Tue, 30 Sep 2008

German publisher Info3 publishes rebuttal of Steiner racism charges

FRANKFURT (NNA) – In an effort to meet the charges head on that the philosopher, social reformer and founder of anthroposophy, Rudolf Steiner, was a racist, the editor and publisher of the largest-circulation anthroposophical magazine in Germany, Info3, have published a rebuttal in the form of the “Frankfurt Memorandum”.

Dr.  Jens Heisterkamp and Ramon Brüll argue in the Memorandum that Rudolf Steiner’s works did contain “isolated discriminating as well as some few racist remarks which today must be clearly judged as inappropriate”. But there was no racist teaching nor, indeed, a view of history incorporating the clash of races such as found in other authors of the time involved in the debate about human evolution, the authors say in a statement.

The Memorandum, which was published this month and is available from Info3, is based on the report of the Dutch human rights expert Ted A. van Baarda which was prepared as long ago as 1998 but which received little attention outside Holland. In addition, the final version of the Memorandum had incorporated many suggestions as well as criteria for historical racism research, Info3 said.

The first draught of the Memorandum was originally written in response to attacks on anthroposophy at the end of last year in Germany, accusing it of being racist, and to an attempt to have two of Steiner’s books placed on a list of banned publications as a risk to children and young people. The attempt failed but the relevant authority ruled that the books would have to be published with an explanatory commentary.

In analysing the quotes from Rudolf Steiner’s lectures mainly cited by his critics, the Frankfurt Memorandum classes them into five categories ranging from “misunderstandings which can be explained etymologically through discriminating use of stereotypes to racist statements”.

In two dozen quotes traditional cultures were described as “decadent” and he spoke in derogatory terms about black people. Here Rudolf Steiner was revealed as “member of a late colonial and Eurocentric age”, the authors say. This stood in marked contrast to the key content of his ethic of the free and equal individual.

A similar ambivalence was also discovered by the Memorandum in the question of Steiner’s attitude to Judaism. On the one hand he actively opposed the anti-Semitism of his time as a publicist, on the other hand some statements in his work might be interpreted as being against Judaism.

It was necessary to note matter-of-factly the “ambivalence of a spiritual giant“ who was also a “historical author and impulse-giver of his time” and to differentiate the one from the other.

Nevertheless, the overall tenor of Steiner’s work emphasised the universal development of a single inclusive humanity irrespective of ethnic, national or religious origins, the authors say.

This idea was expressed, for example, in his concept of the threefold social order with which he wanted to create a social framework in which individuals were able to develop freely on the basis of equality and with the protection of their cultural identity.

At the same time the authors of the Memorandum emphasise that the subject of “race” plays “no part whatsoever” in the ideas of anthroposophy as such. It never occurred in any way in over “thousands of book pages and hundreds of lectures” by Rudolf Steiner, they conclude.

End/nna/ung/cva

Link: http://www.info3.de/ycms/

Item: 080930-01EN Date: 30 September 2008

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