Fri, 02 Apr 2004

Rudolf Steiner Halde renovated and reopened: variety of form, diversity of use

After months of renovation works the Rudolf Steiner Halde building has been inaugurated for its new purpose. Since no nasty surprises were revealed during the course of renovation, the project kept within its budget of 3 million Swiss Francs. Besides the Felicia puppet theatre, the three-part building complex now houses the Social Science and Humanities Sections together with the General Anthroposophical Society’s personnel and finance departments. Ursa Krattiger was at the opening.

Dornach, 2 April (NNA) – Now bright, spacious and with open interchange between its three wings, the Rudolf Steiner Halde – in such urgent need of renovation two years ago – was unveiled on 27 March to the many guests who came for the viewing and opening celebration.

Martina Maria Sam, leader of the Humanities Section at the Goetheanum, gave an address in which she led us through the property’s fascinating history, in whose central wing – Haus Brodbeck, built in 1908 – Rudolf and Marie Steiner spent a few days of recuperation in 1912. This was at the invitation of Emil Grossheintz who had rented a summer residence here. Although Steiner thought this fake historical edifice “ghastly”, he bought it in 1924 and had it immediately converted – by the addition of Halde 1, which Marie Steiner used for drama and eurythmy rehearsals.

Here, at the opening, Martina Maria Sam, with Agnes Zehnter, gave a sample taste of interdisciplinary collaboration between speech formation and eurythmy. She herself, as Section leader, will work on the second floor, to which Rudolf Steiner added wine-red cupboards in 1924. Due to his illness, however, he never moved in here.

The spirit of old Dornach wafted here …

When Martina Maria Sam entered the Halde for the first time in 1989, she felt the “spirit of old Dornach wafting towards her”. And until the Rudolf Steiner Nachlassverwaltung (estate administration) and the archive office left the Halde in November 2002, she often encountered Klara Bächtle here, the “good spirit” of the house. This lady lived with Marie Steiner in the Halde as home help from 1936 – and continued to live there after Marie Steiner’s death in 1948. In fact, until the end of 2002, when she died. Old Dornach no longer exists.

A new lease of life

Treasurer Cornelius Pietzner, also one of the new users of the building, contrasted this touching look back to the past with a future perspective: the building complex – with Haus Brodbeck, Halde extension I, Halde extension II and the Felicia puppet theatre – is as various in form as its new uses are diverse. And one can see this in threefold terms, like the Goetheanum’s core tasks: cultivating art – in the puppet theatre and Halde I’s great hall; administrative aspects of the international Anthroposophical Society – in particular EDP, personnel and finances; and the School of Spiritual Science sections for Social Science and the Humanities.

A new shine to the old rendering

Kurt Remund, director of buildings administration at the Goetheanum, illustrated his talk with mould and wasp nest, rotten roof beams and decayed wood. Anecdotes brought alive the story of the renovation – the roofer, Wacker from Æsch, discovered that the slate which Rudolf Steiner had used at the time could not be preserved. On his own initiative he looked for a new source of slate in Norway, found one, and is now sole importer of it to Switzerland.

The discoloured render proved more durable than feared – and was given a skin-thin face-lift of render onto which, while still wet, mica was sprayed so that the house now gleams in sunlight. And what was worthwhile artistically has also proven its value financially: the cost of renovation works, 3 million Swiss Francs, is lower than the estimated fire insurance value of 5 million Swiss Francs for complete rebuilding.

Remund summed up: “What has happened here is tremendous.” And the thanks of all went to the architect and supervising engineer Martin Zweifel, the artisans and builders, the Goetheanum’s own artisans, and the many donors without whom the Rudolf Steiner Halde could not have been preserved and given new life.

END/mb/cva

Ursa Krattiger is head of the Swiss Anthroposophical Media Centre

N040402-03EN Date: 2 April 2004

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