The New Rudolf Steiner Archive

by Dr. Christopher and Karin Wietrzykowski

In 2021, the Rudolf Steiner Archive website was transferred to a new non-profit organization, Steiner Online Library. We offer highlights from an article in the Winter-Spring 2023 issue of New View from the UK (newview.org.uk). —Editor

From a small cottage nestled between two lakes in Northern Michigan, Dr. Christopher Wietrzykowski and his wife Karin run the largest digital collection of works of Rudolf Steiner available in English: more than 3,000 of his lectures reaching approximately 6,000 unique visitors each day. Developed at the dawn of the digital age, it needs technical and functional upgrades. Much has been done already and new features are being launched in early 2023, applying Chris’ in-depth knowledge of computing and Karin’s abilities as an accomplished technology lawyer to expand their global audience.

In the late 1970s, Werner Glas and Hans Gebert were at the Rudolf Steiner Institute in Southfield, Michigan, when Jim Stewart, new to anthroposophy, made their acquaintance, often asking Steiner-related questions of them. Jim had over 15 years’ experience developing databases for the automotive industry and knew these questions might be more easily answered if Steiner’s books and lectures could be collected in a searchable database. When the internet became available in the late 1980s, he began the Rudolf Steiner Archive... Eventually, Jim found an amazing piece of software that not only allowed people to download the files but to search them as well. A network of volunteers found their way to the Archive and one of the most prolific, Dr. Christopher Wietrzykowski, also lived in Michigan and met Jim personally on many occasions. When Jim was diagnosed with lung cancer, he asked Chris if he would take over.

Chris agreed; he had been thinking about retiring from dentistry so he could dedicate his life to anthroposophy. Chris was on an equally important task—finding his spiritual partner. Chris and Karin Miller had gone to high school together and attended the same church while growing up; when her family moved away after 10th grade, he was devastated. Almost thirty-five years later, a friend of Chris’ let him know that he had found Karin. She had just written a spiritual book— Global Values: A New Paradigm for a New World . In 2018, they were married and returned to Michigan, and in early 2020 Jim began to transition the Archive to them.

Chris began studying computer system administration and website technologies intensively. Karin was wrapping up her career as a lawyer and set up the new non-profit corporation, Steiner Online Library, and systems for the administration of the new organization.

In late 2021 Chris had to rewrite nearly all the computer programming code, software packages, and computers—all amidst global turmoil over Covid. Chris and Karin felt a real sense that they were on a mission.

By Spring 2022, the website had become more stable and faster than it had ever been. Chris and Karin painstakingly reformatted over 3,000 documents to ensure they would display correctly in the new system. After extensive research, Chris produced a new search facility customized specifically for searching Steiner’s work, and is rebuilding the entire database of Steiner’s works. Modern websites need to be readable on all devices that access the Internet.

Last autumn, Chris and Karin created a new site steinerlibrary.org as a trial run, and they are now in process of updating the Rudolf Steiner Archive with the structure and flexibility of the demo website. This will allow phone and tablet users always to see an appropriately sized pages.

The ultimate mission of SOL is to expand the audience of Rudolf Steiner’s work, to ensure a new generation of spiritual seekers can carry the impulses introduced by Steiner into the future of human evolution.

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