The Rudolf Steiner Archive

72. The Victory of Life Over Death

Speech in Memory of Christian Morgenstern

My dear friends!

[ 1 ] This coming Easter week marks the anniversary of the time when our dear friend Christian Morgenstern departed from us here on the physical plane to the spiritual worlds—those worlds we strive to understand through our Spiritual Science. On other occasions, I have attempted to describe what Christian Morgenstern meant to us during the time when we had him among us in our movement of Spiritual Science, with his remarkable poetic gift—a time when, drawing from the rich abundance of his spirit and soul, he enriched our spiritual movement. And I have also spoken before about what has become of Christian Morgenstern’s seeric faculty since the time his soul entered into a different existence: how he belongs precisely to those individualities whom we look to as our helpers dwelling in the spirit realm, through whom we can bring to our consciousness in a very special way what we owe to our deceased friends. I would have much to say about all of this even today, but another context will present itself in the near future. What I wish to point out in particular today, however, even if only in a few words, is inspired by the meaning and significance of the coming festival. For it is the festival that symbolizes for us, in the highest conceivable sense, the victory of eternal spiritual life over the sensory forms, over the material veils that the spirit assumes in order to manifest itself temporarily in these forms, in these veils, and to fulfill its special task within them. For what is coming is the festival that is meant to remind us always that life triumphs—ceaselessly and eternally—over death.

[ 2 ] For us, Christian Morgenstern represents the triumph of life over death; for us, he embodies that essential truth which should stand before us, especially during this festive season: that all that is dead shall rise again and live an active life. And let us begin today by saying a few words about this living life of the soul, which was embodied in Christian Morgenstern.

[ 3 ] One could say, my dear friends, that the entry of the soul embodied in Christian Morgenstern into the spiritual worlds was a significant event for those spiritual worlds; that, in a certain sense—if I may use this prosaic expression—it marked a new era in those spiritual worlds. Over the course of the last few centuries, distinctive personalities have left the earthly plane with their souls. The most distinctive personalities among those who have left this earthly plane—they left it with a soul that was well-versed in all that can be observed within the sphere of the earthly horizon, in all that can be conceived as outstanding within the sphere of the Earth. Great spirits have walked the Earth, and human earthly thinking has taken on an intense form. Through this human earthly thinking, light has been shed on the intimate material processes of life. This is precisely what has characterized the last few centuries: that human earthly understanding has been able to shed light intensely on the material mysteries of life. And souls with profound and intensive earthly knowledge have passed through the gate of death; they have carried up into the spiritual worlds an infinite amount of what can be attained through knowledge on Earth. But surely never has so much of what earthly intellect can attain—and which has no significance for the spiritual worlds, what serves to explain the sensory worlds, what reveals the deep spiritual mysteries of the sensory worlds—been carried up through the gate of death into the spiritual worlds, especially by outstanding souls, insofar as these sensory worlds, too, have their origin in the spiritual. Precisely for the most outstanding spirits, the environment into which they entered through the gate of death was a realm where phenomena foreign to them shone forth against their spiritual senses and their spiritual capacity for comprehension. And they had to turn their inner gaze downward toward the Earth to become aware that they are anything at all. One might say aphoristically: In the spirit realm, we behold an assembly of souls who have passed through the gate of death, souls who have carried earthly existence—and the most outstanding cycles of earthly existence—up into the spiritual worlds to the highest degree. Christian Morgenstern’s soul entered their circle—that soul which, endowed with the innermost urge toward Spiritual Science or, to put it bluntly, the language of the spirits, had already sought on Earth to experience that which is supernatural to the senses, that which is supersensible —that which, through the power of the soul, simultaneously enlivens and inspires earthly human beings; that which makes this soul receptive, in the most eminent sense, to what shines forth to meet the soul in the spirit realm once it has passed through the gate of death. And like a bright star rising, equipped with the life to be acquired on Earth for the spirit realms, Christian Morgenstern’s soul stepped into the midst of those whose vision for such stars had already grown dim. And many could be named among the most outstanding spirits of past centuries—Fichte, Schelling, Hegel—who have ascended through the gate of death and said: With our earthly understanding, we have traversed and explored the Earth’s mysteries, yet our understanding of what now surrounds us remained empty; barren and empty remained that which provides an answer to the great, meaningful question: ‘What is the human being, the living human being in the realm of the spirits?’—And the spirit who was incarnated here on Earth as Christian Morgenstern brought news into their circle of what the human being actually is through his intimate connection with the language of the spirits. And Hegel and Fichte were able to say: “We have sought on Earth to fathom that which explains the Earth’s mysteries. But within the entire scope of what we have drawn forth as certain concepts from earthly reason, from the deep shafts of earthly knowledge, the question standing before us here remained unanswered: ‘What is man?’ What is man, in truth, within the entire cosmic context?—Then a human being, a human star, steps forward and explains it to us through what he is, through what he brings us, through what he has already prepared on Earth for Heaven!”

[ 4 ] Who he is, how he lives for the spirit realms—this should stand before our souls at the beginning of this week, which is meant to symbolize the resurrection of life in a solemn manner. What kind of spirit realms the soul of our dear friend Christian Morgenstern is, let it enter our hearts this week, so that our hearts may celebrate a grateful feast in remembrance of the one who, for years, was at the heart of our Spiritual Science movement, enriching and enlivening it—and of whom we may know that his entry into the spirit realms has become meaningful and profoundly effective precisely through what he had cultivated in his soul in recent years. I would simply like to present this image—the image of what the soul embodied by Christian Morgenstern means for the spiritual realms—and therefore also for us. May this image then live in your hearts throughout the coming Easter week, and may what Christian Morgenstern was celebrate the Resurrection in your hearts.

[ 5 ] To deepen the sentiments and emotions we wish to express in grateful and reverent remembrance of Christian Morgenstern—especially during this week marking the anniversary of his death, which coincides with our Holy Week—may he himself speak to us through some of the works he created during his time on earth.