In the early 1920s, an occult wave was rolling across the world, spiritualism, mediumship & astrology were the fad of the day – showing that the human being longed for more than just the materialism of the age. Silent films like ‘The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari’ echoed this longing. In Germany many people were flocking to hear lectures by Dr Rudolf Steiner, considered in the popular culture of the day, to be a clairvoyant polymath thaumaturge. At that time, growing inflation brought about a feeling of insecurity among broad sections of the population, & right-wing terrorist organizations taking advantage of the situation slowly came into power, working behind the scenes to assassinate many leading politicians & public figures opposed to their agendas of control.
The practical solutions promoted by Anthroposophy in various fields of knowledge & life, primarily the movement for the ‘3-fold Social Order’, made Dr. Rudolf Steiner a target for nationalistic & antisemitic forces. They saw Steiner as a stooge & agent of a ‘global Zionist & Masonic conspiracy’.Hitler’s mentor, Dietrich Eckart, published a long article about Steiner in 1919 in which he mocked Steiner’s social impulse. Hitler himself decidedly rejected 3-folding as early as 1920. According to police reports, after Hiter’s speech at the Munich Hofbräuhaus on 11 May 1920 one person in the audience recommended Steiner’s 3-folding idea as a possible solution to the social question, & Hitler replied: “We don’t want any new ideas but to defend the old ones which have been seen to be correct.” The famous booking agency ‘Wolff & Sachs’, organized Steiner’s lecture tours in several German cities. On the first tour in January 1922, Dr. Steiner spoke in front of over 20,000 people. But this ended unexpectedly because during the 2nd tour, in May 1922, militant opponents from nationalistic populist (voelkisch) circles, planned disruptions during his lectures in Munich & Elberfeld, so that Steiner decided against a 3rd tour. In Munich, on 15 May 1922, according to Christian Community Priest Friedrich Rittelmeyer, Steiner was “physically threatened and put in danger of his life by hooligans at the instigation of a Nationalist newspaper.”Shortly before the incident, the Munich weekly Heimatland (edited by the editor-in-chief of the Völkische Beobachter = the organ of the Nazi Party) wrote: “Are there no longer any men in Munich who feel themselves to be German and who will prevent the arrival of such a scoundrel? Above all, will our battle-hardened youth with its patriotic ethos tolerate this provocation? If ever there is a target worthy of rotten eggs and apples, there is none more worthy for this kind of projectile of contempt than the anthroposophical Cagliostro and betrayer of the homeland.”For the Nazis, Steiner was a parasitic “enemy of the people”.This alone shows how Anthroposophy is, & always has been, opposed to all nationalistic racist thinking.All reports agree in their description that after the 15 May lecture, while the audience was still applauding, attackers stormed the stage as Steiner was just about to leave the hall.The attackers wore swastikas, & were equipped with sticks, knives & firearms. Steiner only just succeeded in closing the door behind him. Meanwhile the anthroposophists pushed the attackers down from the platform – where there ensued a general brawl, with people running from the hall.The incident was even reported as a “riot” in the New York Times. The headline says: “RIOT AT MUNICH LECTURE. Reactionaries Storm Platform When Steiner Discusses Theosophy”.Steiner’s Dornach collaborator Edith Maryon, who had a vision that something was going to happen to him on the tour, received a telegram from Steiner after the incident: “Survived Munich”. Hans Büchenbacher, who become aware at an early stage that Steiner was on a death list, & that an attack was planned, organized his own protection force, since the police had refused to take the appropriate measures. Steiner, aware of the threat to his life, said:“It will probably reach the point that I can only speak in the occupied Rhineland.” (The Rhineland was occupied by the Allies from 1918 to 1930.)
It is clear from eye-witness reports that many people decided specifically as a result of the lectures on this tour to engage more deeply with anthroposophy. The audience was willing to follow Steiner’s unusual & often demanding lines of thought. The great applause, which even the newspaper reporters experienced as being unusual, certainly did not come just from anthroposophist’s alone, since they only formed a small minority among the thousands of people in the audience on each occasion. One young man, Heinrich Liedvogel wrote how grateful he was that his father had taken him along to the lecture as a recalcitrant 18 year old, & that Rudolf Steiner had made an ‘indelible impression’ on him, which had a deep impact for the rest of his life. He was impressed how Rudolf Steiner silenced the hecklers which were, however, subsequently to seize power. Fifteen year later (1933) he experienced in the same hall how the ‘clique of those earlier hecklers’ had ‘grown into a dragon which had, at least outwardly, destroyed the intellectual life of Germany.
The extraordinary courage with which Steiner exposed himself to the ever more brutal actions of his opponents in order to serve, must be admired. He finished the tours, which he admitted exhausted him, with unshakeable equanimity & great self-discipline. Steiner fought against the many misunderstandings & cruel caricatures of his modern Rosicrucian teachings. He differentiated his epistemological method in sharp contrast to the modern materialistic parapsychology, & the old atavistic yogic practices of eastern mysticism, to reveal the spiritual scientific nature of his research - a renewal of the mysteries appropriate for our time. He also showed the way in which Anthroposophy could be productive in education, medicine, agriculture, the religious life, etc. ~adapted from an article in ARCHIVMAGAZIN. Beiträge aus dem Rudolf Steiner Archiv: Nr. 8/2018, Wolff & Sachs-Vortragstourneen 1922 und der Zwischenfall in München. Rudolf Steiner Verlag, Basel 2018
Luke 6:22 “Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude you, and revile you, and spurn your name as evil, on account of the Son of Man!”
15 May 2025 - “Speaking with the Stars”: In the early morning hours the waning gibbous moon will be among the stars of the Teapot asterism of Sagittarius the Archer - near the direction of the center of the Milky Way galaxy.
The Soul Calendar's full moon verse is v4, a month after the full moon of Holy Week. EASTERTIDE IV - BELTANE Translated by Roy Sadler (happy b-day Roy!) The Marriage Gift - v4 - I feel the essence of my being, so speaks perceptive feeling, that in the sunlit world, unites with floods of light; it warms the lucid mind, and marries Man and World.
May 31, 2025 - Come Join us for Our Spring Biodynamic Preparation Day on Zinniker FarmStart is at 10am - We’ll be taking out preparations that were buried last fall. We’ll stir 500 to make and apply tree paste and have other activities as time allows. A light lunch is provided. We’ll round out the day with a potluck dinner and bonfire, please bring a dish to share. Come for the morning, come for the afternoon or come for the whole day. Love Donation: $30-60 We hope to see you there. ~Petra Zinniker
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Thursday, 15 May 2025
Riot in Munich
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