The Rudolf Steiner Archive

Since we last met here, we have had to mourn the loss of our dear Fräulein Morz&us and other dear friends who have left the physical plane as a result of current events. It is particularly painful not to see Fräulein Motzkus among our dear friends who have been attending our spiritual science events here for so many years. She was a member of our movement from the very beginning. From the first day, from the first meeting in the smallest circle, she was always in our midst as a member who was devoted to the heart of our movement and who went through all the phases and trials of our movement with heartfelt sympathy. Above all, through all the events through which we have had to go, she has retained in the deepest sense of the word an invincible loyalty to our cause, a loyalty by which Miss Motzkus was certainly exemplary for those who truly want to be devoted members of the spiritual science movement. And so we look after this dear, good soul in the worlds of spiritual life, to which she has ascended, by preserving the relationship of loyalty that has been developed and strengthened over many years, by knowing that we are connected to her soul forever.

Recently, Miss Motzkus herself had to mourn the loss of her faithful friend, whom she has now so soon found again in the spiritual world, and she accepted this blow in the sense of how one endures such a blow from the consciousness of a true understanding of the spiritual world. It was admirable with what keen interest Miss Motzkus showed a deep sympathy for the great events of the time until her last days. She repeatedly told me herself that she wanted to live here on the physical plane until these significant events, in the midst of which we now stand, had been decided. Now she will be able to follow these events, in which she took such a warm interest, with a clearer vision and a firmer sense of the development of humanity in her present state.

And so let us all take to heart the need to unite our thoughts and our active powers of the soul with this loyal spirit, this dear and loyal member of our movement, so that we may continue to know ourselves as one with her, even though she will be among us in a different form than before, when she was so exemplary in her connection with us in the physical realm.

It is fitting to speak words of comfort that are not lightly woven when one stands as a friend of a deceased among those who have lost a most precious one. For the deep pain that we feel in such a moment, when life bonds are torn apart that are tightly woven, that were woven to endure existence together in shared destinies and shared life tasks, is all too justified, all too understandable.

But another thing may perhaps also speak into the greatest, most bitter pain and the most bitter grief at such a moment: it is the compassion and mourning of those who, in addition to those closest to them, have come to appreciate and love those who have left the physical plane in the deepest part of their souls and from the bottom of their hearts. And perhaps I may, in this moment of mourning, remember the soul of the one whom we know we are hurrying to join the one who is now leaving us in our physical existence on earth. For I remember the soul of the dear husband who has become so dear to us, of the dearly departed, this searching personality, delving deeply into the mysteries of existence. Many unforgettable moments remain with me, which I was privileged to have in conversation with the soul, who has now been gone for a long time into spiritual worlds, about spiritual matters, about spiritual conditions and spiritual worlds, with the soul of the husband of the departed and the father of those sadly left behind here. And when the dear, seeking soul of the departed now appeared in our circle, the same power of genuine, true, spiritual striving and seeking for higher, lighter worlds was reflected in her eyes, in these seeking and, one may well say, light-bearing and love-bearing eyes, which lived in the soul of her predecessor. And we may, in this moment of mourning, remember the beautiful spiritual encounter of the two, which may be a reconciliation for the departed soul, in the face of all that she has left here in her dear, loving circle, in that circle for which she seemed so deeply predestined by fate, in that circle, from which world interest in the deepest sense approached everyone who approaches this circle. It was uplifting to hear and see how those to whom mother became the dear departed through the will of fate, how they carried the seeking spirit of the Dieterle family out into the furthest circles of the world, how they sought to find human happiness in human activity, how they sought to always move out of the narrow into the wide.

That is what we may visualize for this circle that the dear departed has left, and we may be assured that the circle of relatives will find sympathy and mourning in the wider circle of those whom the deceased has entered in order to search for the spirit, to find an approach to the solution of those riddles that burned so strongly in their souls. And those who were connected with them in this circle, searching for the spirit, they will remain unforgettable to them, the two deceased who were seeking the spirit and loving. We will not see them here in the physical life anymore, these two, these mild, strong, these seeking souls, but we will know that our memory will remain alive and feel connected as a living memory with the living soul of those who have only physically left us, that soul sought harmony with the eternal spirit and to a certain extent certainly found it, so that she can carry it over into spiritual worlds, in order to continue there in the appropriate way to care for her own and other people's salvation, for her own and other people's development.

And so, as a last greeting, I may repeat from memory, from the union with the soul and spirit of my dear friend, the words that came to my soul when this soul, this spirit, left its earthly cover:

Soul, arisen from the realm of mild strength,
Which in the struggle of earthly life, rock-bottom
For the inner depths of being
Courageously acquired,

Which, in the search for truth, blessing
Genuine human goal striven for,
And in noble human love
wanted to work meaningfully;

A spirit that in the vastness of life
strived for the depths of the soul,
and wanted to fathom the sources of true values of existence,

Who in the stream of life
always kindly offered what he had achieved for himself
to other people, beneficially, effectively:

You enter the soul's realm of light.
Look into the hearts of your children,
And into the souls of your friends,
Look down to us,

How we would like to accompany you
With the soul step of love,
With the word of the heart of loyalty,
Here from the place of mourning

To the heights where you can know
Our soul senses are not lost,
Where the light through the veil of death
Cannot be darkened.

And so we depart from your earthly shell, which will shine for us in the never-extinguishing light of spiritual life, and we know that in that spirit which has sought in you for the origin of its being, has sought for that conquest of death which, out of spiritual knowledge, wants to come to the Christ, who wants to find the power of rebirth, the eternal power of the soul, by immersing himself in the Christ-being, - so we know that in the search for this spirit we have found each other with you, and that this spirit, which carries human souls through eternities and gates of death and gates of life, will keep us together with you forever. We will know that we are connected not only in dead memory, but in full vitality, because we have found You in such a way that we can never lose You.

My dear friends!

Since we last saw each other here, both within and outside the circle that is united here, numerous of our members have left the physical plane, partly as a result of the events that are currently so severely testing humanity, and partly without any connection to this external, physical plane. It is not possible to refer to all those who have joined us in the spiritual world and no longer on the physical plane by name. The heavy losses that our movement has suffered here through the death of our dear Mr. Barth, our dear Miss Reitich and our dear Mrs. Pauline Dieterle are vividly present in our minds. It would take a long time if I were to recount to you now all that arises in our souls at this moment when we think of these dear souls. But that is not what we are here for. For each of them there is a very large circle here that can feel in its own soul with tremendous intensity and complete devotion to these souls what would take a long time to express in words. And that we keep this alive in our soul, that we vow, so to speak, to keep this alive in our souls, that we do not lose any opportunity to maintain the connection with these souls, that is what must move us.

Anyone who knew Miss Rettich's quiet, calm nature, who lived with her, who worked with her, knows that a rich spirit, which has gone through the difficult trials of life, which was inspired by serious, most sacred pursuit of truth, was inspired by purest benevolence and philanthropy, lived in this our friend. And the individuality of Miss Rettich is such that no one who has ever been in any kind of contact with her will ever be able to forget her. The quiet, modest nature, combined with a strong inner power of aspiration, was what was particularly appealing about this personality. That was what made the continuing soul of Miss Rettich, with whom we want to feel united, remain particularly close to us, insofar as we were lucky enough to be close to her during her lifetime.

What Mr. Barth was for the Kerningzweig in terms of his special individuality and way of working, some others here will be able to tell better than I can, because they will have much to say about what they owe to Mr. Barth. That a large circle was devoted to him with the most ardent love is widely known; that he spared no effort, left no strength ineffective, to work in the direction he recognized as the right one, that is what must live in lasting memory, what can act as an example beyond this memory, and what will underlie what many souls experienced in a living connection with this soul. What Mr. Barth was to his circle, it has been described by a member of this circle when our dear members parted from the earthly shell of this our dear friend, and we can honor the memory of him best when we never lose sight of the tremendously devoted nature of the cause and the personalities.

What is alive in my soul, and what I believe is alive in many souls as a result of the departure of dear Frau Dieterle, I tried to hint at with a few words this morning when we parted from the earthly shell of this dear friend. I felt I could touch on this occasion in particular how this soul was born out of contradictions, which united into the most beautiful harmony, as is always the case with true contradictions. I had to think of the broad interests in life into which this woman's karma had brought her. And above all, I had to think of the broad spiritual interests that were vividly present in my soul at this moment of mourning, the spirit of her husband, who had passed away long before her, the father of those left behind. I had to remember many a conversation with this man, which was always filled with the purest spiritual, impersonal spiritual interests, filled with what never actually took the point of reference to the personal. And in this moment we may remember this man entirely in the sense of our spiritual-scientific attitude, which lets us look in the spirit to the now to be taking place meeting of our friend with the soul that preceded her into the spiritual world. What she herself meant to me through the way she has always participated here for a long time in our work and life, that presented itself to me in the words that I said as a last farewell to our dear friend this morning and which I may perhaps repeat here, which were intended to express how the relationship of the soul, the spirit of this woman, presented itself to me:

Soul, arisen from the realm of mild strength,
In the struggle of earthly life, the rock bottom
For the inner depths of being
Bravely acquired,

In the search for the truth blessing
Genuine human goal,
And in noble human love
wanted to work meaningfully;

A spirit that in the vastness of life
strived for the depths of the soul,
and wanted to fathom the sources of true values of existence,

Who in the stream of life
always kindly offered what he had achieved for himself to other people benevolently and effectively:

You enter the soul's realm of light.
Look into the hearts of your children,
and into the souls of your friends,
look down to us,

How we would like to accompany you
with the soul step of love,
With the heartfelt word of loyalty,
Here from the place of mourning

To the heights where you can know
Our soul's sense not lost,
Where the light through the veil of death
Cannot be darkened.

To honor the memory of all our dear departed, we rise from our seats. And we think about how we gain strength when we remain firmly connected to the departed in spirit.

Most of the friends who have combined their work with the construction here were also united in their work with our friend Fleinrich Mitscher, who recently left the physical plane. They all know that we have lost the third link within that dear and loyal community, after Fritz Mitscher and our dear Mrs. Noss, who have previously passed away into the spiritual world. I do not need to say much in memory of Heinrich Mitscher, because there are a large number of friends here who, from a relatively long and beautiful working relationship, will feel what needs to be said in connection with Heinrich Mitscher.

Heinrich Mitscher was with us here from the very beginning of the construction of this building in Dornach, and how fortunate it was for this building, that for many things – especially the artistic natures united with this building will feel this in the same way – that for the work of this building we were able to have precisely this artistic force. In this incarnation, Heinrich Mitscher was a peculiarly constituted artistic nature, an artistic nature of whom one could say: This personality was first and foremost an artist, not a painter, not an artist in any other specialized field, but an artist first and foremost. Such natures have the peculiarity that within the present-day art world, the present-day artistic endeavor, they sometimes find it very difficult to find the path of life that is right for them. Those who, through a richer spiritual disposition, have artistic impulses in general, artistic impulses of organizational power, sometimes find it difficult to cope with today's specialization. But - and especially when the opportunity arises to develop general artistic skills, as is the case with the performance of this building - then such strengths are in the right place. And we felt that, with Heinrich Mitscher working here among us with his strong organizational skills, with his suggestive power in many respects, through which he knew how to convey intentions to other friends, with his strong will, which is suited to enforce what was intended. Above all, artistic natures are needed here, and Heinrich Mitscher was just that. Therefore, the services he has rendered to the construction cannot be praised highly enough.

In this construction, much has been done by dear, expensive friends, of which the world in general may not know much in the individual, specific case. Much loyal and devoted work is embodied here in what the eye sees. Much of the spirituality of Heinrich Mitscher, which was designed for greatness, is in this building. And his will was undivided in the sense of the building during the time when he devoted his strength to it. He was more inwardly connected with this building than with any other link in the anthroposophical movement. This was a consequence of his peculiarly artistic nature, and it will always be a sad memory for me to see Heinrich Mitscher say goodbye to this place of work here in the first days of the outbreak of the war. During the entire period in which his energies were devoted to the sad events now intervening in the development of mankind, he always knew how to put the right man in the right place. And the esteem in which he is held by all those who have recognized his value within the community that is carrying out this work has also been accorded to him in the circles in which he has then entered to engage in a very different kind of activity. To be known and to be connected in life with such natures is an extraordinary gain of life for those who are. For this acquaintance includes the feeling of a real individuality, inwardly willing and thinking in a certain way. In recent times, the word has been misused many times for all kinds of things, but one can still feel its good content, its good essence. One must then say: Those who have come to know Heinrich Mitscher have come to know a real individuality. Individualities are much rarer in today's world than one might think. Therefore, having the company of an individuality is a blessing and a gain in life. One must only understand correctly in such things. Certainly, some sharp, some cutting words could come from Heinrich Mitscher, but never was such a sharp, cutting word used other than in holy enthusiasm for the cause. And those who knew this individuality knew that behind the sometimes rough form, something tremendously fine, something from precisely artfully formed and artfully willing worlds, actually emerged.

Now, like so many of the present day, whose karma is connected in the narrower sense with these present events, Heinrich Mitscher has also hit the ball and he has left us. We may have the feeling, my dear friends, that just as the other members of the Mitscher-Noss family, this soul can also be a source of help and strength for us, especially from the spiritual worlds. And the sister who is in our midst may know and be assured that those who have recognized her brother's value, have experienced her brother's value and friendship, will feel with her in a brotherly-sisterly way and will faithfully carry the memory of this our dear friend. As I said, I do not need to say much about this, because in this case, too, the best is in the souls that have recognized the value of a friend's soul, an artist's soul, a loyally working soul.

Another thought that I would like to mention must be even briefer, my dear friends, because it is not permissible for me to speak at length when the event I am speaking about is one that is extremely close to me personally. But even in this case, even if I only speak a few words, these words must, as is necessary in this case, be spoken from the most personal feelings and emotions, so that these words, with their personal tone, find an independent echo in the hearts of many friends who are united here. Among the many recent losses in the physical realm, is that of Dr. Steiner's sister, Miss Olga von Sivers, who will remain in the loving memory of many of us as a true friend and a soul most beautifully united with our movement. Whoever saw it will not forget the lovely, beautiful embodiment of the figures that Olga von Sivers was able to portray for our mysteries. Who will not remember the quiet, reserved way in which this personality worked within the circles of our society.

Olga von Sivers was one of those members –– I may say –– who has been connected with our movement in a very specific way from the very beginning. She rejected in the most comprehensive sense everything that did not come from the occult truth, the occult impulse, the occult insight, from that strictness that we strive for, from that purity with which we should look at things. One can say: our movement, my dear friends, was, because one must always tie historical to historical, interspersed with other movements in the most diverse ways. One or the other soul even found its way out of other occult societies and theosophical movements with difficulty.

Olga von Sivers was one of those personalities who were never attracted to anything else. And so one could feel all the more closely connected to her, faithfully. In the place to which she found herself assigned, she cultivated in intimate circles what, starting from this movement, must be considered appropriate for spiritual life in terms of the needs of the present and the near future. She was so quiet in her appearance, so gentle in her actions, and so energetic in her inner life, although she kept to herself, that her connection with our movement was particularly specific.

When the war broke out, she had, in addition to the further care she faithfully provided for the anthroposophical cause in St. Petersburg and in Russia in general, she had devoted her energies to the Samaritan service of war, had had to let the heavy loss of her brother, who fell on the battlefield, pass through her soul, had consumed her energies, was inspired to the end by the hope of the spiritual court, which was almost no longer a hope for her because she no longer considered it realizable: to be united with all that is forming around this structure.

As I said, I am forbidden from saying more by the fact that I myself have lost so much, especially with regard to this personality. And I may also say here: It is my deepest conviction that those who have come to know the value and essence of this personality will keep her in the most loyal memory and will sympathize that it is difficult not to be allowed to know this personality in the future at the side of her sister in our circle here on the physical plane. She too will continue to help us faithfully from the spiritual world.

After the priest's words of consecration, which should lead the soul of our dear Mrs. Leyh to spiritual heights, may my mouth express what the loving friends, who are standing here for the last farewell to earth, feel for the reception of the spirit in the eternal light.

A life of suffering, at least for the last few years, which was full of suffering and pain for her, is over for this earth for our dear Mrs. Leyb. In our hearts, in our souls, there is a glimmer of hope that she will grow up in the realm into which she now enters through the gate of death, from the noble power of endurance, with which she has truly proven herself in the strictest sense of the word here in earthly life, the power to work on those heights and on those paths where, through the will of the divine spirit, man is to work in invisible heights, as he works here through his hands and through his mind in earthly life as in the visible.

You, the loving, caring souls who took care of her in her last weeks, in her last days, who shared her suffering with love, who also shared her hopes, her confidence, her spiritual strength and power and love, you looked up with her to those heights, to which she shall now ascend through the strength of her soul. You were united with her in love. You know best what it means to live together with this dear soul, who is only separated from us for the time being. Oh, we may be certain, dear friends, who have cared for her in the last few weeks, in the last few days, that a spark will continue to fly in your souls in the future, emanating from the strength which the dear departed has given you, a source from which something noble will flow for you. And you will feel this nobility, more than a reminiscent togetherness, in a right spiritual life with her. And she will not be lost to you. You will not need to find her, because you will not doubt for a moment that you have her.

And looking back, what can the closest dear friends who have cared for her and watched over her in the last months and days say, looking back at what the friends of the wider circle who are here around the earthly resting place have to say, to think? The closest friends said that after our dear Mrs. Leyh had passed through the gate of death, that on the last day of her earthly life, on which so often in a person's life there is a last awakening when the soul's spirit has detached itself from the body, life and zest for life, that she, our dear friend, was able to gather together what her closest friends said, she could summarize in thoughts of her mind, in feelings of her heart, that she turned to the reception of those spiritual truths that had become so dear to her in life, that for everyone who knew her, it is truth, deepest truth - became the strength of life.

And you, friends from the wider circle, who were united with her in the common spiritual life, you know that how, even in the last days, when her body could no longer carry the soul to the place where she so gladly lingered, to hear what could be proclaimed with weak words at this place by the spirit, that she let herself be carried when the body could no longer carry the soul that longed for the spirit, that she let herself be carried to what was allowed to be spoken about the spirit.

Yes, in some of us, dear grieving friends, there was something like concern. She wanted to leave the place of external physical healing, where she had been lovingly cared for by loving friends during the last months of her life, because she could not find healing for her body. She believed, in her pure, strong, childlike and at the same time pure and strong spiritual faith, that she was receiving the healing of the message in which she sought to perceive the Spirit. So she looked from the place of physical healing to what was for her the place of spiritual healing. And the friends, who might have felt some concern about her leaving her physical place of healing, could only be reassured by the fact that the doctor was able to follow her and take care of the physical healing as well, since the dear departed only wanted to seek what would trickle into her soul and heart like a spiritual and soully balm for life.

Now we all look back on this life in that which we can believe was the deepest thoughts, the most intimate feelings of this soul, this heart. We look back on a life of which we may truly believe that it had struggled through to three sacred convictions that had connected its earthly being with the realm into which its soul, its spirit, is now going.

And the first truth, she had probably drawn from her knowledge of the illness that was allotted to her in such abundance. From her noble life of suffering she knew illness of the body. But we may believe that she knew that there can be an illness that is worse for human salvation and human goal than any other illness of the body, that illness that could only come from a destroyed body, but which often works insidiously, even through deception as well as truth, that disease which does not allow man to recognize that out of all weaving, out of all striving, working and being, it is precisely the human body in the orbit of earthly existence that speaks the eternal, only great truth: the body of man proclaims the divine being and working in the deepest, most earnest way. The greatest illness that could affect the physical body would be to develop a mind that wanted to deny this. This was probably the first conviction that this life had come to through illness.

And the second of her basic convictions was probably that she knew: however healthy this body may be, however healthy the body may be from birth to death, there is one thing it needs when it calls even the greatest health its own, it needs one thing: that awakener, which always reminds the soul of its spiritual origin when it must feel too tied to the perishable body. By turning to the spirit, by accepting the spiritual word, she had come to know Him, that great awakener of the soul, who gives the soul the strength to know: When you go through the gate of death, I, the Christ, who is with you, in you, for you, will lead you to the light of the spirit. Through the passage through the mystery of Golgotha, who, by conquering death, has gained for man the power to be awakened in death with the light of the spirit, to pass through the dark gate of death.

Truly, modesty was your own, dear friend. You truly did not ascribe superhuman powers to yourself. You were not inspired by blind pride and vain arrogance; you knew your weaknesses. But you would never have been able to forgive yourself if you had had to call a weakness your own, that weakness of spirit that is dullness and stupor

and which does not allow one to see up to the eternal reign of the Holy Spirit itself through all human weaving and human will, through all natural work and natural forces. God the Father you had won for yourself by knowing that God the Father would not be recognized as man's strongest earthly disease. You had won God, the Son, the Christ, by trying to interweave your soul with the power of the living word that speaks of eternal bliss. You had won God, the Holy Spirit, by feeling obliged to strengthen your soul so that it could not fall prey to the weakness and dullness that says: There is no spirit.

Now you have passed from a life that has achieved this, through the gateway of death. If we are to bid you farewell, let it be only the farewell that is at the same time the greeting in the spirit.

The close friends who surrounded her in the sorrowful months, sorrowful weeks and sorrowful days, the wider circle of friends who are now looking up, how the spirit wants to receive them for further work, will never forget the dear face of our dear Mrs. Leyh, that dear face that for years has looked at us as if all the inner waves of human striving, of human longings, were smoothed out on this dear face. Pure harmony was poured out over this face, which will be unforgettable in its own essence. And let us remember the look, that strangely yearning, searching look, turned towards the riddles and secrets of the world, which looked so peculiarly beyond the immediate things and matters of life, and which seemed as if it wanted to send the heart's yearning out beyond all this, to the eternal reasons for existence. And we will never forget the sound of your voice, dear friend, which overflowed with a true ray of light and true human love. We have heard it through the years.

And then we saw you in the last days of your suffering and endurance: suffering had only poured out the peculiar aroma of the eternal over your harmonious face, it had only placed the spiritual-soulful internalization in your soul-searching gaze and it had sunk into your voice, which sounded so mild to us, that mysterious, enigmatic tone, which is often sunk into human voices by suffering and out of which the undertone of the divine and eternal can be heard, which can resound through all the temporal and transient aspects of the human being, even when we are confronted with an earthly human being. That is how we saw you. What spoke from your countenance will not be lost on us. We will know ourselves united with it for all more distant times, for it has so seized us that you are not lost to us. Your gaze will live in us. And we will remember this gaze. It will quicken in us that which longed from this gaze toward the eternal, where we will seek you in order to be united with you. The sound of Your voice will resound in us and remind us that You shall not be abandoned, but shall live on, united with us in spirit, as we will feel obliged to do when the opportunity presents itself to be united with You in these days of Your spirit and soul, as we were united with You in Your days on earth. This, not a farewell greeting, shall be the last, this greeting of the spirit shall be what rises to you from the depths of the human heart, from which the human spirit may speak to the world spirit by seeking the souls that pass through the gate of death before the world spirit, when it calls them to a work that could not be completed here in physical earthly existence.

And so we call after you, dear Frau Leyh, with this greeting of heart and spirit:

The search on spiritual paths
Was your soul's primal urge.
Those who were your fellow travelers on the earthly path
In your earnest soul-searching
Were your fellow wanderers:
They follow your soul's path
With loving thoughts
In spiritual light heights.

Life in spiritual warmth,
It was the flower of your mind.
Who were your traveling companions with earthly thoughts
In your strong spiritual striving
They follow you in spiritual realms
They follow you in spiritual realms, in faithful empathy, in spiritual love weaving.

Existence in the spiritual will, it was the swing of your soul's pendulum. Those who were your traveling companions in the earthly will, in your noble soul's swing, they follow your flight of mind, in soul unification, toward spiritual will goals.

The man who was one of the most loyal collaborators of our spiritual movement, whom you could see here in our circle almost every week during the years of the war, we had to say goodbye to him in this physical plane during these days: our dear friend Ferman Joachim. When we approach the event of death, which we experience with the people close to us, imbued with the attitude that arises from what we seek as spiritual scientific knowledge, we ourselves find something of what we are to become with regard to our position and our relationship to the spiritual world. On the one hand, we look back on what the deceased has become for us during the time we were allowed to spend with him, as we were allowed to be his fellow strivers; but at the same time we look forward into the world that has received the soul that was united with us and is to remain united with us, because

Herman Joachim: the name is something that shines forth as a beacon for the personality we have lost to the physical plane, a name that is deeply connected with the artistic development of the 19th century, a name that is associated with the most beautiful expression of aesthetic principles in musical performance. and I need not go into what the name Joachim means for the spiritual development of recent times. But if he who has now passed from the physical plane into the spiritual world had entered our midst with all his incomparable, beautiful, great qualities and with a completely unknown name, those who had the good fortune to meet him and to connect their own endeavors with his would have counted him among those personalities who, through the power of their own value, through the extent and sun-like quality of their own soul, are among the most valuable in their lives here on earth. But it was precisely in what this soul was to other souls in purely human terms that the element in this soul that had worked so magnificently as the purest artistic and spiritual element from the Father had a lasting effect. One would like to say that in every expression of the spirit, in every manifestation of thought, there was on the one hand this artistic element in Herman Joachim, which on the other hand was sustained and carried by genuine, most intense spirituality of will, of feeling, of striving for spiritual knowledge. Just as the father's great intentions prevail here in the blood, so there was something in the spiritual atmosphere of this man that was beautifully introduced by Flerman Grimm — this excellent, this unique representative of the intellectual life of Central Europe — blessing the baptism of Herman Joachim, as he was the godfather of Herman Joachims. And ever since I knew this, it has been a dear thought for me, as you will understand after some of what I have said in this circle about the spiritual influence of the personality of Herman Grimm in modern times. When a dear friend of Herman Grimm died, Herman Grimm wrote down beautiful words; when Walther Robert-Tornow, who was quite unique in his peculiar personal individuality, died, Herman Grimm wrote down: “He leaves the company of the living; he is received into the company of the dead. It is as if one must also inform these dead of who is entering their ranks.” And this feeling that one has when someone dies, that one must also inform the dead about who is entering their ranks, Herman Grimm meant not only with regard to the person about whom he spoke these words, but he meant it in general as a feeling present in the human soul when someone close to us passes from the physical world into the spiritual world. We then look back on what we were allowed to experience symptomatically with the deceased, and consider this as it were like window openings through which we can look into an infinite being; for every human soul individuality is an infinite being, and what we are allowed to experience with it is always as if we were looking through windows into an unlimited realm. But there are moments in human life when several people participate in this human life, in which one is allowed to take a deeper look into a human individuality. Then it is always as if, precisely in such moments, when we are allowed to look into human souls, everything that is a secret of the spiritual world would open up with particular force. In extensive performances that are imbued with feeling, much of what lives in ordinary human life, in the great, the powerful, and the spiritually striving, is then revealed to us.

I would like to recall one such moment, because I feel it is symptomatic for me, but in an objective way, with regard to the essence of the deceased. When he was united with us spiritually in an important moment in Cologne years ago, I was able to see in conversation with him, after not long having known him personally, how this man had connected the innermost part of his soul with that what, as spiritual beings and weaving, permeates the cosmos. If I may say so, he had found the great connection of human soul responsibility to the spiritual and divine powers, which are connected to the wisdom of the world's governance, and which the individual human being finds himself confronted with in a particularly significant moment when he asks himself the question: How do you fit into what presents itself to the soul's eye as the spiritual guidance of the world? How may you think out of your self-awareness, knowing that you yourself are a responsible link in the chain of world spirituality? That he could feel, experience and intuitively recognize such a moment in all its depth, in all, if I may use the word, soul-searching thoroughness, as the representation of man's relationship to the spirituality of the world, that revealed to me then Herman Joachim's soul.

He then went through further hardships. The time when that unutterable disaster, from which we all suffer, befell him, weighed heavily on him after he had lived in France, in Paris, for many years and found a dear life companion there. He had to return to his old profession as a German officer, dutifully, but at the same time, of course, understanding that this dutifulness was connected to his inner being. He has since fulfilled this profession in an important and meaningful position, not only with a loyal sense of duty, but with the most devoted expertise, and in such a way that he was able to work in the highest, truest sense of humanity and in the deepest sense of philanthropy within this profession, for which many of those who benefited from this philanthropic work will keep the most grateful memory. I myself often recall the conversations I was able to have with Herman Joachim during these three years of mourning and human suffering, in which he revealed himself to me as a man who was able to follow current events with comprehensive understanding, who was far from allowing his understanding to be clouded by thoughts of hatred or love on either side, where these thoughts of hate or love would have affected the objective judgment with regard to the events of the time, but who, although he could not, through this understanding view of our time, conceal from himself all the heaviness weighing on us in this time, out of the depths of the spiritual essence of the world, carried his hopes and his confidence in the outcome strongly and powerfully in his breast.

Herman Joachim was one of those who, on the one hand, in a completely objective, rational way, as it should be, absorb spiritual science, but who, on the other hand, do not allow this rationality to detract from their deep spiritual insight, their deep spiritual understanding, their direct devotion to the spirit, so that this spiritual understanding, this direct devotion to the spirit is far from ever leading such a soul to what can be most dangerous for us: fantasy, enthusiasm. Such fantasy, such enthusiasm ultimately arises only from a certain voluptuous egoism. This soul had nothing to do with egoistic mysticism. But all the more so with the great spiritual ideals, with the great, far-reaching ideas of spiritual science.

Herman Joachim was always concerned about what could be done to directly translate spiritual ideals into life in his own place. He, who was a Freemason and had gained deep insights into the essence of Freemasonry and the nature of Masonic associations, had set himself the great idea of actually achieving what can be achieved by spiritually permeating Masonic formalism with the spiritual essence of spiritual science. Everything that Freemasonry had accumulated over the centuries in the way of profound insights, which had become formulaic, one might say crystallized, had been revealed to Herman Joachim to a very special degree through his high position within Freemasonry. But it was precisely in this place where he stood that he found the opportunity to think through what he had found and to penetrate it into the right human context, combining what can only come from the power of spiritual science with the traditional that he was to revive. And when one knows how Herman Joachim worked in this direction in the last years of his life, when one is somewhat familiar with the earnestness of his efforts and the dignity of his thinking in this direction, when one is aware of the strength of his will and the extent of his work in this field, then one also knows what the physical plan has lost with him. On these and other similar occasions, I could not help but think again and again of how an American who was considered one of the most spiritual people in recent times wrote the saying: No man is irreplaceable; when one leaves, another immediately takes his place. — It goes without saying that such Americanism can only speak from the deepest ignorance of true life. For the truth says just the opposite. And the truth, measured against reality, as I mean it now, tells us rather: No man can, in reality, be replaced for all that he was to life. And especially when we see it in such outstanding examples as in this case, then we are deeply penetrated by this truth, because in our case, in the case of Herman Joachim, we are truly shown the human life karma. And this understanding of human life karma, the karmic view of the great questions of fate, is the only thing that allows us to cope when we see such a departure taking place in a relatively early human age and from such a serious, necessary life's work, before our soul's eye.

But there was something else I often had to say to myself during these days when saying goodbye to my dear friend, after I had slowly seen my soul day after day go from the regions where it was to achieve so much to the other regions, where we have to seek it through the power of our spirit, but from which it will help, strengthen and invigorate us. I could not help thinking: All the daring, all the spiritual strength demanded of men by the ideas of karmic necessity, they place themselves before our soul when we experience such a death. We must often say things that can only be said within our spiritual movement, but within our spiritual movement we also give the human soul the great strength that reaches beyond life and death, encompassing both.

Herman Joachims' soul stands before me alive. I saw it alive in the midst of a spiritual task undertaken in the fullest freedom. I see it alive in the midst of grasping this task. Then the death of this soul appears to me as something that it voluntarily assumes, because from another world it can take on the task even more strongly, even more vigorously, even more appropriately to the necessity. And in the face of such events, it could almost become a duty to speak of the necessity of individual death in very specific moments. I know that this cannot be a consolation for all people, a strengthening thought that I express with it. But I also know that there are souls today that can be uplifted by this thought in the face of so much that exists in our time to our deep pain and sorrow; that exists because we see how, within the physical world, within the materialistic currents in which we live embodied in our physical bodies, it becomes so difficult to solve the great, necessary tasks. In this context, there may also be a thought that may gradually become dear to us out of pain and sorrow: that someone may well have chosen death for the physical plan in order to be able to fulfill his task all the more strongly. Let us measure this thought against the pain that our dear friend, the wife of Herman Joachim, must now feel and endure, let us measure the thought against our own pain for our dear, precious friend, and let us try to ennoble our pain by placing it alongside a great thought, such as I have just expressed; a thought that does not need to soften or not paralyze the pain, but can radiate into this pain like something that shines out of the sun of human knowledge itself and teaches us to penetrate human necessities and the necessities of fate. In such a context, such an event really becomes something that can bring us into the right relationship with the spiritual world.

If we strengthen ourselves with such thoughts for the inclinations that we want to develop, the inclinations of our soul forces to the present and future abode of the dear soul, then we will never be able to lose the soul, then we will be actively connected to it. And if we grasp the full force of this thought: a person who was able to love his surroundings like few, who took his death upon himself out of an iron necessity - then this will be a thought worthy of our world view. Let us honor our dear friend in this way, let us remain united with him. May she who has been left behind here as his companion in life know through us that we will be united with her in our thoughts of the dear one, that we want to remain her friends and loved ones.

My dear friends, Herman Joachim's death is basically one in a long line of losses that our society has suffered during these difficult times. I have not spoken about one of the most difficult losses so far because I myself am too involved and have lost too much for the personal connection with the loss to allow me to touch on some aspects of it.

A great number of you here, I think with love, remember our loyal member, our dear member, Dr. Steiner's sister, Olga von Sivers, who we also lost in the last months of the physical plan. Of course, outwardly she was not a personality who could reveal herself in immediate, tangible effects; she was a personality who was modesty through and through. But, my dear friends, if I refrain from describing what for myself and for Dr. Steiner is a painful and irreplaceable loss, I may still point out one thing in this case: Olga von Sivers was one of those of our spiritual comrades-in-arms who, from the very beginning, took to the innermost nerve of our anthroposophically oriented spiritual science with the warmest soul. She took on this anthroposophically oriented spiritual science out of the deepest understanding and the innermost connection of the soul. And Olga von Sivers was such a person that when she took something in, she took it with her whole being. And she was a whole person. Those who were connected to her knew that. She was equally strong in her rejection of everything that now, in a mystical-theosophical way, distorts human progress and leads spiritual life down all kinds of wrong paths. She was strong in the power of distinguishing between that which, as belonging to our time, wants to become part of human progress and work for it, and that which, out of some other impulses and motives, presents itself as theosophical and the like, as all kinds of mystical striving. With regard to the original grasping of the truth for which we strive, Olga von Sivers can be counted among the very greatest of our fellow aspirants. And she, too, was never in the least disposed by her nature to neglect the tasks of her life, of the outer life, of the immediate daily life, the often difficult duties of this immediate daily life, or to evade these duties by fully and undividedly devoting herself to our spiritual movement. And what she, with full understanding, had accepted as the content of our movement from the very beginning, she transferred to others. Wherever she was able to apply our teachings to others, she also fulfilled this task in a truly exemplary manner, applying the power of ideas through the loving, tremendously benevolent nature of her being, in order to have an effect on humanity through these two sides: the power of ideas – and the special way in which her personality conveyed those ideas.

She did this even after those borders separated her from us, borders that today stand so terribly in the way of what often belongs so closely together in human terms. These borders did not prevent her from working for our cause even in the area that is now considered enemy territory in Central Europe. Difficult experiences were on her mind, all the horrors of this terrible war, During which she developed a truly humanitarian activity right up to her last weeks of illness, never thinking of herself, always working for those who had been entrusted to her as a result of the terrible events of this war, developing a Samaritan service in the noblest sense, permeating this Samaritan service with what her whole thinking and striving permeated through our spiritual movement. Although I am close to her, I may share this side of her nature from an agitated soul, this devoted and sacrificial member that Olga von Sivers was probably since the existence of this movement. It was a dear, beautiful thought for Dr. Steiner and for me, that once times other than our sad present times come, we will be able to have this personality close to us again. Here too, an iron necessity has decided otherwise.

In this case too, death is something that enters into our lives when we seek to understand this life spiritually, clarifying and enlightening this life. Certainly, there is much to be objected to in many of the things that prevail in our society, that our society brings to light. But we also have such things to record, have such things before our soul, such things to experience, which, as the most beautiful, the highest, the most meaningful, arise precisely from the power that permeates the anthroposophical movement around us. Today I am allowed to speak to you of such examples. And some of you will probably also remember a member who did not belong to our branch, but whom I may mention today because she also often appeared in this branch in the circle of the sisters, known to many here, our Johanna Arnold, who recently passed from the physical to the spiritual world. Her sister, who was an equally loyal member of our movement, preceded her two years ago. During these days, while working on the brochure, I repeatedly had to deal with the statement that I have no relationship to science, and that even the masses of my followers completely renounce any independent thinking. Now, a personality like Johanna Arnold is the most vivid proof of the tremendous lie that lies in such a statement by a professorial ignoramus. The greatness that lay in the way Johanna Arnold passed over into the spiritual world, but also the inner greatness of her whole soul's devotion to spiritual science, they are truly living proofs of what this spiritual science is taken for by the most valuable people. Johanna Arnold's life was one that imposed trials on the person, but which also strengthened and steeled the person. But it was also one that revealed a great soul. Not only was Johanna Arnold a strong support for her branch and neighboring circles during her time in the Anthroposophical Movement, not only did she have such a beautiful effect in the Rhine area, in connection with many other personalities — one of whom was recently also snatched from us into the spiritual realm: Mrs. Maud Künstler, the unforgettable one, who was so intimately connected with our movement. Not only did Johanna Arnold work in her own way since her connection with the anthroposophical movement, but she also revealed a strong, powerful soul within this movement itself. At the age of seven, she saved the life of her older sister, who was close to drowning, with noble sacrifice and courage. She spent years in England, and the way in which life had affected her shows how life became not only a great teacher and a strengthener of the soul, but also a revealer of everything that life can endure, so that it reveals what the soul longs for after the divine-spiritual. Johanna Arnold's strong and powerful soul made her a benefactress for anthroposophists in her environment, for whom she became a guide; she became a dear friend to us because we could see the strong power that she anchored within our movement. To understand the meaning of this time, to understand what is actually happening to humanity: how often in the last few years, since this terrible time has dawned, did Johanna Arnold ask me this significant question. She was constantly preoccupied with the idea: what does this time of most terrible trial want with the human race, and what can we, each of us individually, do to go through this time of trial in the right way? No event of the day in connection with the great movement of the times passed unnoticed by Johanna Arnold's soul. But she was also able to place everything in the great context, and she knew how to relate everything to the spiritual development of humanity in general. Fichte, Schelling, Hegel, and Robert Hamerling were the subjects of her intense study, to which she devoted herself in order to unravel the secrets of human existence. Oh, there is much that lives within our movement, as we are reminded on such occasions, much that deepens human life, human work, human development. And if anyone is living proof that it is a frivolous lie that within our movement we renounce our own thinking, Johanna Arnold is such living proof and stands, especially through her strength, her devotion, her loyalty to the spiritual scientific movement and also through her will to penetrate into the secrets of humanity through serious scientific work and serious thinking, as an example before those who have come to know her. Personally, I am grateful to all those who expressed this beautifully at the passing away of our friend. And the sister who is here with us today and who has seen both sisters pass away in such a short time, can take with her the knowledge that we, united with her in thought, want to remain loyal to the one who has passed from her side from the physical world to the spiritual world, to whom we not only want to preserve memories but also a living together with her.

My dear friends, even those reflections that are directly related to what touches us so painfully are part of the whole - I may say, stripping away all pedantry from the word - of our living study. In the present time, we also see many things dying that we do not know can experience a spiritual revival in the same way as we say of the human soul. We see many a hope, many an expectation dying. Now one could perhaps say: Why do we, when we look more clearly into the course of human development, have unjustified hopes, unjustified expectations? But hopes and expectations are forces, they are effective forces. We must create them for ourselves. We must not refrain from doing so because we fear that they might not be fulfilled, but we must create them for ourselves because, whether they are fulfilled or not, they have an effect as forces when we foster them, because something comes of them. But we must also find our way when sometimes nothing comes of them.

Dear mourners!

Now that the priestly word has guided this dear soul up into the spiritual realms, where she already felt at home during her earthly existence, allow me to add a few words from the heart of those with whom our dear friend, Mrs. Wilhelm, was united in shared spiritual striving, shared work. This is in keeping with the heartfelt desire of those who shared the common striving with the dear departed, that here, where her soul separates from us, but we remain united with her in the eternal realms of the spirit, that here spoke the priest who stands within our spiritual community, and that also from me, as the representative of this spiritual community, the thoughts are conveyed, which arise from the hearts and souls of those who were united with our friend. In the last days, when this soul had parted from the earthly body, the image of the dear one stood before my soul, and what spoke to me from this image was spoken to the departing soul:

From the circle of life's duties
The great question of fate spoke

How can human knowledge fathom
Where the soul's true home
Is in the vastness of the universe?

To your heart's desire,
Spiritual knowledge appeared as the way,
Illuminated by the light.

And you followed this urge.
It has given you certainty of soul
brought you soul-assurance and courage to face life.

And it has become a comfort and strength
in the difficult days of pain,
in the hour of the turning point of fate.

Then what you saw strongly
in the soul's inner vision
as the light of the human spirit,

Through suffering it has shone.
So also find it in the mind,
Whose gate now before you

The new form of existence
Opens, and your soul
Further way light-full indicates.

My dear mourners!

The close relatives of the dear departed may feel in this hour that the friends who have gathered here to send the last farewell thoughts to the soul parting from us, that all these friends have followed this soul here in warm love. And in warm love, the words that are yet to be spoken will be spoken:

Our dear, dear friend had sensed a ray of that spiritual light that shines in the soul when that human soul reflects on its true, genuine origin, when it reflects on the eternal source of humanity from which every single person is drawn to work in the spiritual and physical world. But, my dear mourners, the great question of fate often arises more intensely for one person than for another: How does the soul find its way in this existence? - in this existence, which surrounds us first as the earthly-physical world, into which shines for the soul's eye that which can spiritually permeate this earthly-physical world. That which this life can offer in the way of joy and uplifting is strong in life. It is easy for a person to get stuck within this physical life. Then the fateful questions do not arise with all their intensity from the pleasures, joys and exaltations of life! The great fateful questions, the great riddles of the world, approach man when pain and suffering afflict him. My dear friends, anyone who has acquired something like knowledge of the world will never speak from his deepest experiences, from his deepest experiences: From my joys, from my pleasures in life, I have gained knowledge. — He will speak of the fact that it is precisely suffering and pain that spring up as the light of knowledge in the soul. And the suffering and pain that penetrate into life are what point more strongly towards the eternal than the joys. And if our friend was already – as her search for spiritual light showed – one of those deeper souls who wanted to unite their own light with the divine light of the world, she has been absorbed in life by severe suffering, by pain.

And those who loved our dear friend, Mrs. Wilhelm, will, inspired by that love, send their thoughts to her again and again in eternal realms. And that which earthly death has separated will be united by life in the eternal realms of the spirit, in the bright heights of the spirit, for the bond that was formed here between our dear friend and those friends who have found union in our community was so strong that this bond certainly cannot be broken. Even those who were distant from her will unite their thoughts with the striving that our dear friend will have in the future as spirit and soul. For anyone who has become aware of the connection in eternity, there is in reality no separation.

Consider, my beloved, the strong confidence that lived in this friend, Mrs. Wilhelm, out of the spiritual consciousness of her soul, which she sought through union with our spiritual striving. We know how dear it was to her to come again and again to Dornach, how dear the place became to her, how dear to her was every single thing she heard there. But we also know how what she heard and experienced there brought her together with the divine light she sought. I myself remember how moving it was to hear her, on her sickbed, speak of the sun shining through her window as the outer expression of the divine permeating the world. Thus she sought the divine in everything physical.

She believed that she could only find the spirit with which she wanted to unite if she could revive the genuine, strong power of Christ in her soul. And so she went out to us, to let this soul grow strong inwardly through her experiences outside, through what happened out there, so that she could feel the Pauline words: “It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me.” And she felt this Christ power moving into her soul. She felt that of which man can be conscious, as of his origin; she felt the divine of this human origin, permeated by the power of Christ. She knew that, as truly as man is born out of the depths of the spirit through the power of the divine Father, so must man be borne through life and death by the power of Christ. In the most difficult hours of suffering, she was illuminated by the image she had received of the suffering of Christ on Golgotha, who is victorious over all death. Thus, under the most severe suffering and agony, she defeated death within herself. She felt the Christ-light within her. That was what sustained her under the heavy pressure of the suffering through which she was tested. For that was what the Christ-light told her again and again: No matter how many deaths a person may go through, no matter how much suffering and darkness may enter this life, there is a resurrection in the spirit from all deaths, from all darkness, from all suffering. And out of all suffering come trials for the soul, and out of all trials for the soul comes that great light which awaits the human being and strives towards him.

So, my dear mourners, that is how we knew our friend. We do not want to talk about what she could find outside. Because that she could find what her soul was looking for, her life itself was the living testimony. But we still want to talk about the fact that when she came out, her own appearance was the living testimony of something that spoke from within her, without her being aware of it, but which touched every person who got to know our dear friend: she is a good woman. She is a woman you could love to the depths of her soul. Those who saw her outside, when she was still seeking this spiritual light, could say that to themselves. Right up until the last days when she was still able to make her way out. She was looking for it. And from the way she received it, from the way she looked up from her eyes to unite the inner light with the outer, she spoke from within: a good, loving woman. And she will continue to be loved by those who have come to know her, and from the warmth of that love will spring that light that will shine when we send our thoughts up to her in the certainty of being united with her, even if the soul is separated from this physical existence.

So let me once more repeat to you, dear friend, the image that has been speaking to me these days, reminding me of what you were to us, what you were to all those who got to know you, what you were to the world of the spirit, which you have faithfully and lovingly striven towards with strong courage:

From the circle of life's duties
The great question of fate spoke to your spiritual source with seriousness:

How does human knowledge fathom
where the soul's true home is in the vastness of the universe?

To your heart's desire, Spirit-knowledge as the way,
Which is illuminated by the light.

And you followed this urge.
Soul certainty has brought
You and courage to live.

And it is you comfort and strength
In the difficult days of pain,
In the fateful turning point of the hour

Then become. What you saw strong
In the soul's memory
As the human spirit's light,

Through suffering it has shone.
So also find it in the spirit,
Whose gate now before you

The new form of existence
and shows your soul
the way forward, full of light.

In the here and now, your friends have found you. They have united the love for you with the love that your dear relatives have shown you on your journey through life. They saw the love that you showed your dear relatives and friends. May the path of life that has united us give rise to the strength by which our thoughts will always find your thoughts, when you live and strive in eternal realms. For that which is found in true love at the turn of time remains united for eternity from the depths of human nature.

Before I begin my lecture, I have to report that our dear friend Nelly Lichtenberg has left the physical plane. The younger friends may also know her from her participation in our events, but the older participants know her very well and have certainly taken her deep into their hearts – as has her mother, who is left in mourning.

Nelly Lichtenberg, who had recently sought recovery in Stuttgart, left the physical plane there a few days ago. She and her mother, who was there for her care, have been part of our anthroposophical movement since its beginning. And if I am to express in a few words what, in my eyes, perhaps best characterizes the deceased, who has passed away from the physical plane, and also her mother herself, I would like to say: Their souls were made of pure loyalty to the anthroposophical movement, of pure and deep devotion to the cause. When our movement here in Berlin was still extremely small, we all appreciated the heartfelt loyalty and deep understanding with which they both clung to the movement and participated in its development. Baroness Nelly Lichtenberg carried this loyal soul in a body that caused extraordinary difficulties for her outer life. But this soul actually came to terms with everything in a wonderful spirit of endurance, which combined with a certain inner blessed joy in absorbing the spiritual. And this spirit of endurance, combined with this inner joyfulness, warmed by a confidence in the life of the soul, wherever this soul life may unfold in the future, was also present in the now deceased at her last sickbed in Stuttgart, where I found her in this frame of mind and spiritual state during my last visits. It is clear to you all that anyone who can in any way contribute to a person's recovery must do everything in his power to bring about that recovery. But you also all know how karma works, and how it is sometimes simply impossible to bring about such a recovery. It was, so to speak, quite painful just to see the future when you had the sufferer before you in the last few weeks. But her soul, which was also so extraordinarily hopeful for the spiritual world, led her and those who had to do with her even in the last days. And so one may say that just as her soul departed from the physical plane, so did one here on earth, who had taken up anthroposophy in the true sense of the word, so taken it up that this anthroposophy was not just a theoretical world view, a satisfaction of the intellect or even a slight satisfaction of the feelings, but was the whole content of her life, the certainty of her existence. And it was with this content of her life and with this certainty of her soul existence that she also passed away from this physical plane. It is for us, especially for those of us who have shared so many of the hours here in the physical existence that a person has to spend with her in the same spiritual pursuit, to turn our thoughts to her soul existence. And that is what we want to do faithfully! She shall often find our thoughts united with her thoughts in the continuation of her existence in another region, and she will always be a faithful companion of our spiritual striving, even in her further soul existence. We can be sure of that. And that we promise her this, that we want to powerfully direct our thoughts to her, as a sign of honor, we want to rise from our seats.

Dear Mourners!

Now that the solemn priestly ceremony for our dear 'friend Elisabeth Maier has been performed here, I would like to say a few words on behalf of the spiritual community to which the dearly departed belonged from the bottom of her heart, the dear, good soul.

Elisabeth Maier sought this spiritual community from the depths of her soul because she had an intimate affinity to spiritual being and spiritual work through her entire being, because she knew with human clarity, through the best forces that lived in her soul, how life in the spirit must always triumph over death in the material. Her soul sought the company of human souls united with her in this sacred conviction, united so completely that nothing could sever the bond that bound them together. They therefore also know that death is only a transition from one life to another. But that is why, beloved mourners, the pain and sorrow that such souls feel at the coffins of those who leave them remains in its full magnitude. The pain and sorrow are transfigured, but they are not diminished.

Therefore, in this moment of sorrow and grief, I may turn especially to the beloved mother of the dear ones who have passed away from us, to assure her that there is in the souls that were connected with the dear Elisabeth Maier, the deepest, most sincere and honest sorrow for those who can understand the feeling of life that can comprehend such pain and that expresses itself in the realization that one must say: You gave life to a dear being as a mother, and you had to watch her earthly life disappear earlier than you were able to lift yourself up into the spiritual realm.

And it is out of this deep shared pain that I turn to all the other brothers and sisters, to all the other relatives and to the wider community of sorrow and mourning that is united here. All of you, dear mourners, may in this case truly regard pain as the basis for beautiful, good, sacred feelings and thoughts that may and can accompany the soul now rising up. And on the basis of this genuine pain, but transfigured by our conviction, we may speak the words that are to be a vow to remain in further loyal connection with the soul departing from the earth.

Souls that were intimately connected here on earth with that which flows as spiritual life and spiritual uplift through the spiritual conviction in which Elisabeth Maier lived, of such souls it may be said that they already stepped into life, destined to seek the spirit again here on earth, from which they had descended from the spirit-filled breath of existence in the pre-earthly life, from the community in the spirit, the divine spirit that lives and weaves through the world. Such souls bear the spirit-sign here on earth. And such a soul was Elisabeth Maier. One could truly say of her: she was born of the spirit that was seized in God. And the power of this spirit led her to that spiritual knowledge and spiritual conviction that shone before her like an ideal that carried her like a strong soul. That, in particular, was something, my dear mourners, dear funeral party, that one could experience with our dear Elisabeth Maier, and what, in this hour, with a painful heart, but also, I would like to say, with great supplication, can be expressed here, justifying the dear soul. The spiritual ideal that Elisabeth Maier had set for herself from the depths of her soul was a lofty ideal. It was an ideal that required strong forces. In her always weak body, these forces called for spiritual strength. For a long time, these soulful eyes have looked out of the frail body, gazing so longingly towards her lofty ideal. That was the deeper soul basis of this physical suffering from which our Elisabeth Maier had been suffering for a long time. Her courage to face life wanted to falter, her will to live wanted to falter because she felt weak in the face of the greatness of her ideal. And human words were not strong enough to give her the courage to face life, to give her the strength to live that she needed. And so she died, in a sense also against her soul, against life in the eternal realms of existence, to which she now ascends from this earth. Precisely from the strength with which we were often met here, something like a lack of hope in life, will come to her that strong soul power that will now lead her on in the spirit. For in the last analysis, what sapped her vitality was rooted in her soul strength. She wanted to combine in the great ideal of the spiritual community, of which she was a member with such heartfelt devotion, everything that her soul could muster in the way of strength.

Because the strongest life forces for the soul come from this spiritual community, we stand, allowing this feeling to arise very gently and intimately in our soul, at the disappearing soul that is rising up, the soul of Elisabeth Maier.

We know, dear mourners, dear funeral guests, that through this strong power she has found communion with the one who descended from spiritual heights in intimate communion of spirit with humanity in order to unite with human destiny, who is the conqueror of death, who is the founder of eternal life in all people. We know, dear mourners, dear funeral guests, that she has found the Christ who guides the human souls that seek him through the portal of death, and we know that such souls, which look up to this spirit with such intimacy, find the spirit that reigns through all spaces and times. We know that the spirit of Elisabeth Maier, who is now fading from our lives, will find this spirit.

We will no longer see with her eyes. But we will want to unite our thoughts with her soul, our feelings with the feelings of her soul, our best human existence with her soul existence, and so we can assure those who are the next to grieve, her mother, siblings, other relatives and her spiritual kin, that all thoughts that rush up to the spiritual being Elisabeth Maier will unite with her soul in the future. All those who were intimately connected with her spirit within the spiritual community sought by Elisabeth Maier.

Just as those who were dear to her will find this precious soul up in the spiritual heights, so they will always find the thoughts of those to whom she was, to their sorrow, snatched from the earth all too soon. They will find her in the spiritual heights. And so today, with our soul ascending, we send up the thoughts that most intimately and warmly connected us with dear Elisabeth Maier. We send them up through the same paths that you take, spiritual paths, so that they will always find you. From the words of today's vow, we want to draw the strength that our thoughts connected with you will always seek you, so that you will find the community forever through all worlds in which human souls live through all transformations of existence in world distances and through all time spaces. This we want to vow to you today with your dear ones and those close to you for all time.

Dear Mourners!

Now that our dear friend has been escorted by the clergy into the realms of light, words of farewell are spoken from the hearts of those who were most closely connected to our dear friend: to his dear wife, daughter and to you, dear friends, who were so closely connected to Hermann Linde. These words, which may resonate in the soul of our dear friend, are spoken:

Your soul's gentle beating of wings
Carried you, dear friend, in spiritual orbits,
Your destiny's solemn guiding hand
Brought the spiritual word to your ancestors.

Many a doubt stepped into your path,
But the strength of the heart found
through the light of life and the shadows of existence
to the goal of thought in the spiritual realm.

And so look, faithful friend soul,
in the full spiritual reality,
what you sensibly and meaningfully envisioned
as the future after your time on earth.

And in the evening of your life, you still had to Your daughter's faithful memory
Shall preserve your noble striving.

And we, united with you in spirit in our earthly existence,
We who accompany you to the new life,
Want to dwell with you in spiritual union
In the times of the future and in the vastness of the world.

Dear mourners! Our dear friend was one of the first of our spiritual community to join us in heartfelt intimacy. And we got to know his kind, good heart, whether it was in such a effectively accomplished, sacred work duty for all of us, or whether it was in walking side by side in the confession of our spiritual knowledge, we got to know this good, dear heart, we learned to appreciate it, and we should know to remain connected to it, even after our physical eye can no longer look into his physical eye. And so let our soul's eye look into his in the future, remembering him with all our heart and love, into his dear spiritual eye.

Dear friends! On his earnest path to spiritual research, Hermann Linde has found many doubts and many other soul obstacles on the way. But he has possessed a spiritually inclined, soul-warm inner heart power. With strong inner power, it led him to what he then found as his spiritual word, his spiritual insight, in which we were united with him in intimate friendship.

One could say that Hermann Linde walked in loyalty with the three epochs of anthroposophical life. First he found this spiritual life. Then came the times when he worked in Munich as one of the most effective, devoted and sacrificial collaborators on our festival mystery plays, which, together with others, were also his work. My dear friends, there are many things we have to say: at the time when we had to work on them, they would not have come about without Hermann Linde.

And then, when the call came to build the Goetheanum, which was so dear to all of us and also died on the Dornach hill, he was again one of the first to offer advice and help, giving everything he had: his art, his being, to the work. We have seen how Hermann Linde, outgrowing his artistic life, ultimately sacrificed everything he was able to give in art to the work with which he had completely identified.

And anyone who is able to appreciate and love human loyalty and human devotion could not help but appreciate and admire the quiet, gentle, and yet so energetic soul of Hermann Linde, and feel him as the dearest friend soul who walked with us on our spiritual path.

Many are the hours that come to mind's eye, when I met Hermann Linde working, working at the side of his dear wife, our friend, up in the dome of the Goetheanum, and when he sacrificed his best for the work, whose downfall he and we had to experience with such deep pain.

And when you saw Hermann Linde quietly working in his studio, completely absorbed in the Goethean idea, everything he could feel as an artist, mysteriously enmeshed in this Goethean idea, then you knew: he was one of the best who work among us.

Dear mourning friends, Hermann Linde stands before us. But we also had to accompany him in such a way that we always saw in him how a strong soul, a soul with many desires, nevertheless lived in a weak body. And this weak body took Hermann Linde from us early, much too early, for all of us: this weak body, which those who were more intimately connected with Hermann Linde knew, that everything that stood in Hermann Linde's life, that even doubts arose in him, that sometimes did not allow the intentions of the work to come into full effect, came from him. Those who were very close to Hermann Linde knew that his soul was great and that he himself often felt an inner tragedy due to his weak body,

But that is precisely why he belonged to a spiritual community that is able to look beyond everything that physical-earthly sensuality alone gives, that is able to look up to that which, as a supermundane ability, the spiritually willing soul longs for and hopes for as its great goal. And in my intimate friendship with Hermann Linde, I often had the thought: You may tell yourself that not everything you want in your earthly existence will be granted to you, but you may take comfort in the fact that in spiritual regions your will to transcend the earthly will be strengthened and that you are able to give to the earth all that you would like to give to it. But we had to remind ourselves that we cannot make the same demands on ourselves that Hermann Linde made on himself. And we were truly always in complete agreement with this gentle and quiet soul. We appreciated what he did for us as one of the best.

And, my dear mourners, Hermann Linde can be a role model for many. He wrestled in his quiet mind, wrestled with earnest strength, wrestled with solemn dignity beyond all doubt, beyond all inhibitions, to that knowledge that brings man the certainty: That which you live on earth comes from divine heights of existence. But Hermann Linde appreciated the sacredness of the divine heights of existence, Hermann Linde knew how to see through what secrets these divine heights of existence hold, and he therefore knew how little of that which we carry into this existence from heavenly heights through earthly birth enters into human consciousness of earthly existence.

It is true that we are all born of God into earthly life. But during this earthly life, the human consciousness is too thin to be permeated with divine power. And only in this death, experienced with earthly consciousness, can the divine power rediscover the strong soul power that feels connected to the impulse of Christ, give birth again, resurrect the God in the human breast, the connection with Christ.

And so did Hermann Linde feel. Just as he knew that he had been led from divine existence into earthly existence, so he knew that in earthly death the awakening Christ lives, with whom the human soul, the human heart, can connect. And so today, in this solemn hour, we look up with you, beloved soul, into spiritual regions, knowing that he who retains in earthly existence the awareness of divine origin, who conquers for earthly existence the permeation with the power of Christ, will be reawakened, will resurrect in bright, luminous spiritual heights. Dear friend soul, our friendly glances from the depths of our hearts longingly accompany you. We want to let our best thoughts, which were connected to you, follow you there. We know you in the heights of spirit in the future. It will be for us to seek again and again from the depths of our hearts the thoughts that go to you, that may unite with your thoughts of purpose in the light of spirit, that want to remain with you for all time, that you will have to go through for all the worlds, that you will have to permeate. Yes, our thoughts may be with Your thoughts, out of the earthly labor, which we could feel, with which You were spiritually connected to us through Your own choice in this earthly life.

May Your thoughts, my dear mourners, always follow the spiritually connected one in his future earthly joyful existence, preparing himself for a new earthly existence full of light. So may it be. And so may our thoughts follow you, may they stay with you, our dear Hermann Linde, and may we understand to stay with you, even when our soul must seek you in the bright heights of the spirit.

The gentle beating of your soul's wings
Carried you, dear friend, in spiritual paths,
Your destiny's solemn guiding hand
Brought the spiritual word to your ancestors.

Many doubts arose in your path,
But the strength of your heart found
Its way through the light and shadow of life
To the goal of thought in the spiritual realm.

And so look, faithful friend soul,
In the full spiritual reality,
What made sense to you, shiningly envisioned
As the future after the time on earth.

And in the evening of your life, you still had to
Deep in the soul, our great pain
from the flame;
For earthly existence, it broke your heart.

Your wife's sincere heart love,
She will follow your spiritual life;
Your daughter's faithful memory
Shall preserve your noble striving.

And we, united with you in spirit in this world,
We, who accompany you to the new life,
Want to dwell with you in spiritual union
In the times of the future and in the widths of the world.

This morning we had to see off our dear friend Hermann Linde at the gate through which he will now enter the spiritual world. At such moments, my dear friends, it is up to us to make real, in a deeper, moral-religious sense and in a deeper sense of feeling and perception, what anthroposophy can trigger in our souls, what anthroposophy can inspire in our souls. It is, after all, our whole endeavour to get to know the spiritual world, to learn to live in the soul with the spiritual world.

In the moment when a dear soul departs from physical existence and enters into that life, in order to gain knowledge of which we strive, we must also feel the strength and the power to sustain in the full sense of the word all that which should have become ingrained in us during that time while we were here on earth in a spiritual bond with a soul that has now passed away from us. And we should learn to understand in the right sense that we should maintain the community in which we have found each other, beyond the bonds that are woven through earthly life. We should be able to hold that love warmly, which connects us with such souls, even when that warmth of feeling cannot be kindled by external impulses as it can when the soul in question is still walking among us in a physical body. Only then do the powers of perception that can be triggered in us through anthroposophy have the right strength, if we are able to do so. We should also be able to keep the memories of a dear dead person alive in a different way than someone who has not taken in spiritual knowledge into the depths of his soul as we have set ourselves the goal.

And Hermann Linde is indeed bound to our souls by many beautiful memories. A large number of those sitting here know this without a doubt, some perhaps in a looser way. But Hermann Linde was a personality of whom it may be said that even those who knew him only briefly grew to love him. Those who have been part of our society for longer know Hermann Linde as one of the first to join the society in order to follow a shared spiritual path with the other friends united in it. And those who knew Hermann Linde more intimately know that he was not one of those who joined this spiritual path in a mere effervescence of feeling, in an inner-soul sensation, but that he strove, out of innermost self-knowledge, to find the possibility of uniting his path with the path of this spiritual current.

Hermann Linde was a mild nature, but a nature that also had a strong, justified critical spirit within the mildness of his soul, a nature that examined what came its way, and a nature that had to examine because other impressions that were already there had stuck in the soul in a strong way. And so Hermann Linde had to fight his soul's battles with what lived in his soul, what warmed his soul, what often filled his soul with bitter doubts on the one hand, and with what, because it differs so much from everything else that one encounters in the present, on the other hand, with anthroposophy, he had to fight his soul's battles with these two currents. And today, when his life on earth is complete, we can look back on it and say to ourselves: When a soul so noble, mild and inwardly earnest has found its way into this spiritual movement, not from overflowing sentiment but from inwardly true self-knowledge, then this spiritual movement can regard it as a kind of testimony that confirms its inner strength. A movement that is in a position to point out that good people have found the opportunity to unite with it can consider itself fortunate in the most beautiful sense.

And it was indeed the case that our anthroposophical movement in its first period could, by the nature of things, be nothing other than a place where souls found themselves and their connection with the spiritual world. In view of the tasks that the anthroposophical movement has had to take on in later times, many older members may well say to themselves: Oh, if only it had always remained so, if the Anthroposophical Movement had remained in that first epoch, when it was basically a gathering of people who interacted as people, who formed an inwardly cohesive association that initially looked to the spiritual current flowing through it.

Hermann Linde knew how to unite with his own soul that which flows through the Anthroposophical Society as a spiritual current; but he was also one of those who, with an open heart and an unlimited willingness to make sacrifices, devoted themselves to every new task that arose from this spiritual movement. And for many who enter this spiritual movement, it should be so that they look to the example of such a personality.

Hermann Linde entered the anthroposophical movement as an artist. He first placed his entire artistic being at the service of this movement and then, in the third phase of this movement, sacrificed it at the altar of the same. We look back because what happened through the personalities working within our movement must be of value to us. We look back to the time when the Anthroposophical movement in Munich, steeped in true inwardness, had to be led into artistic channels. At first we needed people who could infuse it with artistic life. And now I would like to call upon those of you who remember the Mystery performances in Munich to recall in your inmost soul how marvelously unified were the stage sets that Hermann Linde contributed to the individual scenes of these Mystery Dramas out of his, I might say, natural willingness to make sacrifices. For some of those who were present at those performances, these images will be unforgettable, for they arose out of a real experience of what was to arise at that time before the soul-vision of our anthroposophists. And the words I spoke this morning from a deeply moved heart, I would like to repeat them here: We know very well that much of what was to be done back then could not have been done without a subsidy like the one that came from Hermann Linde.

And when the idea arose in some people's minds to erect a building for the anthroposophical movement, it was again a matter of course to call upon Hermann Linde in the circle of those who wanted to devote themselves above all to the construction and management of this building, because they knew that they would find a willingness to make sacrifices, a willingness to work, above all, what is most needed: a reconciling, loving spirit that balances differences.

And so Hermann Linde joined the small community of those who, as a kind of committee, led everything that was initially connected with the intention in Munich and then with the reality here in Dornach: to build up the anthroposophical cause. And he was also one of the foremost in the ranks of those who took on the work of this construction. He was imbued with such inner love for the cause that he now linked his entire existence in these last years with this construction.

And again I would like to repeat a word that I said this morning: When I think back to the hours when I met Hermann Linde, working up in our now-defunct dome room, working in harmony with our dear friend, his wife, when I discussed the most diverse matters with him up there that were related to the management of the building and to the role he held within this leadership, then in all of this lay, firstly, the revelation of his unlimited willingness to make sacrifices, the unlimited application of his artistic skill to what was to be built there, and on the other side there was also that reconciling spirit that balanced out the contradictions, which was always there with advice, rather than criticism.

Many a person has thought that either they themselves or others – as is always the case in life – could have done better what Hermann Linde has done. But these things are vain illusions. What matters when something real is brought into the world lies much more in what Hermann Linde had in such an outstanding degree than in what some believed he did not have. It would not have been possible to work with the things that were often criticized. Hermann Linde's approach to our work, which was so self-sacrificing and lovingly conciliatory, allowed us to work on every detail and as a whole. And if we are to talk about the workers in our cause, then Hermann Linde must be mentioned in the first row.

But then it must not be concealed how great our sorrow must be that he left us so early, for a difficult time that undoubtedly lies ahead of us. But he was so intimately connected with everything that concerns us here in our earthly existence that we may hope for the help that the souls from the spiritual realm can provide for those who have remained here from him to the greatest extent possible, if only we prove worthy of this help.

Many people are unaware of the extent of the individual concerns that weighed on the leading personalities during the last few years of the Dornach building work. Today it is self-evident to point out that Hermann Linde was one of those who bore these worries in the most beautiful way, but that Hermann Linde was also one of those who followed everything that happened here with a broad-minded interest and who would have liked to see many things develop into greater fruitfulness, precisely by reconciling the differences, than has been possible so far.

Many of us will remember how Hermann Linde was always among those who had the sincere desire to bring about a union of artists here among us. He was certainly not a person who would have excluded or restricted any individual activity. Out of the infinite kindness of his heart, he wanted to create a collaboration. And much of what has been achieved in this direction can be traced back to his initiative. And the fact that many of the seeds he has planted in this regard have not come to full fruition is truly not due to a lack of his own zeal. Let us remember with what heartfelt love and devotion he reported on the progress of the artistic work at our Goetheanum during the meetings of the Goetheanum Association here in this hall. Let us remember such things as what is most intimately connected with the history of our movement. We must not forget, especially at this moment, that it was Hermann Linde, for example, who gave the impetus for the small further training school established here at the Goetheanum, and that he devoted his special care and attention to this further training school.

But this is just one of the many gaps that arise in our ranks as a result of Hermann Linde's passing away from the physical plane. And those who will have the task of filling these gaps in some way will feel what Hermann Linde meant to us. Because what we take for granted in certain areas of life – that wherever a gap is created by a person, another will step in – is not the case at all.

And finally, Hermann Linde had to go through with us the pain that affected our and his work. He had to be among those who, in a short time, saw what had been built out of love and devotion dwindle to ruin. And it is truly true in the deepest sense, as I had to speak this morning, that for his earthly existence this broke his heart. This impression, which he experienced on New Year's Eve and which was a death for much of what our cause is, was deeply burning in Hermann Linde's soul. And the short span of time that he was still granted to spend on earth after the Goetheanum fire was entirely under this impression.

The last time he spent here on earth was a time of suffering. He also felt deeply in his innermost heart all that is being done against the anthroposophical movement by various opponents. That is why the last time he was allowed to dwell on earth was a time of suffering. And if pain is what deepens life in the spiritual world that follows on from the time on earth, Hermann Linde has taken much of noble pain into the form of existence that he has now entered. All this, my dear friends, should fill our soul today. And it should be the starting point for thoughts of devotion for this soul to remain in our souls. Then we will worthily find again the dear soul that has been taken from our physical sight, but that should remain with us in the most intense way in our spiritual sight.

If we can do this, if we can love Hermann Linde with the same intensity with which we loved him here, and with an ever-increasing strength, then in this case we fulfill the anthroposophical view of life that we should be able to fulfill.

The starting point for a spiritual community with this soul should be the days when he is snatched from our physical sight. He left behind his dear wife, our dear friend, and his dear daughter. We must understand the pain they feel over his death, in true inner warmth. We must understand that we make our thoughts about him, which are devoted to him, quite precious by remaining connected in the most intimate love, as long as we are granted this on earth, with these, his friends who have survived him. We must make it our will and his spiritual joy to be for those who remain behind what can serve him, when he looks down on what is happening on the site where he worked for so long, to give him inner spiritual and soul satisfaction. This is truly practical anthroposophy for the soul. If we know in the right sense that death is not the destroyer of life but the beginning of another form of life, then we must understand in the right sense that the love that has been assigned to one who is now dead to earthly life also enters into another form of existence with this death. And if we do not understand this metamorphosis of love, then we do not understand in the right sense the metamorphosis of life, which we think we understand when we join a spiritual movement like anthroposophy.

And so let us reflect today on how beautifully Hermann Linde has realized in his own heart the conviction that what a person is and does here on earth comes from the divine: Ex deo nascimur. It should be borne in mind that he found in his heart the strength to recognize, for earthly consciousness, that in this consciousness the power of Christ must come to life, so that what begins to die in man at birth may, through the experience of the power of Christ, gain the right to a new life: In Christo morimur. And in thinking of Hermann Linde today, we share the conviction that when the consciousness of our divine spiritual descent unites with the consciousness of union with the Christ impulse, we may live in the conviction that human existence is God-conscious and imbued with Christ: Per spiritum sanctum reviviscimus.

These thoughts affirm that in us which enables us, for all time, to look up in loyal thoughts to the soul of Hermann Linde, which will continue to work in the spiritual existence as a continuation of its earthly existence. As a sign of this, my dear friends, we rise from our seats.

My dear friends, perhaps it is appropriate on this day, in the short span of time that remains to us, to reflect on an event like this. We must be clear in the innermost part of our soul about how what we live through in our physical existence on earth, and also live through in our soul, is bound to the outer senses and to what the mind makes of the impressions of the outer senses. But the outer senses, with everything that the mind makes of them, do not follow us into the after-earthly existence. We hand over the external senses to the earthly existence with physical death. What the mind makes of the impressions of the outer senses, we hand over to the etheric world a few days after physical death. It melts away from us, and in all that follows, we are dependent on continuing to live out that which is immersed in the darkness of the unconscious while we live our earthly life.

To some extent, a person lives their life in the state between waking and sleeping. They are filled with what is experienced through the senses and through the mind, and what they find extinguished with death in the form in which they experience it here on earth. Every day, people experience the other side of existence between falling asleep and waking up. But even if the experiences within are immersed in the darkness of the unconscious for earthly consciousness, what appears to some to be of little importance for earthly existence: for what comes to life in the human soul when it has passed through the gate of death, it is precisely these experiences, which then transform into full consciousness, that are the most essential part of earthly life. What we go through here on earth in unconsciousness, we carry through the long time between death and a new life on earth.

The greatest difference between what we perceive, see and think here on earth and what we see on the other side after we have passed through the gate of death is in relation to the outer nature. Anyone who believes that they can exhaust what is hidden and revealed in nature with their physical senses and earthly mind while they are awake is mistaken. They only know the smallest part of nature. Nature has another essential side, the side that we live through between falling asleep and waking up, which is deeply hidden from the conscious mind, which in the truest sense of the word represents another side of our existence. The one side of existence that nature assigns to our earthly senses and our earthly mind is extremely different from the other side, which is assigned to our soul, our spiritual nature, which belongs to eternity.

He who can form a correct idea of this radical difference, he who realizes to what a high degree it is the case that, while nature reveals to our senses a completely unspiritual, un-animated entity, seen from the other side it is through and through an infinite abundance of spiritual entities in themselves, he can also comprehend what an enormous difference there is between the human being when it is clothed here in the physical body, and the human being when it has discarded the physical and etheric bodies and lives on in its soul-spiritual part beyond the gate of death. Not only in itself, but in the whole relationship to ourselves, there is a radical difference. We face a human being in earthly life, we experience together with him what happens in earthly life. What he experiences is imprinted on our earthly thoughts. Through our earthly thoughts it becomes our memory. During our time on earth, we carry this other person within us in our memory. But every time we see him again, it is not just the earthly memory that works in us, but what flows out of his soul as a living being and is poured into this earthly memory. Consider how the memory of a person that we carry within us is enlivened when we are face to face with him in earthly life, how infinitely more alive for earthly thinking is that which streams from him into our memory than is this memory itself.

And now he leaves us, out of the physical existence on earth. We are left with the memory, to which he himself adds nothing metamorphosing, nothing transforming, nothing enlivening after his death. We are left with the memory, just as we are left with thoughts of the outer nature when we see it with our physical senses, grasp them with our physical minds, where the things of nature add nothing to our knowledge, to our thoughts, where we must keep our thoughts all the more objective, the more we want to faithfully depict that which is, and where we must not be led astray by that which could modify these thoughts from life. But just as the other side of nature is different from what it assigns to us for the senses and for the earthly mind, so is that which a human being is when it has become merely an earthly memory for us, different from what it was when it lived these earthly memories day after day, from time to time. For from this point on, this human being now appears to us, to our experience, entirely on the other side of existence.

Just as we live in our sleep, so we live with the natural beings, who are inwardly spiritually alive, in contrast to what is dead and assigns its dead countenance to us for the earthly senses. So that part of the human being that which for our earthly life has now become only a memory, lives on this other side of existence, in that realm which we experience when we are pushed into unconsciousness, into the darkness of unconsciousness, in that realm which we pass through in our sleep.

Yes, my dear friends, just as our thoughts are invigorating and our impressions are vivid when the physical human being steps before us and we consciously experience him in his earthly consciousness, so we experience — unconsciously, but no less real for that — the approach, the coexistence with us in sleep of the one who has passed from earthly existence. To the same extent that the deceased disappears from our waking consciousness, he enters our sphere of life for our sleeping consciousness. And if we human souls, based on anthroposophical knowledge, know how we have to learn to adopt a completely different attitude to life for sleep than we do for waking, then we will feel what has been said.

If we could only live in such a way that the later always follows the earlier in physical time, we would never be able to experience the true spiritual. We only learn to experience the true spiritual when we can change the direction of life in the opposite direction. As paradoxical as it may seem to the physical thinker, all life in the spiritual takes place in the opposite direction. The wheel of life comes full circle. The end comes together with the beginning at last.

This seems so incredible to people on earth only because they have distanced themselves so far from any spiritual view. But every time we fall asleep, even if it is only for a moment, we experience time running backwards. For the path leading back to the spirit from which the world originates is a path leading forward.

And even what older cultural movements recognized as correct, namely that those born later return to the forefathers in death, is more correct than the idea we have in our seemingly so enlightened time.

But then, when we set out on our journey to the spiritual realm every night, in the opposite direction to the physical, those who have gone before us in physical death are the ones who precede us. And as we enter a spiritual world every night, we find, so to speak, figuratively speaking, the entities of the higher hierarchies at the front, who never incarnate on earth, and then, below them, the procession of those souls with whom we were fatefully connected and who passed through the gate of death earlier than we did. And that part of the journey, which, if not consciously, then at least in our unconscious thoughts we are allowed to follow in every state of sleep, that is the part in reality we follow them.

And if we can keep the memory of our dear dead alive and vivid, if we also have these thoughts in a vivid imagery again and again in our waking state, then what we lovingly carry within us as memories during waking hours makes it possible for the dead to have an effect in this world, to pour their will into it, and that the will of the living continues to live in the will of the dead. But also what we fully awaken again and again in our memories during waking hours for the dead, goes with us into the state of sleep as forces with a lasting effect. It is different for the dead when we fall asleep from a life in which we have forgotten our dead, or from a life in which we have lovingly called the images of our dead to our soul again and again. For what we carry into the world of the spirit every time we fall asleep becomes a sensation for the dead. There their soul perceives the images that we carry through the portal of sleep into the spiritual world every day. And so we can bring it about that the perceptive faculty of the dead unites with the images that we faithfully preserve for them during sleep. In this way we can bring it about that the will of the dead unites with our will through our thoughts, if we cherish and care for them in loyal remembrance when we are awake. And so we can learn in a real way to live with the dead.

Then the dead will find us worthy of living with them. And only then will the true human community arise, which is instinctive only within the physical world, but which also becomes spiritual for this physical world when the extinguishing of physical life on earth does not loosen or even break any spiritually formed bonds, when everything that is bound in the soul can remain, even though the outer earthly bonds are loosened or broken. This means that through the human soul the reality of the spirit is preserved when we admit the truth to the spirit in life by not depriving it of its reality, by not surrendering to the physical and sensual alone, but by finding the possibility to live freely in the spiritual and soul, as if compelled to do so in the physical and sensual.

This is what every death, and in particular the death of a dear friend, can remind us of, what it can call us to, not just as a dead memory, but as a lasting, living sensation, memory.

My dear mourners!

First of all, I would like to address my dear sister and dear brother of the dearly departed and then all of you, my dear mourners, who were united in loyal love with the one who has left us in the physical world.

At the mortal remains of our friend Georga Wiese, we stand in the soul's eye, the eternal spirit going to light heights from us. Dear Georga Wiese!

We know what moved you in spirit,
We feel what warmed you in the heart,
We strive for what your will urged.

Your mental agitation, your warmth of heart,
your will urge,
They stand before our soul.

And memory presents you to us:

How you thought with us,
What we consider the most worthy content of thought,
How you felt with us,

What we consider the most beautiful love of the soul,
And how you strove with us,
What we consider the truest goal of humanity.

And as a reminder, the spiritual vision stands before us:

How you are received by the spirits of the light-filled heights,
to work in the spirit,
to see the result of your deeds,
to speak the language of eternal being.

Weave, oh Georga Wiese, in your work in the spirit,
Behold in the result of your deeds,
Let penetrate into the language of eternal being
The ray that can penetrate into our hearts
And that returns to you again,
So that in the times to come
can live the spiritual existence together with you.

My dear mourners! When I put myself in Georga Wiese's dear soul, then these words resound in this dear soul:

Whoever was looking
for a loving heart,
Dear friend, he will surely find it beating in your chest.

Those who seek
an understanding soul, Dear friend, he will surely find it gazing from your eyes.

Those who seek
active help, Dearest friend,
He will surely find it coming
Through your will.

So may hearts beat for your soul,
so may eyes look into your eyes,
so may wills come to your spirit,
when, like the sun, your example
in the eyes of our souls
From spiritual heights.

We,
Your heart's companions,
Your soul's partakers,
Your will's admirers,
Gaze
Upon Your soul, released from time. Remain
Our eternal companion.

Let,
Ye spirits in bright heights,
Us keep
In the endless spiritual lake,
What unites us
To Thee in the earthly realm.

Thou gavest us
Most faithful spiritual friendship.
Ye spirits in bright heights,
make our hearts strong,
so that we may prove worthy
of the gift
that the gods have given us.

My dear mourners!

Deeply moved and filled with sorrow, we stand at the mortal remains of our dear friend Georga Wiese, looking up to her soul as it rushes off to the spiritual realms that she sought with such earnest striving during her earthly existence. And we know that she will be united in the future with those spiritual forces with which she united during her earthly existence out of such warm and active striving. We see what her spiritual existence will be like: a continuation of what has already been spiritually alive in her heart, in her soul, in her spirit here on earth. And we remember, my dear mourning assembly, every dear hour that united us with Georga Wiese, because these dear hours were always filled with active participation and with earnestly placing ourselves in the spiritual world. It was always filled, so it may well be said, by each individual who stood opposite Georga Wiese; it was always filled, this hour of being together with Georga Wiese, by the heartfelt conviction: You are standing opposite a dear, a loyal, a heart-warming person.

And this love, this loyalty, this wonderful warmth of heart, it radiated from Georga Wiese to such an infinitely beautiful extent that everyone who met her felt how beneficial and at the same time how deeply understanding this togetherness could be. We were privileged to get to know Georga Wiese in her native environment, to which she wanted to convey the spiritual life with such zeal and such an understanding gaze from her beautiful soul. We got to know her in her loyal attachment and love for the country, for which all of us who were privileged to be up north felt the most heartfelt love, and we saw it, and we were allowed – at least a large part of us – to work in this Nordic, rocky, sea-washed, divinely interwoven land, which presents itself so beautifully and majestically to one, and upon entering which one can believe that the hard rocks speak a hard but inwardly spiritualized language. And one comes to love this country. And one comes to love it especially when one is favored by fate to find such dear people in it, like Georga Wiese and those around her.

We took the most heartfelt interest in how the dear mother had preceded us into spiritual lands, and we wanted to witness how expectantly and understandingly this dear mother would now receive her precious daughter.

We saw Georga Wiese lovingly in the midst of the Nordic circle that had become dear to us. We saw her surrounded by a number of like-minded people. And my eye could not detect anyone who was not devoted with sincere love to the devoted soul of Georga Wiese. And much, much of what we were able to achieve in that country, where we are so happy to work, has been made possible by the sacrifice of Georga Wiese.

Do we still need much to recall in our hearts today, in these days of mourning, all the love that we had to feel for the dear departed over a long period of time, because earthly love could only be a reflection of the intimate, active, sacrificial love that came from her. The union with Georga Wiese was beautiful, and the beauty of this earthly union will be the seed for the spiritual union, which we must enter because Georga Wiese entered the spiritual realm before us. For it is a beautiful image that arises in the soul when we imagine ourselves in the Nordic country. We found warmth, the warming rays of sunshine in our hearts through Georga Wiese.

And it was always a beautiful thought, it was always a warm feeling to be able to say to ourselves, within the work in the Nordic country, Georga Wiese will stand by our side with all that she can be. That, my dear mourners, will no longer be here on earth; but we know, we hope, we long for it in our hearts, that we will remain united all the more deeply and intimately for all time with the soul of the one who united with us in a friendship of the spirit out of such a free and devoted will.

And today we remember with sorrow, with deep sorrow, with deep pain, that we will never again be able to look into those loving eyes, that we will never again be able to feel the blissful closeness. But we look up to the light of the heights, to the worlds of spiritual life, with which Georga Wiese has united, and to which we want to send our warm thoughts again and again and again, so that she may find the thoughts that are sent down to us from these bright spiritual heights, thoughts that protect, warm and help us.

And we digress from the image that has led us up to the Nordic homeland, and we look to the building that we tried to build the spiritual life here in the vicinity, which a bad, sad fate has snatched from us; we know how much has been snatched from it as well as from our dear friend. But we saw her over the years, when she repeatedly came to the Goetheanum in Dornach, as if seeking a home, and we see her in everything that had to be done, working faithfully and in close understanding. We see the hundreds of hands and the hundreds of hearts that worked and beat for what was happening at the Goetheanum, and we saw, among them, the beautiful enthusiasm that Georga Wiese brought back from the Goetheanum in Dornach, working there with a mild soul, a whole, mild personality in the light of love. It was beautiful, glorious, and almost beyond words to describe. And wherever something was missing, wherever help was needed, on a large or small scale, Georga Wiese was there. And she was there because she believed that she should do, out of her loving heart, whatever needed to be done, in complete freedom.

And we, we can only stand there today with heavy, grieving, sorrowful hearts and send heartfelt thanks to the soul that is fleeing, seeking the spiritual realm. Thanks that remain warm in our souls, as everything 'that was soul-warming, what Georga Wiese brought into our ranks, into our work. And she knew how to do it so unpretentiously, so intimately modestly. You could tell that she only gave when she had detached it from the personality. Georga Wiese's personality always took a back seat to what she meant to so many. And when, my dear mourners, the word has been used for centuries to describe souls that were of this nature, then today we no longer use the once much-used expression that encompasses so much: a beautiful soul. Goethe called the dearest person in the spiritual realm that he had come to know a beautiful soul, and today, in all the sense that ancient times once associated with these words, we look up to the beautiful soul of Georga Wiese.

And our soul's eye comes to the third image. We called the friends who wanted to join us in shaping the Anthroposophical Society in a new way at this Christmas season, to the Goetheanum in Dornach. And among those who came with an enthusiastic heart was Georga Wiese. And as soon as she arrived, anticipating the festive event she wanted to take part in, she had an accident in which she broke her arm at an unfavorable point on the upper arm. And she had to spend the days we had gathered to establish the new form of the Anthroposophical Society, to lay the foundation stone for it, in hospital. She had to spend the days she wanted to spend in festive company with those she loved in hospital. She had arrived at the place where she had often wanted to come, and she had come gladly again, and fate had kept her away from what she wanted to take part in.

Once again, the beautiful soul of Georga Wiese was at work. Outwardly, she had the most faithful care in the hospital and from the understanding doctor, and in this respect I was deeply satisfied when I was able to speak to her doctor myself during a visit shortly before her death. But it was still very moving to see Georga Wiese lying in serious illness and to have to bear in mind how much she would have liked to have been in a different place during these days. But once again, the radiance of what I have just mentioned outshone my dear mourners, the beautiful soul. She carried everything she hoped to find within our festive Christmas community in her soul, in her heart. And from her bed, in an almost heavenly transfiguration, she radiated to me from her faithful, loving heart all that she had experienced at the end of the days before Georga Wiese's death, when we celebrated the festival that she had also come to. She truly carried this celebration in her heart, she truly carried this celebration in her soul. For within her, everything in her soul was filled with powers that spoke to her from spiritual heights: “Ex deo nascimur, from the divine all human beings are born.” These words came to her without end, deeply affirming her own being.

And Georga Wiese knew that she was called by the divine. She knew that she was carried into earthly existence by the wide powers of divine existence. She knew this divine power at work in her own soul. She felt these divine powers in her own heart. She wanted to let this divine warmth, which flowed through her, stream into her own will without end. Her soul itself lived in the light of the words: Ex deo nascimur. — And she knew how that which reached divine heights disappears into earthly existence, and how the human being, whose outer physical body, is accepted by earthly existence. But she also knew that even if man dies into matter at every moment, the great power imparted by grace, which is in the living Christ, is at work in the earth. She felt it, it lived in her heart, it lived in her soul, it lived in her mind: In Christ morimur.

Dear mourners! If I could have read in the heart that I saw just a few hours before the difficult day that preceded her death, if I could have seen the light that radiated from this “In Christo morimur”, it was so sincere, so deeply spiritual and honest in the soul of this faithful soul, so genuinely devoted to everything beautiful, great and loving in the world. Oh, there was a great contrast in these last hours between this soul, which looked out of tired eyes, but with infinite luminosity, into the indefinite, which complained how little her body could still tolerate of earthly substances, and which was so visibly filled by what the spirit communicated to the soul.

I had to leave Georga Wiese in a state of deep concern. My dear mourners, if one understands the spiritual underpinnings of the human being while he is still on earth, one may only strive with strong, powerful thoughts to say that he will, he will be healthy. For it is often such thoughts that, with the mysterious forces that exist between human soul and human soul and between world spirit and human spirit, still carry many a soul beyond the act of death. But the patient was still alive because of the serious damage that had been done, which only allowed for ominous forebodings. It originated from the damaged area and spread like dark rays over the entire body. But hope lived on. The next day, hope was no longer allowed to live. We received the news that our dear friend had been taken from us in the morning for earthly life.

Dear mourners, this soul is now deeply connected to that which we have all striven for here, to that which moved us so deeply during the Christmas days, as we are all deeply connected to it, since she left us, to die in our midst during these our festive days, still sharing in spirit here on earth what we went through, then seeking the way up to spiritual heights.

Dear mourners, I can assure you that I speak for everyone here when I call this soul, so deeply devoted to the power of Christ, the one who, through this tragedy of death, has joined us in the very depths of all eternity, in such a solemn time for us. Always remember this soul devoted to Christ with all the strength that will ultimately transform the pain in your own souls when you allow the deep tragedy associated with this death, which fills us with such sorrow, to take effect.

Oh, from this death a spiritual life shall spring that unites us intimately with Georga Wiese for all eternity. And this spiritual life, she always lived it. From the “Ex deo nascimur - In Christo morimur” arose for her the self-evident conviction that the human soul, if it harbors the power of the Father's Word, if it cherishes the will of the Son of God and His love within itself, will resurrect in the Spirit, in order to grasp in the Spirit the life that belongs to the endless Spirit of the Kingdom of Light: “Per spiritum sanctum reviviscimus”. This is surely the magic breath that has been wrested as the living breath when the earthly breath ceased with Georga Wiese.

And with this spirit, which constantly awakens all that is dead, we want to unite to gain the strength to remain united in the eternal spiritual existence of the future with Georga Wiese.

The three pictures may remain unforgettable to those who have come to know her: the lover in the midst of her beloved homeland, which we ourselves have grown so fond of; the loyal, active woman who inspires enthusiasm with her heart, herself loyal, active, enthusiastically sharing, working, creating, living in the construction of the Goetheanum in Dornach; the dying woman, uniting with us in death to eternal life at our very meaningful Christmas gathering in the transition from 1923 to 1924. The power of these three images must live in your hearts! And they will live in your hearts if you allow the power of these images, together with everything that this beautiful soul had in common with you, to take effect on you, will be united in the beautiful, light-filled life of the one who has now left us in death.

We know what moved you in spirit
We feel what warmed your heart,
We strive for what your will urged.

Your mental excitement, your warmth of heart,
your urge to will,
they stand before our soul.

And the memory of earthly things presents itself before us:

How you thought with us,
what we consider the most worthy content of thought,
how you felt with us,
what we consider the most beautiful love of the soul,
how you strove with us,
what we consider the truest goals of humanity.

Alongside the memory of earthly things stands the vision of the spirit – up to the light-filled heights:

How you will be received by the spirits of the light-filled heights,
To work in the spirit,
To see the result of your deeds,
To speak the language of eternal being.

Weave in your work in the spirit,
Look into the result of your actions,
Let penetrate the language of eternal being
The ray that can penetrate into our hearts
And that returns to you,
So that in the future we
we may live the spiritual life united with You.

Oh, it seems to me as if Georga Wiese is speaking from bright heights:

I was united with you.
Remain united in me.
We will speak together
in the language of eternal being.
We will be active
where the result of action is effective,
We will weave in the spirit
where human thoughts are woven
in the word of eternal thoughts.

Those who were looking
for a loving heart,
Dear friend,
were sure to find it beating
in your breast.

Whoever sought
an understanding soul,
dear friend,
surely found it gazing
out of your eyes.

Whoever sought
active help,
dear friend,
surely found it coming
through thy will.

So may hearts beat for thy soul,
so may eyes gaze into thy eyes,
so may wills come to thy spirit,
when thy sun-like example
in the eyes of our souls
shines from spiritual heights.

We,
Your heart's companions,
Your soul's partakers,
Your will's admirers,
Gaze
Upon Your soul, released from time.
Remain
Our eternal companion.

Let,
you spirits in the bright heights,
keep us
in the endless spiritual realm,
what unites
you in the earthly realm.

And when we see you, received by the spirits of the bright heights, by the souls of our dear relatives who have preceded you in death, to whom we lovingly think, because they were yours, then, then the words shine into our warm hearts:

You gave us

most faithful friendship of minds.

You spirits in bright heights,

you united with Georga Wiese in spirit,

you preceding, you belonging human souls,

make our hearts strong,

so that we become worthy

of the gift,

that the gods have given us with Georga Wiese,

we will do so.

With this attitude and the promise to unite our thoughts unceasingly again and again with your spiritual being, dear, dear friend, that you are with us even when we can no longer look into your faithful eyes, that is what we want to promise you, knowing that when we now, in this moment of suffering, commit your mortal remains to the fire, in the heavenly spiritual fire, which does not consume, but works charitably warming through souls and spirits, we will be united with you, united in the light, in love, in loyalty to humanity, in the will of the spirit. Thus we part. Thus we do not part. Thus we feel united, united, united for eternal times of existence with the soul that lovingly departs from us.

Ex deo nascimur

In Christo morimur

Per spiritum sanctum reviviscimus.