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Transcript of Section Communications
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School of Spiritual Science
Goetheanum
Section for the Social Sciences
S e c t i o n C o m m u n i c a t i o n s
Summer 2009
We are the Revolution!
The Challenges of Globalization
On the Future of Human Dignity
Family Workplace
Warmth in Organizational Enterprise
Section Work in Various Countries
Events 2009 - 2010
2 3
Greetings 3Section Work We are the Revolution! 4 Walter Kugler, Professor in Oxford 13 Congratulations to Gerald Häfner 14
Event Review and Workgroups The Challenges of Globalization 15 Movement and Perception 16 Thinking the Developing Human Being 17 On the Future of Human Dignity 18 Family Workplace 19 Cultivating Family Life 22 Colloquium on Conflict Research 25 Warmth in Organizational Enterprise 27 Lecture Series on Financial Crisis 29
Section Work in Various Countries Egypt: Sekem – A Social Art 30 Brazil: Monte Azul Workshop for Humanity 32 India: Sadhana Village 34 India: Update on the Demeter Movement 35 India: Gateway-Branch in Mumbai 37 Prague: The Soul of Europe 38
Events Preview Coming into Conversation 41Events 2009 - 2010 43
Impressum 44
C o n t e n t s
2 3
Dear Section Member,
We are pleased that we can
send you this report on our
section activities in 2008 and
2009.
We convey our cordial thanks
to Helen Lubin, who translated
many of the articles in this
report.
This new form of the Section
Communications was created
with the help of Benjamin
Kohlhase-Zöllner, whom we
thank very much for this.
Concepts, projects and initial
results shall be presented and
discussed with the Section
members all over the world.
We hope that this new form of
the Section Communications
the conversation among the
G r e e t i n g
members of the Section will
intensify.
If you would like to write a
contribution dealing with the
Section‘s themes for the next
Section report (end of the year
2009), please send your text to
our office before Christmas.
With best wishes,
Paul Mackay and Ulrich Rösch
4 5
We are the Revolution! (Joseph Beuys)
Individuality as the Nucleus of Social Transformation
by Ulrich Rösch
Nowadays when people hear the
word revolution they often feel a little
uncomfortable. And perhaps this is
justified, because in the past, revolutions
have brought a lot of suffering to innocent
people. However, revolutions are caused
by the fact that necessary changes did
not happen at the right time. In nature,
something is always born out of something
similar to itself. Stagnation or resistance
to change, blocks these necessary
developments from evolving as they need
to. This creates a situation in which a leap
needs to be made – this has often resulted
in a violent revolution. If we look at any
organism we can see what happens when
there is congestion, the organism must
resist it otherwise it will die. In this way
Beuys looks at the social organism which
needs urgent changes, so that it does not
completely collapse.
With his multiple „La rivoluzzione siamo
Noi“ (We are the revolution) Beuys points
out, that real transformation must evolve
from the human being. Only man can be
the source for transformation in human
dimension. But it needs also a „we“, an
agreement with others. In modern times the
Section Work
individual being has to connect with others
in agreement. Such a Revolution would be
the solid base for a healthy way of living
together.
Our social life has come into a deep crisis.
The financial crisis is only an outside
phenomenon. Everything calls for a change.
However, in the world today it is hard to
act quickly and as the saying goes people
are more comfortable with „the devil they
know“. Where are the models for the future?
We first need to find new imaginations of
what our future could look like. We need
visions. These new imaginations must arise
from clear, deepened thinking that requires
our will – thinking that is an activity, which
touches upon the true essence of what we
are searching for.
4 5
The concepts and ideas that form a basis
for our visions of new social processes and
organizations must not be made arbitrarily.
First each individual needs to consciously and
actively touch upon what wants to emerge
from the phenomena itself. This is an
indispensable condition to make our world a
better place. Although this is already difficult
enough to carry out, it is not sufficient. We
also need a large enough group of people,
to come into communication and action, so
that the new vision can become effective.
We have two requirements for each
individual working in the social realm. The
first is that through thinking each of us has
to find the essence – or the archetype of
the phenomena and the second is that we
have to become artists. A Goethean scientist
observes a plant, from here he can see the
eternal and natural laws within the plant,
which allows him to imagine new plants
that haven’t existed before but obey to the
eternal laws. An artist then makes a new,
unique piece of art out of the archetype
they have touched upon. This is the process
we must also follow in the social realm. In
doing so we move from social science to
social art, that is we work with not only the
scientist within us but also the artist. Therein
we can become ‚experimenters‘ out of the
concepts of Beuys. In my opinion Beuys is the
most important social artists of our time. As
I have already touched upon it is important
to realize that this social artistic process
cannot be carried out by only one human
being – it needs a community, a faculty, an
association of free individuals. It is here
that a social sculpture can and must grow,
as a renewed and in Beuys‘ terms extended
art process.
Thus we come to the social art: where
human relations and organizations are the
materials that the social artist works with
and whose inner laws he seeks to know
organically. The ‚beautiful‘ artistic social
form has to be created. The social abilities
we develop and acquire are like the crafts of
the social artist. The idea, out of which we
work, rises from the inner laws of the social
organism. It requires from us the artistic
intuition, to act with other human beings at
the right time and in the right way. So the
social organism or parts of it can appear as a
work of art coming out of the cooperation of
free individuals. This does not mean creating
a ‚Utopia‘ but instead it means to transform
the world in such a way that in Schiller‘s
words it creates the appearance of ‚the
beautiful‘ of a real human society.
It is in this way that one can find the first
political actions of Beuys in complete
6 7
agreement with the democratic and
threefold impulse, particularly in his
exhibition at the ‘Dokumenta’ 1972 in
Kassel. There Beuys exhibited his office
for Direct Democracy for 100 days and
discussed with thousands of visitors
patiently the threefold social organism
and the impulse of Social Sculpture. It is
here that you see the connection with the
new threefold movement in Germany the
most clearly.
Joseph Beuys was inspired to meet Wilhelm
Schmundt after attending meetings with
active groups advocating threefolding.
Schmundt was one of the most important
Goethean scientists of that time and was
also a member of the School of Spiritual
Science of the Goetheanum. After studying
Schmundt’s books, Beuys then met him
personally at a yearly congress in Achberg
organized by Wilfried Heidt. Schmundt
investigated and conducted independent
research on the reality of the social
organism. He was obviously a Platonist, who
lived completely in his experienced ideas.
Phenomenology instead of ideology was
his principle. His primary publication „The
Social Organism in its Shape of Freedom“
was published by Herbert Witzenmann (the
leader of the Section for Social Science at
the Goetheanum) as study material for
people connected to the Goetheanum.
Many faithful anthroposophical social
scientists found Schmundts work too
independent and not compatible with their
own studies.
Beuys felt completely different, he
understood Schmundt’s meaning of
Goetheanistic social scientific work from
the start. Beuys admired him greatly as „our
great teacher“ and in a letter to „the dear,
admired Wilhelm Schmundt“, Beuys ends
with „in undiminishing love to you and your
work, truly yours, Joseph Beuys.“ In order
to understand Beuys’ work it is important to
take into consideration this crucial meeting
with Schmundt.
The social organism is always developing,
changing and going through a constant
metamorphosis, sometimes it moves slowly
and at other times it leaps quickly. It is in
this way our economic system has also
developed. The bartering economy evolved
into a money economy and then now into an
economy of faculties (abilities). Production is
based on human abilities and on working
in broad, comprehensive collaborations. As
Eugen Loebl has said, our economic life has
developed into an „integral system“.
Eugen Loebl was a very interesting individual.
He became a communist when he was a
young man. Due to the fact he was Jewish
he was persecuted. He flew to England and
became member of the Czechoslovakian
exile government in London. After 1945 he
went back to Czechoslovakia, this talented
economist was rewarded with a position as
First Deputy Minister of Commerce. But in
1948 he was accused, along with Rudolf
Slansky. The Slansky trial eviscerated the old
Czech communist officials. Loebl and two
of his companions were ‘only’ sentenced to
life imprisonment whilst the other eleven,
including Mr. Slansky were hanged after
a show trial. Loebl served eleven years in
prison, five years he was kept in solitary
confinement.
He found it very difficult to understand what
had happened to him and so he started
6 7
having imaginary discussions with Karl
Marx. He would say to Marx „Come on, we
followed all your concepts and proposals but
we did not create a better human society, in
fact the opposite has happened we created
a system that is even more inhumane and
cruel. What did we do wrong, or where do
you think we went wrong? Or what did you
think wrong?“ He was only allowed to have
the books of Marx and Lenin in prison. And
paragraph after paragraph he studied the
main works of Karl Marx – including „The
Capital“. Remember he was condemned to
a life in prison, so he had enough time! One
of the problems he faced in doing this study
was that he could not write his results on
paper because if the guard had found them,
it would have increased his sentence and
the conditions of his imprisonment were
changed for the worse. So he memorized
all of his ideas and concepts from his studies
by heart. After eleven years Loebl fell ill and
8 9
he was pardoned and released from prison.
He immediately wrote down what he had
discovered in his imaginary discussions with
Karl Marx. The manuscript was smuggled
to Vienna and printed as a book. The result
of his research was also the title of his
book: „Spiritual work as the true source of
common wealth“.
Eugen Loebl was a communist and a
materialist, through being grounded
in reality, he came to a deep spiritual
knowledge of the social realm. Fifteen years
later when he came to know that Rudolf
Steiner had come to similar results through
his occult research he was very astonished.
Loebl became president of the state bank in
Bratislava and was one of the promoters of
the Prague Spring in 1968, where they tried
to shape a new human society. Because
the leaders of the Soviet Republic did not
want a socialist society based on freedom
and democracy, the Russian tanks stopped
this Czechoslovakian experiment. So Eugen
Loebl had to go into exile again, this time he
became a professor at the Vasar College in
New York. He died in Manhattan on August
8, 1987, 80 years old.
In 1974 Löbl became a research fellow at
the Institute for Social Research in Achberg
where he also collaborated with Joseph
Beuys and Ota Sik the former Czech
secretary of state (minister for economy)
and where I worked as a research assistant
in the mid seventies. As Loebl stated the
modern economic system is an ‘integral
system’.
In the economic realm we only deal
with goods and services, and the flow
of economic values. This social realm of
economy stands in polarity to the realm
of spirituality which includes all aspects of
human faculties and skills. Between these
two we have a third, the realm of the
rights, and law. In the spiritual or cultural
realm each human is treated individually.
In the economic realm it is always about
groups, communities, joining and working
together. In the rights realm, we have the
rights that are the same for each human
being, so we could say it is the ‘generally
human sphere’. It is in this sphere that
human dignity can and has to be saved.
When money is given to a worker or an
employee from an enterprise it means the
worker is obligated to give his skills to the
work in this enterprise. These processes
and agreements that come out of the
rights life are physically manifested
in money, which then guide economic
processes. But today the realms are mixed
and the boundaries are blurry. Money has
in its essence no economic value; it is
drawn from the central bank system
in a free and independent act. This free
drawn money is given, based on credit to
the entrepreneur. Such short-term credit is
financing the production of enterprises. In
the hands of the entrepreneur the money
then becomes the money of the enterprise.
There it is used to give an income to all the
co-workers including the entrepreneur. In
the hand of the co-workers the money is
transformed into the right to purchase
the produced goods and services in
the market. The circulation of money is
similar to the circulation of our blood. It is
a closed system with growing and withering
processes. So the bank system has to
take care that the money that has been
8 9
dispatched finally comes back to the central
bank. The circulation has to be closed after
a certain time. These few aspects make it
clear that in the modern economy, money
has metamorphosized into a paper
representing a rights document.
Everywhere where money gets stuck in the
sphere of goods and services within the
economy hinders healthy social processes
– it obstructs and destroys. „We need only
recall the fact that money, by becoming
a real object in economic transactions,
deludes men as to its true nature and by
producing this imaginary effect, at the same
time tyrannizes over them.“ (Rudolf Steiner:
The Social Future, New York, 1972, P. 38).
The third social area, the rights life, thus
contains everything that has to do directly
with the human individuality and not with
the circulation of the economic values. This
concerns each human being in the same
way, therefore this is the realm where
humanity can and must be restored.
One can see from unprejudiced study of
the phenomena that the social organism
has developed in the more recent times in
a three-fold way: First of all we have the
sphere, which has to do with the abilities of
humans, which is bound to the expression
of each individuality. The faculties of
each human being are the source for the
spiritual and cultural life. What each
particular person brings from his or her
personal fate down to earth, can only be
recognized and judged from an individual
consciousness. Only freedom can be the
base of this sphere.
The other sphere is the area of social
initiatives. A producer offers goods or
services and then a group of consumers
judge the value of these. Rudolf Steiner refers
to these relationships as associations. People
working together create the economic
values, which are always directed toward
the needs of other human beings. Herein
the principle of the fraternity realizes
itself in an objective way. Between them we
have a third sphere, the rights sphere. This
is the sphere of agreement, obligation and
entitlement. Out of the principle of freedom,
we must also grant freedom to every human
being. Every human being is equally entitled
to freedom therefore the social principle
we must work with in this third sphere is
equality.
There are three false concepts that strongly
influence our economy today. The first false
concept is private property in the production
sphere. Here we need a new concept
of ownership of enterprises, so that the
entrepreneur can realize his free initiative
and his creativity. To be able to do this he
needs the appropriate means of production.
He has to be free to do with the means of
production what he feels to be right within
the framework that the associations have
assigned. The means of production should
not be sold or inherited arbitrarily. The
concept of private ownership falls away – it
makes no sense in a modern economy.
The second false concept is profit as a driving
force of the economy. Just because a surplus
can be made in an enterprise does not give
the entrepreneur the right to dictate the use
of economic values. Making profit cannot
be the only aim of an enterprise. We need
to replace the material incentive, with an
10 11
incentive that comes out of the interest in
the other, our incentive therefore becomes
meeting the needs of other human beings.
This requires an insight into the general
context of social conditions around the
world – which includes every human being
on earth.
The third false concept is paid labor. It’s a
concept from the bartering economy of the
middle ages. Most of the social conflicts and
problems in industrial society have evolved
from this false concept. The demand by Karl
Marx ‘work cannot become a commodity’,
results from his reaction against this false
concept. The modern human being feels
that his integrity is diminished by selling
his skills. In reality giving an income to the
co-workers and the entrepreneur is not an
economic fact but a matter of the rights
life. Paying for labor is not in line with the
modern economy. The question is to give to
all co-workers in accordance with the whole,
a fair and just income. So the procedure of
giving an income must be taken out of the
economic sphere into the rights sphere. Each
human being has a right to an income, so
that they can live with dignity and integrity.
Only if each human being is given such
an income can they share their skills and
abilities with their fellow human beings.
You can see that if we transform our view
on capital that tremendous change could
happen in the social realm. I would like to
point out again that I am not interested in
making any suggestions for how one could
arrange the world in a better way. I have
just tried to think and describe the reality of
the social processes – the social essence. We
often handle these social processes in the
modern world, but we do not always have
the appropriate depth of understanding.
Beuys had this understanding and deep
insights. He was able to think these
new concepts of capital and money and
he used this understanding for a brought
movement for social renewal.
Beuys exhibiting a photograph of
Rudolf Steiner
I believe that Beuys has achieved the
strongest movement for threefolding and
social sculpture after Rudolf Steiner. If a
large enough number of people start to
shape the world out of these new spiritual
insights it will be possible to make our social
conditions healthier. The aim will not be to
create a new paradise but to delete the
illnesses of our modern society, so that the
social organism can follow its inner being
and laws and develop in a healthy way. All
people who are collaborating in this task are
partners in creating this social sculpture.
In this way ‘we are the revolution!’
10 11
The blackboard sketch “Kunst = Kapital” is exhibited in Beuys‘s installation “Das Kapital Raum
1970 – 1977” in ‚Hallen für neue Kunst‘ in Schaffhausen / Switzerland.
12 13
Appendix
Beuys’ concept of money can be clearly
understood through the sketches he made
on the blackboard (see figure). What
stands out especially on the blackboard is
the circulation of money, on top of which
is written: Kunst = Kapital (art is
capital).
In the diagram „Art = Capital“, one sees
the money circuit in a widened context.
Under this title, Beuys has drawn an arrow
from Art to Economy and underneeth
another arrow which runs counter to the
first, representing mutual dependence.
Above this, he clarifies by writing „Art
– Creativity = labour, work“. This explains
Beuys’ concept of work. Work has its
source in the potential of human creativity.
It becomes active in enterprises where
nature is transformed into a consumable
commodity.
A very essential point of view contained in
this diagram is that the democratic central
bank is depicted as the heart (middle/left).
Beuys links this with a new physiological
perspective that has been established in
Goethean science which sees the heart as
a harmonizing organ and by no means, as
a pump. The central bank is, therefore, not
to be looked upon as a hierarchical organ
that pumps money into the economy at
it’s discretion, but as a regulating and
harmonizing social organ.
The creation of money is determined by the
initiative of people. Next to „enterprises“
(Unternehmungen, on the right), Beuys
writes that the „abilities“ of people are
credited. They are also called „production
capital“, as written on the blackboard.
In this picture we can see both the
production and consumption sides,
marked by a horizontal line. „Documents for
rights“ („Rechtsdokumente“) is written on
the left under Central Bank. Money is not
an economic value anymore, instead it has
become an element of rights life. On the
production side, Beuys lists the various forms
of enterprises, characterized by geometric
figures and below this „Nature“ in its manifold
forms. People, by working together collectively
in production, transform nature through their
skills into consumer goods. The expression
hired labor („Lohn-Arbeit“) is indicated by a
bold „X“; this is the past. In today’s world it
is „Separation of work and income“. One is
activity in the economic realm and the other is
in the legal rights sphere.
On the right hand side, at the bottom of the
diagram, Beuys mentions the Czechoslovakian
economist, Eugen „Loebl“ who was the
President of the National Bank of Bratislava for
some time (in 1968) and who, in his research
said that today the entire production side has,
developed into an integral system („Integrales
System“).
Consumer goods manufactured by enterprises
flow into the market (right/top „Schwelle“ or
threshold under capital „M“= market). All the
money which is given out to the enterprises
within the domain of currency must be taken
into consideration when calculating the prices
(„Preise“) of the product. At the threshold of
the market, all produced goods are taken o
the economic circuit and the money flows
back to the enterprises. One has to now ensure
that the money, as put by Beuys „without
connection to any economic value“ (middle/
top), comes back to the democratic central
bank system. Above the heart of the modern
money circuit, Beuys has written the name of
the Goethean scientist Wilhelm „Schmundt“
whom he reveres as „our great teacher“.
12 13
In March of this year, Dr Walter Kugler, longtime director of the Rudolf Steiner Archives in Dornach, was appointed Professor of Fine Arts at Oxford Brookes University. A communication from the university states that his broad range of experience in the fields of science and art were pivotal to his nomination.
Following studies in music, philosophy, education and political science, and subsequent teaching at the University of Cologne and the Waldorf School in Kassel, Walter Kugel came to Dornach in 1982, where he first worked as a scientific scholar within the framework of Rudolf Steiner’s collected works, editing and processing lectures on social science and rendering Steiner’s life and work accessible through the publication of numerous subject-specific documentation-publications. At the same time, he was being published by acclaimed publishing houses (DuMont, Fischer), and in the ’90’s was actively involved in art exhibitions focusing on Steiner’s blackboard drawings, which brought him as a guest curator to Tokyo, Berkeley, Helsinki, Buenos Aires and many other places. At the same time he authored several contributions to exhibition catalogues, including articles on Belyj, Beuys, Federle, Steiner and Wittgenstein for, among others, the Beyeler Foundation in Riehen near Basel, the Centre Pompidou in Paris, the Bunkler Sztuki Museum in Krakow, Moscow’s Belyj Museum and the National Gallery in Melbourne.
At Oxford Brookes University, Walter Kugler will work with students of music and art on interdisciplinary creative strategies, as well
Walter Kugler, director of Rudolf Steiner Archives, is offered appointment at Oxfordby Vera Koppehel
as oversee doctoral candidates and develop, accompany and document projects within the Social Sculpture Research Unit. – With characteristic intensity, he will continue his work with Rudolf Steiner Archives, albeit with a reduced workload.
www.rudolf-steiner.com
Section Work
14 15
Gerald Häfner voted into the European Parliament
Congratulations to our friend Gerald Häfner of Munich on being voted into the European Parliament. Following various legislative periods in the German Parliament, this is now a new development for him.
We are already looking forward to the reports that he will give in the Section on his work as a member of the European Parliament.
Hopefully this will be possible soon – alongside the strenuous meeting times in Brussels and Strasbourg.
Section Work
14 15
The Challenges of Globalizationby Katharina Offenborn
Short report on conference of March 13-15
in Rudolf Steiner House, Stuttgart
In the middle of March a weekend
conference took place in Stuttgart on the
theme ‘Challenges of Globalization’, put
on by the Section for Social Sciences at the
Goetheanum in Dornach and the Social
Science Research Society, Inc. in Stuttgart.
Anthroposophical speakers such as Prof.
Götz Werner, Thomas Jorberg, Paul Mackay,
Ulrich Rösch, Gerald Häfner, Dr. Dietrich
Spitta and Dr. Christoph Strawe created for
some 350 people a many-facetted picture of
economic connections in an era of global
financial crisis and global economic crisis.
The speakers were in agreement on one
point: It’s time for a change of paradigm
in the economy and for new consciousness
that is open to solutions oriented toward
the future. Competition, wage labor and
antiquated structures which have thrown
us into crisis worldwide need to be replaced
by joint economic activity. This joint activity
has to deal with the heretofore insufficiently
recognized fact that the diverse economic
interests of producers, merchants and
consumers need to be balanced through
contractual collaboration. We MUST come
into conversation with each other; we must
increasingly come together in economic
alliances – in associations – and come to
agreements in which no one is the loser.
Economic life of the future has to be built
on ‘fraternal’ cooperation and not on
competition.
The times are over in which politicians and
economic experts alone can decide how
things should be. In the face of a crisis
in which there is by far no telling what
the consequences will be, co-shaping the
social sculpture (Beuys) that we ARE is more
relevant than ever. It is high time to actually
BECOME the populace from which all public
authority originates (German Constitution,
article 20).
On the whole, the contributions offered
a balanced mixture of thoughts directed
to the future and approaches already in
practice. What remains is a strong impulse
„to come together in one movement“, as
Gerald Häfner expressed this.
You will soon be able to find more on this
in a collection of all of the lectures, soon
to be published by Johannes M. Mayer
Publishers, as well as in an essay by Dietrich
Spitta, Cooperation Instead of Competition
– Autonomy of the Economic Life as an
Answer to the Global Economic Crisis in the
March 2009 issue of Die Drei.
Event Review and Work Groups
16 17
«When we get along we meet in the Rights Sphere»The Association for the Promotion of the General Arts and Social Plastic invited interested parties for the second time to the Study Days ‹Social Sculpture› in Achberg (Germany). 16 participants attended from10th to 13th January, 2008 and worked with social sculpture presented by Ulrich Rösch – and on dance and rod fighting with Miriam Lenz.
Since October 2007 Ulrich Rösch of the Section for Social Sciences at the Goetheanum has been known as <guide> within the realm of social sculpture, leading participants deeper into the essence of social sculpture. The perception and realisation of social laws stood at the centre of this year’s work. Ulrich Rösch says: «When we get along we meet in the rights sphere» But how do we know that it is so? How do I reach this conclusion? How do I know that I am not again being taken in by the ingenious net of an ideology?
Phenomenology instead of ideology is Rösch’s basic approach. An analysis of what is given, the laws, the creative force, recognising the essence of the appearance; this method of perception is what the social scientist attempts to bring to the participants as a tool with which self examination is possible.
«The crux of human dignity, the free development of the individual, is only possible within modern society, if a democratically shaped rights sphere and an economic life based on mutual cooperation can deliver the necessary conditions», says Rösch. To enable this ideal of being-in-the-world is the task of social art today.
Germany: „Social Sculpture“ Study Days : Movement and Perception
by Edda DietrichTearing down old Patterns
Miriam Lenz from Stuttgart (Germany) offered a continuation to the work on ‹theoretical› foundations. She introduced participants to the practical side of rod fighting and dance. But what does rod fighting have to do with social sculpture? Lenz:«It is important to me that we dare to break down old patterns. With rod fighting I can practice this with unfamiliar movements » Rod fighting and dance became a form of non-verbal dialogue with the own self, but also with the self of the other. The first unfamiliar movements grew more familiar and new ‹dialogues› developed within the group leading to a cooperatively created sculpture. Sociale Sculpture without a mention of the work of Joseph Beuys is hard to imagine and therefore the group travelled to Schaffhausen to the Halls for New Art where they studied the Beuys exhibit ‹Das Kapital. Raum 1970 – 1977›. Whilst some took in Rösch’s observations and comments, other explored the work in their own way. This was virtually an impossible task within the short time available but it is a beginning to understand social art in its rudiments.
Small Aspects
It was one of the ‹high arts› of this conference to recognise that the essence of social sculpture is more likely to be expressed in small aspects than in the whole. In its changeability and its capaciousness it appears to be an ongoing process of learning and grasping. As in this case, the art is to learn to trust that the knowledge that we gradually develop and that we already carry within us the essence of becoming a new humanity is slowly unfolding.
Event Review and Work Groups
16 17
Germany: „Social Sculpture“ Study Days: Thinking the Developing Human Being
by Edda Dietrich
The December 18–21 Study Days, held at Humboldt House in Achberg, focused on the question: Can we understand money anew, and use it differently? The fifteen participants from Germany and Austria heard this realm of consciousness discussed by the speakers (Ulrich Rösch, Christian Felber, and Rainer Rappmann).
Sensitized by the current financial crisis, the participants worked with Ulrich Rösch to seek a closer look at the reality of processes in the economic sphere, and to understand the laws inherent in a social activity founded on the dignity of the human being. In this respect, the meeting differed from one of those meetings where an attempt is made to salvage the „capital“ that remains. Here the question was: How would an economy have to be organized to serve the human being?
Referring to Wilhelm Schmundt, Ulrich Rösch developed the picture of a circulation of money that encourages freedom — a river feeding a living social organism where human beings can use their capacities to become creative and meet the needs of other human beings. In this image of a society with human dimensions, money is not a commodity but a legal document that regulates the relationship among individual rights and responsibilities within the community, laws that can always be reformulated through a democratic vote. That is the knowledge side. But: „Knowledge untempered by the senses can never produce a truth that is not harmful“ (Leonardo da Vinci).
Vigilance and Trust
Christian Felber opened up a space for approaching this kind of knowledge. In a fluid movement from the theoretical to the artistic, his contact improvisations stimulated the sensory perceptions of the participants: Where am I? Where is my neighbor? Where are we joined? Every moment produced a nonverbal communication which gradually enabled the I (in orbit around itself) to find its way into a shared dance with its opposite number. These unfamiliar exercises in vigilance and trust soon brought a transition to the question: Do we still need money at all? How would it be to think of a world without money, one based on trust, vigilance, and sympathy?It may be a dumb question, but certainly one permitted here since we are „on a quest for the dumbest“ (Joseph Beuys). This utopia soon appeared on the blackboard next to the picture of monetary circulation according to Schmundt — a careful drawing by Christian Felber. His sketch gave the participants quite a bit to think about and quickly brought us to the limit of capitalism’s untested assumptions. Without money? How would that work? How, then, will the productive labor of the one be balanced against that of another? Who would still work? There was a embarrassed silence; then creative ideas began to flow. Like a kind of mandala, the delicate blackboard drawing invited us to think of the developing human being; it quietly delineated a world based not on competition but on cooperation among all people in accord with the principle of humanity. www.fiu-verlag.com
Event Review and Work Groups
18 19
Focus: Ethics
The initiator of KunstRaumRhein [art in the
Rhein region], Dorothée Deimann, together
with her colleagues and the Section for
Social Sciences at the Goetheanum, as well
as with the post-graduate studies program
Interdisciplinary Conflict Research and
Conflict Analysis, put on the sixth research
colloquium, ‘On the Future of Human
Dignity’ – this time on the theme of ethics,
and for the first time at the University of
Basel.
Klaus Leisinger of the Novartis Foundation
for Sustainable Development spoke about
the opportunities and problems that arise
within the frame of activity of a globalized
conglomerate. The presenter’s
recognition that the society’s fundamental
values are shared worldwide is not self-
evident: „I believe that people everywhere
in the world have similar values – a more
judicious, less polluted world. But whoever
wants to see change in the world has to
live [those changes] himself.“ Problems
for people and for the environment often
arise more from systemic and human
error than from cynical calculation. Moral
blame contributes less today to solutions
of problems. What is called for is co-
responsible action.
Ted van Baarda, expert on international law,
On the Future of Human DignityResearch Colloquium
by Johanna Guhr, in collaboration with Simon Mugier of KunstRaumRhein
also referred to individual aspects. In the
Department of Defense in the Netherlands,
he trains policy makers of global, active
armed forces. These armed forces often
find themselves in a sheer intractable
conflict between neutrality according to
international law and being faced with
demands for partisanship and allegiance.
Military commanders have to be prepared
for situations that demand immediate action
and are matters of life and death. What is
important for this is the development of the
moral capacity to judge in face of the facts
at the same times as out of oneself. It often
happens that people lose their ability for
clear judgment due to strong emotions in
exceptional circumstances.
Baarda referred to deciding and acting
out of an overriding and simultaneously
spiritual-individual sovereignty as – in
military jargon – the „helicopter view“. This
makes it possible, even in extreme
situations, to retain overview, composure
and dignity. This requires schooling of one’s
‘I-sensibilities’, which can become a firm
foundation for action. Only when one’s own
dignity is lost, said Baarda, is it possible to
breach the dignity of another. This needs to
be averted.
Paul Mackay, leader of the Section for Social
Sciences and member of the Executive
Council of the General Anthroposophical
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18 19
heads – and for politicians as well – a lot
of prejudice and false assumptions exist.
Erös remarked that not one single Afghan
is being sought either nationally or
internationally because of Islamist terrorism
or suspicion of terrorism, and yet since 2001
there is a war on terrorism in Afghanistan.
The problem of the radical Taliban does
exist, but is not to be confused with the
international terrorism of Al-Qaeda. In spite
of this, the war in the Hindu Kush is leading
to political radicalization. The Taliban is
organizing itself with a lot of energy. There
is also the current situation in Afghanistan
and neighboring Pakistan.
According to Erös, the best measures
against the spreading of a radical Islam
is to build schools. The solution is to be
found in the next generation. Children are
the country’s future policymakers, and the
decisive question is whether they will grow
up in the radical Koran schools or in schools
that convey other values.
The greatest threat for Afghans themselves
is not primarily the war, but poverty: „The
main problem for most Afghans is: How
do I not starve?“ Thus the motto for
‘Kinderhilfe Afghanistan’ [Aid to Children
in Afghanistan] is „bread and education,
not fatalism and fundamentalism.“
Donations, contact or further information
on ‘Kinderhilfe Afghanistan’ can go via
KunstRaumRhein.
Common to all of the speakers was that
they referred to the ethical capacities of
the individual, which are not accessible just
like that, but have to be fought for through
individual effort. For this, comprehensive
approaches are unavoidable, which also
incorporate deeper aspects of the whole
complex of problems.
Society at the Goetheanum referred to
the question of the relationship of karma
and reincarnation to freedom. He referred
explicitly to a Swiss television broadcast of
‘Sternstunde Philosophie’ [Great Moments
in Philosophy], in which Helmut Zander,
author of the book Anthroposophy in
Germany, said that the idea of freedom
along with reincarnation and karma feels
cynical.
Is freedom at all possible if we meet up in
this life with consequences and encounters
that are contingent on past lives? The
answer: Reincarnation and karma are
what makes freedom possible. Due to the
fact that deeds have consequences, and
these consequences later come to meet us
again, it becomes possible for us to conduct
ourselves in freedom vis-à-vis that which
comes to meet us again, and for us to give a
new direction to destiny in connection with
other people. Through a new positioning
there is the opportunity for transformation.
„Knowing that I am confronted with my last
life on earth is what makes me capable of
development. That gives me the opportunity
to become a human being, to develop
human dignity, to develop freedom.“
Reinhard Erös, former physician and officer
in the German Armed Forces, reported on
his experiences in Afghanistan, where he
has lived with his family for quite some
time. Of his own initiative he and his family
have built up 25 schools, and is undoubtedly
one of the foremost connoisseurs of the
socio-political conditions in Afghanistan.
His lecture was, as he announced already at
the beginning, a „mixture of reporting on
experience and scolding politicians.“
The realization for the listener was that in the
media and therefore also in our undiscerning
20 21
Dialogue is possible when there is a foundation of intelligence and willingness to recognize
humanity as rooted in spirituality, when the Western world is prepared to enter into a connection
with Islam, and when Islam comes to know and accept the foundations of Christianity. This
holds true for within the country as well. Moderator Dorothée Deimann said: „In addition to the
increasingly positive knowledge of the intellectual world – that serves mainly our heads – we have
to muster the courage to consciously turn again toward spiritual forces.“
The lectures can be found at www.kunstraumrhein.com. A DVD of all of the presentations will be
available soon (information also on the website). Information on Afghanistan: www.kinderhilfe-
afghanistan.de
Familiy as Workplace
by Sibylle EngstromContinuing Education Days for Parents
of Children in the First Seven-Year
Period
October 17-18, 2008
Taking seriously the family as a workplace
means, among other things, basic and
advanced training for this task for oneself,
as a parent. Franziska Schmidt-von Nell,
one of the organizers of the conference,
spoke at the beginning about the fact that
in every profession there are standards for
competence in the workplace as well as
continuing education offerings that ensure
and develop this competence. For mothers,
however, the range of such options in
many places is restricted to catching up on
education rather than continuing it. For this
reason, her humorous and yet also serious
call is for „progression, not regression“ in
parent education. This blend of earnestness
and easiness also mirrors the atmosphere
of the continuing education days as a
whole: There was intensive and serious
work together in groups, there were very
interesting lectures, as well as space for
open conversation and relaxed interchange.
Some 200 people – mainly parents, but also
educators – had made their way here, many
with kit and caboodle. The fact that many
participants came with their families, and
that there was a variety of childcare offered
for children of different age-groups, shows
that this was about practical life and not
theory removed from day-to-day family life.
The workshop offerings linked up concretely
with issues of everyday life. These included
nurturing the parents’ partnership, running
a household and shaping the living space,
experiencing one’s own limitations in the
daily task of raising children, configuring
how one lives with the course of the year
and its seasons, fostering religion, and
Event Review and Work Groups
20 21
learning children’s songs and finger games.
In the morning practice sessions various
ways were shown for how parents can tap
into inner resources in everyday life and
consciously take hold of daily family life as a
place for personal development.
Each day was introduced by a lecture, all
three of which offered a deepening as well as
informative, thought-provoking impulses for
daily life. Cristina and Christoph Meinecke of
Havelhöhe Family Forum described in a living
way the changing situation and challenges
that a couple has to master from initially
getting to know each other, to partnership,
to shared parenthood. They made us aware
that the quality of the parents’ relationship
as a couple is the foundation for the family
and for the well-being of the child. When
children sense that the parents are doing
well, they too can thrive. Caring for the
partnership and careful handling of a crisis
or separation is therefore not a luxury but
is of fundamental importance for everyone
involved, especially for the children.
Linda Thomas, who has made a name for
herself through numerous seminars and
lectures, brought home to the audience
the everyday theme that probably enjoys
the least esteem: cleaning and creating
order at home. She made it clear that this
is about much more than we are usually
aware of. It is about caring for the family’s
living environment and, for this reason,
consciously shaping and maintaining this
space in such a way that it is a place where
everyone can feel comfortable and at ease,
do their activities, and rest, relax and revive.
The self-education that this requires, said
Thomas, is a help to one’s own development
and has a deeply pedagogical and healing
effect on children.
Monika Kiel-Hinrichsen held the closing
lecture on the theme „When Children
Don’t Listen – Paths of Education and Self-
Education.“ She drew awareness to the
fact that behind the not-listening there is
usually a concealed conflict concerning the
relationship between the parents and the
child. The adult’s behavior toward the child
is – in spite of loving attention – often not
taken hold of, is inconsistent and marked by
excessive demands. Children need parents
to be an authentic ‘other’, communicating
security and love on the one hand, but also
clarity and orientation on the other. The
other aspect to which M. Kiel-Hinrichsen
drew attention was how pivotal it is that
children be able to develop all of their senses
in a healthy way. This is the foundation
for their becoming self-aware and social
beings. She described what an upbringing
that takes this into account can look like in
everyday life.
At the close of the continuing education
days, there was a palpable wish for a
continuation of this type of parent seminar,
and that a forum come about where parents
can find information on regional initiatives
for ongoing education and for interchange
among parents. The organizers are indeed
already planning further events, and a
forum of this kind is already in preparation.
Further information can be found at
www.spielundzukunft.de
www.familienkultur.ch
22 23
Brief report on the conference.On Warmth and on Life after Death (with 16th Class lesson)
Childhood: a kind of „heavenly echo“; family: a „school for social community“.Seeing family in this way means including other dimensions – dimensions that extend beyond – or even change – the daily, sometimes tiring, run of things. What is needed is quality in encounters: feeling as though one were the other person, living into the other, understanding through the other.
This can be practiced, and one can fail at it. Is one not closest to oneself? Really entering into what is ‘other’ requires a capacity of seeing conditions from the periphery and of discerning experiences.
Perspectives and experiential dimensions in regard to these issues are sounded in the substance of the 16th Class lesson. Paul Mackay gave a free rendering of this lesson on Friday evening.
Andreas Worel presented in-depth considerations on warmth. Warmth always has something to do with one’s own state of being and that of the surrounding: warmth in us and around us as a dimension that grants earthly-cosmic life; warmth as enthusiasm, as a ‘burning’ for what is ‘other’; warmth as a source of one’s very own, deepest morality, from the inside out; warmth as an all-pervading force.
Doing eurythmy together with Gioia Falk allowed us to experience, in calm practice-
Cultivating Family Life
by Anneka Lohn
sequences, the forces of attentiveness that can be mobilized if, at the same time, there is openness to receiving – „awaken – create – entreat/invite“.
Brief sketches of ideas from Paul Mackay, Urs Pohlman and Franziska Schmidt von Nell demonstrated, in very different ways, areas of experience in which the after-death world unfolds its relationship to here and now. Just as sleep can be seen as the little brother of death, so can one’s awareness – when directed toward waking and sleeping – allow one to sense was it means to exist in ‘the air [atmosphere] of the threshold’.
If one extends one’s considerations to the question of how after-death perspectives are sounded in life here and now, this can be illumined by biographical studies, for example.
It is also clear that giving up habits of thinking, feeling and will can accompany the process of „conscious dying“. Consciously forming one’s soul forces makes it possible to come to responsibility for oneself out of the periphery.
This attitude, as was shown in the ensuing conversation, is the foundation for openness toward the children and toward everything – an openness that needs to be achieved anew every day.
The next gathering within the context of the School for Spiritual Science on the theme of cultivating the family will take place on January 22-23, 2010. It will be based on the 17th Class lesson.
Event Review and Work Groups
22 23
What is between you and me?
by Reinald and Rotraut Eichholz
Conference Impressions
Whoever brings to mind the wedding feast
at Cana will recall that this title expresses
an archetypal image of encounter. This
is what the conference of the Section for
Social Sciences from November 21 to 23,
2008 in Dornach was about. The subtitle,
‘Rights-Sensibility and Ability to Handle
Conflict’ conveys, however, that we are
able to approach this archetypal image
only in a concerted effort. The trade-off for
our growing self-reliance in the age of the
consciousness soul is that we live a life of
differences. This gives its stamp to judicial
practice as well as to the workaday life of
conflict counseling. What specialists of both
kinds work with is something known to
everyone in everyday life, be it in partnership,
family, school and other institutions, right up
to the enormous conflicts in world events. It
is obvious in such situations that capacities
for dealing with conflict need to be
developed – but how? And why is there also
the need for a sensibility for rights? These
questions engaged the nearly 60 conference
participants in in-depth considerations.
In the context of the overall theme, we
attempted to have the direct, interpersonal
encounter-quality of the conference
objectives become the determining
element. For this reason, there was an open
conversation at the beginning, rather than
a lecture. Peter Lüdemann-Ravit spoke out
of his experience with conflict resolution,
Reinald Eichholz out of many years of
working toward a broadened understanding
of the rights sphere through anthroposophy.
Lüdemann-Ravit made it clear that people
who are in the midst of a conflict are not
brought one step forward by abstract ideas
about how things are supposed to be. Only
when a person feels recognized and taken
seriously in his/her needs and feelings, does
the opportunity open up for a common
solution. When we feel attacked, we are
not in a position to have an eye-to-eye
conversation if there is not a process of
‘de-angsting’.
From the rights-perspective, Reinald Eichholz
described that this kind of starting point for
conflict resolution is deeply connected with
a sensibility for the area of rights, even if this
is hardly conscious to begin with. In taking
the other person seriously, one expresses
a feeling of respect. This rights-sensibility
is indispensable if interpersonal issues
are to succeed. In order to bring this to
realization, this rights-sensing can’t be glued
to sections and articles, but needs to reveal
that the source for readiness for reciprocal
recognition is found within oneself. The
judicial realm is akin to the human being.
With its rules and regulations it reacts to
the dark side of the human being – and
therefore requires sections and articles.
But in a much more primordial sense, it
is that which the human being, the ‘inner
lawmaker’, configures out of the wholeness
of his forces, in freedom and with sensitivity
to the rights-realm.
Event Review and Work Groups
24 25
With the engagement of the circle of
participants, facilitated by Lilla Boros-
Gmelin as moderator, the dialogue was
soon multifariously deepened and enriched.
‘Disempowering’, among other things, was
placed alongside the perspective of ‘de-
angsting’ as a necessary renunciation of
‘power-posturing’. Adding to the discussion
of the sense for what is right, it was said that
we can find support in an inner authority
within ourselves that directs this rights-
sensing. Yet doubt arose as well: Doesn’t
this put into question its very foundations,
due to the subjective nature of our feeling
life, cultural relativity and changes in how
one thinks about rights?
Despite (or because of) the questions that
remained open, everyone felt that this kind
of conference beginning made it possible
to enter into the theme, and to awaken
vibrancy and activity. The many facets of
the theme engendered curiosity about
the following ‘day of conversations’. The
morning was fed by the experiences of
the conflict colloquium worked on in the
Section. Raymond di Ronco depicted a
„fictitious, true case’ in the life of a Waldorf
school. Five discussion groups on the theme
were soon formed. Spontaneous role-
playing facilitated living into the situation
of those involved in the conflict. All of the
groups sought possibilities for how this
tightening and tension – characteristic of
such conflict situations – can be resolved.
This requires not only conflict management
to deal with the actual predicament, but
also the cultivation of ongoing, patient
conversation, for which the disposition has
to be there already long before concrete
problems turn up. And this is lacking most
of all.
How a sense of what is right can be
developed in these situations was then
the theme in the afternoon. The members
of the Jura-Nova-Initiative, founded by
Johannes Wessel, introduced ten different
conversation/practice groups. They had
gathered ‘material’ in the past 12 years
through deepening their work on rights
and anthroposophy. The fact that the ‘rights
sense’ was singled out for this conference
from a plethora of themes resulted from the
striving to discover, together with people
other than legal experts, the universal
nature of rights. To this end, there was quite
an unorthodox selection of themes for the
work groups: active rights-life; eurythmy
to experience ‘the middle’; ‘juri-genesis’; a
meditation on context as an aid in viewing
the interpersonal; conversation on Goethe’s
fairy tale and on the baptism in the Jordan;
and mediation as a path from conflict event
to rights-deed.
To close the conference, Paul Mackay shared
that we can find that which is at work in
‘rights-sensing’ as the „soul within the
soul“. This is what makes it possible for us
to place ourselves face to face with our own
feelings and to open ourselves in empathy
to another person: a path of practice for
which the supplementary exercises can be
fruitful in schooling ‘rights-sensibilities’.
Thus from this perspective as well it could be
seen that the schooling of these capacities,
as a task that conflict requires, is deeply
connected with the path of development
of the individual, and that it is out of an
anthroposophical perspective that we can
overcome the inner distance that we usually
feel towards rights matters.
24 25
Colloquium on Conflict Research
by Peter Gutland
On April 24th and 25th, 2009 the Conflict
Research Colloquium met for the 25th
time since its first meeting in September,
1996 – this time at Hofgut Hohenkarpfen
near Villingen-Schwenningen in Baden
Württemberg.
After welcoming three new members to
the circle, we reviewed the last conference
on the theme ‘What is Between You and
Me? – Conflict Competence and Rights-
Sensibility’ from November 21-23, 2008.
For the first time, the conference was
organized in collaboration with the juristic
study group ‘Jura Nova’, under the umbrella
of the Section for Social Sciences at the
Goetheanum. The event was positively
received, both in regard to its content as
well as the number of attendees. A circle
of eight people is to prepare a subsequent
conference.
On Friday afternoon Peter Gutland of
Wuppertal presented the results of his
research on the theme ‘The Working of the
Zodiac and its Significance for Community
Building’. These results are briefly
summarized below (a more encompassing
version is in preparation).
The point of departure was a presentation
of the significance of community building
for the evolution of human development
(preparing the sixth cultural epoch), for
the spiritual world and for the hierarchical
beings. Beyond this, community building is
of pivotal importance for conflict research
and conflict management.
The approach involves understanding
community building as a process toward
spiritual community, and of finding 12
qualities, originating in the working of the
zodiac, which converge in an ideal.
In the age of the development of the
consciousness soul, and in view of the
‘basic social law’, it is doubtful whether
this formative process can be expected to
take its course automatically. It cannot be
presumed that new members joining a
community will fit in and be assimilated
smoothly. Community building today must
take place in an increasingly conscious and
active dialogue between the community
and the individual. When working on the
foundation of anthroposophy, the goal
needs to be to form a spiritual organism.
Not only are a number of people working
together in an institution on its goals and
tasks, but the community must be actively
striven for and further developed from
both sides. (Twelve senses, colors, tones,
consonants, the human form, etc.) In
this context there are some influences of
particular significance.
The twelve world views characterize just
how diverse people’s possibilities can be
to recognize the spiritual world and strive
to understand it. These indications can
help to recognize the capacities of new
colleagues or members of a community to
connect to, and understand, the substance
Event Review and Work Groups
26 27
of anthroposophy. (For example: the
materialist who denies the spiritual world,
in contrast to the spiritualist, who, taken
to the extreme, is in danger of denying
material life.) It has been the situation
for a while already that not everyone in
anthroposophical institutions is familiar
with the substance of anthroposophy and
finds a connection to it. Being exposed to
anthroposophical subject matter doesn’t
guarantee that it is understood. Do all of
our colleagues really understand us when
we speak about anthroposophy? What
do they understand? (And what have we
understood?) New questions, especially
from young people, as well as sometimes
great intensity and a high level of readiness
to engage are coming toward us. Hiring
interviews could really change, were one to
take these aspects into account.
The virtues can provide an individual
with impetus for self-knowledge and
self-education. These ethical-moral values
modify the capacities that an individual
brings into the community. Further
knowledge is possible from the zodiac
gestures that Steiner gave for eurythmy;
they depict the entire human being. These
more individual aspects of the world views,
the virtues and the zodiac gestures also need
to find their counterparts in the community.
The individual awaits something from the
community and would like to find this
there. The Twelve Moods have particular
significance for this theme. They hold many
more secrets and indications for community
building.
The intention of this work is to find qualities
for the above-mentioned dialogue between
individual and community, in order to
be able to shape this process ever more
consciously and purposefully. Preliminary
results of this were presented, and will be
worked on further.
The afternoon was framed by doing
eurythmy together under the guidance of
Lilla Boros-Gmelin. Friday closed with an
impressively intensive free rendering of a
Class lesson by Hans Dackweiler.
On Saturday morning there was conversation
on the possibilities of applying to daily life
what had been presented on the zodiac. It
was decided to continue working with this
theme. This was followed by conversation
regarding the circle of those participating
in the research colloquium, and the varying
continuity. Since a certain level of quality of
the work, as well as both membership in the
Class of the School of Spiritual Science and
one’s own active work on the theme are all
regarded as being closely connected with the
continuity of the core group, all those who
have taken part until now will be contacted.
Those unable to assure continuity will in
future no longer receive the invitations.
Michael Rein then presented a youth project
with the high school of the Waldorf school
in Reutlingen, and invited collaboration.
In closing, the dates for the next meetings
were set. These are:
October 23/24, 2009; April 16/17, 2010;
October 29/30, 2010.
26 27
Warmth in Organizational Enterprise
by Christine Blanke
How can coworkers’ strength of initiative be
furthered and how can an angst-free and
yet engaged work climate come about? For
Christine Blanke, Wolfgang Held and Paul
Mackay, questions and impulses discussed
during the preparatory phase of the
conference became the starting point for
cultivating interest in the conference theme.
This first interdisciplinary economic forum at
the Goetheanum, from September 11 to 12,
2008, drew some 80 people active in the
economic and cultural sectors for discourse
on cultivating the ways of organizational
enterprise in our time, within the framework
of the conference theme, ‘Warmth in the
Workplace’.
„Warmth and light are two main elements of
world evolution. They are always present in
matters concerning growth and change. In
the workplace, too, they are indispensable.
The element of light comes to expression
in setting objectives, for example, or in
the overall concept or mission statement.
An enterprise needs this element in order
to provide itself with clarity in regard to
its core competence. The warmth-element,
in my view, attracts too little interest as an
integrative component of an enterprise’s
leadership,“ said Paul Mackay, who opened
the conference.
Randolf Jessl, editor in chief of
Personalmagazin [a professional journal
for management and rights in the area
of personnel management] held the first
lecture, which included an appraisal of the
current economic situation: Being cold is
taken as an indication of objectivity and
striving for success. So it is no wonder
that coldness is commonly used as a
main metaphor for modernity, and that
it is generally presumed that one cannot
afford to be warmhearted in economic
matters. Yet it is long since clear: Things
don’t work without trust and enthusiasm
among colleagues. The business workplace
as a cozy place? It is clear that a business
enterprise is spanned in a field of energies,
in which it needs to find its balance between
extremes of warmth and cold.
Professor J. Menno Harms, chairman of
the board of Hewlett Packard in Germany
Event Review and Work Groups
28 29
reports that founder Bill Packard gave him
the following advice for his managerial
task: „Take good care of your people and
be creative.“ Caring concern for employees
and living one’s values have become for him
a motto-in-action.
For the Duschl engineering firm, the question
is how the freedom of the individual
professional can be brought to realization
alongside the demand for performance.
Taking the example of a firm’s adoption of
its mission statement, it becomes clear how
the enthusiasm of the employer affects the
other colleagues. Working together with
a musician has shown how fruitful the
exchange between art and business can be.
Florian Theilmann, physicist at the University
of Leipzig and former coworker of the
Natural Science Section, enriches the forum
from the perspective of natural science:
„Allowing warmth free range gives rise to a
world that is uniformly warm and, ultimately,
to heat death. Vitality needs both: warmth
and cold.“ And Michaela Glöckler, leader
of the Medical Section, adds: „If it doesn’t
work to engage individually with differences
of temperature, of opinion and of attitude,
when management clings to regulations,
this amounts to illness for an enterprise.“
Another highlight is the lecture by Michael
J. Kolodziej, a member of the management
team for ‘dm-drogerie markt’ [a German
drugstore chain]. Based on examples
from dm’s business culture, his vote is:
„Leadership’s role is to bring the individual’s
motivation into the enterprise. There’s
nothing more difficult than enabling, and
nothing is easier than preventing.“
The headquarter of the GLS community
bank is a clear example of how the culture
of an enterprise can be mirrored in its
architecture, as was presented by Thomas
Jorberg (CEO of GLS) and Lothar Bracht, the
architect responsible for the project. Last but
not least, Torsten Blanke, theatre director
of the Goetheanum Stage, presented the
‘Rose of Temperaments’ [based on Goethe’s
color theory]: using masks, he showed in a
humorous way the role played by one’s own
temperament in working with other people.
In the closing plenum of all of the presenters,
moderated by Paul Mackay, the day and
a half of concentrated content gelled to
perspectives on the developmental potential
of each individual, right up to the societal
conditions necessary to administer and
guide an enterprise in a manner befitting
our time. Participants’ unanimous feedback:
The forum must continue. A particular wish:
More time for conversations and exchange,
as well as more participant involvement. On
September 10th and 11th, 2009, the forum
goes into its second round with the theme
‘Tempo in the Workplace’, in the hope of
further developing the form and the content
of this conference and of again addressing
a circle of people involved in economic
and cultural endeavors – with enough
time and space for exchange, initiative and
professional discussion. The detailed program
is to find at www.goetheanum.org.
28 29
Lecture Series on Financial Crisis
by Cornelia Rösch
In Basel’s „unternehmen mitte“, (an
Anthroposophical Center with a Coffee
Shop, Theatre, Lecture Halls, offices, an
alternative Bank and a Restaurant) a lecture
series on ‘Financial Crisis – an Opportunity
to Rethink’ began in November 2008.
Nowhere else are our societal shortcomings
revealed as clearly, former German President
Roman Herzog put it drastically: „The
financial markets have become a monster.“
Sociology professor Ueli Mäder of Basel
University opened the series and spoke of
our „poor, rich world of finance“. He gave
a lot of touching examples of poorness in
the rich Swiss country. Social scientist Ulrich
Rösch from the Goetheanum spoke about
‘Global finance problems – what does this
matter to me?’ Starting with the actual
crisis he gave a perspective for a future
human economy in a globalized world. Paul
Mackay, leader of the Section for Social
Sciences at the Goetheanum and board
president of the GLS Bank in Bochum spoke
on ‘Financial Crisis – where is this going?’
and gave a lot of deep insights in the current
money system. Bankers Felix Staub and
Markus Jermann of the Anthroposophical
Community Bank in Basel on the reasons
for the financial crisis and ‘Finding another
way of working with money!’. They made it
clear, that it is up to everyone to change the
present situation. At least in Central Europe
there are many opportunities to change the
social world. The first step is to think about
new concepts but then you have to walk
your talk.
Otmar Donnenberg, entrepreneurial
consultant and activist for ‘Regiogeld’ (new
money for the region), then gave a lecture
on ‘Monetary Reform Nears – How I as a
Citizen Can Collaborate’. In Europe many
regional groups just started with their
own money circulation to practice a new
acquaintance with money. They call it after
the region where they live: „Dreiecker“
(money of the three countries Switzerland,
France and Germany), „Chiemgauer“
(money of the southeast Bavarian region) or
„Wiesentaler“ (money of the valley of the
river Wiese). Many citizens already use this
money and many shops, farmers and small
producers accept it as payment for their
products and services.
Contributions from the lecturers were brief,
allowing ample time for active conversation.
The numerous participants expressed the
wish for a sequel lecture series next year,
which this year’s organizers, Michel Moser
and Cornelia Rösch, would be glad to
arrange. Conversation is to focus on current
social issues and giving visions based on
deeper insights in our social life.
Event Review and Work Groups
30 31
From March 7 to 9, 2008 a conference of
the Section for Social Sciences took place at
the Goetheanum under the title ‘SEKEM –
A Social Art’, with SEKEM founder Ibrahim
Abouleish. The conference was framed
by eurythmy and music, as well as by an
exhibition of paintings and photographs by
the architect Winfried Reindl. Participants
were enthusiastic to hear Abouleish on the
opening evening: Connecting something to
the spiritual world means bringing it alive.
To begin with, SEKEM was an idea that
came to Abouleish as he was getting to
know Rudolf Steiner’s spiritual science.
He made the decision to bring the idea of
social threefolding down onto the earth in a
form suitable for Egypt. For people in Egypt,
deeds are more convincing than words.
The actions of many Egyptians follow the
example of a leader.
Thus it belongs to Abouleish’s greatest
successes that the enormous amounts of
pesticides that used to come down on
Egypt from helicopters by order of the
state were reduced by 95 percent. Another
of his remarkable accomplishments is
the beginning of school education for
children who have to earn money starting
at approximately eight years of age. They
work throughout the country in the fields
Egypt
SEKEM – A Social Art – Bridge Between East and West
by Elisabeth Bessau
or in the manufacture of rugs. They received
from Abouleish the same wage for a half
day’s work as for a full day elsewhere, plus
a warm, wholesome meal, medical care,
and, during the other half of the day, free
schooling. If they remain until the age of 14,
they can then complete an apprenticeship
at SEKEM. This provides them with a real
opportunity to overcome uncertainty and
poverty.
Abouleish knows that it will be a long time
until the seeds he has planted will improve
people’s situation throughout Egypt. In this
vein, he said: Maybe we will manage to
transform the entire country in 200 years
– that’s seven generations. What’s important
Section Work in Various Countries
30 31
is to have a true image of the human being
and to love people. In this SEKEM needs
interchange with Europe. – Education from
kindergarten up to the university level is one
of SEKEM’s goals. Ten to fifteen percent of
each coworker’s work time is dedicated to
education.
Physician Hans Werner described how
unerringly Abouleish has pursued his destiny
since the age of 18. He knew that he had to
go to the German-speaking countries – the
land of the language of Goethe. In Graz,
Austria, following a lecture on Egypt, he
met an anthroposophist. As he then began
to bring his vision to realization, there were
people from Europe who gave their entire
existence for SEKEM. People who were
linked to him by destiny found their way
to him. After seven years, there was an
advisor from Europe for each of the areas
of medicine, agriculture and education.
Abouleish has created a bridge between
East and West.
Götz Rehn, from Alnatura Ltd., focused on
economics as an art. In SEKEM, the entire
space has been created with an esthetic
sense. The desert has been transformed. Art
lifts nature and the human being beyond
themselves. SEKEM can be an example for
us as well.
Much of the harmony in SEKEM’s buildings
is thanks to architect Winfried Reindl. How
things take shape socially can be influenced
by architecture. Reindl showed how form
can become dynamic through simple
means.
In the presentation by Volkert Engelsman of
Eosta, Holland, the consumer was the focal
point, as was the idea of metamorphosis
in regard to plants for pharmacist Roland
Schaette. Ulrich Walter of Lebensbaum
[Tree of Life], Ltd., described over 20
years’ collaboration between his firm and
SEKEM. – The contributions of Ulrich Rösch,
coworker of the Section for Social Sciences,
and of Paul Mackay, leader of the Section,
touched upon basic interconnections
within the threefold social organism.
Representatives of Friends of SEKEM spoke
during the closing plenum, and Abouleish
asked who would like to work together
on SEKEM University, which is about to be
founded.
(from Erziehungskunst [Art of Education],
May 2008)
32 33
Workshop for Humanity
On October 3–5, over 300 participants
experienced and discussed the connection
implied in „Social Sculpture — Monte Azul.“
The conference took its start from Hermann
Pohlmann’s experience of the Monte Azul
Favela Community Association as social
sculpture. Its founder, Ute Craemer, also
took an active part in the conference.
It was quite a festival! At the end, when
we all said goodbye, every eye was damp.
And it happened in this way: many years
ago, when Hermann Pohlmann visited São
Paulo’s Monte Azul favela for the first time,
he had the impression: „Here everything
Joseph Beuys placed in our hearts as an idea
as become a reality! Monte Azul is a social
sculpture.“ That led to the conference.
The conference was meant to bring
Beuys’ idea together with a working social
sculpture. Activists could understand their
work in a new and perhaps deeper way; the
thinkers, however, could test their idea by
perceiving something in real life and finding
out if it had living content or was simply a
dream.
The Power of St. Michael
Were these aspects brought together? In his
Brazil
Monte Azul: Workshop for Humanity
by Peter Guttenhöfer
closing lecture, Johannes Stüttgen sought to
find an answer as he struggled for words. He
had arrived with a finished lecture but now,
after his experience of Ute Craemer and her
Monte Azul troupe, he simply did not know
what to say. It was as though he had been
holding lectures about architecture for 30
years and now he suddenly stood before the
pyramids! Stüttgen’s lecture then took a nice
turn: „Monte Azul is perhaps the being of
humanity as it strives to be born.“
The high point was the dramatic portrayal
of Monte Azul’s 30 years: it was the story
of a young man who prepares to incarnate
into the darkness of earth in order to bring
light. He is accompanied by the hand of the
archangel Michael. But now, in the slums
of São Paulo, he is in danger of forgetting
his promise to the archangel. He begins to
despair and becomes entangled in much
that is dark. The cardboard boxes that serve
as slum dwellings are thrown into sudden
chaos when they are swept by evil, and
almost everything is destroyed. But the
startled actors quickly rebuilt their huts
and formed the Assosiação Comunitária
anew, giving it an inward order. Hunger,
murder, prostitution, and drug traffic were
again suppressed through the power of St.
Michael.
Section Work in Various Countries
32 33
Driven by a Thought
Susanne Rotermund, a coworker at Monte
Azul, had introduced the theme with a
creation myth told by the Brazilian Guarani
Indians. It ended in this way: „One day
the aged Titari, an old wise man, dreamt
about how this age of crisis might end. In
his dream, he traced the route taken by
the tribe across the great water. There they
had split into various groups and populated
parts of the earth. These were the black,
yellow, and white races. Then — in his
dream — he saw how the people of these
three races returned to the race that had
remained behind, the red race. Initially,
great confusion arose when the four races
met, but after the wheel of time had turned
it was possible for the seed of a new people
to appear, the golden people.“
Whether Monte Azul is really a social
sculpture never became clear, probably
because this concept is still unborn. Did
this unique conference help the concept
progress toward its birth? We were able
to see how an idea is at work in driving
the activities of all the favela’s coworkers.
What they radiated is nourished by the
fact that this idea is being thought. The
archangel, too, must be thought; the
concept of an archangel is needed. Where
and how can we find it? Can we strengthen
it contemplatively so that it begins to radiate
warmth and courage? And this difficult
concept of social sculpture! In the seething
city of São Paulo, the slums! There?
A social-artistic work like Monte Azul can
flourish only if its feet are firmly planted
on the ground of knowledge. Ute Craemer
has kept her eye unerringly on the star of
anthroposophy from the beginning, and has
worked in that way. She had discussed the
idea of social sculpture with her coworkers
for months before this conference. The
intent was to bring about a union of willing
and thinking, and intensify it into a power
to act that will continue to flow when the
pioneers are gone. Her teachers are Friedrich
Schiller, Rudolf Steiner, and Joseph Beuys.
A Toy for Kosovo
It is hard to tell whether the conference
itself had social-sculptural qualities as a
communal event. A drive for form and a
drive for sensuality mingled in a way that
was truly Brazilian. It was wonderful! There
is still a need to gather what was done in the
various working groups. But one thing could
be gained immediately: a toy produced by
one of the groups was given to Beatrice
Rutishauser’s initiative to help refugee
children in Kosovo. In addition, Monte Azul
International was founded to support the
work there.
One thought served as a leitmotif during
the closing plenum: „Hearing what the
other really means“ is required for a culture
of peace. We felt a painful lack of this in
ourselves during the conference. Finally, Ute
Craemer said that the conference had not
closed, but had opened — like a hyperbola
— to the future.
Contact: Monte Azul International, Edda
Riedel, [email protected]
34 35
Social Awareness
Near Pune lies the curative pedagogical
institution Sadhana Village. It was
established 15 years ago by V. N.
Deshpande with the help of the Camphill-
Community Copake (US). Besides its
curative pedagogical tasks, the community
of Sadhana Village is also concerned
with improving social conditions in the
neighbourhood.
Sadhana Village lies in a beautiful valley
around 35 kilometres north-easterly of
Pune. Although the institution is fairly
remote, surrounded by native villages, it has
placement students not only through its link
to the American Camphill-institutions, but
many from Europe who have come via the
„Friends of the Waldorf School Movement“.
The community is housed in three different
buildings. Besides the curative pedagogical
work, children come to Sadhana Village
by bus to enable them to be educated
in“Vacation Schools“. Many of the children
refuse to attend state schools. During my
visit I noticed from the way all residents
happily and enthusiastically joined in the
eurythmy with Aban and Dilnawaz Bana,
that this was not the first time they had
worked there. It was pleasing to observe
how those being looked after helped each
India
Sadhana Village
by Ulrich Rösch
other. Everyone joined in. The residents, co-
workers and friends.
New Social Structures
After eurythmy I spoke to the placement
students,many of whom are ex Waldorf
pupils, about the social impulse on which
an institution like this is based. This is a
subject not much touched upon in their
schools. All the more animated was the
conversation which followed my outline. It
might well have filled the whole evening if
one of the groups would not have to had
to start their 36 hour journey to Kolkata,
where a collective meeting of all students in
India was to take place by invitation of the
„Friends“.
Next day we drove to the neighbouring
villages. The social structures there are
starting to break up. What once had a
stabilising effect is now a shambles. Once
the community had become aware of this
following a lecture, it started on projects
with the villagers. The construction of
irrigation plants, toilets and rudiments of
sewage disposal. In particular the women
formed self-help groups developing
economic aid and a consciousness for clean
drinking water. In addition the women are
being helped to fend off domestic violence
and to become entrepreneurial thanks to
small credits.
Section Work in Various Countries
34 35
Desire for a Waldorf School in the Village
The next day the founder of Sadhana Village came to talk to us about the possibility of establishing
a Waldorf School for the village children. It would have the format of an English Middle School
able to work fairly freely up to class 8.
The problem, as everywhere else, is to find suitable teachers for such a school.
Aban Bana confirmed her help and recommended that all those interested should come to her
teacher training course,which takes place every May, in the nearby Kandhala. It was impressive to
experience with what social insight the septuagenarian V. N. Deshpande planned the first steps
for their own school.
Viewing the Whole
Ulrich Rösch of the Section for Social
Sciences at the Goetheanum travelled to
the annual meeting of the Bio-dynamic
Association of India (BDAI) in Bangalore on
the 10th January 2009. The theme was the
relationship to the worldwide movement.
Our journey to the South of India led
through Kerala, where a number of farmers
are growing coffee, tea, spices and fruit
bio-dynamically. It passed through the
Kardamom-mountains, the West Ghats of
India
Update on the Demeter-Movement
by Ulrich Rösch
Section Work in Various Countries
36 37
the Kurinji-Farm close to Madurai, where
especially mangos and pears are cultivated
and processed. Many of the Demeter
juices marketed in Europe contain Kurinji-
Mangos. Kerala in India means „God’s own
land“. Seeing the fertility of this country and
the friendly people, one may believe that
this is correct. But it is not just paradise.
Deforestation makes room for monocultures
of tea, coffee and rubber. Despite much
effort – Kerala has the lowest number of
illiterates; the population has grown too fast
and with it the destructive traffic.
Despite Much Success Isolation is a
Danger
With the BDAI president, Jakes Jayakaran,
we drove from Kurinji-Farm to Bangalore.
Here the annual meeting of the BDAI
took place. The bio-dynamic movement,
however successful it may be in India,
must not see itself as isolated from other
anthroposophical activities, said Ulrich
Rösch from the Section for Social Sciences
at the Goetheanum. Umesh Chandrasekar,
Director of the Institute for market ecology
in India, too, pointed to the fact that despite
much successful work during the past years
but due to the heavy workload of individual
initiatives, a view of the whole has been lost
somewhat. Carolin Hedman of the Initiative
Sophia, Järna (SE), re-iterated the importance
of worldwide networking. She accompanies
young people who are being sent from
Sweden to India where they mainly help
in rural initiatives, for example in Sevapur.
As part of a larger social and pedagogical
project there is also a bio-dynamic farm.
Nirmala Diaz of the Sloka-Waldorf School
in Hyderabad gave an overview of the work
in Waldorf Schools in India. Some of the
agricultural initiatives asked for a Waldorf
School. Biodynamic training in India was the
subject of David Hogg, the BDAI secretary. In
Central India mainly women converted the
agriculture of a whole village to bio-dynamic.
Hogg reported from the growing Maikaal-
Project and from the agricultural college led
by Rithu Baruah. He thanked Peter Proctor
who has been running bio-dynamic training
courses in India for many years and who is
revered as teacher ‹par excellence›. Now he
had to return to New Zealand for health
reasons. Jakes Jayakaran reported on his work
in China, where he has met great interest and
runs a number of courses. There, they put
more emphasis on bio-dynamic agriculture
as a method and technique; the ideological
motif has to be put aside.
36 37
Social Significance
During Christmas 2008 Ulrich Rösch from
the Goetheanum visited the Gateway-
Branch in Mumbai.This is a short impression
of the mood found there.
It is really quite strange for a Middle
European to fly into Mumbai in the
early hours of Christmas morning and to
experience 26 degrees Celsius into the
middle of the night. Despite the attacks,
that took place in Mumbai less than four
weeks ago, there is hustle and bustle
everywhere. On Boxing Day I met with
some of the members of the Gateway-
Branch of the Anthroposophical Society at
the Bana’s house in the centre of Mumbai.
This is where, in the centre of the city, near
the noisy Grant Road, the branch members
have their meetings. In this modest flat,
surrounded by Muslim families, live Aban
and her sister Dilnawaz together with
their 98 year old father, who still studies
daily and writes short poems. In the room
I immediately notice the („Ostheim“) crib
with the shepherds, kings, Maria and Joseph
and the Christ Child. This encourages me
to speak about the Christmas event, its
social significance, the arrival of wisdom
through the kings, the social interaction
of the shepherds and the central Christ
India
Gateway- Branch in Mumbai
by Ulrich Rösch
child, all of which calls us to enter into social
discourse with one another. I am aware that
I am facing Hindus from different casts,
Brahmans, Muslims, Christians and Parsis,
who have evolved out of the Zarathustra
stream. An intense atmosphere makes us
forget the roaring traffic noise of the centre
of Mumbai.
Section Work in Various Countries
38 39
Interest in Others Counts
Some 300 people from 21 nations met
from August 21 to 24 in Prague for the
conference of the Section for Social
Sciences on ‘The Soul of Europe – On the
Threshold of a New Society’ 1 Here, when
40 years ago the image of a new society
flashed up with the ‘Prague Spring’, Rudolf
Steiner’s idea of social threefolding, shared
in the conference’s presentations and
conversations, pointed to big, still-to-be
taken steps.
According to legend, Prague acquired
its name from the word ‘práh’, meaning
‘threshold’. Thus the conference location
became a symbol for the ‘in-between’,
the overcoming of the chasm between
individuals, peoples, continents – between
You and Me. And, to jump ahead to the
end: Paul Mackay of the Executive Council
at the Goetheanum in Dornach and
leader of the Section for Social Sciences
summarized the three days as follows:
„Social structure is meaningless when it
isn’t formed out of inner substance, and the
nature of this inner substance is such that
the human being cannot create it alone.
It comes about only ‘in between’, in deep
human encounter.“
Prague
The Soul of Europe
by Monika Clément
The Child of Europe
Co-organizer Ane�ka Janátová, psychologist
and director of TABOR Academy for Social
Art (Prag), began by drawing attention to
the small portrait, above the lectern, of
Casper Hauser. Janátová saw in this being
– whose humanness was indestructible
even under the worst living conditions,
and who, in the cold and dark of his cell,
still had compassion, even for his jailer, and
empathy with even the smallest creature,
and was filled with the longing to find
himself – the true child of Europe. This could
be experienced in the impressive production
of Carlo Pietzner’s play ‘…and from the
night, Casper’ on the last evening of the
conference, with students of the TABOR
Academy. No less impressive was the first
evening of the conference, with witnesses of
the Prague Spring, including Milan Horácek,
who was 22 years old at the time and is today
a member of the European Parliament, and
Antonin Liehm, publisher of Literamy noviny
and one of the most important preparers of
the Prague Spring, who, at the age of 84,
still spoke enthusiastically about the time in
which one fought for the freedom of the
cultural sphere.
Tripartite Organism
Between this beginning and end were days
Section Work in Various Countries
38 39
of multifarious expositions and discussion
on the threefold social organism, composed,
according to Rudolf Steiner, of the spiritual-
cultural life, the area of rights and the
economic sphere.2 To begin with, the
speakers each developed their perspectives
in a dialogue-form. These were then
further deepened in conversation groups
and workshops. On the theme of spiritual
life and individual capacities, for example,
there arose the question of a leadership
style befitting the times – a question
which is also increasingly relevant for the
economic sphere: leadership no longer as
a position, but rather as a task in the sense
of Rudolf Steiner’s lectures, The Karma
of Vocation 3 (Mathieu v.d. Hoogenband
from the Netherlands), as „leadership that
serves“ (Paul Mackay) or as „an orchestra
without a conductor“ (Ane�ka Janátová).
Just how connected the individual areas
are, was revealed by a conversation on
professional development, i.e. forming
individual capacities, which, seen as an
‘economic innovation’, is very much tangent
to the spiritual sector. Whereas one could
readily grasp that in the economic sphere
a for-and-with-each-other is achieved by
fulfilling needs through the division of labor
in production, and in the rights sphere the
freedom of inter-personal agreements for
co-existing is addressed, the requirement
for equality in the sphere of rights, with
regard to the sheer unbelievable diversity
among individuals today, emerged as a
challenge of our time. „The area of rights
is the point of intersection of every modern
society,“ said Ulrich Rösch of the Section
for Social Sciences in Dornach, who, with
a group of Czechs, Slovaks and the Swiss
Hans Hasler, had prepared the conference
for over a year.
Interest in the Other
In his closing presentation, ‘Rudolf Steiner
and Christ-Activity in the Social Realm’, Peter
40 41
Selg (Ita Wegmann Archives, Arlesheim,
Switzerland) called on us to uncover in
ourselves what Casper Hauser preserved
in himself even under the most terrible
circumstances: interest (inner space, inter-
space) as a real living with – suffering with –
the other. „Only interest in the other person
can further social life,“ in quoting Rudolf
Steiner. Tomáš Bonek, Christian Community
priest in the Prague congregation, also sees
this as the focal point of the conference:
„With all of the difficulties, we shouldn’t
forget that it is our task to stand in the
world! How else and from whom else
shall otherwise something new come?“
Here Peter Selg refers to tremendous
sources of help: „We are supported by
powers interested in humanity reaching its
developmental goal!“4 With threefolding
as well as with his main social principle5,
Rudolf Steiner pointed to forms, said Selg,
which can prepare the working of Christ
in the social realm. In this respect, he said,
Rudolf Steiner – in accordance the principle
of John the Baptist – is preparing the way for
a future in the sense of the Christ.
As to what the soul of Europe is – this often
remained an open question. That Prague is a
center of Europe, however, could be deeply
experienced. In this sense, it was left totally
open in the end, too, whether there would
be a sequel to this conference.
Endnotes1 Previous conferences on ‘The Soul of
Europe’: Amsterdam, 2005, Budapest,
2007.2 “Humanity will not be able to have
any further influence without arranging
its social organism according to its
tripartite nature: socialism (fraternity) for
the economic life, democracy (equality)
for matters of the state and human
rights, and freedom or individualism for
spiritual life.” Rudolf Steiner, lecture of
August 9, 1919 in Education as a Force
for Social Change. Anthroposophic Press
(now SteinerBooks), 1997 (GA 296).3 Rudolf Steiner, The Karma of
Vocation. Anthroposophic Press (now
SteinerBooks), 1984 (GA 172)4 Rudolf Steiner, The Work of the Angel
in Our Astral Body. Rudolf Steiner Press,
2006 (GA 182) 5 Rudolf Steiner, in Anthroposophy and
the Social Question. Mercury Press,
1982 (GA 34)
40 41
Event dates: 2009/11/27 to 2009/11/29
„What is more quickening than light?“
„Conversation.“
– From Goethe‘s ‚The Green Snake and and
beutiful Lily.
This is an invitation to re-imagine the world
we live in through the art of conversation
and conversations in art.
Several months ago the Section for Social
Sciences and the YouthSection at the
Goetheanum came into conversation.
Through our conversations one thing
became clear: that the activity of
conversation itself was important.
Perhaps you have had the experience of
possibilities arising, or something special
being born, because of a conversation.
Out of these discussions this event came
into being.
Conversation is not only created with
words but also with the will to listen to
what arises between us – it is a dance, an
improvisation, a co-written story. It is our
wish that this event will be a place where
many people can experience the creative,
quickening possibilities of conversation.
We also hope it will shed more light on the
contemporary social situation and our tasks
in the world.
Coming Into Conversation:
Encouraging Social Commitment
by Katie Dobb
Come with us on the adventure of exploring
and experiencing social themes of our
time. There will be conversation groups on
a range of social topics (including social
three-folding, economics, social sculpture,
and more). There will also be space for
you to bring the topic you are currently
passionate about. In addition, there will be
short ‘conversational’ contributions from
Elizabeth Wirsching, Paul Mackay, Seth
Jordan, Shelley Sacks, Ulrich Rösch and
Katie Dobb.
Through the arts we will seek to meet
each other in new ways. There will be
‚conversations‘ in music, sculpture, painting,
creative writing, numbers, movement and
more.
During our planning meetings we came to
realise that three-folding is not just a theory
but that it is a living thing. Throughout our
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preparation time we have tried to practice
three-folding. We have asked ourselves
what quality of thinking is needed in order
that social institutions (or even situations)
can evolve (or unfold) in the right way.
We have wondered how an understanding
of the three-folded organism could help
us orientate ourselves to develop good
relationships with our fellow human beings
and shape society as a whole. And we have
raised the question, „How can we take
responsibility for creating the world we live
in?“ We have also been living with a recent
Bob Dylan quote: „The real power is in the
hands of small groups of people and I don‘t
think they have titles.“
It is our hope that many different
generations, nationalities, professions and
points of view can come together at this
event. We aim to create a space where
each human being can be valued for their
uniqueness, where we can develop an active
empathy, and where we can recognise that
each one of us is an important piece of ‘the
puzzle.’
And so it is with great warmth and
enthusiasm that the YouthSection and the
Section for Social Sciences invite you to
come into conversation – to take part in
shaping this unique social-artistic event – to
re-imagine the world!
We hope that you join us as we attempt
to leap from speaking about social
commitment to entering a conversation,
with commitment!
The event will be held at the Goetheanum.
It begins Friday November 27 at 5pm,
and ends on Sunday November 29 at 12:
30pm. For those who are connected to the
YouthSection, this event ends on Saturday
November 28 at 6:30pm. The YouthSection
Weekend will start at 8pm. This event will be
in English and German.
With social life as a central motif, we want
to work consciously with money. We
wish to enable every interested person to
participate. The suggested price for students
is CHF 50. However, the real costs of the
conference for the full weekend is CHF
250 per person. Bearing in mind that the
conference will be supported and carried
by your contribution, you are free to choose
the amount.
(This article is a written conversation
between Caitlin Balmer, Elizabeth
Wirsching, Guy Collins, Hanna Koskinen,
John Stubley, Katharina Ludwig, Katie
Dobb, Martin Stenius, Paul Mackay, Silvia
Zuur, Ulrich Rösch.)
For more information on this event please
email:
www.conversation.goetheanum.org
42 43
Events Preview 2009 – 2010200908.-11. August Inner Transformation and Social Renewal
Conference, with Art and Science ExhibitionSponsored by Threefold Educational Center and The Center for Social and Environmental Responsibility at Hawthorne ValleyThe Social Sciences Section of North America
11.-12. August Meeting of the Members of the Social Science Section in North Americaat the Threefold Community, Spring Valley, N.Y. with contributions from Bernie Wolf, Meg Gorman, Shawn Sullivan and Ulrich Rösch
04.-05. September Sustainable Development as a Destiny Question – Confronting EvilValues & More (Alexandra Traun) and the Goetheanum
05. September Spiritual Culture of Mothers and FathersWork day of the group Family Culture
10.-11.September Tempo in Organizational Enterprise2nd Interdisciplinary Economic Forum at the GoetheanumPerspectives for persons carrying responsibility in the economy and in cultural life Christine Blanke
12. September Religion – Activity of Freedom and LoveContinuing Education in Self-Development through Family Life Claudia Stockmann
20.-21. September Economics – Methodology and Concepts in the Economics Course of Rudolf Steiner Their Connection to Current Economic Practices Introduction by Paul Mackay, Prof. Dr. Marcelo da Veiga and Ulrich Rösch
24.-27. September Community Building in the Light of MichaelMichaelmas Conference The General Anthroposophical Section
08.-11. October Darwin and the Social Organism (Colloquium)The Natural Science Section and the Section for Social Sciences (by invitation only)
23.-24. October Colloquium on Conflict Research (by invitation only)
13.-14. November Nervousness and Self-AwarenessContinuing Education on Self-Development through Family LifeRudy Vandercruysse
26.-27. November Conversation about the Challenges of our Times(by invitation only)
27.-29. November Coming into Conversation – Encouraging Social CommitmentOpen Section Conference The Section for Social Sciences and the Youth Section
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If you would like to donate, our bank details are:Please earmark as follows: 60445/KST1300
201022.-23. January School for Spiritual Science: Conference on Family Culture
17th Class lesson
05.-07. March With Differences – In Cooperation: The Struggle for the Middle Public Conference about the Rights Life
16.-17. April Colloquium on Conflict Research (by invitation only)
10. October Meeting on Working with Elders
29.-30. October Colloquium on Conflict Research (by invitation only)
Tickets online at: www.goetheanum.org
More information about us: www.goetheanum.org/59.html
Worldwide:
Owner: Allgemeine Anthroposophische Gesellschaft
Raiffeisenbank Dornach, CH–4143 Dornach
Account-Nr. 10060.71BCL: 80939-1
IBAN: CH36 8093 9000 0010 0607 1Swiftcode: RAIFCH22
From Germany:
Owner: Allgemeine Anthroposophische Gesellschaft
GLS Gemeinschaftsbank eG, DE-44708 Bochum
Account-Nr. 988 100BLZ 430 609 67
IBAN: DE53 4306 0967 00
ImpressumEditor and Copyright: School of Spiritual Science at the Goetheanum - Section for Social SciencesEditors: Ulrich Rösch, Hanna KoskinenLayout and Design: Kohlhase Publishing and Consulting www.kohlhase-consulting.comLegal Notice: All articles are copyrighted. The texts do not necessarily reflect the view of the Section.