Memories of Rudolf Steiner by Ludwig Graf Polzer-Hoditz. Chapter 6

      

MEMORIES OF RUDOLF STEINER

by Ludwig Graf Polzer-Hoditz

Chapter 6

In the year 1910 plans were already being made by the anthroposophists for the building of a centre dedicated to the pursuit of spiritual knowledge. Rudolf Steiner was asked to make the designs and to undertake. the direction of the building. A society, the Johannishau Verein, was formed to promote the scheme, a site was purchased in Munich, and Rudolf Steiner designed the plans. But in spite of all efforts, permission to proceed with the actual building could not be obtained. The authorities claimed that the design did not harmonize with buildings in Munich, but in reality the opposition was encouraged by the Church authorities, who were opposed to the anthroposophical movement and did not want Munich to become its headquarters. Rudolf Steiner was insistent, and urged continually that time was running short for the building of such a centre as was desired.

In the month of September 1912 I went to Bâle, where Rudolf Steiner was lecturing on the Gospel of St. Mark. I had little connection with the anthroposophists in Switzerland, and so one free afternoon I set off alone on an excursion in the neighbourhood. Bâle itself was quite unknown to me, and getting into a small electric tramcar I went to the terminus of the railway. There, in a small monastery, was housed a curious effigy consisting of a pyramid of skulls in a glass case as a memorial to the battle of Birs and having an inscription: "Nobles had to rest with peasants." I inquired the name of the place and was told that I was in Dornach. Only later did I learn that Rudolf Steiner had been there the very same day to inspect the site that had been given by Dr. Grossheintz, as the prospects of being allowed to build in Munich were becoming more and more remote.

Twelve months later the foundation stone was laid of the edifice to be known, later on, as the Goetheanum. Some premonition seems to have drawn me to the place which ultimately became the centre of the anthroposophical movement. Members of this movement strongly opposed any abandonment of the Munich proposals. It was said that the headquarters of such a movement should be in the town and not in the remote countryside. Rudolf Steiner, however, was guided by different considerations, and foreseeing other needs gave continual warnings that time was pressing. He drew up a new set of designs suitable to the conditions of Dornach, and every effort was made to finish the building as soon as possible.

The Balkan wars of 1913 were the forerunners of the world catastrophe. During the lectures given by Rudolf Steiner at that critical time, some of his listeners divined why providence had decreed that he should be sent among them then. The course given that August was entitled "The Secrets of the Threshold," and the lectures were introduced by the indication that it was through the dispute over the Filioque clause that the Western Church had been divided from the Eastern, and that the dispute had lasted until the present day.

I remember that in a short private conversation Rudolf Steiner remarked to me that as long as Germany was occupied politically with such projects as the Bagdad Railway, she would never make headway in Europe. At that time I understood nothing of the guiding forces of European destiny, and I asked myself what there could possibly be in the construction of this railway that ran counter to the well-being of Germany? Later, during the world war, I understood. The remarks on the Filioque clause were then more comprehensible to me. I was already grounded in the origins of the controversy through Rudolf Steiner’s lectures on the Gospels.

1913 was a crowded year for the anthroposophists. In addition to the annual conference at Munich, meetings were also held in other places. At the end of May we travelled to Stockholm and Helsingfors. On the way there I made the acquaintance of Mr. Alfred Meebold of Heidenheim, who was an older member of the movement than myself. I also retain affectionate memories of Mr. and Mrs. Van der Pals, Countess Hamilton, and Colonel Kinell. On the 27th May many people came to the railway station at Helsingfors to greet Rudolf Steiner. On the same day began a series of lectures on the occult origins of the Bagavad Gita. The cold north and the Bagavad Gita! It seems almost paradoxical, yet through the combination of these two opposites the meeting was pervaded by a deeply religious feeling of the common spiritual destiny of humanity. I remember many remarks that were made in talks between the lectures, about Woodrow Wilson, the United States, and the dangers to the world of Wilson’s abstract intellectualism.

On September 17th I received a telegram from Dr. Grossheintz to the effect that on the following 20th, the foundation stone of the Johannisbau (as the building was then called) was to be laid in Dornach by Rudolf Steiner. On the evening of that day a few of us assembled on the Dornach hill. A pit, the bottom of which was reached by nine circular steps, had been dug in the soil. Here the foundation stone was to rest. When the building was completed the speakers’ rostrum was to stand immediately over the foundation stone. The stone itself was in the shape of two pentagondodecahedrons joined together, a smaller and a larger, both made of copper. The scroll on which Rudolf Steiner had written an inscription as a memorial of the foundation and which was to give expression to the importance of the occasion for all time, was sealed into the stone. Before the beginning of the ceremony a wooden pile was lit. It was raining in torrents. Some of us carried burning torches. We stood grouped around the pit as Rudolf Steiner came up to it. He began by invoking all the spiritual hierarchies, one after the other, to bear witness, and then, in the ensuing discourse, he briefly summarized the development of spiritual history up to the present time — the twentieth day of September, eighteen hundred and eighty years after the Crucifixion, nineteen hundred and thirteen years after the Birth of Christ, at the time when Mercury as the evening star was standing in the constellation of Libra. Twelve red roses and one white rose were laid on the stone and it was lowered to its position. I remember that I was holding my torch somewhat anxiously, partly from excitement and also because burning sparks were falling and we were packed so closely together.

The picture of this ceremony, lit up by the burning pile and the glow of the torches in the darkness, made a deep impression upon me. I knew that I had been able to participate in a ceremony that would have significance for centuries.

When the anthroposophical movement took its place in public life through the completion of the building that was later called the Goetheanum, the first serious opposition to Rudolf Steiner and the movement began.

Immediately after the foundation ceremony my wife and I left for Christiania, where Rudolf Steiner was giving another course of lectures, on the "Fifth Gospel." It was nearly always the same group of people who went on these journeys. In the different towns many new acquaintanceships were made with individuals, points of view, and customs of the countries. In his lectures Rudolf Steiner always knew how to make links with the spiritual history, traditions, and legends of the various countries. To share in all this enriched our experiences beyond measure on the path to a wider understanding of the nature of man.

************

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

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.