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School of Spiritual Science

Goetheanum

Section for the Social Sciences

S e c t i o n C o m m u n i c a t i o n s

Summer 2009

We are the Revolution!

The Challenges of Globalization

On the Future of Human Dignity

Family Workplace

Warmth in Organizational Enterprise

Section Work in Various Countries

Events 2009 - 2010

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Greetings 3Section Work We are the Revolution! 4 Walter Kugler, Professor in Oxford 13 Congratulations to Gerald Häfner 14

Event Review and Workgroups The Challenges of Globalization 15 Movement and Perception 16 Thinking the Developing Human Being 17 On the Future of Human Dignity 18 Family Workplace 19 Cultivating Family Life 22 Colloquium on Conflict Research 25 Warmth in Organizational Enterprise 27 Lecture Series on Financial Crisis 29

Section Work in Various Countries Egypt: Sekem – A Social Art 30 Brazil: Monte Azul Workshop for Humanity 32 India: Sadhana Village 34 India: Update on the Demeter Movement 35 India: Gateway-Branch in Mumbai 37 Prague: The Soul of Europe 38

Events Preview Coming into Conversation 41Events 2009 - 2010 43

Impressum 44

C o n t e n t s

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Dear Section Member,

We are pleased that we can

send you this report on our

section activities in 2008 and

2009.

We convey our cordial thanks

to Helen Lubin, who translated

many of the articles in this

report.

This new form of the Section

Communications was created

with the help of Benjamin

Kohlhase-Zöllner, whom we

thank very much for this.

Concepts, projects and initial

results shall be presented and

discussed with the Section

members all over the world.

We hope that this new form of

the Section Communications

the conversation among the

G r e e t i n g

members of the Section will

intensify.

If you would like to write a

contribution dealing with the

Section‘s themes for the next

Section report (end of the year

2009), please send your text to

our office before Christmas.

With best wishes,

Paul Mackay and Ulrich Rösch

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We are the Revolution! (Joseph Beuys)

Individuality as the Nucleus of Social Transformation

by Ulrich Rösch

Nowadays when people hear the

word revolution they often feel a little

uncomfortable. And perhaps this is

justified, because in the past, revolutions

have brought a lot of suffering to innocent

people. However, revolutions are caused

by the fact that necessary changes did

not happen at the right time. In nature,

something is always born out of something

similar to itself. Stagnation or resistance

to change, blocks these necessary

developments from evolving as they need

to. This creates a situation in which a leap

needs to be made – this has often resulted

in a violent revolution. If we look at any

organism we can see what happens when

there is congestion, the organism must

resist it otherwise it will die. In this way

Beuys looks at the social organism which

needs urgent changes, so that it does not

completely collapse.

With his multiple „La rivoluzzione siamo

Noi“ (We are the revolution) Beuys points

out, that real transformation must evolve

from the human being. Only man can be

the source for transformation in human

dimension. But it needs also a „we“, an

agreement with others. In modern times the

Section Work

individual being has to connect with others

in agreement. Such a Revolution would be

the solid base for a healthy way of living

together.

Our social life has come into a deep crisis.

The financial crisis is only an outside

phenomenon. Everything calls for a change.

However, in the world today it is hard to

act quickly and as the saying goes people

are more comfortable with „the devil they

know“. Where are the models for the future?

We first need to find new imaginations of

what our future could look like. We need

visions. These new imaginations must arise

from clear, deepened thinking that requires

our will – thinking that is an activity, which

touches upon the true essence of what we

are searching for.

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The concepts and ideas that form a basis

for our visions of new social processes and

organizations must not be made arbitrarily.

First each individual needs to consciously and

actively touch upon what wants to emerge

from the phenomena itself. This is an

indispensable condition to make our world a

better place. Although this is already difficult

enough to carry out, it is not sufficient. We

also need a large enough group of people,

to come into communication and action, so

that the new vision can become effective.

We have two requirements for each

individual working in the social realm. The

first is that through thinking each of us has

to find the essence – or the archetype of

the phenomena and the second is that we

have to become artists. A Goethean scientist

observes a plant, from here he can see the

eternal and natural laws within the plant,

which allows him to imagine new plants

that haven’t existed before but obey to the

eternal laws. An artist then makes a new,

unique piece of art out of the archetype

they have touched upon. This is the process

we must also follow in the social realm. In

doing so we move from social science to

social art, that is we work with not only the

scientist within us but also the artist. Therein

we can become ‚experimenters‘ out of the

concepts of Beuys. In my opinion Beuys is the

most important social artists of our time. As

I have already touched upon it is important

to realize that this social artistic process

cannot be carried out by only one human

being – it needs a community, a faculty, an

association of free individuals. It is here

that a social sculpture can and must grow,

as a renewed and in Beuys‘ terms extended

art process.

Thus we come to the social art: where

human relations and organizations are the

materials that the social artist works with

and whose inner laws he seeks to know

organically. The ‚beautiful‘ artistic social

form has to be created. The social abilities

we develop and acquire are like the crafts of

the social artist. The idea, out of which we

work, rises from the inner laws of the social

organism. It requires from us the artistic

intuition, to act with other human beings at

the right time and in the right way. So the

social organism or parts of it can appear as a

work of art coming out of the cooperation of

free individuals. This does not mean creating

a ‚Utopia‘ but instead it means to transform

the world in such a way that in Schiller‘s

words it creates the appearance of ‚the

beautiful‘ of a real human society.

It is in this way that one can find the first

political actions of Beuys in complete

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agreement with the democratic and

threefold impulse, particularly in his

exhibition at the ‘Dokumenta’ 1972 in

Kassel. There Beuys exhibited his office

for Direct Democracy for 100 days and

discussed with thousands of visitors

patiently the threefold social organism

and the impulse of Social Sculpture. It is

here that you see the connection with the

new threefold movement in Germany the

most clearly.

Joseph Beuys was inspired to meet Wilhelm

Schmundt after attending meetings with

active groups advocating threefolding.

Schmundt was one of the most important

Goethean scientists of that time and was

also a member of the School of Spiritual

Science of the Goetheanum. After studying

Schmundt’s books, Beuys then met him

personally at a yearly congress in Achberg

organized by Wilfried Heidt. Schmundt

investigated and conducted independent

research on the reality of the social

organism. He was obviously a Platonist, who

lived completely in his experienced ideas.

Phenomenology instead of ideology was

his principle. His primary publication „The

Social Organism in its Shape of Freedom“

was published by Herbert Witzenmann (the

leader of the Section for Social Science at

the Goetheanum) as study material for

people connected to the Goetheanum.

Many faithful anthroposophical social

scientists found Schmundts work too

independent and not compatible with their

own studies.

Beuys felt completely different, he

understood Schmundt’s meaning of

Goetheanistic social scientific work from

the start. Beuys admired him greatly as „our

great teacher“ and in a letter to „the dear,

admired Wilhelm Schmundt“, Beuys ends

with „in undiminishing love to you and your

work, truly yours, Joseph Beuys.“ In order

to understand Beuys’ work it is important to

take into consideration this crucial meeting

with Schmundt.

The social organism is always developing,

changing and going through a constant

metamorphosis, sometimes it moves slowly

and at other times it leaps quickly. It is in

this way our economic system has also

developed. The bartering economy evolved

into a money economy and then now into an

economy of faculties (abilities). Production is

based on human abilities and on working

in broad, comprehensive collaborations. As

Eugen Loebl has said, our economic life has

developed into an „integral system“.

Eugen Loebl was a very interesting individual.

He became a communist when he was a

young man. Due to the fact he was Jewish

he was persecuted. He flew to England and

became member of the Czechoslovakian

exile government in London. After 1945 he

went back to Czechoslovakia, this talented

economist was rewarded with a position as

First Deputy Minister of Commerce. But in

1948 he was accused, along with Rudolf

Slansky. The Slansky trial eviscerated the old

Czech communist officials. Loebl and two

of his companions were ‘only’ sentenced to

life imprisonment whilst the other eleven,

including Mr. Slansky were hanged after

a show trial. Loebl served eleven years in

prison, five years he was kept in solitary

confinement.

He found it very difficult to understand what

had happened to him and so he started

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having imaginary discussions with Karl

Marx. He would say to Marx „Come on, we

followed all your concepts and proposals but

we did not create a better human society, in

fact the opposite has happened we created

a system that is even more inhumane and

cruel. What did we do wrong, or where do

you think we went wrong? Or what did you

think wrong?“ He was only allowed to have

the books of Marx and Lenin in prison. And

paragraph after paragraph he studied the

main works of Karl Marx – including „The

Capital“. Remember he was condemned to

a life in prison, so he had enough time! One

of the problems he faced in doing this study

was that he could not write his results on

paper because if the guard had found them,

it would have increased his sentence and

the conditions of his imprisonment were

changed for the worse. So he memorized

all of his ideas and concepts from his studies

by heart. After eleven years Loebl fell ill and

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he was pardoned and released from prison.

He immediately wrote down what he had

discovered in his imaginary discussions with

Karl Marx. The manuscript was smuggled

to Vienna and printed as a book. The result

of his research was also the title of his

book: „Spiritual work as the true source of

common wealth“.

Eugen Loebl was a communist and a

materialist, through being grounded

in reality, he came to a deep spiritual

knowledge of the social realm. Fifteen years

later when he came to know that Rudolf

Steiner had come to similar results through

his occult research he was very astonished.

Loebl became president of the state bank in

Bratislava and was one of the promoters of

the Prague Spring in 1968, where they tried

to shape a new human society. Because

the leaders of the Soviet Republic did not

want a socialist society based on freedom

and democracy, the Russian tanks stopped

this Czechoslovakian experiment. So Eugen

Loebl had to go into exile again, this time he

became a professor at the Vasar College in

New York. He died in Manhattan on August

8, 1987, 80 years old.

In 1974 Löbl became a research fellow at

the Institute for Social Research in Achberg

where he also collaborated with Joseph

Beuys and Ota Sik the former Czech

secretary of state (minister for economy)

and where I worked as a research assistant

in the mid seventies. As Loebl stated the

modern economic system is an ‘integral

system’.

In the economic realm we only deal

with goods and services, and the flow

of economic values. This social realm of

economy stands in polarity to the realm

of spirituality which includes all aspects of

human faculties and skills. Between these

two we have a third, the realm of the

rights, and law. In the spiritual or cultural

realm each human is treated individually.

In the economic realm it is always about

groups, communities, joining and working

together. In the rights realm, we have the

rights that are the same for each human

being, so we could say it is the ‘generally

human sphere’. It is in this sphere that

human dignity can and has to be saved.

When money is given to a worker or an

employee from an enterprise it means the

worker is obligated to give his skills to the

work in this enterprise. These processes

and agreements that come out of the

rights life are physically manifested

in money, which then guide economic

processes. But today the realms are mixed

and the boundaries are blurry. Money has

in its essence no economic value; it is

drawn from the central bank system

in a free and independent act. This free

drawn money is given, based on credit to

the entrepreneur. Such short-term credit is

financing the production of enterprises. In

the hands of the entrepreneur the money

then becomes the money of the enterprise.

There it is used to give an income to all the

co-workers including the entrepreneur. In

the hand of the co-workers the money is

transformed into the right to purchase

the produced goods and services in

the market. The circulation of money is

similar to the circulation of our blood. It is

a closed system with growing and withering

processes. So the bank system has to

take care that the money that has been

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dispatched finally comes back to the central

bank. The circulation has to be closed after

a certain time. These few aspects make it

clear that in the modern economy, money

has metamorphosized into a paper

representing a rights document.

Everywhere where money gets stuck in the

sphere of goods and services within the

economy hinders healthy social processes

– it obstructs and destroys. „We need only

recall the fact that money, by becoming

a real object in economic transactions,

deludes men as to its true nature and by

producing this imaginary effect, at the same

time tyrannizes over them.“ (Rudolf Steiner:

The Social Future, New York, 1972, P. 38).

The third social area, the rights life, thus

contains everything that has to do directly

with the human individuality and not with

the circulation of the economic values. This

concerns each human being in the same

way, therefore this is the realm where

humanity can and must be restored.

One can see from unprejudiced study of

the phenomena that the social organism

has developed in the more recent times in

a three-fold way: First of all we have the

sphere, which has to do with the abilities of

humans, which is bound to the expression

of each individuality. The faculties of

each human being are the source for the

spiritual and cultural life. What each

particular person brings from his or her

personal fate down to earth, can only be

recognized and judged from an individual

consciousness. Only freedom can be the

base of this sphere.

The other sphere is the area of social

initiatives. A producer offers goods or

services and then a group of consumers

judge the value of these. Rudolf Steiner refers

to these relationships as associations. People

working together create the economic

values, which are always directed toward

the needs of other human beings. Herein

the principle of the fraternity realizes

itself in an objective way. Between them we

have a third sphere, the rights sphere. This

is the sphere of agreement, obligation and

entitlement. Out of the principle of freedom,

we must also grant freedom to every human

being. Every human being is equally entitled

to freedom therefore the social principle

we must work with in this third sphere is

equality.

There are three false concepts that strongly

influence our economy today. The first false

concept is private property in the production

sphere. Here we need a new concept

of ownership of enterprises, so that the

entrepreneur can realize his free initiative

and his creativity. To be able to do this he

needs the appropriate means of production.

He has to be free to do with the means of

production what he feels to be right within

the framework that the associations have

assigned. The means of production should

not be sold or inherited arbitrarily. The

concept of private ownership falls away – it

makes no sense in a modern economy.

The second false concept is profit as a driving

force of the economy. Just because a surplus

can be made in an enterprise does not give

the entrepreneur the right to dictate the use

of economic values. Making profit cannot

be the only aim of an enterprise. We need

to replace the material incentive, with an

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incentive that comes out of the interest in

the other, our incentive therefore becomes

meeting the needs of other human beings.

This requires an insight into the general

context of social conditions around the

world – which includes every human being

on earth.

The third false concept is paid labor. It’s a

concept from the bartering economy of the

middle ages. Most of the social conflicts and

problems in industrial society have evolved

from this false concept. The demand by Karl

Marx ‘work cannot become a commodity’,

results from his reaction against this false

concept. The modern human being feels

that his integrity is diminished by selling

his skills. In reality giving an income to the

co-workers and the entrepreneur is not an

economic fact but a matter of the rights

life. Paying for labor is not in line with the

modern economy. The question is to give to

all co-workers in accordance with the whole,

a fair and just income. So the procedure of

giving an income must be taken out of the

economic sphere into the rights sphere. Each

human being has a right to an income, so

that they can live with dignity and integrity.

Only if each human being is given such

an income can they share their skills and

abilities with their fellow human beings.

You can see that if we transform our view

on capital that tremendous change could

happen in the social realm. I would like to

point out again that I am not interested in

making any suggestions for how one could

arrange the world in a better way. I have

just tried to think and describe the reality of

the social processes – the social essence. We

often handle these social processes in the

modern world, but we do not always have

the appropriate depth of understanding.

Beuys had this understanding and deep

insights. He was able to think these

new concepts of capital and money and

he used this understanding for a brought

movement for social renewal.

Beuys exhibiting a photograph of

Rudolf Steiner

I believe that Beuys has achieved the

strongest movement for threefolding and

social sculpture after Rudolf Steiner. If a

large enough number of people start to

shape the world out of these new spiritual

insights it will be possible to make our social

conditions healthier. The aim will not be to

create a new paradise but to delete the

illnesses of our modern society, so that the

social organism can follow its inner being

and laws and develop in a healthy way. All

people who are collaborating in this task are

partners in creating this social sculpture.

In this way ‘we are the revolution!’

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The blackboard sketch “Kunst = Kapital” is exhibited in Beuys‘s installation “Das Kapital Raum

1970 – 1977” in ‚Hallen für neue Kunst‘ in Schaffhausen / Switzerland.

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Appendix

Beuys’ concept of money can be clearly

understood through the sketches he made

on the blackboard (see figure). What

stands out especially on the blackboard is

the circulation of money, on top of which

is written: Kunst = Kapital (art is

capital).

In the diagram „Art = Capital“, one sees

the money circuit in a widened context.

Under this title, Beuys has drawn an arrow

from Art to Economy and underneeth

another arrow which runs counter to the

first, representing mutual dependence.

Above this, he clarifies by writing „Art

– Creativity = labour, work“. This explains

Beuys’ concept of work. Work has its

source in the potential of human creativity.

It becomes active in enterprises where

nature is transformed into a consumable

commodity.

A very essential point of view contained in

this diagram is that the democratic central

bank is depicted as the heart (middle/left).

Beuys links this with a new physiological

perspective that has been established in

Goethean science which sees the heart as

a harmonizing organ and by no means, as

a pump. The central bank is, therefore, not

to be looked upon as a hierarchical organ

that pumps money into the economy at

it’s discretion, but as a regulating and

harmonizing social organ.

The creation of money is determined by the

initiative of people. Next to „enterprises“

(Unternehmungen, on the right), Beuys

writes that the „abilities“ of people are

credited. They are also called „production

capital“, as written on the blackboard.

In this picture we can see both the

production and consumption sides,

marked by a horizontal line. „Documents for

rights“ („Rechtsdokumente“) is written on

the left under Central Bank. Money is not

an economic value anymore, instead it has

become an element of rights life. On the

production side, Beuys lists the various forms

of enterprises, characterized by geometric

figures and below this „Nature“ in its manifold

forms. People, by working together collectively

in production, transform nature through their

skills into consumer goods. The expression

hired labor („Lohn-Arbeit“) is indicated by a

bold „X“; this is the past. In today’s world it

is „Separation of work and income“. One is

activity in the economic realm and the other is

in the legal rights sphere.

On the right hand side, at the bottom of the

diagram, Beuys mentions the Czechoslovakian

economist, Eugen „Loebl“ who was the

President of the National Bank of Bratislava for

some time (in 1968) and who, in his research

said that today the entire production side has,

developed into an integral system („Integrales

System“).

Consumer goods manufactured by enterprises

flow into the market (right/top „Schwelle“ or

threshold under capital „M“= market). All the

money which is given out to the enterprises

within the domain of currency must be taken

into consideration when calculating the prices

(„Preise“) of the product. At the threshold of

the market, all produced goods are taken o

the economic circuit and the money flows

back to the enterprises. One has to now ensure

that the money, as put by Beuys „without

connection to any economic value“ (middle/

top), comes back to the democratic central

bank system. Above the heart of the modern

money circuit, Beuys has written the name of

the Goethean scientist Wilhelm „Schmundt“

whom he reveres as „our great teacher“.

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In March of this year, Dr Walter Kugler, longtime director of the Rudolf Steiner Archives in Dornach, was appointed Professor of Fine Arts at Oxford Brookes University. A communication from the university states that his broad range of experience in the fields of science and art were pivotal to his nomination.

Following studies in music, philosophy, education and political science, and subsequent teaching at the University of Cologne and the Waldorf School in Kassel, Walter Kugel came to Dornach in 1982, where he first worked as a scientific scholar within the framework of Rudolf Steiner’s collected works, editing and processing lectures on social science and rendering Steiner’s life and work accessible through the publication of numerous subject-specific documentation-publications. At the same time, he was being published by acclaimed publishing houses (DuMont, Fischer), and in the ’90’s was actively involved in art exhibitions focusing on Steiner’s blackboard drawings, which brought him as a guest curator to Tokyo, Berkeley, Helsinki, Buenos Aires and many other places. At the same time he authored several contributions to exhibition catalogues, including articles on Belyj, Beuys, Federle, Steiner and Wittgenstein for, among others, the Beyeler Foundation in Riehen near Basel, the Centre Pompidou in Paris, the Bunkler Sztuki Museum in Krakow, Moscow’s Belyj Museum and the National Gallery in Melbourne.

At Oxford Brookes University, Walter Kugler will work with students of music and art on interdisciplinary creative strategies, as well

Walter Kugler, director of Rudolf Steiner Archives, is offered appointment at Oxfordby Vera Koppehel

as oversee doctoral candidates and develop, accompany and document projects within the Social Sculpture Research Unit. – With characteristic intensity, he will continue his work with Rudolf Steiner Archives, albeit with a reduced workload.

www.rudolf-steiner.com

Section Work

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Gerald Häfner voted into the European Parliament

Congratulations to our friend Gerald Häfner of Munich on being voted into the European Parliament. Following various legislative periods in the German Parliament, this is now a new development for him.

We are already looking forward to the reports that he will give in the Section on his work as a member of the European Parliament.

Hopefully this will be possible soon – alongside the strenuous meeting times in Brussels and Strasbourg.

Section Work

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The Challenges of Globalizationby Katharina Offenborn

Short report on conference of March 13-15

in Rudolf Steiner House, Stuttgart

In the middle of March a weekend

conference took place in Stuttgart on the

theme ‘Challenges of Globalization’, put

on by the Section for Social Sciences at the

Goetheanum in Dornach and the Social

Science Research Society, Inc. in Stuttgart.

Anthroposophical speakers such as Prof.

Götz Werner, Thomas Jorberg, Paul Mackay,

Ulrich Rösch, Gerald Häfner, Dr. Dietrich

Spitta and Dr. Christoph Strawe created for

some 350 people a many-facetted picture of

economic connections in an era of global

financial crisis and global economic crisis.

The speakers were in agreement on one

point: It’s time for a change of paradigm

in the economy and for new consciousness

that is open to solutions oriented toward

the future. Competition, wage labor and

antiquated structures which have thrown

us into crisis worldwide need to be replaced

by joint economic activity. This joint activity

has to deal with the heretofore insufficiently

recognized fact that the diverse economic

interests of producers, merchants and

consumers need to be balanced through

contractual collaboration. We MUST come

into conversation with each other; we must

increasingly come together in economic

alliances – in associations – and come to

agreements in which no one is the loser.

Economic life of the future has to be built

on ‘fraternal’ cooperation and not on

competition.

The times are over in which politicians and

economic experts alone can decide how

things should be. In the face of a crisis

in which there is by far no telling what

the consequences will be, co-shaping the

social sculpture (Beuys) that we ARE is more

relevant than ever. It is high time to actually

BECOME the populace from which all public

authority originates (German Constitution,

article 20).

On the whole, the contributions offered

a balanced mixture of thoughts directed

to the future and approaches already in

practice. What remains is a strong impulse

„to come together in one movement“, as

Gerald Häfner expressed this.

You will soon be able to find more on this

in a collection of all of the lectures, soon

to be published by Johannes M. Mayer

Publishers, as well as in an essay by Dietrich

Spitta, Cooperation Instead of Competition

– Autonomy of the Economic Life as an

Answer to the Global Economic Crisis in the

March 2009 issue of Die Drei.

Event Review and Work Groups

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«When we get along we meet in the Rights Sphere»The Association for the Promotion of the General Arts and Social Plastic invited interested parties for the second time to the Study Days ‹Social Sculpture› in Achberg (Germany). 16 participants attended from10th to 13th January, 2008 and worked with social sculpture presented by Ulrich Rösch – and on dance and rod fighting with Miriam Lenz.

Since October 2007 Ulrich Rösch of the Section for Social Sciences at the Goetheanum has been known as <guide> within the realm of social sculpture, leading participants deeper into the essence of social sculpture. The perception and realisation of social laws stood at the centre of this year’s work. Ulrich Rösch says: «When we get along we meet in the rights sphere» But how do we know that it is so? How do I reach this conclusion? How do I know that I am not again being taken in by the ingenious net of an ideology?

Phenomenology instead of ideology is Rösch’s basic approach. An analysis of what is given, the laws, the creative force, recognising the essence of the appearance; this method of perception is what the social scientist attempts to bring to the participants as a tool with which self examination is possible.

«The crux of human dignity, the free development of the individual, is only possible within modern society, if a democratically shaped rights sphere and an economic life based on mutual cooperation can deliver the necessary conditions», says Rösch. To enable this ideal of being-in-the-world is the task of social art today.

Germany: „Social Sculpture“ Study Days : Movement and Perception

by Edda DietrichTearing down old Patterns

Miriam Lenz from Stuttgart (Germany) offered a continuation to the work on ‹theoretical› foundations. She introduced participants to the practical side of rod fighting and dance. But what does rod fighting have to do with social sculpture? Lenz:«It is important to me that we dare to break down old patterns. With rod fighting I can practice this with unfamiliar movements » Rod fighting and dance became a form of non-verbal dialogue with the own self, but also with the self of the other. The first unfamiliar movements grew more familiar and new ‹dialogues› developed within the group leading to a cooperatively created sculpture. Sociale Sculpture without a mention of the work of Joseph Beuys is hard to imagine and therefore the group travelled to Schaffhausen to the Halls for New Art where they studied the Beuys exhibit ‹Das Kapital. Raum 1970 – 1977›. Whilst some took in Rösch’s observations and comments, other explored the work in their own way. This was virtually an impossible task within the short time available but it is a beginning to understand social art in its rudiments.

Small Aspects

It was one of the ‹high arts› of this conference to recognise that the essence of social sculpture is more likely to be expressed in small aspects than in the whole. In its changeability and its capaciousness it appears to be an ongoing process of learning and grasping. As in this case, the art is to learn to trust that the knowledge that we gradually develop and that we already carry within us the essence of becoming a new humanity is slowly unfolding.

Event Review and Work Groups

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Germany: „Social Sculpture“ Study Days: Thinking the Developing Human Being

by Edda Dietrich

The December 18–21 Study Days, held at Humboldt House in Achberg, focused on the question: Can we understand money anew, and use it differently? The fifteen participants from Germany and Austria heard this realm of consciousness discussed by the speakers (Ulrich Rösch, Christian Felber, and Rainer Rappmann).

Sensitized by the current financial crisis, the participants worked with Ulrich Rösch to seek a closer look at the reality of processes in the economic sphere, and to understand the laws inherent in a social activity founded on the dignity of the human being. In this respect, the meeting differed from one of those meetings where an attempt is made to salvage the „capital“ that remains. Here the question was: How would an economy have to be organized to serve the human being?

Referring to Wilhelm Schmundt, Ulrich Rösch developed the picture of a circulation of money that encourages freedom — a river feeding a living social organism where human beings can use their capacities to become creative and meet the needs of other human beings. In this image of a society with human dimensions, money is not a commodity but a legal document that regulates the relationship among individual rights and responsibilities within the community, laws that can always be reformulated through a democratic vote. That is the knowledge side. But: „Knowledge untempered by the senses can never produce a truth that is not harmful“ (Leonardo da Vinci).

Vigilance and Trust

Christian Felber opened up a space for approaching this kind of knowledge. In a fluid movement from the theoretical to the artistic, his contact improvisations stimulated the sensory perceptions of the participants: Where am I? Where is my neighbor? Where are we joined? Every moment produced a nonverbal communication which gradually enabled the I (in orbit around itself) to find its way into a shared dance with its opposite number. These unfamiliar exercises in vigilance and trust soon brought a transition to the question: Do we still need money at all? How would it be to think of a world without money, one based on trust, vigilance, and sympathy?It may be a dumb question, but certainly one permitted here since we are „on a quest for the dumbest“ (Joseph Beuys). This utopia soon appeared on the blackboard next to the picture of monetary circulation according to Schmundt — a careful drawing by Christian Felber. His sketch gave the participants quite a bit to think about and quickly brought us to the limit of capitalism’s untested assumptions. Without money? How would that work? How, then, will the productive labor of the one be balanced against that of another? Who would still work? There was a embarrassed silence; then creative ideas began to flow. Like a kind of mandala, the delicate blackboard drawing invited us to think of the developing human being; it quietly delineated a world based not on competition but on cooperation among all people in accord with the principle of humanity. www.fiu-verlag.com

Event Review and Work Groups

18 19

Focus: Ethics

The initiator of KunstRaumRhein [art in the

Rhein region], Dorothée Deimann, together

with her colleagues and the Section for

Social Sciences at the Goetheanum, as well

as with the post-graduate studies program

Interdisciplinary Conflict Research and

Conflict Analysis, put on the sixth research

colloquium, ‘On the Future of Human

Dignity’ – this time on the theme of ethics,

and for the first time at the University of

Basel.

Klaus Leisinger of the Novartis Foundation

for Sustainable Development spoke about

the opportunities and problems that arise

within the frame of activity of a globalized

conglomerate. The presenter’s

recognition that the society’s fundamental

values are shared worldwide is not self-

evident: „I believe that people everywhere

in the world have similar values – a more

judicious, less polluted world. But whoever

wants to see change in the world has to

live [those changes] himself.“ Problems

for people and for the environment often

arise more from systemic and human

error than from cynical calculation. Moral

blame contributes less today to solutions

of problems. What is called for is co-

responsible action.

Ted van Baarda, expert on international law,

On the Future of Human DignityResearch Colloquium

by Johanna Guhr, in collaboration with Simon Mugier of KunstRaumRhein

also referred to individual aspects. In the

Department of Defense in the Netherlands,

he trains policy makers of global, active

armed forces. These armed forces often

find themselves in a sheer intractable

conflict between neutrality according to

international law and being faced with

demands for partisanship and allegiance.

Military commanders have to be prepared

for situations that demand immediate action

and are matters of life and death. What is

important for this is the development of the

moral capacity to judge in face of the facts

at the same times as out of oneself. It often

happens that people lose their ability for

clear judgment due to strong emotions in

exceptional circumstances.

Baarda referred to deciding and acting

out of an overriding and simultaneously

spiritual-individual sovereignty as – in

military jargon – the „helicopter view“. This

makes it possible, even in extreme

situations, to retain overview, composure

and dignity. This requires schooling of one’s

‘I-sensibilities’, which can become a firm

foundation for action. Only when one’s own

dignity is lost, said Baarda, is it possible to

breach the dignity of another. This needs to

be averted.

Paul Mackay, leader of the Section for Social

Sciences and member of the Executive

Council of the General Anthroposophical

Event Review and Work Groups

18 19

heads – and for politicians as well – a lot

of prejudice and false assumptions exist.

Erös remarked that not one single Afghan

is being sought either nationally or

internationally because of Islamist terrorism

or suspicion of terrorism, and yet since 2001

there is a war on terrorism in Afghanistan.

The problem of the radical Taliban does

exist, but is not to be confused with the

international terrorism of Al-Qaeda. In spite

of this, the war in the Hindu Kush is leading

to political radicalization. The Taliban is

organizing itself with a lot of energy. There

is also the current situation in Afghanistan

and neighboring Pakistan.

According to Erös, the best measures

against the spreading of a radical Islam

is to build schools. The solution is to be

found in the next generation. Children are

the country’s future policymakers, and the

decisive question is whether they will grow

up in the radical Koran schools or in schools

that convey other values.

The greatest threat for Afghans themselves

is not primarily the war, but poverty: „The

main problem for most Afghans is: How

do I not starve?“ Thus the motto for

‘Kinderhilfe Afghanistan’ [Aid to Children

in Afghanistan] is „bread and education,

not fatalism and fundamentalism.“

Donations, contact or further information

on ‘Kinderhilfe Afghanistan’ can go via

KunstRaumRhein.

Common to all of the speakers was that

they referred to the ethical capacities of

the individual, which are not accessible just

like that, but have to be fought for through

individual effort. For this, comprehensive

approaches are unavoidable, which also

incorporate deeper aspects of the whole

complex of problems.

Society at the Goetheanum referred to

the question of the relationship of karma

and reincarnation to freedom. He referred

explicitly to a Swiss television broadcast of

‘Sternstunde Philosophie’ [Great Moments

in Philosophy], in which Helmut Zander,

author of the book Anthroposophy in

Germany, said that the idea of freedom

along with reincarnation and karma feels

cynical.

Is freedom at all possible if we meet up in

this life with consequences and encounters

that are contingent on past lives? The

answer: Reincarnation and karma are

what makes freedom possible. Due to the

fact that deeds have consequences, and

these consequences later come to meet us

again, it becomes possible for us to conduct

ourselves in freedom vis-à-vis that which

comes to meet us again, and for us to give a

new direction to destiny in connection with

other people. Through a new positioning

there is the opportunity for transformation.

„Knowing that I am confronted with my last

life on earth is what makes me capable of

development. That gives me the opportunity

to become a human being, to develop

human dignity, to develop freedom.“

Reinhard Erös, former physician and officer

in the German Armed Forces, reported on

his experiences in Afghanistan, where he

has lived with his family for quite some

time. Of his own initiative he and his family

have built up 25 schools, and is undoubtedly

one of the foremost connoisseurs of the

socio-political conditions in Afghanistan.

His lecture was, as he announced already at

the beginning, a „mixture of reporting on

experience and scolding politicians.“

The realization for the listener was that in the

media and therefore also in our undiscerning

20 21

Dialogue is possible when there is a foundation of intelligence and willingness to recognize

humanity as rooted in spirituality, when the Western world is prepared to enter into a connection

with Islam, and when Islam comes to know and accept the foundations of Christianity. This

holds true for within the country as well. Moderator Dorothée Deimann said: „In addition to the

increasingly positive knowledge of the intellectual world – that serves mainly our heads – we have

to muster the courage to consciously turn again toward spiritual forces.“

The lectures can be found at www.kunstraumrhein.com. A DVD of all of the presentations will be

available soon (information also on the website). Information on Afghanistan: www.kinderhilfe-

afghanistan.de

Familiy as Workplace

by Sibylle EngstromContinuing Education Days for Parents

of Children in the First Seven-Year

Period

October 17-18, 2008

Taking seriously the family as a workplace

means, among other things, basic and

advanced training for this task for oneself,

as a parent. Franziska Schmidt-von Nell,

one of the organizers of the conference,

spoke at the beginning about the fact that

in every profession there are standards for

competence in the workplace as well as

continuing education offerings that ensure

and develop this competence. For mothers,

however, the range of such options in

many places is restricted to catching up on

education rather than continuing it. For this

reason, her humorous and yet also serious

call is for „progression, not regression“ in

parent education. This blend of earnestness

and easiness also mirrors the atmosphere

of the continuing education days as a

whole: There was intensive and serious

work together in groups, there were very

interesting lectures, as well as space for

open conversation and relaxed interchange.

Some 200 people – mainly parents, but also

educators – had made their way here, many

with kit and caboodle. The fact that many

participants came with their families, and

that there was a variety of childcare offered

for children of different age-groups, shows

that this was about practical life and not

theory removed from day-to-day family life.

The workshop offerings linked up concretely

with issues of everyday life. These included

nurturing the parents’ partnership, running

a household and shaping the living space,

experiencing one’s own limitations in the

daily task of raising children, configuring

how one lives with the course of the year

and its seasons, fostering religion, and

Event Review and Work Groups

20 21

learning children’s songs and finger games.

In the morning practice sessions various

ways were shown for how parents can tap

into inner resources in everyday life and

consciously take hold of daily family life as a

place for personal development.

Each day was introduced by a lecture, all

three of which offered a deepening as well as

informative, thought-provoking impulses for

daily life. Cristina and Christoph Meinecke of

Havelhöhe Family Forum described in a living

way the changing situation and challenges

that a couple has to master from initially

getting to know each other, to partnership,

to shared parenthood. They made us aware

that the quality of the parents’ relationship

as a couple is the foundation for the family

and for the well-being of the child. When

children sense that the parents are doing

well, they too can thrive. Caring for the

partnership and careful handling of a crisis

or separation is therefore not a luxury but

is of fundamental importance for everyone

involved, especially for the children.

Linda Thomas, who has made a name for

herself through numerous seminars and

lectures, brought home to the audience

the everyday theme that probably enjoys

the least esteem: cleaning and creating

order at home. She made it clear that this

is about much more than we are usually

aware of. It is about caring for the family’s

living environment and, for this reason,

consciously shaping and maintaining this

space in such a way that it is a place where

everyone can feel comfortable and at ease,

do their activities, and rest, relax and revive.

The self-education that this requires, said

Thomas, is a help to one’s own development

and has a deeply pedagogical and healing

effect on children.

Monika Kiel-Hinrichsen held the closing

lecture on the theme „When Children

Don’t Listen – Paths of Education and Self-

Education.“ She drew awareness to the

fact that behind the not-listening there is

usually a concealed conflict concerning the

relationship between the parents and the

child. The adult’s behavior toward the child

is – in spite of loving attention – often not

taken hold of, is inconsistent and marked by

excessive demands. Children need parents

to be an authentic ‘other’, communicating

security and love on the one hand, but also

clarity and orientation on the other. The

other aspect to which M. Kiel-Hinrichsen

drew attention was how pivotal it is that

children be able to develop all of their senses

in a healthy way. This is the foundation

for their becoming self-aware and social

beings. She described what an upbringing

that takes this into account can look like in

everyday life.

At the close of the continuing education

days, there was a palpable wish for a

continuation of this type of parent seminar,

and that a forum come about where parents

can find information on regional initiatives

for ongoing education and for interchange

among parents. The organizers are indeed

already planning further events, and a

forum of this kind is already in preparation.

Further information can be found at

www.spielundzukunft.de

www.familienkultur.ch

22 23

Brief report on the conference.On Warmth and on Life after Death (with 16th Class lesson)

Childhood: a kind of „heavenly echo“; family: a „school for social community“.Seeing family in this way means including other dimensions – dimensions that extend beyond – or even change – the daily, sometimes tiring, run of things. What is needed is quality in encounters: feeling as though one were the other person, living into the other, understanding through the other.

This can be practiced, and one can fail at it. Is one not closest to oneself? Really entering into what is ‘other’ requires a capacity of seeing conditions from the periphery and of discerning experiences.

Perspectives and experiential dimensions in regard to these issues are sounded in the substance of the 16th Class lesson. Paul Mackay gave a free rendering of this lesson on Friday evening.

Andreas Worel presented in-depth considerations on warmth. Warmth always has something to do with one’s own state of being and that of the surrounding: warmth in us and around us as a dimension that grants earthly-cosmic life; warmth as enthusiasm, as a ‘burning’ for what is ‘other’; warmth as a source of one’s very own, deepest morality, from the inside out; warmth as an all-pervading force.

Doing eurythmy together with Gioia Falk allowed us to experience, in calm practice-

Cultivating Family Life

by Anneka Lohn

sequences, the forces of attentiveness that can be mobilized if, at the same time, there is openness to receiving – „awaken – create – entreat/invite“.

Brief sketches of ideas from Paul Mackay, Urs Pohlman and Franziska Schmidt von Nell demonstrated, in very different ways, areas of experience in which the after-death world unfolds its relationship to here and now. Just as sleep can be seen as the little brother of death, so can one’s awareness – when directed toward waking and sleeping – allow one to sense was it means to exist in ‘the air [atmosphere] of the threshold’.

If one extends one’s considerations to the question of how after-death perspectives are sounded in life here and now, this can be illumined by biographical studies, for example.

It is also clear that giving up habits of thinking, feeling and will can accompany the process of „conscious dying“. Consciously forming one’s soul forces makes it possible to come to responsibility for oneself out of the periphery.

This attitude, as was shown in the ensuing conversation, is the foundation for openness toward the children and toward everything – an openness that needs to be achieved anew every day.

The next gathering within the context of the School for Spiritual Science on the theme of cultivating the family will take place on January 22-23, 2010. It will be based on the 17th Class lesson.

Event Review and Work Groups

22 23

What is between you and me?

by Reinald and Rotraut Eichholz

Conference Impressions

Whoever brings to mind the wedding feast

at Cana will recall that this title expresses

an archetypal image of encounter. This

is what the conference of the Section for

Social Sciences from November 21 to 23,

2008 in Dornach was about. The subtitle,

‘Rights-Sensibility and Ability to Handle

Conflict’ conveys, however, that we are

able to approach this archetypal image

only in a concerted effort. The trade-off for

our growing self-reliance in the age of the

consciousness soul is that we live a life of

differences. This gives its stamp to judicial

practice as well as to the workaday life of

conflict counseling. What specialists of both

kinds work with is something known to

everyone in everyday life, be it in partnership,

family, school and other institutions, right up

to the enormous conflicts in world events. It

is obvious in such situations that capacities

for dealing with conflict need to be

developed – but how? And why is there also

the need for a sensibility for rights? These

questions engaged the nearly 60 conference

participants in in-depth considerations.

In the context of the overall theme, we

attempted to have the direct, interpersonal

encounter-quality of the conference

objectives become the determining

element. For this reason, there was an open

conversation at the beginning, rather than

a lecture. Peter Lüdemann-Ravit spoke out

of his experience with conflict resolution,

Reinald Eichholz out of many years of

working toward a broadened understanding

of the rights sphere through anthroposophy.

Lüdemann-Ravit made it clear that people

who are in the midst of a conflict are not

brought one step forward by abstract ideas

about how things are supposed to be. Only

when a person feels recognized and taken

seriously in his/her needs and feelings, does

the opportunity open up for a common

solution. When we feel attacked, we are

not in a position to have an eye-to-eye

conversation if there is not a process of

‘de-angsting’.

From the rights-perspective, Reinald Eichholz

described that this kind of starting point for

conflict resolution is deeply connected with

a sensibility for the area of rights, even if this

is hardly conscious to begin with. In taking

the other person seriously, one expresses

a feeling of respect. This rights-sensibility

is indispensable if interpersonal issues

are to succeed. In order to bring this to

realization, this rights-sensing can’t be glued

to sections and articles, but needs to reveal

that the source for readiness for reciprocal

recognition is found within oneself. The

judicial realm is akin to the human being.

With its rules and regulations it reacts to

the dark side of the human being – and

therefore requires sections and articles.

But in a much more primordial sense, it

is that which the human being, the ‘inner

lawmaker’, configures out of the wholeness

of his forces, in freedom and with sensitivity

to the rights-realm.

Event Review and Work Groups

24 25

With the engagement of the circle of

participants, facilitated by Lilla Boros-

Gmelin as moderator, the dialogue was

soon multifariously deepened and enriched.

‘Disempowering’, among other things, was

placed alongside the perspective of ‘de-

angsting’ as a necessary renunciation of

‘power-posturing’. Adding to the discussion

of the sense for what is right, it was said that

we can find support in an inner authority

within ourselves that directs this rights-

sensing. Yet doubt arose as well: Doesn’t

this put into question its very foundations,

due to the subjective nature of our feeling

life, cultural relativity and changes in how

one thinks about rights?

Despite (or because of) the questions that

remained open, everyone felt that this kind

of conference beginning made it possible

to enter into the theme, and to awaken

vibrancy and activity. The many facets of

the theme engendered curiosity about

the following ‘day of conversations’. The

morning was fed by the experiences of

the conflict colloquium worked on in the

Section. Raymond di Ronco depicted a

„fictitious, true case’ in the life of a Waldorf

school. Five discussion groups on the theme

were soon formed. Spontaneous role-

playing facilitated living into the situation

of those involved in the conflict. All of the

groups sought possibilities for how this

tightening and tension – characteristic of

such conflict situations – can be resolved.

This requires not only conflict management

to deal with the actual predicament, but

also the cultivation of ongoing, patient

conversation, for which the disposition has

to be there already long before concrete

problems turn up. And this is lacking most

of all.

How a sense of what is right can be

developed in these situations was then

the theme in the afternoon. The members

of the Jura-Nova-Initiative, founded by

Johannes Wessel, introduced ten different

conversation/practice groups. They had

gathered ‘material’ in the past 12 years

through deepening their work on rights

and anthroposophy. The fact that the ‘rights

sense’ was singled out for this conference

from a plethora of themes resulted from the

striving to discover, together with people

other than legal experts, the universal

nature of rights. To this end, there was quite

an unorthodox selection of themes for the

work groups: active rights-life; eurythmy

to experience ‘the middle’; ‘juri-genesis’; a

meditation on context as an aid in viewing

the interpersonal; conversation on Goethe’s

fairy tale and on the baptism in the Jordan;

and mediation as a path from conflict event

to rights-deed.

To close the conference, Paul Mackay shared

that we can find that which is at work in

‘rights-sensing’ as the „soul within the

soul“. This is what makes it possible for us

to place ourselves face to face with our own

feelings and to open ourselves in empathy

to another person: a path of practice for

which the supplementary exercises can be

fruitful in schooling ‘rights-sensibilities’.

Thus from this perspective as well it could be

seen that the schooling of these capacities,

as a task that conflict requires, is deeply

connected with the path of development

of the individual, and that it is out of an

anthroposophical perspective that we can

overcome the inner distance that we usually

feel towards rights matters.

24 25

Colloquium on Conflict Research

by Peter Gutland

On April 24th and 25th, 2009 the Conflict

Research Colloquium met for the 25th

time since its first meeting in September,

1996 – this time at Hofgut Hohenkarpfen

near Villingen-Schwenningen in Baden

Württemberg.

After welcoming three new members to

the circle, we reviewed the last conference

on the theme ‘What is Between You and

Me? – Conflict Competence and Rights-

Sensibility’ from November 21-23, 2008.

For the first time, the conference was

organized in collaboration with the juristic

study group ‘Jura Nova’, under the umbrella

of the Section for Social Sciences at the

Goetheanum. The event was positively

received, both in regard to its content as

well as the number of attendees. A circle

of eight people is to prepare a subsequent

conference.

On Friday afternoon Peter Gutland of

Wuppertal presented the results of his

research on the theme ‘The Working of the

Zodiac and its Significance for Community

Building’. These results are briefly

summarized below (a more encompassing

version is in preparation).

The point of departure was a presentation

of the significance of community building

for the evolution of human development

(preparing the sixth cultural epoch), for

the spiritual world and for the hierarchical

beings. Beyond this, community building is

of pivotal importance for conflict research

and conflict management.

The approach involves understanding

community building as a process toward

spiritual community, and of finding 12

qualities, originating in the working of the

zodiac, which converge in an ideal.

In the age of the development of the

consciousness soul, and in view of the

‘basic social law’, it is doubtful whether

this formative process can be expected to

take its course automatically. It cannot be

presumed that new members joining a

community will fit in and be assimilated

smoothly. Community building today must

take place in an increasingly conscious and

active dialogue between the community

and the individual. When working on the

foundation of anthroposophy, the goal

needs to be to form a spiritual organism.

Not only are a number of people working

together in an institution on its goals and

tasks, but the community must be actively

striven for and further developed from

both sides. (Twelve senses, colors, tones,

consonants, the human form, etc.) In

this context there are some influences of

particular significance.

The twelve world views characterize just

how diverse people’s possibilities can be

to recognize the spiritual world and strive

to understand it. These indications can

help to recognize the capacities of new

colleagues or members of a community to

connect to, and understand, the substance

Event Review and Work Groups

26 27

of anthroposophy. (For example: the

materialist who denies the spiritual world,

in contrast to the spiritualist, who, taken

to the extreme, is in danger of denying

material life.) It has been the situation

for a while already that not everyone in

anthroposophical institutions is familiar

with the substance of anthroposophy and

finds a connection to it. Being exposed to

anthroposophical subject matter doesn’t

guarantee that it is understood. Do all of

our colleagues really understand us when

we speak about anthroposophy? What

do they understand? (And what have we

understood?) New questions, especially

from young people, as well as sometimes

great intensity and a high level of readiness

to engage are coming toward us. Hiring

interviews could really change, were one to

take these aspects into account.

The virtues can provide an individual

with impetus for self-knowledge and

self-education. These ethical-moral values

modify the capacities that an individual

brings into the community. Further

knowledge is possible from the zodiac

gestures that Steiner gave for eurythmy;

they depict the entire human being. These

more individual aspects of the world views,

the virtues and the zodiac gestures also need

to find their counterparts in the community.

The individual awaits something from the

community and would like to find this

there. The Twelve Moods have particular

significance for this theme. They hold many

more secrets and indications for community

building.

The intention of this work is to find qualities

for the above-mentioned dialogue between

individual and community, in order to

be able to shape this process ever more

consciously and purposefully. Preliminary

results of this were presented, and will be

worked on further.

The afternoon was framed by doing

eurythmy together under the guidance of

Lilla Boros-Gmelin. Friday closed with an

impressively intensive free rendering of a

Class lesson by Hans Dackweiler.

On Saturday morning there was conversation

on the possibilities of applying to daily life

what had been presented on the zodiac. It

was decided to continue working with this

theme. This was followed by conversation

regarding the circle of those participating

in the research colloquium, and the varying

continuity. Since a certain level of quality of

the work, as well as both membership in the

Class of the School of Spiritual Science and

one’s own active work on the theme are all

regarded as being closely connected with the

continuity of the core group, all those who

have taken part until now will be contacted.

Those unable to assure continuity will in

future no longer receive the invitations.

Michael Rein then presented a youth project

with the high school of the Waldorf school

in Reutlingen, and invited collaboration.

In closing, the dates for the next meetings

were set. These are:

October 23/24, 2009; April 16/17, 2010;

October 29/30, 2010.

26 27

Warmth in Organizational Enterprise

by Christine Blanke

How can coworkers’ strength of initiative be

furthered and how can an angst-free and

yet engaged work climate come about? For

Christine Blanke, Wolfgang Held and Paul

Mackay, questions and impulses discussed

during the preparatory phase of the

conference became the starting point for

cultivating interest in the conference theme.

This first interdisciplinary economic forum at

the Goetheanum, from September 11 to 12,

2008, drew some 80 people active in the

economic and cultural sectors for discourse

on cultivating the ways of organizational

enterprise in our time, within the framework

of the conference theme, ‘Warmth in the

Workplace’.

„Warmth and light are two main elements of

world evolution. They are always present in

matters concerning growth and change. In

the workplace, too, they are indispensable.

The element of light comes to expression

in setting objectives, for example, or in

the overall concept or mission statement.

An enterprise needs this element in order

to provide itself with clarity in regard to

its core competence. The warmth-element,

in my view, attracts too little interest as an

integrative component of an enterprise’s

leadership,“ said Paul Mackay, who opened

the conference.

Randolf Jessl, editor in chief of

Personalmagazin [a professional journal

for management and rights in the area

of personnel management] held the first

lecture, which included an appraisal of the

current economic situation: Being cold is

taken as an indication of objectivity and

striving for success. So it is no wonder

that coldness is commonly used as a

main metaphor for modernity, and that

it is generally presumed that one cannot

afford to be warmhearted in economic

matters. Yet it is long since clear: Things

don’t work without trust and enthusiasm

among colleagues. The business workplace

as a cozy place? It is clear that a business

enterprise is spanned in a field of energies,

in which it needs to find its balance between

extremes of warmth and cold.

Professor J. Menno Harms, chairman of

the board of Hewlett Packard in Germany

Event Review and Work Groups

28 29

reports that founder Bill Packard gave him

the following advice for his managerial

task: „Take good care of your people and

be creative.“ Caring concern for employees

and living one’s values have become for him

a motto-in-action.

For the Duschl engineering firm, the question

is how the freedom of the individual

professional can be brought to realization

alongside the demand for performance.

Taking the example of a firm’s adoption of

its mission statement, it becomes clear how

the enthusiasm of the employer affects the

other colleagues. Working together with

a musician has shown how fruitful the

exchange between art and business can be.

Florian Theilmann, physicist at the University

of Leipzig and former coworker of the

Natural Science Section, enriches the forum

from the perspective of natural science:

„Allowing warmth free range gives rise to a

world that is uniformly warm and, ultimately,

to heat death. Vitality needs both: warmth

and cold.“ And Michaela Glöckler, leader

of the Medical Section, adds: „If it doesn’t

work to engage individually with differences

of temperature, of opinion and of attitude,

when management clings to regulations,

this amounts to illness for an enterprise.“

Another highlight is the lecture by Michael

J. Kolodziej, a member of the management

team for ‘dm-drogerie markt’ [a German

drugstore chain]. Based on examples

from dm’s business culture, his vote is:

„Leadership’s role is to bring the individual’s

motivation into the enterprise. There’s

nothing more difficult than enabling, and

nothing is easier than preventing.“

The headquarter of the GLS community

bank is a clear example of how the culture

of an enterprise can be mirrored in its

architecture, as was presented by Thomas

Jorberg (CEO of GLS) and Lothar Bracht, the

architect responsible for the project. Last but

not least, Torsten Blanke, theatre director

of the Goetheanum Stage, presented the

‘Rose of Temperaments’ [based on Goethe’s

color theory]: using masks, he showed in a

humorous way the role played by one’s own

temperament in working with other people.

In the closing plenum of all of the presenters,

moderated by Paul Mackay, the day and

a half of concentrated content gelled to

perspectives on the developmental potential

of each individual, right up to the societal

conditions necessary to administer and

guide an enterprise in a manner befitting

our time. Participants’ unanimous feedback:

The forum must continue. A particular wish:

More time for conversations and exchange,

as well as more participant involvement. On

September 10th and 11th, 2009, the forum

goes into its second round with the theme

‘Tempo in the Workplace’, in the hope of

further developing the form and the content

of this conference and of again addressing

a circle of people involved in economic

and cultural endeavors – with enough

time and space for exchange, initiative and

professional discussion. The detailed program

is to find at www.goetheanum.org.

28 29

Lecture Series on Financial Crisis

by Cornelia Rösch

In Basel’s „unternehmen mitte“, (an

Anthroposophical Center with a Coffee

Shop, Theatre, Lecture Halls, offices, an

alternative Bank and a Restaurant) a lecture

series on ‘Financial Crisis – an Opportunity

to Rethink’ began in November 2008.

Nowhere else are our societal shortcomings

revealed as clearly, former German President

Roman Herzog put it drastically: „The

financial markets have become a monster.“

Sociology professor Ueli Mäder of Basel

University opened the series and spoke of

our „poor, rich world of finance“. He gave

a lot of touching examples of poorness in

the rich Swiss country. Social scientist Ulrich

Rösch from the Goetheanum spoke about

‘Global finance problems – what does this

matter to me?’ Starting with the actual

crisis he gave a perspective for a future

human economy in a globalized world. Paul

Mackay, leader of the Section for Social

Sciences at the Goetheanum and board

president of the GLS Bank in Bochum spoke

on ‘Financial Crisis – where is this going?’

and gave a lot of deep insights in the current

money system. Bankers Felix Staub and

Markus Jermann of the Anthroposophical

Community Bank in Basel on the reasons

for the financial crisis and ‘Finding another

way of working with money!’. They made it

clear, that it is up to everyone to change the

present situation. At least in Central Europe

there are many opportunities to change the

social world. The first step is to think about

new concepts but then you have to walk

your talk.

Otmar Donnenberg, entrepreneurial

consultant and activist for ‘Regiogeld’ (new

money for the region), then gave a lecture

on ‘Monetary Reform Nears – How I as a

Citizen Can Collaborate’. In Europe many

regional groups just started with their

own money circulation to practice a new

acquaintance with money. They call it after

the region where they live: „Dreiecker“

(money of the three countries Switzerland,

France and Germany), „Chiemgauer“

(money of the southeast Bavarian region) or

„Wiesentaler“ (money of the valley of the

river Wiese). Many citizens already use this

money and many shops, farmers and small

producers accept it as payment for their

products and services.

Contributions from the lecturers were brief,

allowing ample time for active conversation.

The numerous participants expressed the

wish for a sequel lecture series next year,

which this year’s organizers, Michel Moser

and Cornelia Rösch, would be glad to

arrange. Conversation is to focus on current

social issues and giving visions based on

deeper insights in our social life.

Event Review and Work Groups

30 31

From March 7 to 9, 2008 a conference of

the Section for Social Sciences took place at

the Goetheanum under the title ‘SEKEM –

A Social Art’, with SEKEM founder Ibrahim

Abouleish. The conference was framed

by eurythmy and music, as well as by an

exhibition of paintings and photographs by

the architect Winfried Reindl. Participants

were enthusiastic to hear Abouleish on the

opening evening: Connecting something to

the spiritual world means bringing it alive.

To begin with, SEKEM was an idea that

came to Abouleish as he was getting to

know Rudolf Steiner’s spiritual science.

He made the decision to bring the idea of

social threefolding down onto the earth in a

form suitable for Egypt. For people in Egypt,

deeds are more convincing than words.

The actions of many Egyptians follow the

example of a leader.

Thus it belongs to Abouleish’s greatest

successes that the enormous amounts of

pesticides that used to come down on

Egypt from helicopters by order of the

state were reduced by 95 percent. Another

of his remarkable accomplishments is

the beginning of school education for

children who have to earn money starting

at approximately eight years of age. They

work throughout the country in the fields

Egypt

SEKEM – A Social Art – Bridge Between East and West

by Elisabeth Bessau

or in the manufacture of rugs. They received

from Abouleish the same wage for a half

day’s work as for a full day elsewhere, plus

a warm, wholesome meal, medical care,

and, during the other half of the day, free

schooling. If they remain until the age of 14,

they can then complete an apprenticeship

at SEKEM. This provides them with a real

opportunity to overcome uncertainty and

poverty.

Abouleish knows that it will be a long time

until the seeds he has planted will improve

people’s situation throughout Egypt. In this

vein, he said: Maybe we will manage to

transform the entire country in 200 years

– that’s seven generations. What’s important

Section Work in Various Countries

30 31

is to have a true image of the human being

and to love people. In this SEKEM needs

interchange with Europe. – Education from

kindergarten up to the university level is one

of SEKEM’s goals. Ten to fifteen percent of

each coworker’s work time is dedicated to

education.

Physician Hans Werner described how

unerringly Abouleish has pursued his destiny

since the age of 18. He knew that he had to

go to the German-speaking countries – the

land of the language of Goethe. In Graz,

Austria, following a lecture on Egypt, he

met an anthroposophist. As he then began

to bring his vision to realization, there were

people from Europe who gave their entire

existence for SEKEM. People who were

linked to him by destiny found their way

to him. After seven years, there was an

advisor from Europe for each of the areas

of medicine, agriculture and education.

Abouleish has created a bridge between

East and West.

Götz Rehn, from Alnatura Ltd., focused on

economics as an art. In SEKEM, the entire

space has been created with an esthetic

sense. The desert has been transformed. Art

lifts nature and the human being beyond

themselves. SEKEM can be an example for

us as well.

Much of the harmony in SEKEM’s buildings

is thanks to architect Winfried Reindl. How

things take shape socially can be influenced

by architecture. Reindl showed how form

can become dynamic through simple

means.

In the presentation by Volkert Engelsman of

Eosta, Holland, the consumer was the focal

point, as was the idea of metamorphosis

in regard to plants for pharmacist Roland

Schaette. Ulrich Walter of Lebensbaum

[Tree of Life], Ltd., described over 20

years’ collaboration between his firm and

SEKEM. – The contributions of Ulrich Rösch,

coworker of the Section for Social Sciences,

and of Paul Mackay, leader of the Section,

touched upon basic interconnections

within the threefold social organism.

Representatives of Friends of SEKEM spoke

during the closing plenum, and Abouleish

asked who would like to work together

on SEKEM University, which is about to be

founded.

(from Erziehungskunst [Art of Education],

May 2008)

32 33

Workshop for Humanity

On October 3–5, over 300 participants

experienced and discussed the connection

implied in „Social Sculpture — Monte Azul.“

The conference took its start from Hermann

Pohlmann’s experience of the Monte Azul

Favela Community Association as social

sculpture. Its founder, Ute Craemer, also

took an active part in the conference.

It was quite a festival! At the end, when

we all said goodbye, every eye was damp.

And it happened in this way: many years

ago, when Hermann Pohlmann visited São

Paulo’s Monte Azul favela for the first time,

he had the impression: „Here everything

Joseph Beuys placed in our hearts as an idea

as become a reality! Monte Azul is a social

sculpture.“ That led to the conference.

The conference was meant to bring

Beuys’ idea together with a working social

sculpture. Activists could understand their

work in a new and perhaps deeper way; the

thinkers, however, could test their idea by

perceiving something in real life and finding

out if it had living content or was simply a

dream.

The Power of St. Michael

Were these aspects brought together? In his

Brazil

Monte Azul: Workshop for Humanity

by Peter Guttenhöfer

closing lecture, Johannes Stüttgen sought to

find an answer as he struggled for words. He

had arrived with a finished lecture but now,

after his experience of Ute Craemer and her

Monte Azul troupe, he simply did not know

what to say. It was as though he had been

holding lectures about architecture for 30

years and now he suddenly stood before the

pyramids! Stüttgen’s lecture then took a nice

turn: „Monte Azul is perhaps the being of

humanity as it strives to be born.“

The high point was the dramatic portrayal

of Monte Azul’s 30 years: it was the story

of a young man who prepares to incarnate

into the darkness of earth in order to bring

light. He is accompanied by the hand of the

archangel Michael. But now, in the slums

of São Paulo, he is in danger of forgetting

his promise to the archangel. He begins to

despair and becomes entangled in much

that is dark. The cardboard boxes that serve

as slum dwellings are thrown into sudden

chaos when they are swept by evil, and

almost everything is destroyed. But the

startled actors quickly rebuilt their huts

and formed the Assosiação Comunitária

anew, giving it an inward order. Hunger,

murder, prostitution, and drug traffic were

again suppressed through the power of St.

Michael.

Section Work in Various Countries

32 33

Driven by a Thought

Susanne Rotermund, a coworker at Monte

Azul, had introduced the theme with a

creation myth told by the Brazilian Guarani

Indians. It ended in this way: „One day

the aged Titari, an old wise man, dreamt

about how this age of crisis might end. In

his dream, he traced the route taken by

the tribe across the great water. There they

had split into various groups and populated

parts of the earth. These were the black,

yellow, and white races. Then — in his

dream — he saw how the people of these

three races returned to the race that had

remained behind, the red race. Initially,

great confusion arose when the four races

met, but after the wheel of time had turned

it was possible for the seed of a new people

to appear, the golden people.“

Whether Monte Azul is really a social

sculpture never became clear, probably

because this concept is still unborn. Did

this unique conference help the concept

progress toward its birth? We were able

to see how an idea is at work in driving

the activities of all the favela’s coworkers.

What they radiated is nourished by the

fact that this idea is being thought. The

archangel, too, must be thought; the

concept of an archangel is needed. Where

and how can we find it? Can we strengthen

it contemplatively so that it begins to radiate

warmth and courage? And this difficult

concept of social sculpture! In the seething

city of São Paulo, the slums! There?

A social-artistic work like Monte Azul can

flourish only if its feet are firmly planted

on the ground of knowledge. Ute Craemer

has kept her eye unerringly on the star of

anthroposophy from the beginning, and has

worked in that way. She had discussed the

idea of social sculpture with her coworkers

for months before this conference. The

intent was to bring about a union of willing

and thinking, and intensify it into a power

to act that will continue to flow when the

pioneers are gone. Her teachers are Friedrich

Schiller, Rudolf Steiner, and Joseph Beuys.

A Toy for Kosovo

It is hard to tell whether the conference

itself had social-sculptural qualities as a

communal event. A drive for form and a

drive for sensuality mingled in a way that

was truly Brazilian. It was wonderful! There

is still a need to gather what was done in the

various working groups. But one thing could

be gained immediately: a toy produced by

one of the groups was given to Beatrice

Rutishauser’s initiative to help refugee

children in Kosovo. In addition, Monte Azul

International was founded to support the

work there.

One thought served as a leitmotif during

the closing plenum: „Hearing what the

other really means“ is required for a culture

of peace. We felt a painful lack of this in

ourselves during the conference. Finally, Ute

Craemer said that the conference had not

closed, but had opened — like a hyperbola

— to the future.

Contact: Monte Azul International, Edda

Riedel, edda@monteazul.org.br

34 35

Social Awareness

Near Pune lies the curative pedagogical

institution Sadhana Village. It was

established 15 years ago by V. N.

Deshpande with the help of the Camphill-

Community Copake (US). Besides its

curative pedagogical tasks, the community

of Sadhana Village is also concerned

with improving social conditions in the

neighbourhood.

Sadhana Village lies in a beautiful valley

around 35 kilometres north-easterly of

Pune. Although the institution is fairly

remote, surrounded by native villages, it has

placement students not only through its link

to the American Camphill-institutions, but

many from Europe who have come via the

„Friends of the Waldorf School Movement“.

The community is housed in three different

buildings. Besides the curative pedagogical

work, children come to Sadhana Village

by bus to enable them to be educated

in“Vacation Schools“. Many of the children

refuse to attend state schools. During my

visit I noticed from the way all residents

happily and enthusiastically joined in the

eurythmy with Aban and Dilnawaz Bana,

that this was not the first time they had

worked there. It was pleasing to observe

how those being looked after helped each

India

Sadhana Village

by Ulrich Rösch

other. Everyone joined in. The residents, co-

workers and friends.

New Social Structures

After eurythmy I spoke to the placement

students,many of whom are ex Waldorf

pupils, about the social impulse on which

an institution like this is based. This is a

subject not much touched upon in their

schools. All the more animated was the

conversation which followed my outline. It

might well have filled the whole evening if

one of the groups would not have to had

to start their 36 hour journey to Kolkata,

where a collective meeting of all students in

India was to take place by invitation of the

„Friends“.

Next day we drove to the neighbouring

villages. The social structures there are

starting to break up. What once had a

stabilising effect is now a shambles. Once

the community had become aware of this

following a lecture, it started on projects

with the villagers. The construction of

irrigation plants, toilets and rudiments of

sewage disposal. In particular the women

formed self-help groups developing

economic aid and a consciousness for clean

drinking water. In addition the women are

being helped to fend off domestic violence

and to become entrepreneurial thanks to

small credits.

Section Work in Various Countries

34 35

Desire for a Waldorf School in the Village

The next day the founder of Sadhana Village came to talk to us about the possibility of establishing

a Waldorf School for the village children. It would have the format of an English Middle School

able to work fairly freely up to class 8.

The problem, as everywhere else, is to find suitable teachers for such a school.

Aban Bana confirmed her help and recommended that all those interested should come to her

teacher training course,which takes place every May, in the nearby Kandhala. It was impressive to

experience with what social insight the septuagenarian V. N. Deshpande planned the first steps

for their own school.

Viewing the Whole

Ulrich Rösch of the Section for Social

Sciences at the Goetheanum travelled to

the annual meeting of the Bio-dynamic

Association of India (BDAI) in Bangalore on

the 10th January 2009. The theme was the

relationship to the worldwide movement.

Our journey to the South of India led

through Kerala, where a number of farmers

are growing coffee, tea, spices and fruit

bio-dynamically. It passed through the

Kardamom-mountains, the West Ghats of

India

Update on the Demeter-Movement

by Ulrich Rösch

Section Work in Various Countries

36 37

the Kurinji-Farm close to Madurai, where

especially mangos and pears are cultivated

and processed. Many of the Demeter

juices marketed in Europe contain Kurinji-

Mangos. Kerala in India means „God’s own

land“. Seeing the fertility of this country and

the friendly people, one may believe that

this is correct. But it is not just paradise.

Deforestation makes room for monocultures

of tea, coffee and rubber. Despite much

effort – Kerala has the lowest number of

illiterates; the population has grown too fast

and with it the destructive traffic.

Despite Much Success Isolation is a

Danger

With the BDAI president, Jakes Jayakaran,

we drove from Kurinji-Farm to Bangalore.

Here the annual meeting of the BDAI

took place. The bio-dynamic movement,

however successful it may be in India,

must not see itself as isolated from other

anthroposophical activities, said Ulrich

Rösch from the Section for Social Sciences

at the Goetheanum. Umesh Chandrasekar,

Director of the Institute for market ecology

in India, too, pointed to the fact that despite

much successful work during the past years

but due to the heavy workload of individual

initiatives, a view of the whole has been lost

somewhat. Carolin Hedman of the Initiative

Sophia, Järna (SE), re-iterated the importance

of worldwide networking. She accompanies

young people who are being sent from

Sweden to India where they mainly help

in rural initiatives, for example in Sevapur.

As part of a larger social and pedagogical

project there is also a bio-dynamic farm.

Nirmala Diaz of the Sloka-Waldorf School

in Hyderabad gave an overview of the work

in Waldorf Schools in India. Some of the

agricultural initiatives asked for a Waldorf

School. Biodynamic training in India was the

subject of David Hogg, the BDAI secretary. In

Central India mainly women converted the

agriculture of a whole village to bio-dynamic.

Hogg reported from the growing Maikaal-

Project and from the agricultural college led

by Rithu Baruah. He thanked Peter Proctor

who has been running bio-dynamic training

courses in India for many years and who is

revered as teacher ‹par excellence›. Now he

had to return to New Zealand for health

reasons. Jakes Jayakaran reported on his work

in China, where he has met great interest and

runs a number of courses. There, they put

more emphasis on bio-dynamic agriculture

as a method and technique; the ideological

motif has to be put aside.

36 37

Social Significance

During Christmas 2008 Ulrich Rösch from

the Goetheanum visited the Gateway-

Branch in Mumbai.This is a short impression

of the mood found there.

It is really quite strange for a Middle

European to fly into Mumbai in the

early hours of Christmas morning and to

experience 26 degrees Celsius into the

middle of the night. Despite the attacks,

that took place in Mumbai less than four

weeks ago, there is hustle and bustle

everywhere. On Boxing Day I met with

some of the members of the Gateway-

Branch of the Anthroposophical Society at

the Bana’s house in the centre of Mumbai.

This is where, in the centre of the city, near

the noisy Grant Road, the branch members

have their meetings. In this modest flat,

surrounded by Muslim families, live Aban

and her sister Dilnawaz together with

their 98 year old father, who still studies

daily and writes short poems. In the room

I immediately notice the („Ostheim“) crib

with the shepherds, kings, Maria and Joseph

and the Christ Child. This encourages me

to speak about the Christmas event, its

social significance, the arrival of wisdom

through the kings, the social interaction

of the shepherds and the central Christ

India

Gateway- Branch in Mumbai

by Ulrich Rösch

child, all of which calls us to enter into social

discourse with one another. I am aware that

I am facing Hindus from different casts,

Brahmans, Muslims, Christians and Parsis,

who have evolved out of the Zarathustra

stream. An intense atmosphere makes us

forget the roaring traffic noise of the centre

of Mumbai.

Section Work in Various Countries

38 39

Interest in Others Counts

Some 300 people from 21 nations met

from August 21 to 24 in Prague for the

conference of the Section for Social

Sciences on ‘The Soul of Europe – On the

Threshold of a New Society’ 1 Here, when

40 years ago the image of a new society

flashed up with the ‘Prague Spring’, Rudolf

Steiner’s idea of social threefolding, shared

in the conference’s presentations and

conversations, pointed to big, still-to-be

taken steps.

According to legend, Prague acquired

its name from the word ‘práh’, meaning

‘threshold’. Thus the conference location

became a symbol for the ‘in-between’,

the overcoming of the chasm between

individuals, peoples, continents – between

You and Me. And, to jump ahead to the

end: Paul Mackay of the Executive Council

at the Goetheanum in Dornach and

leader of the Section for Social Sciences

summarized the three days as follows:

„Social structure is meaningless when it

isn’t formed out of inner substance, and the

nature of this inner substance is such that

the human being cannot create it alone.

It comes about only ‘in between’, in deep

human encounter.“

Prague

The Soul of Europe

by Monika Clément

The Child of Europe

Co-organizer Ane�ka Janátová, psychologist

and director of TABOR Academy for Social

Art (Prag), began by drawing attention to

the small portrait, above the lectern, of

Casper Hauser. Janátová saw in this being

– whose humanness was indestructible

even under the worst living conditions,

and who, in the cold and dark of his cell,

still had compassion, even for his jailer, and

empathy with even the smallest creature,

and was filled with the longing to find

himself – the true child of Europe. This could

be experienced in the impressive production

of Carlo Pietzner’s play ‘…and from the

night, Casper’ on the last evening of the

conference, with students of the TABOR

Academy. No less impressive was the first

evening of the conference, with witnesses of

the Prague Spring, including Milan Horácek,

who was 22 years old at the time and is today

a member of the European Parliament, and

Antonin Liehm, publisher of Literamy noviny

and one of the most important preparers of

the Prague Spring, who, at the age of 84,

still spoke enthusiastically about the time in

which one fought for the freedom of the

cultural sphere.

Tripartite Organism

Between this beginning and end were days

Section Work in Various Countries

38 39

of multifarious expositions and discussion

on the threefold social organism, composed,

according to Rudolf Steiner, of the spiritual-

cultural life, the area of rights and the

economic sphere.2 To begin with, the

speakers each developed their perspectives

in a dialogue-form. These were then

further deepened in conversation groups

and workshops. On the theme of spiritual

life and individual capacities, for example,

there arose the question of a leadership

style befitting the times – a question

which is also increasingly relevant for the

economic sphere: leadership no longer as

a position, but rather as a task in the sense

of Rudolf Steiner’s lectures, The Karma

of Vocation 3 (Mathieu v.d. Hoogenband

from the Netherlands), as „leadership that

serves“ (Paul Mackay) or as „an orchestra

without a conductor“ (Ane�ka Janátová).

Just how connected the individual areas

are, was revealed by a conversation on

professional development, i.e. forming

individual capacities, which, seen as an

‘economic innovation’, is very much tangent

to the spiritual sector. Whereas one could

readily grasp that in the economic sphere

a for-and-with-each-other is achieved by

fulfilling needs through the division of labor

in production, and in the rights sphere the

freedom of inter-personal agreements for

co-existing is addressed, the requirement

for equality in the sphere of rights, with

regard to the sheer unbelievable diversity

among individuals today, emerged as a

challenge of our time. „The area of rights

is the point of intersection of every modern

society,“ said Ulrich Rösch of the Section

for Social Sciences in Dornach, who, with

a group of Czechs, Slovaks and the Swiss

Hans Hasler, had prepared the conference

for over a year.

Interest in the Other

In his closing presentation, ‘Rudolf Steiner

and Christ-Activity in the Social Realm’, Peter

40 41

Selg (Ita Wegmann Archives, Arlesheim,

Switzerland) called on us to uncover in

ourselves what Casper Hauser preserved

in himself even under the most terrible

circumstances: interest (inner space, inter-

space) as a real living with – suffering with –

the other. „Only interest in the other person

can further social life,“ in quoting Rudolf

Steiner. Tomáš Bonek, Christian Community

priest in the Prague congregation, also sees

this as the focal point of the conference:

„With all of the difficulties, we shouldn’t

forget that it is our task to stand in the

world! How else and from whom else

shall otherwise something new come?“

Here Peter Selg refers to tremendous

sources of help: „We are supported by

powers interested in humanity reaching its

developmental goal!“4 With threefolding

as well as with his main social principle5,

Rudolf Steiner pointed to forms, said Selg,

which can prepare the working of Christ

in the social realm. In this respect, he said,

Rudolf Steiner – in accordance the principle

of John the Baptist – is preparing the way for

a future in the sense of the Christ.

As to what the soul of Europe is – this often

remained an open question. That Prague is a

center of Europe, however, could be deeply

experienced. In this sense, it was left totally

open in the end, too, whether there would

be a sequel to this conference.

Endnotes1 Previous conferences on ‘The Soul of

Europe’: Amsterdam, 2005, Budapest,

2007.2 “Humanity will not be able to have

any further influence without arranging

its social organism according to its

tripartite nature: socialism (fraternity) for

the economic life, democracy (equality)

for matters of the state and human

rights, and freedom or individualism for

spiritual life.” Rudolf Steiner, lecture of

August 9, 1919 in Education as a Force

for Social Change. Anthroposophic Press

(now SteinerBooks), 1997 (GA 296).3 Rudolf Steiner, The Karma of

Vocation. Anthroposophic Press (now

SteinerBooks), 1984 (GA 172)4 Rudolf Steiner, The Work of the Angel

in Our Astral Body. Rudolf Steiner Press,

2006 (GA 182) 5 Rudolf Steiner, in Anthroposophy and

the Social Question. Mercury Press,

1982 (GA 34)

40 41

Event dates: 2009/11/27 to 2009/11/29

„What is more quickening than light?“

„Conversation.“

– From Goethe‘s ‚The Green Snake and and

beutiful Lily.

This is an invitation to re-imagine the world

we live in through the art of conversation

and conversations in art.

Several months ago the Section for Social

Sciences and the YouthSection at the

Goetheanum came into conversation.

Through our conversations one thing

became clear: that the activity of

conversation itself was important.

Perhaps you have had the experience of

possibilities arising, or something special

being born, because of a conversation.

Out of these discussions this event came

into being.

Conversation is not only created with

words but also with the will to listen to

what arises between us – it is a dance, an

improvisation, a co-written story. It is our

wish that this event will be a place where

many people can experience the creative,

quickening possibilities of conversation.

We also hope it will shed more light on the

contemporary social situation and our tasks

in the world.

Coming Into Conversation:

Encouraging Social Commitment

by Katie Dobb

Come with us on the adventure of exploring

and experiencing social themes of our

time. There will be conversation groups on

a range of social topics (including social

three-folding, economics, social sculpture,

and more). There will also be space for

you to bring the topic you are currently

passionate about. In addition, there will be

short ‘conversational’ contributions from

Elizabeth Wirsching, Paul Mackay, Seth

Jordan, Shelley Sacks, Ulrich Rösch and

Katie Dobb.

Through the arts we will seek to meet

each other in new ways. There will be

‚conversations‘ in music, sculpture, painting,

creative writing, numbers, movement and

more.

During our planning meetings we came to

realise that three-folding is not just a theory

but that it is a living thing. Throughout our

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preparation time we have tried to practice

three-folding. We have asked ourselves

what quality of thinking is needed in order

that social institutions (or even situations)

can evolve (or unfold) in the right way.

We have wondered how an understanding

of the three-folded organism could help

us orientate ourselves to develop good

relationships with our fellow human beings

and shape society as a whole. And we have

raised the question, „How can we take

responsibility for creating the world we live

in?“ We have also been living with a recent

Bob Dylan quote: „The real power is in the

hands of small groups of people and I don‘t

think they have titles.“

It is our hope that many different

generations, nationalities, professions and

points of view can come together at this

event. We aim to create a space where

each human being can be valued for their

uniqueness, where we can develop an active

empathy, and where we can recognise that

each one of us is an important piece of ‘the

puzzle.’

And so it is with great warmth and

enthusiasm that the YouthSection and the

Section for Social Sciences invite you to

come into conversation – to take part in

shaping this unique social-artistic event – to

re-imagine the world!

We hope that you join us as we attempt

to leap from speaking about social

commitment to entering a conversation,

with commitment!

The event will be held at the Goetheanum.

It begins Friday November 27 at 5pm,

and ends on Sunday November 29 at 12:

30pm. For those who are connected to the

YouthSection, this event ends on Saturday

November 28 at 6:30pm. The YouthSection

Weekend will start at 8pm. This event will be

in English and German.

With social life as a central motif, we want

to work consciously with money. We

wish to enable every interested person to

participate. The suggested price for students

is CHF 50. However, the real costs of the

conference for the full weekend is CHF

250 per person. Bearing in mind that the

conference will be supported and carried

by your contribution, you are free to choose

the amount.

(This article is a written conversation

between Caitlin Balmer, Elizabeth

Wirsching, Guy Collins, Hanna Koskinen,

John Stubley, Katharina Ludwig, Katie

Dobb, Martin Stenius, Paul Mackay, Silvia

Zuur, Ulrich Rösch.)

For more information on this event please

email:

katie@youthsection.org

www.conversation.goetheanum.org

42 43

Events Preview 2009 – 2010200908.-11. August Inner Transformation and Social Renewal

Conference, with Art and Science ExhibitionSponsored by Threefold Educational Center and The Center for Social and Environmental Responsibility at Hawthorne ValleyThe Social Sciences Section of North America

11.-12. August Meeting of the Members of the Social Science Section in North Americaat the Threefold Community, Spring Valley, N.Y. with contributions from Bernie Wolf, Meg Gorman, Shawn Sullivan and Ulrich Rösch

04.-05. September Sustainable Development as a Destiny Question – Confronting EvilValues & More (Alexandra Traun) and the Goetheanum

05. September Spiritual Culture of Mothers and FathersWork day of the group Family Culture

10.-11.September Tempo in Organizational Enterprise2nd Interdisciplinary Economic Forum at the GoetheanumPerspectives for persons carrying responsibility in the economy and in cultural life Christine Blanke

12. September Religion – Activity of Freedom and LoveContinuing Education in Self-Development through Family Life Claudia Stockmann

20.-21. September Economics – Methodology and Concepts in the Economics Course of Rudolf Steiner Their Connection to Current Economic Practices Introduction by Paul Mackay, Prof. Dr. Marcelo da Veiga and Ulrich Rösch

24.-27. September Community Building in the Light of MichaelMichaelmas Conference The General Anthroposophical Section

08.-11. October Darwin and the Social Organism (Colloquium)The Natural Science Section and the Section for Social Sciences (by invitation only)

23.-24. October Colloquium on Conflict Research (by invitation only)

13.-14. November Nervousness and Self-AwarenessContinuing Education on Self-Development through Family LifeRudy Vandercruysse

26.-27. November Conversation about the Challenges of our Times(by invitation only)

27.-29. November Coming into Conversation – Encouraging Social CommitmentOpen Section Conference The Section for Social Sciences and the Youth Section

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If you would like to donate, our bank details are:Please earmark as follows: 60445/KST1300

201022.-23. January School for Spiritual Science: Conference on Family Culture

17th Class lesson

05.-07. March With Differences – In Cooperation: The Struggle for the Middle Public Conference about the Rights Life

16.-17. April Colloquium on Conflict Research (by invitation only)

10. October Meeting on Working with Elders

29.-30. October Colloquium on Conflict Research (by invitation only)

Tickets online at: www.goetheanum.org

More information about us: www.goetheanum.org/59.html

Worldwide:

Owner: Allgemeine Anthroposophische Gesellschaft

Raiffeisenbank Dornach, CH–4143 Dornach

Account-Nr. 10060.71BCL: 80939-1

IBAN: CH36 8093 9000 0010 0607 1Swiftcode: RAIFCH22

From Germany:

Owner: Allgemeine Anthroposophische Gesellschaft

GLS Gemeinschaftsbank eG, DE-44708 Bochum

Account-Nr. 988 100BLZ 430 609 67

IBAN: DE53 4306 0967 00

ImpressumEditor and Copyright: School of Spiritual Science at the Goetheanum - Section for Social SciencesEditors: Ulrich Rösch, Hanna KoskinenLayout and Design: Kohlhase Publishing and Consulting www.kohlhase-consulting.comLegal Notice: All articles are copyrighted. The texts do not necessarily reflect the view of the Section.