Anthroposophy and Ecofascism 32

Peter Staudenmaier writes in Paragraph 9:

Immediately after the split, Steiner founded the Anthroposophical Society in Germany. Shortly before the outbreak of world war one he moved the fledgling organization's international headquarters to Switzerland. Under the protection of Swiss neutrality he was able to build up a permanent center in the village of Dornach. Blending theosophical wisdom with his own "occult research," Steiner continued to develop the theory and practice of Anthroposophy, along with a steadily growing circle of followers, until his death in 1925.

The first inaccuracy lies in claiming that Steiner founded the Anthroposophical Society. Marie von Sievers, Michael Bauer and Carl Unger did. (See Christoph Lindenberg, Rudolf Steiner: Eine Biographie, Stuttgart 1997, page 503 ) Rudolf Steiner conscientiously refrained from breaking from the Theosophical Society or from giving his followers any indication that he wished for this to happen. The initiative to found a new society came entirely from the three mentioned above, and Steiner did not join this new society until 1923.

To the second error, I have previously quoted Steiner on his relationship to Theosophy and the Theosophical Society. Steiner was quite clear that there was no “blending” of his research with Theosophical doctrine. He claimed to speak only of what he directly knew. The closest thing to a blending was Steiner's use of the Theosophical vocabulary to describe certain aspects of supersensible experience. However, the use of similar vocabulary does not make for a common worldview. Certainly a scholar can claim that Steiner was wrong in his assertions. However, to do so a scholar would have to present a far more comprehensive argument, and be in possession of a far deeper background in both Theosophical doctrine and Steiner's Anthroposophy than Peter Staudenmaier has shown.