Anthroposophy and Ecofascism 89

Peter Staudenmaier writes in Paragraph 27 of Anthroposophy and Ecofascism:

In the heady turn-of-the-century atmosphere, Steiner flirted for a while with left politics, and even shared a podium with revolutionary socialist Rosa Luxemburg at a workers' meeting in 1902. But Steiner consistently rejected any materialist or social analysis of capitalist society in favor of "looking into the soul" of fellow humans to divine the roots of the modern malaise. This facile approach to social reality was to reach fruition in his mature political vision, elaborated during the first world war. Steiner's response to the war was determined by the final, decisive component in his intellectual temperament: chauvinist nationalism.

Let us contrast Peter Staudenmaier's description of Steiner's "flirtation" with left politics with a description by Henry Barnes:

During these years Steiner was asked to give courses in history and public speaking at the Berlin Worker's School (Arbeitersbildungschule), founded by Karl Liebknecht in 1891. Steiner's view of history directly contradicted the Marxist view that dominated the Worker's School. To Marx, economic and material forces were the only realities involved in shaping the historical process. Cultural ideals, as expressed through intellectual life, art, and religion were only froth on the surface of historical reality. They were, in his view, unrealistic ideologies – merely bourgeois self-indulgences. Steiner made it clear to the school's executive committee that he had to lecture and teach entirely in accordance with his own views. The committee made no objection to this, and Steiner began an activity that gave him great satisfaction. In many of his pupils – mostly working men and women of mature years – he experienced a yearning for knowledge and an untapped vigor of soul that lived beneath the surface of their social-democratic, Marxist indoctrination.

That his teaching was very welcome is shown by the students' request that, in addition to his history and public speaking courses, he speak to them about the sciences as well. Steiner was eventually speaking to groups within and outside the school every night of the week.*

Steiner did not "flirt" with left-wing politics. Steiner held courses in an institution for the education of the proletariat, having first informed the directors that he opposed the Marxist interpretation of history. They hired him anyway, and he was the single most popular lecturer. He taught there for almost five years before being forced out by more doctrinaire functionaries. It was in this context that Steiner "shared a podium" – in the literal, and not ideological, sense – with Rosa Luxemburg in 1902.** The derisive “looking into the soul” quote is not cited, so the context cannot be examined.

* Barnes, Henry . A Life for the Spirit: Rudolf Steiner in the Crosscurrents of Our Time. New York: Anthroposophic Press, 1997. Pages 70-72.

** Lindenberg, Christoph. Rudolf Steiner: Eine Biographie. Stuttgart: Verlag Freies Geistes Leben, 1997 pages 300-305.