Anthroposophical Society - History

History

The Anthroposophical Society traces its history back to 1902, when Rudolf Steiner became General Secretary of the German branch of the Theosophical Society. Prior to this time, Theosophy had made little headway in Germany; despite some visits by Helena Blavatsky, a founder of the Theosophical Society, to Germany and its prominent Theosophists, it was not until after her death in 1891 that a single Berlin Lodge was officially chartered in 1894. Its nominal leadership by Dr Huebbe-Schleiden was supported by the ongoing efforts of Count and Countess Brockdorff, under whose auspices Steiner was first asked to lecture to an audience including German Theosophists in August 1900. Here, as in the Vienna of the mid-1880s (where Steiner first encountered Theosophy and mingled with Theosophists), his spiritual insights found a responsive audience, many of whom had found in Theosophy only an imperfect reflection of their own beliefs.

Upon Steiner's ascension to leadership, and throughout his term in office, this German branch worked quite independently of the rest of the Theosophical Society; in particular, Steiner sought to link to European esoteric, philosophical and scientific traditions in a way quite foreign to the main society, which was geographically and spiritually based in Adyar, India.

This tolerance on Besant's part grew strained over the years, and signs of the growing divide between the two belief systems are easily distinguished in hindsight. By 1907, Steiner's shift from the use of Blavatsky's Theosophical terminology to the teaching of the core of his own Anthroposophical revelation became increasingly apparent, including at the International Congress at Munich in May 1907. Later that year, "by mutual consent", connections were severed between the Theosophical Esoteric Section (E. S.) and the esoteric circle he had founded as an offshoot.

Gathering tensions over a variety of issues, including the rapid growth of the German section and its increasing activity in areas outside of Germany, came to a head when the leadership of the Theosophical Society declared that they had found the reincarnated Christ in a young boy named Jiddu Krishnamurti. The Order of the Star in the East was founded in 1911 by the followers of Krishnamurti, most of whom were Theosophists; Steiner's opposition was made unmistakable by his 1912 declaration that no member of the new Order could remain a member of the German Theosophical Society. By the end of that year, Besant had led the General Council of the Theosophical Society to revoke the charter for the German Section, under Steiner's leadership. In February 1913, Steiner and a group of prominent German theosophists founded a new society, the Anthroposophical Society, with the intent of pursuing a more Western path of spirituality than that nurtured in the Theosophical Society.

Steiner's personal role in the growth of the German Theosophical Society was revealed at the time of that split, as the branch which had numbered only a single Lodge and a few individual members in 1902 had burgeoned to 69 Lodges, 55 of which (about 2,500 people) left with Steiner in the forming of the new Anthroposophical Society. The 14 Lodges which remained in the Theosophical Society were issued a new charter by the General Council of the Theosophical Society, and were once again led by Dr Huebbe-Schleiden. This early Anthroposophy showed a strong Germanic predominance — English Anthroposophy was initially limited to a small anonymous club during WWI; there also seem to have been some founding members from the Netherlands and other European countries —, and functioned as a German-speaking esotericism; however, the choice of Switzerland over Weimar for the Goetheanum argues against a narrow nationalistic view of the Anthroposophical Society.

The society was refounded in December 1923 after a split occurred between younger members, who had formed their own "Free Anthroposophical Society," and the older members of the existing group. It was especially the younger members who had taken initiatives such as founding a school, a curative home for the handicapped, a medical clinic, a farm and other institutions.

At the Christmas Conference called to refound the society, Steiner presented the Foundation Stone Meditation, which he suggested would be the spiritual cornerstone of an Anthroposophical movement which for the first time would be unified with the Society itself. He also gave a series of lectures on world history over the course of this eight-day conference, and founded the First Class of the School of Spiritual Science as an organ of regeneration.