The Rudolf Steiner Archive

11. Speech at the Groundbreaking Ceremony for the New Waldorf School Building

[ 1 ] My dear friend Molt, who conceived the initial idea for this school as its founder and have also contributed your efforts to it since its founding; highly esteemed Mr. Weippert, who have placed your architectural expertise at the service of the school’s construction; my dear friends among the teaching staff, who have resolved to work here at this school, at its very inception, with such dedication—all of you from the Waldorf School Association, the Board of Trustees, and the Executive Board of “Kommender Tag,” who devote your care, cooperation, and oversight to this place dedicated to the welfare of humanity, and also those from the Association for the Threefold Social Order who have taken upon themselves the task of protecting the seed of a free spiritual life here in this school; and to you, my dear children, the students of this school, who are, in a sense, privileged to receive your first lessons and your first education in humanity here in this school: I address all of you at this moment, when it is time for us, with grateful hearts, to lay the cornerstone for the school building that has come into being here through the care of all those involved, for our children and the student body here. As we lay this cornerstone, we inscribe upon it the words written here on the document that, according to time-honored custom, will be buried in the ground within this cornerstone:

[ 2 ] May the power of the spirit reign in love,
May the light of the spirit work in goodness
From the certainty of the heart
And the steadfastness of the soul
In young human beings
For the body’s strength to work,
For the soul’s intimacy,
For the spirit’s radiance
It can bring forth.
To this, may this place be consecrated.
May the spirit of youth find within it
A caring community, endowed with strength and filled with light.
In their hearts, may they remember
The spirit that is to reign here,
Those who place the stone
Here as a symbol,
So that it may strengthen the foundation,
Upon which shall live, reign, and work,
Liberating wisdom,
Strengthening spiritual power,
The spiritual life revealing itself.
This they wish to profess
In the name of Christ,
With pure intentions,
In good will:

[ 3 ] Emil Molt, Weippert, Rudolf Steiner, Marie Steiner, the members of the teaching staff, the Waldorf School Association, the Board of Trustees, the Executive Board of the Kommender Tag, and the Federation for the Threefold Social Order.

[ 4 ] [Everyone had signed their names.]

[ 5 ] This document is now being buried here within the pentagonal dodecahedron, and with this pentagonal dodecahedron—which symbolizes the active power of the human heart and spirit, a power we intend to apply with all our might to everything that is accomplished in this school—we wish to bury this document in the earth within this pentagonal dodecahedron.

[ 6 ] My dear friends, my dear children, students of the Freie Waldorfschule!

[ 7 ] In keeping with the spirit of our times, the Waldorf School was founded during a period of grave concern. The great misfortune that befell humanity in the form of a terrible war-induced catastrophe—once the outward manifestations of that catastrophe had passed—gave rise to times in which we must ask ourselves: What must be done to prepare a future for humanity in which the forces of further development, progress, and ascent can be nurtured out of severe hardship and the decline of humanity? Among the means by which the forces of the present—which may have little beneficial effect in the present itself—can be most effectively carried over into a future in which they can be more effective is the school. And in those difficult times, when humanity’s attention had to be directed above all toward such thoughts of the future, our dear friend Emil Molt took it upon himself to conceive the idea of establishing the Waldorf School. Today, on the day when the foundation stone is laid for the building intended to expand this Waldorf School, let us above all commemorate with the warmest and most grateful hearts that fruitful idea conceived by our friend Emil Molt at a time when such a thought truly captured the great questions of the present, just as he set out to found this school. There will come a time when people may view the founding of this school more objectively than is possible today, when the immensely complicated and tangled circumstances of the present still confuse humanity too much to see with complete clarity that, above all, such a place for young people—arising from a spiritual life grounded in itself— is an absolute necessity of our time. The fact that Emil Molt was able to grasp this idea out of a sense for this great issue of our time will never be forgotten and will be duly recognized wherever there is an understanding of such human necessities and of the great impulses for human development in general.

[ 8 ] I must also remember by name—so that it may be engraved in your hearts, my dear children, my dear students—I must also remember those individuals who decided to form the first faculty of this school. You, dear children, students, who are the first to receive instruction and education at this school, should take to heart—and engrave upon your souls—that, in light of the immense, monumental tasks facing humanity with regard to education and instruction for the future of humanity and its goals, it was a significant and momentous decision to become teachers at this school. One need only consider that, for the time being, this school exists today in such a way that it inspires the trust of the widest circles—one might say, throughout the entire world. Anyone who observes what is happening knows that, in fact, all over the globe there are people who not only know that there is a Waldorf School in Stuttgart, but who also ask themselves with keen interest: What is the purpose of something like this Stuttgart Waldorf School? — You, my dear children, should bear in mind that you are the first to be educated in a school that, for well-founded reasons, is the focus of attention throughout the world. Above all, you should bear in mind—and we must all reflect on this with heartfelt gratitude—that the teaching staff, who are the first to subject themselves to such scrutiny from the entire world, require great resolve. But this teaching staff is also imbued with the ideas and impulses from which this school originated. This teaching staff knows that, even if only to a limited extent, they are working toward something that ultimately concerns the development of all humanity. This teaching staff has shown that it is capable of—and will have to—devote all its energy to whatever needs to be accomplished for this school, arising from this spirit and these impulses. We have seen many beautiful blossoms in the development of this school. It will remain unforgettable to those who have dedicated themselves to nurturing what is to be nurtured here in this school in the broadest sense. And when I have sometimes asked the children being educated here at the school, “Do you love your teachers?”—and you have responded accordingly—I sense from the entire relationship between students and teachers that they are gradually allowing this spirit to take root here in this school.

[ 9 ] Once again, I ask you now, so that you may speak from your hearts about your relationship with your teachers; once again, I ask all of you, my dear children, students: Do you love your teachers, and are you grateful for what they do? — Then they answered, “Yes!” [“Yes!”—all the children shout.]

[ 10 ] So, my dear children, my dear students, this is how you should always feel; then the spirit will be present in the school, and it is only in its light that we can accomplish what must be accomplished.

[ 11 ] This school, for which we are today ceremoniously laying the cornerstone, has another purpose to fulfill. It stands as something that, in a certain sense, is meant to serve as a model of how teaching and education should be conducted today. But as a single school, it can be no more than such a model. People look to this model, as I have indicated. When I was in Norway very recently to give lectures, I could see even from that great distance how many people are watching this school with deep interest. What has been established here is regarded as a model school. Only one thing is still missing: the realization throughout the wider world that the establishment of this single model school is not enough unless the understanding spreads across the entire world that such schools are necessary everywhere, and that hundreds upon hundreds unite in the World School Association to establish such schools everywhere. Otherwise, nothing can happen except that this small body of students will carry into the world what must be nurtured for the development of humanity.

[ 12 ] However, we have not yet found this second element in the world. If we were able, my dear friends, to establish schools modeled after the Waldorf School in many places today with funds that fell from the moon, we would fill such schools all over the world. Not a single one of these schools, if funded by “moon money,” would remain empty. But what is lacking in the world today is the spirit of social sacrifice—a spirit that, while eager to establish such schools everywhere, fails to rise from the outward recognition of an idea that is, in the most eminent sense, necessary for our time, to the will that alone can bring about what is necessary in this age. And until this impulse is realized in the world, the Waldorf school ideal cannot fulfill its mission.

[ 13 ] To accomplish this task, we need many people who will meet him with understanding. And if it were possible for us today —we can do this only in thought—if we were able not merely to lay a foundation outwardly, but inwardly, through this deeply inner foundation laid with the cornerstone we are sinking into the ground for this school building; if we could lay the cornerstone in the hearts of many people, so that from this might spring forth what we consider necessary for the development of humanity and the goal of humankind, then much would have been accomplished.

[ 14 ] From the depths of my stirred soul, from the depths of my stirred heart, students of the Waldorf School, I speak to all of you: at this solemn moment, let us direct the forces within our hearts toward that which has just been described as necessary for humanity, and which has been hinted at in the Waldorf School ideal. Human hearts already possess a certain power when that which is meant to live is alive within them.

[ 15 ] My dear friends, dear children, my dear students at the Waldorf School! The fact is that in ancient times, when people set out to lay the foundation for a building, they would bury something living in the earth along with the document that stated the purpose and meaning of the building and the names of those who were involved in its construction. The idea has become increasingly spiritualized. Today we are burying a symbol of the spirit—our pentagonal dodecahedron—containing our vow, which we make in the name of Christ, born of our pure intentions and our active labor—however we may apply it—and which we bury in the earth out of sacred freedom. Today we place this symbol into the earth, like a seed upon which we have focused the most beautiful thoughts of which we are capable. And just as a living tree grows forth from a seed buried in the earth through the forces of the worlds, so may a tree grow forth from what we bury in the earth—imbued with our heartfelt wishes for the flourishing of the one for whose sake this building has been undertaken, and with our heartfelt hopes and expectations for the future— may it blossom from what we plant in the earth—from our thoughts, feelings, and impulses of emotion and will, of which this cornerstone is a symbol—what we thus plant in the bosom of time—from this may it blossom, what we must again and again call the goal, the impulse of the Waldorf School: that it may be a place where all that humanity needs to reach new stages of its progress, of its civilizational and cultural life, is nurtured. May this blossom from this spiritually living seed that we wish to lay in the earth today.

[ 16 ] You, dear children, you students of the Waldorf School, are the first to connect the feeling, goodwill, and good intentions with what has been said to you on this festive occasion—and which forms the true foundation for what is to grow and flourish here at this place as the Waldorf School and develop for the good of humanity and for humanity’s goals.