Art as a Bridge

Art as a Bridge between the Sensible and the Supersensible: The Social Question

This lecture was held just over one hundred years ago, in the aftermath of the First World War and the ‘influenza pandemic’ of 1917-1919 – a period of far-reaching constraints and widespread human suffering. The correspondence to our own times are hard to ignore. In these circumstances, it is all the more appropriate to bring this lecture to the fore.

A lecture given by Rudolf Steiner: from Vergangenheits- und Zukunftsimpulse im sozialen Geschehen. (Past and Future Impulses in Social Life Bn/GA/CW 190. Lecture VI, 30th March 1919 in Dornach, Switzerland.)

About the Author

Rudolf Steiner (1861–1925) was born in the small village of Kraljevec, Austro-Hungarian Empire (now in Croatia), where he grew up. As a young man, he lived in Weimar and Berlin, where he became a well-published scientific, literary, and philosophical scholar, known especially for his work with Goethe’s scientific writings. At the beginning of the twentieth century, he began to develop his early philosophical principles into an approach to systematic research into psychological and spiritual phenomena. Formally beginning his spiritual teaching career under the auspices of the Theosophical Society, Steiner came to use the term Anthroposophy (and spiritual science) for his philosophy, spiritual research, and findings. The influence of Steiner’s multifaceted genius has led to innovative and holistic approaches in medicine, various therapies, philosophy, religious renewal, Waldorf education, education for special needs, threefold economics, biodynamic agriculture, Goethean science, architecture, and the arts of drama, speech, and eurythmy. In 1924, Rudolf Steiner founded the General Anthroposophical Society, which today has branches throughout the world. He died in Dornach, Switzerland.