The son of a minor official on the Southern Austrian Railway, Rudolf Steiner was born on 27 February 1861 at Kraljevic, then on the borders of Austria and Hungary, now in Yugoslavia. The modest schooling available made little impression on him but he was intensely awake to Nature, and to the personalities with whom he came into contact.

A conviction as to the reality of the inner life, "a soul space in man" as he called it, which manifested itself in some clairvoyant experiences and was strengthened by a delighted discovery of the world of pure ideas in geometry, gave the first promise of his future activity. At his secondary school he studied science but taught himself the classics, and even tutored other pupils in the humanities, He continued this practice when he entered the Technical College of the University of Vienna, and laid the foundation of the extraordinary wide-ranging knowledge for which he was so remarkable. Outside his official science course, philosophy was his principal interest, but he was keenly interested in literature and the arts.

The unusual combination of scientific and artistic interests led him to Goethe, and at the age of 23 he edited Goethe's scientific works for an edition o f Kuerschner's Deutsche National-Literature.

The connection with Goethe was later to take him to Weimar to work at the Goethe Archives on the scientific side of another edition of Goethe's works. One special activity he undertook in Vienna was the tutoring of a backward boy, an experience of great importance for his later work. Meanwhile, however, he was elaborating his own philosophy in "Truth and Science" (for which he received a Ph.D. from the University of Rostock) and "The Philosophy of Freedom", in which he argued that thought can become an organ to perceive a spiritual world. He was attracted to the mystics but differed from them in wanting to experience the sources of human wisdom through ideas - "a mystical experience of thoughts"

The work in the Goethe Archives at Weimar, begun when he was 29 years old, was Steiner's first settled job, His elucidation of Goethe's "Theory of Colour” later deeply influenced Kandinsky, the Russian painter. Nor did Steiner confine himself to Goethe. He also edited the works of Schopenhauer, and concerned himself with the Nietzsche archives.

Weimar, however, gave him no opportunity for the expression of his own growing spiritual experience, and in 1897 he accepted an invitation to go to Berlin to edit the "Magazine for Literature" which was associated with a stage society which produced ''modern" plays that were not likely to reach the ordinary theatre. Here Steiner, always devoted to drama, had his first experience of stage management. In the magazine he could only express his ideas exoterically, in a form adapted to its readers. In Berlin he also joined the staff of a working men's college, which gave him a deep insight into prevailing social conditions.

Meditation, however, had become a necessity to him - that "experience of the whole man through which he reaches the actual spiritual world far more than through ideas" His first opportunity to speak to an audience esoterically was when a certain Count Brockdorff, having read an article of Steiner's on Goethe's esoteric fairy tale "The Green Snake and the Beautiful Lily", invited him to lecture to a theosophical circle.

This led to a ten-year connection with the Theosophical Society, to visits to London where he met Annie Besant, Colonel Olcott and other leaders of the movement and to his accepting the position of General Secretary to the German branch of the Society. He reserved the right, however, to speak only of his own spiritual investigation, He was already lecturing on "An Anthroposophy" and in l909, being totally opposed to the declaration of a further incarnation of Christ and other theosophical trends, he broke with that society and founded the Anthroposophical Society (from the Greek words "anthropos" and "sophia", "man" and "wisdom7. Speaking of the Anthroposophical movement in a letter written the year before his death, Steiner said: "Anthroposophy has its roots in the perceptions - already gained into the spiritual world. Yet these are no More than its roots. The branches, leaves, blossoms and fruits of Anthroposophy grow into all the fields of human life and action."

Characteristic of the book is the recognition of the dangers as well as the difficulties of initiation.and the need to take three steps in morality for every one in higher knowledge. The second begins the teaching about Universe, Earth and Man which he was to elaborate during the next 20 ye ar s , For Steiner claimed that there is such a thing as an earth-memory, written in the earth aura, and that this memory, accessible to a trained and conscious clairvoyance, is valid for a new interpretation of human and geological history. This interpretation must, however, take fully into account all the discoveries (not necessarily the theories) of modern scientific investigators.

During the years of his association with the Theosophical Society, between 1902 and 1912, Steiner travelled on lecture tours with Marie von Sievers over almost the whole of Europe, also studying the art and architecture in all the places he visited. He wanted to express his spiritual vision in the form of art. With the help of Marie von Sievers, who was a trained actress, he first produced Edouard Schuré’s "Drama of Eleusis" at a congress in Munich in 1907, after which he wrote, in successive years, four mystery plays dealing with the karmic connections of a group of people in successive incarnations, with scenes in the soul and spiritual worlds as well as on earth. He was also developing eurythmy, an art of movement to speech and music, based on the gestures latent in the sounds of speech and in the tones and intervals of music. This new art is used effectively in representing the soul and spiritual scenes in Steiner's mystery plays.

All this artistic activity, together with Steiner's conviction that a new spiritual impulse demanded a new form of architecture, led to the building of the first Goetheanum, at Dornach near Basle in Switzerland, as the headquarters of the Anthroposophical Society, which had been founded in 1912. It was built largely of wood and consisted of two intersecting domes, the smaller over the stage, and the larger (bigger than the dome of St. Paul's in London) over the auditorium. Notable features in it were the interior columns made from different woods, the change of form in their capitals and bases, the windows of sculptured glass (since copied in many places) and the painting of the dome.

This educational work roused particular interest in England where he was invited to the “New Ideals" educational conference in Stratford-on-Avon, and in the same year to a summer school in Oxford under the patronage of H. A. L. Fisher, Professor L. P. Jacks, and other well-known educators. At this time he also met Margaret McMillan, pioneer of the nursery school movement, who became his fervent admirer. The Waldorf School movement has now extended itself over most of Europe and the English-speaking world.

Among other groups who approached Steiner at this time for help and guidance in their special tasks were teachers of backward children, farmers, actors, doctors and a circle of ministers and others concerned with religion who wished to work for religious renewal. The lectures and practical advice which Steiner gave to those groups led to a widespread movement in curative education, to the biodynamic method of agriculture (in which the soil, plant and animal live in a healthy and natural relationship), to stage productions and eurythmy performances at the Goetheanum and other places, to a school of medicine centered on a clinic near Basle (founded in conjunction with a Dutch doctor, Dr. Ita Wegman) and to an independent religious body known as the Christian Community.

In the years before his death Steiner's activity was of immense range embracing mathematics, astronomy, science, medicine, theology, philosophy, drama, education, economics and many other subjects. Many lectures were for specialists who were astounded at his knowledge in their special fields. But he continued to foster the esoteric character of the Anthroposophical Society, believing that esotericism should become an open secret for all who have eyes to read.

In his last years he developed with special intensity the subject of karma and reincarnation (the latter in a new and Christian form), which he considered vital for the modern age. And in 1923 he founded the Anthroposophical Society anew, placing at its center the "School of Spiritual Science" for those who wished to follow a path of self-development. He died two years later, on 30 March 1925.

— Henry Barnes