Formulated by Rudolf Steiner, these statutes were, after three days of discussion, adopted unanimously with minor changes by the nearly 800 anthroposophists from the four corners of the world gathered in Dornach, Switzerland at the so-called Christmas Conference 1923/24 of the General Anthroposophical Society as its new constitution. This marked the inauguration of the fourth phase of the new constitutional principle of civilization in its meso-social form as referred to in the preceding pages of this booklet. Later these statutes were called Principles of the General Anthroposophical Society in order to distinguish them from the actual registered by-laws of the latter. This confusing name change and its consequences became, as already mentioned, a bone of contention in the so-called Constitutional question from the seventies. until the present This thorny question has not been been laid to rest, it is a complicated matter that must be dealt with later; here the aim is to provide further documentary evidence for maintaining that, independent of its realization, this meso-social form of the new constitutional principle has indeed been entrusted to mankind as an archetypal charter of humanity, a claim that can be further substantiated by reading the two Social-Aesthetic Studies for the Spiritualization of the Principle of Civilization by Herbert Witzenmann: “Charter of Humanity – The Principles of the General Anthroposophical Society” and “To Create or to Administrate – Rudolf Steiner’s Social Organics – A New Principle of Civilization” already referred to here with corresponding links.
1. The Anthroposophical Society is to be a union of people who wish to cultivate the life of soul in the individual as well as in human society on the basis of a true knowledge of the spiritual world.
2. The nucleus of this Society consists of those persons, both the individuals and the groups who had themselves represented, who gathered during Christmas time 1923 at the Goetheanum in Dornach. They are convinced that at present there already exists a real science of the spiritual world, elaborated over many years and of which many important volumes are already published, and that the cultivation of such a science is lacking in the present civilization. This is to be the task of the Anthroposophical Society. It will endeavor to fulfill this task by focusing its activities on the spiritual science of anthroposophy which is cultivated in the Goetheanum at Dornach, with its fruitful results for brotherhood in social life, for moral and religious life and for the artistic and spiritual life in general within the being of man.*
3. The persons gathered together in Dornach as the nucleus of the Society recognize and support the view of the leadership of the Goetheanum, represented by the Council formed at the foundation meeting, with respect to the following: "Anthroposophy cultivated at the Goetheanum leads to results which can be beneficial to every human being, without distinction of nation, social standing or religion, as an incentive in spiritual life. These results can give rise to a social life based in a real sense on brotherly love. Adopting them as a basis of life is not dependent on a scientific degree of learning, but only on unbiased human nature. Research underlying these results and professional judgment concerning them, however, are subject to the spiritual scientific training, which is to be acquired step by step. These results are in their own way no less exact than the results achieved by Natural Science. When they likewise attain general recognition, they will bring about a similar progress in all spheres of life, not just in the spiritual, but also in the practical domain."
4.
The Anthroposophical Society is not a secret society, but an entirely public one.
Anyone without distinction of nationality, religion, scientific or artistic
creed or conviction can become a member who considers the existence of such an
institution as the Goetheanum in Dornach, Free School of Spiritual Science, to
be justified. The Anthroposophical Society rejects any kind of sectarianism.
Politics it does not consider to be among its tasks.
5. The Anthroposophical Society regards the Free School of Spiritual Science as a center of its work.[1] This School will consist of three classes. Members of the Society will upon application be admitted after a period of membership to be determined in each case by the direction of the Goetheanum. They thus gain entrance to the first class of the Free School of Spiritual Science. Applicants will be received into the second or third class respectively when the direction at the Goetheanum deem them suitable for admission.[2]
10.
The Anthroposophical Society holds a regular General Meeting every year in
which the Council shall submit a full account of its activities. The agenda
shall be made known by the Council together with the invitation to all members
six weeks before the meeting. The Council may summon extra-ordinary General
Meetings and fix the agenda for such Meetings. The invitations to the members
shall be sent by the Council three weeks in advance. Motions by individual
members or groups of members are to be sent in eight days before the date of
the General Meeting. A certain number of members, to be determined from time to
time by the by-laws, have the right to demand at any time an extra-ordinary
General Meeting.[4]
President: Dr. Rudolf Steiner
Vice-president: Albert Steffen
First secretary: Dr. Ita Wegman
Assessors: Marie Steiner
Dr.
Elizabeth Vreede
Second secretary and
Treasurer Dr. Guenther Wachsmuth
* The
Anthroposophical Society is continuous with the Anthroposophical Society
founded in 1912, but for the goals set at that time it wants to create an
independent point of departure that is in keeping with the spirit of the time.
(Original note from 1923).
[1] The
official translation of these statutes by G. Adams in The Life, Nature and Cultivation of Anthroposophy, Rudolf Steiner Press, copyright 1963 by The
Anthroposophical Society in Great Britain (where they are called Principles of the General Anthroposophical
Society, instead of statutes of the
Anthroposophical Society) reads the center
of its work, instead of a center.
This may seem a minor point, but it is not, because the original formulation
leaves possibilities open that other centers could spring up in the course of
time where the spirit of the Goetheanum prevails. In the new edition of this book (Rudolf
Steiner Press, London, 1996), the term General Anthroposophical Society has
only been kept for the first two statutes; after that it is Anthroposophical Society.
[2] Here an
amendment is needed to state that Rudolf Steiner,
without having named a successor, died in 1925, and that subsequently he was
unable to complete the second and third class. This means that there is no
institutional continuity of the Free School for Spiritual Science and that all
actions performed in the name of this School must be rigorously checked by
those involved on their compatibility with the leadership of the spiritual
Goetheanum, Rudolf Steiner, on the
basis of direct (spiritual) contact or on the many indications he left in his
work
** The
conditions for entering a path of schooling have also been made open to the
general public and shall continue to be made available. (Original note from
1923).
[3] This
central article has never been properly understood and consequently observed.
Right after the Christmas Conference of 1923/24 many esoteric and professional
lectures by Rudolf Steiner were
namely published without the required moral protection of the so-called Annotation
of the Free School and since the founding of the "Rudolf Steiner Nachlass-Verwaltung"
(Administration of Rudolf Steiner’s Estate) by M. Steiner in 1943, it completely disappeared as such from the
editions of this body. This gave rise in the seventies of the last century to
the “Book question”, which is actually a question of how Rudolf Steiner wanted
his works to be published and represented. It led to a deep schism between
Herbert Witzenmann and his colleagues on the executive-board and his having to
take a furlough from its daily meetings. Even though he remained de jure a
member of the board, he was de facto eventually not allowed to publish anymore
in “Das Goetheanum” the weekly organ of the Society, the chair that he occupied
as leader of the Social Science Section and the Youth Section at the Goetheanum
was taken away from him and he and his
many followers were barred from further using the facilities of the Goetheanum,
so that they had to build up a whole new infrastructure for their work. This
unfortunate turn of events greatly diminished the spreading and public efficacy
of his work, but it also served to motivate him to do research in the nature of
the constitution of the Anthroposophical Society and its inner relation to the
so-called Foundation Stone Meditation given by Rudolf Steiner at the refoundation
of the Society at the Christmas Conference 1923. See e.g. his essay “The Three
Kings and their Alloyed Brother” in Pupilship
in the Sign of the Rose-Cross – The Individual as a Community Builder,
translated by Sophia Walsh (Philmont N.Y. 1986; out of print), his
aforementioned Social-Aesthetic Study Charter
of Humanity and the blog To Create or
to Administrate.
[4] This last
sentence is still missing from the official version of the Founding Statutes as well
as from the official translations, even though it was added by Rudolf Steiner and endorsed by the members
during the Christmas Conference in 1923/24. This clause supplies namely a legal basis for members to
hold an extra-ordinary General Meeting;
the number or percentage of members needed to call such a meeting was
not listed in the fragment found of the original by-laws.
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