Spiritual Resistance

By Peter Selg: Spiritual Resistance: Ita Wegman 1933-1935; The Last Three Years: Ita Wegman in Ascona 1940-1943

Review by Bruce Donehower

The two books under consideration for this review are an important contribution to an understanding of the complicated events that overwhelmed the Anthroposophical Society in the years immediately following Rudolf Steiner’s death—events that culminated in the expulsion of two members of the original Vorstand 1 (Ita Wegman and Elizabeth Vreede) appointed by Rudolf Steiner, as well as the expulsion of nearly two thousand members of the Dutch and English societies. These events caused chaos and harm to the Society, compromised its purpose and mission (fatally, some would argue), and cast a shadow into the future that is still perceived. Contemplation of these historical events (and the personalities involved) continues to have power to ignite emotion and controversy. Some readers may shy away from this material—intuiting the depth and difficulty of the themes—while others may not be aware at all of this history. Indeed, until rather recently English-speaking readers would have been challenged to find access to the materials succinctly and cogently presented in these editions. As author Peter Selg points out, J.E. Zeylmans van Emmichoven was among the first in the latter years of the 20th century to undertake in thoroughgoing and clear-sighted manner a biography of Ita Wegman (Wer war Ita Wegman; 3 volumes; Natura Verlag, 1992 2 ), and in some respects Selg’s Spiritual Resistance serves as a handy introduction to Zeylmans’ impressive and well documented work. To his credit, Zeylmans did not avoid or sanitize the controversies that overwhelmed Wegman in the 1930s, and Selg presents his materials with similar honesty and directness. The question that Selg and Zeylmans ponder—how was it possible in the span of ten years following Rudolf Steiner’s death that the Anthroposophical Society so completely disintegrated that it slandered, attacked, and exiled those who were in a real sense the closest collaborators of Rudolf Steiner?—is a question that students of anthroposophy need still to ponder, although, as was true in the twentieth century and remains true today, such a suggestion may not be received entirely cordially.

It is tempting to read anthroposophy outside the stream of history, but this is not Peter Selg’s intention; rather, as he states in his foreword to Spiritual Resistance, his “monograph describes the life and work of Ita Wegman from 1933 to 1935, in particular her confrontation with Nazi fascism and with the internal dynamic of the Anthroposophical Society.” As Selg and other recent publications in Germany have made clear—publications such as Hans Büchenbacher’s recently available Errinerungen 1933-1949: Zugleich eine Studie zur Geschichte der Anthroposophie im Nationalsozialismus, Mit Kommentaren und fünf Anhängen herausgegeben von Ansgar Martins (Mayer Info3, 2014)—the Society was divided and compromised on the issue of how to receive or reject the political events in Germany that led to the rise of Hitler, anti-semitism, the Holocaust, and World War II, and many members and Society leaders (including Vorstand members) welcomed the political events in Germany. Wegman saw the danger clearly, and she opposed it forthrightly and unambiguously. Her stance, as Selg documents, earned her the enmity and hatred of many fellow anthroposophists who did not view Nazi fascism in this way. If these events of the early twentieth century were indeed the challenge to the School of Michael that Wegman thought them to be, then many of her colleagues and fellow students of Rudolf Steiner failed to meet that challenge. Selg is clear: “the general outlook of anthroposophists after Hitler seized power was primarily one of fear, horror and paralysis, but also on occasion of dubious diplomacy, partial (or complete) misjudgment, and often self-referential opportunism.” He quotes Wegman many times to this effect: “The sad thing is that many anthroposophists are allowing themselves to be seduced by nationalism and are joining in with it.” And further: “I find this incomprehensible. It shows how many people have their heads in the clouds.”

Lest, however, we think that this confusion was due to intellectual or moral uncertainty in the face of complex political/historical events, Selg also documents, as others have in recent years, the degree to which Wegman’s enemies and critics at Dornach and in the Society and in the Class were at the same time apologists to the Nazi regime—confusing the rise of Hitler’s Germany with a heralded fulfillment of Germany’s Michaelic world mission, cataloging agreements between Steiner’s teaching and Hitler’s quasi-spiritual political agenda, asserting the purity of Steiner’s Aryan teaching, and hoping, through appeasement, to avoid a confrontation that might compromise the institution at Dornach. These are hard words, but as Selg’s book makes clear, they resonate with the events of history, as such events find reflection in Wegman’s life. Thus, the well-documented disagreements between Marie Steiner and Ita Wegman, for example, should be seen as a drama of individuals within the context of larger historical events. (“How great is the hatred of Frau Dr. Steiner against me, and to satisfy this hatred, the work of Rudolf Steiner is to be destroyed.”). Whatever animosity may have existed between these women and their partisans on a personal basis is overshadowed by the compromised response to the historical challenge posed by the rise of fascist Germany. And it is on this point that Wegman’s moral discernment remained clear, as Selg, following Zeylmans, documents admirably.

The second book under consideration for this review, The Last Three Years, rounds out a reader’s contemplation of Wegman’s biography prior to her death. It is significant that Wegman was able to find equanimity following the dramatic events that culminated in her expulsion from the Christmas Foundation Vorstand and the Society. The two volumes by Peter Selg will greatly assist students of Ita Wegman’s life to understand how she achieved this quality of soul. Those who through their karma are linked to Ita Wegman will find this rendition of the final years of her life to be illuminating and instructive. Others, who have not such a connection, may find the detailed materials less gripping. It is, however, of great interest to any student of anthroposophy to understand how Wegman read the events of the 1930s in light of her understanding of esoteric Christianity and the School of Michael. In this regard, her journey to Palestine, which Selg recounts, and her inner work with the many impressions she accumulated during the travels of her final years, are instructive to those who have an interest in the meditative path. The account of her near fatal illness, from which she recovered after an experience of meeting Christ and Rudolf Steiner at the threshold of the spiritual world, leads one to pose many questions: one of which may be to ponder to what extent Wegman continued her collaboration with Steiner after his death—in which case the journey to Palestine assumes an even greater significance, most especially given the backdrop of the dire world events leading up to World War II.

In this respect, the self-imposed disaster that befell the Anthroposophical Society in the 1930s was counterbalanced, one might reason, at least in some measure by Wegman’s Michaelic wakefulness—her refusal to lose conscience or discernment in the face of overwhelming lies, hatred, slander, and betrayal. In this line of reading, as the society at Dornach disintegrated and collapsed into a private world of exclusionary esoteric concerns, Wegman remained a clear witness of the School of Michael to the event of the reappearance of Christ in the etheric world. In this respect, to read these books allows one to better appreciate the significance and contributions of one of the foremost students of Rudolf Steiner in the School of Michael. Perhaps in future years we will see more materials made available in English that will allow readers to gain a broad and nuanced appreciation of these critical decades in the history of the Society and the personalities who were active at that time.

Peter Selg