I don’t want to be revered! I want to be understood. –Rudolf Steiner, 1915

Whoever follows Rudolf Steiner’s life will gain the impression that, from a certain point on, his constant attempt was to awake, in numerous ways, an active, working understanding for Anthroposophy. He used creative imagination to treat particular themes and tasks, ever anew, and in many forms. If we observe the variations of those presentations, we see in them the intentions that guided his whole life. A biography that shows Steiner’s intentions and efforts in the context of the times and his life circumstances will not only relate what happened, but also why. His work does not, as in many modern biographies, disappear behind the life story.

This is one of the most comprehensive biographies of Rudolf Steiner, tracing his life and development through a profound look at his life and work, which encompassed numerous areas, including his Goethean research, philosophy, esoteric work, pedagogy, medicine, sociology, agriculture, architecture, painting, movement arts, and poetry. This biography, which tracks his divergent activities, shows how Rudolf Steiner was most concerned with bringing a new approach to knowledge through Spiritual Science and to revitalizing the most important areas of human culture and society.

Includes 119 photographic reproductions.

C O N T E N T S

Foreword Introduction

1. The Stranger 2. Learning
   
2. Student in Vienna
   
3. The Lonely Wanderer
   
4. Goethe: A Source of Hope
   
5. In Need of Special Care
   
6. Theory of Knowledge
   
7. Social Life in Vienna
   
8. The Editor: An Excursion into Politics
   
9. Aesthetics
   
10. First Journeys 12. Friedrich Eckstein, Theosophy, and Rosa Mayreder
    
11. Spirit and Nature: The Foundation of a Spiritual Philosophy
    
12. Weimar: At the Goethe-Schiller Archive
    
13. Lonely in the Company of Many Friends
    – Images, Part One 16. The Philosophy of Freedom
    
14. For and against Nietzsche
    
15. A New World Opens Up
    
16. The Maelstrom of Berlin
    
17. Time of Trial
    
18. Three Attempts at the Turn of the Century
    
19. The Way into the Theosophical Society
    
20. The Theosophical Society
    
21. Establishing the German Section of the Theosophical Society
    
22. Attempts to Fructify the Art of Living
    
23. The Three Paths
    
24. The Munich Congress: A Conference in a Rosicrucian Temple 28. Breadth and Depth 29. The Illumination of the Christian Mysteries
    
25. The Mystery Plays
    
26. Separation from the Theosophical Society
    
27. Surrounded by Artists: 1907-1918
    
28. Building
    – Images, Part Two 34. Wartime in Dornach
    
29. The Destiny of Central Europe
    
30. The Idea of the Threefold Human Organism
    
31. The Threefold Social Movement during the War
    
32. Preparations for the Postwar Period
    
33. Struggle for the Threefold Commonwealth
    
34. The Independent Waldorf School
    
35. Commercial Ventures
    
36. The Need to Communicate Impulses for Cultural Renewal
    
37. A Broader Understanding of Healing
    
38. Establishing The Christian Community
    
39. Possibilities–Realities 46. The Goetheanum Fire
    
40. Stuttgart 1923 48. Spring 1923: The Struggle to Rebuild
    
41. Summer 1923: England
    – Images, Part Three
    
42. Autumn 1923: The Way to Decision
    
43. The Christmas Conference of 1923
    
44. Foundations
    
45. Spring 1924
    
46. The Final Intensification: Summer 1924
    
47. Sickbed and Death

Epilogue
The Collected Works of Rudolf Steiner
Bibliography