The Rudolf Steiner Archive

Reading of the Resolution

[Carl von] Keyserlingk: “Dear colleagues! [The] resolution read:

The professional farmers participating in Dr. Steiner’s agricultural training course, who gathered in Breslau on June 9, unanimously resolved to form an agricultural working group and an agricultural experimental ring. At the same time, they resolved to ask their highly esteemed Dr. Steiner to kindly have the College of Spiritual Science in Dornach approve the establishment of this agricultural experimental ring and the agricultural working group [through] the School of Spiritual Science in Dornach, with the provision that the Section for Natural Science assume overall leadership of this experimental circle and that Dr. Steiner himself kindly designate who is to be the director of the experimental circle, who is to coordinate and report the work to the sections of the School, [and who] is to assume this responsibility.

Dr. Steiner himself will speak on this resolution. To our great delight, Dr. Kolisko, along with her colleagues, and Dr. Usteri have agreed to join us as honorary members. Would you be so kind as to share your scientific findings with us farmers, who lack scientific knowledge, as well as with the other staff members? Would Dr. Wachsmuth [stenographic record breaks off.]

The experimental group means that practical work should now be carried out, that those professional farmers appointed by Dornach will take on the work in experiments that will, of course, only begin once our highly esteemed Dr. Steiner has completed his course. The practical action required is for us to establish such an organization. The professional farmers—the anthroposophical scientists—who are [illegible] have agreed to this, for here it is no longer good will that decides, but action. I am convinced that every farm has the will—and perhaps even the best capabilities—but this is by no means the case given the scientifically disastrous conditions that we, as farmers, experience when we are in civil service positions and not [in] the Doctor’s situation [gap in the transcript], we feel that the experiments can actually be carried out on the very plot of land where we would like to conduct them. There are also other circumstances. As things stand today, whether it is an entailed estate or a clerical one.

Mr. Georg Zimmer has now agreed, along with [gap in the transcript] Count Polzer, Koschützki, Lerchenfeld, Kayser, the administrators of *Kommender Tag*, and Weinmann—though we must first determine what *Kommender Tag*’s position is on this matter. Förster, Schenker, Schmidt, Kipple, Jacoby, Lumporsky, Schümann, Schwarz, Gerwig, Becker.”

[Question regarding] organization: “Is it intended that [Count] Keyserlingk had a plan for how he wanted to form the union—[perhaps I have] misunderstood this—that he wanted to exclude his fellow members of the Anthroposophical Society?”

[Carl von] Keyserlingk: “That was far from my mind. Your collaboration, in particular, is especially close to my heart. The organization is conceived as follows: The head is the Dornach Science, and we are merely the executive bodies, and everyone is called upon to assist in the execution. The fact that [the Dornach head] cannot always participate directly—because it does not immediately have the field of work in its hands—is not its fault. Rather, I would say, [illegible] compilation.

Now I’ll move on to the organization. I imagine it to be much larger and more challenging for the individual. We cannot simply listen to what our highly esteemed Dr. Steiner tells us; we must put it into practice. We must be clear that those conducting the experiments are not only accountable to Dr. Steiner, but also to the entire agricultural group of the Anthroposophical Society. We share the responsibility to ensure that we do this correctly and that we are guided by science—by Spiritual Science and by the science that has placed itself at our service, Dr. Kolisko and Dr. Usteri—and that we meet at least once a year to provide you with a factual report. All nations are represented here. The announcement that Dr. Steiner has been kind enough not to appoint a president, but rather someone to take on the work. Indeed, the Dornach School of Spiritual Science is not in a position to take on this work for us. Its role is merely to provide us with guidelines, and we have the ideas. For this, we need people who have a firm foundation.

Anthroposophy has [illegible], as it must process Dr. Steiner’s further communications. That might be possible based on your own understanding of how you perceive the matter. You are going to Dornach, and Dornach must decide how to proceed with the experiments. We are to remain merely the executive bodies. Of course, there are exceptions, such as Mr. Stegemann, who will also receive his guidelines; he is much further along than we are and has already been working for one or two years. The experimental group must first serve as a foundation for the practical work to come.

“I regard the entire experimental group solely as an organ of Dornach, as an executive body, and every single person who has agreed to participate has a duty to do their part, to carry out the work assigned to us by Dornach.”