Memories of Rudolf Steiner by Ludwig Graf Polzer-Hoditz. Chapter 5

     

MEMORIES OF RUDOLF STEINER

by Ludwig Graf Polzer-Hoditz

Chapter 5

After having heard Rudolf Steiner at Munich in 1911, we never missed an opportunity of hearing him speak. At that period of time he often came to Munich, and not only when the main conference was held in August.

And whenever he came to Austria I accompanied him throughout his tour. In the spring of 1912 we brought our two sons to him, then aged ten and eleven years, and till his death he always showed a great affection for them.

Although over seventy, my father had attended the series of lectures given in 1911 in Vienna on “Macrocosm and Microcosm,” and he used to relate how much he enjoyed the evening gatherings of the anthroposophists which were held after the lectures. My father died in the following year.

After a lecture in the Luitpoldstrasse, Munich, the year after my father’s death, I found Rudolf Steiner standing behind me. Putting his hand on my shoulder he said, “Your father is of great help to us in the spiritual world.” These words were spoken in such a grave and affectionate manner that I was most deeply impressed. In all ensuing conversations with me he always mentioned my father; even that day of November 11, 1924, when I visited the studio at the Goetheanum, now turned into a sick room, he said that my father had in the eleventh century received impulses from the school of Chartres.

At about this time I made the acquaintance of Dr. W. J. Stein, who then as quite a young man was very critical of spiritual science.

My first private interview with Rudolf Steiner was in 1911 in Graz. I remember that he spoke of my maternal grandfather four times removed, Franziskus Josephus, Count Hoditz. I have already recorded that in a lecture in 1908 Rudolf Steiner had styled him as one of the important thinkers of the seventeenth century. He told me then that he always thought it strange that he should have the same Christian names as those of the Austrian Emperor Franz Joseph. I never fathomed the point of this, but unfortunately he never reverted to this again.

My memories of the period 1911 to 1914 are among the most pleasant of my life. The times were not so serious then as now, and I could devote myself to spiritual science without external disturbances. The Mystery plays in Munich are among the most striking memories of that time. Rudolf Steiner cast the parts corresponding to the various personalities of his group of pupils, and thus the effect was greatly enhanced. My wife was always much more affected by these performances than I was.

Before I write of the international problems that I discussed with Rudolf Steiner, I must first return to the earlier period of my life in order to show how my upbringing allowed me to benefit through the accounts of participants’ personal experience of the historical forces of Europe. From anthroposophy I know how little one can learn from actual history if one only relies on documents, and how much more can be learnt from conversing with actual witnesses or by reading memoirs where the personalities speak freely and openly. At that time I did not know this, and therefore learnt little and forgot much.

From the very commencement of my military service I struck up a friendship with Count Adolf Waldstein, who was a lieutenant in the Windischgraetz hussars. Till his marriage we were inseparable, and remained friends for life. His father was one of the wealthiest men in Bohemia, head of the house of Waldstein of the family of Albrecht Waldstein, Duke of Friedland, mentioned by Schiller in his play Wallenstein. As the best friend of Adolf I was at once welcomed by his parents, and spent much time at their house at Prague and in their various castles in Bohemia. In fact their house became a second home to me. On many evenings Adolf and myself, who then were only nineteen years of age, sat with the old Excellency who recounted many interesting experiences dating to the beginning of the century. Many political events took place in the castles of the Waldsteins. Thus in 1830 in Munchengraetz a meeting took place between the Emperor Francis I of Austria and the Emperor Nicholas I of Russia. Count Waldstein had known all the people who had played a leading part in Austria during his lifetime, and had fought in the wars of 1848, 1849, and 1866. Even though I imbibed much of this superficially without great appreciation of the historical connections, nevertheless the feeling of those historic times before my birth remained with me.

The hussar regiment in which I served was stationed in Hungary, and I learnt much about Hungarian conditions and got to know many persons who were in influential positions. I profited much from my friendship with Count Emanuel Szechenyi, ten years my senior, who was in the diplomatic service from the ’eighties onwards, and was attached to the embassies in Berlin, St. Petersburg, and Constantinople, being finally Ambassador in Athens. He spent his leave on his Hungarian estates, where I learnt to know him, and we corresponded regularly when he was abroad. For a short time in 1898 he was Hungarian Minister at the Court in Vienna. Greatly as were the internal and external politics of Austria influenced by Hungary, I felt unconsciously that the Slav States were more important for the future of Austria and Central Europe.

The Colonel of my regiment was Wenzel, Freiherr Kotz von Dobrz, the uncle of my future wife. He was brought into contact with the ruling house of Austria through serving on several occasions at the Court. Through him and through my patron Waldstein, I often came into contact with the heir to the throne, the Archduke Francis Ferdinand, who was assassinated at Serajevo, and with his brother, Archduke Otto, the father of the late Emperor Karl. Both were colonels at various times of the neighbouring regiment, the Nadasy hussars, at Oedenburg. I also knew very well, when she was a young girl, the Duchess of Hohenberg, wife of Archduke Francis Ferdinand, and Archduke Karl was only seven years old when I first knew him.

After leaving the army I became interested in Austrian political problems. My brother, though young, had an important and responsible position in the Ministry of the Interior, and being very fond of each other we discussed many problems together. My sister married the former Minister of Commerce in the Cabinet of Count Taaffe, Marquis Olivier Bacquehem, later Minister of the Interior in the Cabinet of Count Windischgraetz and Statthalter of Steyrmark.

Thus from early days I had the opportunity of learning at first-hand much that related to the conditions of Austria-Hungary and also of Central Europe.

The true realization of the tragic fate of Austria only penetrated slowly to my consciousness. Only gradually did I appreciate the problems of Central Europe and of the future.

This somewhat discursive account of events and impressions of my early life must be told in order to come to concrete events. To omit the experiences of my earlier period, and merely to recount a catalogue of the dicta of Rudolf Steiner and of my relations with him would be to run counter to the methodology of human evolution which he taught me.

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