The Rudolf Steiner Archive

102. Contemporary Social Demands and Their Practical Implementation

[ 1 ] Dr. Rudolf Steiner’s lecture in Vienna on “The Social Demands of the Present” has also met with great interest in our city: for last night, the hall of the “Bundeshalle” could barely accommodate members of all social classes and professions, as well as both genders—a heartening sign of the broad public’s engagement with the great questions of these most difficult of times. In Dr. Steiner, people came to know the herald of what, at first glance, appears to be a new gospel—one which, according to him, represents the only salvation from today’s chaos and for which he advocates with a conviction that, admittedly, is inspired by a passionate love for the people as such and by the deepest concern for their future fate; but which, when translated into reality and stripped of all its alluring trappings—and this is usually the first thing to happen when ideas are put into practice—is nothing other than pure communism, which in turn means the revolutionization of democracy, that very foundation upon which the German people are now building their new existence. Dr. Steiner calls for a solution to the social question on a scale commensurate with the magnitude of the catastrophe of the World War—a solution to the social question that alone is capable of lifting the proletariat out of a condition it considers degrading to human dignity. The social question is not merely an economic one, but rather it is divided into three distinct—and indeed mutually separate—components: first, the intellectual question; second, the legal or political question; and third, the economic question. Intellectual life has hitherto been the preserve of an upper-class minority, fostered by the state, which in turn allowed it to function solely for its own benefit, while it remained alien to the nature and lives of the vast majority. The only way to bring about change here is to separate intellectual life and its foundation—the school system as a whole—from the state, ensuring its free self-administration without state supervision. The second part of the social question—the legal question—must, upon its resolution, bring about equal rights for all; and the third part—the economic question—must entail the socialization of production, which must also be completely detached from the state: the collectivization of production, the abolition of hereditary private property, and the replacement of the proletarian wage relationship—as a remnant of ancient slavery—and the view of labor as a commodity to be bought and sold with the worker’s equal partnership in production. Freedom in intellectual life, equality in legal life, fraternity in economic life!—thus, in conclusion, the speaker applied the triad of the great French Revolution to contemporary Germany, emphasizing the urgent necessity that such a solution to the social question—as a question of humanity—be achieved as quickly as possible, for it might very soon be too late. […]