The Rudolf Steiner Archive

57. Summer Solstice Celebration: Speech at the Humboldt Graves

[ 1 ] The summer solstice was celebrated by the Giordano Bruno Society (Berlin), a branch of the German Freethinkers’ Federation. Until now, the Bruno Society had always had to contend with rainy weather during its outdoor social gatherings (perhaps because its members hold the ancient Greek gods in higher regard than St. Peter, the Catholic god of weather). On Saturday, June 20, the sky was also covered by a gray blanket of rain at noon, but around 4 p.m., bright sunshine shone over the magnificent, glistening Lake Tegel and over the verdant, rustling deciduous trees of Tegel Palace Park. Nearly 100 of our friends gathered there over the course of the afternoon.

[ 2 ] At half past five, we set out together for the graves of the brothers Alexander and Wilhelm von Humboldt. The burial site is located in a magnificent grove, mostly of tall fir trees, and—in contrast to the garish ostentation of tasteless wealthy people—is quite simple. Wilhelm von Humboldt described it himself in his “Letters to a Friend”: “My wife’s tomb is now complete. It is a granite column standing on a high pedestal … Around the column, there is a semicircular bench at the back and an iron railing at the front. The site can accommodate about seven to eight graves. The graves are simply dug into the ground, without a crypt.”

[ 3 ] The descendants of the Humboldts have since been laid to rest in these graves—slightly raised mounds, entwined with the most beautiful ivy, marked by simple headstones bearing only names and dates.

[ 4 ] Dr. Rudolf Steiner stepped to the base of the granite column, and our friends gathered around the railing; a young girl laid the large wreath of the Bruno Society—made of oak leaves, water lilies, and other flowers—at Humboldt’s grave. Dr. Steiner then took the floor to deliver a speech. He pointed out how an association grounded in the most modern natural and human sciences seeks to reconnect with the oldest customs of young civilizations. In a sense even higher than we can imagine today, he said, the sun is the source of life on Earth. In ancient mythologies, the men who appeared to their peoples as founders of religion and heroes were called “sons of the sun.” Giordano Bruno was a “Son of the Sun,” and Wilhelm and Alexander von Humboldt were also Sons of the Sun. The former wrote the highly significant book On the Limits of State Power, heralding a worldview that proclaims the free, intellectually noble personality of the human being even within social life; Alexander was the co-founder of the methods and findings of modern natural science. Wilhelm von Humboldt praised his life because he was granted the opportunity to become acquainted with the Bhagavad Gita, that Indian song that celebrates the myth of the sun. And to regain this higher communion with the life of nature—that is a lofty and beautiful goal of the endeavors of the G[iordano] Bruno Society. […]