Education, Organic Farming and Angels: Exhibition Highlights Rudolf Steiner's Influence on Modern Germany

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Steiner studied science and the humanities at various universities, and he became the publisher of the scientific writings of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. He worked at times as a tutor, researcher, editor and book publisher. Politically, he was left of center, and he worked for Germany's Social Democratic Party. He was also interested in anarchism and led a bohemian lifestyle.

Anthroposophy is also the extension of the 19th-century German Goethe cult into contemporary Germany. Perhaps the fixation on Goethe explains why Steiner's spiritual philosophy, unlike other contemporary movements such as the George-Kreis (George Circle) around the writer Stefan George, has endured to this day. Anthroposophists could always sublimate their proto-religious desires in the direction of Goethe, with Steiner acting as the intermediary. In addition, anthroposophy became popular with the educated middle class. Goethe, after all, is also a bulwark against the world of popular culture and its superficialities.

Steiner later gave a vast number of talks on every topic under the sun (with the notable exception of sex). Some of the lectures include dubious ideas about, for example, Africans. There were 5,965 lectures in all, and supporters recorded most of them in shorthand and wrote them up. Some 308 of his books are displayed on a wall in Wolfsburg, with such disparate titles as "How to Know Higher Worlds" and "On the Nature of Bees."

Blend of Beliefs

Steiner basically led an extremely modern life. He was highly mobile and spent much of his time traveling from lecture to lecture. He also acted as an adviser to industry and politics. Steiner was able to offer something no one else had: a direct connection to the cosmos.

Anthroposophy attempts to blend together Christian mysticism, science, Goethe's ideas, German idealism and all kinds of mysterious occult knowledge into an academic model for studying the supernatural. Steiner claimed that he had done this with the help of the so-called Akashic Records, a sort of immaterial global memory, through which he believed he had achieved "spiritual perception."

Steiner claimed to have made a number of discoveries, such as the following: "When the Earth, still united with the Moon, separated from the Sun, a male and a female gender did not exist within humanity." His observations related to, among other topics, archangels, the celestial beings Ahriman and Lucifer, astral and ethereal bodies and the ability, through meditation, to perceive small clouds of light around seeds, which Steiner described as the growth forces stored in the seeds. As muddled as these concepts were, their influence is still felt today. For example, Demeter farmers, who practice a form of organic agriculture, still bury the horns of cows in their fields during a full moon. And Waldorf students are not allowed to play soccer, because the foot is too close to the earth.

A World in Turmoil

Steiner's world was not unlike ours. The German Empire was in the midst of the industrial revolution, which was shaking society with its constant barrage of new discoveries. Science had launched a fundamental assault against religious convictions, the perception of time and space was changing and the relationship between the sexes was beginning to shift. The world, in other words, was in turmoil.

Ordinary people found a point of orientation in Steiner, which they can still find today in the works of the now world-famous artist Olafur Eliasson. Eliasson, who works in the intersections between artificial nature and the natural arts, is interested in the same romantic sense of well-being as Steiner was. A large work by Eliasson is on display in the Wolfsburg exhibition: a 4-meter-high tower of plywood and light bulbs which casts geometric patterns on the walls.

Steiner and Eliasson have nothing against modern conveniences. Their work would not have been possible without the train and the telegram, or the Internet and Easyjet today, nor would they or their supporters have wanted to live without these things.

Bewildering Era

Nevertheless, both insist on their objections to an era that is experienced as confusing. Eliasson, with his artificial waterfalls and suns, light patterns, fog machines and rainbow colors, wants to give people the feeling that they are the center of their own world.

In the end, both are successful entrepreneurs in their own fields. This, too, commanded, and commands, the respect of their audiences. After all, it is mainly the educated middle class, old and young, that appreciates Steiner and Eliasson. It is the same social class that regards Waldorf schools as a kind of refuge from the multicultural reality of German cities: Working-class families and parents of Turkish descent rarely send their children to Steiner schools.

Just a few meters away from the Wolfsburg museum is a DM drugstore. The chain was founded by Götz Werner, a self-professed anthroposophist. The stores have a great deal of leeway when it comes to their interior design, the employees are paid decent wages and the trainees take part in theater productions. The slogan printed on their work aprons is a play on a famous line from Goethe's "Faust": "Here I am human, here I can shop."

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• Part 1: Exhibition Highlights Rudolf Steiner's Influence on Modern Germany
• Part 2: From Higher Worlds to Bees