The Rudolf Steiner Archive

47. Goethe and Our Time

[ 1 ] The second folk poetry evening (Goethe Evening), held last night at the “Trianon,” drew an exceptionally large crowd, demonstrating that even among the lower classes there is a desire to become acquainted with the works of our classical literature. The originally planned program had to be altered at the last minute, as the opera singer Martha Kjerda from the City Theater in Chemnitz, who had been scheduled to perform that evening, was unable to appear. At just the right moment, Ms. Elise de Nys-Kutscherra, a singer with the Ducal Saxon Chamber Choir from the Royal Theater in Brussels, stepped in as a replacement, and the audience was quite satisfied with the substitution. The artist opened the delightful evening with “Mignon’s Song” and then sang “Ich liebe Dich und das heitere! Die Trommel gerührt” from Egmont; at the end of the evening, she performed the “Schmuckwalzer” from Gounod’s Margarethe. The singer’s dignified, soulful performance earned thunderous applause. The appreciation for the recitations by Kurt Holm-Berlin was not entirely unanimous. Why, one might ask, were the recited Goethe poems not rendered word-for-word? This must have been all the more noticeable to those less familiar with the works of the great poet who were following the text in the program. The reciter’s speech was likely too affected, and thus seemed unnatural and overly exuberant, with a lack of variation in the delivery. In contrast, opera singer Mr. Greder of the City Theater in Leipzig deserves high praise. He sang Schubert’s compositions “Prometheus” and “Erlkönig” with artistic beauty, but found even greater appreciation among the general audience with Hugo Wolf’s delightful song “Ob der Koran von Ewigkeit sei?” and the humorous encores.

[ 2 ] These presentations on Goethe’s poetry served as a framework for the interesting remarks by Dr. Rudolf Steiner of Berlin on “Goethe and Our Time.” Shortly before his death, Goethe remarked that his own cause would not become popular, but the future—and especially our time—has proven him wrong. With his views and feelings, Goethe was a loner in his time, yet the 19th century came to understand what he had sensed in advance. According to him, human beings should draw their greatest strengths from nature, since they themselves are, after all, the crown of creation. Goethe is the poet of a worldview rooted in nature; even in his youth, he demonstrated a special aptitude for appreciating nature and felt drawn to a form of worship in harmony with nature. The “Prince of Poets” expressed the entirety of a person’s religious purpose in life in his words: “Let man be noble, helpful, and good.” Goethe sought to fathom the whole human being and his essence through the study of nature. Had he been born a Greek or an Italian, he might have found greater understanding and recognition in his own homeland. Naturally, his journey to Italy therefore brought him some satisfaction, as is also expressed in Prometheus. From decade to decade, Goethe’s significance has been increasingly recognized, as was particularly evident on March 22, 1882—the 50th anniversary of his death—and on August 28, 1899—the 150th anniversary of the poet’s birth.