Anthroposophy and Ecofascism 86

Peter Staudenmaier writes in Paragraph 26:

Haeckel's elitist worldview extended beyond the realm of biology. He was also "a prophet of the national and racial regeneration of Germany" and exponent of an "intensely mystical and romantic nationalism," as well as "a direct ancestor" of Nazi eugenics.[Footnote: First two quotes from Daniel Gasman, The Scientific Origins of National Socialism: Social Darwinism in Ernst Haeckel and the German Monist League, New York 1971, pp. 16-17; third quote from George Mosse, Toward the Final Solution, Madison 1985, p. 87. Haeckel's virulent racism is also extensively documented in Richard Lerner, Final Solutions: Biology, Prejudice, and Genocide, Philadelphia 1992.] Monism, which Steiner for a time vigorously defended, rejected "Western rationalism, humanism, and cosmopolitanism," and was "opposed to any fundamental social change. What was needed for Germany, it argued categorically, was a far-reaching cultural and not a social revolution."[Footnote: Gasman, p. 31 and 23. See also the classic account from an anthroposophist perspective: Johannes Hemleben, Rudolf Steiner und Ernst Haeckel, Stuttgart 1965.] This attitude was to become a hallmark of Anthroposophy.

Haeckel’s life and the influence of his worldview have been extensively written on. While there is little to disagree with in Peter Staudenmaier’s presentation of Haeckel, it has been demonstrated that Steiner broke with Haeckel on numerous points, and particularly on those that Peter Staudenmaier deplores. As a result it is not possible to tar Steiner with Haeckel’s excesses.