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From 1910 to 1913 a series of four mystery dramas
were written by Steiner and performed in Munich. These plays are renderings in
poetic and artistic form of the destinies of a group of people pursuing the path
of spiritual knowledge. The need for a space that would be able to encompass
such themes led to the building of the first Goetheanum, named in honour of
Goethe.The building was constructed of wood with two interlocking domes of
different sizes. Here many of the branches of knowledge were extended through
his spiritual scientific research which he carried out with the same vigor as a
physicist researches the material world. Through this intense activity the
Goetheanum, as the "Free School for Spiritual Science" became a true university.
Through this active public work Steiner became a focus of hope for the future,but he also made enemies and was the target of concentrated hostility from many groups, most of them upholders of the status quo. The Goetheanum was destroyed by arson on New Year’s Eve 1922 - 1923. Immediately he began work on a second Goetheanum and even though his achievements reached a tremendous peak during this period, his strength was sapped by the countless people who streamed to Dornach seeking personal advice. They were never turned away but it proved too much of a drain on his dwindling energy. After working from his sickbed to the very end, Rudolf Steiner died peacefully in Dornach on March 30, 1925.
Before his death, he had managed to sculpt the model for the second Goetheanum. The building, constructed entirely of reinforced concrete is the centre of the General Anthroposophical Society, to whom Rudolf Steiner entrusted the cultivation of Anthroposophy. As the late John Davy, former chairman of the Anthroposophical Society in Great Britain stated, “Steiner was not concerned to bring back old teachings in a new form, nor to promulgate doctrines of any kind, but to nurture a path of knowledge in freedom and love in action, that can meet the deep and pressing needs of our time.”
Anthroposophy is a world view that can be characterised as the awakening of the human spirit. Our endeavour is to work towards integrating Anthroposophy, and the range of Steiner's thought which was universal in scope, as widely as possible into the mainstream of cultural life.