The Rudolf Steiner Archive

10. Roots and Flowers of German Intellectual Life

Based on incomplete, summary notes

[ 1 ] Ladies and gentlemen, there is no need to elaborate on the reasons why, in these fateful times, these two lectures are devoted to an examination of German intellectual life. Our thoughts must naturally turn to what the German people have to defend, enclosed within a great fortress. Not only do our enemies today speak of their own bravery in such a way that they rely not only on their weapons but also on hunger—over which they believe they have power—but they also strive to convince themselves and others that the German people possess an spiritual essence that is not worth preserving. We are, as it were, enclosed within a fortress, bombarded not only by weapons but also, in a cowardly manner, by hunger. This raises the question of what the German essence, the German spirit, is—that which must be defended against all comings and goings. Of course, spiritual science can only be expressed as a result, as a state of mind. What was most assailed before spiritual science came to light in modern culture was something that modern culture had more or less lost. The concept of the national soul is not an abstract notion referring to certain character traits; rather, it is a truly real entity to the spiritual eye, so that just as we classify the essence of external nature into the four kingdoms, so too do we recognize in spiritual science supersensible realms—beings with individuality. That is why we speak of the different national souls of individual peoples, just as one speaks of what exists in the reality of the external senses. Only when one attempts to perceive the German national soul within the German people does one gain a true understanding of spiritual science. Of course, one must then also speak of the soul of the individual. Psychology speaks of this, but in such a way that it is viewed as a chaotic jumble of impulses of will and thoughts. Spiritual science cannot speak in this way.

[ 2 ] The world will increasingly come to realize that genuine scientific inquiry must consider the soul in terms of the three manifestations of its essence. Just as a physicist distinguishes, in the light, the rainbow hues of yellowish-reddish, green, blue-violet, so, in the same genuine scientific sense, spiritual science will have to recognize that the soul expresses itself in three forms: as the feeling soul, insofar as it encompasses everything instinctual that does not arise from the brightness of thought—just as the reddish-yellowish hues do in light. The green reveals the intellectual soul. Just as blue-violet appears in light, so too is present in the human soul what may be called the conscious soul. This distinction is not arbitrary, but arises from a closer examination of what the human being is, of what is connected to the human spirit through its noblest core, of what passes through birth and death—the eternal into which all that lies in the subconscious, even in the dreamlike realm, ultimately flows: the eternal core of being. The intellectual soul stands in relation to the external environment at the center of the soul’s nuances, just as green stands at the center of light. Through ideas and concepts, it is connected to the eternal and pours out into the external world with the temporal and transitory. In the present, it expresses itself through all the qualities that keep a person firmly grounded, yet which are at the same time the transitory aspects that reveal themselves only between birth and death. This structure is something truly real. Just as light lives in all shades of color, so does the human “I”—as that which truly perceives itself—live in all three nuances of the soul.

[ 3 ] In spiritual science, national souls differ in such a way that one national soul, for example, primarily engages the individual on the level of feeling. Of course, the individual can rise above the national to the universal human. What I am saying applies insofar as the individual experiences himself within his national identity. The way a person relates to his people establishes, as it were, a relationship between the soul of feeling and the national soul. What influences him will affect his instincts and passions. We see this in the Italian national character. If, in a second case, the national soul acts within the intellectual soul—penetrating the views, thinking, concepts, and ideas of individual nationalities—then we can observe this within the French national character. And where the national soul acts within the consciousness soul—which is currently the most transitory and entirely bound to the physical world—we can observe this at present in the British people.

[ 4 ] I am aware that what I am saying here is not based solely on observations of the present. Many here know that I spoke about this years ago. On the other hand, I know that it will gradually become an established part of human knowledge, just as light in its various colors is an established part of physical science. Because an immediate relationship to the national soul—to the entire workings and interplay of the soul within the human being—is expressed in all three members of the soul, we have focused on the relationship of the individual German—insofar as he belongs to the German people—to his national soul. In this way, one can shed light on the distinctive national cultures of the individual peoples. There is more that can be said on this subject.

[ 5 ] The Western peoples had a particular aspect of the collective soul to set against the national soul. They incorporated this into their culture in such a way that they participate in an age of nations that is different from that of the Germans. They build upon what comes from Greco-Roman and earlier cultures. Thus, they build upon what emerged as a stream from ancient times—an era that appears immature in comparison to the Germanic one, in which the individual perceives himself as a distinct thinker, no longer relying on myths or external influences, but seeking to arrive at a worldview through his own judgment. The German entered European culture in manhood. This is how one can understand one people, while another people is going through an entirely different stage of development. One must know that all peoples previously went through a clairvoyant age. I have mentioned how Ludwig Laistner has not yet fully acknowledged that all myths, all pictorial narratives, stem from a time when peoples still possessed clairvoyance—not a dream state, but not complete wakefulness either—a state that reveals reality, but in images. What the Greeks, the Romans, and the peoples of Europe depict in their myths and legends is merely an expression of what the individual peoples actually experienced. This is already illustrated in the “Riddles of the Sphinx.” It depends on how a people undergoes the transition from the ancient clairvoyance to the later form of clairvoyance—one might say, to scientific knowledge. We find everywhere that the worldview of the Germans permeates their entire disposition, whereas the others were still in a less mature state of soul when they emerged from ancient clairvoyance. Their worldview formed [instinctively]. Their self was not fully present. Even Christianity is still perceived as something imposed from the outside. When one sees images, one says, “They are there”; so these peoples say, “The worldview is there.”

[ 6 ] The German people are different. When they encounter the great clash with the Romance peoples of the South, they have already moved beyond the stage we see in the oldest tales and myths; what is emphasized is the individual personality. In the *Nibelungenlied*, we sense that everything hinges on the unfolding of human personal qualities—courage and so on—and what a person can endure. The other characters stand in contrast to what they are witnessing. In the *Nibelungenlied*, the German is personally connected to what he has had portrayed. Even after the *Nibelungenlied* had been surpassed, Richard Wagner drew upon characters from it: Brünnhilde, Hagen, and Siegfried. This is evident in the *Nibelungenlied*: how the Central European Germanic peoples came into contact with other cultures. It was necessary for the Germanic peoples to form a worldview through their own efforts. It must differ from what is unfolding all around them. What appeared in the pinnacle of Italian art in Dante must be compared with *Parzival* by Wolfram von Eschenbach. [In Dante’s *Divine Comedy*] a series of images leads upward, which are linked at the top to medieval scholasticism. What comes into play here is how Dante relates to his characters through their passions. How detached Dante’s *Divine Comedy* is from the human condition. In *Parzival*, the depiction of the human soul is such that the soul itself is present with everything that lives within it, so that the soul advances only through that with which it coexists in its innermost being. Then we see that the German spirit cannot accept a worldview that is presented to it as a revelation, but rather that it wants to experience it as an intimate experience of the soul, just as every concept wants to be experienced.

[ 7 ] One must look to the era of German mysticism—Meister Eckhart, Tauler—to see how they describe the coexistence of individual human souls with the Spirit. It is, as it were, a dialogue between the individual German and the national spirit, with the soul present in all its sufferings and joys. The soul must become completely still, cast aside what it itself is, and remain only in the quiet inner chamber; then it is united with its God and experiences what, as the Divine, permeates it. The mood it can experience is wondrous—what reigns and weaves throughout the universe when it allows God to reign within it in this way. Later, in the works of Angelus Silesius, this intimate communion finds expression in dogmatic sayings. He states:

I die, yet I do not live. God Himself dies within me,
And what I am to live, He also lives forever and ever.

I die, yet God lives: if I am to live eternally for Him,
Then I must also give up my spirit for Him eternally.

[ 8 ] The soul is filled with the divine and spiritual, but since God cannot die, death is only an illusion. This is how Jakob Böhme—who, within German spiritual life, stands firmly in the folk tradition, and who experiences the soul not as that which passes through the instruments of life, but as its eternal core—remains fully conscious even while still in the body.

[ 9 ] Dying is a new birth: “Whoever does not die before he dies will perish when he dies”—that is, we must focus our attention on what passes through the gate of death. Wherever we look, we can recognize the worldview of the German spirit in such a way that nothing from the old standpoint shines into the time when it seeks to attain a new worldview. Its self stands firm, ready to carry all its strength and competence into the external sensory world. We see how, when the peoples of Romanic culture adopted Christianity, a strong ascetic current emerged, and how the human self became isolated, its thinking set apart. But the German cannot so easily cast aside what constitutes his own self; therefore, he will carry this into nature in many conceptions of the spiritual-divine, just as in the *Nibelungenlied* the lament arises from bliss and the sorrow from suffering. Nature cannot fully satisfy the soul; if the soul does not perceive the supernatural within it, nature must appear tragic until, through the veil of nature, one perceives that which does not corrupt. Herein lie the roots of German spiritual life.

[ 10 ] What emerged later brought about, in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the flowering that leads to a worldview. Always within the national context—not in the individual—we see in Italy everything emerging in relation to the passions, while in France we see that which stimulates the intellect, that which spurs on abstract ideas and tendencies. All schematization, all systematization, with the self chasing after it. There, it is said that unrhymed verses are not poetic, that they lack a sense of completeness. This is the case everywhere, especially with regard to rationalism. It is so in all fields; one cannot look beyond it; one must elevate oneself to that which is systematized. The German essence is meant to live intimately in what it unfolds as experience, rising all the way to the supersensible. In alliteration, the soul’s immediate feeling transcends; there it is pursued through the intimate progression of the soul itself, not through rhyme.

[ 11 ] Within the British national character, this would be that which relates to the transitory, to the external sensory world. It is empiricism, just as rationalism is to the French character. Idealism is, at its core and in its origins, the realm that becomes the immediate root of German intellectual life. From this, one can understand how Darwin’s system of nature was able, emerging from the British spirit—as with the philosopher Locke—to pursue the purely material while simultaneously contemplating the religious, rather than grasping it through experience as the Germans do.

[ 12 ] This attachment to matter prevented the English mind from committing the fundamental error that Haeckel, drawing on the strengths of the German mind, committed: turning Darwin’s system of nature into a monistic worldview. Gradually, the science of the spirit must unfold in such a way that it not only possesses idealism but will also imbue it with spiritual weaving. It is difficult to follow in the footsteps of the great German philosophers in experiencing what they lived through in the full vigor of their thoughts. One can see how the fruit of real, genuine spiritual insights is contained within this. The German spirit has progressed from the root to the blossom; this holds the hope that the fruit—spiritual insight—will come from it. This German spiritual insight will still mean a great deal for the development of the entire world; this concerns us; this is what must be defended against the enemies who rail and revile, who, in a state bordering on mental illness, attack the German essence.

[ 13 ] Lessing stands at the height of German intellectual life. I would like to point to his magnum opus, *The Education of the Human Race*. He feels compelled to assume that the soul must pass through earthly life not just once, but repeatedly. Intelligent people say that Lessing had already grown old by that time. One can move from Lessing to Herder, who, in opposition to Voltaire’s rationalism—which held that ideas should run their course in history—said that these are not merely ideas, but that behind them lie active, real entities, concrete spirit. He already points to the recognition of the spirit, saying that the culture of the earth will not perish before enlightenment has come.

[ 14 ] A flowering of this intimate coexistence of the individual soul with the spiritual realm—the quest for a worldview arising from one’s true personality—is *Faust*, a work to which no other nation can offer a comparable counterpart. It is not artistically polished; the second part is, in many respects, aesthetically questionable. But the quest for a folk-based worldview becomes, within it, a continuous experience of the self, of the “I.” Faust strives to break free from what can be imposed from the outside, seeking a dialogue with the concrete Spirit. He truly finds it all around him in everything real, and when he seeks to lead it to the sources of life, his counterpart, Mephisto, steps in to oppose him. Faust calls out to him: “In your nothingness I hope to find the universe.” This is a truly German statement; it leads not to nothingness, but to the source of existence. Through pain and suffering, Faust seeks what is lacking in the mere external world. Whoever, then, immerses himself in the intimate striving of the German spirit will find it maddening to read what the world says in a journal that has indeed gone mad: “Plunder has always been the watchword of the German race.”

[ 15 ] This is how far the European world has come in its assessment of the German spirit—with a mindset that is not enlightened within itself! Hebbel said: “Deep down, everyone hates the German spirit—and has done so for a long time—just as the wicked hate the good. If they were to succeed in eradicating it, they would later have to scrape it out of the grave with their fingernails.”

[ 16 ] The sentiments now pathologically emanating from abroad have long since taken shape as spiritual currents arising from the existing passions of those nationalities to which only a fragment of the soul is allotted, whereas the German must sacrifice his entire soul on the altar of spiritual existence. Only the sacrificed soul gives back what blazes forth from the sacrificial fire. The others seek only through individual nuances of the soul. Now that the German essence is so reviled, this must be emphasized for once.

[ 17 ] Is there not some truth to it when someone says today: “Germany brought about [the most significant revolution of modern times], the Reformation.” This is a proud statement about the German character, which relates to others as higher mathematics relates to elementary mathematics. It was said by Ernest Renan in Paris in 1870. In the same letter, when viewed in this context, one can see what a stark contrast there is between what Central Europe strives for in terms of worldview—and seeks to live out—and how things stand in the West, even when tackling the most profound issues such as “The Life of Jesus.”

[ 18 ] We are constantly told that Central Europe wanted the war. But let us listen to what France has to say about Germany. He—Renan—believes that the Germans should be wary of taking land from the French; if they did, the French would mend their ways and realize that they had unjustly started the war. David Friedrich Strauss, to whom the letter was addressed, replied that Renan might forgive him, but that he could not view Gaul as a penitent Mary Magdalene. Renan responds by saying that there is a current of thought in France that holds: if France’s territorial integrity is preserved, then we—the French—will make amends for the earlier seizure of Alsace-Lorraine, not through revenge; but if they are forced to cede Alsace-Lorraine, then hatred will ensue, and the eternal goal will be the destruction of the German race.

[ 19 ] Rationalism, then, is capable of saying: Just as in higher mathematics, it leads to destruction through an alliance with anyone who offers themselves up. Such logic is a pain that stings bitterly, a perverse logic; it mocks everything that is natural feeling. There is no need to engage in self-praise to describe what has become of the German people’s quest for an intimate worldview.

[ 20 ] In the West and the Northwest—among the British people—there is no understanding; it is impossible there to even grasp the very essence of the German spirit, nor is it possible in the East. There, Slavophilism has developed; it has become imbued with the conviction that what exists as culture in the West is rotten and must be replaced by what it possesses itself. And we are in the west of Russia! The individual Russian stands in such a way toward the soul of his people that it does not yet influence him; it has grasped neither the individual nuance of the soul nor the whole self, but rather hovers like a cloud over what the individual experiences. The individual soul is not yet reached by it.

[ 21 ] In the emotional culture produced by Italian culture, in French rationalism, and in British empiricism, we can see the full expression of the national spirit. Among the Russian people, [it] hovers above experience; therefore, the Orthodox religion—which has become entirely rigid—is allowed to spread over the individual, who bows beneath it but is not seized by it. He does not strive to bring spiritual life into his being, but rather humbles himself under the yoke, bowing from the outside. It is a saddening experience to attend such an Orthodox service during the Easter celebrations, seeing how the individual behaves in a completely impersonal manner toward what is taking place there, taking nothing personal to heart. It is precisely in this that a sense of superiority over the West is sought. In what is produced as a necessary outcome of the entire Central European spirit, salvation could be found there in the East; but in Slavophilism, they resist developing the spirit, resisting the absorption of anything that should have flowed into the soul of the Russian people. Those who have risen above the level of brutal Slavophilism—which brought the torch of war and brutal warfare—have recognized this.

[ 22 ] One of these discerning minds was Soloviev. He is no Faustian soul; rather, he seeks to look up in humility. Thus, what lives within the individual Russian soul—an anarchy of the soul—remains within him. We can trace it all the way up to Soloviev, despite his immense stature. [...] Soloviev had to ask himself: What do we have to offer from here in Central Europe? There is a deep misunderstanding between the East and Central Europe; why is Central Europe hated by Eastern Europe? He says: When Europe looks at our pretensions and claims, one hears that they are something great, but when it comes to what we can offer from the very substance of our people, we can only spout empty phrases.

[ 23 ] Even where the German spirit is fully experienced, there is everywhere a hatred that has been brewing for a long, long time, and which now manifests itself, one might say, in a pathological way. What presents itself as a sign in this fateful time serves as a reminder to the German soul to become truly aware of what its mission is. This war can be a kind of warning for many. We will have to unlearn many things if we are to become conscious of the German spirit.

[ 24 ] It was, after all, possible that this man was regarded with admiration as one of the spirits of reconciliation between Germany and the West. The novel was hailed as a work of art, as if born from the spirit of music itself, [according to] the critic Stefan Zweig of the *Berliner Tageblatt*. Then people were astonished that Romain Rolland joined the chorus of invectives against Germany. Here we see how the events now unfolding were set in motion.

[ 25 ] One can only say that from the many things this era will and must bring—from the sum of blood, suffering, and death, as well as courage and bravery—a warning must emerge for all to become aware of what that body, which can be called the German people, harbors: a striving to grasp the spiritual world, to grasp that which can enlighten human beings about their destiny. Nothing in the present can be sharp enough to lead to a deepening of what has struggled its way to bloom from the roots over the course of centuries, and what now gives hope that it will also bear fruit. Anyone who takes spiritual science seriously—and not merely as an abstract hope—can say that while an individual may die, a people must not die before it has fulfilled its mission. This event can therefore awaken feelings of hope and confidence within us as we immerse ourselves ever more deeply in what constitutes the roots and blossoms of German spiritual life.

[ 26 ] I do not wish to choose my own words to summarize this, but rather to quote a poem from the collection *Deutsche Klänge aus Österreich* (*German Sounds from Austria*) by the Austrian poet Fercher von Steinwand: “Kyffhäuser Guests.” In this poem, each speaker expresses in his own way how the German spirit manifests itself, but one in particular conveys with such depth and power what the German people are capable of expressing when they draw from the roots and blossoms of the German spirit: What springs from the mysteries of this earth,

That which finds hearts, that which masters spirits,
That which flows eternally from the stars, speaking
And reveals an infallible God;
That which seems to have been lost from time and the world
And yet surges around us in a thousand streams:
That is innately and powerfully inherent in the German spirit,
To proclaim this clearly, he has consciously sworn!