief.P

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Do your performances just raise funds,or do the disadvantaged children alsowatch them?We have invited them as well. Often-times I feel that the arts really can bejust what helps children feel that theyare not forgotten, and also feel thatthere is this moment of beauty. Andwhen they see other children who areperforming, they also want to join in.So we’re beginning a program forsome children who are with a humanservices department. Either their par-ents have been drug addicts, or haveabandoned them, or they are calledjuvenile delinquents. I find that themost important thing is to speak tothem in their own language, to createtrust. To let them know I want to playwith them. And I will work my verybest to shed any outer stuff that keepsme separate from them. I want themto know that, here, all is possible.Here is a place where not only canthey can come and be safe, but whereI would like to bring to them thingsthat I think can help them to deal withtheir difficulties. So sometimes in ourfirst encounters we will do thingswhich might address the aggressionthat they have – eurythmy exercises,where we are fighting with one anoth-er, with words from their own experi-ence. But afterwards, they can soften alittle bit. I have had some of them cry-ing with me, saying, you know, whyis it that my mother really doesn’twant me? And then I can take theirbiographies into my work and findwhat story, what song, what music Ican bring that meets them. So this isvery beginning work, and I don’tknow where it will lead. I’m trying toget sponsorship for it because I can’tcharge these children. It is not reallydance therapy, it is not psychologicaltherapy, but it is bringing the arts asan amazing magical mirror, where thechildren can look into it and see whothey can really truly become. I don'tjust see a troublesome person. No, no!I see someone who somehow needsanother way, so that they can findtheir soul again. In a way what I am

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doing is soul re-trieval. And that iswhere eurythmy isso profound. Be-cause it is the lan-guage of the soul.

Can you say some-thing about the long-term effect of yourwork? Do you knowchildren or parentswho have seen yourperformances tenyears ago or so?Yes. A woman wroteto me recently fromBrown Universitywho had been inone of my earlierproductions. She played the part ofthe nightingale in The Emperor’sNightingale. She was in sixth grade atthe time. She said, you helped my soulto fly, and that hope of going into theworld where the true nightingale’svoice could overcome even death, andovercome the mechanical nightingale,has been an image that helps me whenI am dealing with biogenetics. She saidthe image still works in her heart andsoul.

An older woman saw an adultprogram I had worked on. At thattime I had been really struggling withthe whole question of the double. Iworked with it in A Wizard of Earth-sea, a story about a gifted, but wildand ambitious young apprentice wiz-ard. The older woman said, watchingthat, I understood the nature of thedouble. I have to call the double bymy own name, and only when I faceit, am I going to create peace in mycommunity.

Also, I myself had been strugglingwith a colleague who was a bane ofmy life at that time. And I knew I hadto work with the issue of the double.So I’m taking these as pedagogical sto-ries for myself as well.

I just feel that if somebody cansaturate himself or herself, and unitewith the hierarchies, even if only for a

few minutes, thensomething is touchedin the other person.So that is what I amintrigued with. –Don’t pretend that Ihave the techniqueor the gifts. But Ikeep saying: I’m onthe way to the spirit,to myself. That’s all Ican do.

Do you have con-tacts with govern-ments or otherauthorities?Because of the Inno-

cence Project, because I kind of wentout of my little cosy world, I havebeen in communication with membersof UNICEF, who use the arts asgoodwill and peace ambassadors.They are very excited about collabo-ration. I have also been in dialoguewith the international Human RightsWatch, members of the UnitedNations, and congressmen. I hadn’trealized that children soldiers was atheme that is now of prime interestfor many, many people. The US Cam-paign to Stop the Use of Child Sol-diers was founded last July. They areinterested in working together withthe Innocence Project. Because I tellthem that I believe the arts will notonly help people open up their eyes alittle bit more, and their hearts, thearts will also be a way for reclamationof the soul for these traumatized chil-dren. And they are very interested inthat, because I’m not just talkingabout the arts in a way that makesthings beautiful, but in a way thathelps children come back to a refugeinside of themselves, to a place wherethey can trust again in what is trulyhuman. So when I have been speakingwith government officials, or NGO’s,Refugees for Women, Global Fund, orState of the World Forum, they’resaying, we are looking for the ways,we are at a dead end. They see that weas human beings need to reclaim ourinnocence, to enable us to continuallyrespond to the suffering in the world,without becoming a stone, withouthaving a psychotic break.

Why I have come to Dornach: Ihave been really heartened with thehelp that people have been giving mehere, enabling me, in the best way thatI can, to represent from this greatwellspring of anthroposophy.

Questions by S.J., edited by C.B.

Contact: The Innocence Project, Gabriella Ran-dazzo, 10400 Moonshine Rd., Sabastopol CA95472, USA, Tel. +1/707/823 80 36, Fax 823 2137, Email: [email protected]


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Noticeable WorldwideNotes from the Meeting of General Secretaries and Country Representatives, March 23–26 at the Goetheanum

FranceIn France, “the archangel spans a dif-ferent bridge. He influences peoplethrough everything which is fluid inhuman development. The French drinktheir folk character with their wines…”3 To look for this fluid element intheir “culture of taste”, which includesthe language, creates a bridge towards adeeper understanding of the French.

Looking into the WorldNow that countries from EasternEurope can be represented again, wehear of anthroposophical life growingthere, too, even if very slowly, andwith difficulty. In Estonia, interest inanthroposophy is great, but just asgreat are the problems in education.Poland is constricted by nationalismand the church. Here, too, it is hardfor the schools. In contrast, Hungaryhas 15 Waldorf schools. The largest ofthem has 400 children. Georgia hasfound a home for its anthroposophicalwork in Tbilissi.

General Secretaries are presentfrom New Zealand, Australia, Japan,South Africa, Canada, the UnitedStates, Brazil and Argentina – not justfrom Europe. When one realizes that alarge piece of land has been found inTokyo for a Waldorf school, and thatthe Asia-Pacific conferences gatherpeople from the Indian-Pacific region,and that North and South Americawant to create an axis, beginning with a“Spiritual Mission of the Americas”conference in July/August 1999 (see theprevious issue of this paper); and thatRudolf Steiner’s blackboard drawingswill be displayed at a respected galleryin Buenos Aires – a few of the thingsthat were briefly reported – onebecomes aware of the global scope ofanthroposophical endeavor.

Anthroposophical Society

GE N E R A L AN T H R O P O S O P H I C A L SO C I E T Y

Looking at the GoetheanumLooking into the world necessitates alook at the Goetheanum, as well. RolfKerler asked: Is the Goetheanum aheart organ, which creates warmthand intimacy, gives rhythm, mediates,perceives? Twelve world views aresupposed to meet. Serving the world –with an archive, a place for basicstudy, perhaps for co-workers in ourenterprises?

“What if there were no Goethe-anum?” someone asked. The questionhighlights the span between theGoetheanum and the world, betweenindividuality and community.

Michaelmas Conference 2000Suggestions regarding the Michaelmas2000 conference came from variouscountries. The central question was:How do we want to guide our workin the coming century? A few mainpoints:

– The Netherlands: Could emphasisbe placed on a different part of theworld each day?

– Belgium: Concentrate on the indi-vidual path of development and thereverse cultus.

– Finland: What tasks does the worldpresent us with? Capacity for dia-logue, spiritual research. What doesit mean to be a human being?

– Germany: No programs, but con-crete initiatives by individuals orgroups. The Goetheanum and theworld Society need to develop aconsciousness of their mutual tasks,which can only be fulfilled throughcollaboration. Raise research ques-tions, which vary greatly in allfields and sections. Look at anthro-posophical practice, including asso-ciative management.

The fundamental question was: Doesthe conference have something to dowith Michael himself?

Summing up, Manfred Schmidt-Brabant focussed on “ethical individu-alism” as the new term for a new kindof Christianity. He referred to theclosing lecture of Rudolf Steiner’scycle on curative education.4 Thisspeaks of the need to overcome fruit-less criticism. Another good basis forthe conference would be RudolfSteiner’s last address, which he gaveon September 28, 1924.5

During the discussion, all agreedthat the conference should be pre-pared in such a way that membersaround the world can participateinwardly, whether or not they attendthe meeting personally.

How the General SecretariesSee ThemselvesQuestions raised with regard to howthe General Secretaries see themselveswere: How do people experience us?Are we representatives for the whole?What is our relationship to the Schoolof Spiritual Science? Are we connect-ed to the karma of a particular coun-try society?

It was by no means possible toanswer these questions, but they willlead to further questions in the future,that we will need to look at.

Spiritual ResearchWe also discussed spiritual research, asusual, which is the goal of theAnthropsophical Society, according to§9 of its Statutes. In this, we standdiametrically opposite the generalspiritual condition of humanity in ourtime.6 Manfred Schmidt-Brabantnamed several indications of this:

Twice a year, the Goetheanum Executive and Section Leader Councils meet withthe General Secretaries and Country Representatives. This addresses the need forpersonal exchange that Rudolf Steiner spoke of in his opening lecture of theChristmas Foundation Meeting on December 24, 19231. International representa-tives were meant to be included in the meetings of the Executive Council, asadvising members, whenever they were in Dornach.

For several years now, our meetings have begun with a verse that addressesthe folk spirit.2 Then one of the representatives gives a characterization of hiscountry: its history, geographic conditions, language, way of life, etc., up to thepresent, with particular reference to the life of the Anthroposophical Society andits institutions. So far we have heard from Germany, England, Italy, Finland,Sweden, Norway, Denmark, the Netherlands, Belgium and, most recently,France. When one bears in mind what Rudolf Steiner said about the individualfolk spirits, these descriptions always provide a special experience, and theyexpand one’s horizons.

1 The Christmas Conference, AnthroposophicPress, 1990.

2 “Du meines Erdenraumes Geist!” in: Mittel-europa zwischen Ost und West, lecture of Sept13, 1914, GA 174a.

3 See note 2, lecture of May 2, 1918.4 Lecture Course on Curative Education, lecture

of July 7, 1924, Rudolf Steiner Nachlassver-waltung, 1954, GA 317.

5 The Archangel Michael, AnthroposophicPress, 1994,GA 238.

6 See Briefe an die Mitglieder, letter of Feb. 10,1924, GA 260a.

7 The Portal of Initiation, Steiner Book Centre,1973.

8 Anthroposophic Press, N.Y. 1978, GA 109.9 Threefolding as a Social Alternative, lecture of

August 29, Rudolf Steiner Press, London1980, 1922, GA 305.


– There is no spiritual world, thus nojustification for research.

– There are boundaries to knowledge.(See Strader, Portal of Initiation:“… no one can know from whenceare gushing the sources of ourthought, or where life’s first foun-dations lie.”)7

– Yes, there is a spiritual world, but itis presumptuous to research it. Oneshould have faith!

– Yes, a spiritual world, but there canbe no binding statements – every-thing is subjective!

To this one could respond:1. Argumentatively: Can we repre-

sent our work in such a way thatthese four objections are dis-proved?

2. Previous research must be taken asa basis. We need to connect our-selves with the person who wasfructified by truth.

3. Tread the path to self-knowledge.4. Recognize research tasks in the work

itself (see also Rosicrucian Esoteri-cism, lecture of June 4, 1909).8

Constitution WorkPaul Mackay reported on the Consti-tution work. The question “What dowe need right now?” has been takenup in the sense of an integrated Con-stitution, beginning with a separatedescription of the School of SpiritualScience (i.e. its own constitution), theSociety (i.e. autonomy and communi-ty) and general administration togeth-er with the Building Administration.The members of this project groupare: Manfred Schmidt-Brabant, PaulMackay, Rolf Kerler, Michaela Glöck-ler and three General Secretaries,Otfried Doerfler (Switzerland), RoelMunniks (the Netherlands), andCharlotte Roder (Germany).

The Statutes should find a centralplace in the Society. New proceduralguidelines should describe the life ofthe Society. The Statutes must containthe principles, but can be part of theprocedures that we will develop(Rudolf Steiner on December 25,19231). Since an Agreement of Pro-cedures does not exist until this veryday, it needs to be included in the

questions surrounding the current dis-cussion of the Constitution.

This very brief summary of fourdays of meetings can only sketch someof our conversations and thoughts.But members are free to request moreinformation from their General Secre-taries.

The most important thing thatcan be experienced at such a meetingis the atmosphere of mutual trust.This was mentioned repeatedly duringthe Christmas Foundation Meeting of1923/24, but one easily overlooks it,because it seems to contribute nothingessential to the content. Yet RudolfSteiner had already brought it up inhis Oxford lectures9:

“Now that there is nobody whoforces us to do this or that, we shallhave to find the impulse within our-selves, not only to act, but also torespond to situations with feeling.”“Trust must reign in interpersonalrelationships […] only this confidencewill lead the single human being intocommunity.”

Charlotte Roder, Germany

ON THE WAY TO THE MICHAELMAS CONFERENCE 2000

With the turn of the century, the ques-tion facing us (in our series of confer-ences which we have held every sevenyears since 1979) must be asked anew.In 1979, we looked back on 100 yearsof the rulership of the ArchangelMichael, the spirit of our time, and oneof our main questions was: How didanthroposophy and the Anthroposoph-ical Society place themselves into thiscontext, and where do we stand today?

For Michaelmas 2000 the ques-tion becomes more comprehensive,and thus more oppressive and moreserious: What is the state of the worldtoday? Anthroposophy, the Anthro-posophical Society, and the daughtermovements have so joined themselvesto the destiny of humanity now, thattheir outer, and especially inner, exis-tence can no longer be separated fromhuman destiny overall.

It seems justified to look at themany events and developments thatwe hear about every day: bloody warsand violence between peoples, tribesand religions. A reversal of previouseconomic concepts regarding global-ization, with its resulting unemploy-ment and worldwide misery. Especial-ly also, the deep changes in the per-sonality structure of individuals: theloss of old, supporting values, grow-ing inclination to violence, blindadherence to group pressure, increase

in drug addiction, and widespreaddepression and mental disturbance.

It would be easy to go on listingmajor and minor catastrophes, and yetstill have the feeling: none of that real-ly touches the kernel of secular transi-tion within which humanity stands.Deep within the human spirit, there issomething like a powerful, cosmic/ter-restrial change of paradigms. A veryold world is sinking into ruin, forgood, irretrievably given over to noth-ingness. But a new seed wants to riseup from these ruins. Something withinthe human being wants to unfold,something which can take the place ofwhat was lost, in a new way. InGoethe’s Faust, the chorus of spiritscalls out to him, a representative of theConsciousness-Soul Age: “You havedestroyed it, the beautiful world – wemourn the lost beauty – Mighty one ofearth’s sons, rebuild it more splendid-ly, build it in your bosom.”

As the consciousness soul be-comes ever stronger, the field of tran-sition becomes ever clearer: it has todo with human individuality in its fullcosmic/terrestrial dimension. But thisalso means that it has to do withhumanity’s relationship to the ChristBeing as its true “I am”. Today, westill live with forms of science, art andsociety/religion that are not moldedby this true “I am”. They have to

plunge into the abyss. But bridgesreach across the abyss a thousandfold,to humanity’s new selfless “I”. Thereare as many bridges as there are indi-vidualities who want to join them-selves with Christ.

In the work of the comingMichaelmas conference, we do notwant to avoid the dire needs of ourtime. We do want to seek out the spir-itual foundation from which theseneeds can be remedied.

Once again we invite all membersand friends of anthroposophy to par-ticipate in the process leading over thenext year and half to the conference.The conference should be held every-where where there are people whowant it, even if only a small fraction ofus will actually come to the Goethe-anum. Again we request that youwrite us with your thoughts and sug-gestions. So far we have decided onRudolf Steiner’s last address as a start-ing point (in The Archangel Michael,lecture of Sept. 28, 1924). Those whowish could use the Michael verse hegave then as a mutual meditation.Other themes can arise from this med-itation and the lecture. In comingmonths we will keep you up to dateon the progress of the preparations.

For the Executive and Section Leader Councils

Manfred Schmidt-Brabant

There Are as Many Bridges as there Are IndividualitiesAn Invitation to Participate in the Preparation Process


Collaboration Is in DemandNotes from the Annual General Meeting of theGeneral Anthroposophical Society, March 27–28, 1999 at the Goetheanum

A central theme that repeatedly broke through in this year’s Annual GeneralMeeting was the wish for free discussion times, conversation and encounter. Thishappened externally, through formal motions; spontaneously, when someonecalled for an extension of the meeting into the lunch break; by chance, sinceSergei Prokoffief’s report was cancelled due to illness, allowing an extra half hourfor discussion. Here is a summary of some of the themes (see forthcoming Newsfrom the Goetheanum, vol. 20, no. 3 for more details).

The School of Spiritual ScienceAfter dealing with a motion to changethe agenda, and a musical prelude,Wolfgang Held (Mathematical-Astro-nomical Section) spoke about theeclipse of the sun, which will takeplace on August 11. ElizabethWirsching (Pedagogical Section) thenfocussed on the theme of collabora-tion, both in the leadership of the sec-tion and internationally. Heinz Zim-mermann reported that the demandfor “more” anthroposophy (not morequantity, but more penetrated, experi-enced anthroposophy) is to be takenup more intensively at the Goethe-anum. Zimmermann will be takingresponsibility for the Goetheanum’sfoundation year in anthroposophy(replacing Georg Goelzer, who isretiring for health reasons). He wouldlike to intensify the work of the Gen-eral Anthroposophical Section andaddress the need for training. In orderto be able to take on these many newtasks, he will give up the leadership ofboth sections – the Youth Section thisyear, and the Pedagogical Section at adate to be announced later. On thesecond day, Jaap van der Haar spokeabout anthroposophical work withdrug addiction, and Brigitte von Wist-inghausen and Henk Verhoog spokeon seed breeding and genetic engi-neering.

Annual Report, Financial ReportManfred Schmidt-Brabant spokemainly of several important confer-ences during the past year, emphasiz-ing the All English Conference inparticular. He also reported on ameeting with the General Secretaries,where they discussed the MichaelmasConference 2000 (see page 8), and onthe Executive Council’s meetingswith the Christian Community lead-ership. Regarding the MemorialGrove, he said that it will not be pos-sible to accept any more urns,because of the limits of the grounds(with the exception of already exist-ing agreements). Paul Mackay spokeof the Interim Report by the Consti-tution Group, of changes in the lead-ership of the Goetheanum stage, andof the development of AnthroposophyWorldwide.

After the lunch break and dis-cussion groups, Rolf Kerler ex-

plained our tight financial situation.The statement of accounts for 1998closed with a deficit of CHF80,177.98. The members then votedto approve the Annual Report andFinancial Report.

Virginia Sease spoke at the cere-mony for the dead, naming RudolfStamm, Julius Knierim and IngridAsschenfeldt in particular.

Germany and NorwayWolfgang Rißmann and MargretheSolstad spoke for the Societies in Ger-many and Norway. Rißmann men-tioned ongoing changes in the organi-zation of the Society in Germany,such as reducing the size of theresponsible committees, bringingyounger people into responsible posi-tions, individual responsibility forspecific tasks, creating transparency,etc.

In Norway, the entire Councilresigned. Four new people cametogether to resume the work. Thetransition was humanly “clean”, saidSolstad. The new Council would liketo be awake to tasks posed by theworld. They therefore plan to carrythe work of the School of SpiritualScience out into it.

Goetheanum:Drama and EurythmyCarina Schmid, who will be the newdirector of the Eurythmy Ensemble,spoke of some of her intentions. Espe-cially important to her is that theGoetheanum can be a place of meet-ing for the diverse eurythmic streamsaround the world. The new Goethe-anum ensemble will begin work inNovember. Six eurythmists from Dor-nach and six from “the world” willwork together for three years to startwith.

Thomas Didden replaced PaulKlarskov in speaking about the dra-matic work. At present they aremainly occupied with Faust. After-wards, they plan to create a new pro-duction of Rudolf Steiner’s fourthMystery Drama. Didden called forsupport for the stage group – bothinner and perhaps financial – so thatthis kind of effort will still be possiblein our time. U.R., S.J.

AN T H R O P O S O P H I C A L WO R K I N IN D I A

There are branches of the Anthroposophical Society in New Delhi and Mumbai,but members of the Society also live in other parts of India. The three mainactivities are Waldorf education, curative education, and biodynamic farming.

Sloka Waldorf School in Hyderabadnow has 70 children in the kinder-garten. Class one is growing well. InChennai (Madras), Padmavathi directsThe Happy School, which has thirteenchildren aged six to nineteen, whohave mental handicaps or learning dif-ficulties. Nanhi Dunya, in Dehra Dunand Chethana in Shimoga have beenin operation for many years and aredoing well. In Mumbai there is agroup of parents who are planning tobegin a Waldorf kindergarten in June.

Weekly teacher training coursesare run by Tine Bruinsma in Hyder-abad and Aban Bana in Mumbai. InMay 1999, there will be a residentialWaldorf Teacher Training Course inKhandala (between Mumbai andPune), organized by Aban Bana,where she and Alok Ulfat will teachwith faculty from abroad.

The Friends of Camphill Indiahave established a curative educationcommunity in Bangalore which held

Steadily Growing Interest

its opening ceremony in March 1999.Anantha and Francis Aradhya andUrsula Chowdhury will work withadult special persons who will live inthe beautiful, newly constructed cen-ter. Sadhand Village, near Pune, hastwelve residential special persons.There, Mr. Deshpande and MedhaTengshe are also involved with ruraldevelopment in nearby villages. Theschool for mentally handicapped chil-dren in Dharwad is now led by GeetaPastey after the death of her father-in-law, K. B. Pastey, who was its founder.

Interest in biodynamic agricultureis growing, thanks to Peter Proctor’scourses for farmers and horticulturists.

During the Easter holidays, Mr.Pande of Nepal and Aban Bana led anIdriart tour of North India and Pak-istan (Lahore). At Christmas 1999/2000 there will be a Rüspe Course inUdwada (north of Mumbai) for twoweeks, led by Aban Bana and friends.

Aban Bana, India


SE C T I O N F O R T H E AR T S O F EU RY T H M Y, SP E E C H, DR A M A A N D MU S I C

“We Are So Different”First International Performing Arts Conference, April 1999

School of Spiritual Science

Educational Value of ColorItalian and Swiss Puppetteers met March 4 to 7, 1999

Sunday morning, Rudolf Steiner House, Dornach: Stage set designs for Hanseland Gretel, here and there paper models. While nearly thirty puppeteers, most ofthem from Italy, arrange the chairs for the closing plenum, the organizor, Car-man Acconcia, tells me a little about puppetry in Italy.

For many years, Carmen Acconciahas been involved in promoting pup-pet shows in Italy, which she first metin Vienna with Bronja Zahlingen.Acconcia is especially interested in theartistic side of this work, in additionto its pedagogical aspect. For her,puppetry is pure art, where painting,speech formation, lighting and eveneurythmy meet. She herself has beenpart of the Felicia puppet companyfor seven years (in Dornach), and shealso works in Italy.

Two or three times a year, puppet-teers from various Italian cities meet towork on questions of art. After manyyears, their needs changed: “It is verynice, we practice little things. But howwould this look in a larger context?” –that is, with technical assistance andprofessional lighting.

Puppetry has met with greatinterest in Italy, especially during thelast two or three years. Performancesare well attended. This is very impor-tant to them, so they deliberatelyapproach the public with small pro-ductions. “People are attentive, they

ask many questions: What is it that isspecial about what you are doing?Why do you do it that way and notdifferently?” Not only parents andchildren accept their work, but eventhe authorities. In Ficenca, for exam-ple, they are teaching accreditedcourses at a training college.

Asked to comment, course partic-ipants express especially their grati-tude to their instructors: Carmen andGuiseppe Acconcia, Heiko Diene-mann, Matthias Ganz, Monika Lüthi,and Thomas Sutter. They have beenworking with the five Greek basicgestures, with individual stage sets,and especially with lighting. Livelypictures call for technical as well asartistic solutions. As color is a power-ful educational force, the responsibili-ty is great. One participant felt thatlighting is just as important as thepuppets are.

Two things in particular werementioned: the mutual exercises madeRudolf Steiner’s indications concrete,and: the individual elements becamean actual whole. S.J.

The Section for the Arts of Eurythmy,Speech, Drama and Music held its firstever all-professions international con-ference in April 1999. What is sectionwork actually? How is it differentfrom the work that any artist woulddo? How does our work stand in rela-tion to anthroposophy or to the Gen-eral Anthroposophical Section? Thesewere some of the questions raised atthe conference.

People also asked: Why is it thatour art is often so dry and boring incomparison with the stage work of otherartists? How do we bring life and joyback into what we do?

Most of the conference discussiongroups experienced a process over thethree discussion days which waspainful, but fruitful. It was extraordi-nary to experience how we needed theunique contributions of people fromseveral continents and fields of workto achieve what we did achieve.

We live scattered around theworld and we cultivate our own indi-vidual, very different tasks. If we arefortunate, we also have colleagues andfriends there with whom we can speakand work. But something new hap-pens when we come together withpeople with whom we would nevernormally work, as we did at this con-ference. An objective space is created,something larger than our usual per-sonal place in life. This is the sectionitself, a perceptible entity. So it is anopportunity to asses our current posi-tion as a section.

I saw a great deal of pain. Pain ofnot being heard, of finding no spacewithin the section to explore one’s owndeep impulses. Pain of being shut out,pain of not being recognized. I sawdoubts. Doubts about the adequacy ofwhat one is doing. I saw old formswhich no longer suffice to carry ourwork – yet we still need them, appar-ently, because the new ones are onlyjust barely beginning to emerge. I sawlife – the section is not a stagnant insti-tution. It is developing, it is movingtowards something. I saw colleagues.Many colleagues who have not aban-doned the hard and lonely task, whoare still interested, who still care. I kepthearing people speak lovingly aboutthe fact of how different we are.

It turned out to be fortunate tohave the chance to listen to nine col-leagues who all gave short talks. Theywere so very different! Two of themspeaking on the same theme had in

fact opposite approaches. And theresponses of the others who listenedwere so different, as well! For some, aparticular lecture was deadly boring.For others, the same lecture was oneof the highlights of the meeting. Whenwe watched eurythmy performancesby different groups, some thoughtthat group A was intolerable, whilegroup B was really inspiring. Otherssaid just the opposite: group A hadthe most offer, while group B wasintolerable. Some thought that the dis-cussion groups were a waste of time.For others, the discussion group wasthe most important single element ofthe meeting.

For some it is obvious that wehave not even barely begun to addressthe esoteric needs of people working inour section. Others believe that thoseneeds are already being addressedthrough holding class lessons.

Then there are those who thinkthat we are all automatically artists,

once we have studied eurythmy,speech, drama or music. For others itseems clear that we are only artists inthe same sense that every humanbeing is an artist at heart, and that“true” or “outstanding” artists areactually much more rare.

As a final example, there are thosewho wonder whether we need to findsome way of running the section incollaboration, instead of having a soli-tary leader. Others will tell you thatwe already have groups collaboratingon behalf of the section.

We did not succeed in bridging allthese contrasting viewpoints. Butsome of us feel gratitude to all whotook the trouble to come and meet.This has brought our section a stepforward, in a way that would neverhave been possible if we had all stayedin our places of work.

In conclusion I would like toremind you that these conferenceimpressions of mine are just one viewout of 439. Ask anyone else, and youwill hear something quite different!

C.B.


building. So far only study casts havebeen available to those wishing to car-ry out specific research projects.

Painting and Graphic ArchiveThe Painting and Graphic Archive,looked after by Dino Wendtland,began with the collection of RudolfSteiner’s original sketches and water-colors, which was organized in the1970’s. Added since have been his pre-liminary sketches for the painteddomes of the first Goetheanum (up toa scale of 1:1), studies for the glasswindows, graphics, watercolors, stageset designs and poster paintings. Thereare also works by Hermann Linde,Margarita Woloschina, Erich Zimmer,Walter Roggenkamp, Henni Geck,

Arhild Rosenkrantz,Hilde Raske, Louisevan Blommestein,and others. An inven-tory of the collectionhas been in progresssince 1998. So far 255of the 1300 objectshave been photo-graphed. The nextstep will be to storethem properly, fram-ing them wheneverpossible. They willthen be ready forshowing to a widerpublic. Some objectsare still of unknownorigin. Without artist,date or purpose, theyare “worthless”. Thiscalls for detectivework.

Paintings from stu-dents of the Fried-wart School are stillbeing sought, as wellas the estates ofartists who workedwith Rudolf Steiner’sindications or madepaintings of hissketches. The ar-chives are also seek-

ing sketches of early Faust and Mys-tery Drama productions, especiallythe ones that were staged in Munichand in the first Goetheanum. M.S.

Tips are welcome if you know of artworks thatwere made in connection with the first Goeth-eanum or in direct contact with Rudolf Steiner.Contact: Art Section, Model Archive, ValentinNiemann, Oberer Zielweg 34, CH–4143 Dorn-ach, Switzerland, Tel. +41/61/706 42 86.Goetheanum Painting and Graphics Collection,Dino Wendtland, Box, CH–4143 Dornach, Swit-zerland, Tel. +41/61/706 42 65, Fax 706 42 66.

The Art Section’s archives at theGoetheanum are organized into thefollowing collections: models, paint-ing and graphic, art work from artist’sestates, and the beginnings of anarchitecture documentation and furni-ture collection. These valuable collec-tions would not exist if WaldemarKumm, a Goetheanum co-worker,had not conscientiously collected thematerial for decades. Today the collec-tions need to be sorted and docu-mented, and some of the objects needto be restored, so that they will beavailable for viewing. One could wishfor closer collaboration with theGoetheanum document archive, pho-to archive, costume collection, andwith the Archives of the Caretakers ofRudolf Steiner’s Estate. It would makesense to have an archive and museumbuilding, where all of this could bebrought together. Is there any chanceof this happening soon?

Model ArchiveThe Model Archive, looked after byValentin Niemann, contains a compre-hensive collection of models for thefirst Goetheanum and other works.To mention are the original modelsfor the Goetheanum building, on ascale of 1:20, the original plasticenemodel of the Representative ofHumanity, models of parts of it, mod-els of neighboring buildings byRudolf Steiner and Edith Maryon,studies of the eurythmy figures, mod-els of the second Goetheanum, as wellas various sculptures and furnituremodels. So far there is no backup castfor the model of the first Goethe-anum’s inside domes and pillars (madeof wood, wax, and plasticene), becauseit needs to be restored first. One spe-cial item is John Wilke’s 1:1 cast of theplasticene Lucifer and Ahriman mod-el. It is made up of separate pieces,strengthened by steel and square pipes– a “building block model on wheels”.

It is suitable for exhibition and wasshown in Solothurn, Switzerland in1994.

A good archive requires five spec-imens of each object: the restoredoriginal (wax or plasticene,usually on a wooden base); acast for the archive (porce-lain), which should be storedseparately, but usually isn’t atthe Goetheanum because ofthe lack of space; a cast forregular study purposes; a dis-play cast; and casts for sale.

The collection was notaccessible until the 1990’s. Aninitial inventory was madeduring the workcamps from1993 to 1997. It emerged thatmany of these treasures werein desolate condition. Theybadly need to be restored, butfunds are lacking. Most of thecollection is made of plas-ticine and wax, which arevery sensitive to dust. Thelayer of dust works like blot-ting paper on the oily surface.The oil is drawn out, and thematerial becomes brittle.

Many objects have noaccompanying explanation, sothat thorough documentationwill not be possible. To ob-tain more exact informationon the building models (such

as architect, year, func-tion, and perhaps interi-or decoration) a ques-tionnaire was sent to all thenearby homes in 1996. Thisfilled a few of the informationgaps.

The model archive providesimportant and excellent studymaterial for sculptors and archi-tects who want to proceed withRudolf Steiner’s building im-pulse. They can grapple directlywith the impulse, and develop afeeling for the organic style of

FeatureFinding Hidden Treasures

Pho

tos:

Mod

el A

rchi

ve (p

hoto

1 a

nd 2

), P

aint

ing

and

Gra

phic

s A

rchi

ve (p

hoto

3, a

nd p

g 1)

Goetheanum Art Collection

Anthoposophy Worldwide 1999 (4)

Documents

Transcript of Anthoposophy Worldwide 1999 (4)