Memories of Rudolf Steiner by Ludwig Graf Polzer-Hoditz. Chapter 13

            

MEMORIES OF RUDOLF STEINER

by Ludwig Graf Polzer-Hoditz

Chapter 13

We still had some hope that Lerchenfeld, as a member of the Bavarian Government, would take an opportunity of speaking about the Threefold Social Order. I tried to encourage him in this direction and went to Munich, accompanying him to a parliamentary sitting which made a most unfavourable impression on me. How could men be so blind to reality in a time of such gravity? With a feeling of utter hopelessness I saw before me a declining, absolutely decadent culture. Important positions of the highest responsibility were filled by men who faced this time of crisis without principles or ideals. Although Lerchenfeld could not bring himself to speak, he was a lovable and conscientious anthroposophist, one of those who realized how obsolete all these governmental administrations and departments were, yet even with the best intentions he proved incapable of effective intervention. I began to understand more and more why Rudolf Steiner tried with many words of warning to rouse us to activity and I realized that there is a long way between “knowledge” and conscious, courageous action.

The next day we went together to Koefering. It was the first time I had ever stayed with the Lerchenfelds. I did not guess then that this visit was to introduce a new thread of destiny in my life which would bring much joy and a true anthroposophical companionship with Sophie, Lerchenfeld’s second daughter. I was received most kindly by Countess Lerchenfeld and her daughters. Rosa, the youngest, was eight, Sophie eighteen, and Marie Clara nineteen years old. The artist Thaddaus Rychter, whom I have mentioned before, was also staying at Koefering at the time. He had already created a favourable atmosphere for me. These few days were most pleasant and intimate.

In August my wife and I went to Berlin; we spent much time with Dr. Steiner and attended lectures. On an excursion to the Peacock Island (Pfaueninsel), we also visited Potsdam, where we went to see the house of Count Albert Hoditz in the Hoditzerstrasse. A tablet on the house commemorates this eccentric person, who had been married to a relative of Frederick the Great, the widowed Countess of Bayreuth, and who had carried on an extensive correspondence with the King. Having wasted all his fortune at his castle Rosswalde in Silesia, he was invited by the King to come to Potsdam, where he ended his days. George Sand speaks of him in her novel Consuelo. Even today this memory lives on in tradition in Silesia, and articles have been written in periodicals quite recently, mentioning the life of the “Mad Hoditz” or the “Wonder Count,” as he is called by the people. Our return journey brought us again to Koefering, where we spent a few days with the Lerchenfelds. My wife also became very fond of Sophie, who later on often stayed with us at Tannbach for long periods and who, when she had reached her majority, accompanied me on many lecture-tours and was a great help to me. I think that I was instrumental in widening her outlook on the world in the anthroposophical sense. It was during this time, too, that Herr Emil Hamburger, about whom I wrote previously, came to Tannbach to help us on the land. This was an anxious time, during which he shared with us all the joys and sorrows of the difficult years of the so-called “post-war” period.

The war news from the various fronts became more and more alarming; the complete exhaustion of the country could no longer be disguised and the approaching catastrophe was felt everywhere. In this time of extreme nervous tension I appreciated Hamburger’s presence and companionship, as well as the frequent visits to Koefering, as a great relief. At the beginning of October I had a serious attack of croup in Koefering and was nursed there with the greatest care.

The end of the war came — Austria was dismembered and the remaining torso was given a Republican Government. The aim of certain powers was thereby fulfilled. I felt that I had lost my country and home and what remained meant nothing to me. When Austria was deprived of her real task and Great Britain declared that it was not the mission of Middle Europe but that of the West to solve the problem of nations, nothing was of any real importance which could not be done for humanity as a whole. Anthroposophy had been a preparation for such work. And it was to this universal task that I desired to dedicate my remaining strength, at the side of the great teacher Rudolf Steiner.

During the time of this first confusion and economic distress it was very difficult to undertake long journeys. To begin with, we had to attend to our estate and to preserve means of livelihood for our work-people. This caused me to miss many lectures which Rudolf Steiner gave in various places, on the subject of the Threefold Social Organism. It was possible now to throw these ideas into the chaos of contradictory public opinions and the time began when Rudolf Steiner was obliged to address himself to a wider public. This, too, marked the beginning of new disappointments.

It was now a matter of opposing the dangers of Bolshevism, which were spreading on all hands. This was only possible with thoughts founded in spiritual reality. The need had arisen for a new social order and the idea of the Threefold Commonwealth seemed to meet it. The difficulty was to bring the idea to the masses. Those circles — they existed in Middle Europe too — which meant to profit from the catastrophe were very strong and wide-awake. They assisted the enemies of Middle Europe, partly deliberately and partly because of the affinity between their mentality and that of their enemies.

A group of Anthroposophists who, at the end of the war, had been made acquainted with the idea of the Threefold Commonwealth and had understood it in its main aspects, resolved to do something towards its realization. A Union was founded in various countries for this purpose. Rudolf Steiner wrote a poignantly worded appeal, “To the German People and the World of Culture.” Signatures were to be obtained and the completed documents sent to the most important newspapers for publication.

On February 7th I received a telegram from my friend Walter Johannes Stein, whom I have mentioned before, asking me to meet him at Vienna for reasons of a political nature. I left for Vienna the next day. In order to obtain signatures we made a tour round Vienna by car and on February 11th we were already able to telegraph ninety-three signatures to Zürich, where Dr. Steiner was staying at that time. On March 6th, practically all newspapers in Vienna published the appeal together with the signatures.

During this year a dear friend began to help us in our anthroposophical work and retained a leading position in this activity, with great enthusiasm and readiness to help, up to the time of his death in 1933. It was only then that I became acquainted with Joseph van Leer, but he had been a member of the Society for a long time, working at first in Holland, as he was Dutch.

After some consultations a Union for the Threefold Commonwealth idea was founded in Vienna, and on March 20th, as Chairman of the Union, I gave my first public lecture in the Reichshallensaal. The title of the lecture was “The Necessity of the Preservation and Further Evolution of German Spiritual Life for European Culture," and it dealt with the historical backgrounds of Rudolf Steiner’s Appeal.

The following days were taken up with many meetings and discussions as to the best way of procedure. The Union had a pillar of support in Dr. W. J. Stein, who gave many excellent lectures, also in Herr van Leer, who had started a successful timber-business in Vienna and gave considerable financial help. My friend Lieutenant-Colonel Hugo Griebsch was also on the Committee of the Union. Later, on account of his wife’s failing health, he went to Poland and devoted himself there to Anthroposophical and Threefold Commonwealth work. Griebsch was a friend of Pilsudski and was soon made Director of Defence in Poland. He often came to Vienna later on and discussed problems of Anthroposophy and the Threefold Commonwealth with me. Unfortunately he soon became very ill and died in 1927.

In April, Rudolf Steiner started public lectures in Stuttgart, the headquarters of the Union for the Threefold Commonwealth and all the other activities resulting from this idea. After having overcome certain passport difficulties, my wife and I left Salzburg for Stuttgart on April 12th.

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Source: https://rsarchive.org/OtherAuthors/Polzer-HoditzLudwig/MemoriesOfRudolfSteiner/Chapter_XIII.html

The Count in 1937

Ludwig Graf Polzer-Hoditz played a central part in the development of the anthroposophical movement from 1911 to 1925. He was a personal friend of Rudolf Steiner and one of his closest helpers. As such, these memoirs present a first-hand impression of Rudolf Steiner in daily life.

In 1913, Rudolf Steiner called him to Dornach so that he could be present at the laying of the foundation stone of the first Goetheanum. In 1917, Graf Polzer-Hoditz, whose brother Arthur was the Prime Minister and a personal friend of Kaiser Karl of Austria, belonged to a small circle to whom Rudolf Steiner gave the first indications regarding the Threefold Social Order.

As a member of Austrian aristocracy, Graf Polzer-Hoditz was very influential in cultural and political circles of the times, thereby enabling him to work for social reform during and after World War I. The Count was present at the burning of the first Goetheanum in 1922-23 and was also given special responsibility for the then newly-founded School of Spiritual Science in 1924. He vividly relates his memories of his travels with Rudolf Steiner and those who participated in the early anthroposophical movement.