Extending boundaries – Empowering individuals
Extending boundaries – Empowering individuals
by Michaela Glöckler
with an Afterword by Andreas Neider
ISBN 978-1-915594-01-3, 25th September 2023, Pb 92 pp
retail £7.50
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In her essay written ‘with heart and soul’ on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the founding of the General Anthroposophical Society, Michaela Glöckler engages us in conversations she has had regarding the task of this society. They include elementary questions such as: why become a member today? But they also make us aware in an inspiring new way of the task that moved Rudolf Steiner to connect himself with this founding event and with the people who joined it.
It also becomes clear why we can only now grasp the cultural task of this society, where the great challenges and problems of the 21st century are clearly emerging. In his Afterword, Andreas Neider discusses the ‘culmination’ of the anthroposophical movement at the end of the 20th century, as prophesied by Steiner, and comes to a surprising conclusion.
About the Author
Dr. Michaela Glöckler, paediatrician, was for 28 years the Head of the Medical Section at the Goetheanum, the anthroposophic School of Spiritual Science in Dornach, Switzerland. Before that she worked in the paediatric department of the Community Hospital in Herdecke, Germany and served as school doctor for the Rudolf Steiner School in Witten, Germany. She is Co-founder of the Alliance for Childhood and the European Alliance of Initiatives for applied Anthroposophy/ELIANT. She lectures worldwide on the integrative medical model of Anthroposophic Medicine. She has written numerous books in English and German in the fields of health, medicine and education.
I appreciate that you, dear reader, have picked
up this little book. It has been written not only
from the heart but also in the hope that the
Anthroposophical Society will be able to fulfil its
task in the 21st century, in the way intended by its
originator Rudolf Steiner at its foundation at the
Goetheanum during the Christmas Conference
of 1923/1924.
What induced me to make the attempt to write
about this foundation a hundred years later?
Allow me to start with a personal remark:
anthroposophy has been an essential part of my
life since I was sixteen. It has helped me to answer
the many questions arising in me as a young
woman after the war and in view of the nuclear
arms race in America and Russia and to be able to
love life on earth despite the Holocaust and other
apocalyptic scenarios. When I was 18 I had a guest
ticket that gave me access to members’ lectures at
Rudolf Steiner House in Stuttgart. At the age of
21 I joined the Anthroposophical Society and two
years later the School of Spiritual Science.
In friends, acquaintances, fellow students and
colleagues I have often noticed that, unlike me, they
were and are often not inspired by their enthusiasm
for anthroposophy to become members of the
Anthroposophical Society. We have anthroposophy
– why does it need such a society? When I think of
all the things that occurred after Rudolf Steiner’s
death in 1925! What do these struggles, conflicts,
exclusions, social disputes, misunderstandings and
reconciliations have to do with me? To say nothing
of the esoteric questions: how real is the spiritual
impulse (now) in this society and its School of
Spiritual Science? Did people not disagree on
this question in particular, even among Rudolf
Steiner’s closest pupils? And then this whole
multifaceted ‘constitution problem’! Are we or
are we not members of the society founded by
Rudolf Steiner at Christmas 1923/1924? Or are
we members of the converted Bauverein (building
association), that is, the Goetheanum Association
of the School of Spiritual Science, which was
founded to support and secure the construction
and funding of the first Goetheanum?
Why do opinions diverge so much on the official
conversion of the Bauverein on 8 February
1925? The minutes of the Bauverein’s fourth
extraordinary general meeting, just like the
preceding documents, provide clear information
on this (GA 260a), as does the entry in the
commercial register signed by Rudolf Steiner
and the other members of the Executive Council
on 8 February! In these documents the name
of the ‘Goetheanum Association of the School
of Spiritual Science/ Bauverein’ is changed to
‘General Anthroposophical Society’ – its name
is now clearly that of the society founded at
Christmas! Why would one doubt that this is what
Rudolf Steiner wanted? Who is willing to join a
society that questions its own identity and that
keeps investing time and energy in discussions on
the questions I have briefly outlined?
As I am one of those members who are fully
convinced that the task of the Anthroposophical
Society is of central importance for our time and
that this task gains ever greater urgency when
we look towards the future, I find all the many
reasons that have been listed against becoming
a member not only painful but, in reflecting on
these critical reservations and arguments, I gain
a growing understanding of how important and
inevitable the task of this Society and of the
School it supports really is. I even think that the
many counter arguments, even hostilities, would
not exist if this task were not so crucial!
Is it not fitting, too, that there are as many
arguments in favour as there are against? Does
not that make us really free to decide in favour of
becoming members of our own accord? I write
this little book hoping that it will contribute to
casting new light on the cultural impulse of this
Society and to supporting it in the best possible
way. Since the content of this booklet is the result
of many conversations, I have chosen to present
it in the form of a dialogue.
I most warmly thank Andreas Neider, with whom
I have been in conversation for many years on
questions regarding the anthroposophical work.
Not only was he prepared to get this publication
off the ground and include an afterword that is
very important to me, but he also took on the
task of completing and editing the manuscript.
Richard Brinton I sincerely thank, who was
willing to publish this essay for the Englishspeaking
world, and Margot Saar, who was able to
complete the translation with great commitment
in a very short time.
Goetheanum, 23 August 2024
Michaela Glöckler