Cultic Studies Review, Vol. 2, No. 2, 2003, Page 134
to descend to the physical plane. That the external physical body will become
a container for the spirit, that is the task of our fifth cultural epoch, which has
been prepared by the four other cultural epochs.
And our task must be to acquaint ourselves with those cultural impulses that
tend to introduce the spirit into the flesh and into the ordinary. If we
recognize this completely, then it will become clear to us that where the spirit
is still supposed to function as spirit, where in a certain way the spirit is
supposed to be retarded in its development—because in our time its task is to
descend into the flesh—that where the spirit is retarded, where it takes on a
demonic character and does not fully penetrate the flesh, then white skin
color does not appear, because atavistic powers are present that do not allow
the spirit to achieve complete harmony with the flesh. (Steiner, 1974, p. 37,
translated by P. Staudenmaier).
Racial selectiveness was important to Steiner‘s doctrine which includes the notion that
beauty and intelligence correlate with ―racial characteristics‖:
If the blondes and blue-eyed people die out, the human race will become
increasingly dense if men do not arrive at a form of intelligence that is
independent of blondeness. In the case of fair people, less nourishment is
driven into the eyes and hair: it remains instead in the brain and endows it
with intelligence. Brown- and dark–haired people drive nourishment into their
eyes and hair that the fair people retain in their brains. (Steiner, 1981a, p.
86)
Steiner‘s doctrine of ―esoteric Darwinism‖ was steeped in Blavatsky‘s basic theosophical
teachings ―savages‖ are considered degenerate remnants of older racial forms devolving
into apes. A year before he died he was still preaching the same sermon:
[W]e are not justified in thinking that human beings were originally like the
savages of today. The savages have developed into what they now are—with
their superstitions, their magical practices and their unclean appearance—
from states originally more perfect. The only superiority we have over them is
that, while starting from the same conditions, we did not degenerate as they
did. I might therefore say: The evolution of man has taken two paths. It is
not true that the savages of today represent the original condition of
mankind. Mankind, though to begin with looked more animal-like, was highly
civilized. ...Just as the present savages have fallen from the level of the
human beings of primeval times, so the apes are beings who have fallen still
lower. (Steiner, 1987, p.126)
In 1904, early in his Theosophical career, he taught that the ―backward races‖ were the
descendants of the earlier Lemurian and Atlantean root-races which survived the Atlantean
flood. Steiner‘s clairvoyant powers enabled him to see far back in time, before the beginning
of the world, long before that marked by historians and scientists. His psychic abilities
enabled him to describe Atlantis in elaborate detail, when humans still had magical powers
and could lift their hands above plants to make them grow rapidly, and when man drove
vehicles that floated in the air. These ―backwards races‖ should have died out, but Ahriman
thwarted this cosmic plan. Instead of evolving towards a more advanced spiritual state and
higher stages of evolution with more ―beautiful bodies,‖ they physically and spiritually
regressed. Steiner and other Theosophists asserted that these ―lower races‖ were devolving
toward an animal state, while the fifth root-race, the Aryans, led by Manu, was saved from
the Atlantis flood and continues to evolve towards a higher Sixth race. Steiner taught that a
―universal human‖ would eventually return to pure spirit, free from the restraints of the
physical body in his future Vulcan phase of cosmic evolution.

Cultic Studies Review, Vol. 2, No. 2, 2003, Page 135
Anthroposophists continue to uphold Steiner‘s racist teachings claiming that there is ―no
question of a racial doctrine.‖ This is documented in an article entitled No Question of a
Racial Doctrine, Dutch Report is Ready, published in the magazine about life in the
Anthroposophical Society, Anthroposophy Worldwide, No. 4, May 2000, page 3. The article
records that on April Fool‘s day, 2000, the ―Anthroposophy and the Question of Race
Commission‖—a panel of Anthroposophists appointed to study and report on whether or not
Steiner‘s doctrine is racist—presented a 720 page final report to the public which has not
yet been published in English (see van Baarda, et al, 2000 for source of the report in
Dutch). The magazine article states that the Dutch report ―confirmed the findings of its
1998 interim report that Rudolf Steiner‘s complete works contain neither a racial doctrine
nor racist comments‖. Critics of Anthroposophy who have studied Steiner‘s doctrine and the
Dutch report observed that notably racist works were not included in the study and that
some racist passages from included works were omitted. Despite their findings, however,
the Commission admits that there are sixteen discriminatory remarks by Steiner that ―would
be illegal in the Netherlands if proclaimed publicly by anyone today.‖ The Commission
recommended that ―these sixteen quotes, as well as sixty-seven, easily misunderstood
remarks‖ should be published with accompanying explanations in the future. ―[T]he
Commission found no racism in Dutch Waldorf schools, only some use of stereotypes in
ethnology lessons.‖ Some Anthroposophists in Europe have placed ads in major daily
newspapers distancing themselves from Steiner‘s racism, while other Anthroposophical
Society members criticized them for doing so. Ted van Baarda, head of the Commission,
was concerned about facing these questions due to Anthroposophists‘ ―loyalty to Steiner.‖
The Commission, however, was not to ―evaluate spiritual science but rather the effect of
such remarks on the public.‖ The report was to ―identify the facts in order to develop a
strategy for dealing with attacks,‖ because, as van Baarde emphasized, ―We cannot afford
to lose.‖ Presumably he means that initiates are obligated to proselytize Steiner‘s racist
doctrine for society‘s redemption and the fulfillment of his prophecies.
Peter Staudenmaier studied the Dutch report and commented on the Commission‘s
statement—‖The Commission confirmed the findings of its 1998 interim report, that Rudolf
Steiner‘s complete works contain neither a racial doctrine nor racist comments.‖ On
December 12, 2002, in a post to waldorfcritics@topica.com entitled ―It takes an expert‖
Staudenmaier wrote:
This is what Anthroposophists are asked to believe. Since nobody acquainted
with Anthroposophy‘s central works can possibly believe this, it raises an
obvious question about Anthroposophy‘s basic ability to deal with the
manifest content of its own teachings. The standard Anthroposophist
response is that, yes, indeed, it *does* take an expert to understand
Steiner‘s works. Aside from the patently elitist and authoritarian implications
of this stance, it is unconvincing even according to its own logic, because so
many of the self-proclaimed experts on anthroposophy know astonishingly
little about what Steiner actually wrote on racial topics and about the
historical and intellectual context of those writings. That is precisely why
informed critics of Anthroposophy are routinely greeted with the charge of
arrogance: even simple, unadorned quotations from Steiner are enough to
unsettle the Anthroposophist consensus on these matters, because they show
that any thinking person can make sense out of Steiner‘s racial teachings
without bowing to the self-appointed experts.
I very much hope that the Dutch report is made available in English soon, so
that people can peruse its pages and decide whether Steiner‘s quoted
passages—even if blatantly incomplete and decontextualized—contain racial