governmental control on steiner schools
Hi there,
at the moment I am looking into control mechanisms the gouvernment uses in different countries to check stainer schools. What I got is:
In the Netherlands steiner schools have to participate in regular statewide tests (CITO toets) to show that their pupils are learning the same skills in the same time frame, starting in year 3 of their school system (starts with the age of 4).
In the UK there is Ofsted. A non ministerial department of the gouvernment, that does check schools and writes reports.
In France there is MIVILUDES an intern ministerial government agency that checks cultic tendencies an people can report to them when they have a bad experience. They observe anthroposophic organisations for more than 2 decades. In 2024 France made a new law they call “Gatel”, that allows them to make unannounced inspections.
The Swedish Gouvernment does take controlling schools seriously and “Skolinspektionen” is checking out steiner schools regularly for decennia already - as far as I know.
Do you know more from your countries?
Until now I also could not find any serous inspection that had an overall good outcome for Steiner schools.
Any help is welcome. I will dig deeper anyway, but since we have international expertise in this group I would highly appreciate your input.
Alle the best Lea
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Re: online lecture series
It is 18:00-19:30 MEZ. And Peter will present on July 7th.
And this is apparently the link to join: Meeting ID: 674 3814 2268
I am really looking forward to this.? Espacially since the german media coverage of “Steiner 2025” was mostly same old, same old and not very deep or critical.
Cheers Lea
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On 5. May 2025, at 08:11, Dan Dugan via groups.io <dan@...> wrote:
Neat! What time and time zone?On May 3, 2025, at 7:36?AM, Peter Staudenmaier via groups.io <pstaud@...> wrote:
Starting later this month, the Research on Anthroposophy Network is sponsoring a series of online presentations marking the centennial of Rudolf Steiner's death. All are free and open to the public. Most will be in German; my presentation in July will be in English. Speakers include Ansgar Martins, Helmut Zander, Ann-Kathrin Hoffmann, and others. The dates, topics, and further information are available here:
| Die Vortragsreihe, organisiert von dem Research on Anthroposophy Network (RAN), ist dem 100. Jahrestag von Rudolf Steiners (1861–1925) Tod gewidmet. In der Re |
Please feel free to join us.
Peter S.
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Re: online lecture series
Neat! What time and time zone?
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On May 3, 2025, at 7:36?AM, Peter Staudenmaier via groups.io <pstaud@...> wrote:
Starting later this month, the Research on Anthroposophy Network is sponsoring a series of online presentations marking the centennial of Rudolf Steiner's death. All are free and open to the public. Most will be in German; my presentation in July will be in English. Speakers include Ansgar Martins, Helmut Zander, Ann-Kathrin Hoffmann, and others. The dates, topics, and further information are available here:
| Die Vortragsreihe, organisiert von dem Research on Anthroposophy Network (RAN), ist dem 100. Jahrestag von Rudolf Steiners (1861–1925) Tod gewidmet. In der Re |
Please feel free to join us.
Peter S.
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Starting later this month, the Research on Anthroposophy Network is sponsoring a series of online presentations marking the centennial of Rudolf Steiner's death. All are free and open to the public. Most will be in German; my presentation in July will be in
English. Speakers include Ansgar Martins, Helmut Zander, Ann-Kathrin Hoffmann, and others. The dates, topics, and further information are available here:
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Die Vortragsreihe, organisiert von dem Research on Anthroposophy Network (RAN), ist dem 100. Jahrestag von Rudolf Steiners (1861–1925) Tod gewidmet. In der Re
cas-e.de
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Please feel free to join us.
Peter S.
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[ADMIN} welcome new subscribers
Welcome to new people.
When a new subscription is made, the system automatically makes the subscriber’s posts moderated until a moderator can confirm that they are posting appropriate material for the list and not advertising. This inevitably leads people to believe their first message is lost or rejected. This time of year I may be missing for up to two weeks at a time, so please be patient.
-Dan Dugan
Moderator
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Hi Jen. My response to you didn’t post. My children attended a Waldorf school for three and two years and I will be kicking myself for a long time for falling for their bs. I joined this group to respond to your post. My review I left for the school included many aspects of you touched on. I wanted to let you know that I’m sorry you endured this for so long and that many people feel the same way as you. Many of your thoughts here, I felt the same. Especially the lack of emotional intelligence among adults!! My child was struggling because the teacher was emotionally abusing them and pitting the other children against them. Then had me believe something was wrong with them while the teacher was coaching the other students to fabricate events. We almost paid $8,000 to have him evaluated. A year later I’m still very angry and I can only imagine how you must feel.?
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I joined this group to respond to you. Your message truly resonated with me and what our family experienced at Waldorf. You are not alone and no one deserves to be made to feel as you did. Here is my review of the school. Very similar to what you wrote.our experience only spanned three years total but that was enough for us to spend thousands to get my children in a better place academically and emotionally.?
Waldorf education has the framework for a fantastic educational approach. Unfortunately, AWS ignores this approach to cover their own inadequacies in knowledge of child development, education, and hires unethical, untrained teachers. Our first went to Waldorf in fourth grade. She was received with love and kindness and in total collaboration with a very competent teacher. We decided AWS would be a great fit for our 2nd. The experience was night and day. Their teacher was very anxious and unsure of basic Waldorf curriculum or fundamental classroom management skills. We realized that AWS has no systems in place to collaborate or communicate with parents. Getting a good teacher is the luck of the draw -for better or worse. The disciplinary procedures and what is taught is up to the teacher and not congruent with their curriculum standards or handbooks. The governance system is a farce. There is no oversight of teachers, faculty or COT, which is comprised of all the same staff members. They play favorites among each other and will not reprimand some teachers who exhibit harmful behaviors towards students. There is no one available to take responsibility when issues arise. Our child was locked out of the classroom, unattended. It took half my daughter’s class and another teacher to open the door. His teacher refused to let him in. Other students and their parents informed me of this incident-not the school. This event was a culmination of us begging my youngest child’s teacher for collaboration and communication. Instead the teacher ignored us, lied repeatedly, allowed my child to be physically and verbally hurt by others, and verbally berated my child. When we filed a VOC with the school regarding the incidents, we were accused of sharing transphobic, homophobic, violent, and racist stories (written by an AWS student last year who faced no consequences) with my children who are part of the LGBTQ+ community. We were told repeatedly by AWS that “you cannot believe the perception of children” - calling my daughter and her classmates liars for witnessing the lockout. I was shocked that these ad hominem attacks were lobbed against us as parents, me as a fellow teacher, and my children and others. Our concerns over my child’s treatment were minimized. We then realized that it was easier for AWS admin and teachers to accuse our family of things that did not occur, rather than to reprimand an employee for negligent, unethical behavior that did occur. Many parents are aware of the favoritism among staff and the immature, cliquish behavior and are afraid to speak out, in case their child experiences maltreatment in the classroom. Even though we were told my children could stay until the end of the school year, we received a termination letter by admin at pick up two days later. I delivered two whole children to this school. They were returned broken. Our children's school year was completely upended through no fault of their own. It is difficult to express the absolute heartache, shock, and sorrow my children felt. AWS has left a financial burden on our family. We requested a refund from the board to cover services my children need and were denied. We are currently paying $1600/monthly to correct the damage done to my children by AWS. This includes therapy for both children and academic support for my youngest. They had more academic skills when leaving Kindergarten than they did in February 2024. They are in second grade. The school had us believe that school activities should not be in the home in the younger years. I now believe this is a facade to cover up for the fact that students in my youngest’s class were taught no academics, and the lack of oversight of teachers in general. For the amount of tuition that we paid and fundraising (about $60,000), to allow children to falter this severely, academically and emotionally, is unconscionable. Children should be in a safe place and thrive and not be intentionally harmed by adults who have so little integrity, ethics, emotional maturity, and harmed by those who use performative allyship for financial gain.
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Re: A remarkable attic find
A little bit late, but thank you for these images! I particularly like the upside-down plant-man. I wish I still had my waldorf school books but out of anger I threw then in the bin as a teenager.?
Hello,
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while looking for a place to put our plastic christmas tree in the attic, I stumbled upon a box containing some hand written notebook of one of my daughters’ Waldorf education. I thought I had thrown everything out that had to do with that Waldorf school, long ago, but it seems I was mistaken.
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The notebooks are from the 7th year in a Belgian Waldorf School. So the children are about 13 years old. Going through them, I found some remarkeble things:
- The 4 temperaments are thaught in detail! (I never realized, or didn’t pay enough attention at the time). They are linked to physical traits and described with pictures and apparently part of a subject on ‘communication’, at least the introduction is on the basic communication scheme.
- The 4 elements are also prominent. They were part of a school project my daughter did: she made up charachters based on these elements. They are also linked to the 4 temperaments.
- In the notebook on biology there’s a picture of a plant and a man standing upside down. In the text it says: ‘man is a plant upside down’. That doesn’t surprise me that much, because this was also thaught to me in my days in biodynamic farming school. But I find it amazing that this escapes parents’ attention.
- In the notebook on history it is mentioned that the ‘Aztecs waged war all of the time, because it was in their nature’.?
- And to be intellectually honest: there is mention of the heart being a pump (at least they got that right).
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Since most of this is in Dutch, I’ve chosen to add some pictures, that accompany the texts, so you have an idea.
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So, now I’m wondering if this corresponds to other peoples’ experiences.
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Also, it’s pretty obvious that parts of anthroposophy are actively thaught in this school. This was in 2019! The schools still exists and has been growing since I took my children out. There’s no indication that the curriculum has been altered since.
greetings, Kokanje
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Re: Vaccination and seat belts
On Thu, 13 Feb 2025 at 07:50, Kokanje via groups.io <landvankokanje@...> wrote:
Hello all,
on a lighter note…
I’ve just read this argument pro vaccination (from the archives) by Roger Rawlings:
/g/waldorf-critics/message/31197?p=%2C%2C%2C20%2C0%2C0%2C0%3A%3ACreated%2C%2CSeat+belt%2C20%2C2%2C0%2C59745057
It mentiones seat belts as a comparison. The argument for vaccination is even better than the argument for wearing seat belts, according to Roger.
This made me think of a situation, in which a then co-worker of mine, in an anthroposophical organisation, intentionally did not wear his seat belt. I remember being astonished, because I thought the only reason not to wear your seat belt was because you forgot. But he put on the seat belt when there was a police car in sight and afterwards put it off again immediately. Unfortunately I didn’t ask him about it. He was very into anthroposophy - a real believer.
So my questions are these: where does this behaviour come from? Does it have a link with anthroposophy? Did Steiner mention seat belts in his lectures (not many cars around back then)? Have some of you seen similar behaviour? If you say the argument for vaccination is better than for seat belts, does that even work on people who believe you should not wear a seat belt for some reason in the first place?
PS: a little search on the internet revealed that there is a broader movement of people not wearing seat belts intentionally, as an anti-government statement (or pro-freedom if you wish).
That makes me think: do anthroposophists wear bike helmets? ;-)
Just curious (as always),
kokanje
There were no seat-belts then, so he can't possibly have said anything about them. I think maybe people who are more cautious (wearing seat-belts, helmets, and so on) are perhaps more careful about whatever ideas they are attracted to, perhaps they're more averse to harm ad danger in general, thus avoiding crazy beliefs? So maybe it's not a matter of anthroposophy making people not wearing seat-belts but of people being drawn to anthroposophy being the same people who would choose to flaunt all sorts of rules of supposedly normal behaviour? There might, of course, also in some cases be a matter of taking karma to the extreme -- I suppose! With vaccination, there are all these additional things -- like vaccinations being bad for the child's spiritual development -- which confuse things. One might -- if one takes this spritual danger seriously --even imagine that not vaccinating is the choice with the less risk attached to it. Or perhaps anthroposophists are not really as quick to adapt to new mores, living more in the past? Not that long ago -- like when I was a kid, in the 80s -- it was still quite "normal" not to use seat-belts or helmets, wheras today most people would find such behaviour totally reckless. (At least for kids not to use these things.) Anthroposophists are not always the fastest when it comes to adapting to new fashions and trends. -alicia
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Re: 100th anniversary of Steiner's death in the German Press
Also:
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- A reaction video by Dreigliederungs supporter Jonas Rybak on Youtube.
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Re: 100th anniversary of Steiner's death in the German Press
Aftershocks:
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- Radio Feature on BR2, including Wolfgang Müller, Matthias P?hlmann. Also noteworthy: An interviwed woman distinguishes Waldorf schools from reform schools because of their spiritual, especially Christian, content (9:15ff).
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- A theological article by Hans Herrmann for “reformiert.”
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- Moritz Rinke at Weser Kurier on his experience as waldorf-student an Pro/Contra-Steiner.
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Re: 100th anniversary of Steiner's death in the German Press
I have a collection of old and quite rare Steiner literature. Is there a market for these?
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Re: 100th anniversary of Steiner's death in the German Press
- Here is another short article from April 2 about Steiner's racism by Dirk Schuster for ORF.
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Re: 100th anniversary of Steiner's death in the German Press
Thanks for this, Finn. It's very useful. There is also an hour and a half long television program on Arte titled "Geheimakte Rudolf Steiner":
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Was steckt hinter dem Mythos um den Begründer der Anthroposophie, Rudolf Steiner? Die Doku zeigt Steiners Lebensweg von den Anf?ngen in Wien, den Krisen in Weimar, den wilden Zeiten in der Berliner Bohème bis hin zum esoterischen Führer und gesch?ftigen Gründer,
dessen Reformbewegung Tausende folgen. Rund hundert Jahre nach seinem Tod bleibt die Frage: Wer war Rudolf Steiner?
www.arte.tv
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For those who can't access it via Arte (in the US, for example), it is also available on youtube:
The program includes extensive interviews with Helmut Zander, Ansgar Martins, Gary Lachman, David Marc Hoffmann from the Rudolf Steiner Archive, and others. It's in German; if you can access it in Europe, Arte programs are often available with French subtitles.
Youtube has a translation function that I haven't tried.
Peter S.
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I'm collecting a stack of links to articles and audio-broadcasts that have appeared in the German-language press in the last few days to mark Rudolf Steiner's death 100 years ago. Please forgive me for not providing any summaries.
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Re: 100th anniversary of Steiner's death in the German Press
- Our List mate Lea also wrote an article for nd-aktuell.
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100th anniversary of Steiner's death in the German Press
I'm collecting a stack of links to articles and audio-broadcasts that have appeared in the German-language press in the last few days to mark Rudolf Steiner's death 100 years ago. Please forgive me for not providing any summaries.
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This one is in english
- Christina Burack, yahoo
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- Helmut Zander in Neue Züricher Zeitung
- Audio-Broadcast for Schweizer Fernsehen
- Helmut Zander at Deutschlandfunk
- Baseler Zeitung
- Dirk Schuster at ORF
- Ansgar Martins for Jüdische Allgemeine
- Philip Kovce in audio-broadcast for Deutschlandfunk Kultur
- Philipp Pf?fflin for SWR on anthroposophy in Stuttgart
- Peter Bierl for nd-aktuell
- Christoph Schmidt for kath.ch
- Steve Ayan for Spektrum der Wissenschaft
- Jan Grossarth for Die Welt
- Tina Hartmann for Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
- Manuel Opitz for Stern
- Carina Kriebernig for E?linger Zeitung
- Gerrit Friedrich for Nau.ch
- Alexsandra Katz for E?linger Zeitung
- "Fewer children at Waldorf schools", SRF
- Michael Lehmann on Biodynamik for SWR
- Daniel V?lzke for monopol-magazin
- Torsten Wahl for Berliner Zeitung
- Lübecker Nachrichten
- Ralf Sonnenberg at haGalil
- Deutsche Apotheker Zeitung
- Plattform J
- Stern employee and former Waldorf student Nikolas Janitzki
- Christoph Horst for junge Welt
- Alexandra Kratz at Stuttgarter Nachrichten
- Paul Baldauf for Die Tagespost
- Fabian Schmidt-Ahmad for Junge Freiheit
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100 Years Rudolf Steiner Conference at Harvard Divinity School
Harvard Divinity School is planning a conference for Steiner's death centenary, with a call for papers :
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Call for Papers
This conference marks the centenary anniversary of Rudolf’s Steiner’s death. The driving force behind the esoteric and social reform movement of anthroposophy, Steiner left behind a complicated and transregional legacy. Considering the small number of participants in the movement's first decades, there are few spiritual currents of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries that have attracted as much public attention as anthroposophy—and few spiritual leaders who have been subject to as much scrutiny, both critical and sympathetic, especially in the German-language context. Following a twenty-year period that has seen a huge increase in the quality and the quantity of the scholarship on Steiner and anthroposophy, the centennial of Steiner's death in 1925 offers a perfect opportunity for scholars, practitioners in areas of “applied anthroposophy,” such as Steiner education and biodynamic agriculture, and interested members of the public to come together to debate major issues.?
While much of the key scholarship is still only available in German, and some only in other languages including Hebrew and Norwegian, the last decade or so has also seen breakthroughs in anglophone publications in the field, such as Peter Staudenmaier's Anthroposophy and the Politics of Race in the Fascist Era (2014), Dan McKanan's study of Anthroposophy and the History and Future of Environmentalism (2017), Helmut Zander’s article on “Rudolf Steiner and the Zeitgeist around 1900” (pub. 2021), and also significant publications in English translation, including Martina Maria Sam's The Library of Rudolf Steiner (2024; five translators). Parallel to this, the German-language Critical Edition of Steiner's Writings [Schriften—Kritische Ausgabe], with Christian Clement as general editor, has brought out eleven themed volumes since 2013, each complemented by forewords from world experts in the study of western esotericism. This conference will build on such scholarship, while not forgetting the work conducted by the administrators of Steiner’s literary estate—which includes thousands of manuscripts—in preparing quality publications of much archival material in digital and print editions. Our conference goal is to offer new perspectives on Steiner and critical approaches to his legacy, which has been extremely fruitful in multiple fields, from education and organic farming to modern art and architecture. By bringing together a diverse range of scholars and researchers, we hope to shed new light on this legacy and provide a forum to explore complex issues.
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Re: Rudolf Steiner - Verehrter Prophet, gef?hrlicher Ideologe
Sorry about that, it looks like there isn't a way to post a separate URL for the transcript. To find the transcript (especially for those who would like to run it through translation, for example), go to the main page for the broadcast:
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Vor 100 Jahren, am 30. M?rz 1925, starb Rudolf Steiner, der Begründer der Anthroposophie. Bis heute sind er und seine Lehre umstritten.
www.swr.de
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Then scroll down a third of the page and click on "Manuskript zur Sendung"? It will bring up the pdf.
Peter S.
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Peter, looks like the transcript file link isn’t a URL.
-Dan
On Mar 29, 2025, at 8:27?AM, Peter Staudenmaier via groups.io <pstaud@...> wrote:
In recognition of Steiner's death a hundred years ago tomorrow, there has been a fair bit of media attention in Germany. Deutsche Welle just ran a piece in English yesterday titled "Waldorf schools and Weleda founder: Who was Rudolf Steiner?":
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03/28/2025 March 28, 2025. One hundred years after his death, Steiner is a household name in Germany and his Waldorf schools can be found the world over. Yet the spiritual leader himself — and ...
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A more extensive segment aired on one of Germany's major radio broadcasters under the title "Rudolf Steiner - Verehrter Prophet, gef?hrlicher Ideologe" (Rudolf Steiner: Revered Prophet, Dangerous Ideologue). It is a 30 minute program, with a range of interviews,
including a biodynamic farmer and Philip Kovce from the Rudolf Steiner Archive in Dornach. Some of the best interview material comes?from religious studies scholar Ansgar Martins. Toward the end there are some excerpts from an interview with me as well. Overall
it is pretty well done.
The full recording can be found here:
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Vor 100 Jahren starb Rudolf Steiner, der Begründer der Anthroposophie. Bis heute sind er und seine Lehre umstritten. Von Lukas Meyer-Blankenburg (SWR 2025 ...
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The transcript is here:
If others learn of additional media discussions of Steiner, please let us know.?
Peter S.
_._,_._,_
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Re: Rudolf Steiner - Verehrter Prophet, gef?hrlicher Ideologe
Peter, looks like the transcript file link isn’t a URL.
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Show quoted text
On Mar 29, 2025, at 8:27?AM, Peter Staudenmaier via groups.io <pstaud@...> wrote:
In recognition of Steiner's death a hundred years ago tomorrow, there has been a fair bit of media attention in Germany. Deutsche Welle just ran a piece in English yesterday titled "Waldorf schools and Weleda founder: Who was Rudolf Steiner?":
| 03/28/2025 March 28, 2025. One hundred years after his death, Steiner is a household name in Germany and his Waldorf schools can be found the world over. Yet the spiritual leader himself — and ... |
A more extensive segment aired on one of Germany's major radio broadcasters under the title "Rudolf Steiner - Verehrter Prophet, gef?hrlicher Ideologe" (Rudolf Steiner: Revered Prophet, Dangerous Ideologue). It is a 30 minute program, with a range of interviews, including a biodynamic farmer and Philip Kovce from the Rudolf Steiner Archive in Dornach. Some of the best interview material comes?from religious studies scholar Ansgar Martins. Toward the end there are some excerpts from an interview with me as well. Overall it is pretty well done.
The full recording can be found here:
| Vor 100 Jahren starb Rudolf Steiner, der Begründer der Anthroposophie. Bis heute sind er und seine Lehre umstritten. Von Lukas Meyer-Blankenburg (SWR 2025 ... |
The transcript is here:
If others learn of additional media discussions of Steiner, please let us know.?
Peter S.
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Rudolf Steiner - Verehrter Prophet, gef?hrlicher Ideologe
In recognition of Steiner's death a hundred years ago tomorrow, there has been a fair bit of media attention in Germany. Deutsche Welle just ran a piece in English yesterday titled "Waldorf schools and Weleda founder: Who was Rudolf Steiner?":
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03/28/2025 March 28, 2025. One hundred years after his death, Steiner is a household name in Germany and his Waldorf schools can be found the world over. Yet the spiritual leader himself — and ...
www.dw.com
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A more extensive segment aired on one of Germany's major radio broadcasters under the title "Rudolf Steiner - Verehrter Prophet, gef?hrlicher Ideologe" (Rudolf Steiner: Revered Prophet, Dangerous Ideologue). It is a 30 minute program, with a range of interviews,
including a biodynamic farmer and Philip Kovce from the Rudolf Steiner Archive in Dornach. Some of the best interview material comes?from religious studies scholar Ansgar Martins. Toward the end there are some excerpts from an interview with me as well. Overall
it is pretty well done.
The full recording can be found here:
|
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Vor 100 Jahren starb Rudolf Steiner, der Begründer der Anthroposophie. Bis heute sind er und seine Lehre umstritten. Von Lukas Meyer-Blankenburg (SWR 2025 ...
www.ardaudiothek.de
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The transcript is here:
If others learn of additional media discussions of Steiner, please let us know.?
Peter S.
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Dan Dugan
Finnef