Rudolf Steiner se je rodil 25. februarja 1861 v Dolnjem Kraljevcu v Medžimurju na Hrvaškem. Ko je bil star dve leti se je njegova družina preselila v Burgenland v Avstriji.

Kot otrok se je Steiner zanimal za matematiko in filozofijo in od leta 1879 do 1883, obiskoval Technische Hochschule (Tehnično Univerzo) na Dunaju, na kateri je študiral matematiko, fiziko in kemijo.

V tem času je srečal preprostega zbiralca zelišč, ki mu je pripovedoval o duhovnem svetu in ga kasneje spoznal z osebo, ki jo je Steiner razkril zgolj kot “mojstra”, ki je imel velik vpliv na njegov nadaljnji razvoj, še posebej s tem, ko ga je usmeril v študij Fichtejeve filozofije.

Leta 1882 je postal znanstveni urednik nove izdaje Goethejevih del. Na podlagi dela na tej izdaji je bil Steiner leta 1888 povabljen v Goethejev arhiv v Weimarju, da bi postal urednik celotne izdaje Goethejevih del. Tam je ostal do leta 1896.

Leta 1891 je doktoriral iz filozofije na Univerzi v Rostocku v Nemčiji, z dizertacijo, ki je bila kasneje objavljena v razširjeni obliki pod naslovom Resnica in znanje.

V tistem času je Steiner sodeloval tudi pri celoviti izdaji del Arthurja Schopenhauerja in pisatelja Jeana Paula, pisal članke za različne časnike in napisal to, kar je sam imel za svoje najbolj pomembno filozofsko delo, Die Philosophie der Freiheit - Filozofija svobode (1894), raziskavo o filozofski teoriji o znanju in etiki, ki je nakazala pot, po kateri lahko ljudje postanejo duhovno svobodna bitja.

Leta 1896 je bil Steiner naprošen, da uredi Nietzschejev arhiv v Naumburgu, na podlagi česar je nato napisal knjigo Friedrich Nietzsche, borec za svobodo.

Leta 1897 je zapustil Weimar in se preselil v Berlin, da bi postal lastnik, glavni urednik in pisec prispevkov literarne revije Magazin für Literatur.

Leta 1899 se je Steiner poročil s Frau Eunicke in se odločil, da objavi članek pod naslovom Goethejevo skrivno razodetje, ki govori o ezoterični naravi Goethejeve Pravljice o Jari kači. Ta članek je sprožil vabilo grofa in grofice Brockdorff naj predava v teozofskem krogu o Nietscheju. Steiner je odtlej redno predaval članom Teozofskega društva in leta 1902 postal predsednik na novo ustanovljene Nemške Sekcije. V okviru društva se je Steiner srečal in sodeloval z Marijo von Sievers, ki je nato leta 1914 postala njegova druga žena.

Leta 1904 je bil Steiner s strani Annie Besant imenovan za vodjo Ezoterične Sekcije za Nemčijo in Avstrijo, vendar pa je jasno dal vedeti, da bo ta šola učila zahodno duhovno tradicijo. Leta 1906 pa je postal tudi vodja lože, imenovane Mystica Aeterna, v okviru masonskega reda Memphis in Mizraim, združenja, ki je delovalo nekako do leta 1914.

Pod Steinerjevim vodstvom je Nemška Sekcija Teozofskega društva hitro rastla. V tem obdobju je Steiner razvil izviren pristop in nadomestil izrazoslovje Madame Blavatsky s svojim lastnim ter opravljal duhovno raziskavo z rezultati, ki so bili drugačni od tistih Besantove in Leadbeatra. Razlika se postala še posebej očitna na teozofskem kongresu v Münchnu leta 1907. Do razdora je prišlo, ko je C. W. Leadbeater, ki mu je sledila Annie besant, trdil, da bo mladi indijski deček, Jiddu Krishnamurti, postal nosilec zavesti Učitelja Sveta. Steiner je oporekal temu, da bi Krishnamurtiju pripisali status mesije. Člani Nemškega teozofskega društva so odklonili članstvo v The Star of the East, organizaciji, ki je bila ustanovljena v podporo Krishnamurtijevemu domnevnemu poslanstvu, zapustili Teozofsko društvo in ustanovili novo Antropozofsko društvo, ustanovljeno nekje med avgustom in decembrom leta 1912, ki pa se mu Steiner ni pridružil.

Po prekinitvi s Teozofskim društvom je nadaljeval svoje delo v okviru neodvisne Ezoterične Šole in se posvetil gradnji prve stavbe Goetheanum v Dornachu v Švici, ter zasnoval novo umetnostno gibanje, evritmijo, kot del splošnega razvoja umetnosti tistega časa. Leta 1919 je v Goetheanumu potekala svetovna premiera celovite produkcije Goethejevega Fausta.

V tem letu je poleg tega na prošnjo Emila Molta, lastnika tobačne tovarne Waldorf-Astoria iz Stuttgarta, razvil vzgojni model za otroke, ki je postal osnova za prvo Waldorfsko šolo v Avstriji.

Istega leta je politični teoretik nacional-socialističnega gibanja v Nemčiji, Dietrich Eckart, napadel Steinerja, češ da je Žid. Leta 1921 pa ga je v desno usmerjenem časniku Völkischen Beobachter napadel še Adolf Hitler in drugi nacionalistični ekstremisti v Nemčiji in pozvali na “vojno zoper Steinerja”. Steiner je namreč pred tem imel daljšo predavateljsko turnejo, na kateri je promoviral idejo o Trojnem družbenem redu, ki je zagovarjala povsem drugačen politični ustroj; govoril je, da se je mogoče le z medsebojno neodvisnostjo kulturnega, političnega in ekonomskega področja izogniti takšnim katastrofam kot je svetovna vojna.

Leta 1922 je bil namenoma požgan Goetheanum, vendar pa je Steiner nadaljeval s svojimi predavanji in nato naslednjega leta reorganiziral Antropozofsko društvo ter prevzel njegovo vodenje. Soasno je ustanovil tudi Šolo Duhovne Znanosti, ki je bila zasnovana kot odprta univerza za raziskovanje in študij.

Od leta 1923 naprej je Steiner kazal vidne znake šibkosti in bolezni. Še vedno je precej predaval, vendar pa je postal jeseni 1924 preveč šibek, da bi nadaljeval s tem delom. Zadnje predavanje je imel septembra tega leta. Umrl je v Dornachu, 30. marca 1925. Glede na okoliščine so se v zvezi z njegovo boleznijo in smrtjo pojavili nekateri dvomi.

Rudolf Steiner was born on February 25th, 1861, in Donji Kraljevec, Međimurje region, Croatia. When he was two years old the family moved to Burgenland in Austria.

As a child Steiner was interested in mathematics and philosophy and from 1879 to 1883 attended the Technische Hochschule (Technical University) in Vienna, where he studied mathematics, physics, and chemistry.

In that period Steiner met a simple herb gatherer who spoke him about the spiritual world and later introduced him to a person that Steiner only identified as a "master", and who had a great influence on Steiner's subsequent development, in particular directing him to study Fichte's philosophy.

In 1882 he became the scientific editor of a new edition of Goethe's works. In 1888, as a result of his work on this edition, Steiner was invited to come to the Goethe archives in Weimar to become an editor of the complete edition of Goethe's works. He remained there until 1896.

In 1891 he earned a doctorate in philosophy at the University of Rostock in Germany with his thesis, later published in expanded form as Truth and Knowledge.

In that time Steiner also collaborated in complete editions of Arthur Schopenhauer's work and that of the writer Jean Paul, wrote articles for various journals and what he considered his most important philosophical work, Die Philosophie der Freiheit - The Philosophy of Freedom (1894), an exploration of epistemology and ethics that suggested a path upon which humans can become spiritually free beings.

In 1896 Steiner was asked to set in order the Nietzsche archive in Naumburg and subsequently wrote the book Friedrich Nietzsche, Fighter for Freedom.

In 1897 he left the Weimar and moved to Berlin to become the owner, chief editor, and active contributor to the literary journal Magazin für Literatur.

In 1899 Steiner married Frau Eunicke and decided to publish an article titled Goethe's Secret Revelation, on the esoteric nature of Goethe's fairy tale, The Green Snake and the Beautiful Lily. This article led to an invitation by the Count and Countess Brockdorff to speak to a gathering of Theosophists on the subject of Nietzsche. Steiner continued speaking regularly to the members of the Theosophical Society, becoming the head of its newly constituted German section in 1902. It was within this society that Steiner met and worked with Marie von Sievers, who eventually became his second wife (1914).

By 1904, Steiner was appointed by Annie Besant to be leader of the Esoteric Section for Germany and Austria but he made it clear that this school would teach a Western spiritual path. In 1906 Steiner became also leader of a lodge called Mystica Aeterna within the Masonic Order of Memphis and Mizraim, an affiliation that ended around 1914.

The German Section of the Theosophical Society grew rapidly under Steiner's. During this period Steiner developed an original approach, replacing Madame Blavatsky’s terminology with his own, and performing spiritual research with results different from those achieved by Besant and Leadbeater. Difference became particularly pronounced at the Theosophical Congress in Munich in 1907. The breaking point came when C. W. Leadbeater, followed by Annie Besant, claimed that a young Indian boy, Jiddu Krishnamurti, will become a vehicle for World Teacher. Steiner quickly denied this attribution of messianic status to Krishnamurti. Members of the German Theosophical Society refused membership in The Star of the East, an organization founded to support Krishnamurti's supposed mission and left the Theosophical Society and established the new Anthroposophical Society, founded between August and December 1912, but Steiner didn’t join it.

After the break with the Theosophical Society he continued his work within his Independent Esoteric School and dedicated himself to the construction of the first Goetheanum building, in Dornach, Switzerland, and initiated a new art of movement, eurythmy, as one part of the general development of the arts at the time. In 1919, the Goetheanum staged the world premiere of a complete production of Goethe's Faust.

In this same year he developed experimental educational model for children in response to a request from Emil Molt, owner of the Waldorf-Astoria Tobacco factory in Stuttgart, which became the basis for the first Waldorf’s school in Austria.

Still that year the political theorist of the National Socialist movement in Germany, Dietrich Eckart, attacked Steiner and suggested that Steiner was a Jew. In 1921, Adolf Hitler attacked Steiner in an article in the right-wing Völkischen Beobachter newspaper and other nationalist extremists in Germany were calling up a "war against Steiner". Steiner had namely gone on extensive lecture tours promoting social ideas of the Threefold Social Order, entailing a fundamentally different political structure; he suggested that only through independence of the cultural, political and economic realms could such catastrophes as the World War be avoided.

In 1922 the Goetheanum was criminally set afire, but Steiner continued his lecture tours and in the following year re-organized the Anthroposophical Society and assumed its leadership. In the same time he established the School of Spiritual Science, intended as an open university for research and study.

From 1923 on, Steiner showed signs of increasing frailness and illness. He continued to lecture widely but by autumn 1924 he was too weak to continue. His last lecture was held in September of that year. He died in Dornach on March 30, 1925. Regarding the circumstances there has been some suspicion around his illness and death.

Njegova dela in internetni viri

His works and online resources

Ko človek vpiše v Googlovo iskalno okno ime Rudolf Steiner, dobi več kot 1.500.000 rezultatov. Tako težavo dejansko ne predstavlja pomanjkanje informacij, pač pa to, kako izmed teh narediti primeren izbor.

If one inserts the name of Rudolf Steiner into Google search window she/he gets more than 1.500.000 results, so the real trouble is not a lack of information but how to make a good selection.

Pripravil: Anton Rozman