Rudolf Steiner Biography Quotes 3 Report mistakes

Early Life and Education
Rudolf Steiner was born in 1861 in the village of Kraljevec, then part of the Austrian Empire (today Donji Kraljevec in Croatia). His father worked for the railway, and the family moved frequently along the lines of the expanding network, giving the boy an early sense of both practical discipline and intellectual independence. He attended technical schools, culminating in studies at the Vienna Institute of Technology, where he pursued mathematics, physics, and chemistry while cultivating a strong interest in philosophy. The Goethe scholar Karl Julius Schroer took note of Steiner's unusual aptitude and later helped to open professional doors.

In 1890 Steiner moved to Weimar to work at the Goethe-Schiller Archives under the director Bernhard Suphan. There he edited and introduced Goethe's scientific writings, deepening his conviction that rigorous thinking and careful observation could be united. During this period he published early philosophical texts, including Truth and Knowledge (1892) and The Philosophy of Freedom (1894), which argued for moral autonomy grounded in disciplined cognitive activity. His study on Friedrich Nietzsche contributed to his reputation as a sharp, independent voice capable of engaging both classical and contemporary debates.

Berlin Years and Public Life
In the late 1890s Steiner settled in Berlin, writing, lecturing, and for a time editing the Magazin fuer Literatur. He sought to bring philosophical ideas into the wider stream of cultural life. Friends and interlocutors included educators, artists, and writers; supporters such as the poet Christian Morgenstern and the French author Edouard Schure reflected the breadth of his audience. In 1899 he married Anna Eunike; after her death in 1911, he married his close collaborator Marie von Sivers in 1914, who would play an essential role in his public work.

Turn to Esotericism and the Theosophical Society
Around 1902 Steiner accepted leadership of the newly formed German Section of the Theosophical Society. With Marie von Sivers he organized lecture cycles and publications, including the periodical Lucifer-Gnosis, in which Knowledge of the Higher Worlds and Its Attainment was first serialized. He proposed that spiritual research could be approached methodically, supplementing but not replacing scientific and philosophical inquiry. His Occult Science: An Outline presented a comprehensive cosmology alongside exercises for inner development.

Tensions with international leaders Annie Besant and Charles Leadbeater grew, particularly over the proclamation of Jiddu Krishnamurti as a coming World Teacher. In 1913 Steiner and many followers parted ways with the Theosophical Society, founding the Anthroposophical Society to pursue a path that, in his view, respected individual spiritual freedom and the cultural conditions of Central Europe.

The Goetheanum and a New Spiritual Culture
Beginning in 1913 Steiner oversaw the building of the first Goetheanum at Dornach, Switzerland, a center intended for research, performance, and education. Volunteers from many countries took part. The building's twin-domed wooden architecture and the experimental stagecraft reflected his idea of a synthesis of the arts. On New Year's Eve 1922, 23 the structure burned to the ground, an event that deeply affected the community. In response, Steiner designed a second Goetheanum, this time in sculptural concrete, and launched a re-foundation of the movement at the Christmas Conference of 1923.

At that conference the Anthroposophical Society was reorganized as the General Anthroposophical Society, with a School of Spiritual Science and several sections. Ita Wegman, a physician, helped lead the Medical Section; Elisabeth Vreede took responsibility for the Mathematical-Astronomical Section; and the writer Albert Steffen joined the leadership, later becoming president after Steiner's death. Marie Steiner focused on artistic and pedagogical initiatives and on preserving and publishing his extensive lecture cycles.

Education, Art, and Eurythmy
Steiner's educational work came to prominence in 1919 when the industrialist Emil Molt invited him to create a school for the children of workers at the Waldorf-Astoria cigarette factory in Stuttgart. The Waldorf school emphasized the development of the whole human being, integrating academic subjects with the arts, handwork, and movement. The approach spread rapidly and inspired teacher training courses, lecture series, and curricular outlines.

In the arts, Steiner collaborated closely with Marie Steiner in the development of eurythmy, an art of movement intended to make language and music visible. He also wrote and staged Mystery Dramas that explored themes of moral development and destiny. The Dornach stage became a laboratory for new approaches to color, gesture, and stage lighting.

Social and Economic Ideas
In the aftermath of the First World War, Steiner proposed the threefold social order, a framework distinguishing the cultural-spiritual, legal-political, and economic spheres, each with its own principles of operation. He argued for freedom in cultural life, equality under law, and associative cooperation in the economy. He lectured to workers, business leaders, and public audiences, and although political uptake was mixed, these ideas influenced organizational experiments and civil society initiatives.

Medicine and Agriculture
Working with Ita Wegman and other physicians, Steiner helped to found anthroposophic medicine, integrating conventional methods with remedies and therapies developed from his spiritual-scientific research. A clinic in Arlesheim became a center for this work, and together with Wegman he coauthored Extending Practical Medicine.

In 1924 he delivered a landmark Agriculture Course at Koberwitz, on the estate of Count Carl von Keyserlingk. The lectures laid the foundations of biodynamic agriculture, introducing compost preparations, attention to the life of the soil, and a farm-as-organism perspective. An Experimental Circle formed to put the methods into practice, and farmers began to report concrete results in soil vitality and crop quality.

Last Years and Legacy
From 1924 onward Steiner's health deteriorated under the strain of constant travel, teaching, and design work, yet he continued dictating books, revising plans for the second Goetheanum, and giving specialized courses for teachers, farmers, doctors, and priests. He died in 1925 in Dornach. After his passing, Albert Steffen assumed the presidency of the Society, while colleagues such as Ita Wegman and Elisabeth Vreede carried forward sectional work.

Steiner left a body of writings and thousands of lectures spanning philosophy, education, science, art, religion, and social theory. Movements associated with his initiatives, Waldorf education, biodynamic agriculture, anthroposophic medicine, and eurythmy, took root internationally. Admirers found in his work a unifying impulse for modern culture, while critics questioned its claims. The institutions he inspired, and the colleagues who worked alongside him, from Marie Steiner to Emil Molt, from Ita Wegman to Albert Steffen, helped translate his ideas into enduring practices that continue to evolve in response to contemporary needs.

Our collection contains 3 quotes who is written by Rudolf, under the main topics: Ethics & Morality - Nature - Kindness.

Other people realated to Rudolf: Christian Morgenstern (Poet)

• 1919 The Threefold Social Order (On the Social Question) (Essay)
• 1910 Occult Science: An Outline (Non-fiction)
• 1907 The Education of the Child in the Light of Anthroposophy (Non-fiction)
• 1904 How to Know Higher Worlds (Non-fiction)
• 1904 Knowledge of the Higher Worlds and Its Attainment (Non-fiction)
• 1904 Theosophy: An Introduction to the Supersensible Knowledge of the World and of Man (Non-fiction)
• 1894 The Philosophy of Freedom (Book)