1929 – 1946 – FIRE BORNE: Anthroposophy in America

GREAT DEPRESSION / WWII – PHASE Crisis

U.S.GENERATION the Moral Ecology of “The Silent Generation” is a Worldwide Crisis: the “Dust Bowl, the “Great Depression” an economic free fall, then Nazis and Fascists start World War II which ends with the U.S. A-Bomb attack on Japan. Anthroposphical thinking comes to the U.S. bringing a start to cultural renewal.

“ANTHROPOSOPHY AT THE TIME OF NAZI GERMANY” READ THE ACTUAL NAZI DOCUMENTS FROM THE ARCHIV AM GOETHEANUM IN THE END NOTES FOR THIS CHAPTER.

< 1935- NAZIS BAN Anthroposophical Society and Waldorf schools based on worldview of human freedom and racial diversity as opposed to “Blood And Soil.”

ANTHROPOSOPHICAL WORLDVIEW BANNED BY THE NAZIS:“
…every undertaking and activity of anthroposophy necessarily arises out of the Anthroposophical worldview. The anthroposophical worldview is in its most important points directly opposed to National Socialism. Therefore, schools which are built out of the anthroposophical worldview and led by anthroposophists mean danger to true German education.”
Jakob Wilhelm Hauer, Professor of Religion at the University of Tuebingen and member of the Secret Service of the S.S.

–GAS “During the Annual General Meeting of 14 March 1934 for which 1820 members came together in the still unfinished Goetheanum, a group of members supported by the remaining members of the Executive Council moved that Ita Wegman and Elizabeth Vreede be excluded from the Executive Council and divested of all duties…. The movers also demanded the exclusion of various leading members from Great Britain, the Netherlands, and Germany, as well as the exclusion of the British and Dutch Anthroposophical Societies and other groups that had come together in an association of independent Anthroposophical groups.” (Anthroposophy Worldwide, No. 1-2, 2018, Pg. 2)

— 1938 AN “ORGANIC ARMY” RALLIED AROUND A SPIRITUAL SCIENTIFIC TRUTH — “FARM AS ORGANISM” AND LAUNCHED “ORGANIC AGRICULTURE” WORLDWIDE

https://firebornecom.blog/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/03-organic-army WOULD BE AVAILABLE

1938 THE ORGANIC ARMY

In 1938, Ehrenfried Pfeiffer published his book, “Bio-Dynamic Farming and Gardening” (BIO-DYNAMIC FARMING AND GARDENING, Ehrenfried Pfeiffer, Anthroposophic Press, 1938. Introduction pg. vi.).

It was Lord Northbourne who coined the term “organic “in his book, “Look To The Land” published a year later in 1939.

A key contribution of Northbourne was to take Rudolf Steiner’s idea of ‘the farm as organism’ and derive from it a named practice, a differentiated agriculture, ‘organic farming’ (Paull, 2006; Steiner, 1924).(2)

Northbourne’s underlying concept of ‘the farm as organism’ can be traced back to Ehrenfried Pfeiffer’s book Bio-Dynamic Farming and Gardening (1938), and Pfeiffer had it from Rudolf Steiner’s 1924 Agriculture Course. Steiner (1861- 1925) declared, in the series of eight lectures held at Koberwitz, that: “Truly, the farm is an organism” (AGRICULTURE 1924, lect.VIII, p.7). (3)

Northbourne was keen to organize an “organic Army” willing to do cultural battle with the forces of chemical science, economic profit, and political muscle.

READ ABOUT THE FOUNDING OF “ORGANIC AGRICULTURE” IN THE END NOTES OF THIS CHAPTER.

1942 INVESTIGATION BY THE OFFICE OF SECRET SERVICE (O.S.S.), HONOLULU

Click to access 1943-diversity.pdf

IS AVAILABLE AS AN EXAMPLE OF THE HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS IN THIS BOOK.

CONFIDENTIAL INVESTIGATION BY THE O.S.S. (OFFICE OF SECRET SERVICE)

One can see that the elements of Euro-centrism were naturally strong within some Society members. However, investigations over the years have shown that the Society was patriotic and American.

As the Second World War loomed, all organizations with foreign connections were subject to particular scrutiny. Because Americans were encouraged to “spy” on one another for the good of “national security” you can imagine that citizens would be suspicious of a Eurocentric organization with some German-speaking members.

A January 2001 FOIA request to the Justice Department / Federal Bureau of Investigation (F.B.I.) did result in a 134 page file about the Society. The file contained dozens of investigations about alleged anti-American activity, anti-Semitism and so forth dating back to the 1940’s which were all investigated.

READ ONE OF THE INCIDENTS IN THE END NOTES.