The Rudolf Steiner Archive

Seventh Lecture

[ 1 ] It is surely a fundamental need of every human soul, on the day that marks the end of the year, before the new year begins, to turn one’s thoughts to the transience of all things temporal. And, driven by this fundamental need, a person looks back—examining, exploring, and gaining self-knowledge—on what has come into contact with their outer life and their soul during the past year. They also look back on the progress they have made in life and on the fruits of the experiences that life has brought them. When such a retrospective is undertaken, a kind of light is shed, as it were, on that feeling which makes human life appear to us more or less valuable, more or less problematic, or even more or less satisfying. We are never in a position to view our lives solely as we lead them as individual human beings. We feel compelled to view our lives in the context of the whole world and the whole of humanity. If we seriously pursue a spiritual-scientific worldview, the necessity will present itself to our souls, in particular, to repeatedly reflect on our relationship to the world at this turning point of the year—the end of one year and the beginning of the next. Ä

[ 2 ] But when we consider this now, at a time when so much has passed before our eyes—a time in which, above all, everything that humanity has gone through in the last four and a half years stands before us— and when, as a scholar of the spiritual sciences, one considers one’s relationship to the world and to humanity against the backdrop of the truly incomparable world events of recent years, then this year’s annual review takes on a very special significance.

[ 3 ] As a side note—I would say, in line with everything I have just touched upon, and standing apart from the rest of our discussion—I hope you will take to heart the thoughts I would like to present today. Transience, the passage of time and the events of this era—how all of this affects the human soul—is what stands before our inner eye at this very moment. But as scholars of spiritual science, we must not forget that when we look back on the passing of time and the experiences we have had during this passing time, various difficulties in our contemplation also come to the fore. It is above all the difficulties of viewing the world that confront the mind that devotes itself to spiritual scientific thought with seriousness and dignity.

[ 4 ] You are all familiar with that peculiar sensation that befalls people who have not yet traveled by train very often. They look out the window, and it seems to them as if the entire landscape were moving, as if the entire landscape were rushing toward them. They do not realize that they themselves are moving in the train; rather, they attribute the movement to the landscape through which they are traveling with the train. Only gradually, through the habits of daily life, does one lose this illusion and come to perceive correctly the ordinary view that presents itself when one looks out the window. Essentially, we are always in the same position vis-à-vis the workings of the world as such a person is on a train, only in a somewhat more complicated way. This person is mistaken about the stillness and movement of what lies outside in the landscape. Human beings rush through world events while embedded in their physical-etheric body, which is given to them like a vehicle when they enter physical existence between birth and death from spiritual realms. Through the instruments of this physical vehicle, in which they rush through their physical life course, they observe the world. And in this view of the world, the vast majority of things appear in an illusory way. So that we can truly venture the comparison: We see the world as falsely as someone who, unaccustomed to traveling by train, sees the landscape outside, which he supposes is rushing past him. And correcting this illusory worldview to which people succumb is not as easy as correcting one’s perception when looking out the window of a train.

[ 5 ] Such a thought may come to your mind on New Year’s Eve this year in particular, a year during which we have had to correct many common misconceptions about the world. You know how I have spoken to you about the experiences we would have if we were to consciously live our lives the way we do unconsciously, from childhood to old age. I have told you how a person only matures at certain stages of life to truly know this or that from within themselves. With regard to these various stages of maturity in human life, people must, for the reasons I have just indicated, succumb to all sorts of illusions.

[ 6 ] There are, above all, two kinds of illusions to which we are subject in life, illusions that immediately take root in our minds when, for example, on New Year’s Eve, we look back on the past year or look ahead to the coming year— two illusions that arise from the fact that, in our ordinary consciousness, we have no idea how we actually relate to the external world in certain circumstances. This external world is not merely a spatially ordered collection of things; rather, it is a sequence of events. Through your senses, you observe the external events taking place around you, insofar as these events are natural phenomena. You view natural phenomena within the human realm in the same way. The world is in a state of becoming; the world is in the midst of processes. People usually do not think about it, but it is indeed so! These processes unfold at a certain speed. Whatever is taking place always has a certain speed. Then, from these processes, you can turn your gaze to what is taking place within yourself. You know that conscious and unconscious processes take place within you. You do not face the world merely as a finished, complete spatial being; rather, you face the world in such a way that you are actually immersed in a continuous unfolding, in a continuous becoming, in continuous processes—and these, too, unfold at a certain speed.

[ 7 ] Let us now consider our own speed—the speed at which we rush through the world—in relation to the speed of natural phenomena. Human science does not take into account that there is a vast difference between our own speed, with which we move through the world, and the speed of natural phenomena. If we take that part of our life that is linked to the sensory observation of the external world and draws its experiences from that observation—if we compare this part of our life, which we owe to the senses, in terms of its unfolding and its flow, with the external natural phenomena toward which these senses are directed, we move much more slowly through the stream of time than natural phenomena do. It is important that we bear this in mind. Natural phenomena proceed relatively quickly; we move slowly. As you know, I once pointed out this difference when I gave the lecture “Human Life from the Perspective of Spiritual Science” here in the neighborhood, in Liestal. From the moment we are born until our teeth fall out, we humans need seven years to develop our physical body, and then another seven years to develop our etheric body. If we compare the plant kingdom—which we can regard as representative in this regard, for example with reference to our etheric body—with ourselves, we say to ourselves: The plant kingdom, as is the case with annual plants, rushes through in the course of a single year all the development it can undergo in the etheric body. It takes us seven years to accomplish what the annual plant accomplishes in one year. This means that nature outside, insofar as it reveals itself in the plant world, moves seven times faster than we do. And much follows the same law as that which is revealed in the plant world—namely, everything that is subject to the etheric world.

[ 8 ] You’ll realize what this means if you just stop to think about how it looks, for example, when you’re riding in a slow-moving train next to another train traveling in the same direction but at a faster speed. The speed of that other train will not seem as fast to you when you yourself are traveling more slowly than when you are standing still; or, if you are not riding on a very slow train but on a somewhat faster one—which is still slower than the other express train—then the express train will seem to be moving very slowly. But if you’re traveling at exactly the same speed as the express train, you’ll always stay alongside it. As you can see, the way you perceive the other train changes depending on your own speed.

[ 9 ] Well, the speed we are talking about here—the speed at which we live out our own ethereal life—encompasses much more than mere spatial relationships; it encompasses all our judgments, all our feelings, and our entire attitude toward the outside world. The spiritual scientist who can investigate this matter says: What would it actually be like if we, as human beings, were organized differently—if, for example, we were organized in such a way that we needed only one year from the time our baby teeth fell out until we reached sexual maturity, that is, if we had exactly the same pace as that which, out in nature, is subject to etheric life—if, in other words, we were to get our permanent teeth during the course of the first year and, by the end of the second year, were as far along as we are by the time we reach sexual maturity at the age of fourteen or fifteen? Then we would be fully immersed in the course of natural events—insofar as they are subject to etheric life—through the course of our own lives. Then we would be indistinguishable from nature. For we differ essentially in that we move forward through the stream of time at a different pace. We would quite naturally feel that we are part of nature. And above all, one thing must be said: If we were attuned in this way to the same speed as external natural phenomena, we could never become ill from within. For every illness that can affect a human being from within stems entirely from the fact that we move at a different speed than the events of external nature, insofar as these are subject to etheric life. So our human life would be quite different if we were not distinguished from the external world by the fact that we live seven times more slowly than external nature does.

[ 10 ] So, on New Year’s Eve, we look back on the year and do not realize that, through our own experiences, we have actually fallen out of the flow of world life during that year. We will only become aware of this when, having already attained a certain depth of life experience, we have repeatedly engaged in such New Year’s Eve reflections in a truly serious manner. People who are in a position to judge this will, upon proper self-reflection, agree with me—based simply on ordinary external life experience—that when, for example, we have reached our fifties and have repeatedly engaged in such reflection, we must admit to ourselves: In truth, we have never drawn from the course of a year what could have been drawn from it. In a sense, we leave the experiences we could have—experiences that could enrich us—unused. We learn seven times less than we could from nature if we did not rush through the course of our lives seven times slower than nature itself. And actually—as we tell ourselves once we’ve reached our fifties—if you had been able to make the most of every year by drawing out everything that year had to offer, then you’d essentially be only seven or eight years old now, or at most ten or twelve, and in those ten or twelve years you would have drawn out everything that you’ve only now drawn out after decades. |

[ 11 ] But something else is happening as well. We would never be able to arrive at the view that the world is a material one if we were moving at the same speed as it. Because we do not move at the same speed, the outside world—which moves more rapidly—appears to us as material, while our own life appears to us as spiritual and soulful. The difference arises from the different speeds of life. If we were to move forward at the same speed as the external natural world, there would be no difference between our spiritual-soul life and the course of the external natural world; we would count ourselves as part of the external natural world and perceive everything as spiritually and soulfully equivalent to ourselves. We would thus be engaged with the world in an entirely different way. The fact that we have our own pace—which is much slower than the world’s—deceives us when we look back on the year at New Year’s Eve. For although we do look back, much is left out of this retrospective that would not be left out if we were moving at the same pace as the world. From a spiritual-scientific perspective, this should, as it were, permeate like an undertone the serious mood that befits anyone devoted to spiritual science in such a year-in-review. It should tell us how necessary it is for us, as human beings, to seek other approaches to the world than those we can derive solely from this external course of life, which thus lulls us into illusions.

[ 12 ] This is one illusion. To the extent that we face the world with our senses, we move through the world much more slowly than the external world moves. But there is yet another illusion, and it presents itself to us when we consider all that sets our thinking ablaze, all that inspires our thinking—insofar as this thinking arises from within us—when we consider the kind of reflection that depends on our will. The external sensory world does not give us, according to our will, what it could give us; rather, we must first step before things. Events approach us. This is different from when we grasp our concepts, our ideas, which arise from our own will. That is yet another speed. When we consider that inner life of the soul—which is indeed a life of thought but is connected to our will, our desires, and our wishes—there is yet another speed than the speed of the world through which we, as human beings, pass between birth and death. And here, when one examines the matter from a spiritual scientific perspective, something curious becomes apparent: with our thoughts—insofar as they depend on our will—we move much faster than the outer course of the world.

[ 13 ] So you think that with everything related to our senses, we move more slowly, and with everything related to our thinking, we move much faster than the external course of life. In fact, insofar as our thoughts are governed by our will, our longings, and our desires, we move so quickly that we may—even if unconsciously—have the feeling—and everyone has this—that the year is actually much too long. For our sensory perception, it is seven times too short. As for our conceptual understanding—insofar as our thoughts depend on our desires and longings—deep within, each person unconsciously feels that the year is far too long. They actually want the year to be much shorter, for they are convinced that in a much shorter time they could grasp the thoughts that arise from their own desires and their own will. Deep within the soul of every human being there is something that they do not bring to consciousness, but which influences their entire sensibility, their entire state of mind, coloring everything in our subjective inner life. It is something that tells us: The year would be enough for us in terms of the thoughts we form, if only we had Sundays and no weekdays at all. For as far as this kind of thinking is concerned, a person lives in such a way that they actually want nothing more than to experience Sundays. As for the weekdays—even if they no longer bring this to conscious awareness—they think these days merely hold them back; they intrude into life as something they don’t really need in order to move forward with their thoughts. When it comes to thoughts that depend on our will, our longings, and our desires, we are quick to act; we move swiftly. That is one of the reasons for our selfishness. And that is one of the reasons why we are so stubborn when it comes to our thoughts.

[ 14 ] If you were not as organized as I have just described, if your thoughts truly followed the external course of the world, if you did not move forward much faster—seven times faster than the external course of the world—and if you did not merely take Sundays into account, then you would find yourself in such a spiritual state of mind in the world that your own opinion would never be more valuable to you than the opinion of another. You would always be able to easily adopt someone else’s opinion. But consider this: a large part of our human nature rests on the fact that we always assume our own opinion is the more valuable one. We think—at least from a certain point of view—that the other person is always wrong; at the very least, they are only right when we feel authorized to agree with them.

[ 15 ] So, as human beings, we are strangely ambivalent creatures. On the one hand, we move much more slowly than the course of the external world, insofar as we are sensory beings; on the other hand, we move much faster in thought than the course of the external world, insofar as we are beings of will. This clouds our vision when we look out into the external world. Because we are constantly succumbing to illusions, we fail to realize that we are detached from nature—and that this detachment makes us susceptible to illness and leads us to adopt materialistic conceptions of the world. These ideas are just as false as the notion that the landscape outside is passing by in the opposite direction of the train; and these materialistic ideas exist only because we move seven times slower than the world. And we harbor a secret wish: If only it were always Sunday! — because, relatively speaking, the weekdays actually seem unnecessary to us for what we want to imagine about the world purely from the outside, based on our desires and our will. This secret wish is in every person. The state of people’s souls is rarely described as aptly as in the following. Bismarck once said something remarkable about that emperor who was the last of the Hohenzollerns. When he expressed his concerns about what this emperor would bring upon Germany, he said: “This man wants to live as if he had a birthday every day; people like us are glad when our birthday is over, because we are exposed to all the wishes and all the excitement that a birthday entails; but he would like to have a birthday every day!” — This is a remark that Bismarck once made with concern, right at the beginning of the 1890s, to characterize the emperor. Well, human selfishness emphasizes birthdays so strongly that it makes a clear distinction between them and other days; people do not actually wish to have a birthday all the time, but from a certain point of view, they do wish it were always Sunday, because then they would have enough. And much of our state of mind, which masks itself in entirely different ways, is based on the fact that we actually only like Sundays.

[ 16 ] The illusions arising from these things were corrected in the most diverse ways in earlier periods of human development through atavistic clairvoyance. They are corrected the least in our age. But what does correct them—and what must happen, and what I ask you to take into your soul today as a kind of social impulse—is this: if we immerse ourselves in spiritual science, as it is meant here, so that we take it in not as a theory but with that vitality of which I have often spoken, then we have, within this spiritual science, the possibility of correcting—innerly and soulfully—the illusions that arise from these two sources of error. Spiritual science—let us make this especially clear to ourselves at the turn of the year—is something that, on the one hand, allows us to experience in the world as it truly is what we do not experience as it truly is because we move too slowly through the world. Everything really depends on the way we ourselves relate to things. Just think for a moment about how much depends on how we ourselves relate to the world! To make such things clear to ourselves, we sometimes have to bring hypothetically impossible thoughts to mind. Imagine a physicist telling you: Certain tones—the C, D, and E of a certain octave—have so many vibrations; that is, the air undergoes so many vibrations. You don’t perceive any of these vibrations; you hear the tone. But imagine—if you were organized in such a way—it is, of course, an impossible thought, but it helps clarify something—that you would perceive every single vibration of the air; in that case, you would not be able to hear the tone at all. The speed of your own life depends solely on how you perceive anything. The world looks the way it must, given the speed at which we ourselves move relative to the world. Spiritual science, however, draws our attention to the reality that exists independently of our relationship to the world.

[ 17 ] In spiritual science, it is said that our Earth gradually came into being by first passing through a Saturn era, a Sun era, and a Moon era, and then advancing to this Earth era. But of course, everything is always there. Within the existence we are now living as the Earth existence, other worlds are preparing for their Saturn existence, and other worlds for their Sun existence. This can be observed from a spiritual scientific perspective. The Saturn existence is still present even now. We simply know that our Earth has moved beyond this stage; other worlds are only just entering this Saturn stage. There, one can then observe how it extends into our existence. But being able to observe this Saturn stage depends on first changing the pace at which we follow events; otherwise, we cannot see it. Thus, spiritual science brings us, in a certain sense, into communion with true reality—with what is truly taking place in the world. And if we take this spiritual science to heart—which I have spoken of as the revelation of the spirits of personality who are intervening anew as creators—if we accept it for our time not merely as a human creation but, as I said, as revealed from the heights of heaven, and if we take the impulses of this spiritual science to heart, then they will lead us—which is so necessary for our time — beyond the illusions created by our different pace from that of the world; then they will bring us into such harmony with the world that we can at least correct certain aspects of our perception of the world.

[ 18 ] And then we also begin to see the consequences of these spiritual scientific endeavors. I have pointed out some of these consequences over the course of this year. Today, as we look back on the year, I would simply like to draw your attention to what I have already said from a different perspective: Spiritual science, when taken to heart, keeps people young in a certain way; it prevents us from aging as we otherwise would. This is one of the consequences of spiritual science. And for our time, this consequence is particularly important. It consists in the fact that, no matter how advanced in years we may be, we can truly be capable of learning in the same way a child learns. Once you’ve reached your fifties, from the standpoint of ordinary consciousness, you generally feel quite old in the world. Ask your contemporaries whether they really feel much inclination to keep learning a great deal at the age of fifty! Even if they say they do, try to see if they actually do it—if they really put it into practice. Concepts and ideas from spiritual science, when taken to heart, can truly enable a person, little by little, to learn in their mature years just as one used to learn as a child—and even to learn things one didn’t learn as a child—in a sense, to take on another human being and ever more human beings within oneself. It leads people to feel increasingly young in their souls—not merely in an abstract sense, as is often the case, but in such a way that they can truly learn in a manner similar to how they learned when they were eight or nine years old. In a certain sense, this compensates for the effects caused within a person by the differing pace at which they engage with the world. As a result, although we are naturally old in our later years, our soul does not allow us to be old; our soul allows us, in a certain sense, to be children, to behave toward the world like a child. Then, when we reach our fifties, we say to ourselves: By living at a slower pace than the outer course of the world, you have actually taken in only what you would have absorbed in seven or ten years had you lived just as fast as the outer course of the world. But if one has remained youthful, then one also preserves the ability to behave as one would have if one had lived through only seven, eight, nine, or ten years. That is a complete balance. And because things in the world always balance each other out, this leads to the other balance: that one also, in a certain way, curbs that faster pace—those capricious thoughts, those “Sunday wishes,” as I have described them to you—so that one creates the opportunity not to always want only Sundays, but also to make use of the weekdays for learning, to turn one’s entire life into a school.

[ 19 ] Certainly, I am presenting you with a kind of ideal that is strictly based on the humanities. But perhaps some of you have already found the New Year’s Eves of the past four years to be more serious than those of earlier years. However, anyone who looks a little more deeply into world events will likely regard this year’s New Year’s Eve—even in comparison with the New Year’s Eves of the past four years—as the most serious of all. It already calls on us to look deeply into what is happening in the world and to connect this insight with what we can gain—through our relationship to spiritual science—in terms of ideas about what the world needs in the present and in the near future. We are, in a sense, to be awakened by spiritual science to world events; we are to become people who are awake. A cursory glance can show people today just how widespread this slumber is. Just compare life today with life in earlier eras, and you will immediately notice how the lives of young and old have changed. The vast majority of today’s youth—how does this materialistic age affect them? The ideals of youth today are not as fresh, as bright, or as vibrant as they were in earlier eras. Youth has become a demanding force. People do not wish to devote the spirit of their youth—what youth has to offer—so much to looking toward the future, to envisioning far-reaching, luminous ideals, and to living a life elevated by these ideals; they want to consume what they have as life while they are still young. But this leads to an old age that is now unable to absorb what would be most suitable for old age to embrace. Our youth consumes its energies, and old age leaves the treasures of life by the wayside. Our youth is no longer hopeful enough; our old age is resigned without purpose. Our youth no longer turns to old age to ask: Are the dreams of youth—which naturally spring from my heart—coming true? — But our old age would hardly be in a position to say: Yes, they are coming true. — All too often today, our older generation says, more or less explicitly: “I, too, dreamed that; unfortunately, those youthful dreams do not come true.” — Life brings disillusionment.

[ 20 ] Yet the misfortune of our time is connected to all these things. What is deeply shaking humanity today is, after all, connected to all these things. But then, when you reflect on this, you will also be able to deeply inscribe the necessity of spiritual-scientific impulses into your soul. For on this day marking the turn of the year, if one wishes to remain awake, one must ask oneself: What is the true nature of this era? What might the future hold? What might emerge from what has arisen for civilized humanity thus far from the turmoil of recent years? — When one, as an alert person, considers these questions, a fundamentally different question arises—one that is deeply connected to all our possible hopes for the future of humanity. Such hopes—or such concerns, I might also say—have often come to mind in recent years, especially when one turns one’s gaze toward those human beings who are four, five, six, seven, or eight years old today. We, the older generation, have lived through many things that can influence our state of mind regarding what lies ahead. We have experienced many things that have brought us a joy that those who are five, six, eight, or nine years old today will not have. But nothing in the world is absolute, not even when we look back on the year at New Year’s Eve. Everything that appears to us seems illusory, because on the one hand we move too slowly, and on the other hand too quickly, with the course of the world. Nothing is absolute; everything is relative. And the question—which is not merely a theoretical one, but a real one, as you will soon see—this question confronts us: What might the inner world of a person actually look like today who cannot engage with spiritual scientific ideas, when that person asks themselves questions about the future of humanity? One can remain asleep—and that means being dishonest toward the progress of humanity, even if unconsciously so. But one can also stay awake—and one ought to stay awake. Then this question may arise, particularly in light of the general state of humanity in our time: How, then, is the future of humanity envisioned in human souls if those souls are unable to engage with spiritual science? Such people are all too numerous in the world today. I do not mean only the dry, self-satisfied materialists, but I mean those many others who already exist today, who have a certain fear of what is truly spiritual, and who yet would like to be idealists in their own way. They are abstract idealists who speak of all manner of beauty, of “Love your enemies,” and of noble social reforms, but who are unable to grasp the world in a real, concrete way. They are idealists out of weakness, but they are not seekers of the spirit. They do not wish to behold the spirit; they keep their distance from it.

[ 21 ] Today, I would like to raise this question as one for the turn of the year: Suppose such a person is honest—someone who believes he lives for the Spirit—who also believes that, through his faith, he is convinced of the workings and nature of the Spirit in the world—but who does not have the courage to go toward that concrete spiritual reality, toward the spiritual reality that spiritual science seeks to reveal to people today—if the whole of the present world, or even just a part of it, is honestly depicted within such a person, what kind of picture then emerges? I do not wish to give you an abstract description; I wish to give you a description that is currently making the rounds in the world press and that originates from a person whom I have already mentioned in another context—a person who, precisely for the reasons I have just discussed, refrains from truly engaging with spiritual science—a person who believes he can achieve social ideals without spiritual science, who believes he can speak of human progress and the human condition without wishing to engage with spiritual science, but who is honest from his own point of view. I have often mentioned the name Walther Rathenau, and pointed out many things about him that are decidedly weak; but you will recall that I once spoke appreciatively of his *Critique of the Age*. He is truly a representative figure—indeed, one of the finest examples of the idealists of our time: those who believe that a spiritual force permeates and animates the world, yet who cannot find the concrete spiritual reality—that very spiritual reality which alone can bring healing to the ills that now shake the world. That is why it is useful to ask what someone like this—who is far removed from spiritual science but is honest, who observes the course of world events today from his own vantage point—what such a person says to himself. That is instructive, after all. That is why I would like us here—since perhaps not all of you have read them—to let those words that Walther Rathenau is addressing to the whole world these days sink into our souls. He says: “A German addresses all nations. By what right? By the right of one who foretold the coming war, who foresaw the end, who recognized the catastrophe, who defied scorn, derision, and doubt, and who for four long years advised those in power to seek reconciliation. With the right of one who carried within himself for decades the premonition of the deepest downfall, and knows that the downfall is deeper than people—friends and enemies alike—can imagine. With the right of one who has never concealed a single injustice committed by his people, and who may now stand up for the rights of his people.

[ 22 ] The German people are innocent. Innocently, they committed an injustice. Innocently, out of an old, childlike dependence, they served their masters and rulers. They did not know that these masters and rulers, though outwardly unchanged, had changed inwardly. It knew nothing of the personal responsibility of nations. It knew nothing of revolutions. It tolerated militarism and feudalism; it allowed itself to be led and organized. It allowed itself to be killed and killed when ordered to do so. It believed what its natural-born leaders told it. Innocently, it committed the injustice: to believe.

[ 23 ] Our wrongdoing will weigh heavily upon us. The powers that see into our hearts will recognize our innocence.»

[ 24 ] So you see, it is a person who points to what Judaism and Christianity pointed to—providence—but expressed in abstract forms.

[ 25 ] “Germany is like those artificially fertile lands that remain green as long as a network of canals irrigates them. If a single lock breaks, all life dies, and the land withers into a desert.

[ 26 ] We have enough food for half of our people. The other half must perform wage labor for other nations, buy raw materials, and sell goods. If their work or the fruits of their labor are taken away, they will die or become homeless. Through the utmost labor a people is capable of, we saved five to six billion a year. These savings were used to build tools and workshops, construct railroads and ports, and fund research. This gave us the opportunity to remain productive and to multiply in accordance with our natural fertility. If our colonies, our imperial territories, our ores, and our ships are taken from us, we will become a powerless, impoverished nation. So be it; even our ancestors were poor and powerless, yet they served the spirit of the earth better than we do. Our trade is restricted; as we are threatened, contrary to the spirit of Wilson’s stipulations, we are being charged three or four times the damages incurred by Belgium and northern France—which amount to about twenty billion: what happens? Our economy becomes unprofitable. We work merely to eke out a meager, savings-free existence. We cannot maintain anything, renew anything, or expand anything. The country—its buildings, roads, and infrastructure—is falling into disrepair. Technology is becoming outdated, and research has come to a halt. We have a choice: barrenness, emigration, or the deepest misery.

[ 27 ] It is annihilation.

[ 28 ] We will not complain much, but will accept our fate and perish in silence. The best among us will not emigrate or take their own lives, but will share the fate of their brothers. Most do not yet know their fate; they do not know that they and their children are being sacrificed. Nor do the peoples of the world yet know that the very existence of a nation is at stake. Perhaps not even those with whom we have fought know it. Some say: justice. Others say: retribution. There are also those who say: revenge. Do they know that what they call justice, retribution, and revenge is, in fact, murder?

[ 29 ] We, who are walking toward our fate, silent but not blind: once more we raise our voices so that the world may hear them, and we bring our accusations. To the peoples of the earth, to those who were neutral and those who were our friends, to the free overseas states, to the young nations that have newly emerged, to the nations that were once our enemies, to the peoples who are here now and to those who will come after us—in deep, solemn sorrow, in the melancholy of parting, and in fiery lament—we call these words into their souls:

[ 30 ] We are being destroyed. Germany’s living body and spirit are being killed. Millions of Germans are being driven into hardship and death, into homelessness, slavery, and despair. One of the most spiritually advanced peoples on earth is being wiped out. Its mothers, its children, and its unborn are being struck down.»

[ 31 ] This is not said out of passion; it is calculated—calculated with the coldest of reason. This is simply someone who, while a materialist, is able to calculate the real circumstances with a cold, rational mind—someone who does not indulge in illusions but honestly acknowledges the truth, precisely from his materialist standpoint. This is a calculated assessment; it is not something that can be refuted with a few words or feelings of sympathy or antipathy, but rather something calculated with a cool head by a man who, for decades, was able to say, “It will happen this way”—and who also had the courage to speak the truth during the war.

[ 32 ] It was futile here; in Berlin and other places in Germany, I always included in my lectures whatever Rathenau had recently said on this subject.

[ 33 ] “We are being destroyed, knowing and seeing it, by those who know and see. Not like the dull peoples of antiquity, who were led into exile and slavery, clueless and apathetic; not by fanatical idolaters who believe they are glorifying a Moloch. We are being destroyed by brother nations of European blood who profess faith in God and Christ, whose lives and constitutions are based on morality, who invoke humanity, chivalry, and civilization, who mourn the shedding of human blood, who proclaim the peace of justice and the League of Nations, and who bear responsibility for the fate of the world.

[ 34 ] Woe to him and his soul who dares to call this bloodbath justice. Have the courage to say it, call it by its name: it is called vengeance.

[ 35 ] But I ask you, people of intellect from all nations, clergy of all denominations, and scholars; I ask you, statesmen and artists; I ask you, workers, proletarians, and citizens of all nations; I ask you, venerable Father and Supreme Head of the Catholic Church; I ask you in the name of God:

[ 36 ] May a people on earth be annihilated by its brother nations for the sake of revenge, even if it were the last and most wretched of all peoples? May a living people of intellectual, European individuals—along with their children and unborn children—be deprived of their spiritual and physical existence, condemned to forced labor, and wiped out from the circle of the living?

[ 37 ] When this most monstrous event occurs—against which even the most terrible of all wars was merely a prelude—the world must know what is happening; it must know what it is about to do. It must never be allowed to say: “We did not know; we did not want this.” It must calmly and dispassionately declare before the face of God and in the face of eternal accountability: “We know it. And we want it.”

[ 38 ] Rathenau, too, wants humanity to wake up and see.

[ 39 ] “Billions! Fifty, a hundred, two hundred billion—what is that? So is this about money?

[ 40 ] A person’s money, wealth, and poverty mean little. Each and every one of us will be poor with joy and pride if the country is saved. Yet in the sad language of our economic thinking, we have no other expression for the vital force of a people than the pitiful concept of a billion. We do not measure a person’s vitality by the four thousand grams of blood within them; we can measure the vitality of a nation only by the two or three hundred billion of its possessions. Here, lack of wealth is not merely poverty and hardship, but slavery—and doubly so for a nation that must purchase half of its meager livelihood. Not the arbitrary, personal, cruel, or lenient slavery of antiquity, but the anonymous, systematic, scientific forced labor imposed by one nation upon another. The abstract concept of one hundred billion encompasses not only money and prosperity, but blood and freedom. The demand is not that of the merchant—“pay me money”—but Shylock’s demand: “give me the blood of your body.” It is not the stock market; rather, following the mutilation of the body of the state through the cession of land and power, it is life itself. Whoever sets foot in Germany in twenty years...»

[ 41 ] And what follows is, once again, a calculation—one made with a cool, rational mind. This is not the way other people often observe world events while asleep!

[ 42 ] “Anyone who returns to Germany in twenty years—a country they once knew as one of the most prosperous on earth—will sink to the ground in shame and grief. The great cities of antiquity—Babylon, Nineveh, Thebes—were built of soft clay; nature allowed them to crumble and smoothed out the ground and hills. The German cities will not stand as ruins, but as half-dead stone blocks, still partly inhabited by wretched people. A few city districts are still bustling, but all splendor and cheer have vanished. Weary travelers make their way over the crumbling pavement; dive bars are lit up. The country roads are trampled, the forests are stripped bare, and meager crops sprout in the fields. Ports, railroads, and canals fall into disrepair, and everywhere stand, as sad reminders, the tall, weathered structures from the era of greatness. All around, old and new lands are flourishing and growing stronger in the splendor and vitality of new technology and power, nourished by the blood of the dead land, served by its exiled sons. The German spirit, which sang and thought for the world, is becoming a thing of the past. A people whom God created for life, who are still young and strong today, live and yet are dead.

[ 43 ] There are Frenchmen who say: “May this nation perish. We never want to have a strong neighbor again.” There are Englishmen who say: “May this nation perish. We never want to have a continental rival again.” There are Americans who say: “May this nation perish.” We never want to have an economic competitor again. Are these people the true representatives of their nations? Never. All strong nations will reject the voices of the fearful and the envious. Are those thirsting for revenge the true representatives of their nations? Never. This terrible passion does not last long among civilized people.

[ 44 ] Nevertheless, if the fearful, the envious, and the vengeful prevail in a single hour—the hour of decision—and drag the three great statesmen of their nations along with them, then fate is fulfilled.

[ 45 ] Then the once-mightiest stone of Europe’s vault will have been shattered; then Asia’s border will have advanced to the Rhine; then the Balkans will extend all the way to the North Sea. Then a horde of desperate people—a non-European economic force—will camp at the gates of Western civilization, threatening secure nations not with weapons but through contagion.

[ 46 ] Right and happiness can never arise from wrongdoing.

[ 47 ] We are atoning for the injustice of Germany’s dependence and lack of autonomy—an injustice Germany incurred through no fault of its own—as no injustice has ever been atoned for. But if the Western nations, in calm, cold deliberation—whether out of caution, self-interest, or a desire for revenge—slowly kill Germany and call this act justice, while proclaiming a new life for the peoples, an eternal peace of reconciliation, and a League of Nations, then justice will never again be what it is, and humanity will never again be happy, despite all its triumphs. A leaden weight will lie upon the planet, and future generations will be born with a conscience that is no longer free. The chain of guilt, which can still be severed now, will bind the body of the earth unbreakably and endlessly. The strife and conflict of the coming era will be more bitter and multifaceted than ever before, for it will be steeped in the sense of a shared injustice. Never has equal power and equal responsibility weighed upon the brows of a triumvirate. If the history of humanity—which has meaningfully willed that a single hour, through the decision of three men, should determine centuries of the Earth and a humanity of millions—has willed this, then it has willed that a single great question of faith be posed to the victorious civilized and religious nations.

[ 48 ] The question is: humanity or violence, reconciliation or revenge, freedom or oppression?

[ 49 ] People of all nations, take this to heart! This hour will determine not only our fate as Germans, but also ours and yours—the fate of us all.

[ 50 ] If she rules against us, we will bear our fate and face earthly destruction. You will not hear our plea. Yet it will be heard where no plea from the human heart has ever gone unheard.»

[ 51 ] I have presented to you this judgment, calculated with the utmost objectivity—a judgment that truly did not arise from chauvinism, but is rather the judgment of materialistic thinking; I have presented this judgment to you; and I have presented it, in part, because we live in a world where people today are still not inclined to give any thought to the fact that Ernst is here. Countless people will celebrate New Year’s Eve today just as they have not only during the last four years, but just as they celebrated New Year’s Eve even before the catastrophic events! And countless people will perceive it as a disturbance to their peace, as a disturbance to their carefree spirit, if one merely draws their attention to the fact that something like this is at stake. “Oh, it won’t be that bad”—even if people don’t say this out loud, deep down they feel this way; otherwise, they would assess the times differently.

[ 52 ] How many people are there, after all, who recognize what we have had to say time and time again over the past few years, during which one so often heard: “Well, once peace returns, things will just go back to the way they were before; then it will certainly be this way and that way and so on”—how many people have come to realize what we’ve had to say time and again about the impossibility of such a state of affairs as people imagine it to be?

[ 53 ] This is a matter of calculation. However, things appear differently depending on whether one calculates them from a materialistic perspective or in connection with what may follow from spiritual-scientific impulses. Viewed from the outside, things remain exactly as they are. There is no prospect that what Walther Rathenau is still trying to avert at the very last moment—by appealing to people’s consciences—will be done unwittingly. Yes, this appeal to conscience! ... One can only make a point. It will not be averted! Outwardly, things will unfold in this way. There is only one thing to do when we look at what has been wrought by the past—wrought, truly, not by this or that people, but by all of civilized humanity on Earth— there is only one thing: to look back, as in a great New Year’s Eve reflection on the world, at what humanity has lived through so far, and then to realize that, in a certain sense, humanity was now ripe to come to an end and has entered into what the new spirits of personality wish to bring down to Earth from the heights of heaven. But here insight and will meet. What the spirits of personality seek to reveal as new creators will only be able to come into the world if it finds fertile ground in human hearts and souls, in human minds—if people turn toward the impulses of spiritual science. What a sober, materialistic mind says about the material impulses that may be at work here is certainly true. Those who today speak of what is to become of our time from a more frivolous standpoint than Walther Rathenau did should once listen to such things from a sober mind! When people were in the throes of intoxication and daydreams, when—if one looked just a little into the future—they were, in essence, spouting nothing but nonsense—which they have now, at least a portion of humanity, thoroughly outgrown—one could hear that a new idealism, a new religiosity, would emerge from this war. Oh, I’ve heard that so often! And professors in particular—even professors of theology—have written this over and over again. You don’t even have to go very far: unless it’s Sunday, you can reach these theology professors in ten minutes—the very ones who proclaimed such prophetic wisdom. Now people are already speaking differently. Those who have now risen to prominence say: Now a time of sound atheism will surely come; humanity will be healed of the religious games that poets and writers in particular have been playing of late. — These judgments are already emerging. These judgments can be found among those who ought to listen a little to what a person says who can soberly assess how reality is taking shape.

[ 54 ] In response to this, one can only say: If only external materialistic impulses are at work in the world, in people’s minds, and in people’s hearts, then that is exactly what will happen! Then, with a terrible chain of slavery, truly not only Germany, the Central European countries, and Russia, but the entire civilized world will gradually be bound by terrible chains of slavery and will never again know joy. For through that which comes only from ancient times, the world is coming to an end! Nothing new comes from there. The new must come from the spiritual world. But it will not come if people do not wish to draw near to it, if people do not wish to receive it of their own free will. Salvation can come only when human souls are found who reach out toward the Spirit, who wishes to reveal Himself in a new way through the spirits of personality—those who wish to become creators rather than mere spirits of the age. There is no other way out. One can be honest in only two ways: either by speaking as Walther Rathenau did, or by pointing out the necessity of turning toward the spiritual world.

[ 55 ] The latter will be the subject of our New Year's reflection.

[ 56 ] For every conscious person, New Year’s Eve reflection should not be a matter of simply drifting comfortably into the new year; it should put them in a serious frame of mind, and it should bring to their attention what lies in the womb of time if the child of the spirit is not born within that womb. Only in the light of this spirit can a true New Year’s perspective be felt. Let us try, from today to tomorrow, to adopt a serious attitude in our souls! I could not conclude today without a serious reminder—one that I did not wish to offer myself. I wanted to draw attention to how this New Year’s Eve reflection appears in the soul of a person who is honest, who looks at the world but finds only material forces at work. This is how it must appear in the minds, hearts, dispositions, and souls—if they are honest—of those who do not wish to become spiritual; the others, who are also materialists, are not honest, and they remain asleep so that they need not admit their dishonesty.

[ 57 ] That's the view looking back—that's the New Year's Eve atmosphere!

[ 58 ] Tomorrow we will see how contemplating the spiritual world allows us to sense the outlook for the future and the New Year’s spirit.